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 Weekly Health News + Safety Alerts
Shildt Financial Services hopes that you find the following news items to be helpful and informative.
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Please Select Your Choice Of News items from our
WEEKLY HEALTH NEWS IN REVIEW for each week dating back to September, 2009 that is located below the SAFETY ALERTS Links.
 SAFETY ALERTS: go to CPSC, U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, to help keep your family and yourself safe by checking product recalls and safety news.
Or go to FDA, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, for recalls, market withdrawals and safety alerts.
 WEEKLY HEALTH NEWS
IN REVIEW:
Health News Back To September, 2009
Jan. 27, 2012 to Feb. 03, 2012Health Highlights
**Cooked Eggs Recalled in 34 States.
**Taco Bell Identified as Source of Salmonella Outbreak.
**Army Bans Exercise Supplements After Soldiers' Deaths.
**Fungicide Levels in Orange Juice Don't Pose Health Risk: FDA.
**Colorado Considers Strict Trans-Fat Ban In Schools.
**Study Identifies New Location for Brain Speech Center.
**Indoor Tanning Salons Lie About Health Risks.
**Brazilian Blowout Maker Settles California Lawsuit.
**FDA Sued Over Secret Surveillance of Employees who said that the FDA was approving medical devices that they believed posed unacceptable risks to patients.
**Bacteria That Causes Legionnaire's Disease Found in Las Vegas Hotel-Casino.
**Prostate Cancer Found in 2,200-Year-Old Mummy.
**Catholic Colleges Oppose Obamacare Mandatory Birth Control Rule At Catholic Institutions.
Health Highlights (Jan. 27, 2012 to Feb. 03, 2012)
Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by the editors of HealthDay:
Cooked Eggs Recalled in 34 States
Possible listeria contamination has prompted the recall of cooked eggs distributed in 34 states.
The recall by Michael Foods of Minnetonka, Minn. is for eggs in brine sold in 10- and 25-pound pails for institutional use under the brand names: Columbia Valley Farms; GFS; Glenview Farms; Papetti's; Silverbrook; and Wholesome Farms, the Associated Press reported.
The eggs could be contaminated with a listeria strain that can sicken people with weak immune systems, the company said. There have been no reports of illnesses connected to the eggs, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said.
The eggs were distributed in: Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Mississippi, Montana, North Carolina, North Dakota, Nebraska, New Jersey, Nevada, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Washington, Wisconsin and West Virginia, the AP reported.
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Taco Bell Identified as Source of Salmonella Outbreak
Taco Bell has been identified as the previously anonymous restaurant chain linked to a salmonella outbreak in October 2011 that infected 68 people and sent more than 20 of them to the hospital.
Most of the victims were in Texas. There were no deaths linked to the outbreak, according to a January report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, ABC News said.
Federal officials couldn't identify the specific food product that may have caused the outbreak, but said the salmonella contamination likely occurred before the product reached "Restaurant Chain A locations."
On Wednesday, Food Safety News identified the restaurant chain as Taco Bell. The identification was based on data provided by an Oklahoma State Department of Health official, ABC News reported.
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Army Bans Exercise Supplements After Soldiers' Deaths
The role that certain dietary supplements for athletes may have played in the deaths of two soldiers is being investigated by the U.S. Army.
A spokesman said the soldiers died last year after they had heart attacks during workouts, The New York Times reported.
After the deaths, the Defense Department removed all products containing an ingredient called dimethylamylamine (DMAA) from stores on military bases until the Army's safety review is completed.
DMAA is found in dietary supplements such as the "preworkout booster" Jack3d and the fat burner OxyElite Pro. Some experts say DMAA should be classified as a drug, which would require that it be approved by the Food and Drug Administration before it could be marketed, The Times reported.
Products containing DMAA can still be bought at retailers across the U.S.
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Fungicide Levels in Orange Juice Don't Pose Health Risk: FDA
Low levels of the fungicide carbendazim in orange juice do not pose a health risk, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
The fungicide is banned in the U.S. but has been found in orange juice made with oranges from Brazil, where the use of carbendazim is legal, ABC News reported.
Tests show that the amount of carbendazim in the affected orange juice is far below unsafe levels, the FDA said.
Research has shown that the fungicide can cause birth defects in rodents and affect chromosomes in human cells in laboratories, but it hasn't been found to have any health effects in humans, ABC News reported.
In a statement on its website, the FDA said it "is confident that orange juice in the United States may be consumed without concerns about its safety due to the possible presence of such residues."
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Colorado Considers Strict Trans-Fat Ban In Schools
Colorado lawmakers are considering a bill that would implement the strictest school trans-fat ban in the United States.
The bill would ban any artery-clogging trans-fat in all school food, not just food served through regular cafeteria lunches. That would mean no trans-fat in vending machine products, after-school bake sale items, and popular "a la carte" lunch items such as pizza and ice cream, the Associated Press reported.
The bill is scheduled to be heard Thursday by a Colorado House committee.
A number of states limit trans-fat in school cafeterias, but there are no trans-fat bans that extend before and after school, the AP reported.
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Study Identifies New Location for Brain Speech Center
Speech processing is located in a different area of the brain than has long been believed, according to a new study.
Since the late 1800s, it's been thought that speech was processed in at the back of the cerebral cortex, behind the auditory cortex which receives sound, Agence France-Presse reported.
But American scientists who reviewed more than 100 brain imaging studies say the speech processing center is actually three centimeters closer to the front of the brain, and is in front of the auditory cortex.
"Textbooks will now have to be rewritten," said study lead author Josef Rauschecker, a professor of neuroscience at Georgetown University Medical Center, AFP reported.
The study was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
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Indoor Tanning Salons Lie About Health Risks
Most indoor tanning salons do not tell customers the truth about potential health risks, says a U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee investigative report.
Posing as fair-skinned 16-year-old girls, investigators contacted 300 indoor tanning salons across the nation. Ninety percent of the salons told the callers that indoor tanning did not pose health risks, ABC News reported.
More than half of the salons denied that indoor tanning increased the risk of skin cancer and more than three-quarters said indoor tanning actually benefits the health of teen girls.
The American Academy of Dermatology applauded the investigation.
"The potential effect of this report is huge," Dr. Suzanne Connolly, vice president of the AAD, told ABC News. "We must grab the attention of our population and educate them. It's a big opportunity for improving health by reducing risk through education."
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Brazilian Blowout Maker Settles California Lawsuit
As part of a lawsuit settlement, the company that makes popular Brazilian Blowout hair straightening products says it will warn consumers that two of its formulations emit formaldehyde gas, a possible carcinogen.
The lawsuit was filed in November by California's attorney general, the Associated Press reported.
North Hollywood GIB LLC also agreed to pay $600,000 in fines and penalties for failing to alert consumers and hair stylists that its products may contain cancer-causing chemicals, and will have all its products tested for toxic substances at a state-approved lab.
The company will also supply salons with a pamphlet outlining recommended safety precautions, the AP reported.
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FDA Sued Over Secret Surveillance of Employees who said that the FDA was approving medical devices that they believed posed unacceptable risks to patients
A lawsuit by a group of scientists and doctors who worked at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration says the agency secretly monitored their personal e-mails.
Government documents show the surveillance occurred over two years and began after the employees alerted Congress that the FDA was approving medical devices that the scientists and doctors believed posed unacceptable risks to patients, the Washington Post reported.
All six employees worked in an office that reviewed devices for cancer screening and other purposes. The information collected by the FDA surveillance contributed to the harassment or dismissal of all six employees.
FDA spokeswoman Erica Jefferson said the agency does not comment on litigation, the Post reported.
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Bacteria That Causes Legionnaire's Disease Found in Las Vegas Hotel-Casino
The bacteria that causes Legionnaire's disease was found in water samples from the Luxor hotel-casino in Las Vegas this month after a guest died of the form of pneumonia, health officials said Monday.
Three cases of Luxor guests being diagnosed with Legionnaire's disease have been reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention national surveillance program, according to the Southern Nevada Health District, the Associated Press reported.
District officials said water at the Luxor was tested after the first two cases were reported in the spring of 2011, but no Legionella bacteria was detected. Both those patients recovered.
After the bacteria was found in water samples this month, the Luxor immediately took action, including superheating and super-chlorination of its water system, the AP reported.
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Prostate Cancer Found in 2,200-Year-Old Mummy
The discovery of prostate cancer in a 2,200-year-old Egyptian mummy suggests that the cancer was caused by genetics and not environmental factors, a researcher says.
The mummy was of a man who died in his forties and is the second-oldest known case of prostate cancer. The oldest is from a 2,700-year-old skeleton of a king in Russia, the Associated Press reported.
The team that studied the Egyptian mummy for two years included Salima Ikram, a professor from American University in Cairo.
"Living conditions in ancient times were very different; there were no pollutants or modified foods, which leads us to believe that the disease is not necessarily only linked to industrial factors," she told the AP.
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Catholic Colleges Oppose Obamacare Mandatory Birth Control Rule At Catholic Institutions
Many student health services at Catholic colleges in the United States refuse to prescribe or cover birth control, but they're under increasing pressure to change that stance.
The Obama administration said this month that the new health care law requires insurance plans at Catholic institutions to cover birth control without co-payments for employees, and that may be extended to students, The New York Times reported.
Catholic organizations are fighting the rule because they say it would violate their beliefs and force them to finance behavior that contradicts their beliefs, The Times reported.
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Obama Is The Most Anti-Religion President in History: "Obama uses religion when it’s convenient to get people to pay more money and more tribute to government and then uses government to strike down religion."
Rick Santorum: “Obama uses his faith “as a convenience” when it serves him. By saying that Jesus would have called for higher taxes, Obama was completely misreading the bible. This week’s Supreme Court decision which found unanimously against the EEOC’s view that religious ministers should be covered by sex discrimination laws, coupled with the government’s decision that Catholic healthcare providers should be required to offer contraceptive services proved that Obama is anti-church. This kind of assault on religion continued just this past week with Obama imposing on the Catholic Church and Catholic institutions a requirement that in order to participate in Obamacare, they would have to offer services in their church which are expressly against the teachings of that church.”
Obama Is The Most Anti-Religion President in History: "Obama uses religion when it’s convenient to get people to pay more money and more tribute to government and then uses government to strike down religion."
By: Martin Gould and Steve Malzberg
Newsmax -- 02/03/2012 -- President Barack Obama uses his faith "as a convenience" when it serves him, while at the same time being the most anti-religion president in history, Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum charged in an exclusive Newsmax interview.
And by saying that Jesus would have called for higher taxes, Obama was completely misreading the bible, touted the staunch Roman Catholic father of seven.
"Over the last few weeks, he has done more to assault religion in this country than any president, certainly in recent history, maybe even in history," said Santorum.
The former senator was talking a day after Obama used the National Prayer Breakfast to quote St. Luke’s Gospel that Jesus’ teaching of "Unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required," should be interpreted to mean that Christ would have wanted the rich to pay higher tax rates.
"Jesus wasn’t talking to the government," said Santorum. "He wasn’t talking that the government should take more from you.
"He was talking about your responsibility to your fellow man, your responsibility to God to provide for the least among us and not your responsibility to fund Caesar.
"That is a complete misinterpretation of the bible."
Santorum said this week’s Supreme Court decision which found unanimously against the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s view that religious ministers should be covered by sex discrimination laws, coupled with the government’s decision that Catholic healthcare providers should be required to offer contraceptive services proved that Obama is anti-church.
"Even Elena Kagan was amazed by the claims the Obama administration was making," he said referring to the Supreme Court justice who was formerly Obama’s solicitor general.
"In essence [the administration] said that the Catholic Church had to hire women priests otherwise it was discrimination; ultra-Orthodox Jews had to have women rabbis.
"This kind of assault on religion continued just this past week with him imposing on the Catholic Church and Catholic institutions a requirement that in order to participate in Obamacare, they would have to offer services in their church which are expressly against the teachings of that church," added Santorum.
"This is a president who uses religion when it’s convenient to get people to pay more money and more tribute to government and then uses government to strike down religion."
Santorum said his views on wider social issues made him a more attractive candidate for the Republicans than front-runner Mitt Romney, whom he called "a one-issue candidate," focused solely on job creation.
"He doesn’t want to go out and talk about anything else," said the Pennsylvanian. "If you’re going to rally the Republican base, if you’re going to get the people of America excited, you’ve got to paint a picture other than ‘I can be an economic development guy for the United States.’ We offer a lot more and we offer a better contrast to Barack Obama than Mitt Romney ever could," he added.
He said if unemployment continues to fall, Romney’s focus on jobs will start to look weak. "That’s one of many, many issues we should be talking about with President Obama and his failures with this country.
"That’s why we provide the better alternative; somebody who can go after President Obama on national security and someone who can go after him on what he is doing to undermine freedom in this country.
Santorum said if Romney ends up battling Obama for the White House in November, Republicans will have turned one of their strongest positives – opposition to Obama’s healthcare reforms – into a negative.
"Mitt Romney is completely compromised," he said. "Barack Obama will talk about Mitt Romney and how they have basically adopted his plan from Massachusetts."
Santorum accepted that he has little hope of success in Saturday’s Nevada caucuses. "Las Vegas is not exactly what you think about when you think of Rick Santorum territory," he joked.
But he said he has high hopes in next week’s contests in Colorado, Missouri and Minnesota.
"Those are states where we think we can do better and maybe get into second place or maybe even do better than that."
Santorum also told Newsmax that his 3-year-old daughter, Bella, who was hospitalized this week with pneumonia, is making a strong recovery after being released from the hospital.
"She is dramatically improved," he said. "I just want to say to everybody, thank you, and to continue to pray for Bella and our family. This is a tough time being out on the road and being away from family and we certainly need that extra protection that prayer gives us."
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Obama Tax Plan Will Mean Economic Destruction For Americans: "It is probably the most anti-jobs single idea Obama has come up with."
Newt Gingrich says that President Obama’s call for a 30 percent tax on millionaires is the “most destructive anti-jobs proposal by a president in my lifetime;” it would cause massive stock market losses, hurt every pension fund in the country, damage 401Ks, and send U.S. capital overseas. It is probably the most anti-jobs single idea Obama has come up with. “Every country in the world that has tried to use government power, as Obama puts it, has made people poorer, has made the politicians more powerful, and has ended up with corruption,” Gingrich says. “I think it is exactly the wrong direction.”
Obama Tax Plan Will Mean Economic Destruction For Americans: "It is probably the most anti-jobs single idea Obama has come up with."
By: Jim Meyers and Kathleen Walter
Newsmax -- 01/25/2012 -- Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich tells Newsmax in an exclusive interview that President Obama’s call for a 30 percent tax on millionaires is the "most destructive anti-jobs proposal by a president in my lifetime."
The former House speaker also says that the Hugo Chavez regime in Venezuela is a "direct threat to the United States" and we should find a way to "get rid of it."
Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich contends that President Barack Obamas so-called Buffett Rule would cause massive stock market losses, damage 401Ks, and send U.S. capital overseas. In this exclusive Newsmax.TV video interview, former House Speaker Gingrich denounces Obama's proposal as the most destructive, anti-jobs proposal by a president in his lifetime.
Gingrich spoke with Newsmax.TV after delivering an address at Florida International University on Wednesday. He was asked about Obama’s assertion in his State of the Union address Tuesday night that he would use government power to bridge the gap between the rich and everyone else.
"Every country in the world that has tried to use government power, as Obama puts it, has made people poorer, has made the politicians more powerful, and has ended up with corruption," Gingrich says. "I think it is exactly the wrong direction."
Obama also called on the wealthy to pay more taxes — specifically for people making more than $1 million a year to pay at least 30 percent in taxes.
"If the president is serious about a 30 percent minimum tax, he is doubling the capital gains tax," Gingrich says.
"If you double the capital gains tax you’re going to drive down the stock market, which is going to hurt every pension fund in the country. Everyone with a 401(k) is going to lose money. Capital is going to flee the U.S. It is probably the most anti-jobs single idea he has come up with.
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So my hunch is the White House will back off and say they didn’t quite mean it. But if they mean it, it is the most destructive anti-jobs proposal by a president in my lifetime."
Gingrich discusses his vow to bring a peaceful end to the Castro regime in Cuba.
"I’d use the same tools and the same strategy that Pope John Paul II, President Ronald Reagan, and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher used to defeat the Soviet empire. I’d bring to bear popular pressure, information technology, covert organizations, subsidies to people who want to be free, psychological campaigns against those who are in power, and I would do everything I could to maximize the ability of the Cuban people to free themselves."
Referring to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s recent visit to Latin America and the threat posed by a new alliance among Iran, Venezuela, and Cuba, Gingrich tells Newsmax: "I think this is the greatest direct challenge to the Monroe Doctrine in 190 years, and I think we have to confront it head on.
"We have to indicate that in the long run the Chavez regime is a direct threat to the United States and it’s in our interest to find a way to get rid of it."
Recent polls have shown that Gingrich is now leading other GOP candidates for the presidential nomination. He says he thinks his campaign is resonating with the voters because "they want a conservative with optimistic solutions who believes that if you unleash the American people, we can rebuild the country we love.
"I think that they are looking for somebody who has the clarity and the toughness to debate Obama head on. I think they increasingly believe I can do that."
Newsmax has revealed that Gingrich GOP opponent Mitt Romney’s campaign in Florida is being run by political aides who worked for then-Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, who abandoned the Republican Party to become an independent.
Commenting on the Romney-Crist link, Gingrich says: "I think it’s strange. I’m honored that we have Marco Rubio’s former campaign manager Joe Mallea running our campaign. He’s a solid conservative. I like to be surrounded by solid conservatives.
"It’s a little bit like Governor Romney’s alliance with [former White House adviser and New Hampshire Gov. John] Sununu, who helped convince President [George H.W.] Bush to break his no new taxes pledge and raise taxes. You have to wonder to what extent that tells you about the comfort that Romney has with raising taxes."
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No Wonder Obama Really Wants The Unemployment Rate To Go Up Instead Of Down: Obama Is Ditching Working Class Voters And Is Targeting The Unemployed and Others Who Rely On Entitlement Programs In Order To Win Re-Election
“If you work, we don’t want you,” Limbaugh said of Obama’s campaign message. “If you work, we know you don’t want us. If you work, you’re the targets. If you work, you are the people we are gunning for. If you work, we are coming after you to make sure that the other elements of our constituency are able to eat — that’s what the Obama coalition is saying.” “Here’s Obama . . . saying you are who we’re looking for.” Limbaugh said he thinks the news is “a big deal” because it’s the first time the Obama administration has gone on record ditching the working class. “The Democrat Party and Obama are making it official: We’re going after life’s losers, and we’re going to empower them,” he said. “We’re going to make them the reason we win.”
No Wonder Obama Really Wants The Unemployment Rate To Go Up Instead Of Down: Obama Is Ditching Working Class Voters And Is Targeting The Unemployed and Others Who Rely On Entitlement Programs In Order To Win Re-Election
By: Amy Woods
Newsmax -- 11/28/2011 -- President Barack Obama is jettisoning working-class voters and is targeting the unemployed and others who rely on entitlement programs in order to win in 2012, Rush Limbaugh said on his radio show Monday.
Limbaugh, citing an article in The New York Times titled "The Future of the Obama Administration," said the president already has begun ceding those constituents.
"If you work, we don’t want you," Limbaugh said of Obama’s campaign message. "If you work, we know you don’t want us. If you work, you’re the targets. If you work, you are the people we are gunning for. If you work, we are coming after you to make sure that the other elements of our constituency are able to eat — that’s what the Obama coalition is saying."
Limbaugh said The Times article also pointed to the educated and the elite as groups the Obama campaign is trying to enlist.
"You throw people who work who are white overboard, and instead your coalition includes the eggheads who have taught all these people the entitlement mentality and the entitlement-mentality recipients," he said. "Here’s Obama . . . saying you are who we’re looking for."
Limbaugh said he thinks the news is "a big deal" because it’s the first time the Obama administration has gone on record ditching the working class.
"The Democrat Party and Obama are making it official: We’re going after life’s losers, and we’re going to empower them," he said. "We’re going to make them the reason we win."
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Supreme Court Tells Obama ‘No!!’: Calls the Obama administration’s argument "extreme" concerning First Amendment rights
Mr. Obama has an aggressive disregard for any constitutional limit on what he wants to do. When the Supreme court rules on Obamacare, let’s hope it uses the U.S. Constitution to decide the issue. How about a ruling on the unConstitutional “czars” Obama has appointed? The czars are making & enforcing important national policy without ever facing a Congressional hearing. How about a ruling on Obama’s “recess” appointments. There is no question that Obama was openly defiant of the rules, traditions and his own position on the issue when he was a Senator. Even more disgusting are all the liberal hypocrites who pointedly refuse to issue a single word of concern or condemnation when Obama does the very same thing, or worse, that Obama condemned President George W. Bush for.
Supreme Court Tells Obama ‘No!!’: Calls the Obama administration’s argument "extreme" concerning First Amendment rights
By Chip Wood
Personal Liberty Digest -- January 22, 2012 -- Chief Justice John Roberts labeled as "extreme" the Obama Administration’s argument that the First Amendment does not protect a religious organization’s right to choose its own leaders.
Well, what do you know? The Supreme Court not only rebuffed another attack on our Constitution by Barack Obama’s minions, it did so in a unanimous decision.
Here’s what happened in Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church And School v. EEOC. The Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School hired Cheryl Perich as a teacher. Perich had completed religious training and was considered a minister by the school. Perich taught secular subjects and a religion class, led prayers and devotions, and attended chapel with her class.
In 2004, Perich became ill and began the school year on disability leave. Hosanna-Tabor hired someone else to teach her classes. When Perich said she was ready to return to work a month later, the principal in effect said "thanks, but no thanks." The church tried to persuade her to resign and even offered her some benefits if she’d do so, but she refused and threatened legal action. When the two parties couldn’t reach an agreement, Hosanna-Tabor fired Perich.
Rather than accept the decision, Perich claimed she had been discriminated against and sued for reinstatement and all of the pay she had missed. Rather than cave to her demands, Hosanna-Tabor refused.
That’s when one of the most nefarious agencies of our Big Nanny government got involved. Perich filed a claim with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, saying her firing was in violation of the Americans With Disabilities Act. The EEOC filed suit against Hosanna-Tabor, alleging that Perich was fired for threatening legal action.
Had this happened in the regular workplace, I have no doubt what would have happened next. The employer would have caved. In fact, Hosanna-Tabor’s lawyers and insurance company probably would have insisted on reaching a settlement, no matter the cost — in money or in principle.
But Hosanna-Tabor was made of sterner stuff. It contested the case all the way up to the Supreme Court. That’s when the Court surprised many of us by ruling unanimously in favor of Hosanna-Tabor.
In the decision, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote:
Requiring a church to accept or retain an unwanted minister, or punishing a church for failing to do so, intrudes upon more than a mere employment decision. Such action interferes with the internal governance of the church, depriving the church of control over the selection of those who will personify its beliefs. By imposing an unwanted minister, the state infringes the free exercise clause, which protects a religious group’s right to shape its own faith and mission through its appointments. According the state the power to determine which individuals will minister to the faithful also violates the establishment clause, which prohibits government involvement in such ecclesiastical decisions.
Roberts labeled as "extreme" the Obama Administration’s argument that the First Amendment does not protect a religious organization’s right to choose its own leaders.
Hooray for the Court! In years past, Justices haven’t always done a very good job of defending the Constitution’s limitation of government. But they got it right this time.
Who knows? Maybe a new day is dawning. We’ll soon find out; in one of the biggest issues to come before it in decades, the Court is expected to rule this term on the Constitutionality of Obamacare. When it does, let’s hope it uses the U.S. Constitution to decide the issue. Wouldn’t that be a refreshing change?
There are other issues I’d like to see the Court rule on, such as the unConstitutional "czars" Obama has appointed. The czars are making and enforcing important national policy without ever facing a Congressional hearing. No "advise and consent" here, no matter what the clear intention of our Founding Fathers was.
I’d also like to see the Court address those "recess" appointments I wrote about last week. There is no question that Obama was openly defiant of the rules, traditions and his own position on the issue when he was a Senator. As William McGurn pointed out in a Wall Street Journal column, "Mr. Obama’s aggressive disregard for any constitutional limit on what he wants to do has come to define his approach across the board."
Indeed. But even more disgusting are all the liberal hypocrites who lambasted George W. Bush for "shredding" the Constitution when he was President, but pointedly refuse to issue a single word of concern or condemnation when Obama does the very same thing — or worse. Quoting McGurn again:
We now know that the professed concern for the Constitution was fake. We know it was fake because the same Bush claims of executive authority in war that provoked such apoplexy in our pundits, professors and politicos have for the most part been embraced by Mr. Obama—all to the distinct sound of silence.
Happily, those of us who want to restore the Constitution aren’t being silent. There are more of us than ever before; some of us are even in Congress.
Thomas Jefferson had it right when he warned more than 200 years ago:
"In questions of power, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution."
I think many of our opponents can actually hear those chains getting closer – sort of like Ebenezer Scrooge when he faced Jacob Marley’s ghost in A Christmas Carol. But be warned: Many creatures are at their most dangerous when they think they’re being cornered.
Until next time, keep some powder dry.
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Wannabe-Dictator Obama Ordains Himself As "The I Can Do Whatever I Want To Do President"
Obama not only overstepped the bounds of executive authority, he spat in the face of precedent. If Congress stands up to a President whose increasingly unhinged decisions fly in the face of precedent, logic & law, then the President may determine if their session isn’t “session-y” enough; & issue edicts by fiat while liberals far & wide cheer his naked power grab. Obama’s cronies have benefited while working Americans suffered through fiscal disasters like General Electric’s new Chinese-employment-at-the-expense-of-40,000-American-workers program. The so-called “Occupiers”—who can’t be more than one or two felony convictions from out-thugging the labor unions—are mutating into a liberal brute squad. The dovish candidate Obama has blossomed into a saber-rattler, Nobel be damned. And then Obama announced last week that he gets to make up the rules as he goes along. It’s time for Obama to face demotion
Wannabe-Dictator Obama Ordains Himself As "The I Can Do Whatever I Want To Do President"
By Ben Crystal
Personal Liberty Digest -- 01-10-2012 -- Obama not only overstepped the bounds of executive authority, he spat in the face of precedent.
I tend to avoid reading the tea leaves fluttering in Washington as predictive of some burgeoning conspiracy birthed in the bowels of the Barack Obama White House. Before you scoff, let me clarify: I have no doubt that Obama daydreams about appointing himself an eleventy-star generalissimo, wearing a garish uniform he found on Tinpots-R-Us (jodhpurs with those ears would make him look like a violin in a Salvador Dali painting) and assigning himself a title which would make Idi Amin blush. But the dream and the reality of imposing a dictatorship on the United States live a far cry from one another. All the same; just because it won’t succeed doesn’t mean Obama isn’t going to try.
Witness Obama and the Democrats’ latest ploy. Last week, Obama decided he was tired of hassling with that pesky, Constitutionally-mandated separation of powers and appointed Richard Cordray to the position of director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau—itself one of those Constitutionally-nebulous "czar" positions which have sprung up during the Obama Administration like fungus in a fleabaggers’ squatter camp. Although the Senate was—and IS—in session, Obama and his accomplices recognized his minions—including the sycophant corporate media—would blindly march to whatever beat Obama drummed up. Armed with that understanding of liberals’ willingness to forgive any offense committed by their dear leaders, Obama bypassed the Senate and "recess appointed" Cordray to the post.
Patriots, stunned by the brazen nature of Obama’s latest crime, howled derision and outrage. Obama not only overstepped the bounds of executive authority, he spat in the face of precedent, violated the terms of the Dodd-Frank bureaucratic monstrosity which created the position in question (which requires Senate confirmation of the office holder) and ignored the opinion of his own Department of Justice. Try to imagine how deep down the rabbit hole Obama fell in order to offend Eric "Fast and Furious" Holder’s Constitutional sensibilities.
The left fired back with predictable unanimity. Obama led with ludicrous assertions that Congressional (Senatorial) intransigence imbued him with hitherto unknown super-Presidential powers; specifically the right to bypass Congress when the mood suits him:
"…I have an obligation as president to do what I can without (Congress)."
Is that how that works? If Congress stands up to a President whose increasingly unhinged decisions fly in the face of precedent, logic and law, then the President may determine if their session isn’t "session-y" enough; and issue edicts by fiat while liberals far and wide cheer his naked power grab.
Meanwhile, noticeably silent on the matter was Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who endorsed pro-forma tactics when the Democrats used them against President Bush in 2008:
"We don’t let him have recess appointments because they are mischievous… there will be no recess. We will meet every third day pro forma…"
Reid, who I suspect was left in the dark about Obama’s nefarious strategy until after the fact, issued a halfhearted endorsement of the wannabe-dictator’s latest offense; claiming to "support President Obama’s decision…" without making any reference to the Constitution. Of course, the corporate media horde carefully omitted any references to Reid and the Senate Democrats’ own employment of pro forma sessions to block Bush nominees.
In recent months, the President has signed the abominable National Defense Authorization Act; which—among other things—empowers the government to stuff you somewhere really remote (I’m thinking the vegetable drawer in Michael Moore’s fridge) until the 12th of Never without so much as a parting gift. He has been as forthcoming as a Gambino button man on the subject of Operation Fast and Furious. His cronies have benefited while working Americans suffered through fiscal disasters like Solyndra, Lightsquared, General Electric’s new Chinese-employment-at-the-expense-of-40,000-American-workers program and pretty much everything which has sputtered off a General Motors, Fisker or Fiat/Chrysler assembly line (and directly into the shop).
Successful businesses like Gibson Guitars face interminable battles with Federal authorities which reek of political gamesmanship. The so-called "Occupiers"—who can’t be more than one or two felony convictions from out-thugging the labor unions—are mutating into a liberal brute squad. The dovish candidate Obama has blossomed into a saber-rattler, Nobel be damned. And then the President announced last week that he gets to make up the rules as he goes along.
It’s time for Obama to face demotion. Don’t expect the Democrats to help; they’re just following orders.
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Comrade Obama Condemns Capitalism In America, Not To Help Americans, But To Help Himself Toward More Power and Re-Election
Communism for the masses has consistently delivered poverty, loss of freedom & death. Capitalism, on the other hand, has worked for the masses whenever & wherever it has been tried; it has delivered spectacular wealth & a high standard of living to all those who are willing to work. The scam of politicians taking from those who produce & giving the stolen loot to those whom they deem to be in need does not work; the poverty rate is about the same today as it was 47 years ago. It doesn’t matter how much of other people’s money you give away, it does nothing to lift people up. The hard evidence shows that it is government’s redistribution-of-wealth policies that have not worked. Obama’s socialist & communist mentors had it all wrong. It is collectivism, in all its ugly incarnations, that doesn’t work. Welfare programs have bankrupted the USA & stripped millions of....
Comrade Obama Condemns Capitalism In America, Not To Help Americans, But To Help Himself Toward More Power and Re-Election
Personal Liberty Digest -- 12/13/2011 -- Barack Obama would do well to listen to a once starry-eyed collectivist named Bill Clinton.
Oops! The Presidential pretender went and did it again. A lot of red ink has passed over the socialist dam since he unthinkingly told Joe the Plumber that he wants to "spread the wealth around."
Or since he told Charlie Gibson that "It’s a matter of fairness" when Gibson repeatedly asked him to explain why he would want to raise the capital-gains tax when the historical evidence proves that higher capital-gains taxes actually decrease government revenues.
Of course, there have been endless not-so-subtle clues as to Obama’s impeccable collectivist credentials since then, but, on the whole, he tends to choose his words carefully so as not to awaken the sleeping frogs. One must always be mindful not to let the water get too hot.
But last week Obama let it all hang out in a speech at a Kansas high school when he said, "[T]here is a certain crowd in Washington who, for the last few decades, have said, ‘Let’s respond to this economic challenge with the same old tune. The market will take care of everything,’ they tell us. If we just cut more regulations and cut more taxes — especially for the wealthy — our economy will grow stronger."
Moving in for the kill, he went on to say, "And that theory fits well on a bumper sticker. But here’s the problem: It doesn’t work. It has never worked. … I mean, understand, it’s not as if we haven’t tried this theory. We simply cannot return to this brand of you’re-on-your-own economics if we’re serious about rebuilding the middle class in this country."
That’s right, folks, capitalism had nothing to do with the United States becoming the most prosperous country in the history of the world. It had nothing to do with millions of ambitious people starting with nothing and becoming millionaires and even billionaires. And it has nothing to do with the fact that "poor people" (as defined by the Census Bureau) in the U.S. live better than middle-class people in most other countries.
When Obama says that cutting taxes and regulations doesn’t work, what in the world is he talking about? Everything works. The question is, for whom does it work, and how well? Collectivism works exceedingly well for politicians whose chief objective is to stay in office, but it destroys the lives of millions of people on the dole who might otherwise become productive citizens.
True to his favorite tactic of turning the facts upside down, when Obama says "it’s not as if we haven’t tried this theory," it sounds as though he’s referring to communism rather than capitalism. Communism has been tried throughout the world — from Cuba to Russia, from North Korea to China — and it’s worked wonderfully for guys with names like Castro, Stalin, Kim Jong Il and Mao. But for the masses it has consistently delivered poverty, loss of freedom and death.
Capitalism, on the other hand, has worked for the masses — whenever and wherever it has been tried. Even in its impure state (i.e., not laissez faire) it has delivered spectacular wealth and a high standard of living to all those who are willing to work.
"You’re on your own economics" is a cute catchphrase — the kind of dismissive ridicule the left loves to employ — but the truth is that being "on your own" is a good thing. When the government leaves people alone, it makes it easier for them to innovate and create wealth. And when wealth is created, it accrues to everyone’s benefit, whether it is reinvested, spent on goods and services, or saved (which adds to capital formation and, in turn, spurs economic growth and job creation).
But what about those who are truly unable to care for themselves; e.g., quadriplegics, the blind and the mentally ill? What would happen to them in a truly free society? Fortunately, the Western way of life is based on a code of ethics and morality that motivates Americans, in particular, to be remarkably charitable.
No civilized person wants to see those who are seriously health challenged or mentally challenged suffer, so the question is not whether or not such people should be helped. The question is, who is best equipped to help them — politicians, whose chief aim is to perpetuate their own power, or free individuals, who have a genuine desire to be charitable to those who are incapable of fending for themselves?
