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POPSShould We Trust The Experts? "None of this suggests the public should abandon a healthy skepticism toward even well-credentialed authorities. Pharmaceutical companies, with colossal missteps like the dangerous medication Vioxx, have earned suspicions about their motivations. Vaccinations foregone put not only those individual children at risk but clear the path for infectious disease to spread more easily. That's not a great outcome, whether we're collectively battling the measles or this season's H1N1 flu. "You can't minimize your individual risk," Wallace writes, "unless your herd, your friends and neighbors, also buy in." Our children most certainly deserve safe vaccines; that's a given. I don't blame people for not trusting special interest groups. I just thought this article brought out some interesting points regarding social media.
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POPSReligious sensitivities on all sides The reason I'm clipping this is because religious sensitivities are back in the news and Muslims are not the only one apparently offended all the time. The other reason I'm clipping this is because I've been watching Curb Your Enthusiasm (not this episode though) and I think Larry David should have folded his show last season. The episodes in the new season are utterly ridiculous and not funny. Like Seinfeld, his show has always been brilliant though but I think he has lost it by now.
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POPSCBS Reveals That Swine Flu Cases Seriously Overestimated
CBS reports that in late July 2009 the CDC advised states to STOP testing for H1N1 flu, and they also stopped counting individual cases. Their rationale for this, according to CBS News, was that it was a waste of resources to test for H1N1 flu because it was already confirmed as an epidemic. So just like that virtually every person who visited their physician with flu-like symptoms since late July was assumed to have H1N1, with no testing necessary because, after all, there's an epidemic. It's interesting to note that at the same time as the CDC decided the H1N1 epidemic warranted no further testing for cases due to its epidemic status, Finnish health authorities actually downgraded the threat of swine flu. In late July the health ministry and the National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) in Finland actually removed swine flu from a list of diseases considered dangerous to the public because the majority of cases recovered without medication or hospital care!
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POPSSneeze kills man 'I can only image the sneeze combined with the Warfarin could have been the cause of death.' Dr John Bridger, who performed the post mortem, said no 'underlying trauma' or skull fractures was found. Coroner for Torbay and South Devon Ian Arrow said John died of subdural haematoma - trauma to the brain - and coronary artery disease. Retuning a verdict of accidental death, he said: 'The presence of Warfarin means the body is more susceptible to bleeding which means it could have been a minor trauma which lead to his death. 'He would have suffered a minor trauma and on the balance of probably it was likely it was the sneeze which lead to his death.'
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POPSAlternative to ADHD Drugs The Alternative Rx: Transcendental Meditation (TM). In the first study on ADHD and TM, middle-school-age children who did twice daily nonreligious meditations for 10 minutes reduced their stress levels by over 50 percent–resulting in fewer ADHD symptoms. “TM helps children focus on a special mantra or sound, which helps the child transcend mental busyness and stress,” says Sarina Grosswald, EdD, coauthor of the study. “This allows the child’s body to completely relax and his mind to stay fully awake without effort. The results are improved behavior, grades, creativity, and inner stability.”
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POPSVicks VapoRub Nail Fungus Treatment Vick Vaporub is a popular alternative toenail fungus treatment. Used by people who turned on to unconventional ways of curing the nail infection. Vick is made with powerful natural ingredients such as eucalyptus, menthol and camphor oils that are used to cure certain ailments long before drugs were discovered
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POPSWho Are We? Coming of Age on Antidepressants The reason has to do with the way drugs are tested and approved. To get F.D.A. approval, a drug has to beat a placebo in two randomized clinical trials that typically involve a few hundred subjects who are treated for relatively short periods, usually 4 to 12 weeks.So drugs are approved based on short-term studies for what turns out to be long-term — often lifelong — use in the world of clinical practice. What do I say to a depressed patient who is doing well after five years on such a drug but can’t stop without a depressive relapse and who wants reassurance that the drug has no long-term adverse effects?I usually say that we have no evidence that the drug poses a risk with long-term use; and since the risk of untreated depression is much greater than the hypothetical risk of the drug, it makes sense to stay on it.
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POPSFalse Flag Flu (H1n1) prompts changes to Mental Health Act
I started to comment but couldn't really add to these. Is it right that swine flu should affect health regulations? Your comments (terms and conditions apply): "Absolutely not, especially if these authorities redefine 'mental illness' to include being opposed to the government's official stories about the swine flu. When governments remove civil rights, and arbitrarily change laws so as to deny due process of law, we are automatically living under a dictatorship. Citizens of any nation which allow such nefarious backdoor assaults on their freedoms will have their indifference rewarded with tyranny" – Dee Nicholson, Canada "No. absolutely not. In the event of staff shortages, what we don't need is less thorough assessment! Swine flu seems to be the 'new terrorism' allowing the state to impose 'fear based' measures that would otherwise seem unthinkable" – Christian Thompson, Yorkshire "Tyranny, fascism and eugenicism in action" – Scott, Teesside
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POPSGirl With Tourettes Tells Somebody to Fcuk Off! The girl stamped her feet repeatedly and eyewitnesses said that some snot and mucous dribbled out from her nose and mouth. Becca's mother said her daughter had actually taken her medication that morning and it seems that it was more of a teenage rant than any medical condition that led to the outburst. "She's a fucking miserable little git, that girl of mine!", said her mother today. Rebecca is the Chairman of the local Conservative Party.
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POPSMD's Intentionally End Lives in 1 in 6 UK Deaths The last paragraph is really shocking. Before the whole debate over state healthcare started in the US, 16.5% all deaths were physician assisted. And that's only mentioned in passing, not as the lead in the article.
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POPSTo Err is Human: Institute of Medicine report on reducing preventable medical errors Sadly, it's now 10 years after its release, and most of its recommendations have not been heeded. More: To Err Is Human asserts that the problem is not bad people in health care--it is that good people are working in bad systems that need to be made safer. Comprehensive and straightforward, this book offers a clear prescription for raising the level of patient safety in American health care. It also explains how patients themselves can influence the quality of care that they receive once they check into the hospital. This book will be vitally important to federal, state, and local health policy makers and regulators, health professional licensing officials, hospital administrators, medical educators and students, health caregivers, health journalists, patient advocates--as well as patients themselves.
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POPSDay in the Life of Joe Six-Pack Republican One thing I enjoy most about people is our ability to poke fun at each other. Political humor especially intrigues me because despite the fact that we are all striving for what’s best for our families we each have our own ideals on how to best do it. ColoradoRight clipped a list of 21 Ways to Be A Good Liberal http://clipmarks.com/clipmark/26BD1DF0-B8CF-4F7A-A2CE-E9704D0719D7/ In the interest of equal opportunity, here’s one for the other side. Enjoy as we hear a few final words of ‘wisdom’ from Joe Six-Pack Republican. “Joe turns on a radio talk show. The host keeps saying that liberals are bad and conservatives are good. (He doesn't tell Joe that his beloved Republicans have fought against every protection and benefit Joe enjoys throughout his day) Joe agrees. "We don't need those big government liberals ruining our lives; after all, I'm a self made man who believes everyone should take care of themselves, just like I have."
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