Sunday, Nov 02nd
Last update08:06:05 AM GMT
Health Glance
Two doctors who performed late-term abortions in a Cecil County clinic now face murder charges. The police investigation began last year when police say Dr. Steven Brigham and Dr. Nicola Riley performed part of an abortion in New Jersey, then transferred the patient to Maryland to finish it.
When the 18-year-old woman suffered complications she was taken to the hospital. Then, police searched the abortion clinic looking for her medical records, but they found something else.
On Dec. 22, while even the nerdiest observers were thinking more about Christmas plans than food-safety policy, the FDA snuck a holiday gift to the meat industry into the Federal Register. The agency announced it had essentially given up any pretense of regulating antibiotic abuse on factory farms, at least for the time being.
Wired's diligent Maryn McKenna has the background. She reports that way back in 1977—when livestock farming was much less industrialized than it is today—the FDA announced its intention to limit use of key antibiotics on animal farms. The reason: By that time, it was already obvious that routine use of these drugs would generate antibiotic-resistant pathogens that endanger humans.
Throughout 2011, health freedoms were under attack as both state and federal governments deliberately sought to criminalize foods, mandate vaccine injections and arrest parents who refused to subject their children to toxic conventional medical care.
TVNL Comment: Most Americans have no clue what goes on in this world. As long as it is American they simply assume it is good, honest and nobel. If the public knew what was going on they would revolt...and if the Occupy movement really understood the scope of what is going on...they would arm themselves!
In a year that included an attempted House repeal of the federal health care law, several court cases challenging its constitutionality and Republican candidate debates proposing a replacement plan, it can be difficult to dig through the rhetoric to determine just what the 2010 health care law has done.
The 2,400-page document and a multiyear and multistep implementation don't help with the confusion. Proponents and foes say big pieces of the law have been enacted and have already affected millions of people's lives.
Drug companies are working to develop a pure, more powerful version of the nation’s second-most-abused medicine, which has addiction experts worried that it could unleash a new wave of abuse.
The new pills contain the highly addictive painkiller hydrocodone, packing up to 10 times the amount of the drug as existing medications such as Vicodin. Four companies have begun patient testing, and one of them — Zogenix of San Diego — plans to apply early next year to begin marketing its product, Zohydro.
Some airport scanners may pose a cancer threat for people over age 65 and women genetically predisposed to breast cancer, a Fort Lauderdale, Fla., doctor said.
Dr. Edward Dauer, head of radiology at Florida Medical Center, said the scanners' low dose of radiation penetrates just below skin level, possibly endangering the eye lens, the thyroid and a woman's breasts, the South Florida Sun Sentinel reported Sunday.
Visits to the hospital's psychiatric emergency department have climbed 20 percent in the past three years. "We've seen actually more very serious suicide attempts in that population than we had in the past as well," she said.
Compounding the problem are patients with chronic mental illness who have been hurt by a squeeze on mental health services and find themselves with nowhere to go. On top of that, doctors are seeing some cases where the patient's most critical need is a warm bed.
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