If the scam of politicians taking from those who produce and giving the stolen loot to those whom they deem to be "in need" worked, the poverty rate would not be about the same today (14.3 percent) as it was when the Great Society was launched back in 1965. What Lyndon Johnson’s "generosity" proved is that it doesn’t matter how much of other people’s money you give away, it does nothing to lift people up. The hard evidence shows that it is government’s redistribution-of-wealth policies that have not worked.
The far left has succeeded in perpetuating a cult of dependency that keeps career criminals like Chuck Schumer, Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid in power. And, unfortunately, those who claim to be in favor of capitalism — primarily Republican career politicians — have consistently gone along with welfare programs that have bankrupted the country and stripped millions of people of the motivation to tap into their true potential and better their lives.
If one assumes that a community organizing ne’er-do-well like Barack Obama — who has never built anything in his life — sincerely wants to help the middle class, he would have to simultaneously believe that Obama’s an ignoramus.
- How does increasing America’s debt by $4 billion a day help the poor?
- How do more than 40,000 pages of tax regulations — regulations that take time and money away from job creators — help the poor?
- How does an $800 billion "stimulus bill" — which turned out to be nothing more than a wish list of political pork — help the poor?
- How do regulations that prevent oil drilling and coal mining — activities that could create a massive number of jobs and reduce our dependency on foreign oil — help the poor?
- How does destroying the housing market through government-created failures like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac help the poor?
Yes, we do need to be on our own. More regulation is the last thing in the world we need. The greatest regulator is, and always has been, the marketplace. Those of us who have engaged in entrepreneurship know that the marketplace is a brutal, unforgiving regulator. But how in the world can you expect a community organizer to know that when he’s never started or operated a business? You have to experience the brutality of the marketplace, firsthand, in order to appreciate just how well it works.
Maybe Obama and his supposedly sincere leftist pals should study Galveston, Texas and try to understand why opting out of the Social Security system has worked so well for its citizens. Or why job-creating companies are stampeding out of anti-business, high-tax States like New York and California and escaping to business-friendly States such as Nevada, Florida and Texas that have no State income taxes.
The truth is that, throughout history, the vile left has never been interested in lifting people up. Instead of focusing on income inequality, their focus should be on setting people free — to be on their own! — to go as far as their talents and hard work will take them.
Sorry, Barack, but your socialist and communist mentors — from papa Obama to Frank Marshall Davis, from Saul Alinsky to Jeremiah Wright — had it all wrong. It is collectivism, in all its ugly incarnations, that doesn’t work. So-called trickle-down economics, on the other hand, does work — and always will. It’s built into the system.
Barack Obama would do well to listen to a once starry-eyed collectivist named Bill Clinton, who recently said, in an interview with Newsmax’s Chris Ruddy, "We don’t have a lot of resentment against people who are successful. We kind of like it, Americans do. It’s one of our best characteristics. If we think someone earned their money, we do not resent their success. That’s why there’s been very little class conflict in American history."
We’re less than a year away from finding out who is right in his assessment of the average American — Barack Obama or Bill Clinton.
-Robert Ringer
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Obama Gets A Well-Deserved Big ‘F’ For Big Failure On His 1,000-Day Report Card
Consider the facts: JOBS: Obama has presided over the loss of 2.2 million jobs. DEBT: Obama has increased taxpayer debt by $4.2 trillion. Every day, the nation runs a deficit of $4.2 billion. FORECLOSURE AND BANKRUPTCY: 2.4 million homes have been foreclosed on. Homeowners and businesses have declared 4 million bankruptcies. THE STIMULUS: Obama promised that his $787 billion stimulus would save or create 3.5 million jobs by the end of 2010. He came up 7.3 million jobs short of his goal, according to the Heritage Foundation. HEALTHCARE: Obamacare did not reduce healthcare costs as promised and is in fact responsible for increasing costs in 2011. Health insurance premiums are up 13 percent. POVERTY: Nearly 3 million more Americans live in poverty than did before Obama took office. FREEDOM: Many of Obama’s acts and initiatives, without legislation, have reduced American freedom and the rule of law.
Obama Gets A Well-Deserved Big ‘F’ For Big Failure On His 1,000-Day Report Card
By: David A. Patten
Newsmax -- October 17, 2011 -- Don’t look for champagne, party horns, and confetti to mark President Barack Obama’s 1,000th day in the White House today.
Indeed, some might be forgiven for feeling that these thousand days of "hope and change" seem more like a thousand years.
Partisan discord — fueled by a president who seems unable to find any common ground with the opposition party — is rife and rancorous.
The economy is seeing its worst times since the Great Depression. Internationally, the country is bogged down in two major wars, while competitors such as China and Brazil take advantage of the mayhem to seize crucial economic terrain and key industries.
The president whose approval rating stood at a stellar 69 percent on Inauguration Day has seen his popularity dip deep into the cellar on several occasions, dropping below 40 percent. Independents have left him in droves, contributing to a midterm drubbing for Democrats that was among the worst in political history.
As the nation struggles with a Carter-esque malaise, Democratic pollster and Fox News commentator Doug Schoen tells Newsmax: "There is no ‘hope and change,’ no high-minded politics. It is just politics as usual: gridlock, dysfunctionality, and impotence. Sadly, you see it on both sides of the aisle."
Consider the facts:
• Jobs: The president has presided over the loss of 2.2 million jobs.
• Debt: Obama has increased taxpayer debt by $4.2 trillion. Every day, the nation runs a deficit of $4.2 billion.
• Foreclosure and Bankruptcy: 2.4 million homes have been foreclosed on. Homeowners and businesses have declared 4 million bankruptcies.
• The Stimulus: Obama promised that his $787 billion stimulus would save or create 3.5 million jobs by the end of 2010. He came up 7.3 million jobs short of his goal, according to the Heritage Foundation.
• Healthcare: Obamacare did not reduce healthcare costs as promised and is in fact responsible for increasing costs in 2011. Health insurance premiums are up 13 percent.
• Poverty: Nearly 3 million more Americans live in poverty than did before Obama took office.
On Friday, Fox News host Bill O'Reilly summed up the situation perfectly for Republicans in his "Talking Points Memo."
"On the economic side, things remain dismal," O'Reilly said. "The president will try to convince the folks that things could be a heck of a lot worse had he not spent all that money, that his economic policies saved the banks and some car companies.
"Democrats will also say they saved the country from another great depression because the Bush administration was so bad. Some Americans will buy that, even though none of it can be proven."
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review writer Salena Zito reports that, after a recent jobs speech by Labor Secretary Hilda Solis in the Steel City, an audience member shouted "Let’s go Obama!"
What followed, Zito reports, was an awkward, prolonged silence — among a crowd of Democrats, no less.
"
It was a reaction you'd expect at a Republican rally," Zito writes, "not from Pittsburgh unionists, elected Democrats, and other party faithful gathered to support Barack Obama's jobs bill."
Of course, it has long been a maxim of American politics that presidents campaign in poetry and govern in prose. On the hustings, Obama’s political verse seemed more euphonious than most. But in governance his prose at times has seemed encrypted, as far as the American people are concerned.
The president’s hard-core supporters remain confident he will prevail over GOP primary contenders. As Team Obama awaits the survivor of the struggle between the buttoned-down political competence of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and whichever grass-roots standard-bearer finally prevails, they know they will have to rewrite political history to win re-election: No president since FDR has won re-election with unemployment above 8 percent.
Critics of the administration complain that President Obama seems to speak a different tongue when it comes to connecting with everyday Americans. To be fair, Obama’s shining achievement was giving Seal Team Six the green light to take out Osama bin Laden. But the one-term presidency of George H.W. Bush demonstrates how brief the half-life of foreign-policy success is for a president presiding over a poor economy.
However, the 7.4 percent unemployment rate that Bush-the-elder presided over in November 1992 would look like veritable boom times, compared to the economic circumstances of today.
One thousands days into his presidency, Obama’s own economists project that unemployment will still be about 9 percent on Election Day 2012. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) is slightly more sanguine, projecting 8.5 percent joblessness. The fractious tea parties have established formidable get-out-the-vote machines in some congressional districts, as Obama’s "summer of recovery" gave way to a long economic winter of discontent.
Obama’s difficulties transcend economics, however. His "signature legislative achievement," the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, is so unpopular that Democrats rarely mention it on the campaign trail.
On Friday, the reforms known as "Obamacare" sustained yet another blow, as the administration pulled the plug on the disability-insurance entitlement known as CLASS, admitting it has no path to economic viability.
Republicans had warned all along that the voluntary program, whose premiums would skyrocket to $3,000 a month by some estimates in return for a $50-a-day payout if you become disabled, was a budgetary gimmick that defied common sense.
Canceling the program after its approval in the Democratically controlled 110th Congress put Obamacare another $80 billion in the red, because the administration had counted on advanced premiums payments to help finance providing insurance to another 35 millions souls.
The administration continues to say the Affordable Care Act will save Americans $120 billion over 10 years, but the CBO is expected to rescore the entire Act now that CLASS is defunct.
Perhaps even more worrisome for the administration: The expected June 2012 timeframe for the Supreme Court to rule whether the individual mandate, the sine qua non of the program’s viability, is constitutional. If Obama loses, he will have only 120 days to explain to American voters why his No. 1 legislative proposal would violate the founding covenant that Obama in 2001 told a Chicago radio station was "a charter of negative liberties" limiting federal power.
"
Americans are less free than they were 1,000 days ago," Obamacare foe and former New York Lt. Gov. Betsy McCaughey tells Newsmax. "Many of the Obama administration’s acts, and initiatives without legislation, have reduced American freedom and the rule of law."
She cited the granting of thousands Obamacare waivers granted by the administration to unions and companies as an example of actions she says have pushed the United States closer to "rule by cronyism."
Allegations of insider favors to supporters are fueling the congressional probe into the loss of 1,100 jobs when the politically connected solar-panel firm Solyndra shuttered its doors after it received a $535 million loan guarantee President Obama hailed as a model green-jobs "investment."
The administration and Attorney General Eric Holder also find themselves dogged by a flurry of congressional subpoenas stemming from the Operation Fast and Furious program that allowed automatic weapons to "walk" across the border and into the hands of Mexican drug cartels, which used them in scores of crimes including the December 2010 murder of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry near Rio Rico, Ariz.
None of the setbacks appear to have discouraged Obama, who at times appears happiest on the campaign trail trying to score tactical points against Republicans. A recent Washington Post editorial by Scott Wilson portrayed Obama as "The loner president."
Wilson noted that former President Bill Clinton had an army of loyal surrogates — James Carville, Lanny Davis, Dee Dee Myers — to carry his water to the national media. Wilson calls Obama "a political loner who prefers policy over the people who make politics in this country work."
Although polls show Obama remains well-liked on a personal level, he recently conceded himself that Americans are not better off than they were four years ago, then proceeded to imply that Congress and President George W. Bush bear the blame.
Robert E. Moffit, senior fellow at the Center for Policy Innovation at The Heritage Foundation, tells Newsmax that Team Obama has displayed a penchant for repeating its talking points even when facts no longer support them.
"
I think one of the reasons why the president’s approval ratings are so low is not just the economy, but the backdrop of saying things over and over and over again that nobody seriously believes," Moffit says.
He cites the administration’s ongoing insistence that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will reduce the federal deficit as just one example.
"
It gets tiresome and I think at some people start to just simply shut it out. I’m not talking about Republicans," he says. "I’m talking about Independents — there is very strong evidence that it this is true. Even Democrats are starting to say, ‘I hope he doesn’t say that again. Please don’t say that.’ — and he says it."
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Occupy Wall Street Protesters Are 'Idiots' Being Fueled By and Exploited By Radical President Obama and the Old Socialistic Core of the Democratic Party
David Horowitz says: “If you’ve watched their interviews you know that they’re morons. But what is behind them is ACORN, George Soros, and the core of the Democratic Party. That’s why we ought to pay attention to them.” Horowitz further says that it’s fueled by the old left “that was demoralized by the collapse of socialism and was dormant for a few years, and then came back. “These are the people on the left who didn’t leave when they saw all their lies exposed. The left said socialism is the answer and still says that. “Republicans must stop being nice if they want to defeat Obama in 2012”. Horowitz says Democrats will use weapons of slander, vilification, and politics of personal destruction to defeat the GOP nominee.
Occupy Wall Street Protesters Are 'Idiots' Being Fueled By and Exploited By Radical President Obama and the Old Socialistic Core of the Democratic Party
By: Jim Meyers and Kathleen Walter
Newsmax -- 11/17/2011 -- Conservative activist and author David Horowitz tells Newsmax that the Occupy Wall Street protesters are "morons" being exploited by the organized left.
He also says the Republican presidential candidate could win in a landslide in 2012, warns that the Democrats are "character assassins" who will vilify their GOP rival, and predicts that the tea party will play a huge role in the outcome.
Horowitz is the founder of the David Horowitz Freedom Center and editor of FrontPage Magazine.
Republicans must stop being nice if they want to defeat President Barack Obama in 2012, says conservative activist David Horowitz. In an exclusive Newsmax.TV video interview, Horowitz says Democrats will use weapons of slander, vilification, and politics of personal destruction to defeat the GOP nominee.
The Freedom Center’s stated mission is to "combat the efforts of the radical left and its Islamist allies to destroy American values in a time of terror." The organization will convene its annual Restoration Weekend in South Florida beginning on Nov. 17.
In an exclusive interview with Newsmax.TV, Horowitz, a former radical leftist who converted to conservatism in the 1980s, was asked about the Occupy Wall Street protesters and their ongoing demonstrations in Manhattan and elsewhere.
"They are idiots," Horowitz declares.
"If you’ve watched their interviews you know that they’re morons. But what is behind them is ACORN, George Soros, and the core of the Democratic Party. That’s why we ought to pay attention to them."
As to whether the Occupy movement has been spontaneous or manipulated by the organized left, Horowitz says: "I think it’s both. It’s like a chicken-and-an-egg question.
"Some of the motivation must have been that the Democrats have created this horrific situation in our education system, where you get what looks like a free ride because there are all these student loans, and it’s not a free ride.
"So you have these kids, they’ve got a $100,000 debt and there are no jobs, thanks to the Democrats. So that became an occasion, and once there’s a happening — the first Occupy Wall Street — then these big unions come in behind it, there’s money there, and ACORN. So there’s already a very organized left and it grows.
"When you’re 20 years old and kind of stupid, you want to be involved in what’s happening. It’s exciting. We’re making history. No you’re not. You’re just dirtying the streets and the neighborhood.
"
Asked about the Occupy Wall Street movement’s future, Horowitz responds that it’s fueled by the old left "that was demoralized by the collapse of socialism and was dormant for a few years, and then came back. We can expect this to go on and on in the future. You’re not going to persuade them. They’re going to be there.
"
Discussing the 2012 elections, Horowitz tells Newsmax that Republicans "need point out the damage the Democratic Party is doing. They sabotaged the war in Iraq. They sabotaged our foreign policy in the Middle East, so now we have a real war situation. We have Iran on the brink of nuclear weapons, thanks to the Democrats.
"
Asked whether he agrees with conservative pundits who predict the Republicans will win the White House next year, Horowitz responds: "I think it could be a landslide in our favor, and I think we can lose, so I wouldn’t be so confident.
"A lot depends on the candidate. All of our candidates have vulnerabilities that worry me, and the Democrats are character assassins. That’s what they do. They don’t have ideas or plans to fix things. What they have is the weapons of slander and vilification and the politics of personal destruction, which is what is going on now with Herman Cain.
"
As for the tea party’s role next year, Horowitz declares: "The tea party is the most important development in the history of modern conservatism, and of this country. If it is out there it will be a hugely important force for stiffening the Republican spine, which is the big problem that Republicans have."
Horowitz also says Obama is "easily" the most radical president in American history.
"Obama comes from the left that I came out of, except the worst part of it," he says.
"These are the people on the left who didn’t leave when they saw all their lies exposed. The left said socialism is the answer and still says that. They said America was wrong in Vietnam. They were wrong. They killed a lot of people. Some of us woke up but most stayed, and that’s who they are.
"Obama presents himself, at least in the first campaign, as a centrist, a uniter, and so forth. Those were all bald-faced lies. Based on his whole career you would have known that.
"The left doesn’t really have a positive agenda. It’s an anti-American agenda. Bankrupting the country for a leftist is a good thing because America is the ogre.
"
Horowitz adds that his organization’s upcoming Restoration Weekend is "a kind of rejuvenation. We have a stellar cast — Glenn Beck, Herman Cain, Dick Morris, Ann Coulter, and others.
"It’s to fire up the troops and give them some hope in these dark times that we live in."
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Our Most Dangerous Enemy: Voters helping Obama create a dictatorship because they are so addicted to “the redistribution-of-wealth” [the theft of others’ hard-earned income through excessive taxes] culture
As President Barack Obama and others on the far left know full well, a dictatorship is precisely what unsustainable debt and a collapsed economy can lead to. One of the surest ways to bring about a dictatorship is through runaway inflation which is caused by massive increases in the money supply in a frantic effort to continue paying for unsustainable government programs. Ultimately, people become panicked, and anarchy and chaos result. The government then “has no choice” [the choice Obama created] but to resort to strong-armed totalitarian measures to “restore order.”
Our Most Dangerous Enemy: Voters helping Obama create a dictatorship because they are so addicted to “the redistribution-of-wealth” [the theft of others’ hard-earned income through excessive taxes] culture
Personal Liberty Digest: June 07, 2011 -- The question of Constitutionality increasingly appears to be off the table when it comes to debating major fiscal issues.
While some conservative commentators are on the right side of most issues, they are careful to stay "in bounds." The last thing in the world any political pundit wants is to be seen as an extremist by his colleagues.
Recently, I watched a panel of think-tank experts debate how best to solve our country’s fiscal problems. What caught my attention was that no one — not even the free-enterprise spokesmen from the ultra-conservative Heritage Foundation and the Free Enterprise Institute — so much as alluded to the unConstitutionality of any of the myriad government programs that have caused these problems.
What does this mean? Simply that the far left in this country has, for all practical purposes, already succeeded in fundamentally transforming America, regardless of who the next President is. The problem is that even though many conservatives are experts when it comes to debating the factual side of fiscal issues, they seem to accept — by default — the false premise that government transfer-of-wealth programs are Constitutional.
At least one motivating force behind this sad situation is pragmatism. For example, both Dick Morris and Donald Trump have opined that Republicans are committing suicide with Paul Ryan’s proposed plan to overhaul Medicare. And they could very well be right.
Morris is a strategy genius when it comes to elections, so it’s no surprise that his opinion is based on what he believes is necessary to win the next election. I get it.
But if conservatives fear that Ryan’s addressing the single biggest fiscal problem facing the U.S. will result in re-electing a Marxist President, it says a lot about the decline of America as a virtuous nation. More to the point, it means most voters are so addicted to our redistribution-of-wealth culture that they will vote against anyone who dares to threaten that culture.
Thus, the question of Constitutionality increasingly appears to be off the table when it comes to debating major fiscal issues such as the deficit, the debt ceiling, unfunded Medicare and Social Security liabilities, and redistribution-of-wealth programs ranging from unemployment benefits to food stamps.
I was again reminded of this while watching another recent debate on the aforementioned Medicare issue, this one between Ryan and Democrat Chris Van Hollen. These two men know the numbers on Medicare inside and out, but Ryan’s approach to solving the Medicare crisis is based on free-market solutions, while Van Hollen believes in government solutions.
I have great respect for Ryan, but I was disappointed that he didn’t address the question of whether Medicare is even Constitutional. It’s as though the default position in every debate is that the program being discussed is Constitutional — even if it’s not.
Put another way, regardless of how conservative any particular participant may be, political debates are almost always based on the false premise that the Constitution is irrelevant. And as polling numbers regarding Ryan’s Medicare proposal demonstrate, more than half the nation’s voters agree with that false premise.
But there’s another subject that is avoided even more than the question of Constitutionality. In fact, it is virtually never mentioned by politicians or commentators. The subject I am referring to is dictatorship. Even if some members of Congress are knowledgeable enough about world history to be concerned about the dangers of a dictatorship befalling the U.S., they dare not mention the word out loud for fear of being labeled an alarmist or conspiracy nut.
And yet, as President Barack Obama and others on the far left know full well, that is precisely what unsustainable debt and a collapsed economy can lead to. One of the surest ways to bring about a dictatorship is through runaway inflation, which is caused by massive increases in the money supply (popularly referred to inside the Beltway as "quantitative easing") in a frantic effort to continue paying for unsustainable government programs.
Ultimately, people become panicked, and anarchy and chaos result. The government then "has no choice" but to resort to strong-armed totalitarian measures to "restore order."
When pundits and politicians say things like "Barack Obama will have no choice but to start dramatically cutting back on spending," "the President is going to have to come to grips with the reality that market forces always prevail," etc., they ignore the fact that a dictatorship can override reality with an iron fist.
For example, under a dictatorship, oil prices can be whatever the dictator (or oligarchy) wants them to be. And anyone can own a house if the government mandates that others give it to him free of charge. Just about anything is possible through the use of force.
Roll your eyes if you wish, but do yourself a favor and stay alert for a possible drastic change in the American way of life as we continue to move briskly down the road to financial ruin. Do not be deluded into believing America is immune to the same consequences that have destroyed so many other nations.
Having said this, I hasten to add that Obama and his progressive allies are not our biggest threat. In fact, they would be as hapless as were Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels if it were not for the avarice of benefit-addicted voters who have no desire to compete in the free market for their livelihoods. With this in mind, I would argue it isn’t so much that people get the government they deserve. Rather, they get the government that reflects their own values. If a majority of Americans are willing to ignore the Constitution and demand that their transfer-of-wealth largess remain intact no matter how obvious the cataclysmic long-term consequences may be, they will vote for politicians they believe are most likely to keep the government redistribution-of-wealth machine well-oiled and running.
Thus, instead of complaining about corrupt politicians, Americans need to take a good look in the mirror and start thinking long and hard about their own tainted morals, as well as what kind of nation they want to leave their children and grandchildren. While the far left is certainly an enemy of freedom, if Americans are willing to look in the mirror, they might just recognize that (to put a twist on comic-strip character Pogo’s famous quotation) the most dangerous enemy is us.
–Robert Ringer
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Jan. 20, 2012 to Jan. 27, 2012Health Highlights
**FDA Approves New Drug for Type 2 Diabetes.
**Erin Brockovich Takes on High School Girls' Mystery Illness.
**Spinal Cord Injury Treatment Tested on Dogs.
**Wearing High Heels Affects A Woman's Biomechanics.
**Fake News Sites for Acai Berry Pills Shut Down by FTC.
**Hospital Stays for C. difficile Infections Increased: From 86,000 in 1993 to 349,000 in 2008 and to 337,000 in 2009.
**No Obvious Medical Explanation for Mysterious Skin Disease.
**Studies Show Link Between Brown Fat and Cold and Exercise.
**Insulated Lunch Boxes and Thermal Food Carriers Recalled Because of Poisoning Hazard.
**Cancer Vaccine Trial Begins.
Health Highlights (Jan. 20, 2012 to Jan. 27, 2012)
Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by the editors of HealthDay:
FDA Approves New Drug for Type 2 Diabetes
Bydureon (exenatide extended release), Amylin Pharmaceuticals' long-acting version of the diabetes drug Byetta, has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
The once-weekly injection will include a label warning that the drug caused certain thyroid tumors in rats, the Dow Jones news service reported. It's not known whether the drug causes such tumors in people, the label warning says. But the drug shouldn't be used by people with a family history of medullary thyroid carcinoma (a form of cancer), the warning continues.
Twice in 2010, the FDA declined approval of Bydureon, requesting additional studies and clinical information, Dow Jones reported.
Bydureon is a "glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor," a class of medications that helps the body produce more insulin, which helps regulate blood sugar.
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Erin Brockovich Takes on High School Girls' Mystery Illness
The environmental activist Erin Brockovich says she's investigating the case of more than a dozen teen girls at an upstate New York high school with tics and involuntary verbal outbursts.
They mystery illness among the girls at Le Roy high school began several months ago. Extensive testing of the school grounds failed to detect any signs of infectious disease or toxins, msnbc.com reported.
Dr. Laszlo Mechtler, a neurologist who has seen and is treating 10 of the girls, had diagnosed them with a rare condition called mass psychogenic illness, more commonly known as mass hysteria.
He noted that while the girls' symptoms may be psychological in origin, that doesn't mean they aren't real, msnbc.com reported.
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Spinal Cord Injury Treatment Tested on Dogs
Researchers are using dogs to test an experimental drug to treat spinal cord injuries. If it's effective, it could lead to human treatments.
The U.S. Department of Defense-funded study will test the drug GM6001 in dachshunds and other long-bodied dogs with spinal cord injuries to see if it will help them walk again, ABC News reported.
The drug blocks an enzyme that promotes damage after a spinal cord injury.
"After you have a spinal cord injury, the deficits you see are not just a consequence of the initial injury, but rather events that occur after the injury," study co-investigator Linda Noble-Haeusslein told ABC News. "These events are a little more delayed in onset, so we have the possibility of preventing them."
In a previous study, she found that GM6001 helped mice recover from spinal cord injuries.
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Wearing High Heels Affects A Woman's Biomechanics
Wearing high heels affects a woman's biomechanics, a new study finds.
Australian researchers compared women who wore high heels for at least 40 hours a week and a control group women who rarely, if ever, wore high heels. The women who wore high heels walked differently than those who wore flats, even when the heel wearers went barefoot, The New York Times reported.
As a result of the heel wearers' perpetual flexed, toes-pointed position while walking with or without heels, the fibers in their calf muscles had shortened and they put much greater mechanical strain on their calf muscles, said the study published last week in The Journal of Applied Physiology.
Among women in the control group, walking primarily involved stretching and stressing their tendons, The Times reported.
By stretching and straining their already shortened calf muscles, the heel wearers walk less efficiently when wearing heels or not, requiring them to use more energy and probably leading to muscle fatigue, the researchers said.
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Fake News Sites for Acai Berry Pills Shut Down by FTC
Six online marketers accused of using fake news websites to convince consumers to buy acai berry weight-loss products have reached settlements with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission.
The FTC accused the marketers of creating websites that falsely appeared to be part of legitimate news organizations. For example, the sites presenting a reporters' "first-hand experience" with acai berry supplements and featured investigative-sounding headlines, CBS News reported.
The FTC went to court in April to seek temporary restraining orders against the six marketers, all of which have since taken down their sites promoting the acai berry pills.
Under the agreements with the FTC, the marketers will pay about $500,000 to the commission. They are barred from making deceptive claims and must make clear that their messages are advertisements and not objective journalism, CBS News reported.
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Hospital Stays for C. difficile Infections Increased: From 86,000 in 1993 to 349,000 in 2008 and to 337,000 in 2009
U.S. hospital stays involving Clostridium difficile infections increased 300 percent between 1993 and 2008 but leveled off between 2008 and 2009, a federal government study says.
There number of hospital stays involving C. difficile rose from 86,000 in 1993 to 349,000 in 2008, and then fell slightly to 337,000 in 2009, according to the latest News and Numbers from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
C. difficile is a type of bacteria that can cause severe diarrhea, colitis and even death.
Among all hospitalized patients with C. difficile in 2009:
- Patients age 85 and older were at highest risk, with hospital stays of 1,089 per 100,000 people. That rate was more than double the next highest rate, for those ages 65-84, at 465 stays per 100,000.
- More than 9 percent of hospital stays involving C. difficile ended in death, compared with less than 2 percent for all other hospital stays.
- The average hospital stay for patients with C. difficile was 13 days, compared with less than 5 days for other patients.
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No Obvious Medical Explanation for Mysterious Skin Disease
There is no obvious medical explanation for a mysterious skin disease whose sufferers report a crawling sensation under or on their skin and fibers emerging from the skin, says a U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study.
The study was launched because of intense public interest in Morgellons, as the controversial condition is called by some, beginning in 2002. Researchers analyzed data from 3.2 million people in California and identified 115 patients with symptoms of the condition, USA Today reported.
While 70 percent of sufferers reported fibers or other materials emerging from their skin, the researchers found no evidence of that.
The findings, published this week in the journal PLoS One, reveal that the condition is rare and that it is neither contagious or environmentally based, Mark Eberhard, director of CDC's Division of Parasitic Diseases, told USA Today.
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Studies Show Link Between Brown Fat and Cold and Exercise
A form of brown fat that's switched on when people are cold sucks fat out of the rest of the body to fuel itself, while another type of brown fat can be created from white fat by exercise, according to two new studies.
The findings suggest that being able to achieve this without making people cold or forcing them to exercise all the time could offer a highly-effective way to lose weight, The New York Times reported.
In one study, researchers found that the metabolic rate of men who were kept chilled increased by 80 percent due to effects of brown fat. On average, the brown fat burned about 250 calories over three hours.
The study was published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.
In the other study, researchers conducted experiments with mice and found that exercise causes white fat to turn into brown fat. Exercise causes muscles to release a hormone that converts white fat cells into brown fat cells, which burn extra calories, The Times reported.
The researchers suspect this also occurs in humans.
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Insulated Lunch Boxes and Thermal Food Carriers Recalled Because of Poisoning Hazard
About 248,000 expandable insulated lunch boxes with freezer gel packs are being recalled because the gel can leak out of damaged packs and pose a poisoning hazard, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission says.
The lunch boxes were made in China, imported by California Innovations Inc. of Toronto, Canada and sold at Costco Wholesale Clubs, Leon Korol and Cost U Less stores from May 2007 through September 2008, the Associated Press reported.
The gel in the gel packs contains diethylene glycol and ethylene glycol. California Innovations has received two separate reports of dogs chewing the packs and ingesting the gel. One dog died and the other received treatment and recovered.
The CPSC said the recalled lunch boxes have a logo and the words "Ci Sport" on the upper left corner, the AP reported
Concerns about the freezer gel packs have also led to the recall of about 55,000 Travelin' Chef Expandable thermal food carriers also made in China and imported by California Innovations. They were sold at Walmart from August 2008 through December 2011.
For more information, contact California Innovations at 1-800-722-2545 Monday through Friday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. EST.
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Cancer Vaccine Trial Begins
An early-stage clinical trial of an experimental cancer vaccine is being conducted at the Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo.
Reseachers say the vaccine is designed to harness the power of the immune system to kill cancer cells. The vaccine will be made at Roswell in a specially designed production unit that's been approved by the Food and Drug Administration, the Associated Press reported.
To create the vaccine, immune system cells called dendritic cells are taken from the patient's body, bonded with a protein, and then re-injected into the patient. Patients also receive a compound found to prolong the vaccine's effectiveness.
The phase 1 study will include about 18 to 20 patients with different types of cancers, the AP reported.
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Obama Promotes Shortening Senior Citizens’ Lives By Cutting Medical Care for the Elderly: Obama Wants To Make Enormous Cuts To Medicare To Expand Services For Illegal Aliens and Medicaid
Pitting grandma's well-being against the nation's fiscal health — is a false choice. Future federal healthcare spending can be significantly reduced by repealing the expansion of Medicaid & the billions poured into medical & interpreter services for illegal immigrants under Obamacare before these provisions go into effect. Obamacare, enacted 18 months ago, raided Medicare to fund new entitlements for low-income groups — in essence, robbing grandma to spread the wealth. Obamacare reduces future funding for Medicare by $575 billion over 10 years, & applies most of it ($410 billion) to increase Medicaid enrollment & benefits. Obamacare transforms Medicaid from a temporary safety net to a permanent alternative to private health insurance. Grandma’s life need not be cut short to cut federal health spending.
Obama Promotes Shortening Senior Citizens’ Lives By Cutting Medical Care for the Elderly: Obama Wants To Make Enormous Cuts To Medicare To Expand Services For Illegal Aliens and Medicaid
By: Betsy McCaughey
Newsmax -- October 31, 2011 -- The culture war is moving from when life begins to how it should end. Like a drum beat, supporters of the Obama agenda are protesting that the elderly are consuming too many health resources, and their care needs to be cut back.
The current target of this unrelenting campaign against the elderly is the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, which is charged with devising a plan to reduce federal deficit spending by Nov. 23.
Among those calling for less care for seniors is H. Gilbert Welch of Dartmouth Medical College.
"If you were hoping to play the ‘death panel’ card, now’s your chance," Welch says to his critics. "But don’t play it and then pretend you care about the budget."
That brazen statement — pitting grandma's well-being against the nation's fiscal health — is a false choice. Future federal healthcare spending can be significantly reduced by repealing the expansion of Medicaid and the billions poured into medical and interpreter services for illegal immigrants under the Obama health law before these provisions go into effect.
The Obama health law, enacted 18 months ago, raided Medicare to fund new entitlements for low-income groups — in essence, robbing grandma to spread the wealth.
The law reduces future funding for Medicare by $575 billion over 10 years, and applies most of it ($410 billion) to increase Medicaid enrollment and benefits. The Obama health law transforms Medicaid from a temporary safety net to a permanent alternative to private health insurance.
Medicaid spending will top $900 billion in 2020 (state and federal funds), costing about the same as Medicare. That’s amazing considering the wave of baby boomers entering Medicare in this decade.
In addition to expanding Medicaid, and contrary to the president's promise, the new law allocates billions of dollars to expand services largely for illegal immigrants, including $11 billion for community health centers serving those ineligible for Medicaid. Why should grandma's care be cut to free up resources for lawbreakers?
This year the Department of Health and Human Services announced an Action Plan to increase spending on "promotores" or "trusted local people to serve as community health workers" and software for people with limited English to enroll in government programs.
Cuts to Medicare are not about reducing federal spending. They are about redistributing healthcare.
To defend the enormous cuts to Medicare in the health law, Obama administration officials told seniors that hospitals are overspending on aged patients. But research indicates that is generally untrue. Hospitals that spend more on elderly patients and offer more intensive care have lower death rates, and their patients are more likely to survive their illness and resume an active life.
It is in this context that the calls for less care seem suspect. An article by Welch and colleagues in the Archives of Internal Medicine (Oct. 24, 2011) tried to counter the message uttered so often by breast cancer survivors that a mammogram "saved my life."
Welch and colleagues suggest that routine annual mammograms are excessive. Their research found that a majority of women with breast cancer detected through mammography did not owe their life to the screening. They would have survived anyway because of effective treatment to eradicate the cancer after later detection or because the cancer was slow growing.
All that is true, but the data show that approximately 13 percent of 50-year-old women with screening-detected breast cancer would have died if they had not been screened. They owe their life to that routine test. That is a significant number. For 70-year-old women, the figure is even higher — far too high to dismiss.
