To the surprise of doctors, new research on acupuncture has found that the ancient Chinese healing technique provides real pain relief. Acupuncture involves sticking needles into specific points in the body that Chinese healers believe contain unseen energy pathways; the needles supposedly stimulate the flow of “qi,” or energy. Western medicine has viewed these claims with deep skepticism, contending that […]
Read more
Overdoses of prescription painkillers have become one of the leading causes of death among women. More women now die from overdoses of prescription pills like OxyContin, Vicodin, and Percocet than from cervical cancer, homicide, or street drugs such as heroin and cocaine, a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows. “We need to better understand how […]
Read more
Over the past decade, more Americans died from overdoses of prescription painkillers than from heroin and cocaine use combined, according to government health officials. Most of the deaths were due to misuse of the medications— not to treat pain but to achieve a narcotic high. Recreational abuse has fueled a 300% surge in sales since 1999 of drugs like oxycodone, […]
Read more
A child’s general good health is no guarantee that a case of the flu won’t have fatal consequences, according to a new study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A surprising 43 percent of the 830 children who died from flu complications in the U.S. between October 2004 and September 2012 were otherwise healthy and did not have […]
Read more
High blood sugar doesn’t just increase your risk of developing diabetes—studies have also shown a link between blood sugar and dementia. Researchers tracked the blood glucose levels of more than 2,000 older adults for seven years and found that those who had high glucose levels—but not diabetes—were nearly 20 percent more likely to develop dementia than those with low levels. […]
Read more
What will it take for France to get serious about regulating prescription drugs? asked Sauveur Boukris. We French love to take pills; we are the biggest consumers of medicines in Europe. French doctors “tend to prescribe far more heavily” than their foreign colleagues, dispensing four or five drugs to treat any given malady, while German or Dutch doctors prescribe two […]
Read more
Bismarck, ND Abortion bill: North Dakota Gov. Jack Dalrymple approved the country’s toughest abortion restrictions this week, signing into law a series of measures that would ban most abortions. The first of the three laws prohibits abortions as soon as a fetal heartbeat can be detected, or as early as six weeks into a pregnancy. Doctors who flout this law […]
Read more
A new analysis of 166 studies on childhood vaccines has come to a resoundingly clear conclusion: Vaccination does not cause autism and is extremely safe and effective.The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality commissioned a systematic review on the subject in response to the rise of the anti-vaccine movement which has been blamed for recent outbreaks of measles and whooping […]
Read more
New York University Langone School of Medicine have discovered what might possibly be an unknown organ that lines the digestive, respiratory, and urinary tracts. This organ may be helping in the transportation of cancer cells around the body. They discovered this by the use of routine endoscopic procedures where they can enter the patient’s stomach and take a look at […]
Read more