“Senator Ted Kennedy is putting forward a brave face following his recent surgery but the sad reality remains. Even with successful surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy treatment, gliomas — a highly aggressive form of brain cancer that strikes approximately 10,000 Americans annually — tragically claim the lives of 75 percent of its victims within two years and virtually all within five years. But what if there was an alternative treatment for gliomas that could selectively target the cancer while leaving healthy cells intact? And what if federal bureaucrats were aware of this treatment, but deliberately withheld this information from the public? Sadly, the questions posed above are not entirely hypothetical. Let me explain.” (06/26/08)

http://tinyurl.com/6mezxw

“Social Security reform plans are a dime a dozen, but credible Medicare reform proposals are scarce. Why? Because Medicare’s financial problems are so immense as to seem beyond resolution, and the policy environment is complex. Would-be entitlement reformers decry the lack of courageous leadership from politicians, but, truth be told, even the so-called experts are at a loss over how to begin closing Medicare’s yawning financing gap. The most recent report from the program’s board of trustees, issued in late March, only adds to the sense of hopelessness. Medicare’s liabilities are expected to exceed revenue dedicated to paying for the program by $36 trillion over the next 75 years, and the trust fund that pays for hospital services is expected to go bankrupt in 2019.” (06/16/08)

http://tinyurl.com/6z6taf

“The latest attack against vitamins comes from an FDA petition filed by Medicure Pharma, Inc., which has astonishingly asked the FDA to ban the sale of Vitamin B6! Vitamin B6, of course, is a naturally-occurring nutrient found in numerous vegetables, nuts and whole grains. Its natural form is called pyridoxal 5′-phosphate or P5P for short. It’s an essential nutrient for expectant mothers, growing children and anyone who wishes to be healthy. It’s absolutely crucial for healthy blood cell function, and it’s used in over 100 enzymatic reactions involving protein metabolism. So why would a pharmaceutical company petition the FDA to outlaw the sale of this essential nutrient? It’s simple: Because Big Pharma wants to market its own form of Vitamin B6 and call it a ‘drug.’” (06/26/08)

http://www.naturalnews.com/023514.html

“One of the major causes of high-priced health insurance in the U.S. is the high number of mandatory minimum coverages required by some state governments. A new law in Florida will allow insurers in that state to offer minimum-coverage health policies that are exempt from most of the state’s mandatory coverages. Florida is currently 13th in the country with 48 minimum individual coverage mandates, including dental anesthesia, hair prosthesis, orthotics, and ’second surgical opinion.’ Minnesota currently holds the lead with 64 required coverages. … Because they are prohibited by law from purchasing health coverage across state lines, residents of Florida have had, until now, no choice but to pay for every one of the 48 mandated coverages when purchasing their health insurance policy.” (06/16/08)

http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=23381

“In the universe of worries that parents of mentally ill children face, a needlessly vexing one is the inadequacy and unpredictability of care in hospital emergency rooms. Some children in psychiatric distress get stuck in emergency rooms for days because there are no available beds. Some children are sent home. Some are locked in rooms. … As the Globe’s Carey Goldberg reported recently, a dozen children faced such delays in recent weeks. … These emergency room traffic jams are part of troubling national trends. Earlier this year, the American College of Emergency Physicians branded ‘boarding,’ the warehousing of patients in emergency rooms, as a national problem of overcrowding.” (06/26/08)

http://tinyurl.com/4vcdam

“After seven years, persistence has paid off for physicians and their patients here in Tennessee. With the signing of a new law to reduce the number of unwarranted medical liability lawsuits filed in our courts, all Tennessee patients stand to reap the fruits of this labor. Tennessee doctors are optimistic that this new law will keep them out of courtrooms and give them more time in exam rooms. Under the new law, before a trial attorney can file a malpractice lawsuit, a qualified medical expert must conclude there is a good reason to pursue the claim, and then the lawyer must provide 60 days’ notice to a medical provider that the lawsuit will be filed.” [editor’s note: This has been a piece of the problem all along, but by no means the largest piece! - SAT] (06/25/08)

http://tinyurl.com/4qywwt

“Jeff Stewart, 43, a house painter and former high school and college athlete, remembers the exact moment his hip gave out: Valentine’s Day 2006. ‘I bent down to paint something low. When I got up, my hip never stopped hurting until I woke up from surgery in January 2007,’ he said. The pain, due to an anatomical abnormality made worse by years of wear and tear, was so bad that sometimes all he could do was lie on his recliner and watch TV: ‘When you are in so much pain, your life is reduced to that.’ But like a growing number of young, active people, Stewart eschewed the “gold standard” treatment — total hip replacement surgery — in favor of a new procedure that, propelled by aggressive marketing featuring pictures of vigorous, youngish athletes, is sweeping the United States: hip resurfacing.” (06/23/08)

http://tinyurl.com/4nsyqa

“In more than 32 years with McDonald’s, I worked my way up from grill man to president and CEO by focusing on providing shareholder value while fulfilling a need. In that vein I’d like to recognize the 25th anniversary this year of a groundbreaking piece of legislation that has made it easier for drug companies to do exactly that. The Orphan Drug Act, signed into law President Ronald Reagan in 1983, made it possible for companies to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in the development of potential treatments for rare diseases. A rare, or orphan, disease is defined as one that affects fewer than 200,000 Americans. By offering tax incentives for clinical trials of these treatments and granting seven years of patent exclusivity once the drug is approved — compared to an average of five years with most new drugs — the Orphan Drug Act gave hope to the collective millions of Americans living with these horrible diseases.” (06/23/08)

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121417838559995535.html

“A new report by the European Alliance for Access to Safe Medicine (EAASM), the results of which were released last week at the 4th Global Forum on Pharmaceutical Anticounterfeting, suggests the problem may be worse than regulatory agencies heretofore anticipated. In fact, more than half (62%) of all medicines bought on-line were fakes, and nearly 96% of the virtual pharmacies under study operated illegally, according to Jim Thomson, chair of the patients’ rights group, which is based in Surrey, UK. ‘The results of our investigation are shocking,’ he told the Forum. ‘It is astonishing to me that if I input “buy Viagra” on my computer, I will get nearly 12 million hits. On the other hand, if I enter “child porn” I will get nothing.’ The EAASM study, called ‘The Counterfeiting Superhighway,’ was designed to determine the proportion of internet pharmacies that act unlawfully and the percentage of counterfeit or substandard drugs that are sold.” (06/11/08)

http://www.acsh.org/factsfears/newsID.1163/news_detail.asp

“It’s not just for tickling your taco. Getting it on is good for the whole enchilada. Do the nasty. Knock boots. Bump uglies. Shag. Schtupp. Boff. Boink. For every silly nickname we use for sex, there’s a totally legit reason why you should be having more of it. To prove our point, we’ve pulled together a comprehensive list of the mind-boggling benefits of hitting the sheets. From boosting your immune system to releasing aggression, here are the many ways it pays to play dirty.” (06/24/08)

http://tinyurl.com/4xl46p