Rather than limiting care options and forcing hospitals to operate in an austerity environment, the supercommittee should repeal the costly expansion of Medicaid, curb community organizing funded with health dollars, and gradually inch up the eligibility age for Medicare.
There are ways to reduce federal health spending without cutting short grandma's life.
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Jan. 13, 2012 to Jan. 20, 2012Health Highlights
**'Totally Drug-Resistant' Tuberculosis Reported in India.
**New Fees Would Accelerate Generic Drug Reviews: FDA.
**WHO Weighs in On Faulty Breast Implants.
**Computer 'Exergames' Benefit Older Adults' Brains.
**American Red Cross Hit With Large Fine.
**Development of Experimental Alzheimer's Drug Halted.
**Human Deaths From Bird Flu Reported in Cambodia, Vietnam.
**Lung Association Slams States' Anti-Smoking Efforts.
**Experts Look to Refine Autism Diagnosis.
**New Stem Cell-Based Drug Approved by South Korea To Help Regenerate Knee Cartilage.
**Merck to Pay $36 Million to Settle Vioxx Lawsuits in Canada.
**One of World's Smallest Babies Leaving L.A. Hospital.
**More Evidence for Oxaliplatin as Colon Cancer Chemotherapy.
Health Highlights (Jan. 13, 2012 to Jan. 20, 2012)
Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by the editors of HealthDay:
'Totally Drug-Resistant' Tuberculosis Reported in India
The first cases of "totally drug-resistant tuberculosis" in India have been reported by doctors. A dozen medicines were tested and none of them worked.
"It is concerning," Dr. Kenneth Castro, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevetion's Division of Tuberculosis Elimination, told the Associated Press. "Anytime we see something like this, we better get on top of it before it becomes a more widespread problem."
However, no one anticipates a rapid spread of such TB. Most of the cases were the result of mutations that occurred in poorly treated patients, and not caused by person-to-person transmission.
This is not the first occurrence of highly drug-resistant TB. Since 2003, patients have been documented in Italy and Iran. The cases have mostly been restricted to poor areas and the TB has not spread widely, the AP reported.
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New Fees Would Accelerate Generic Drug Reviews: FDA
Drug makers could pay hundreds of millions of dollars a year in new fees in order to speed up the review of generic drugs, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration says.
An agreement with drug makers was released Friday by the FDA, which will submit the proposal to Congress for approval, the Associated Press reported.
Most new drugs are reviewed in 10 months, but the typical review time for a generic drug is 30 months. The FDA's backlog of generic drug applications awaiting review is more than 2,000, according to the Generic Pharmaceutical Association.
If approved, generic drug makers would pay $299 million a year so that the FDA could hire more generic drug reviewers starting in fiscal year 2013. With the new reviewers, the FDA's goal would be to review 90 percent of generic drug applications within 10 months, the AP reported.
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WHO Weighs in On Faulty Breast Implants
Women with faulty French-made breast implants should seek medical advice if they have any concerns, the World Health Organization said Tuesday.
It's the first time that the UN's health agency has made a public statement about the breast implants believed to have been implanted in about 300,000 women in 65 countries, Agence France-Presse reported.
The implants were made by Poly Implant Prothese (PIP) of France, which has gone out of business.
"Persons with PIP or M-Implant prostheses should consult their doctor or surgeon if they suspect rupture, have pain or inflammation or any other concerns," WHO said in a "Global Alert and Response" statement issued on its website, AFP reported.
"Affected persons and physicians should take note of their national health authority recommendations and act accordingly," the agency said.
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Computer 'Exergames' Benefit Older Adults' Brains
A new study says that computer exercise games may help older adults' brains as well as their bodies.
The team at Union College in New York found that participants over age 50 who used an "exergame" while riding an exercise bike had faster brain response times than those who used exercise bikes alone, reported the Daily Mail in the U.K.
The study appears in the February issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
The researchers said regular use of such exergames could help protect older adults from cognitive decline and ward off age-related conditions such as dementia, the Daily Mail reported.
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American Red Cross Hit With Large Fine
The American Red Cross has been fined nearly $9.6 million for sloppy and unsafe blood management practices, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration says.
It's the second time in two years that the Red Cross has been slapped with a multi-million dollar penalty, msnbc.com reported.
The latest fine is the result of FDA inspections at 16 Red Cross blood centers between April and October 2010 that found ongoing problems that posed a potential threat to blood donors and may have allowed potentially contaminated blood into the nation's blood supply.
In a statement, a Red Cross spokeswoman said the problems noted by the FDA primarily centered on an inspection at a Philadelphia site conducted 15 months ago and many of the issues have since been addressed by the Red Cross, msnbc.com reported.
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Development of Experimental Alzheimer's Drug Halted
Development of a potential treatment for Alzheimer's disease has been halted after more disappointing results from a late-stage clinical study.
The experimental drug Dimebon (latrepirdine) was being developed to try to stop or even reverse the course of Alzheimer's. Just a few years ago, specialists had hoped the drug would be on the market this year, the Associated Press reported.
But drug makers Pfizer Inc. and Medivation Inc. said Tuesday that a study of about 1,000 patients with mild-to-moderate Alzheimer's found that Dimebon did not significantly improve their cognitive ability, self-care or daily functions.
Last April, the drug companies said findings from another late-stage clinical trial showed that Dimebon failed to improve symptoms of the neurologic disorder Huntington's Disease, the AP reported.
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Human Deaths From Bird Flu Reported in Cambodia, Vietnam
Both Vietnam and Cambodia have reported human deaths from H5N1 bird flu in recent days.
The H5N1 death of an 18-year-old man confirmed Thursday by Vietnam was the country's first human H5N1 fatality in nearly two years. That came a day after Cambodia announced that a 2-year-old boy was the first human H5N1 death this year, the Associated Press reported.
Both victims are believed to have become infected through contact with poultry, and no person-to-person transmission is suspected.
Other human cases of bird flu have been reported recently in China, Egypt and Indonesia, the AP said.
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Lung Association Slams States' Anti-Smoking Efforts
U.S. states' anti-tobacco efforts in 2011 were "abysmal," according to the American Lung Association.
It said states' collective spending on anti-smoking programs fell 11 percent to $477 million last year from $534 million in 2010, and only two states raised cigarette taxes, Bloomberg News reported.
The lung group gave grades of "F" to 43 states and the District of Columbia for funding smoking prevention programs at less than half the levels recommended in 2007 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
While more than half of states have bans on smoking in restaurants, bars and workplaces, no additional states passed comprehensive anti-smoking laws last year, the lung association said, Bloomberg reported.
Smoking is the leading cause of preventable death in the United States and kills about 443,000 people a year.
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Experts Look to Refine Autism Diagnosis
Criteria that are now being considered for diagnosing autism could limit who would qualify for the health, educational and social services that are typically needed to treat the disorder, new research suggests.
The definition of autism is being reconsidered by an expert panel appointed by the American Psychiatric Association, which is completing work on the fifth edition of its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, The New York Times reported Thursday.
The manual is the standard reference for mental disorders, and drives research, treatment and insurance decisions; the revisions to the manual are expected to be completed by December 2012.
The latest findings, presented at a medical meeting in Iceland this week, show how defining autism more sharply could lead to a dramatic drop in diagnosis rates that many experts suspect are inflated because of vagueness in the current criteria, the Times reported.
"The proposed changes would put an end to the autism epidemic," said Dr. Fred R. Volkmar, director of the Child Study Center at Yale University School of Medicine, and an author of the new analysis, told the newspaper. "We would nip it in the bud -- think of it that way."
Under the proposed criteria, a person would have to exhibit three deficits in social interaction and communication and at least two repetitive behaviors -- a much narrower definition of the disorder than currently exists.
In the new analysis, Volkmar and his colleagues used data from a large 1993 study that served as the basis for the current criteria. They focused on 372 children and adults who were among the highest functioning and found that only 45 percent of them would qualify for the proposed autism spectrum diagnosis now under review.
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New Stem Cell-Based Drug Approved by South Korea To Help Regenerate Knee Cartilage
Commerical sales of what's being called the world's first approved medicine that uses stem cells gathered from other people have been OK'd by South Korea's government drug agency.
The drug Cartistem is meant to help regenerate knee cartilage and uses stem cells developed from newborns' umbilical cord blood, Agence France-Presse reported.
"Cartistem is ... the world's first approved allogeneic (taken from different individuals of the same species) stem cell drug, that can offer new opportunity for treatment of patients with degenerative arthritis," the Korea Food and Drug Administration said in a statement.
The agency said clinical trials of the drug, developed by Seoul-based Medipost, have been under way in the United States since last year, AFP reported.
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Merck to Pay $36 Million to Settle Vioxx Lawsuits in Canada
Drug maker Merck will pay up to $36.3 million U.S. to resolve all Vioxx-related lawsuits in Canada, the company announced Thursday. The deal will have to be approved by the courts.
The popular anti-inflammatory painkiller medicine was taken off the market in 2004 after trials linked it to increased risk of heart attacks and stroke, Agence France-Presse reported.
Merck has faced numerous lawsuits over Vioxx.
In 2007, the company announced a $4.85 billion deal to settle more than 95 percent of the Vioxx-related lawsuits in the United States. Under the deal, Merck did not have to make any admission of liability, AFP reported.
Last November, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that Merck will pay nearly $1 billion to settle criminal and civil charges related to improper marketing of Vioxx as a treatment for rheumatoid arthritis, the news service said.
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One of World's Smallest Babies Leaving L.A. Hospital
A Los Angeles hospital has decided that one of the world's smallest babies can go home.
When she was born premature at 24 weeks in August, Melinda Star Guido's 9 1/2-ounce weight was less than a can of soda, the Associated Press reported. She was the second smallest baby to be born in the United States and the world's third smallest baby.
Melinda spent her early months in the neonatal intensive care unit at the Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center. She now weighs 4 1/2 pounds and has made enough progress to be discharged. A team of doctors and nurses will say farewell on Friday.
It's unclear how Melinda will do physically and developmentally and doctors plan to monitor her for the next six years, the AP reported.
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More Evidence for Oxaliplatin as Colon Cancer Chemotherapy
FRIDAY, Jan. 20 (HealthDay News) -- Adding oxaliplatin to a standard chemotherapy regimen boosts survival rates for patients with advanced colon cancer, according to a new study that bolsters previous research on the drug by looking at a broader group of patients.
"Physicians and patients should be reassured from our findings that oxaliplatin is associated with marginally but consistently superior survival for patients diagnosed before age 75 years in community settings," the study authors said in a news release.
In past studies, oxaliplatin, as an adjuvant to the established treatment of 5-fluorouracil (5-FU), improved survival by up to 23 percent. But the new study looked at a different group of colon cancer patients, who were older, sicker, more racially diverse and had never participated in a controlled clinical study.
The study, led by Dr. Hanna Sanoff, an assistant professor of medicine, hematology and oncology at the University of Virginia School of Medicine, appears in the Jan. 20 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
Colon cancer is one of the world's deadliest diseases, with more than 100,000 Americans diagnosed last year, the researchers noted. Of these, roughly a third had an advanced -- stage 3 -- cancer, for which surgery is the principal treatment.
Surgery alone produces disease-free survival rates of between 15 percent and 50 percent five years following treatment, according to study background information. To improve their chances, patients often also undergo post-surgical chemotherapy.
To determine whether oxaliplatin would show a similar benefit among a "real-world" population of patients, the authors sifted through five cancer registries containing survival information on more than 4,000 people with stage 3 colon cancer. All were younger than 75, and all had begun chemotherapy -- either a standard regimen or in combination with oxaliplatin -- within four months of having surgery between 2004 and 2009.
Researchers compared their survival rates with those of nearly 8,300 patients who had participated in one of five different clinical trials using oxaliplatin.
The addition of oxaliplatin to standard chemotherapy protocols was found to be just as effective in prolonging survival among the community-based set of patients -- including the elderly, minorities and those with additional complicating health issues -- who were not enrolled in studies.
For her part, Dr. Felice Schnoll-Sussman, a gastroenterologist at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York City, said the finding "goes along with what we've previously known."
"So, it's not surprising," she said. "But, certainly this is positive. The analysis doesn't focus on some of the most common adverse reactions seen with this combination. But in terms of survival, it certainly supports our previously held belief that oxaliplatin increases survival and lowers the chance of cancer returning in some of those stage 3 post-surgery patients."..................
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Obama Gives Himself A $4 Million Hawaiian Christmas Vacation While Giving Unto Others With A Phony Tax Cut Holiday That Is Nothing More Than A Gimmick To Keep American Piglets Mesmerized While Feeding At The Government’s Entitlement Trough
The phony tax cut holiday--the invisible tax [inflation]--the depletion of Social Security--the punishment of the producers to reward the non-producers--the contempt aimed at our children and grandchildren with policies that will wreak havoc on them through future taxation--the squashing of the Canadian oil pipeline with the risk to our economy and the risk to our energy future--the sending of the wrong message to job creators!! Sounds like Comrade Obama’s Christmas wish list!! After all, you can’t expect a mere $4 million Hawaiian vacation to satisfy a highfalutin community organizer of King Obama’s stature.
Obama Gives Himself A $4 Million Hawaiian Christmas Vacation While Giving Unto Others With A Phony Tax Cut Holiday That Is Nothing More Than A Gimmick To Keep American Piglets Mesmerized While Feeding At The Government’s Entitlement Trough
By Robert Ringer
Personal Liberty Digest -- 12-26-2011 -- Risk to our economy… risk to our energy future… send the wrong message to job creators? Sounds to me like Obama’s Christmas wish list.
The most predictable governing body on the planet, the U.S. Congress, is once again doing some of its sleaziest sleight-of-hand work at year’s end, with the comfort of knowing that we lowly proletarians are focused on holiday festivities. The average American is totally confused about the flurry of year-end legislation and political posturing coming out of the Nation’s capital, and with good reason: Politicians work hard at creating confusion.
Now, let’s see if I understand this. The Dems want to "cut taxes" by extending a "tax holiday" on some of the money that workers pay into the Social Security retirement "fund." Could it be that Democrats aren’t as liberal as some of us have believed them to be? After all, they can’t be so bad if they actually favor a tax cut.
I wish that were true, but it isn’t. The truth is that it’s nothing more than a gimmick to keep American piglets mesmerized while feeding at the government’s entitlement trough.
I realize that many true-blue conservatives and libertarians believe that any tax cut is a good tax cut; and, in theory, they’re right. But cutting payroll taxes is an illusory tax cut. It’s attacking the symptom (payroll taxes) rather than the cause (Social Security). And, like it or not, for now Social Security is a fact of life in the People’s Republic of America.
That being the case, if not enough money is extracted from workers to pay Social Security benefits to those who currently qualify for them, it has to be taken through an invisible tax ("inflation") or paid for by politicians’ favorite tax targets: our children and grandchildren (by borrowing the money needed to cover the shortfall).
So far, so bad. Now, to the second part of the year-end razzle-dazzle game: extending unemployment benefits. Has any Republican Congressperson taken the trouble to ask: "What do unemployment benefits have to do with extending the payroll tax cut?"
Will Republicans ever say no to an extension of unemployment benefits? Absolutely, positively not. After all, principles can get in the way of capturing votes. Progressive Republicans in the House and Senate are very convincing when they rail against wealth redistribution in front of the TV cameras. Then, they turn right around and vote for it even more convincingly. The truth be known, Republicans have never met a piece of wealth-redistribution legislation they didn’t like.
Segue to the third piece of Congress’ year-end game of razzle-dazzle: the Keystone XL pipeline, which has absolutely nothing to do with either payroll taxes or unemployment benefits. It’s just more of the same. Spin, twist, obfuscate and lie convincingly enough, and the anesthetized public, too fatigued from Christmas shopping and football, can be counted on to not understand that a hemorrhoidectomy is being performed on them — again.
What the Keystone XL pipeline issue does is give accommodating Republicans the escape hatch they always seek in order to be able to falsely claim victory in their losing efforts against Democrats. After all, how can you not applaud Republicans for agreeing to a bill that gives the illusion of moving forward with an oil pipeline from Canada, a project that promises to create thousands of jobs and help wean America off its dependency on foreign oil?
If that’s what it did, maybe you could forgive Republicans for once again extending unemployment benefits in exchange for getting their way on the Keystone XL pipeline. But that is not what it does. As always, there’s an out for our humble leader in the White House who now claims to be the fourth most effective president in American history (after Lyndon B. Johnson, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln — meaning that Barack Obama believes he’s been a better President than such run-of-the-mill guys as George Washington and Thomas Jefferson).
The out I’m referring to is that the wording in the bill requires Obama to grant a permit for the pipeline unless he decides that it’s "not in the national interest." Gosh, I wonder what the likelihood is of his deciding it’s not in the "national interest?" Sounds a bit like "that depends upon what the meaning of is is."
In other words, the legislation merely speeds up the decision process on Keystone, but does not determine whether the project will be approved. And the State Department, which has the final authority over approving the project, has already made it clear that it would not be able to conduct the necessary review if given only 60 days, the timeline set by House Republicans. That sounds to me like "case closed."
Interestingly, Obama’s former National Security Adviser, Jim Jones — who almost never contradicts his one-time boss — said last week in a press call sponsored by the American Petroleum Institute: "… any threat to this project, by delay or otherwise, would constitute a significant setback. The failure to [move forward with the project] will prolong the risk to our economy and our energy security [and] send the wrong message to job creators."
Risk to our economy… risk to our energy future… send the wrong message to job creators? Sounds to me like Obama’s Christmas wish list. After all, you can’t expect a mere $4 million Hawaiian vacation to satisfy a highfalutin community organizer of his stature.
–Robert Ringer
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Jan. 06, 2012 to Jan. 13, 2012Health Highlights
**Metal Tissue Holders May be Radioactive.
**Lymphoma Drug Adcetris Gets New Warning About Brain Infection.
**U.S. Man Receives Synthetic Windpipe.
**Study Links Processed Meat With Increased Risk of Pancreatic Cancer.
**Fungicide in Orange Juice Spotted First by Coca-Cola, Company Says.
**J&J Unit Warned Over Faulty Insulin Pump: FDA.
**Red Wine Researcher Accused of Scientific Fraud.
**Appeals Court Ruling Supports Texas Abortion Law.
**Lawsuits Launched Over Alleged DES-Breast Cancer Link.
**$1,000 Genome Mapping Soon Available, Company Says.
**North Carolina Sterilization Victims Should Receive $50K Each.
**Powerful New Painkillers Could Lead to More Violent Robberies Says Senator.
**Drug Maker Recalls Bottles of Excedrin, NoDoz, Bufferin and Gas-X.
**'Exoskeleton' Helps Paralyzed Stand, Take Steps.
Health Highlights (Jan. 06, 2012 to Jan. 13, 2012)
Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by the editors of HealthDay:
Metal Tissue Holders May be Radioactive
Federal officials say metal tissue holders with low levels of radioactive material may have been shipped to Bed, Bath & Beyond stores in more than 20 states.
The Dual Ridge Metal boutique tissue holders have been carried in about 200 of the stores since July. The holders have been pulled from the stores and customers who bought them should return them for a full refund, the company said in a statement Thursday, the Associated Press reported.
The products pose little to no risk to humans, but it's better for people to avoid unnecessary exposure to radiation, said Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokesman David McIntyre.
He said a person who spent about 30 minutes a day near one of the tissue holders would receive the equivalent of a couple of x-rays, the AP reported.
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Lymphoma Drug Adcetris Gets New Warning About Brain Infection
Two additional cases of a rare but serious brain infection have led to a new boxed warning on the lymphoma drug Adcetris (brentuximab vedotin), the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said Friday.
Adcetris is used to treat Hodgkin lymphoma and a rare lymphoma called systemic anaplastic large cell lymphoma. When the FDA approved Adcetris in August 2011, one case of the potentially deadly brain infection progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML) was described in the Warnings and Precautions section of the drug's label.
Along with the new boxed warning about the risks of PML, the drug will also carry a new contraindication warning against the use of Adcetris with the cancer drug bleomycin due to increased risk of pulmonary (lung) toxicity, the FDA said.
Signs and symptoms of PML can develop over several weeks or months and may include mood changes, unusual behavior, confusion, memory loss, thinking problems, weakness on one side of the body, and changes in vision, speech or walking.
Patients who develop any signs or symptoms of PML should immediately notify their doctor, the FDA said.
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U.S. Man Receives Synthetic Windpipe
An American man is doing well after receiving a synthetic windpipe (trachea) that was created in a laboratory.
Christopher Lyles, 30, of Baltimore had a type of tracheal cancer that is normally considered inoperable, The New York Times reported.
In November, Swedish surgeons removed the tumor and replaced Lyles' trachea with the new one made from nano-sized plastic fibers and covered in stem cells taken from his bone marrow. Lyles arrived back home Wednesday.
"He went home in very good shape," said Dr. Paolo Macchiarini, director of the Advanced Center for Translational Regenerative Medicine at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, The Times reported.
Lyles is only the second person, and the first American, to undergo this kind of procedure.
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Study Links Processed Meat With Increased Risk of Pancreatic Cancer
Eating processed meat such as sausages or bacon increases the risk of pancreatic cancer, according to a new study.
Swedish researchers analyzed data from 11 clinical trials and 6,643 pancreatic cancer patients, BBC News reported.
They concluded that the risk of pancreatic cancer increases by 19 percent for every 50 grams of processed meat a person adds to their daily diet. Consuming an extra 100 grams per day would boost the risk by 38 percent.
The study appears in the British Journal of Cancer.
Previous research has linked consumption of red and processed meat with colorectal cancer.
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Fungicide in Orange Juice Spotted First by Coca-Cola, Company Says
Coca-Cola Co. says it discovered the fungicide carbendazim in some orange juice products and alerted the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
The company tested its own and competitors' products but did not say which ones contained the fungicide, which is not approved for use in the U.S. Coca-Cola's orange juice products include Minute Maid and Simply Orange, while Pepsico Inc. has the Tropicana brand, the Associated Press reported.
The fungicide is used in Brazil, the biggest producer of oranges in the world. Most orange juice products contain a blend of juice from different sources, including Brazil.
The low levels of carbendazim found in the orange juice products aren't a safety risk, according to the FDA. But the agency said it will increase testing to make sure the contamination isn't a problem, the AP reported.
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J&J Unit Warned Over Faulty Insulin Pump: FDA
A unit of Johnson & Johnson could face fines and other penalties for selling faulty insulin pumps and failing or delaying to disclose serious injuries suffered by patients who used the devices, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration says.
An FDA warning letter sent to J&J's Animas Corp. and posted on the agency's website says the West Chester Pa. company never reported one case of serious patient injury caused by a defective insulin pump and delayed reporting two other cases, the Associated Press reported.
All three patients were hospitalized with dangerously high blood sugar, respiratory failure and coma, and a potentially deadly complication called diabetic ketoacidosis, which occurs when there's a lack of insulin to break down sugar.
The FDA ordered Animas to immediately provide a plan to correct its failure to report within the required 30 days cases where a device may have caused or contributed to serious injury or death, the AP reported.
If the company does not immediately correct the violations, it could face fines, injunction, seizure, and lose contract awards from federal agencies, the FDA said.
Animas' spokeswoman told the AP that the company is "dedicated to quickly resolving the FDA's outstanding concerns."
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Red Wine Researcher Accused of Scientific Fraud
An American researcher whose work reported on health benefits associated with red wine has been accused of scientific fraud involving 26 articles published in 11 journals.
The University of Connecticut's charge against one of its researchers, Dipak K. Das, comes after an investigation that began in January 2009, The New York Times reported.
A special review board was formed after the university received an anonymous allegation about research irregularities in Das's lab. The board produced a 60,000-page report that says Das's published research articles contained 145 instances of fabrication and falsification of data.
The review board's report has been sent to the federal Office of Research Integrity, which investigates fraud by researchers who receive government grants, The Times reported.
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Appeals Court Ruling Supports Texas Abortion Law
A federal appeals court panel ruling Tuesday potentially clears the way for enforcement of a Texas law requiring doctors to show sonograms to pregnant women before they have an abortion.
The three-judge panel overturned a lower court's order last August that blocked key parts of the law just before it was to take effect. In that ruling, U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks in Austin, Texas said the law violated the First Amendment by forcing doctors and patients to engage in government-mandated speech, CNN reported.
In Tuesday's ruling, the three-judge panel on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said opponents of the law did not prove it violated the Constitution. The panel sent the case back to the lower court for further proceedings.
The legal action against the Texas law was launched by the New York-based Center for Reproductive Rights. Center President and CEO Nancy Northrup said the appeals court panel decision was extreme.
"Today's ruling is a victory for all who stand in defense of life," Texas Gov. Rick Perry said in a statement, CNN reported.
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Lawsuits Launched Over Alleged DES-Breast Cancer Link
Fifty-three women in the United States are suing drug companies who made the synthetic estrogen DES (diethylstilbestrol), which was given to millions of pregnant women in the U.S. and other countries to prevent miscarriages, premature birth and other problems.
The women say they developed breast cancer because their mothers took the drug, which was available from about 1938 to the early 1970s, the Associated Press reported.
In 1971, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration told doctors to stop prescribing DES to their pregnant patients after a study had found that daughters of women who took DES during pregnancy seemed to be at increased risk for a rare vaginal cancer.
Thousands of lawsuits have been filed since the 1970s alleging links between DES and cervical and vaginal cancer, as well as infertility. But a case in Boston is believed to be the first major lawsuit alleging a connection between DES and breast cancer in DES daughters older than 40, the AP reported.
The case is being watched closely by DES daughters across the U.S.
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$1,000 Genome Mapping Soon Available, Company Says
A U.S. genomics company says it will be able to offer $1,000 genome sequencing by the end of the year.
California-based Life Technologies Corp. is expected to introduce Tuesday a machine that can map a person's entire genetic makeup for $1,000 and deliver the information within a day, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Currently, the cheapest genome sequencing costs about $3,000 and takes a week. A large reduction in cost could be a major step in advancing the use of DNA to develop personalized medicine.
Some experts believe it will eventually be routine to use a patient's genetic code to guide prevention and treatment of health problems throughout life, the WSJ reported.
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North Carolina Sterilization Victims Should Receive $50K Each
People in North Carolina who were sterilized against their will should receive $50,000 each in compensation, a state task force voted Tuesday.
It said the money should go to verified, living victims of the eugenics program, including those who are alive now but may die before politicians approve any payments, the Associated Press reported.
More than 7,600 people in North Carolina underwent forced sterilization between 1929 and 1974. A task force report released last year said 1,500 to 2,000 of those people were still alive and the state has verified 72 victims.
Survivors will have three years to apply for compensation payments after they are approved, the AP reported. The total cost to the state could be about $100 million.
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Powerful New Painkillers Could Lead to More Violent Robberies Says Senator
Market approval of new types of "super painkillers" currently under review by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration could lead to an increase in violent robberies by people who want to sell the drugs on the streets, warns U.S. Senator Charles Schumer.
"It's tremendously concerning that at the same time policymakers and law enforcement professionals are waging a war on the growing prescription drug crisis, new super-drugs could well be on their way, flooding the market," Schumer, D-N.Y., told the Associated Press. "The FDA needs to grab the reins and slow down the stampede to introduce these powerful narcotics."
Recent violent robberies involving prescription painkillers have left six people dead. On New Year's Eve, a robber and a federal agent died during a robbery at a Long Island pharmacy. Last June, a heist of 11,000 hydrocodone pills at another Long Island pharmacy resulted in four deaths.
Tests are currently underway on four drugs that contain a more powerful version of hydrocodone, one of the most abused painkillers in the U.S., the AP reported.
If the FDA approves these drugs, Schumer said their needs to be "robust post-market surveillance" of the drugs as they are marketed, advertised and sold.
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Drug Maker Recalls Bottles of Excedrin, NoDoz, Bufferin and Gas-X
Certain bottles of the over-the-counter medicines Excedrin, NoDoz, Bufferin and Gas-X are being recalled because they may contain stray pills from other medicines, or chipped or broken tablets, Novartis said Sunday.
The recall includes bottles of Excedrin and NoDoz with expiration dates of Dec. 20, 2014 or earlier, and packages of Bufferin and Gas-X with expiration dates of Dec. 20, 2013 or earlier, the Associated Press reported.
More information is available on the company website and customers can also call Novartis at 1-888-477-2403 Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. EST.
The recall announcement follows Novartis' recent decision to temporarily halt production at its Lincoln, Neb. plant for "maintenance and other improvement activities," the AP reported.
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'Exoskeleton' Helps Paralyzed Stand, Take Steps
By Amanda Gardner, HealthDay Reporter
THURSDAY, Jan. 12 (HealthDay News) -- Veteran ski patrol member Mike Rhode was speeding down a snowy slope at Hunter Mountain in New York state when his ski unexpectedly popped off.
Rhode, then a member of the ski patrol for 13 years, wasn't able to regain his balance before hitting a fence. Now, tragically, he is paralyzed from the chest down.
But last October, 10 months after the accident, Rhode was able to walk again with the assistance of Ekso, a robotic "exoskeleton" that he and five other testers "wore" on their body during an initial trial, enabling them to stand up and even take steps.
"I was upright for an hour and 10 minutes and was actually walking for 31 minutes," said Rhode, 46. "It was such a positive feeling."
Ekso is one of just a few robotic "exoskeletons" giving paraplegics and quadraplegics something they may never have dreamed of before: the ability to stand and walk on their own again.
With the Ekso that Rhode tested, "the therapist controls the sit-to-stand and moving forward," explains Dr. Steven Kirshblum, medical director and director of Spinal Cord Injury Services at the Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation in West Orange, N.J.
All Rhode had to do was start pushing out of his wheelchair as he had done many times before and the Ekso, as manipulated by the therapist, did the rest.
Kessler, a leader in the field of disability rehabilitation, is one of 10 U.S. organizations partnering with Ekso Bionics to develop clinical versions of the device.
A clinical model is due out "very soon," said Kirshblum. That model will allow the individual patient to control the device, can be for home use and will have the ability to negotiate stairs, he said.
"This will occur via wireless communication between the crutches and the sensors on the exoskeleton, assuring the individual is in the appropriate position and is safe to undertake the movements," explained Kirshblum.
Ekso improves on other exoskeletons in that it doesn't use electrodes to stimulate the muscles. The problem with electrodes, Kirshblum said, is that the energy expenditure to get a muscle to contract is enormous.
With less energy required, Ekso's developers hope users can travel farther on their own.
Right now, Ekso is mainly intended for use in therapy settings, and researchers at Kessler and elsewhere will study its impact on bone strength, muscle, bowel and bladder function, blood pressure and quality of life.
Of course, lots of research is needed first to see if exoskeletons actually help strengthen the muscles, Kim Anderson-Erisman added.
Ekso should help people move, but will it prompt neurological recovery?
Kirshblum wasn't willing to say. But whatever its use, the price will have to come down considerably, said Anderson-Erisman.
Kirshblum also wouldn't say how much Ekso will cost, but one estimate put the price at $100,000.............
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Obama’s Perilous New Plan For Defense Cuts Will End US Safety: "Shedding the most qualified, combat-experienced, volunteer ground forces in the nation’s history would be like Apple canceling the production of iPhones to save money. It makes no sense," said Jay Carafano.
The Pentagon should be pushing “bold new moves” to protect the country’s interests instead of its perilous new plan to reduce troops dramatically & slash spending, a Heritage Foundation expert says. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta announced the new strategy today, calling for greater U.S. military presence in Asia, pulling troops from Europe, & cutting spending by nearly half a trillion dollars. The new strategy amounts to pulling “the safety net out from a global security architecture that has protected U.S. vital interests worldwide since 1945.” The Pentagon should invest in more combat planes and stealth fighters, ramp up production of Navy vessels, & put the missile defense program on the fast track", Jay Carafano...
Obama’s Perilous New Plan For Defense Cuts Will End US Safety: "Shedding the most qualified, combat-experienced, volunteer ground forces in the nation’s history would be like Apple canceling the production of iPhones to save money. It makes no sense," said Jay Carafano.
By: Andra Varin
Newsmax -- 01/05/2012 -- The Pentagon should be pushing "bold new moves" to protect the country’s interests instead of its perilous new plan to reduce troops dramatically and slash spending, a Heritage Foundation expert says.
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta announced the new strategy today, calling for greater U.S. military presence in Asia, pulling troops from Europe, and cutting spending by nearly half a trillion dollars.
The Heritage Foundation’s James Jay Carafano writes that the new strategy amounts to pulling "the safety net out from a global security architecture that has protected U.S. vital interests worldwide since 1945."
"The Obama Administration’s strategy by wishful thinking will not be sufficient to keep the nation safe, free, and prosperous in the year ahead. Rather, Congress and the White House should be making bold moves to restore America’s capacity to protect itself," Carafano writes on the foundation’s website.
The Pentagon should invest in more combat planes and stealth fighters, ramp up production of Navy vessels, and put the missile defense program on the fast track, Carafano maintains.
He also insisted that it was a mistake for the Pentagon to reduce ground forces.
"Shedding the most qualified, combat-experienced, volunteer ground forces in the nation’s history would be like Apple canceling the production of iPhones to save money. It makes no sense," he wrote.
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Dec. 30, 2011 to Jan. 06, 2012Health Highlights
**Tainted Ground Beef Linked to 19 Salmonella Cases: CDC.
**Most U.S. Hospital Errors Unreported.
**Unpublished Drug Study Findings Could Harm Patients.
**Enfamil Infant Formula Back on Store Shelves.
**Experts Rank Best Weight-Loss Diets.
**U.S. Drug Shortages Reached Record High in 2011.
**Vaccine Shields Monkeys From HIV-Like Virus.
**Shredded Cheese Recalled in 3 States.
**Questions Raised About Anorexia Nervosa Treatment.
**Chinese Man Dies of H5N1 Bird Flu.
**ADHD Pill Shortages May Continue.
**ADHD Drug Shortage Pushes Parents to Seek Substitutes: But experts say medication switches must be done carefully.
**Could Daily Aspirin Harm Seniors' Eyes? Study found possible association between drug and age-related macular degeneration.
Health Highlights (Dec. 30, 2011 to Jan. 06, 2012)
Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by the editors of HealthDay:
Tainted Ground Beef Linked to 19 Salmonella Cases: CDC
Salmonella linked to ground beef sold by Hannaford supermarket stores has sickened 19 people in Hawaii, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, and Vermont, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The CDC said most of the victims bought the ground beef between Oct. 12 and Dec. 10 and some of the beef may still be in consumers' homes, the Associated Press reported.
