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ROCHESTER, Minn. — A new study has found that the amount of vitamin D (http://www.mayoclinic.org/news2008-mchi/4904.html) in patients being treated for diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (http://www.mayoclinic.org/non-hodgkins-lymphoma/)was strongly associated with cancer progression and overall survival. The results will be presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology (http://www.hematology.org/) in New Orleans. "These are some of the strongest findings yet between vitamin D and cancer outcome," says the study's lead investigator, Matthew Drake, M.D., Ph.D., (http://www.mayoclinic.org/bio/13726218.html) an endocrinologist at Mayo Clinic in Rochester. "While these findings are very provocative, they are preliminary and need to be validated in other studies....

An ObamaCare change will cost taxpayers a bundle and lead to poorer drug coverage. There is a little-noticed provision buried deep in both the House and Senate health-care reform bills that is intended to save billions of dollars—but instead will hurt millions of seniors, impose new costs on taxpayers, and charge employers millions in new taxes. As part of the Medicare Modernization Act in 2003, Congress created a new drug benefit—called Medicare Part D—for retirees at a cost of about $1,900 per recipient per year. Many private employers already provided drug coverage for their retirees, and the administration and Congress...

Vitamin D Tied to Hypertension, Hyperglycemia: Teens with the lowest vitamin D levels had low HDL, metabolic syndrome, and high triglicerides. Low serum levels of vitamin D were linked to increased blood pressure, hyperglycemia, and obesity in an analysis of more than 3,500 American teenagers, a link previously seen in adults. “Vitamin D plays a useful role in general human health. We are just now beginning to understand the role that vitamin D may play in cardiovascular health,” said Dr. Jared P. Reis, who presented a poster on the associations of vitamin D levels and cardiovascular risk factors at a...

It used to be that mothers would tell their children, "Go out and play in the sunshine, it's good for you." In more recent years, saying something like that too loudly might have gotten a poor mom arrested and her children taken away from her. "The sun, good for you? Are you crazy? Are you trying to kill your kids with skin cancer?" At least, make sure the urchins are slathered all over in 45 SPF sunscreen, and preferably wearing hats and long sleeves. You might call this the Gospel of St. John the Dermatologist, and it has now been...

Vitamin D supplements may help prevent fractures in people over 65, provided they take enough of the right kind. A new review of clinical trials appears to show a strong dose-dependent effect for vitamin D in lowering the risk for nonvertebral fractures in the elderly. --snip-- The type of vitamin D made a difference. The effect of vitamin D3 was significant, with a 23 percent risk reduction, but there was no significant reduction with vitamin D2. The authors suggest that D3 is more effective in maintaining blood levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D, the active form that the supplement takes in the...

Pakistan has monitored more than 20 Britons believed to have spent time with radical militant groups and then returned to the UK, Sky News has learned.

WEDNESDAY, March 4 (HealthDay News) -- Many teens today, especially black teens, aren't getting enough of vitamin D, the so-called sunshine vitamin that is essential for cells to function, say researchers from Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City. Vitamin D deficiency has been linked to many chronic diseases, including heart disease, diabetes, immune system problems and inflammatory diseases. "There is evidence that the levels of vitamin D we have been using in the past may have been too low," said lead researcher Dr. Sandy Saintonge, a fellow in general preventive medicine at Weill Cornell. Vitamin D is measured...

Vitamin D can help people live longer says study By Graham Tibbetts Last Updated: 1:34AM BST 24/06/2008 People with normal levels of vitamin D in their body are more likely to live longer than those with a deficiency, researchers have discovered. People with normal levels of vitamin D in their body are more likely to live longer than those with a deficiency, researchers have discovered. The vitamin, produced when the skin is exposed to sunlight, helps the body absorb calcium and is considered important for bone health. A team in Austria has found that it can also have an impact...

The claims have been sensational. Martin Mittelstaedt checks up on the research behind the hypeIn the summer of 1974, brothers Frank and Cedric Garland had a heretical brainwave. The young epidemiologists were watching a presentation on death rates from cancer county by county across the United States. As they sat in a lecture hall at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore looking at the colour-coded cancer maps, they noticed a striking pattern, with the map for colon cancer the most pronounced. Counties with high death rates were red; those with low rates were blue. Oddly, the nation was almost neatly divided...

