Friday, Nov 29th
Last update09:30:12 AM GMT
Health Glance
In Texas, a Catholic bishop made two hospitals cease doing tube-tying operations for women who are not going to have more babies. In Oregon, another bishop cast a medical center out of his diocese for refusing to discontinue the same procedure.
In Arizona, a nun was excommunicated and the hospital where she works was expelled from the church after 116 years for allowing doctors to terminate a pregnancy to save a woman's life.
Moved by the tragic story of an LGBT family – Janice Langbehn, Lisa Pond and their children – who were kept apart as Lisa lay dying in a Miami hospital, President Obama issued a presidential memorandum in April 2010 directing the Department of Health and Human Services to develop regulations protecting hospital visitation rights. HRC has prepared a Hospital Visitation Guide.
As many as 129 million Americans under age 65 have medical problems that are red flags for health insurers, according to an analysis that marks the government's first attempt to quantify the number of people at risk of being rejected by insurance companies or paying more for coverage.
The secretary of health and human services released the study on Tuesday, hours before the House plans to begin considering a Republican bill that would repeal the new law to overhaul the health-care system.
The blood-thinning drug warfarin is used by millions of people to prevent blood clots. However, people who suffer traumatic injuries while taking the medication are more likely to die.
Researchers at Vanderbilt University studied the outcomes of adults who were admitted to trauma centers. They found warfarin users were more likely to die from their injuries compared with non-warfarin users: 9.3% compared with 4.8%.
Here's a story that shows how the "cure" truly can be worse than the disease. Specifically, it's a true life horror story of how a Big Pharma drug prescribed frequently for totally benign conditions can produce serious, life altering side effects in men -- including loss of their sex drive, impotence, depression and even the growth of "man boobs".
A new study from the University of California, San Francisco reveals that 100 percent of expectant mothers (sample size = 268) are contaminated with highly toxic synthetic chemicals. The study, published in Environmental Health Perspectives, concluded, "Certain PCBs, organochlorine pesticides, PFCs, phenols, PBDEs, phthalates, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and perchlorate were detected in 99 to 100% of pregnant women."
Smoking damages the body in minutes rather than years, according to research in the US. The report, published in Chemical Research in Toxicology, shows that chemicals which cause cancer form rapidly after smoking.
Scientists involved in the small-scale study described the results as a stark warning to people considering smoking. Anti-smoking charity Ash described the research as "chilling" and as a warning that it is never too early to quit.
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