On Dec. 15, Maine-based Hannaford announced a recall of ground beef with a sell-by date of Dec. 17 or earlier. The company said any customers with the recalled ground beef should throw it away or return it to a Hannaford store.
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Most U.S. Hospital Errors Unreported
Only one in seven errors, accidents or other events that cause harm to Medicare patients in U.S. hospitals are recognized and reported by hospital employees, says a federal government report being released Friday.
And even after hospitals investigate reported cases of preventable injuries and infections, few changes in policies or practices are made to prevent such problems from occurring again, according to the study from Department of Health and Human Services Inspector General Daniel R. Levinson, The New York Times reported.
In many cases, hospital officials told federal investigators that the incidents of patient harm did not reveal any "systemic quality problems." But many hospital administrators did acknowledge that employees underreport such incidents.
The inspector general's report included an in-depth review of 293 cases of harm suffered by Medicare patients while in hospital. Forty of the cases were reported to hospital managers and 28 were investigated by the hospitals, but only five led to changes in policies or practices, The Times reported.
Many unreported events were identified by independent doctors who reviewed patients' records at the request of the federal investigators.
More than 130,000 Medicare beneficiaries experienced one or more adverse events in hospitals in a single month, according to the study. Adverse events include severe bedsores, medication errors, hospital-acquired infections, delirium caused by overuse of painkillers, and excessive bleeding caused by improper use of blood thinners, The Times reported.
As a condition of being paid under Medicare, hospitals must "track medical errors and adverse patient events, analyze their causes," and improve care, Levinson said in the report. He noted that nearly all hospitals have some type of system for employees to inform managers about adverse events in patients.
However, hospital employees often do not recognize "what constitutes patient harm" or don't realize that specific events caused patient harm and should be reported, Levinson said. He added that employees may assume that someone else will report the incident, that the problem was so common that it didn't need to be reported, or that the event was rare and unlikely to recur, The Times reported.
To reduce confusion, Medicare officials said they'll create a list of "reportable events" for hospitals and their employees, and also said that hospitals should provide employees with "detailed, unambiguous instructions on the types of events that should be reported."
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Unpublished Drug Study Findings Could Harm Patients
A disturbing number of drug studies are being suppressed by researchers and this lack of public data could threaten patient safety, the BMJ journal warns.
The U.K. medical journal noted that one study found that the results of fewer than half of drug trials paid for by the U.S. National Institutes of Health were published in a scientific journal within 30 months of the completion of the trial, the Associated Press reported.
The NIH spends about $3.5 billion sponsoring more than 100,000 clinical trials worldwide.
Previous research has found that the results of between one quarter and one half of clinical trials are unpublished for various reasons, the AP reported.
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Enfamil Infant Formula Back on Store Shelves
Three major U.S. retailers have started restocking 12.5-ounce cans of Enfamil powdered infant formula after federal officials last week said the product is safe and clear of bacteria linked to Cronobacter infections that occurred in four infants in Florida, Illinois, Missouri and Oklahoma.
Walgreen Co., Kroger Co. and Supervalu Inc. removed the formula from their stores nationwide in December after a 10-day-old Missouri baby who consumed the product died from a bacterial infection, The Wall Street Journal reported.
The precautionary move was made while the companies awaited test results from federal regulators.
On Friday, the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said factory-sealed containers of the formula showed no signs of contamination. The FDA said it is continuing to investigate the four infant infections, WSJ reported.
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Experts Rank Best Weight-Loss Diets
Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, the Mediterranean Diet, Slim Fast and Volumetrics are the easiest diets to follow, according to the second annual Best Diets rankings released Wednesday by U.S. News & World Report.
For this year's rankings, 22 diet and nutrition experts reviewed and rated 25 diets on seven criteria, including their ability to help people achieve short- and long-term weight loss. There were seven categories.
The DASH diet came first in Best Diets Overall, Best Diets for Healthy Eating, and tied with the Biggest Loser Diet for first in Best Diabetes Diets.
Weight Watchers was first in Best Weight-Loss Diets, Best Commercial Diet Plans, and Easiest Diets to Follow.
The Ornish Diet came first in Best Heart-Health Diets.
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U.S. Drug Shortages Reached Record High in 2011
The number of newly-reported prescription drug shortages in the United States last year hit a record high of 267, an increase of 56 over 2010, according to figures just released by the University of Utah Drug Information Service.
The total for 2011 is more than four times higher than the 58 drug shortages reported in 2004, ABC News said.
The increasing number of drugs in short supply is having a growing impact on patient care, particularly among hospitalized patients.
Shortages of vital medicines have disrupted chemotherapy for cancer patients, as well as surgery and care for patients with infections and pain, according to ABC News.
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Vaccine Shields Monkeys From HIV-Like Virus
Scientists say an experimental vaccine's success in protecting monkeys against a monkey version of HIV offers major clues about important elements needed to create an effective HIV vaccine for humans.
Rhesus monkeys were given a vaccine against simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) and then exposed to a difficult-to-treat strain of SIV that was different than the one used to create the vaccine, ABC News reported.
The vaccine reduced the monkeys' susceptibility to infection by 80 percent and vaccinated monkeys that did become infected had substantially lower levels of the virus than unvaccinated monkeys, according to the study in the journal Nature.
The vaccine contained an element called Env, which helps bind SIV to antibodies that can destroy it.
"The study demonstrates very clearly that in order to prevent acquisition of the virus, a vaccine needs to have an Env glycoprotein component," Eric Hunter, a professor of pathology and co-director of the Center for AIDS Research at Atlanta's Emory University who was not involved with the study, told ABC News. "I would say this is significant progress in the process of trying to develop a protective HIV vaccine."
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Shredded Cheese Recalled in 3 States
Possible bacterial contamination has prompted the recall of Nordic Creamery brand shredded cheese called "Grumpy Goat Shreds."
The recall by Bekkum Family Farms LLC of Wisconsin includes 8-ounce bags with a code date of 10-MAR-12. The cheese was sold in stores in California, Minnesota and Wisconsin beginning Nov. 11, the Associated Press reported.
Consumers who bought the cheese are being advised to throw it away or return it to the place of purchase for a refund.
The decision to issue a recall was made after a processor told Bekkum that its cheese was shredded on the same equipment as other cheese that has since tested positive for Listeria monocytogenes, the AP reported. The Bekkum shredded cheese hasn't tested positive for Listeria but the company decided to recall the product out of an abundance of caution, according to spokesman Al Bekkum.
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Questions Raised About Anorexia Nervosa Treatment
Some health providers and researchers are voicing concerns about a widely-used strategy for treating teens hospitalized with the eating disorder anorexia nervosa.
The "start low, advance slow" strategy advocates providing fewer calories than needed at first because patients may be so weak that major changes in diet could be dangerous, The New York Times reported.
When this approach is used, patients often experience further weight or fluid loss during the first day or two that they're hospitalized. Critics of this strategy say patients could be fed more aggressively as long as they're closely monitored for medical complications.
"There is a body of evidence that our older, more cautious feeding strategies are older and more cautious than they need to be," Dr. David S. Rosen, a professor of pediatrics, internal medicine and psychiatry at the University of Michigan Medical School, who leads the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Adolescence, told the Times.
However, he and other doctors say further research is needed and urge caution before making any major changes in the treatment of teens with anorexia nervosa.
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Chinese Man Dies of H5N1 Bird Flu
Chinese health officials are telling people to remain calm after a man infected with H5N1 bird flu died on the weekend.
It's the first reported human case of the disease in China in 18 months, Agence France-Presse reported.
The 39-year-old bus driver became ill in late December. He contracted H5N1 from poultry but it hasn't been determined where he acquired the virus, said health officials in Shenzhen.
The city is close to Hong Kong, where thousands of chickens have been culled after three birds tested positive for the H5N1 virus in mid-December, AFP reported.
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ADHD Pill Shortages May Continue
Shortages of drugs to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder may continue, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
The agency receives hundreds of complaints each day from patients who say they can't find a pharmacy with enough pills to fill their prescriptions, The New York Times reported.
The pills have now been included on the FDA's official shortages list. Cheaper generic versions of brand name drugs are in particularly short supply.
The FDA blames the shortages on overly strict manufacturing quotas established by the Drug Enforcement Administration in order to minimize cases of abuse, many involving college students who use the ADHD medications to get high or stay up all night, the Times reported.
The DEA questions whether there really are shortages or whether drug companies simply decide to make more of the expensive brand name pills than the generics, resulting in supply and demand imbalances.
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ADHD Drug Shortage Pushes Parents to Seek Substitutes: But experts say medication switches must be done carefully
By Serena Gordon,
HealthDay Reporter
FRIDAY, Jan. 6 (HealthDay News) -- If the current shortage of some drugs used to treat attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has left you searching for something else for your child to take, experts suggest you choose a substitute carefully because the effects of these medications can vary widely.
For example, "generics can sometimes be less bioavailable [how much of the drug is absorbed into the bloodstream], and that can make it harder to get an exact dose match between medications," explained Dr. Eric Hollander, director of the Autism and Obsessive-Compulsive Spectrum Program at Montefiore Medical Center in New York City.
"If the dose is too high, sometimes kids can get more withdrawn or weepy. If it's too low, they can't get adequate control of their symptoms during the day, and they can get a rebound later in the day. The new medicine may wear off faster. It's also not easy to switch from extended-release formulas to immediate-release," Hollander said.
If you can't find any pharmacy that has the medication you're looking for, let your child's doctor know. If the medication isn't available, they can first try another medication in the same class of medications. For example, Adderall is an amphetamine derivative. Vyvanse is another medication in that class. However, some insurance companies may balk at paying for medications that aren't on their preferred drug list, and you may have to pay a higher co-pay.
If there's a shortage of generic methylphenidate, the brand-name versions (Concerta, Focalin, Ritalin, Metadate and Daytrana) may be available.
There are also non-stimulant medications for ADHD, such as Intuniv, Kapvay and Strattera, that may be an option, Adesman said.
Along with discussing the shortage with your child's doctor, Adesman suggested that parents can call or write the FDA, or a local government representative, and let them know that they're having trouble getting necessary medication.
"Patient advocacy is always important," he said. "It's the squeaky wheel that gets the grease".....................
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Could Daily Aspirin Harm Seniors' Eyes? Study found possible association between drug and age-related macular degeneration
By Alan Mozes, HealthDay Reporter
THURSDAY, Jan. 5 (HealthDay News) -- Daily aspirin use among seniors may double their risk of developing a particularly advanced form of age-related macular degeneration, a debilitating eye disease, a large new European study suggests.
The possible link involves the so-called "wet" type of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a significant cause of blindness in seniors.
Aspirin use was not, however, found to be associated with an increased risk for developing the more common, and usually less advanced, "dry" form of AMD, according to the report published in the January issue of Ophthalmology.
Although the study team stressed that further research is needed, the findings could cause concern for the millions of older people who routinely take over-the-counter aspirin for pain, inflammation and blood-clot management, and to reduce their risk of heart disease.
"People should be aware that aspirin, often just bought over the counter without prescription, may have adverse effects -- apart from major gastrointestinal and other bleeding -- also for AMD," said lead author Dr. Paulus de Jong.
Age-related macular degeneration affects the critical central vision required for reading, driving and general mobility. The damage occurs when the retinal core of the eye (the macula) becomes exposed to leaking or bleeding due to abnormal growth of blood vessels.
The study authors cautioned that further research is needed on aspirin's possible effects on eye health. Meanwhile, they suggested that doctors generally should not alter their current advice for aspirin use among older patients coping with heart disease risk.
"[But] I would advise persons who [already] have early or late AMD not to take aspirin as a painkiller," de Jong said. "[And] I would advise people with AMD who take small amounts of aspirin for primary prevention -- this means having no past history of cardiac or vascular problems like stroke, and no elevated risk factors for these diseases -- to discuss with their doctor if it is wise to continue doing so. For secondary prevention -- this means after having these elevated risks or disorders -- the benefits of daily aspirin outweigh the risks."
While the study uncovered an association between aspirin use and AMD, it did not prove a cause-and-effect relationship.
This point was also made by Dr. Alfred Sommer, a professor of ophthalmology and dean emeritus at the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. He noted that while the study was "well executed," it should not be seen as definitive proof that aspirin use and AMD are linked.
An observational study of this type "merely calls attention to the fact that such an association may exist, and that it may be causal, but only randomized clinical trials can prove the matter one way or the other," he said.
"Hence, this might or might not be real," Sommer added, "and we will only know that when and if a randomized trial is done."
In the interim, he said the findings should not guide patient behavior.
"It is well known that aspirin [and other NSAIDs] can increase the risk of gastric distress and gastric ulcers," Sommer said. "Like any medicine, it should only be taken if needed. But those taking aspirin to prevent heart disease, particularly those at increased risk of heart disease, definitely do benefit and should not change what they do."..............
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Barack Obama’s Latest Idiotic Claims and Outright Lies: Obama sets the tone for what may be the dirtiest political campaign in our country's history
Obama’s re-election committee says it plans to raise more than $1 billion for the campaign. Since he can’t possibly run on his record, most of that money will be spent attacking and smearing his opponent. The Republican nominee is going to get hit by a $750 million wrecking ball. Let’s hope enough voters see through the smears, lies and deliberate obfuscations. It won’t take much to tip the scale one way or the other. We know that almost half of the voters in this country don’t pay a penny in taxes. As net recipients of much of Obama’s largesse (with our money, of course), you know they will support the Democrats, no matter what.
Barack Obama’s Latest Idiotic Claims and Outright Lies: Obama sets the tone for what may be the dirtiest political campaign in our country's history
By Chip Wood
Personal Liberty Digest -- 12/30/2011 --President Barack Obama steps off of Marine One as he returns to the White House following a day-trip to Osawatomie, Kansas.
I’m not going to review all the dastardly lies, misstatements and gross exaggerations Barack Obama has made since he assumed the highest office in the land. That would take a lot more pages than we have room for today.
No, for now I want to mention just two of his most recent assaults on the truth. I’m afraid they will set the tone for what may be the dirtiest political campaign in our country’s history. And considering some of the mudslinging we’ve witnessed in the past (remember the commercial for Lyndon B. Johnson in which a little girl picking petals off a daisy morphed into a mushroom cloud?), that’s saying something.
My latest "did he really say that?" moment came when Obama was interviewed by Steve Croft on "60 Minutes" a couple of weeks ago. My stomach isn’t strong enough for me to watch the show; I knew I’d read plenty about it afterward. But even I was surprised by the unbounded arrogance of the man occupying the Oval Office. Here is his preposterous claim:
I would put our legislative and foreign policy accomplishments in our first two years against any president — with the possible exceptions of Johnson, F.D.R., and Lincoln — just in terms of what we’ve gotten done in modern history.
How do you like them apples? Gee, guess it’s time to make room for a new face on Mount Rushmore. Clearly, Obama thinks he’s the greatest thing since sliced bread — "with the possible exceptions of Johnson, F.D.R., and Lincoln."
I knew the guy was an egomaniac, but I was surprised by how cavalier he has become about it. Given his colossal failures as President, you would think he would at least try to fake some humility.
Oh, right, he did admit that, "… when it comes to the economy, we’ve got a lot more work to do." Please, Mr. President, for the sake of all of us, don’t do any more "work" on the economy. You’ve done enough damage as it is.
Obama’s performance on "60 Minutes" was just embarrassingly immodest compared to his all-out assault on the truth two weeks earlier, when he officially launched his re-election campaign. That speech, which has become known as the Kansas Declaration, was so filled with misstatements that The Washington Post gave it three out of four "Pinocchios" for "significant factual error and/or obvious contradictions."
One of his most outrageous whoppers was that his stimulus program has been an outstanding success. After all, he claimed, it helped create 3 million new jobs.
While it may be technically true that 3 million new jobs have been created in this country since Obama took office, what he didn’t mention is that more than five million jobs have been lost in the same time period. So the net effect is that there are 2 million more people unemployed than there were at the beginning of his Administration.
For a moment, though, let’s accept Obama’s numbers. And his claim, which is patently absurd, that his administration deserves the credit for every single new job in this country.
Obama’s stimulus program has cost U.S. taxpayers about $800 billion. That means each new job cost $266,667 to create.
With the average new job paying about one-fifth that amount, one has to wonder: Where did the other $220,000 per job go? Why, to line the pockets and pad the budgets of the folks dispersing the money, of course. Despite all of the efforts by Washington to subsidize solar power and other "green" energy, the only growth industry in the United States this decade has been government. Oh, and government-supported unions, of course.
Glenn Kessler, The Washington Post’s official fact-checker, cited another gross distortion in the President’s speech: Obama’s crusade for what he calls "fairness." He quotes the President as declaring, "Some billionaires have a tax rate as low as 1 percent — 1 percent. That is the height of unfairness."
When pressed for evidence that there is even one billionaire in this country who paid just 1 percent in taxes, the White House couldn’t find any. The only evidence the White House offered was a clip from some TV program.
An unsubstantiated remark by some talking head on some TV show became the basis for national policy and another blatantly political and incredibly dishonest speech by our President. Isn’t that wonderful?
Obama’s re-election committee says it plans to raise more than $1 billion for the campaign. Since he can’t possibly run on his record, most of that money will be spent attacking and smearing his opponent. The Republican nominee is going to get hit by a $750 million wrecking ball.
Let’s hope enough voters see through the smears, lies and deliberate obfuscations. It won’t take much to tip the scale one way or the other. We know that almost half of the voters in this country don’t pay a penny in taxes. As net recipients of much of Obama’s largesse (with our money, of course), you know they will support the Democrats, no matter what.
Of course, the passionate opposition is almost as large. Polls continue to show that 45 percent of voters will vote for anyone other than Obama. (Count me among them.)
That leaves 10 percent in the middle who will decide the election. If you’re reading this column, I’m guessing you’re not among them. But surely some of your friends and acquaintances are. What are you doing to win them over?
Getting them to subscribe to Personal Liberty Digest™ would be a very good start.
Until next time, keep some powder dry.
–Chip Wood
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Dec. 23, 2011 to Dec. 30, 2011Health Highlights
**FDA OKs Pneumonia Vaccine for Older Adults.
**Durezol vs. Durasal: FDA Warns of Drug Name Mix-Up.
**Build-A-Bear Recalls Colorful Hearts Bears for Possible Choking Hazard.
**Third Baby Sickened With Bacteria Sometimes Tied to Formula.
**2nd Study Linking Retrovirus to Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Is Retracted.
**Obesity, Diabetes Pose 1-2 Threat to Young Americans: Time spent carrying extra weight matters as much as the amount of extra weight itself.
**Music May Help Ease Pain for Anxious People: By engaging the mind, melodies compete with pain pathways.
Health Highlights (Dec. 23, 2011 to Dec. 30, 2011)
Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by the editors of HealthDay:
FDA OKs Pneumonia Vaccine for Older Adults
A vaccine against pneumonia that's already received U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval for use in children is getting that approval expanded to adults aged 50 and older, the agency announced Friday.
"It is estimated that approximately 300,000 adults 50 years of age and older are hospitalized yearly because of pneumococcal pneumonia," Dr. Karen Midthun, director of FDA's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, said in an agency statement. "Pneumococcal disease is a substantial cause of illness and death. Today's approval provides an additional vaccine for preventing pneumococcal pneumonia and invasive disease in this age group."
Prevnar 13 is already sanctioned for use in children aged 6 weeks through 5 years for the prevention of infection with multiple strains of Streptococcus pneumoniae and for ear infections (otitis media) that the bacteria can cause.
FDA's approval of Prevnar 13 for older adults was based on studies conducted in the United States and Europe involving 6,000 people aged 50 and older. Participants received either Prevnar 13 or a pneumococcal vaccine already approved for this age group, called Pneumovax 23.
Approval of Prevnar 13 for older adults is conditional on post-marketing trials aimed at confirming the anticipated clinical benefit, the agency said.
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Durezol vs. Durasal: FDA Warns of Drug Name Mix-Up
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is telling consumers to watch out for any potential mix-up between prescription eye drops and a common wart-removing medication that bear similar names.
According to a warning letter issued this week from the agency, at least one patient has been seriously injured after being given a bottle of the wart remedy Durasal instead of the eye drops called Durezol. And there have been other reports of confusion between the two similarly named but drastically different drugs.
Health care practitioners have also complained to the agency about the similarity between the two drug names, the FDA said.
Although the FDA routinely screens drug names as part of its approval process, the wart remover Durasal was never required to go through the approval process. According to ABC News, the label on the medication does include the warning "NOT FOR USE IN EYES."
"Health care professionals and patients are encouraged to scrutinize packaging and labeling information carefully," the FDA said.
Elorac Inc., the Illinois-based distributor of Durasal, has not yet responded to inquiries from the FDA regarding the removal of the product from the marketplace or its recall, the agency said.
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Build-A-Bear Recalls Colorful Hearts Bears for Possible Choking Hazard
A voluntary recall has been issued for a type of teddy bear that was sold at thousands of Build-A-Bear stores across the United States this year, because the eyes could fall off and pose a choking risk to children.
The bears, known as Colorful Hearts Teddy Bears, were sold at 284,000 locations in both the United States and Canada, the St. Louis-based company said in a news release on Thursday. The recall was first issued right before Christmas by Build-A-Bear Workshop Inc., the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and Health Canada. No injuries involving this product have been reported, the company said Thursday.
According to the Build-A-Bear website, certain production runs used substandard fabric that could tear around the stuffed bear's eyes.
Anyone who bought this bear between April and December should stop letting their children play with the bears immediately, the company said. They can return the bears at any Build-A-Bear store and receive a coupon for any other stuffed bear that is available.
This stuffed animal is roughly 15 inches tall and has black plastic eyes and multi-colored hearts all over its body.
For more information, consumers can call the firm toll-free at (866) 236-5683 between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. Monday through Friday, on Saturday between 10 a.m. and 7 p.m. and on Sunday between 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. Consumers can also visit the firm's website at www.buildabear.com.
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Third Baby Sickened With Bacteria Sometimes Tied to Formula
An infant in Oklahoma is the third reported case of illness tied to a rare bacterium that has been linked in the past to tainted baby formula, the Associated Press reported Wednesday.
Infection with the bacterium, Cronobacter sakazakaii, is thought to have killed a 10-day-old infant in Missouri. A second child, from Illnios, was sickened but has since recovered, the AP said.
The latest case involves an infant in Tulsa County, Okla., who fell ill but has also rebounded. Cases of C. sakazakaii infection have been linked in the past to contaminated formula, and Enfamil was initially suspected as a route of infection in the Missouri death. The child in Oklahoma had not consumed Enfamil, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.
Officials at the CDC said they are still awaiting results of tests of the formula and the distilled water used in preparing it, and they stressed that the three cases may not be related.
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2nd Study Linking Retrovirus to Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Is Retracted
Yet another study linking retroviral infections to chronic fatigue syndrome has been called into question, with the findings of a 2010 study retracted on Monday.
Last week, a study published in Science a year earlier was retracted by the editors of that journal. That research found a possible association between the illness and a mouse leukemia retrovirus known as XMRV. This second study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, was withdrawn by its authors, according to The New York Times.
Although the 2010 study had confirmed the findings of the 2009 research, other scientists had been unable to arrive at the same conclusion. Some had said that laboratory materials were contaminated during the course of their work.
Respected researchers from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Harvard Medical School were all involved in the 2010 study. Randy Schekman, former editor-in-chief of PNAS, told the Times that the journal had been "encouraging" the authors to reconsider their findings in light of subsequent research.
In the retraction, the authors wrote, "It is our current view that the association of murine gamma retroviruses with [chronic fatigue syndrome] has not withstood the test of time or of independent verification and that this association is now tenuous."
Meanwhile, results expected in March from a large-scale NIH study should help decide definitively whether chronic fatigue syndrome is related to these retroviruses, the Times reported.
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Obesity, Diabetes Pose 1-2 Threat to Young Americans: Time spent carrying extra weight matters as much as the amount of extra weight itself
By Dennis Thompson,
HealthDay Reporter
FRIDAY, Dec. 30 (HealthDay News) -- Doctors have long been concerned that increasing rates of childhood obesity could fuel a diabetes epidemic.
Study results have now underscored that fear.
Researchers have found that the length of time a person carries excess weight directly contributes to an increased risk for type 2 diabetes.
In other words, because today's children are expected to receive a larger lifetime "dose" of obesity, their chances of developing diabetes at some point in their lives will be greater.
Dr. John E. Anderson, vice president of medicine and science for the American Diabetes Association, said that the findings reflect what is already happening in society, with more young children and teenagers diagnosed with type 2 diabetes than ever before.
"A disease that used to be confined to older people is creeping into high schools," Anderson said. "At best, this is alarming. This obesity epidemic we have is fueling an epidemic of diabetes in young people."
Obesity among children and adolescents has almost tripled since 1980, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Today, nearly one in five American kids ages 2 to 19 -- or about 12.5 million -- are obese.
Obesity has long been linked with the development of type 2 diabetes, which occurs when the body gradually loses its ability to properly use insulin to convert blood sugar into fuel, a condition known as insulin resistance.
"Extra weight gets in the way of the ability of tissues to absorb insulin and use it to convert glucose," Anderson said. "The more obese you are, the more insulin resistant you can become."
But researchers now are finding that the time spent carrying extra weight matters as much as the amount of extra weight itself...............
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Music May Help Ease Pain for Anxious People: By engaging the mind, melodies compete with pain pathways
THURSDAY, Dec. 29 (HealthDay News) -- Concentrating on music can provide enough distraction to ease the pain of people with significant anxiety, according to a new study.
Researchers from the University of Utah Pain Research Center studied the effectiveness of music as a pain reliever on 143 study participants. The volunteers were asked to follow a melody so they could identify the tones that stood out. While tackling the assignment, they received safe pain shocks with fingertip electrodes.
The study, published in the December issue of the Journal of Pain, found that pain was reduced as the demands of the music task rose. The researchers explained that the music competed with the participants' pain pathways. By triggering emotional responses and engaging the participants' minds, the music task helped to ease their pain.
Participants with the most anxiety about the pain became more engrossed in the music-listening task than those who were less anxious, according to a journal news release. The study authors suggested that experiencing little anxiety lowered the participants' ability to focus on the task.
The researchers concluded that people with a lot of anxiety who can become preoccupied by activities, such as listening to music, can reduce discomfort by using this type of pain-relief strategy.
Doctors should take patients' personality traits into consideration before suggesting pain therapies such as music, the authors said.
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Obama Helping To Give Arab Oil Exporters Dictatorial Powers Over America’s Energy Needs & Economic Future: Obama opposes the oil pipeline from Canada that offers a big step toward energy security & tens of thousands of desperately needed jobs for Americans
Under Obama, the Nation is not producing enough oil & is importing far too much of it from potential enemies. This is a reckless game engineered by the Obama, because oil is America’s economic lifeblood. It recently became apparent that Obama either does not understand the danger the country is facing or, worse, is willing to ignore it because he has conspired with Arab oil exporters to give them dictatorial powers over America’s energy needs & economic future. The USA is critically dependent on imported oil, consuming almost 10 million barrels of foreign crude every day [3 times more than in 1986]. With Obama’s restrictions on oil exploration, the USA may import 18 million barrels per day by 2020.
Obama Helping To Give Arab Oil Exporters Dictatorial Powers Over America’s Energy Needs & Economic Future: Obama opposes the oil pipeline from Canada that offers a big step toward energy security & tens of thousands of desperately needed jobs for Americans
Personal Liberty Digest -- 12/08/2011 -- TransCanada Corporation wants to build a pipeline that would transport tar sands crude oil from Alberta through Montana, South Dakota and Nebraska on its way to refineries on the Gulf Coast.
We are staring into the face of $180-per-barrel oil. Under President Barack Obama, the Nation is not producing enough oil and is importing far too much of it from potential enemies. This is a reckless game engineered by the President, because oil is America’s economic lifeblood.
It recently become apparent that Obama either does not understand the danger the country is facing or, worse, is willing to ignore it because he has conspired with Arab oil exporters to give them dictatorial powers over America’s energy needs and economic future.
The United States is critically dependent on imported oil, consuming almost 10 million barrels of foreign crude every day. That is about three times more oil than the United States imported 25 years ago. With Obama’s restrictions on further oil exploration, especially offshore, the United States may import 18 million barrels per day by 2020.Gang Green
"Gangrene" is a medical term used to describe the death of one part of the body. It happens when the blood supply is cut off to the affected area.
I witnessed gangrene overtake my dad’s legs after he underwent surgery on a bulging abdominal aorta at the Loma Linda University Medical Center many years ago.
I never studied medicine, but I have spent my lifetime studying economics. It isn’t a stretch to use the analogy that petroleum is the lifeblood to the U.S. economy.Keystone Kops Or An Agent For Saudi Arabia?
Petroleum is essential for the United States. With so many hostile governments selling it to us, it would be easy to think that Canada would be America’s energy oasis. The two countries haven’t had so much as a skirmish in 200 years, and more than any other nation, Canada has stood shoulder to shoulder with the United States. So close are the two peoples that I can’t tell the difference between being in Montana or Alberta.
Both Nations have Judeo-Christian values and common law borne from the Magna Carta. American and Canadian men fought and died together during the two world wars.
On the surface it seems like a pretty simple equation: Canada has 180 billion barrels of reserves, second only to Saudi Arabia, the kingpin petroleum producer and de facto leader of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.
Canada has a democratically elected parliament. The House of Saud is a desert fiefdom run by a few dozen billionaire princes. Whereas Canada has combat troops stationed in Afghanistan killing Muslim militants, Saudi Arabia provides tens of millions of dollars to Islamic terrorists bent on killing Westerners.
Beyond this, Canada has been a rock-solid energy supplier to the United States. In fact, thousands of Americans work in the Canadian petroleum industry, and there are hundreds of U.S. corporations that have a large stake in further developing Canadian petroleum. Scores of Canadian corporations are traded on the New York Stock Exchange. Conversely, Saudi Arabia has nationalized its oil properties, and it implemented two oil embargoes against the United States in the 1970s.
It only makes sense that the United States would sign on to buy more Canadian crude. But with Obama, common sense is not at all common.
TransCanada Corporation is seeking Presidential authorization to build its $7.5 billion Keystone XL pipeline. The line would transport tar sands crude oil from Alberta through Montana, South Dakota and Nebraska on its way to refineries on the Gulf Coast.
A number of groups, comprised mostly of environmentalists and liberals, have banded together to oppose its construction. Obama is leading the crusade against Canadian crude.
The President said last month: "Because this permit decision could affect the health and safety of the American people as well as the environment, and because a number of concerns have been raised through a public process, we should take the time to ensure that all questions are properly addressed and all the potential impacts are properly understood."
The President doesn’t seem concerned that 1,661-mile pipeline would deliver 700,000 barrels per day of crude from the oil sands to the United States.
The Hawaii Reporter recently ran this headline on an opinion piece: "Obama’s Catastrophic Pipeline Copout."
David H. Wilkins, U.S. ambassador to Canada from 2005-2009, wrote:
The proposed Keystone XL Pipeline offers nothing but promise: tens of thousands of desperately needed jobs, and a big step toward ensuring North American energy security. But in mid-November, promise gave way to politics when President Obama punted on the pipeline permitting decision, delaying it until after the 2012 election. The Wall Street Journal called the decision a "Keystone Cop-Out."
I call it a catastrophic cop-out, one with certain economic and diplomatic consequences. The decision on the KXL permit was expected before the end of this year and elected officials in both Canada and the United States rightly called it a "no-brainer."
The project would reduce dependency on petroleum from the Middle East, a region that is rife with civil war. And what of the economic recovery that Obama promised three years ago? You would have to have been in a coma to see that things are no better and that, overall, the U.S. economy might be in worse shape than when he took office.
This gets me back to why the United States should be begging to sign this pipeline deal. It is estimated that the project would create a minimum of 20,000 well-paying U.S. jobs. That economic bonus would span far beyond all those families that could again have a wage earner and would spill over to every part of the economy, from Wal-Mart to mom-and-pop shops.
In fact, the pipeline deal will add more than $20 billion to the U.S. economy. An extra $5.2 billion in State property taxes would be collected.Crude Consequences
The United States will have to deal with the consequences of turning its back on Canadian crude. First and foremost, Ottawa is building closer trade ties with Beijing with a great deal of emphasis on a possible blueprint that would deliver Alberta’s oil sands to the West Coast, where it could be delivered via tankers.
Last month, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper met with Chinese President Hu Jintao about future Canadian oil exports to China.
Harper said: "This does underscore the necessity of Canada making sure that we are able to access Asia markets for our energy products."
Canada is counting on China to be a key investor in Alberta’s oil sands projects and a big buyer of crude which would flow through a proposed Northern Gateway Pipeline if Canada encounters further opposition from the Obama Administration. This will make the United States all the more dependent on Arab oil. You would think Obama would understand this. The truth might be that he understands it all too well.
Yours in good times and bad,
–John Myers
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Dec. 16, 2011 to Dec. 23, 2011Health Highlights
**Wal-Mart Pulls Infant Formula From Stores After Newborn's Death.
**Health Officials Urge Women to Remove Faulty French-Made Breast Implant.
**Motrin Coated Caplets Recalled.
**17,000 Chickens Are Being Slaughtered In Hong Kong After Discovery of H5N1 Bird Flu Virus.
**ShoulderFlex Massager Poses Strangulation Risk: FDA.
**HIV Vaccine Receives FDA Approval for Human Safety Tests.
**HPV Vaccination Efforts Should Focus on Girls.
**U.S. Population Growth Slowest Since Before Baby Boomers.
**Ground Beef Linked to Salmonella Outbreak.
**New Malaria Vaccine Shows Promise.
**New Safety Warning for Multaq Heart Drug.
**Lipitor Sales Plummet After Generics Hit Market.
Health Highlights (Dec. 16, 2011 to Dec. 23, 2011)
Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by the editors of HealthDay:
Wal-Mart Pulls Infant Formula From Stores After Newborn's Death
A batch of Enfamil Newborn powdered infant formula has been removed from more than 3,000 Wal-Mart stores in the United States after a newborn who consumed the formula died.
Health officials have not yet determined if the infant's death is linked to the formula and there is no recall. But Wal-Mart decided to remove 12.5-ounce cans of the powdered infant formula with the lot number ZP1K7G from its shelves "out of an abundance of caution," company spokeswoman Dianna Gee told the Associated Press.
The 10-day-old Missouri boy became seriously ill with a suspected bacterial infection and died after he was taken off life support. Samples of the formula consumed by the infant were sent to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration for testing. The manufacturer said tests showed no traces of the bacteria in the batch before it was shipped, the news service said.
"At this point it has not been determined whether the illness is linked to the formula or an outside source," Gena Terlizzi, spokeswoman for the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, said in a statement, the AP reported.
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Health Officials Urge Women to Remove Faulty French-Made Breast Implant
Women with a type of French-made breast implant prone to leakage should have them removed as a safety precaution, French health officials said Friday.
No increased cancer risk has been detected from rupture of the devices, which were implanted in thousands of women in Europe, but leakage can cause inflammation, the French health ministry said in a statement, the Wall Street Journal reported. Leakage also makes removal difficult, the newspaper said.
Women with the implants should have them removed in a "non urgent manner," the officials advised. Those who decide to keep the implants should undergo breast scans twice a year, the Journal said.
"Implant failures" have been reported for about 5 percent of women in France with the devices, made by Poly Implant Prosthese (PIP), according to the Journal. The company went into bankruptcy last year because of the ruptures.
In Britain, where 1 percent of women with PIP implants have experienced such "failures," health officials said several days ago they saw no reason to call for routine removal of the devices.
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Motrin Coated Caplets Recalled
Batches of Motrin coated caplets that were distributed in the United States and a number of other countries have been recalled, Johnson & Johnson announced Wednesday.
The company said "testing of product samples showed that some caplets may not dissolve as quickly as intended when nearing their expiration date," CNN reported.
The pain reliever caplets were distributed in the U.S., Puerto Rico, Bahamas, Belize, Fiji, Jamaica and St. Lucia.
"This is not a consumer level recall, which means that consumers do not need to dispose of or return the product," according to a news release from J&J's McNeil Consumer Healthcare Division, CNN reported.
"There is no safety concern if consumers continue taking the product in accordance with its label; however, it is possible there may be a delay in experiencing relief," the company said.
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17,000 Chickens Are Being Slaughtered In Hong Kong After Discovery of H5N1 Bird Flu Virus
More than 17,000 chickens are being slaughtered in Hong Kong after a chicken carcass infected with H5N1 bird flu was discovered at a poultry market, government officials said Wednesday.
Officials also raised the territory's bird flu alert to "serious," increased monitoring for influenza at hospitals, close the market where the carcass was found, and suspended the sale and import of live poultry for 21 days, The New York Times reported.
It still hasn't been determined whether the infected carcass came from a local source or was imported, officials said.
The world's first major outbreak of bird flu among humans occurred in Hong Kong in 1997. The H5N1 outbreak was linked to chickens and killed six people, the Times reported.
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ShoulderFlex Massager Poses Strangulation Risk: FDA
Reports of one death and one near death associated with the use of a personal massage device called the ShoulderFlex Massager have prompted the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to warn consumers not to use the product.
Hair, clothing or jewelry can become entangled in the device and result in strangulation, the FDA said.
"The ShoulderFlex Massager poses serious risks. Consumers should stop using this device, health care providers should not recommend it to their patients and businesses should stop distributing and selling the device," Steve Silverman, director of the Office of Compliance in the FDA's Center for Devices and Radiological Health, said in a news release.
The device was imported by King International and sold in retail stores, catalogs and over the Internet. A recall was announced on Aug. 31, 2011 but King International has since gone out of business and many companies that sell the device and consumers don't know about the recall, the FDA said.
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HIV Vaccine Receives FDA Approval for Human Safety Tests
Canadian scientists who created an experimental HIV vaccine that triggers a strong immune response in lab animals have received U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval to begin clinical trials to test the safety of the vaccine in humans.
The Phase I trial will begin in January and will include 40 volunteers who already have HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. If the initial trial is successful, it will be followed by further clinical trials to determine whether the SAV001 vaccine is effective against HIV, CTV News reported.
Previous attempts to create HIV vaccines have used certain genes or proteins from the virus. But this new vaccine uses the whole HIV virus, which has been genetically engineered to prevent it from infecting recipients.
The researchers at the University of Western Ontario in London said the vaccine is designed to prime the body's T-cells to destroy any cells that might become infected with HIV, CTV News reported.
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HPV Vaccination Efforts Should Focus on Girls
Girls should be the focus of vaccinations to protect against human papillomavirus (HPV), a new study says.
HPV is a sexually transmitted disease that can cause cervical cancer in females, anal and penile cancer in males, and oropharyngeal cancers in both sexes. In the U.S., HPV vaccination is recommended for adolescent girls and for boys ages 11 and 12.
But researchers in the Netherlands say that concentrating vaccination efforts on girls is the best way to reduce heterosexual transmission of HPV, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Females have the highest prevalence of HPV and immunizing them would achieve the largest population-wide reduction of infection, according to the researchers.
The study appears online in the journal PLoS Medicine.
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U.S. Population Growth Slowest Since Before Baby Boomers
Population growth in the United States is the slowest its been since the 1940s, according to new Census estimates.
The population grew 0.7 percent to 311.6 million in the year that ended July 1. That's even slower than the 0.9 percent rate recorded at the height of the recent recession, USA Today reported.
But even though the recession is officially over, it is still having an effect on population growth.
"The pain is being felt, and it's actually expanding to more parts," William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution, told USA Today. "The latest Census numbers tell us more of the same."
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Ground Beef Linked to Salmonella Outbreak
Ground beef purchased at Hannaford Supermarkets has been linked to a salmonella outbreak that's sickened 16 people in 7 states, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday.
The illnesses began on or after Oct. 8 and there were 4 cases each in Maine, New Hampshire and New York, and one each in Vermont, Kentucky, Massachusetts and Hawaii. Information available for 13 of the ill people shows that 7 have been hospitalized. There have been no deaths.
Preliminary tests show that the outbreak strain of Salmonella Typhimurium is resistant to several commonly prescribed antibiotics, which may increase the risk of hospitalization and possible treatment failure in infected patients, the CDC said.
Maine-based Hannaford Supermarkets on Dec. 15 issued a recall of fresh ground beef products with sell-by dates of Dec. 17 or earlier. Consumers should not eat the recalled ground beef products and restaurant and food service operators should not serve it, the CDC said.
For more information, consumers can call Hannaford's at (800) 213-9040.
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New Malaria Vaccine Shows Promise
Lab tests show that an experimental malaria vaccine is effective against all strains of the malaria parasite and the vaccine is ready for safety trials in humans, U.K. researchers say.
Scientists recently pinpointed the route malaria uses to enter blood cells and believe targeting this pathway may offer a new way of creating a malaria vaccine, BBC News reported.
This type of vaccine has shown promise in animal studies, according to research published in the journal Nature Communications.
"We have found a way of making antibodies that kill all different strains of malaria parasites. This is still early phase research in animals. The next step is to do clinical trials in people," study first author Dr. Sandy Douglas, of the University of Oxford, told BBC News.
If the safety tests are successful, human clinical trials of the new vaccine could begin within the next two to three years, Douglas and colleagues said.
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New Safety Warning for Multaq Heart Drug
New safety warnings have been added to the heart rhythm disorder drug Multaq after a study linked it to increased risk of heart attack, stroke and death in certain patients, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said Monday.
The study by drug maker Sanofi found that Multaq doubled the risk of heart-related complications in patients with permanent atrial fibrillation, a condition in which the heart's chambers don't pump in sync, the Associated Press reported.
The new boxed warning emphasizes that Multaq is only approved for short-term atrial fibrillation and a related disorder called atrial flutter. It also advises doctors to check patients' heart rhythm least once every three months and to discontinue the use of Multaq if patients appear to have permanent atrial fibrillation.
When used appropriately, Multaq is a beneficial drug, the FDA said.
A number of safety concerns about the drug have been raised both before and after it was approved in the United States in 2009, the AP reported.
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Lipitor Sales Plummet After Generics Hit Market
Barely a week after generic versions became available in the United States, sales of the cholesterol drug Lipitor have fallen by half, according to new data.
The plunge in sales of Lipitor occurred despite aggressive efforts by drug maker Pfizer Inc. to keep patients on the pill, including patient subsidies and large rebates to insurers, the Associated Press reported.
U.S. patent protection for the world's top-selling drug expired on Nov. 30.
There are two generic versions of Lipitor. One is made by Ranbaxy Laboratories of India and the other is an authorized generic made by Pfizer and sold by its partner, Watson Pharmaceuticals Inc., the AP reported.
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Obama's Approval Plunges Below Worst-Ever President Carter: Obama is using a devious anti-Congress campaign to get re-elected
President Barack Obama has one of the worst approval ratings of any president in modern political history. 43 percent rating in Gallup’s daily presidential job approval index today is far below Democrat Jimmy Carter’s 51 percent at the same point in his presidency. Carter has been considered one of the 20th century’s worst presidents, according to the index. “Gallup finds that Obama's overall job approval rating so far has averaged 49 percent. Only three former presidents have had a worse average rating at this stage: Carter, [Gerald] Ford, and Harry S. Truman. Only Truman won re-election in an anti-Congress campaign that Obama's team is using as a model.”
Obama's Approval Plunges Below Worst-Ever President Carter: Obama is using a devious anti-Congress campaign to get re-elected
By: John Bachman
Newsmax -- 11/29/2011 -- President Barack Obama has one of the worst approval ratings of any president in modern political history, Paul Bedard notes in his Washington Whispers blog in US News.
Obama’s 43 percent rating in Gallup’s daily presidential job approval index today is far below Democrat Jimmy Carter’s 51 percent at the same point in his presidency. Carter has been considered one of the 20th century’s worst presidents, according to the index.
Political experts consider the ratings a crystal ball with the potential for predicting a president’s chances for re-election.
Historically, it has been difficult for incumbents to remain in office if their approval ratings are below 47 percent. At this same stage of Dwight Eisenhower’s term, the popular Republican president had an approval rating of 78 percent.
Bedard chronicles the approval ratings of other presidents at this point in their presidencies:
- Harry S. Truman — 54 percent
- Lyndon B. Johnson — 44 percent
- Richard M. Nixon — 50 percent
- Ronald Reagan — 54 percent
- George H.W. Bush — 52 percent
- Bill Clinton — 51 percent
- George W. Bush — 55 percent.
"What's more," Bedard writes, "Gallup finds that Obama's overall job approval rating so far has averaged 49 percent. Only three former presidents have had a worse average rating at this stage: Carter, [Gerald] Ford, and Harry S. Truman. Only Truman won re-election in an anti-Congress campaign that Obama's team is using as a model."
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Dec. 09, 2011 to Dec. 16, 2011Health Highlights
**Recalled Defibrillator Leads Could Injure Patients.
**Asthma, Bronchitis Among Top Kids' Medical Conditions.
**New Bill Would Boost Monitoring of Medical Implants.
**Minnesota Boy Contracts Rare Swine Flu Strain.
**U.S. Had Record-Low Marriage Rate in 2010.
**Medicare Won't Pay Prescription Drug Bills Believed to be Fraudulent.
**FDA Issues Warning Letters About Lap-Band Ads.
**Numerous Problems at Heart Start Centers.
**Cilantro Recalled in Seven States.
**Cooked Chicken Breasts Recalled by N. Carolina Company.
**Robotic Therapy May Help Some Stroke Survivors Walk.
Health Highlights (Dec. 09, 2011 to Dec. 16, 2011)
Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by the editors of HealthDay:
Recalled Defibrillator Leads Could Injure Patients
Riata defibrillator leads have been recalled by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration because they can potentially injure or kill patients, device maker St. Jude Medical said Thursday.
The devices are used to connect defibrillators to the heart. The company said about 79,000 patients have the Riata leads, Bloomberg News reported.
Wires inside some leads can penetrate the insulation and compromise the device's integrity, St. Jude said. The devices may inappropriately deliver a shock to a patient's heart or fail to deliver a needed shock. The company stopped selling the Riata leads last year.
"At this time, no blanket statement can be made about clinical recommendations," Anne Curtis, chairwoman of medicine at the University at Buffalo in New York and a member of St. Jude's medical advisory board, said in a news release, Bloomberg reported.
"Until more data are collected, physicians should follow standard practice of care to manage their patients with Riata silicone leads," Curtis advised.
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Asthma, Bronchitis Among Top Kids' Medical Conditions
Acute bronchitis, asthma, trauma-related disorders, middle-ear infections and mental disorders were the five most commonly treated medical conditions among U.S. children in 2008, a federal government report says.
More than 40 percent of the nation's children age 17 and younger were treated for at least one of those conditions that year, according to the latest News and Numbers from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
About 12 million children were treated for acute bronchitis, making it one of the most common ailments. However, bronchitis had the lowest treatment cost, an average of $226 per child.
Mental disorders were the fifth most commonly treated condition (5 million children) and had the highest treatment cost, an average of $2,483 per child.
Medicare paid the largest share of treatment costs for asthma (51 percent) and mental disorders (46 percent), while private insurance paid the largest share for the treatment of middle-ear infections (64 percent), trauma (62 percent) and bronchitis (55 percent).
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New Bill Would Boost Monitoring of Medical Implants
Legislation introduced in the U.S. Senate Wednesday would require makers of artificial hips and other medical implants to monitor the performance of their products after they receive Food and Drug Administration approval.
Recently, there have been a number of problems with artificial hips and other medical implants and the bill is meant to address longstanding complaints by patients advocates and others about the FDA's approval system for certain types of implants, The New York Times reported.
Under what's known as the 510(k) process, the manufacturer need only show that a new product is "substantially similar" to a product already on the market. Thousands of all-metal hips approved under this process are now failing prematurely in patients.
The new bill would not require pre-approval testing of such medical implants but would give the FDA the power to force companies to gather data on the performance of the products. The bill would also boost federal scrutiny of product recalls, The Times reported.
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Minnesota Boy Contracts Rare Swine Flu Strain
An extremely rare strain of swine flu has been reported in Minnesota infant who is only the second person ever to contract the H1N2 strain.
The boy was diagnosed in October and has since recovered, CBS News reported. There haven't been any other cases, according to health officials.
The flu shot does not protect against H1N2, which is common in pigs in the Upper Midwest, according to CBS local affiliate WCCO.
Neither the boy or his family had direct contact with swine and it appears his case is an unusual mutation of the H1N2 virus.
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U.S. Had Record-Low Marriage Rate in 2010
A record-low 51 percent of adults aged 18 and older in the United States were married in 2010, compared with 72 percent in 1960, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of U.S. Census data.
The most dramatic decline in marriage has occurred among adults ages 18 to 29. Just 20 percent of them were married last year, compared with 59 percent in 1960.
The median age at first marriage is also at its highest -- 26.5 years for women and 28.7 years for men -- and over the past 50 years has risen by about six years for both women and men.
The decline in marriage has been accompanied by an increase in cohabitation, single-person households and single parenthood. If current trends continue, the percentage of U.S. adults who are currently married will fall below half within a few years, the researchers said.
They also found that the number of new marriages in the U.S. fell by 5 percent between 2009 and 2010.
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Medicare Won't Pay Prescription Drug Bills Believed to be Fraudulent
If there's evidence of fraud, Medicare will not pay prescription drug bills, Vice President Joe Biden said Tuesday.
He said the new policy will eliminate the need for Medicare to try to recover money after it has been paid out. The move was welcomed by experts, USA Today reported.
Instead of waiting until after a claim is paid, Medicare can now stop payment when fraud is first detected in the Part D prescription drug program.
In 2011, the Justice Department recovered $2.9 billion from health care fraud, USA Today reported.
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FDA Issues Warning Letters About Lap-Band Ads
Warning letters have been sent to a number of California surgical centers and a marketing firm about misleading advertising of the Lap-Band weight-loss device, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said Tuesday.
The Lap-Band is FDA-approved for weight loss in obese adults. The warning letters inform the recipients that their billboards and advertising inserts promoting the Lap-Band do not provide required risk information, including warnings, precautions, possible side effects and contraindications.
In addition, the font size of advertising insert information outlining risks may be too small to be read by consumers, the FDA said.
The warning letters were sent to: Beverly Hills Surgery Center; Palmdale Ambulatory Center; Valley Surgical Center; Top Surgeons LLC; Valencia Ambulatory Center LLC; Cosmopolitan Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery; San Diego Ambulatory Center LLC; and to the marketing firm 1-800-GET-THIN.
If the companies don't take action to correct these issues, the FDA says it is prepared to take further measures, including product seizures or fines.
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Numerous Problems at Heart Start Centers
Expired infant formula in the fridge, a screw protruding from a bookcase at child-height level, a machete near a play area, and household chemicals accessible to preschoolers are among the numerous violations found at Head Start centers across the United States, according to a report by the Inspector General of the U.S. Health and Human Services Department.
Head Start is a federal program that gives grant dollars to public, nonprofit and for-profit programs to provide early education services to nearly 1 million low-income children nationwide, the Associated Press reported.
The review of 24 audits of Head Start "grantees" running 175 facilities in seven states found that 21 of the 24 grantees did not comply fully with rules requiring them to conduct criminal and other background checks of instructors.
The Inspector General also found that toxic chemicals labeled "keep out of reach of children" and cleaning supplies were accessible to children at 90 percent of the Head Start facilities.
More than 70 percent of the facilities had open or broken gates leading to parking lots, streets or unsupervised areas, and inadequate or broken fences. More than half had playground equipment that was not in good repair, the AP reported.
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Cilantro Recalled in Seven States
Concern about possible salmonella contamination has triggered the recall of 6,141 cartons of cilantro that were shipped to seven states by California-based Pacific Cilantro.
The company said the cilantro is being recalled as a precaution after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration found salmonella in a sample of the herbs, the Associated Press reported.
The cilantro, which was grown by Salt River Farming in the Phoenix-area, was distributed in Arizona, California, Indiana, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Jersey and South Carolina. Each bunch has "Pacific" on the twist tie and the UPC code 33383 80104.
Consumers are being told to return cilantro that was bought after Nov. 16 and before Dec. 10, the AP reported.
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Cooked Chicken Breasts Recalled by N. Carolina Company
About 4,000 pounds of cooked chicken breasts that may be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes have been recalled by the House of Raeford Farms of North Carolina.
The recall includes 18- to 22-pound boxes that contain two 9- to 11-pound "boneless oven roasted chicken breasts" per box, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, CNN reported.
The recalled products have the serial number "P-239A" inside the USDA mark of inspection, a product of "94268" and a package date of "1270" (Sept. 27, 2011). The chicken breasts were distributed to delicatessens and food service institutions in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina.
The USDA said there have been no reported cases of illness associated with the recalled chicken breasts, CNN said.
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Robotic Therapy May Help Some Stroke Survivors Walk
THURSDAY, Dec. 15 (HealthDay News) -- Using a robotic assist system along with conventional rehabilitation therapy boosts the walking ability of people who've suffered a severe stroke, Italian researchers say.
They tracked 48 stroke survivors who were unable to walk at the start of the study. Half of the patients underwent conventional gait rehabilitation and half had conventional rehab plus robotic-assisted gait training for several months.
The robotic devices are therapist-controlled electromechanical platforms attached to the patient's feet. The therapist assesses the patient's status and then progressively sets the walking pace and bearing weight.
The patients' mobility was evaluated while in hospital, at discharge and then again two years later.
Among the patients in the robotic device-assisted group, only those with the greatest degree of disability showed improvement, according to the study published in the Dec. 15 issue of the journal Stroke.
"After two years, five times more patients who underwent robotic assistance training were able to walk without assistance, but only the most severely impaired," lead researcher Dr. Giovanni Morone, a physiatrist specialist and temporary assistant professor at the Santa Lucia Foundation, Institute for Research Hospitalization and Health Care in Rome, said in a journal news release.
"In others it seemed to make little difference, so the patient selection for this type of treatment is most important," he noted.
Some studies have found that robotic assistance can help improve stroke patients' mobility for six months, while others have found that it's equal to or less effective than having patients walk outside, the researchers pointed out in the news release..............
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Obama Is Willing To Incite Class Warfare, Regardless of the Possible Dire Consequences: Obama understands that his chances for re-election depend on his ability to use deceit to deflect blame from himself onto corporate America
It is still tough to borrow money. Unemployment in the United States is still close to 10 percent, and the recovery Obama promised seems farther away than ever. This is why there is anger in the streets. This is why there will be blood in the streets. And what exactly is Obama doing to clamp down on the unrest? He is complicit with the reactionaries in blaming Wall Street. Obama has failed to accept his role in the ongoing collapse, even though he helped panic the markets in 2008 when he warned that the banking crisis could cause a financial panic. The President has promised a recovery, but it is a mirage. He understands that, and his chances for re-election depend on his ability to deflect blame onto corporate America. He is willing to incite class warfare,.....
Obama Is Willing To Incite Class Warfare, Regardless of the Possible Dire Consequences: Obama understands that his chances for re-election depend on his ability to use deceit to deflect blame from himself onto corporate America
Personal Liberty Digest -- 11/17/2011 -- President Barack Obama promised a recovery, but it is a mirage.
You don’t have to be a news buff to have heard about the deadbeat protesters that are occupying cities in North America and Europe. I have seen lots of coverage but little insight. What I have noticed in big Canadian cities is that the protesters are angry without cause.
Canada is in the midst of an economic recovery. The unemployment rate is slightly above 7 percent, and the Canadian dollar is up 25 percent against the greenback in just the past 2.5 years. While people rage against spending cuts in nations like Greece, there isn’t a hint that Canadians will have to endure any reduction in government benefits. In other words, Canadians have never had it so good; yet they, too, are angry enough to take to the streets.
Canadians recently demonstrated that they don’t need a good reason to riot. Hundreds of people tried to burn downtown Vancouver last June because their hockey team lost the Stanley Cup. Those riots tell me that there is more to this growing global unrest than just a bunch of anarchists and addicts, even though two of the protesters in Vancouver have overdosed on heroin during the crusade. Nobody would confuse those two with a Leon Trotsky or Maximilien Robespierre.
I am not going to concern myself with the cause of the unrest in Canada or anywhere else. Long after the Russian and French revolutions, historians cannot agree on what caused them. What concerns me and what you need to protect yourself from are civil unrest and the response by our government.When Revolutions Spin Out Of Control
It is worth remembering that the French Revolution started slowly but quickly gathered steam. What began with concessions from Louis XVI sparked the Liberté, which morphed into Robespierre and his Reign of Terror. At one point, more than 1,000 French people were guillotined every month. Robespierre lost his head before it ended.
The bloodshed during the Russian Revolution was far worse. It is estimated that 5 million to 10 million people were killed during that revolt. To that total, add more than 40 million Soviets who died at the hands of the resulting dictator, Joseph Stalin.Obama’s Blame Game
I understand there is a lot of anger in America. I, too, am an American citizen and I am angry. However, I don’t blame big corporations or big banks for this worsening crisis. I lay it where it belongs, squarely on the shoulders of the Federal government.
The Administration of President Bill Clinton was eager to do away with financial regulations. The Administration of President George W. Bush wanted everyone to own a home, whether he could afford it or not. And when it all blew apart three years ago, the Federal government forced U.S. investment banks to accept $125 billion in taxpayer money. (I urge you to read the bestseller by Andrew Sorkin, Too Big to Fail.)
It began in the summer of 2008. When the markets began to crash, the Chinese and Russians threatened to sell their $1 trillion in U.S. assets. Then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson held the system together until American International Group Inc. began to fail. AIG had never been regulated. Why? In the words of Paulson, the former chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs Group Inc.: "Because everyone was too busy making money."And So Now We Fall
Washington’s turning a blind eye to regulating investment banks precipitated this crisis. Since they were let off the hook, the investment banks did what they are dictated to do under a free market system; they made as much money for their shareholders as they could.
When it all broke down in September of 2008, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and Paulson took the extraordinary measure of getting the Federal government to inject the largest bailout ever organized. But Washington’s malfeasance didn’t stop there.
Congress’ first vote for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) failed. Paulson forced the nine largest U.S. investment banks to accept the bailout. Even banks that didn’t want Washington’s ownership or participation were forced to swallow it.
The dominoes paused. Even though the stock market declined another 37 percent, the injection of money and the nationalization of the banks stopped an economic collapse.
It will prove to be a temporary solution. It is still tough to borrow money. Unemployment in the United States is still close to 10 percent, and the recovery Obama promised seems farther away than ever.
This is why there is anger in the streets. This is why there will be blood in the streets. And what exactly is Obama doing to clamp down on the unrest? He is complicit with the reactionaries in blaming Wall Street.
Obama has failed to accept his role in the ongoing collapse, even though he helped panic the markets in 2008 when he warned that the banking crisis could cause a financial panic.
The President has promised a recovery, but it is a mirage. He understands that, and his chances for re-election depend on his ability to deflect blame onto corporate America. He is willing to incite class warfare, regardless of the consequences.
The dominoes that began falling more than three years ago continue to tumble today. In 2008, the big banks were falling one after the other. Now, individual nations and even communities are set to tumble.
I urge you to take the proper steps, to be the "1 percent" who prepare for the whirlwind that is coming. Consider Sun Tzu’s words in The Art of War:
"Therefore one who is good at martial arts overcomes others’ forces without battle, conquers others’ cities without siege, destroys others’ without taking a long time."
It’s called "strategic siege." It is a long-range strategy to achieve one’s goals. Even as you read this, it is being practiced against you. It wasn’t engineered by fat cat bankers. They are the fall guys. It is being orchestrated by our President and by the very Congress that has falsely sworn to protect us.
Yours in good times and bad,
–John Myers
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Dec. 02, 2011 to Dec. 09, 2011Health Highlights
**Eating Raw Cookie Dough Raises Illness Risk.
**Cantaloupe Listeria Outbreak That Caused 30 Deaths Over: CDC.
**Dangerous Texting While Driving Rises in U.S.
**CooperVision Avaira Aquaform Sphere Soft Contact Lenses Recalled.
**Many Cereals Very High in Sugar.
**Stronger Graduated License Laws For Teens Could Prevent More Than 2,000 Road Deaths Each Year.
**Japanese Baby Formula Recalled Due to Radiation.
**Consumers Groups, Others Gain Access to Medicare Claims Database.
**Flashing White Lights Scene in 'Breaking Dawn' Movie Poses Seizure Risk.
**Starchy Foods May Boost Risk of Breast Cancer Recurrence.
Health Highlights (Dec. 02, 2011 to Dec. 09, 2011)
Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by the editors of HealthDay:
Eating Raw Cookie Dough Raises Illness Risk
Eating raw cookie dough is a bad idea, a new case study confirms.
Researchers analyzing one 2009 outbreak found that 33 of 35 patients with food-borne illness consumed cookie dough, compared with four of 36 people with no illness. The study was published Friday in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases.
"Eleven per cent versus 94 per cent is a very large difference, and we can do some statistical analyses to see whether or not you would expect to see that by chance, and we didn't find that. It's very unlikely that that discrepancy occurred by chance," Dr. Karen Neil, a medical epidemiologist at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told the Associated Press.
While many people enjoy eating raw cookie dough, others have long warned against it. The dough can contain salmonella from ingredients such as raw eggs, experts point out, but the new study suggests that E. coli can lurk in the dough as well.
"My recommendation, the general recommendation, is that you should not consume raw cookie dough, regardless of who makes it, whether it's made at home or as a commercial product," Neil told the AP. "That is the safest thing to avoid illness."
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Cantaloupe Listeria Outbreak That Caused 30 Deaths Over: CDC
An outbreak of listeriosis caused by cantaloupes affected a total of 146 people in 28 states, according to a final report by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The outbreak involving four strains of Listeria monocytogenes caused 30 deaths, and a woman who was pregnant when she became ill suffered a miscarriage.
A CDC investigation found that the outbreak was caused by whole cantaloupes from Jensen Farms in Colorado.
All available evidence indicates that the outbreak is over, the CDC said.
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Dangerous Texting While Driving Rises in U.S.
There was a 50 percent increase in texting while driving in the United States in 2010 and about one in five drivers say they've sent text messages or emails while on the road, according to a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration study released Thursday.
The increase in this dangerous practice occurred despite a growing number of states that have banned texting while driving. Last month, Pennsylvania became the 35th state to outlaw the behavior, the Associated Press reported.
The NHTSA study found that the number of drivers who texted or used other hand-held devices while behind the wheel increased from 0.6 percent in 2009 to just under one percent last year.
The use of headsets also increased from 0.6 percent to 0.9 percent, but the use of handheld cell phones remained steady at five percent.
An NHTSA survey of more than 6,000 drivers 18 and older found that 18 percent of them said they've sent text messages or emails while driving.
"It is clear that educational messages alone aren't going to change their behavior," Jonathon Adkins, a spokesman for the Governors Highway Safety Association, told the AP. "Rather, good laws with strong enforcement are what is needed. Many drivers won't stop texting until they fear getting a ticket. The increase shows what an uphill challenge distracted driving remains."
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CooperVision Avaira Aquaform Sphere Soft Contact Lenses Recalled
Silicone oil residue on certain lots of CooperVision Avaira Aquaform Sphere soft contact lenses has prompted a recall of the products, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday.
The oil residue can cause hazy or blurry vision, discomfort or eye injuries that require medical treatment.
The recalled lenses were made between Feb. 1, 2011 through Aug. 24, 2011 and distributed from March 2, 2011 through Nov. 15, 2011.
Consumers with these contact lenses should stop wearing them and contact an eye professional for advice, the FDA said.
For more information, go to CooperVision's recall website (www.coopervision.com/international-recall) or call the company's consumer hotline at 1-855-526-6737.
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Many Cereals Very High in Sugar
One-cup servings of 44 types of cereals contain more sugar than three Chips Ahoy cookies (11 grams of sugar) and one-cup servings of another three cereals have more sugar than a Hostess Twinkie (17.5 grams of sugar), according to an Environmental Working Group study released Tuesday.
The analysis of 84 cereals found that Honey Smacks, Golden Crisp and Wheaties Fuel had more sugar in a one-cup serving than a Twinkie, the Washington Post reported.
Apple Jacks, Cap'n Crunch and Honey Nut Cheerios were among the 44 cereals with more sugar in a one-cup serving than three Chips Ahoy cookies.
The study also found that sugar makes up more than a third of the cereal by weight in nearly three dozen brands, including the original and "all berries" versions of Cap'n Crunch and the original and "marshmallow" versions of Froot Loops.
"Most parents would never serve dessert for breakfast, but many children's cereals have just as much sugar or more," Jane Houlihan, senior vice president of research for the nonprofit Environmental Working Group, told the Post. "I wasn't surprised that so many of these cereals contained sugar. I was surprised at the very high amounts."
The U.S. government is currently considering voluntary guidelines to limit the amount of sodium, fat and added sugars in foods and drinks marketed to children ages 2 to 17. The food industry opposes the proposal, which would take effect in 2016.
The guidelines would permit up to 13 grams of added sugar per 50 grams of cereal, which means a cereal could be about one-quarter sugar by weight. That limit is exceeded by two-thirds of the cereals included in the study.
The food industry wants the limit to be no more than 10 grams of sugar per listed serving size. Most of the cereals included in the study are below that threshold, but a quarter are above it, the Post reported.
Many cereal makers claimed that the Environmental Working Group study is misleading in a number of ways. For example, only two of the cereals -- Apple Jacks and Froot Loops Original -- on the "10 worst" list are marketed to children, according to industry advocates.
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Stronger Graduated License Laws For Teens Could Prevent More Than 2,000 Road Deaths Each Year
More than 2,000 road deaths could be prevented each year in the United States if every state established comprehensive graduated driver licensing (GDL) laws for teens, a new report says.
All states have some form of GDL but only two states, New York and Delaware, have programs that contain all seven components that make the programs most effective, according to John Ulczycki of the National Safety Council, USA Today reported.
The NSC researched the issue for the Allstate Foundation.
Congress is currently preparing to consider a multiyear highway and transit spending bill and proponents of GDL laws are lobbying lawmakers to include about $25 million a year in incentives for states to strengthen GDL programs, USA Today reported.
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Japanese Baby Formula Recalled Due to Radiation
A Japanese company has recalled baby formula after traces of radiation were detected in the products.
Meiji Co. said the recall of canned powdered milk for infants was a precaution, and the amounts of radioactive cesium were well below government safety limits and would not harm babies' health even if they drank the formula every day, the Associated Press reported.
Since the meltdown earlier this year of three reactors at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant in northern Japan, radiation has been detected in a number of foods, such as fish, beef and rice. But this is the first report of radiation in baby formula.
Meiji Co. said airborne radioactive cesium contaminated milk as it was being dried at a plant in March, according to Kyodo News, the AP reported.
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Consumers Groups, Others Gain Access to Medicare Claims Database
Medicare will allow the use of its claims database to create ratings of hospitals, doctors and other health care service providers, officials said Monday.
The ratings, which would have to adhere to valid statistical methods, could be produced by consumer groups, employers and others. Medical providers would have 60 days to privately challenge a rating before it is made public, the Associated Press reported.
This is a "giant step forward" in helping patients make decisions about their medical care while holding providers accountable for quality, Medicare acting administrator Marilyn Tavenner said.
Consumer groups, which have long lobbied for the release of the data, are still analyzing the fine print, the AP reported.
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Flashing White Lights Scene in 'Breaking Dawn' Movie Poses Seizure Risk
Flashing white lights in the birth scene of the movie "Breaking Dawn" can cause seizures in some people, the Epilepsy Foundation of America warns on a Facebook posting.
At least nine people have reported suffering photosensitive seizures during the scene, ABC News reported.
The flashing white lights can cause brain neurons to start firing in synch instead of their usual random patterns.
"When the brain is functioning normally, there are neurons firing all over the place," Dr. Dan Lowenstein, director of the University of California, San Francisco Epilepsy Center, told ABC News. "During a seizure, there's an abnormal synchronization that we don't usually have."
In 1997, more than 700 people in Japan were hospitalized after suffering seizures caused by special effects in a Pokemon cartoon.
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Starchy Foods May Boost Risk of Breast Cancer Recurrence
THURSDAY, Dec. 8 (HealthDay News) -- Increased consumption of carbohydrate-rich foods, especially starches, may boost the risk of breast cancer recurrence, new research finds.
Researcher Jennifer Emond, a public health doctoral student at the University of California, San Diego, looked at changes in the amount of carbohydrates, particularly starchy foods such as potatoes, that breast cancer survivors ate over a one-year period. Then she tracked the number of recurrences.
"Women who increased their carbohydrates and particularly their starch intake had a greater risk of recurrence than the women who decreased [it]," she said.
A link between a high-carb diet and a higher breast cancer risk has been reported before, but this new study focused particularly on starchy carbs, said Emond. She was scheduled to present the findings this week at the 2011 San Antonio Breast Cancer Conference.
Carbohydrates provide needed nutrients and energy, but some carbs are healthier than others. Refined carbohydrates, such as white breads and white pasta, contain more starch than whole grains. "We didn't pinpoint the exact foods," Emond said.
Emond said she cannot explain the link between starch and breast cancer recurrence with certainty. However, starchy foods boost insulin levels, and elevated insulin levels have been linked with higher breast cancer risk, she said. The insulin may stimulate the growth of tumor cells, she explained.
The increased risk with higher starch intake held even when weight changes were taken into account, Emond said. Obesity and breast cancer have long been linked.
Emond agreed it's too soon to make new diet recommendations. However, she suggested women follow the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, which recommend limiting foods with added sugars that contribute to starch intake, she said..........
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Recovery to Begin Once Obama Is Voted Out of the White House: "The fact of the matter is I think that we haven’t even begun the recovery under this president's watch. Unfortunately, this guy is in over his head, in my opinion, big time," says Home Depot co-founder Ken Langone
"If we change the faces in the White House, we're on the road to recovery," Ken Langone says. "I believe it's that simple: we need leadership, we need cheerleading, we need encouragement," he said. "We need businessmen & fat cats to feel like they're doing something good, not that they're villains & not that they're criminals. America's best days are ahead."The U.S. needs leadership committed to cutting back on spending,
Langone says. "The fact of the matter is I think that we haven’t even begun the recovery under this president's watch. Unfortunately, this guy is in over his head, in my opinion, big time. We got to have a change in the White House," Langone says. "Politicians are like drug addicts around money."
Recovery to Begin Once Obama Is Voted Out of the White House: "The fact of the matter is I think that we haven’t even begun the recovery under this president's watch. Unfortunately, this guy is in over his head, in my opinion, big time," says Home Depot co-founder Ken Langone
By: Forrest Jones
Moneynews -- 11/22/2011 -- The U.S. economy will embark on the road to recovery once President Barack Obama is voted out of the White House, says billionaire investor and Home Depot co-founder Ken Langone.
"If we change the faces in the White House, we're on the road to recovery," Langone tells CNBC.
"I believe it's that simple: we need leadership, we need cheerleading, we need encouragement," he told CNBC.
"We need businessmen and fat cats to feel like they're doing something good, not that they're villains and not that they're criminals. America's best days are ahead."
The U.S. needs leadership committed to cutting back on spending,
Langone says, criticizing leaders for allegedly ignoring recommendations made by his deficit watchdog panel headed by Erskine Bowles, former Clinton chief of staff, and former Republican Senator Alan Simpson.
"The fact of the matter is I think that we haven’t even begun the recovery under this president's watch. Unfortunately, this guy is in over his head, in my opinion, big time. We got to have a change in the White House," Langone says, adding both sides of the political aisle deserve some blame as well.
"Politicians are like drug addicts around money. They can't stop themselves."
A congressional supercommittee, made up of six Democrats and six Republicans, failed to come up with ways to cut spending by $1.2 trillion, a task they were given as part of a compromise to raise the government's debt ceiling back in August.
Market watchers have said that continued political impasses in Washington will fuel more volatility on Wall Street and could hamper economic growth, the latter of which appears to be souring.
The government recently revised the country's third-quarter gross domestic product growth rate to 2 percent from 2.5 percent, and economists say spending concerns and political bickering in Washington will continue to weigh down on growth.
"We expect the rate of economic growth to weaken in the current quarter, and the situation may deteriorate further if uncertainty arising from the super committee budget discussions and the debt crisis in Europe continue to adversely affect both business and consumer confidence in the U.S. and its major export markets," says Chris Williamson, chief economist at Markit, a British research firm, according to the Los Angeles Times.
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Nov. 25, 2011 to Dec. 02, 2011Health Highlights
**Use of Pysch Meds High Among U.S. Foster Children.
**Grape Tomatoes Recalled.
**Senators Challenge Pfizer's Attempt to Block Generic Lipitor Sales.
**Laptops' Wi-Fi May Damage Sperm.
**Former Players Sue NCAA Over Head Injuries.
**Obesity Screening, Counseling Added to Medicare Coverage.
**Federal Government Appeals Ruling on Cigarette Warning Images.
**Scientists Spot Gene Linked to Sleep Duration.
**More U.S. Kids Being Exempted From Vaccinations.
**Chickenpox Shot Benefits More Than Babies.
**Ocean Spray Recalls Craisins.
**Opioids May Be Overused for Chronic Stomach Pain: Doubling of prescriptions over 10 years is cause for concern.
**Kids of All Weights Benefit From Car Seats: Even overweight children safer when using the correct seat for their height and weight.
**Birds Every Bit As Smart As Apes.
Health Highlights (Nov. 25, 2011 to Dec. 02, 2011)
Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by the editors of HealthDay:
Use of Pysch Meds High Among U.S. Foster Children
Foster children in the United States are being prescribed powerful psychotropic drugs at rates 2.7 to 4.5 higher than other children and often receive much higher doses of the drugs, according to Government Accountability Office investigation findings released Thursday.
The two-year investigation also found that hundreds of foster children are being prescribed five or more of the drugs at once, which can cause severe side effects such as suicidal behavior and diabetes, the Associated Press reported.
Psychotropic drugs, which affect the central nervous system and can change behavior or perception, are prescribed for depression, anxiety, schizophrenia and other psychiatric conditions.
Some of the drugs are not approved for used by young children and have "black box" label warnings for children's safety, but doctors often prescribe them off-label, the AP reported.
The GAO offered a number of reasons why prescription rates for the drugs are much higher among foster children for a number of reasons, including lax oversight by state agencies and the fact that these children have greater exposure to trauma before they enter foster care.
Critics contend the drugs are overused as a chemical restraint for disorderly children, the AP reported.
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Grape Tomatoes Recalled
Potential salmonella contamination has prompted the recall of 10-ounce and 10-pound bulk packages of grape tomatoes distributed by Front Row Produce in St. Louis.
The tomatoes were supplied by Rio Queen Citrus of Mission, Texas and shipped to food service distributors and retail stores in Illinois and Missouri, the Associated Press reported.
No illnesses have been reported in connection with the contamination, which was discovered after random testing by Rio Queen Citrus.
For more information, consumers can call Front Row Produce at 314-241-4700.
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Senators Challenge Pfizer's Attempt to Block Generic Lipitor Sales
Three U.S. Senators are challenging drug maker Pfizer's attempts to persuade health insurance and benefits companies to favor its cholesterol-lowering statin drug Lipitor over new generic drugs.
Pfizer's patent on Lipitor recently expired and the company is offering large discounts to pharmacy benefit managers who block the generic competitors. Pharmacy benefit managers are middlemen between drug companies and health insurance providers, ABC News reported.
"Consumers and taxpayers foot the bill when drug benefit companies and insurers manipulate the marketplace to prevent access to generic drugs for millions of Americans," Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.) said in a statement. "We hope that scrutiny into these business practices will restore fairness and open the gates to affordable prescription drug choices and tremendous cost savings."
Kohl and Senators Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) want Pfizer, three pharmacy benefit companies and two insurance companies to provide more information about the agreements, ABC News reported.
"By working with manufacturers to push brand-name drugs, drug benefit companies may be abusing Medicare to boost their profits and denying generic alternatives to patients - a practice that needs to end immediately," Baucus said in a statement. "We need to take a close look to ensure we're protecting both taxpayer dollars and access to the medicine patients need."
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Laptops' Wi-Fi May Damage Sperm
A new study raises questions about whether using wi-fi on a laptop could harm a man's sperm.
Semen samples from 29 healthy donors were each divided into two pots. One pot was stored for four hours next to a laptop wirelessly connected to the Internet and the other pot was stored under identical conditions, but without the laptop, BBC News reported.
The researchers found that sperm in the pot next to the laptop were damaged. Their ability to swim was reduced and they had changes in the genetic code they carry. While heat can harm sperm, the researchers don't believe this damage was caused by heat from the laptop.
The study appears in the journal Fertility and Sterility.
Experts said this test was not conducted in a real-world setting and the findings should not cause men undue worry. However, they recommended more studies, BBC News reported.
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Former Players Sue NCAA Over Head Injuries
A class-action suit by four former U.S. college athletes claims the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) has been negligent regarding awareness and treatment of brain injuries to athletes.
The suit, which represents three former football players and a former soccer player, was filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, The New York Times reported.
One of the plaintiffs is 22-year-old Derek Owens. He suffered a brain injury last year while playing football for the University of Central Arkansas. He has suffered from headaches and depression, is under medical care, and can never play a contact sport again.
In the past five years, there's been a growing awareness of brain injuries in contact sports. The legal action by the college players followed lawsuits filed this year by dozens of former pro football players who claim the National Football League was negligent in its handling of brain trauma.
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Obesity Screening, Counseling Added to Medicare Coverage
Screening and counseling for obesity have been added to Medicare coverage, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced Tuesday.
Beneficiaries who screen positive for obesity will receive face-to-face counseling each week for one month and then every other week for an additional five months.
A beneficiary may receive one face-to-face counseling session a month for an additional six months if he or she has achieved a weight reduction of at least 6.6 pounds during the first six months of counseling.
More than 30 percent of Medicare beneficiaries are estimated to be obese, which is directly or indirectly linked to many chronic diseases, including diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
"Obesity is a challenge faced by Americans of all ages, and prevention is crucial for the management and elimination of obesity in our country," CMS Administrator Dr. Donald M. Berwick said in a CMS news release. "It's important for Medicare patients to enjoy access to appropriate screening and preventive services."
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Federal Government Appeals Ruling on Cigarette Warning Images
A judge's order blocking a U.S. government requirement that cigarette packs carry graphic warning images is being appealed by the Obama administration.
In a ruling earlier this month, U.S. District Judge Richard Leon said tobacco companies are likely to succeed in a lawsuit to stop a Food and Drug Administration requirement to place the images across the top half of all cigarette packs, the Associated Press reported.
Leon said the images, which include photos of diseased and dead smokers, go beyond conveying the facts about the health risks of smoking and amount to stop-smoking advocacy.
The FDA requirement was to take effect next year, but Leon blocked it until after the tobacco companies' lawsuit is resolved, which could take years, the AP reported.
Notice of appeal was filed Tuesday with the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington.
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Scientists Spot Gene Linked to Sleep Duration
A gene that may explain why some people can function on a limited amount of sleep has been identified by German scientists.
They examined the genomes and sleep habits of more than 4,000 people in seven European countries and found that those with two copies of a particular variant of the ABCC9 gene generally slept less than those with two copies of a different version of the gene, ABC News reported.
The researchers also discovered that the ABCC9 gene controls sleep duration in fruit flies, which provides a clue about the gene's evolutionary age.
A study released in 2010 identified genetic differences that make some people sleepier during the day, even after they've a good night's sleep, ABC News reported.
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More U.S. Kids Being Exempted From Vaccinations
In eight states, more than 1 in 20 public school kindergarten students aren't getting all the vaccinations required for attendance and more than half of states have had at least a slight increase in the rate of parental exemptions over the past five years, according to an Associated Press analysis.
Rules for exemptions vary between states and can include medical, religious and even philosophical reasons.
In 2010-11, Alaska had the highest exemption rate (9 percent), followed by Colorado (7 percent), Minnesota (6.5 percent), Vermont and Washington (6 percent). Oregon, Michigan and Illinois were close behind. The lowest exemption rate was in Mississippi, the AP found.
Over five years, vaccine exemptions rose in more than half of states and the rate of exemptions increased by about 1.5 percent in 10 states.
The growing trend of parents seeking vaccination exemptions for their children has health officials concerned about possible outbreaks of diseases that had been all but eliminated, the AP reported.
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Chickenpox Shot Benefits More Than Babies
The number of infant chickenpox cases in the United States fell nearly 90 percent between 1995 and 2008, a new study finds.
The findings show that the vaccine not only protects the child who is vaccinated, but also infants who come into contact with the child afterward, FoxNews.com reported.
The vaccine isn't given to children younger than 12 months, but they indirectly benefit when older children receive the vaccine, the researchers explained. Their study appears in the journal Pediatrics.
"It's not impossible for kids to have chickenpox after they've been vaccinated, even if they have two doses of vaccine. But the case is so mild and benign that it's much, much better," Dr. Elaine Schulte, a pediatrician at the Cleveland Clinic Children's Hospital, told FoxNews.com.
She was not involved in the study.
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Ocean Spray Recalls Craisins
Possible contamination with small metal particles has prompted the recall of certain lots of packaged and bulk original flavor Craisins, which are sweetened dried cranberries.
The recall announced late Friday by Ocean Spray covers the following 5-ounce, 10-ounce and 48-ounce packages, as well as 10-pound bulk packages, msnbc.com reported:
- 5-oz. Craisins UPC: 00293-000 Best By Dates/Letter: Oct 27 2012 M
- 10-oz. Craisins UPC: 29456-000 and 29464-000 Best By Dates/Letter: Oct 27 2012 M, Oct 28 2012 M, Oct 29 2012 M
- 48-oz. Craisins UPC: 00678-318 Best By Dates/Letter: Oct 27 2012 M, Oct 28 2012 M, Nov 3 2012 M, Nov 4 2012 M, Nov 5 2012 M, Nov 6 2012 M, Nov 7 2012 M, Nov 10 2012 M, Nov 11 2012 M.
- 10-lb. bulk ingredient & food service UPC: 03477-000 Best By Dates/Letter: 30 Oct 2013 M, 31 Oct 2013 M, 1 Nov 2013 M, 5 Nov 2013 M.
Ocean Spray said consumers should destroy the recalled products, save the UPC labels and Best By dates and contact the company's consumer hotline at 1-800-662-3263, msnbc.com reported.
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Opioids May Be Overused for Chronic Stomach Pain: Doubling of prescriptions over 10 years is cause for concern
FRIDAY, Dec. 2 (HealthDay News) -- Prescriptions for opioid painkillers to treat chronic abdominal pain more than doubled in the United States between 1997 and 2008, according to a new study.
This large increase of prescriptions written at outpatient clinics is concerning for several reasons, said lead author Dr. Spencer Dorn, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of North Carolina Medical School at Chapel Hill, and colleagues.
Very little evidence exists to support the use of opioids to treat chronic pain that isn't cancer related, and opioids are frequently misused and sometimes abused, Dorn said. Extended use of opioids can trigger other gastrointestinal symptoms such as nausea, vomiting and constipation, and may even worsen abdominal pain, he added.
The study appears in the December issue of the journal Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology.
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Kids of All Weights Benefit From Car Seats: Even overweight children safer when using the correct seat for their height and weight
FRIDAY, Dec. 2 (HealthDay News) -- Child safety and booster seats protect children of all weights, including those on the heavy side.
That's the finding of a new study that looked at nearly 1,000 children, aged 1 to 8 years, who were involved in crashes. All of the children were properly restrained in the correct child safety or booster seat for their height and weight, according to the report published online and in the December print issue of the journal Pediatrics.
"Given that nearly 32 percent of children in the United States are categorized as overweight or obese, and motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death and injury for all children, we wanted to better understand how these two threats to children's health interact," lead author Dr. Mark Zonfrillo, an attending emergency physician at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, said in a hospital news release.
"This research should reassure parents that their only concern when it comes to car seat safety should be to follow the most recent guidelines set by the American Academy of Pediatrics," he added.
"There's no 'one-size-fits-all.' If your older child moved to a booster seat at age 5, don't necessarily assume it will be the same for his or her younger siblings," he said........
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Ravens Gesture With Beaks Just Like Humans Use Hands: Birds are every bit as smart, communicative as apes
THURSDAY, Dec. 1 (HealthDay News) -- A new study says ravens use their beaks to point out and hold up objects to attract the attention of other ravens, a behavior so far observed only in humans and great apes.
Researchers spent two years observing the non-vocal behavior of individually marked members of a wild raven community in Austria. The ravens used their beaks like hands to point to and offer objects such as moss, stones and twigs.
The gestures were most often directed at a partner of the opposite sex and frequently succeeded in getting the other raven to pay attention and interact, said the researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology and the University of Vienna.
Ravens are among the smartest of birds and their scores on various intelligence tests are similar to those of great apes, according to a news release. Ravens have a relatively high degree of cooperation between partners, complex communication within pairs, and take relatively long times to form bonds.
This study, published in the Nov. 29 issue of Nature Communications, shows that differentiated gestures are especially evolved in species with a high degree of collaborative abilities, the author says, and may help improve knowledge about the development of human language.
"Gesture studies have too long focused on communicative skills of primates only. The mystery of the origins of human language, however, can only be solved if we look at the bigger picture and also consider the complexity of the communication systems of other animal groups" study co-author Simone Pika, from the Max Planck Institute, said in the release.
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Obama Calling Americans and the Business Community Lazy Is 'Disgusting': Obama spends his time campaigning and vacationing instead of tending to the nation’s business
Donald Trump says President Barack Obama’s recent statement that Americans have become lazy is “disgusting,” and somewhat ironic, considering the president spends his time campaigning and vacationing instead of tending to the nation’s business. “I've been watching this for a long time and I’ve never seen any president work like this — this is crazy. . . . He’s really campaigning and vacationing. “It’s interesting that he calls people lazy — I mean, he’s done one business deal in his life — that was his house,” Trump said. “When they allow China to manipulate their currency, when they allow other people and other countries to do what they’re doing against our country — you know, it would be nice if the government could give a little help,” he said. “But for him to say that the business people of this country are lazy is....
Obama Calling Americans and the Business Community Lazy Is 'Disgusting': Obama spends his time campaigning and vacationing instead of tending to the nation’s business
By: Hiram Reisner
Newsmax -- 11/16/2011 --Donald Trump says President Barack Obama’s recent statement that Americans have become lazy is "disgusting," and somewhat ironic, considering the president spends his time campaigning and vacationing instead of tending to the nation’s business. The real estate mogul also told Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren Tuesday Obama’s comment was especially "interesting" because of his lack of business acumen.
Van Susteren noted that Trump recently tweeted about "the habitual vacationer calling America lazy this past weekend while in Hawaii," but Obama was at an economic summit, and she wondered whether Trump stood by his statement.
"Well, I do, indeed, when he’s using a 747 Boeing to go around — which is called Air Force One — to go around and campaign and raise funds," Trump said, adding he realized Obama’s predecessors used the presidential jet for their travels, but "I've been watching this for a long time and I’ve never seen any president work like this — this is crazy. . . . He’s really campaigning and vacationing.
"It’s interesting that he calls people lazy — I mean, he’s done one business deal in his life — that was his house," Trump said. "So it’s very interesting that he’s calling people lazy because he’s really referring to the business community, and they don’t give us the tools.
"When they allow China to manipulate their currency, when they allow other people and other countries to do what they’re doing against our country — you know, it would be nice if the government could give a little help," he said. "But for him to call — and I said it the other day on, actually, one of your shows . . . for him to say that the business people of this country are lazy is disgusting."
Switching gears, Van Susteren asked Trump — who earlier this year flirted with the possibility of a presidential run — his take on the current crop of GOP hopefuls.
"Well, it’s amazing because every day, it changes. Now, Newt — who’s a friend of mine — is doing very well," Trump said. "Mitt Romney is doing very well — I mean, he’s doing very well — but he just doesn’t seem to get that extra little bounce that you would think he’d get.
"You could say he’s got a very solid base — I mean, he doesn’t move down, and that’s a big statement that you make," he said. "He doesn’t move down — but you would think that he’d be bouncing like wild. He’s done great in the debates — he’s really done beautifully in every single debate."
Trump noted that Romney’s lack of traction is probably due to the fact that the GOP base doesn’t see the former Massachusetts governor "as conservative as they’d like to see."
"And yet, that’s a very smart game, potentially, because if he gets the nomination, he’s going to have a very good chance against Obama relative to other people that maybe are more conservative," Trump said. "So he’s playing a very fine-line game — and it may be brilliant. We’ll let you know in about a year — right?"
Van Susteren then asked Trump why he believed Gingrich has recently polled so well, when several months ago many gave the former speaker’s campaign up for dead.
"Well, he’s got some very good conservative views, but I think maybe more than anything else, he really is a very good debater," Trump said. "And you know I like him because he’s a member of my great golf club in Washington, D.C. — I love people that join my clubs."
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Nov. 18, 2011 to Nov. 25, 2011Health Highlights
**Low Levels of Arsenic Common in Apple Juice: FDA.
**New Insomnia Drug Approved by FDA.
**Baseball Players Will be Tested for Human Growth Hormone.
**Group Issues Annual List of Unsafe Toys.
**Dog Illnesses May be Linked to Chicken Jerky Treats.
**HIV/AIDS Epidemic May be Leveling Off.
**Foster Children In The United States Are More Likely Than Mentally-Ill Children To Receive a Cocktail of Powerful Antipsychotic Drugs.
**Autoimmune Woes May Raise Risk for Lung Clots: Risks climbed for patients hospitalized for such conditions as rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn's.
**More Aggressive Chemo May Help Younger Lymphoma Patients.
**Four Common Meds Send Thousands of Seniors to Hospital.
**Newer Blood Thinner May Pose Danger to Trauma Patients.
**Yawning May Cool the Brain When Needed.
Health Highlights (Nov. 18, 2011 to Nov. 25, 2011)
Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by the editors of HealthDay:
Low Levels of Arsenic Common in Apple Juice: FDA
Low levels of the toxic heavy metal arsenic were found in most samples of apple juice tested by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, according to new data released by the agency.
The FDA said 95 percent of the 160 apple juice samples collected between 2005 and 2011 had arsenic levels below 23 parts per billion (the agency's "level of concern"), and nearly 88 percent of the samples had levels less than 10 ppb, ABC News reported.
Eight samples of apple juice contained high levels of arsenic.
The FDA said it has increased its monitoring of arsenic levels in apple juice and will continue to collect samples for analysis. The agency also plans to establish what level of arsenic is considered safe and will be able to take action against juice makers who fail to meet that standard, ABC News reported.
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New Insomnia Drug Approved by FDA
The first insomnia drug for people who wake in the middle of the night and then have trouble getting back to sleep has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Intermezzo (zolpidem tartrate sublingual tablets) should only be used when a person has at least four hours of bedtime remaining and should not be taken with any other sleep aids or if a person had consumed alcohol, the FDA said.
Zolpidem tartrate was first approved in 1992 in the United States under the brand name Ambien. Intermezzo is a lower dose formulation of zolpidem.
The recommended and maximum doses are 3.5 milligrams for men and 1.75 mg for women, taken once per night. The dose is lower for women because their bodies take longer to clear the drug.
The approval was based on two clinical trials involving more than 370 patients. Patients who took the drug fell back to sleep quicker than those who took a placebo. Headache, nausea and fatigue were the most common adverse side effects reported by patients taking Intermezzo, the FDA said.
Intermezzo is made by California-based Transcept Pharmaceuticals Inc.
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Baseball Players Will be Tested for Human Growth Hormone
Professional baseball players will be tested for human growth hormone beginning next spring.
Under the new Major League Baseball contract, each player will have a blood test for HGH in spring training, but the testing will not continue during the regular season. It will resume after the season ends, The New York Times reported.
Owners and players will then decide whether to conduct HGH testing during the 2013 regular season.
HGH, which cannot be legally used without a prescription, can help athletes recover quickly and build muscle mass, according to experts. Over the past decade, dozens of baseball players have been tied to HGH, The Times reported.
Major League Baseball will be the first professional sports league in North America to test players for HGH.
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Group Issues Annual List of Unsafe Toys
A Sesame Street Oscar doll, a plastic book for babies, and a wooden blocks set are among the toys that could harm children this holiday season, according to the U.S. Public Research Interest Group's 26th annual "Trouble in Toyland" report.
The document lists just over a dozen toys on store shelves that violate federal safety standards for lead and chemicals called phthalates, or that could pose a choking hazard for small children, the Associated Press reported.
Toys that are too loud and could damage hearing, as well as balloons, were also cited as potential dangers by PIRG. Balloons cause more choking deaths than any other children's product.
Toy recalls in the United States have declined in recent years and PIRG credits a 2008 law that set stricter standards for children's products, the AP reported.
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Dog Illnesses May be Linked to Chicken Jerky Treats
Chicken jerky treats imported from China may be to blame for dog illnesses and deaths in the United States, the Food and Drug Administration warns.
So far this year, at least 70 dogs have become ill after reportedly eating the jerky products and some of the dogs have died, msnbc.com reported.
FDA officials have not been able to pinpoint a specific contaminant and did not identify a particular brand of the chicken jerky products, also sold as chicken treats, chicken strips and chicken tenders.
Reports from dog owners and vets indicate that dogs may suffer a variety of illnesses within days or hours of eating the treats, including kidney failure, msnbc.com said.
Decreased appetite, vomiting, diarrhea, increased thirst and increased urination are among the symptoms. If they are severe or persist for more than 24 hours, take the dog to a veterinarian, the FDA said.
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HIV/AIDS Epidemic May be Leveling Off
The 2.7 million new HIV infections reported worldwide last year is about the same number as in the previous three years, which suggests that the HIV/AIDS epidemic is leveling off, according to a UNAIDS report released Monday.
The number of people with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, was about 34 million at the end of last year. That's slightly more than in previous years but UNAIDS said it is because people with HIV/AIDS are surviving longer, the Associated Press reported.
There were 1.8 million AIDS-related deaths in 2010, down from 1.9 million in 2009.
"It's looking promising, but the numbers are still at a scary level," Sophie Harman, a global health expert at City University in London, told the AP.
Harman, who was not connected to the UNAIDS report, also expressed doubt about UNAIDS' strategy for the next few years to work toward eliminating new HIV infections and AIDS-related deaths.
"Maybe they need to aim high but if their main goal is eradication, it's highly unlikely that will ever happen," she told the AP.
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Foster Children In The United States Are More Likely Than Mentally-Ill Children To Receive a Cocktail of Powerful Antipsychotic Drugs
Foster children in the United States are more likely than mentally-ill children to receive a cocktail of powerful antipsychotic drugs, according to a new study.
Researchers examined the 2003 Medicaid records of 637,924 children in a mid-Atlantic state who were either in foster care, receiving disability benefits for a diagnosis such as severe autism or bipolar disorder, or in a program called Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, The New York Times reported.
About 3 percent of all the children (16,969) had received at least one prescription for an antipsychotic drug. At least 2 percent of foster children took at least one such drug, despite the fact that bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, for which the drugs are approved, are extremely rare in young children.
The researchers also found that 9.2 percent of foster children received prescriptions for more than one antipsychotic drug at the same time, compared with 6.8 children on disability and 2.5 percent of those in the needy families program, The Times reported.
The study was published Monday in the journal Pediatrics.
"The kids in foster care may come from bad homes, but they do not have the sort of complex medical issues that those in the disabled population do," said lead author Susan dosReis, an associate professor in the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy, The Times reported.
The findings suggest that doctors are treating foster children's behavioral problems with the same powerful antipsychotic drugs given to patients with schizophrenia and severe bipolar disorder.
"We simply don't have evidence to support this kind of use, especially in young children," dosReis said.
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Autoimmune Woes May Raise Risk for Lung Clots: Risks climbed for patients hospitalized for such conditions as rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn's
FRIDAY, Nov. 25 (HealthDay News) -- Patients hospitalized for autoimmune disorders, like rheumatoid arthritis or Crohn's disease, may be at greater risk for a life-threatening pulmonary embolism, a clot in a main artery of the lung, a new study finds.
Reporting online Nov. 25 in The Lancet, researchers warned that steps should be taken to prevent this condition among patients admitted to the hospital for autoimmune diseases.
In conducting the study, researchers analyzed data on more than 500,000 patients admitted to the hospital in Sweden for one of 33 autoimmune diseases, which can also include Grave's disease, Hashimoto's thyroiditis and chronic rheumatic heart disease.
The team, led by Dr. Bengt Zoller of Malmo University Hospital in Sweden, found the overall risk of pulmonary embolism in the 12 months following hospitalization to be six times higher for patients with autoimmune diseases than for those without this type of disorder.
They noted that all of the 33 autoimmune disorders included in the study were associated with a significantly higher risk of pulmonary embolism, although the most notable increases were associated with immune thrombocytopenic purpura, a clotting disorder, which carried an 11-fold increased risk; polyarteritis nodosa, a form of vasculitis (13 times the risk); and polymyositis, which involves chronic muscle inflammation (16 times the risk). The rise in risk did decrease over time, however.......
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More Aggressive Chemo May Help Younger Lymphoma Patients: High-dose combination therapy boosts disease-free survival but raises side-effect risk
THURSDAY, Nov. 24 (HealthDay News) -- Higher doses of chemotherapy with less time between treatments may benefit younger people suffering from aggressive lymphomas, such as diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (one of the most common and aggressive forms of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma), according to new research.
A study published online Nov. 24 in The Lancet found this intensive form of chemotherapy, when combined with the monoclonal antibody drug rituximab, may reduce recurrence of the disease and increase survival rates among patients under 60 years of age.
The researchers said these younger patients are about twice as likely to remain in remission after three years versus those given rituximab plus the standard chemotherapy treatment known as CHOP (cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisone).
In conducting the study, researchers led by Dr. Herve Tilly of the University of Rouen in France gave 379 patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma either four cycles of higher-intensity chemotherapy (doxorubicin, cyclophosphamide, vindesine, bleomycin, and prednisone) plus rituximab at two-week intervals, or eight cycles of the standard treatment (CHOP plus rituximab) at three-week intervals.
The study found the risk of experiencing an "event-free survival" (which means avoiding unplanned treatments or cancer recurrence) after three years was 44 percent lower among patients on the more intensive regimen than among those receiving standard treatment.
Patients assigned to the aggressive treatment also had a 56 percent lower risk of death and were 52 percent less likely to have their disease progress compared to those on the standard treatment, the researchers found.
There was a downside to the more aggressive approach, however. The study found that the strategy significantly boosted the likelihood that patients would experience serious side effects, particularly negative hematological and mucosal effects, as well as febrile neutropenia (a complication of chemotherapy that involves a reduction in immune white blood cells, accompanied by fever).
For that reason, "this dose-intense regimen should only be used in patients in whom the expected relapse rate is sufficient to justify the higher toxic effects and cost profile," Julie Vose from the Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha wrote in a journal commentary accompanying the study...........
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Four Common Meds Send Thousands of Seniors to Hospital
By Jenifer Goodwin
HealthDay Reporter
WEDNESDAY, Nov. 23 (HealthDay News) -- An estimated 100,000 older Americans are hospitalized for adverse drug reactions yearly, and most of those emergencies stem from four common medications, a new study finds.
The four types of medication -- two for diabetes and two blood-thinning agents -- account for two-thirds of those drug-related emergency hospitalizations.
"Of the thousands of medications available to older patients, a small group of blood thinners and diabetes medications caused a high proportion of emergency hospitalizations for adverse drug events among elderly Americans," said lead study author Dr. Daniel Budnitz, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's medication safety program.
Medications previously designated "high-risk" were implicated in only 1.2 percent of hospitalizations, the study found.
Working with a nationally representative database, CDC researchers identified more than 5,000 cases of drug-related adverse events that occurred among people aged 65 and older from 2007 to 2009 and used that to make their estimates for the whole population.
Nearly half (48 percent) of the hospitalizations occurred among adults 80 and up, according to the study, published in the Nov. 24 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. Nearly two-thirds (66 percent) were the result of unintentional overdoses.
The four medications, used alone or together, most often cited:
- The blood thinning medication warfarin (Coumadin, Jantoven), which is used to treat blood clots, was involved in 33 percent of emergency hospitalizations.
- Insulin, used to control blood sugar in diabetes patients, was involved in 14 percent of cases.
- Antiplatelet drugs such as aspirin and clopidogrel (Plavix), which are used to prevent blood clots, were involved in 13 percent of cases.
- Oral hypoglycemic agents -- diabetes medications taken by mouth -- were involved in 11 percent of cases.
With antiplatelet or blood thinning drugs, bleeding was the main problem. For insulin and other diabetes medications, about two-thirds of cases involved changes in mental status such as confusion, loss of consciousness or seizures...........
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Newer Blood Thinner May Pose Danger to Trauma Patients: Pradaxa has caused severe bleeding problems that can't be reversed
By Amanda Gardner
HealthDay Reporter
WEDNESDAY, Nov. 23 (HealthDay News) -- A new blood thinner touted for its convenience and enhanced quality of life may have hidden problems that could threaten the lives of certain patients, a new report suggests.
A letter to the editor in the Nov. 24 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine reports severe bleeding complications among trauma patients on the anti-clotting medicine Pradaxa (dabigatran etexilate).
In one case, a patient died, the letter said.
"We have noted on multiple occasions patients who have 'bleeding out' from Pradaxa and our hands are tied," said Dr. Bryan Cotton, lead letter author and a trauma surgeon with the University of Texas Health Science Center at Memorial Hermann Hospital in Houston. "They're bleeding out all over and there's absolutely nothing we can do about it . . . I'm helpless and hopeless when it comes into my emergency room."
The main problem, Cotton said, is that there's no real way to reverse the anti-clotting effect of the drug, unlike older agents such as warfarin.
According to the letter, the only way to reverse Pradaxa is with emergency dialysis but, said Cotton, "in a patient bleeding to death, that's not really a practical or pragmatic option."
Warfarin (Coumadin, Jantoven) has been the mainstay of blood-thinning medications to manage heart and stroke patients for decades.
But the drug is notoriously difficult to manage, requiring frequent lab tests and having interactions with multiple foods and other medications. Its one big advantage, however, is that its blood-thinning properties are easily reversible when needed.
Enter the new, easier-to-use blood thinner, Pradaxa, first approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in late 2010 for use in patients with atrial fibrillation, a common and dangerous form of irregular heartbeat.
"There is an advantage over warfarin in many ways because of the simplicity and ease of management," said Dr. Jack Ansell, chairman of the department of medicine at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. "There are very little interactions with other drugs or foods, but once again, warfarin is relatively easily reversible."
Pradaxa also has other problems in addition to the irreversibility, the letter said, namely that there are no readily available tests to assess how well it's working or not working........
Yawning May Cool the Brain When Needed: Study also found sinuses act like a bellows, help keep brain the right temperature
FRIDAY, Nov. 25 (HealthDay News) -- Yawning helps keep the brain cool, and the sinuses play a role in that process by acting as bellows, a new report suggests.
Yawning isn't triggered because you're bored, tired or need oxygen. Rather, yawning helps regulate the brain's temperature, according to Gary Hack, of the University of Maryland School of Dentistry, and Andrew Gallup, of Princeton University.
"The brain is exquisitely sensitive to temperature changes and therefore must be protected from overheating," they said in a University of Maryland news release. "Brains, like computers, operate best when they are cool."
During yawning, the walls of the maxillary sinuses (located in the cheeks on each side of the nose) flex like bellows and help with brain cooling, according to the researchers.
They noted that the actual function of sinuses is still the subject of debate, and this theory may help clarify their purpose.
"Very little is understood about them, and little is agreed upon even by those who investigate them. Some scientists believe that they have no function at all," Hack said in the news release.......
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Did The U.S. Sanction Murder?: From The Land of The Free and The Home of the Brave to the Land of the Cowed and the Cowardly
We have gone from what was once “the land of the free & the home of the brave” to what is rapidly becoming the land of the cowed and the cowardly. Untold millions of our countrymen (some legal, some not) feed at the public trough — & get angry at us producers if we suggest cutting back their goodies by even a penny. All of that is bad enough. But now our government has decided that it is above the law. That it can listen in on any conversation it wishes; open any mail; snoop on any citizen any time & any where; accuse us of all sorts of crimes & misdemeanors; & incarcerate us at will. Oh, & murder anyone it says deserves it. Today, our government takes four times more from us than the 10% the God of the Old Testament asked of his people. In fact, if you add up all of the hidden taxes we pay, the figure is probably closer to 60%. I’m sorry, but this is not the.....
Did The U.S. Sanction Murder?: From The Land of The Free and The Home of the Brave to the Land of the Cowed and the Cowardly
By Chip Wood
Personal Liberty Digest -- October 7, 2011 -- An awful lot of readers will be angry at some of the things I have to say today. So before the shouting begins, let me tell you where I’m coming from, as the kids like to say.
I was raised with a profound respect for the fact that we are a nation of laws, not men: That "no one is above the law," that a jury of our peers will decide our guilt or innocence, that we are guaranteed the right to face our accusers, that "our home is our castle" and that we will be protected in our persons and our property.
Does that sound like the America you were taught to love and revere when you were young?
It is promises like these that made our country the inspiration of the world. They are some of the reasons we became the wealthiest nation this planet has ever seen. Even the poorest among us lived better than the majority of citizens in other countries. No wonder people dreamed of becoming Americans — so many, in fact, that we had to establish a lottery to decide who could get in.
Yes, the United States of America that you and I were born into was a very special place. We knew it and were profoundly grateful for it. We gave thanks that we were lucky enough to be born here, because we knew that no other place on earth enjoyed our freedoms, our protections and our prosperity.
So what on earth happened?
Or maybe a better question is; what have we allowed our government to do to these cherished principles?
The God of the Old Testament asked His people to give 10 percent of all they earned to Him and His work. Today, our government takes four times as much from us. In fact, if you add up all of the hidden taxes we pay, the figure is probably closer to 60 percent.
In the Declaration of Independence, our Founding Fathers said one of the reasons for their rebellion against King George is that he had "erected a Multitude of new Offices, and sent hither Swarms of Officers to harass our People, and eat out their Substance."
Those brave gentlemen wouldn’t believe how many Swarms of Officers harass us today, or how much of our Substance they consume. Have you flown anywhere lately? How many Transportation Security Administration employees did you see — many of whom were guarding hallways no one was using.
Pity you if you ever do fall afoul of some Federal bureaucrat. Our government has created so many rules and regulations and has so many agents and inspectors to enforce them, there is no way on earth you can obey them all. If they want to get you for something, they can. And worst of all, in many cases you are guilty until you prove yourself innocent.
We have gone from what was once "the land of the free and the home of the brave" to what is rapidly becoming the land of the cowed and the cowardly. Untold millions of our countrymen (some legal, some not) feed at the public trough — and get angry at us producers if we suggest cutting back their goodies by even a penny.
All of that is bad enough. But now our government has decided that it is above the law. That it can listen in on any conversation it wishes; open any mail; snoop on any citizen any time and any where; accuse us of all sorts of crimes and misdemeanors; and incarcerate us at will.
Oh, and murder anyone it says deserves it.
You think I’m exaggerating? Please consider for a moment the fate of one Anwar al-Awlaki. I won’t disagree that this demented jihadist was one of the bad guys. I’ll even grant that this renegade U.S. citizen did all he could to give "aid and comfort" (the Constitutional definition of treason) to our enemies. But so what?
As far as I know, he was never accused of a crime by any legal authority in this country or abroad. Not only did he never get a chance to face his accusers, there was never a trial or even a hearing by any court, military or civilian.
Yet the President of the United States ordered his death. And an unmanned drone, armed with a Hellfire missile, carried out the execution.
And what an interesting outcry that has produced! Ron Paul probably did his candidacy for the White House no favors when he said that it would be "sad" if "the American people accept this blindly and casually."
The ACLU — an organization that I have never voluntarily gotten in bed with — declared:
"[T]his is a program under which American citizens far from any battlefield can be executed by their own government without judicial process and on the basis of standards and evidence that are kept secret not just from the public but from the courts."
Former Vice President Dick Cheney praised the Obama Administration for the attack, then added that Obama owes George Bush an apology for his criticism of the Bush Administration’s actions against suspected terrorists.
But the nastiest assault on the libertarian position came from the editors of The Wall Street Journal, who promptly denounced what they called "the caviling" over Awlaki’s death. After a lengthy introduction explaining why such anonymous executions are "manifestly legal," the Journal concluded:
"For ridding the world of the menace that was Awlaki — even while ignoring the advice of some of its ideological friends — the Administration deserves congratulations and thanks."
I’m sorry, but this is not the America I grew up in. And it is not the America I want to see my children and my children’s children inherit.
I’m not saying we’ve never done anything wrong in the past. Abraham Lincoln suspended the U.S. Constitution for anyone he considered any enemy of the State, whether Northerner or Southerner. Franklin D. Roosevelt, in one of the most shameful moments of a Presidency that did our nation much harm, ordered 110,000 Japanese Americans to be rounded up at gunpoint and herded into concentration camps. During my lifetime, legal authorities in the South often conspired to break the law to deny black citizens their civil rights, and even encouraged (or at the very least did not stop) mob violence.
All of this was bad. And like most Americans who give any of it a moment’s thought, I regret it happened.
I feel the same way today about the frightening growth in the cost, the power, and the wicked aggressiveness of our national government. Nobody’s called me an enemy of the State… yet. But I’m worried that that day may not be far off.
When they come for us conservative opponents, how many on the left do you think will rush to our defense? Heck, how many of our colleagues on the right will be what I used to call "foxhole buddies"?
I don’t know about you, but I’m becoming more and more frightened by more and more of the actions of our government. As I said, this isn’t the America I knew and revered. How about you?
Until the next time, keep some powder dry.
–Chip Wood
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Nov. 11, 2011 to Nov. 18, 2011Health Highlights
**Smucker's Peanut Butter Recalled.
**Romaine Lettuce Salad Products Recalled.
**More U.S. Companies Penalizing Workers for Bad Health Habits.
**1 in 5 U.S. Adults Now Use Psychiatric Meds.
**J&J Working to Remove Chemicals From Baby Products.
**Nearly 5 Million More Contact Lenses Recalled by CooperVision.
**New Drug Slows Prostate Cancer Spread to Bones.
**Area of the Brain Associated with Addiction Is Larger in Video Gamers.
**Kotex Tampons Recalled Because of Possible Dangerous Infections.
**Pneumococcal Vaccine Prevnar Effective in Adults.
**Rising Number of U.S. Newborns Addicted to Pain Drugs.
**Pfizer Tries to Delay Sales of Generic Lipitor.
Health Highlights (Nov. 11, 2011 to Nov. 18, 2011)
Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by the editors of HealthDay:
Smucker's Peanut Butter Recalled
Possible salmonella contamination has led to the recall of some 16-ounce jars of Smucker's Natural Peanut Butter Chunky sold in nearly two dozen states.
Ohio-based J.M. Smucker Co. said the recalled jars have "Best if Used By" dates of Aug. 3 and Aug. 4, 2012, and carry the production codes 1307004 and 1308004, the Associated Press reported.
There have been no reports of illnesses associated with the peanut butter, according to the company.
The recalled product was distributed in: Arkansas, Colorado, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Texas, Virginia, Wisconsin and the District of Columbia.
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Romaine Lettuce Salad Products Recalled
Ready Pac Food Inc. bagged salad products containing romaine lettuce have been recalled because they might be contaminated with E. coli, the California Department of Health said Thursday.
The recalled products are in 9 oz., 9.25 oz., 10 oz., 10.25 oz. and 16 oz. bags and have Ready Pac, Trader Joe's, Safeway, and Dining In Classic labels. They have a Use by Date of Nov. 18, 2011, CBS News reported.
The products were distributed in Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Oregon, Texas and Washington. No cases of illnesses associated with the recalled products have been reported.
The recall was announced after tests by the U.S. Department of Agriculture detected some E. coli contamination in the product, CBS News reported.
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More U.S. Companies Penalizing Workers for Bad Health Habits
A growing number of American companies are forcing workers with unhealthy lifestyles to pay a larger share of their health insurance premiums.
In the last two years, policies that financially penalize workers for things such as smoking, being overweight or having high cholesterol have doubled to 19 percent of 248 major U.S. employers, according to benefits consultant Towers Watson.
The firm said it expects the practice to double again next year among companies with at least 1,000 workers, The New York Times reported.
Another survey released Wednesday found that about a third of companies with 500 or more workers were using financial incentives to encourage employees into wellness programs.
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1 in 5 U.S. Adults Now Use Psychiatric Meds
In 2010, more than 1 in 5 adults and more than 1 in 4 women in the United States took at least one drug for psychiatric and behavioral disorders, according to a report released Wednesday by pharmacy benefits manager Medco Health Solutions Inc.
The use of drugs to treat conditions such as depression and anxiety rose 22 percent since 2001, according to data from 2.5 million patients with 24 months of continuous prescription drug insurance and eligibility, the Associated Press reported.
Women aged 45 and older are most likely to be prescribed these drugs, but their use by men and younger adults has increased significantly.
Medco also said that the use of antipsychotic drugs and medicines for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) among adults 20 to 44 has more than tripled, and the use of anti-anxiety drugs has risen 30 percent since 2001, the AP reported.
More women are now taking ADHD medications than men, a reversal of uptake of these drugs in children, where boys outnumber girls, according to MSNBC.com. The number of U.S. women aged 20 to 44 who took a drug for ADHD soared 250 percent between 2001 and 2010, the Medco report found.
Women are also twice as likely as men to use anxiety medications and are also more likely to take antipsychotic drugs, which treat conditions such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.
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J&J Working to Remove Chemicals From Baby Products
Efforts to remove traces of two potentially cancer-causing chemicals from its baby products worldwide are continuing, Johnson & Johnson said Wednesday.
Since May 2009, the company has been under pressure from an international coalition of consumer and environmental groups to remove 1,4-dioxane and quaternium-15 from a wide range of products, including Johnson's Baby Shampoo, the Associated Press reported.
It was revealed two weeks ago that the company had removed the chemicals from products in the U.K., Scandinavia, South Africa and several other countries. That prompted a boycott campaign to force J&J to remove the chemicals from products sold in the United States, China and elsewhere.
Over the past two years, J&J has announced more than two dozen product recalls for problems ranging from defective hip implants to glass and metal fragments in liquid medicines, the AP reported.
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Nearly 5 Million More Contact Lenses Recalled by CooperVision
An expanded recall of nearly 5 million contact lenses was announced Tuesday by CooperVision Inc. of California.
Avaira Sphere contact lenses have been added to an August recall of nearly 780,000 Avaira Toric lenses. The products may be contaminated with silicone oil residue and linked to blurred vision, eye injuries and severe pain, msnbc.com reported.
The company produced 6.6 million Avaira Sphere lenses affected by the recall but only 4.9 million were actually shipped to consumers, according to CooperVision spokeswoman Denise Powell.
The recall of the Avaira Sphere and Toric lenses followed a U.S. Food and Drug Administration Class 1 warning, which is the most serious type and is issued when there is a reasonable chance of serious adverse health consequences or death, msnbc.com reported.
For more information, consumers can contact the company at 1-855-526-6737.
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New Drug Slows Prostate Cancer Spread to Bones
A new drug called denosumab delays the spread (metastasis) of prostate cancer to the bones, according to a new study funded by drug maker Amgen.
The study of more than 1,400 patients found that the drug seemed to increase bone-metastasis-free survival by an average of four months, compared to a placebo. But it did not increase overall survival, ABC News reported.
The findings were published in The Lancet.
"Prostate cancer patients who develop bone metastases usually have poor outcomes, so preventing the development of metastasis has been a major unmet clinical need," study author Dr. Matthew Smith, a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School who serves as a consultant for Amgen, said in a news release, ABC News reported.
Denosumab has U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval for treatment of osteoporosis and prevention of fractures in patients with bone metastases from solid tumors.
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Area of the Brain Associated with Addiction Is Larger in Video Gamers
An area of the brain associated with addiction is larger than normal in teens who regularly play video games, a new study finds.
But it's not clear if playing video games changes the brain or if preexisting brain differences make teens more likely to play video games, BBC News reported.
The study of 154 14-year-olds found that those who played more than nine hours a week had a larger ventral striatum, the hub of the brain's reward system.
This part of the brain is typically activated "when people anticipate positive environmental effects or experience pleasure such as winning money, good food, sex," said researcher Dr. Simone Kuhn, from Ghent University in Belgium, BBC News reported.
Previous research has also linked this part of the brain to drug addiction.
The study appears in the journal Translational Psychiatry.
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Kotex Tampons Recalled Because of Possible Dangerous Infections
About 1,400 cases of Kotex tampons are being recalled due to concerns about a bacteria that can cause dangerous infections, Kimberly-Clark announced Monday.
The company said the tampons' plastic tubing may be contaminated with Enterobacter sakazakii, which can cause vaginal infections, urinary tract infections, pelvic inflammatory disease or other potentially life-threatening infections, msnbc.com reported.
A company spokesman said Kimberly-Clark has not received any reports of illness associated with the products.
The recall covers certain lots of Kotex Natural Balance Security Unscented Tampons Regular Absorbency that were shipped to Walmart, Fry's and Smith's stores in eight states. The 18- and 36-count boxes have SKU numbers of 15063 and 15068, msnbc.com reported.
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Pneumococcal Vaccine Prevnar Effective in Adults
The pneumococcal vaccine Prevnar 13 is at least as effective in adults as a rival vaccine, according to a U.S. Food and Drug Administration review posted online Monday.
Currently, vaccination with Prevnar is recommended for all infants and young children. But pneumococcal disease -- which causes ear infections, meningitis and pneumonia -- also affects 36,000 older adults each year in the United States and kills 5,000, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, CBS News and the Associated Press reported.
Pfizer makes Prevnar and has asked the FDA to expand the vaccine's approval for adults age 50 and older. The only pneumococcal vaccine currently approved for adults is Merck's Pneumovax, which is recommended for all adults 65 and older.
For their review, FDA scientists looked at six studies involving more than 6,000 adults and concluded that Prevnar is at least as effective as Pneumovax, CBS/AP reported.
On Wednesday, an FDA panel of outside experts will discuss the safety and effectiveness of Prevnar in adults and vote on whether it should receive expanded approval. The FDA generally follows the advice of its expert panels.
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Rising Number of U.S. Newborns Addicted to Pain Drugs
Newborn addiction to prescription painkillers is a growing problem in the United States, according to health experts and authorities.
The babies are innocent victims of their mothers' addictions to powerful narcotics such as Vicodin and OxyContin, USA Today reported.
There is no national data on the number of babies who go through withdrawal after birth, but some reports suggest that the number of addicted newborns has increased two or three times or more over the past decade.
Florida is the hub of the illicit prescription drug trade in the United States, and the number of newborns in that state with withdrawal syndrome rose from 354 in 2006 to 1,374 in 2010, according to the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration, USA Today reported.
An American Academy of Pediatrics committee was convened this year to revise treatment guidelines for newborns with withdrawal syndrome. The guidelines are scheduled to be published in 2012.
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Pfizer Tries to Delay Sales of Generic Lipitor
Drug company Pfizer and pharmacy benefit companies appear to be working together to impede prescriptions for a generic version of Pfizer's Lipitor cholesterol drug, The New York Times reported.
The generic version of Lipitor will become available Dec. 1, when Pfizer's patent for the drug expires. But letters have been sent to many pharmacists asking them to keep filling prescriptions with the more expensive Lipitor for six months, the newspaper said.
A letter from pharmacy benefit manager Catalyst Rx indicates that Pfizer will provide large discounts for benefit managers that block the use of generic versions of Lipitor, The Times reported. This is the first time the letters have been made public.
"I'm stunned," said Geoffrey F. Joyce, an associate professor of pharmaceutical economics and a health policy expert at the University of Southern California, after reviewing the letters.
"This is just an egregious case. Clearly there's been some negotiation between Pfizer and the large P.B.M.s saying we're going to make this cost-beneficial to them, but the plan sponsors are going to eat it," he told the Times.
Raymond F. Kerins, a Pfizer vice president and spokesman, said in a statement Friday that the company was committed to supporting continued access to Lipitor for patients. He declined to answer further questions Friday afternoon, the Times reported.
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Obama Wants To Rob Senior Citizens of The Care They've Been Counting On, Make America a Medicaid Nation, Make Private Health Plans Unaffordable, and Bankrupt Our Government
Keep in mind that the Obamacare reduced future Medicare funding by over $500 billion, largely by slashing what hospitals & doctors will be paid to care for seniors; some hospitals may be forced to stop accepting Medicare. Now the president’s deficit reduction proposal calls for a third round of reductions including even further reductions in what doctors & hospitals are paid to care for seniors. The more Medicare reimbursement rates are cut, the less likely it is that doctors & hospitals can afford to provide hip replacements, bypass surgeries, cataract operations and etc. that have transformed the experience of aging. Obama says he is a defender of the elderly; he said he would not take one dime from Medicare benefits. But numbers tell the truth. The president is robbing Medicare & Grandma to spread the wealth by...
Obama Wants To Rob Senior Citizens of The Care They've Been Counting On, Make America a Medicaid Nation, Make Private Health Plans Unaffordable, and Bankrupt Our Government
By: Betsy McCaughey
Newsmax -- October 7, 2011 -- America is in danger of becoming a Medicaid nation. It will bankrupt our government, make private health plans unaffordable, and rob the elderly of the care they've been counting on.
The Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction — the supercommittee — should repeal the vast expansion of Medicaid enacted just 18 months ago as part of President Barack Obama's health law. That brand new entitlement, not in effect yet, threatens the nation’s future solvency.
The Obama health law converted Medicaid from a safety net to a permanent health entitlement in place of private insurance. A decade from now, when the temporary surge in Medicare demand caused by the baby boom generation subsides, Medicaid will cost more than Medicare and continue to grow.
According to actuaries from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (Health Affairs, July 28), Medicaid spending will increase faster than Medicare spending even in the coming decade, and the two programs will cost about the same by 2020. That’s amazing, considering the wave of baby boomers entering Medicare.
Medicaid spending will top $900 billion in 2020 (state and federal funds) up from $343 billion in the last year of the George W. Bush administration. The Obama health law makes more people eligible and increases benefits.
The president promised to reduce the number of uninsured by making health plans more affordable. But twice as many of the uninsured will gain coverage by enrolling in Medicaid as in private health plans. The actuaries estimate that Medicaid enrollment will reach 75 million people in 2014.
In addition, the actuaries cautioned that some workers and their families will be forced into Medicaid, when large employers drop coverage and choose to pay the $2,000 penalty, a mere pittance compared with the expense of providing what the Obama health law deems "essential" coverage.
McKinsey & Co., management consultants, found that 30 to 50 percent of employers polled were considering dropping coverage in 2014; Towers Watson, another consulting firm, found 9 percent and Lockton Benefit Group reported 19 percent of its middle-market clients likely to drop coverage.
When employers stop providing insurance, workers with household incomes below 138 percent of poverty ($30,500 for a household of four) will qualify for Medicaid. The Medicaid rolls could swell beyond the actuaries’ already alarming predictions.
The more Medicaid is expanded, the more the costs are shifted onto private health plan premiums. Medicaid shortchanges hospitals and doctors, paying only about 86 cents for every dollar of care delivered. Doctors and hospitals make do by shifting the cost onto patients with private coverage, pushing up their premiums.
The 9 percent premium hike employers experienced this year is partly due to the increase in Medicaid rolls during the downturn. The cost shifting will get much worse in 2014.
To avert these unintended consequences, the Medicaid expansion should be repealed. The Supercommittee should target Medicaid, not Medicare.
Keep in mind that the Obama health law reduced future Medicare funding by over $500 billion, largely by slashing what hospitals and doctors will be paid to care for seniors. At that time, CMS Chief Actuary Richard Foster cautioned Congress that these cuts are so severe that some hospitals may be forced to stop accepting Medicare. Then the debt hike deal signed this Aug. 2 cut another 2 percent from payment rates to care for seniors.
Now the president’s deficit reduction proposal calls for a third round of reductions, this time by $248 billion, including even further reductions in what doctors and hospitals are paid to care for seniors.
The more Medicare reimbursement rates are cut, the less likely it is that doctors and hospitals can afford to provide hip replacements, bypass surgeries, cataract operations, and the other procedures that have transformed the experience of aging.
The president’s rhetoric makes him sound like a defender of the elderly. He threatened to "veto any bill that takes one dime from Medicare benefits seniors rely on without asking the wealthiest Americans and biggest corporations to pay their fair share."
But numbers tell the truth. The president is robbing Grandma to spread the wealth by radically expanding the Medicaid entitlement.
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Nov. 04, 2011 to Nov. 11, 2011Health Highlights
**MRSA Boosts Death Risk in Kids With Flu.
**Sending Chickenpox Virus Through Mail Dangerous and Illegal.
**Half of U.S. Students Sexually Harassed.
**Large Infants at Increased Risk for Obesity.
**Hospital Funding Linked to Patient Satisfaction: Hospitals to be punished financially by the federal government for things they can't control.
**Safety of Electronic Health Records Requires Scrutiny.
**Genetic Test Improves Cancer Treatment.
**Drug Maker to Run New Clinical Trial on Cholesterol Medicine Trilipix.
**Shingles Vaccine Shortage Influences Immunizations.
**FDA Targets Illegal Tobacco Sales to Minors.
**U.S. Agency Restores Web Database on Doctor Disciplinary Actions.
**Drugs Slipped Into Drinks Sending Many to ER: Majority of victims are women, but nearly 40 percent are male.
**'Mini-Strokes & Earlier Deaths.
Health Highlights (Nov. 04, 2011 to Nov. 11, 2011)
Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by the editors of HealthDay:
MRSA Boosts Death Risk in Kids With Flu
Previously health children hospitalized with flu are more likely to die if they're also infected with a "superbug," methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), according to a new study.
Researchers analyzed data on 838 boys and girls under 21 admitted to 35 pediatric intensive care units across the United States during the 2009-10 outbreak of H1N1 swine flu, The New York Times reported.
Nearly three-quarters of the children had one or more pre-existing chronic health issues, such as asthma, a weakened immune system, and cardiovascular neurological or gastrointestinal conditions.
Seventy-five (9 percent) of the children died, including 18 who had no health problems before being hospitalized for the flu.
The researchers identified a number of factors associated with increased risk of death among all the children in the study: being female; being immune-compromised; flu infection of the brain or heart; and co-infection with MRSA, The Times reported.
But in previously healthy children, only MRSA infection predicted death and those with MRSA infection were eight times more likely to die than those who were not infected.
The study was published Monday in the journal Pediatrics.
The finding are significant because MRSA is a growing problem among healthy children.
MRSA "used to be seen only in hospitalized people or people who worked in health care facilities," said Dr. Michael Cappello, a professor of pediatric infectious disease at Yale, The Times reported. "This is no longer the case."
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Sending Chickenpox Virus Through Mail Dangerous and Illegal
Parents are being warned not to give their children lollipops or other items purportedly contaminated with the chickenpox virus.
Not only is it a bad idea, it's illegal, said Jerry Martin, U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee, CBS News and the Associated Press reported.
He issued the caution after hearing news reports that some parents with a distrust of childhood vaccinations are going on Facebook to ask strangers for lollipops, spit or other items from children who have chickenpox in hopes of conferring immunity.
It's a federal crime to send viruses or diseases across state lines, Martin said.
And while it's highly unlikely that any of the mailed items will give children chickenpox, they could carry much more dangerous viruses, such as hepatitis, said Isaac Thomsen, a pediatric infectious diseases specialist at Vanderbilt Children's Hospital, CBS News/AP reported.
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Half of U.S. Students Sexually Harassed
A new survey finds that 48 percent of U.S. students in grades 7 through 12 experienced some form of sexual harassment from other students during the 2010-11 school year.
The sexual harassment occurred in various ways, including physical contact, malicious rumors, and via email, texting and social media. The American Association of University Women poll included 1,002 girls and 963 boys at public and private schools nationwide, the Associated Press reported.
At least one form of sexual harassment was reported by 56 percent of the girls and 40 percent of the boys.
Nearly one-third of the students who were victims of sexual harassment said it made them feel sick to their stomach, affected their study habits, or made them reluctant to go to school, the AP reported.
Only 9 percent of affected students reported the incident to a teacher, guidance counselor or other adult at school. Others talked to parents or friends, but half of the victims did nothing about the harassment.
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Large Infants at Increased Risk for Obesity
Checking infants to see if they've passed two milestones on doctors' growth charts by age 2 is a way to predict their future risk for obesity, according to a new study that included 45,000 U.S. infants and children.
It found that babies who surpassed those markers were twice as likely to be obese at ages 5 and 10 than those who grew more slowly. Infants with the highest growth rates were at greatest risk for obesity later in life, the Associated Press reported.
The study, published online Monday in the journal Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, provides further evidence that "bigger is not better" in infants, said lead author Dr. Elsie Taveras, a pediatrician and obesity researcher at Harvard Medical School.
She said rapid infant growth should concern doctors because it may be a sign that babies are eating too much or spending too much time in strollers and not enough time crawling around, the AP reported.
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Hospital Funding Linked to Patient Satisfaction: Hospitals to be punished financially by the federal government for things they can't control
Some hospitals are worried about a new Medicare rule that will take patient satisfaction into account when reimbursing hospitals.
The rule, mandated in the Affordable Care Act, will take effect in the coming months. Hospitals with the best patient satisfaction scores will receive more money, The New York Times reported.
There's concern that patient assessments of hospitals will be influenced not just by quality of care, but also by amenities such as tasty food and single rooms.
"Hospitals are going be punished financially by the federal government for things they can't control," Dr. James Merlino, chief experience officer at the Cleveland Clinic, told the Times.
The patient satisfaction ratings are based on Medicare-approved surveys that ask questions such as: Was pain well controlled? Did the doctors and nurses communicate well? Was the room clean and the hospital quiet at night?
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Safety of Electronic Health Records Requires Scrutiny
Patient safety is threatened by poorly designed, hard-to-use computerized health records, a federal study warns.
The Institute of Medicine paper released Tuesday also said an independent agency should be established to investigate injuries and deaths associated with health information technology, The New York Times reported.
The federal government is offering doctors and hospitals billions of dollars in incentive payments in order to get them to use electronic health records.
The study was requested by the Department of Health and Humans Services after some public health experts and doctors warned that the push for digital records might lead to a surge of technology-induced medical errors, The Times reported.
"There are real safety issues, but we believe that on average, health information technology improves patient safety," said study panel member Dr. Ashish K. Jha, an associate professor at the Harvard School of Public Health.
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Genetic Test Improves Cancer Treatment
A genetic test for cancer cell mutations helps focus and improve treatment for patients with lung cancer, according to a new study.
The test identifies mutations that enable cancer cells to divide and multiple unchecked. These mutations can then be targeted with drugs that block the enzyme that drives this cancer cell proliferation, Agence France-Presse reported.
Researchers analyzed tissue taken from 589 patients with non-small cell lung cancer and identified one or more mutations in just over half of the samples.
Of the 353 patients with advanced cancer, the researchers were able to pinpoint one or more mutations in 170 patients. This led to targeted therapy for 78 of the patients, AFP reported.
The research was published in the journal Annals of Oncology.
The genetic test was so successful that it's now being used for colorectal, breast and brain cancer patients, and is being evaluated for use in leukemia patients, AFP reported.
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Drug Maker to Run New Clinical Trial on Cholesterol Med
A new clinical trial of the cholesterol medicine Trilipix will be conducted by drug maker Abbott Laboratories after a U.S. government-sponsored study found that the drug may not reduce heart attack or stroke risk.
The Food and Drug Administration told the company to conduct the new trial, which will compare high-risk patients taking Trilipix and statin drugs to patients taking statins only, Bloomberg News reported. Statins also target cholesterol.
In May, an FDA advisory panel recommended the new trial and also said that Trilipix should remain on the market.
The FDA said patients should not stop taking Trilipix without first talking to a doctor, Bloomberg reported.
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Shingles Vaccine Shortage Influences Immunizations
U.S. health officials have refrained from recommending the shingles vaccine Zostavax for adults ages 50-59 to ensure an adequate supply of vaccine for those 60 and older.
Use of the vaccine, which protects against the herpes zoster virus, was approved in 2006 for adults 60 and older and in March 2011 for adults ages 50 to 59. In June 2011, the Advisory Committee on Immunizations Practices (ACIP) reaffirmed its 2006 recommendation that adults 60 and older should get the vaccine, but decided not to expand its recommendation to include adults ages 50-59.
There have been supply problems for Zostavax and the ACIP said it wanted to make sure there was enough vaccine for adults 60 and older, who are at greater risk of shingles, according to a report in the Nov. 11 Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, published by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Changes in production processes are expected to increase the supply of Zostavax in coming years and the ACIP may reconsider recommending the vaccine for adults ages 50-59 once a stable supply of the vaccine is assured.
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FDA Targets Illegal Tobacco Sales to Minors
Most of the warning letters recently sent to more than 1,200 tobacco retailers are about illegal sales of cigarettes and smokeless tobacco products to minors, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said Thursday.
FDA inspections of tobacco retailers found that most are in compliance with the law, but some still sell tobacco products to youngsters. Retailers who continue to violate the law could face fines.
"It should worry every parent that 20 percent of U.S. high school students smoke cigarettes," FDA Commissioner Margaret A. Hamburg said in an agency news release.
"For many young people, that first cigarette or use of smokeless tobacco will lead to a lifetime of addiction, and for many, serious disease. More than 80 percent of adult smokers begin smoking before 18 years of age. Retailers are vital partners in the FDA's efforts to prevent tobacco use among kids," she said.
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U.S. Agency Restores Web Database on Doctor Disciplinary Actions
A database of disciplinary actions taken against U.S. doctors was restored to a federal health agency's website Wednesday, two months after it was removed in response to doctors' complaints.
But a new restriction says anyone who uses information in the National Practitioner Data Bank cannot link it with court files or other publicly available information that would identify individual doctors, The New York Times reported.
The new rule means that the data can still be used for research without violating legal requirements on confidentiality, according to the Health Resources and Services Administration of the Department of Health and Human Services.
The move angered journalists. The data should be posted without restrictions with the agency continuing its policy of refusing to confirm or deny any particular doctor's identity, said Charles Orenstein, president of the Association of Health Care Journalists and a reporter for the nonprofit investigative news organization ProPublica, the Times reported.
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Drugs Slipped Into Drinks Sending Many to ER: Majority of victims are women, but nearly 40 percent are male
By Alan Mozes, HealthDay Reporter
THURSDAY, Nov. 10 (HealthDay News) -- In 2009, nearly 15,000 American women and men ended up in an emergency room after being unwittingly, but intentionally, drugged by someone else, a new federal report reveals.
According to the data, about 60 percent of these cases occurred after someone surreptitiously slipped a drug into the victim's drink.
Details outlined in the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) report -- touted as the first of its kind -- suggest that the problem extends to a broad section of society.
For example, nearly three-quarters of intentional poisonings involved individuals over the age of 21. And though the majority of cases involved females, nearly four out of every 10 victims was male.
"This is not an epidemic, but it is a serious situation," said Peter Delany, director of SAMHSA's Center for Behavioral Health Statistics and Quality. "That means there are a lot of people who end up in the emergency room because a drug was given to them -- stimulants, cocaine, Ecstasy, anxiety drugs -- without their knowledge.
"So if you're in a situation where there's drinking and drug use going on, you need to keep an eye on things and pay attention," he added.
The SAMHSA researchers said there is a multitude of motives behind intentional drugging.
On the one hand, such poisonings have been implicated in the rapes of an estimated 3 million American women, although in reality that figure could be considerably higher. The problem, the report authors pointed out, is that not everyone realizes they have been drugged, recall can be spotty and the intent of the perpetrator can sometimes be difficult to discern.
What's more, intentional drugging is not solely about sexual assault, since victims can instead be targeted for robbery or injury........
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'Mini-Strokes' Linked to Earlier Deaths: The risk is highest among older people and those with a history of heart problems
THURSDAY, Nov. 10 (HealthDay News) -- People who have a "mini-stroke" are 20 percent more likely to be dead within nine years than people in the general population, a new study finds.
The risks were most serious for patients older than 65 and for patients with a previous history of stroke and heart problems.
A mini-stroke, or transient ischemic attack (TIA), is a brief interruption of blood flow to part of the brain. Symptoms of mini-strokes may last only a few minutes or a few hours and don't result in long-term disability, but prior research has found that mini-strokes can be warning signs of more serious underlying conditions.
The study appears in the journal Stroke.
"People experiencing a TIA won't die from it, but they will have a high risk of early stroke and also an increased risk of future problems that may reduce life expectancy," study author Melina Gattellari, a senior lecturer at the School of Public Health and Community Medicine at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, and Ingham Institute in Liverpool, Australia, said in a journal news release.
"Our findings suggest that patients and doctors should be careful to intensely manage lifestyle and medical risk factors for years after a transient ischemic attack," Gattellari added........
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Big Failure and Big Liar Obama Strikes Again with HARP [Home Affordable Refinance Program]: Obama’s Campaign Ploy Rewards Banksters And Loots American Taxpayers
In announcing revised rules to the Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP), President Barack Obama bought himself a campaign ploy attractive to millions of homeowners struggling to keep their homes and a payoff to his bankster buddies who are now encouraged to make more “risky” loans that bear no risk at all. The new regulations encourage banks to make bad loans but absolve them of any of the liability. Shenanigans such as these are only possible under a fiat money system of greed and corruption. The banksters and Wall Street are the clear winners, and the American taxpayer once again suffers from the criminal enterprise that inhabits Washington, D.C.
Big Failure and Big Liar Obama Strikes Again with HARP [Home Affordable Refinance Program]: Obama’s Campaign Ploy Rewards Banksters And Loots American Taxpayers
By Bob Livingston
Personal Liberty Digest -- October 30, 2011 --President Barack Obama announced revised rules to the Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP) to help struggling homeowners.
The Continuous Campaigner got himself a twofer this week.
In announcing revised rules to the Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP), President Barack Obama bought himself a campaign ploy attractive to millions of homeowners struggling to keep their homes and a payoff to his bankster buddies who are now encouraged to make more "risky" loans that bear no risk at all.
The housing bubble that burst in 2008, causing the crash, was created by the Federal Reserve’s artificially low interest rates and regulations that encouraged banks to make home loans to people who couldn’t afford them. When that house of cards collapsed, the banks’ risky behavior was rewarded with trillion-dollar bailouts.
Now Obama is taking another dip into that pool. White House National Economic Council Director Gene Sperling called HARP a "win-win." For the banksters, that about sums it up.
The new regulations encourage banks to make bad loans but absolve them of any of the liability. Shenanigans such as these are only possible under a fiat money system of greed and corruption. The banksters and Wall Street are the clear winners, and the American taxpayer once again suffers from the criminal enterprise that inhabits Washington, D.C.
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Oct. 28, 2011 to Nov. 04, 2011Health Highlights
**Sleep Apnea, Obesity and Mental Issues Linked in Kids.
**High Doses of Bone Growth Drug May Boost Cancer Risk For Patients Undergoing Spinal Fusion.
**Glaxo to Pay $3 Billion to Settle Criminal and Civil Investigations.
**Strengthen Chantix Warnings About Risks Of Suicidal Behavior and Depression.
**Expand Vytorin's Use to Include Some Kidney Patients.
**Laser Treatment Turns Brown Eyes Blue: Complications and Blinding Condition Possible.
**FDA Testing Pet Food for Salmonella That Is Making Pet Owners Sick.
**Melanoma-Detecting Device Approved by FDA.
**Scientists Rejuvenate Cells From Elderly.
**Group Challenges J&J on Chemicals in Baby Shampoo.
**Gene-Tweaked Mosquitoes May Lower Dengue Fever Cases.
Health Highlights (Oct. 28, 2011 to Nov. 04, 2011)
Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by the editors of HealthDay:
Sleep Apnea, Obesity and Mental Issues Linked in Kids
There's a complex relationship between obesity, sleep apnea and learning and behavior (cognitive) problems in children and this interconnection worsens the effects of each problem, according to a new study.
University of Chicago researchers assessed the sleep, weight and cognitive functioning of 350 healthy, normally developing children ages 6 to 10, ABC News reported.
"Cognitive functioning in children is adversely affected by frequent health-related problems, such as obesity and sleep-disordered breathing," the researchers wrote. "Furthermore, poorer integrative mental processing may place a child at a bigger risk for adverse health outcomes."
On the flip side, "good cognitive abilities may be protective against increased body weight and sleep-disordered breathing," said lead author Karen Spruyt, ABC News reported. "If the brain can function optimally, it can help protect against the clinical manifestation of disease."
The study was published this week in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine
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High Doses of Bone Growth Drug May Boost Cancer Risk For Patients Undergoing Spinal Fusion
Newly-released data suggests that administering high doses of a bone growth product to patients undergoing spinal fusion may increase their risk of cancer, an expert says.
The data was collected in a clinical trial conducted by Medtronic when it sought U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval of a higher-dose formulation of its bone growth product Infuse, The New York Times reported.
The FDA rejected the higher-dose version, called Amplify, due to concerns about cancer risks.
Data from the Medtronic clinical trial showed that spinal fusion patients who received Amplify had a much higher number of cancers than those who received a bone graft, Stanford University's Dr. Eugene J. Carragee said Thursday at a national meeting of the North American Spine Society, The Times reported.
These study findings are important for patients who receive Infuse, which contains the same active ingredient as Amplify and is often given in levels much higher than the recommended doses, Carragee said.
Medtronic has given a $2.5 million grant to Yale University researchers to review data on the safety and effectiveness of Infuse. The findings are expected to be released next year, The Times reported.
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Glaxo to Pay $3 Billion to Settle Criminal and Civil Investigations
In order to settle several long-running criminal and civil investigations, GlaxoSmithKline PLC says it will pay $3 billion to the U.S. government.
The company has faced allegations that it marketed some drugs illegally and defrauded the Medicaid program. The final terms of the settlement, one of the largest of its kind, are still under negotiation. The company said it expects to make the payment next year, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The investigations included a Justice Department probe into Glaxo's development and marketing of the diabetes drug Avandia. After being linked to heart attacks, the drug was taken off the market in Europe and restricted in the U.S.
The Glaxo settlement is one of the largest in a series of settlements the U.S. government has reached with drug companies in an effort to halt illegal marketing practices, the Wall Street Journal reported.
But drug industry critics say the amounts paid in such settlements are small compared to the profits companies made through illegal marketing.
"It's a speed bump," Kevin Outterson, co-director of the health-law program at Boston University, told the Wall Street Journal. "It's a cost of doing business."
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Strengthen Chantix Warnings About Risks Of Suicidal Behavior and Depression
Warnings about the risks of suicidal behavior and depression associated with the stop-smoking drug Chantix need to be strengthened, according to a new study.
It concluded that the psychological risks of Chantix (varenicline) exceed those of nicotine replacement drugs and the rival stop-smoking drug Zyban (bupropion), ABC News reported.
The study was published today in the journal PLoS One.
"Among all the treatments we have for smoking cessation, Chantix is the worst," Dr. Curt Furberg, a professor of public health sciences at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center and one of the study's authors, told ABC News.
"The FDA's own data show that Chantix is more dangerous than other treatments to stop smoking," he noted.
But an FDA spokeswoman said the drug is a safe and effective way to help smokers kick the habit, ABC News reported.
Last week, the agency said two federally-funded clinical trials involving a total of more than 26,000 patients showed that Chantix did not increase depression and suicidal thoughts compared with other stop-smoking treatments.
Chantix was approved by the FDA in 2006. The agency in 2009 placed a "black box" warning label on Chantix and Zyban to alert doctors and patients about the risk of depression, hostility and suicidal thoughts associated with the drugs.
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Expand Vytorin's Use to Include Some Kidney Patients
The cholesterol drug Vytorin should be approved to prevent heart attack and stroke in some patients with kidney disease, a U.S. Food and Drug Administration advisory panel recommends.
In a 16-0 vote, the panel decided the drug should be approved to treat kidney disease patients who aren't on dialysis, but they voted 10-6 against using the drug to treat patients with end-stage renal disease on dialysis treatment, Bloomberg News reported.
An FDA review released before the advisory panel meeting said a clinical trail showed that Vytorin reduced the risk of "major vascular events" in kidney disease patients by 16 percent compared with a placebo.
While the FDA is not required to follow its advisory panels' recommendations, it generally does so.
Merick and Co.'s Vytorin is a combination of the cholesterol drugs Zetia and Zocor, Bloomberg reported.
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Laser Treatment Turns Brown Eyes Blue: Complications and Blinding Condition Possible
A new laser procedure can turn brown eyes blue, according to a California company.
The 20-second treatment destroys the natural brown pigment melanin in the iris and the change to blue occurs gradually over the following two to three weeks, CBS News reported.
Vision isn't affected but the color change is permanent, said Dr. Gregg Homer of Stroma Medical, the company that developed the experimental procedure.
Further testing is required and the treatment may be available in other countries within 18 months and in the U.S. within three years, according to Homer, CBS News reported.
The cost is expected be about $5,000.
One expert warned about possible complications. The pigment released from the iris has to go somewhere, Dr. Elmer Tu, an associate professor of clinical ophthalmology at the University of Illinois in Chicago and a spokesman for the American College of Ophthalmology, told CBS News.
He noted that a potentially blinding condition called pigmentary glaucoma is associated with chronic seepage of melanin into the fluid within the eye.
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FDA Testing Pet Food for Salmonella That Is Making Pet Owners Sick
A nationwide program to test pet food and related products for salmonella has been launched by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration because there is evidence that tainted pet food is making owners sick.
In October, agency investigators began taking samples of pet treats, dry pet food and pet diet supplements from retailers, wholesalers and distributors, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The testing includes products for dogs, cats, rabbits, reptiles, aquarium fish, birds and rodents such as mice, guinea pigs and hamsters.
In a memorandum released this week, the FDA said it is "particularly concerned about salmonella being transmitted to humans through pet foods, pet treats, and supplements for pets that are intended to be fed to animals in homes, where they are likely to be directly handled or ingested by humans," the Wall Street Journal reported.
To highlight the need for testing, the FDA cited Centers for Disease Prevention and Control data showing that 70 people became ill from January 2006 to December 2007 in connection with salmonella-tainted dry dog food made in Pennsylvania.
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Melanoma-Detecting Device Approved by FDA
A device designed to help doctors decide if a mole should be removed and tested for melanoma was approved Wednesday by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
The MelaFind takes detailed images of suspicious-looking skin growths and analyzes them for signs of melanoma, the deadliest type of skin cancer, the Associated Press reported.
The device, made by Mela Sciences Inc. of Irvington, N.Y., compares images from patients to a database of 10,000 images and then recommends whether a biopsy should be done.
Finding melanoma at an early stage can save lives. While 85 percent of patients diagnosed with late-stage melanoma die within five years, nearly all patients diagnosed with early-stage melanoma can be treated and cured, the AP reported.
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Scientists Rejuvenate Cells From Elderly
Age-worn cells in people over 90 were rejuvenated into stem cells that were identical to those found in embryos, a new study says.
The achievement could lead to new opportunities in regenerative medicine, especially for seniors, according to scientists, Agence France-Presse reported.
The research is reported in the journal Genes & Development.
"This is a new paradigm for cell rejuvenation," Jean-Marc Lemaitre, a researcher at the Institute of Functional Genomics at the University of Montpellier in France, told AFP. "The age of cells is definitely not a barrier to reprogramming."
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Group Challenges J&J on Chemicals in Baby Shampoo
Johnson & Johnson's baby shampoo sold in the United States contains trace amounts of two chemicals considered harmful to babies, but the company sells versions of the shampoo without the chemicals in other countries, according to a group called the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics.
The coalition of environmental and health groups has spent 2 1/2 years trying to convince Johnson & Johnson to remove the potential cancer-causing chemicals -- dioxane and a substance called quaternium-15 that release formaldehyde -- from the shampoo, the Associated Press reported.
The company says it is reducing or gradually phasing out the chemicals but has not responded directly to the demand of the group, which is now calling for a consumer boycott of Johnson & Johnson baby products.
"Johnson & Johnson clearly can make safer baby shampoo in all the markets around the world, but it's not doing it," said Lisa Archer, director of the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, the AP reported. "It's clearly a double standard, something they can easily fix."
The group's new report on the issue will be released Tuesday, the same day that it will launch the boycott on its website.
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Gene-Tweaked Mosquitoes May Lower Dengue Fever Cases
A new study suggests that genetically modified (GM) male mosquitoes might help reduce human cases of dengue fever and other insect-borne diseases.
The GM males -- who are modified so their offspring die before they can reproduce -- mated successfully with wild female mosquitoes in the Cayman Islands, BBC News reported.
This is the first time that this type of mating -- which could reduce the number of disease-carrying mosquitoes -- has been proven in the wild, according to the researchers.
The study appears in the journal Nature Biotechnology.
Dengue fever is transmitted by mosquitoes and the World Health Organization says there may be 50 million cases of the disease a year, BBC News reported. There is no vaccine against dengue fever.
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Tea Party Tells 'Occupy Wall Street': We’re patriots, you’re a mob guided by far-left extremists who wants a bigger, more powerful government to come in and take care of you so you don't have to work like the rest of us who pay our bills
“They [Tea Party Patriots] believe in time-honored American values, principles & systems including the freedom to innovate & employ people to implement & distribute one's ideas to the public. They believe freedom from government allows entrepreneurs to try new things, see what works & discard what doesn't. “By contrast, those occupying Wall Street & other cities, when they are intelligible, want less of what made America great & more of what is damaging to America: a bigger, more powerful government to come in & take care of them so they don't have to work like the rest of us who pay our bills.” “The Wall Street protesters have plenty of enthusiasm but not very good guidance,” he said. “All the wrong groups are involved so far. Far-left outfits like....
Tea Party Tells 'Occupy Wall Street': We’re patriots, you’re a mob guided by far-left extremists who wants a bigger, more powerful government to come in and take care of you so you don't have to work like the rest of us who pay our bills
By: Martin Gould and David A. Patten
Newsmax -- October 13, 2011 -- Tea party activists have gone on the offensive against anti-Wall Street demonstrators just a day before the New York protest threatens to come to a head.
The Republican party-within-a-party is taking pains to point out the differences between its genteel grass-roots movement and the disparate groups camping out under tarps pushing a range of left-wing causes.
And their point is likely to be driven home on Friday when a major confrontation between police and the Occupy Wall Street protesters in New York is predicted.
"The motivation between Occupy Wall Street and the motivation from the tea party are completely different," Bryan Shroyer of theteaparty.net tells Newsmax.
"From their signs, speeches, and websites, they want to continue this push of America down this road of increased government involvement and increased socialism. The tea party is simply a collection of patriots from across the nation who want to get our country back to its capitalist roots."
Shroyer pointed to a video from the demonstration in Los Angeles in which one leader was cheered when he called for violent revolution. "That’s very telling in terms of what this group is looking for," Shroyer said .
Sal Russo, co-founder of Tea Party Express, also called out the advocacy for violence. "If any nut said something like that at a tea party rally, can you imagine the outcry?" he asked Newsmax.
"I am not worried about the Occupy groups; they are out of touch with the American people and have no coherent ideas of how to right the American ship of state.
A major flashpoint in the protest is likely on Friday as Brookfield Office Management, the owners of the park the protesters are using as a New York base, clean the area. They say the work needs to be done for health reasons and wrote to Police Commissioner Ray Kelly asking for help.
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who generally has supported the protesters, went to the park late on Wednesday to urge organizers to move out peacefully to allow the cleaning. A chorus of boos and catcalls greeted him.
In a statement, Bloomberg said, "The last three weeks have created unsanitary conditions and considerable wear and tear on the park."
He pledged that the protesters would be allowed to return, "provided they abide by the rules that Brookfield has established for the park."
But many of the demonstrators fear the cleaning will be used as a pretext to force them out of Zuccotti Park, named for Brookfield Chairman John Zuccotti.
"Wear and tear on what? On marble and concrete?" protester Will Schneider said on CBS News. "Like how do we wear and tear that? I’m not buying it at all."
Lauren DiGoria, another of the Occupy Wall Street group, said, "We are working 24/7; we do not rest. We encourage cleanliness. We encourage everyone to take care of their belongings and pack up neatly."
But the reality of the situation in Zuccotti Park is different. The Daily Mail famously published a picture of one demonstrator defecating on a police car and reporters found mountains of trash and rotting food piling up.
"Sanitation is a growing concern," Brookfield said.
In the run-up to Friday’s possible confrontation, conservatives are increasingly trying to point out the differences between the tea party and what columnist Ann Coulter called the "flea party" because its supporters are "wingless, bloodsucking, and parasitic."
Tea Party Express Chairwoman Amy Kremer said she is "offended" that the media portrays the two groups as mirror images of each other.
"I see no similarities," she said in a fundraising letter. "The OWS crowd have had thousands of arrests, have harassed citizens trying to go to work and do their jobs, have had confrontations with law enforcement and destroyed public property.
"They are a disorganized unruly mob of shiftless protesters that has been reinforced by union and organized labor thugs," she added.
"Their goal has been to cause as much disruption as possible and force anarchy.
"In contrast, there have been thousands of peaceful and respectful tea party rallies across the USA over the past three years," she said. "The Tea Party Express alone has hosted over 301 and there has not been one arrest or incident of violence. We say a prayer, recite the pledge of allegiance and sing the national anthem before each rally."
Brendan Steinhauser of the grass-roots conservative organization FreedomWorks told Newsmax the difference between the two groups is clear. He pointed out that, when the tea party movement blossomed in 2009, "No one was assaulted, no one trashed the place, no one relieved themselves on cop cars because we respect private property rights and we respect public property rights.
"In the entire history of the tea party movement, I’m not aware of over a handful of arrests. And these guys have easily had a thousand or more.
"They’re fighting police in Boston. I doubt they have permits, I doubt they treat the police well. Whereas we went and got permits, we obeyed the police, we thanked the police, we picked up our trash.
"We’re happy warriors, and these guys seem to be just the opposite."
The Tea Party Patriots website says the differences between the two groups are far greater than any similarities. "For two years now, tea partiers have stood firmly on principle and helped shape the political debate in this country," the site says.
"They believe in time-honored American values, principles and systems including the freedom to innovate and employ people to implement and distribute one's ideas to the public. They believe freedom from government allows entrepreneurs to try new things, see what works and discard what doesn't.
"By contrast, those occupying Wall Street and other cities, when they are intelligible, want less of what made America great and more of what is damaging to America: a bigger, more powerful government to come in and take care of them so they don't have to work like the rest of us who pay our bills."
But Max Liberty, writing at TeaParty.org said there are many similarities between the aims of the two groups and suggested tea party sympathizers should take OWS protesters for lunch. "Vast good can come out of this," he wrote.
"The Wall Street protesters have plenty of enthusiasm but not very good guidance," he said. "All the wrong groups are involved so far. Far-left outfits like Move-on.org, George Soros, big labor bosses, socialists, and outright communists.
"We can't allow these thousands of protesters in numbers cities to be misled. They need to be recruited with real solutions."
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Oct. 21, 2011 to Oct. 28, 2011Health Highlights
**Turkish Pine Nuts Linked to Salmonella Outbreak.
**Birth Control Pills and Having Babies Reduce Ovarian Cancer Risk.
**Heart Disease Costliest Health Problem for U.S. Men.
**'Super Broccoli' Makes Its Debut.
**Sepsis Drug Xigris Pulled From Market.
**Mammograms May Save Fewer Lives Than Expected.
**Fresh & Easy Bagged Spinach Recalled.
**Target Recalls Children's Frog Masks.
**GPS-Equipped Shoes for Dementia Patients.
**Bath Salt Chemicals Banned by DEA.
**Experts Ponder Testing Anthrax Vaccine in Children.
**Guilty Plea in First Proven U.S. Case of Organ Trafficking.
Health Highlights (Oct. 21, 2011 to Oct. 28, 2011)
Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by the editors of HealthDay:
Turkish Pine Nuts Linked to Salmonella Outbreak
Turkish pine nuts from bulk bins at Wegmans grocery stores have been linked to a salmonella outbreak that's sickened 42 people in six states, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Thursday.
The illnesses began on or after August 20 and include 26 people in New York state, 8 in Pennsylvania, 4 in Virginia, 2 in New Jersey, and 1 each in Arizona and Maryland. The patients range in age from less than a year old to 94 years old.
Two people have been hospitalized. No deaths have been reported, the CDC said.
There may be more illnesses that occurred after Sept. 28 and have not yet been reported because it can take 2 to 3 weeks between the time a person becomes ill and when the illness is reported to health officials.
Wegmans Food Markets Inc. is recalling about 5,000 lbs. of Turkish pine nuts sold from bulk bins of most Wegmans stores in New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Virginia and Maryland between July 1 and Oct. 18, 2011.
Consumers should not eat the nuts or any products -- such as baked goods, pesto and salads -- that contain the nuts. Anyone who purchased the nuts should place them in a closed plastic bag and put the bag in a sealed trash can, the CDC advised.
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Birth Control Pills and Having Babies Reduce Ovarian Cancer Risk
Women can significantly reduce their risk of ovarian cancer by using birth control pills and having babies, according to a new study.
Researchers followed about 300,000 European women for an average of nine years and found that women who took the pill for 10 years reduced their risk of ovarian cancer by 45 percent, ABC News reported.
Women who had used birth control pills at some point in their lives had a 15 percent reduced risk, according to the study published this week in the British Journal of Cancer.
The researchers also found that having one child reduced ovarian cancer risk by 29 percent and having more children reduced the risk by an additional 8 percent, ABC News reported.
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Heart Disease Costliest Health Problem for U.S. Men
The top three most costly health issues for American men are heart disease, cancer and trauma-related injuries, a federal government report says.
An analysis of the 10 most expensive health problems for men in 2008 showed that heart disease topped the list at $47 billion, followed by cancer ($34 billion), trauma-related injuries ($33 billion) and osteoarthritis ($23 billion).
Costs were lowest for back problems ($14 billion), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and asthma ($18 billion).
The average annual treatment cost per patient in 2008 ranged from $838 for high blood pressure to $4,873 for cancer, according to the latest News and Numbers from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
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'Super Broccoli' Makes Its Debut
"Super broccoli" is hitting store shelves in Britain and is expected to begin appearing across the United States this fall.
The hybrid of traditional British broccoli and a wild Sicilian variety contains nearly three times the normal amount of a plant nutrient called glucoraphanin, which is believed to reduce the risk of heart disease by breaking down fat in the body, CBS News and the Associated Press reported.
The British researchers who created super broccoli are currently conducting clinical trials comparing the heart health of people who eat the new product with those who eat regular broccoli or no broccoli.
The health benefits of super broccoli are likely to be limited because it doesn't change people's heart-risky behaviors, such as smoking or not getting enough exercise, according to some experts.
"Eating this new broccoli is not going to counteract your bad habits," noted Glenys Jones, a nutritionist at Britain's Medical Research Council.
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Sepsis Drug Xigris Pulled From Market
A drug used to treat severe sepsis (blood infection) is being withdrawn from markets worldwide after a recent study concluded that the drug is no longer effective.
Drugmaker Eli Lilly and Co. said there is no safety issue with Xigris but the study found that the drug failed to reduce deaths among patients with septic shock, the Associated Press reported.
Patients should stop taking the drug, the company advised.
The study results were "quite unexpected" and may be partly due to the fact that the standard of care for patients with severe sepsis has improved since Xigris was introduced, Lilly Chief Medical Officer Dr. Timothy Garnett said in a news release, the AP reported.
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Mammograms May Save Fewer Lives Than Expected
Mammograms may not be as effective at saving lives as widely believed, according to a new study.
Researchers used a mathematical model to estimate the survival chances of a 50-year-old woman with breast cancer who was diagnosed from a mammogram and came up with a figure of only 13 percent, CBS News reported.
The study was published in the Oct. 24 issue of the journal Archives of Internal Medicine.
"The presumption often is that anyone who has had cancer detected has survived because of the test, but that's not true," study author Dr. H. Gilbert Welch, a professor of medicine at Dartmouth University, told The New York Times, CBS News reported.
"In fact, and I hate to have to say this, in screen-detected breast and prostate cancer, survivors are more likely to have been overdiagnosed than actually helped by the test," Welch said.
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Fresh & Easy Bagged Spinach Recalled
Possible listeria contamination has prompted the recall of f&e brand bagged Washed Spinach sold at Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market stores in Arizona, California and Nevada.
The recalled products have the "enjoy by" data of October 16, the Associated Press reported.
Only one bag tested positive for listeria and no illnesses have been reported, according to Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Inc. of El Segundo, Calif.
Consumers who want more information can call 800-648-8622, the AP reported.
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Target Recalls Children's Frog Masks
About 3,400 children's frog masks being recalled by Target Corp. carry a potential risk of suffocation because they lack proper ventilation when secured across a child's face.
No injuries have been reported in connection with the plush masks, which were sold from August through September for about $1, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, the Associated Press reported.
Consumers are advised to return the masks to any Target store for a full refund. The UPC code on the recalled masks is 06626491474.
For more information, call Target at (800) 440-0680 or go to the company's website.
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GPS-Equipped Shoes for Dementia Patients
Shoes that contain built-in GPS devices that can help locate dementia patients who wander away and become lost will appear on the U.S. market this month, according to manufacturer GTX Corp.
The company said the first shipment of 3,000 pairs of shoes has been sent to footwear firm Aetrex Worldwide, Agence France-Presse reported.
The GPS-equipped shoes, which will sell for about $300 a pair, could help save lives, according to Andrew Carle, a George Mason University professor who was an consultant on the project.
"It's especially important for people in the earliest stages of Alzheimer's who are at the highest risk," he told AFP. "They might be living in their home but they're confused. They go for a walk and they can get lost for days."
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Bath Salt Chemicals Banned by DEA
Three synthetic stimulants used to make recreational drugs called "bath salts" have been banned by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
The emergency action announced Friday places mephedrone, methylenedioxypyrovalerone (MDPV) and methylone under the DEA's most restrictive category for at least a year while the agency determines whether they should be permanently banned, The New York Times reported.
"These chemicals pose a direct and significant threat, regardless of how they are marketed, and we will aggressively pursue those who attempt their manufacture and sale," DEA Administrator Michele M. Leonhart said in a news release.
Bath salts, which mimic the effects of cocaine, LSD and methamphetamine, are sold at head shops and on websites, The Times reported.
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Experts Ponder Testing Anthrax Vaccine in Children
The question of whether the anthrax vaccine should be tested in children is being deliberated by a U.S. government advisory panel.
Supplies of the vaccine have been stockpiled in case of a terrorist attack involving the potentially deadly bacteria. The vaccine has been widely tested in adults but never on youngsters, the Associated Press reported.
The National Biodefense Science Board has been asked to consider whether testing on children should be done now in order to find out if and how well children respond to the vaccine, or if it's better to wait and use the vaccine experimentally in the event of an anthrax terrorist attack.
The board provides advice to the Department of Health and Human Services on preparations for nuclear, chemical and biological emergencies, the AP reported.
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Guilty Plea in First Proven U.S. Case of Organ Trafficking
A New York man involved in the first proven case of black market organ trafficking in the United States admitted in federal court Thursday that he brokered three illegal kidney transplants for New Jersey patients in exchange for payments of $120,000 or more.
Levy Izhak Rosenbaum, 60, also pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to broker an illegal kidney sale, the Associated Press reported.
He was arrested in in July 2009 after he tried to set up a kidney sale to a U.S. government informant and an undercover FBI agent.
Rosenbaum's attorney's suggested he offered a life-saving service to seriously ill people. But prosecutors said he was operating an illicit and profitable operation by purchasing kidneys from vulnerable people in Israel for $10,000 and selling them to wealthy American patients, the AP reported.
"A black market in human organs is not only a grave threat to public health, it reserves lifesaving treatment for those who can best afford it at the expense of those who cannot," said New Jersey's U.S. Attorney, Paul Fishman. "We will not tolerate such an affront to human dignity."
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Obama, The Imperial President Who Morphs Into More Of A Third-World-Style-Dictator Every Day, Deliberately Kills Jobs, and Thinks Americans Are Stupid
Barack Obama lies with impunity, disregards the Constitution, ignores the laws he doesn’t agree with, does what he wishes, and has started three unConstitutional wars. Congress has abdicated its responsibility, the Federal judiciary has become the oligarchy Thomas Jefferson warned about. Obama has appointed dozens of czars without the consent of Congress; these czars set policy for Obama’s regulatory agencies. These agencies are answerable to no one and nothing. Obama’s agenda of killing jobs, suppressing innovation and supporting unviable “green” technologies is their lone goal. So it’s not enough that the President just ignores Congress, Congress has decided it wants to give the President carte blanche to ignore Congress even further. Obama probably has also released a forged birth certificate & used a fraudulent Social Security number.
Obama, The Imperial President Who Morphs Into More Of A Third-World-Style-Dictator Every Day, Deliberately Kills Jobs, and Thinks Americans Are Stupid
By Bob Livingston
Personal Liberty Digest -- July 18,2011 -- Barack Obama has become the Imperial President.
Having just shed the shackles of monarchy, the Founding Fathers were loath to establish a government with an all-powerful chief executive. To prevent it, they created a government divided into three equal branches. Their idea was that each branch would check the other in order to limit government’s growth.
But the anti-Federalist Cato, thought to be New York Governor George Clinton, warned in Letter V to the citizens of New York that the compact under consideration did not provide strong enough checks and balances. He wrote:
Before the existence of express political compacts it was reasonably implied that the magistrate should govern with wisdom and Justice, but mere implication was too feeble to restrain the unbridled ambition of a bad man, or afford security against negligence, cruelty, or any other defect of mind. It is alledged that the opinions and manners of the people of America, are capable to resist and prevent an extension of prerogative or oppression; but you must recollect that opinion and manners are mutable, and may not always be a permanent obstruction against the encroachments of government; that the progress of a commercial society begets luxury, the parent of inequality, the foe to virtue, and the enemy to restraint; and that ambition and voluptuousness aided by flattery, will teach magistrates, where limits are not explicitly fixed to have separate and distinct interests from the people, besides it will not be denied that government assimilates the manners and opinions of the community to it. Therefore, a general presumption that rulers will govern well is not a sufficient security. You are then under a sacred obligation to provide for the safety of your posterity, and would you now basely desert their interests, when by a small share of prudence you may transmit to them a beautiful political patrimony, that will prevent the necessity of their travelling through seas of blood to obtain that, which your wisdom might have secured: It is a duty you owe likewise to your own reputation, for you have a great name to lose; you are characterised as cautious, prudent and jealous in politics; whence is it therefore, that you are about to precipitate yourselves into a sea of uncertainty, and adopt a system so vague, and which has discarded so many of your valuable rights. Is it because you do not believe that an American can be a tyrant? If this be the case you rest on a weak basis; Americans are like other men in similar situations, when the manners and opinions of the community are changed by the causes I mentioned before, and your political compact inexplicit, your posterity will find that great power connected with ambition, luxury, and flattery, will as readily produce a Caesar, Caligula, Nero, and Domitian in America, as the same causes did in the Roman empire.
Sadly, it turns out he was correct. Congress has abdicated its responsibility, the Federal judiciary has become the oligarchy Thomas Jefferson warned about, and the result is we now have an imperial Presidency.
The imperial Presidency has its roots in 1861 and Abraham Lincoln, who had no regard for the Constitution and the rule of law.
The Southern States had every right to secede under the Constitution. In his inaugural address, President Thomas Jefferson said, "If there be any among us who would wish to dissolve this Union or to change its republican form, let them stand undisturbed as monuments of the safety with which error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it."
As Judge Andrew P. Napolitano states in his book, The Constitution in Exile, in a later speech Jefferson, discussing the possibility of States seceding, said, "God bless them both and keep them in the union if it be for their good, but separate them if it be better."
"Lincoln’s act of sending troops to Virginia triggered the armed conflict that became the Civil War," Napolitano writes. "He did so under the premise that war was necessary to preserve the union. But the truth is that Lincoln had several other options to exhaust before resorting to warfare — and that’s only after we observe that the Southern states had the right to secede from the Union if they wished to do so."
During the period from April 12, 1861 — when first engagement of the Civil War took place — until his death April 14, 1865, Lincoln ordered the murder of civilians, declared martial law, shut down convening State legislatures, arrested State politicians and journalists, closed newspapers, suspended habeas corpus, seized vast amounts of property without compensating the owners, imprisoned Northern citizens without trial, conducted a war without Congressional approval, ignored orders of the Supreme Court, consented in — and encouraged — the commission of war crimes by his generals, and oversaw the illegal creation of the State of West Virginia.
Even Lincoln historian apologists accuse Lincoln of being a dictator. They just seem to believe he was a "good" dictator because they support what he did during his dictatorship. But tyranny is tyranny.
"Lincoln took all of these actions in the name of preserving (emphasis in original) constitutional government. It’s hard to imagine something more tyrannical than a central government that suppresses life, speech, and political expression with such drastic measures," Napolitano writes.
Lincoln’s actions effectively ended the prospect of nullification and gutted the 10th Amendment. And ever since Lincoln got away with trampling the Constitution, Presidents, Congresses and Federal judges have been writing laws and issuing edicts and orders in violation of the Constitution and its enumerated powers. In other words, they do what they want, ignoring the rule of law.
The three branches, envisioned by the Founders as a set of checks against one another, became partners in crime. They consolidated their power over those they governed and set about entrenching themselves and enriching themselves, their political parties and their cronies.
Following the events of 9/11, Congress granted President George W. Bush sweeping powers to make war on terrorists and imprison Americans without trial. Like Lincoln, Bush suspended habeas corpus. Congress also passed the liberty-crushing USA Patriot Act that gave law enforcement agencies broad powers to eavesdrop, search and surveil Americans.
As the economy crashed in 2008, Bush — under the guise of "saving" the economy — looted the Treasury to make sure his Treasury Secretary’s old firm, Goldman Sachs, made out like a bandit. It turns out all the big banksters, both domestic and foreign, got a slice of that pie. Congress helped and Judiciary sat on its hands and did nothing.
But as has been the case since his inauguration, whatever Bush did, Obama has doubled down. He has become the Imperial President.
Obama has appointed dozens of czars without the consent of Congress. These czars set policy for Obama’s regulatory agencies — the alphabet soup government agencies that create problems through regulation and then pass more regulations to solve the regulatory problems they created. These agencies are answerable to no one and nothing. Obama’s agenda of killing jobs, suppressing innovation and supporting unviable "green" technologies is their lone goal.
Sadly, not only does Congress not care, it is working posthaste to make it easier for the President to avoid Congress altogether. The Senate, by a roll call vote of 79-20, last week passed the President Appointment Efficiency and Streamlining Act of 2011. It’s set to go before the House soon. The bill’s aim is to eliminate Senate confirmation of 200 of the roughly 1,400 Presidential appointments that fall under Article II, Section 2, according to The Washington Examiner.
Then last week, Senator Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) floated the harebrained notion to give the President the authority to raise the debt ceiling on his own.
So it’s not enough that the President just ignores Congress, Congress has decided it wants to give the President carte blanche to ignore it eve
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