A Ray Of Sunshine In The Fight Against Cancer: Vitamin D May HelpDalhousie's Dr. Lousie Parker holds a vitamin D pill. (Credit: Danny Abriel.) ScienceDaily (Feb. 13, 2008) — It sounds too good to be true … a little inexpensive pill that could block the development of some cancers, strengthen bones, prevent multiple sclerosis and alleviate winter depression. But it’s not science fiction. The “new aspirin” could be Vitamin D. Just as we discovered that aspirin can guard against heart disease, Vitamin D could become a useful weapon in the fight against MS, osteoporosis, mild depression and one of the...

Vitamin D Deficiency Study Raises New Questions About Disease And Supplements ScienceDaily (Jan. 27, 2008) — Low blood levels of vitamin D have long been associated with disease, and the assumption has been that vitamin D supplements may protect against disease. However, this new research demonstrates that ingested vitamin D is immunosuppressive and that low blood levels of vitamin D may be actually a result of the disease process. Supplementation may make the disease worse. In a new report Trevor Marshall, Ph.D., professor at Australia’s Murdoch University School of Biological Medicine and Biotechnology, explains how increased vitamin D intake affects...

Lack Of Vitamin D May Increase Heart Disease Risk ScienceDaily (Jan. 8, 2008) — The same vitamin D deficiency that can result in weak bones now has been associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, Framingham Heart Study researchers report in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association. "Vitamin D deficiency is associated with increased cardiovascular risk, above and beyond established cardiovascular risk factors," said Thomas J. Wang, M.D., assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Mass. "The higher risk associated with vitamin D deficiency was particularly evident among individuals with high blood pressure." In a...

Can Vitamin D Save Your Life?New studies highlight the importance of the forgotten vitamin. by Mariana Gosnell For years doctors believed that vitamin D, sometimes called the “sunshine vitamin” because sunlight triggers the body to produce it, was important primarily in preventing rickets (a softening of the bones) in children. Once milk became fortified with vitamin D, rickets pretty much disappeared, and the problem of vitamin D deficiency seemed to have been solved. But according to Michael F. Holick, director of the Vitamin D, Skin, and Bone Research Laboratory at Boston University Medical Center, who has spent 30 years studying...

In early April of 2005, after a particularly rainy spring, an influenza epidemic (epi: upon, demic: people) exploded through the maximum-security hospital for the criminally insane where I have worked for the last ten years. It was not the pandemic (pan: all, demic: people) we all fear, just an epidemic. The world is waiting and governments are preparing for the next pandemic. A severe influenza pandemic will kill many more Americans than died in the World Trade Centers, the Iraq war, the Vietnam War, and Hurricane Katrina combined, perhaps a million people in the USA alone. Such a disaster would...

The Antibiotic VitaminDeficiency in vitamin D may predispose people to infection Janet Raloff In April 2005, a virulent strain of influenza hit a maximum-security forensic psychiatric hospital for men that's midway between San Francisco and Los Angeles. John J. Cannell, a psychiatrist there, observed with increasing curiosity as one infected ward after another was quarantined to limit the outbreak. Although 10 percent of the facility's 1,200 patients ultimately developed the flu's fever and debilitating muscle aches, none did in the ward that he supervised. WINTER WOES. Cold-weather wear and the sun's angle in the winter sky limit how much ultraviolet...

Lower vitamin D levels, more hip fractures HONOLULU, Sept. 21 (UPI) -- A U.S. researcher found an increased risk of hip fractures in women with low levels of vitamin D. Jane Cauley of the University of Pittsburgh evaluated patient data on 400 women enrolled in the Women's Health Initiative Observational Study Cohort, who had experienced hip fracture. "The risk of hip fractures was 77 percent higher among women whose 25 hydroxyvitamin D levels were at the lowest concentrations,"Cauley said in a statement. "This effect persisted even when we adjusted for other risk factors such as body mass index, family history...

[Lamm] told us in mid-June 2005: Yes, it is a speech I gave a year and a half ago in Washington D.C. It was a 5 minute speech, and I am amazed and gratified it has received so much coverage. He also passed along to us the following "revised version" of his speech: I HAVE A PLAN TO DESTROY AMERICA RICHARD D. LAMM I HAVE A SECRET PLAN TO DESTROY AMERICA. IF YOU BELIEVE, AS MANY DO, THAT AMERICA IS TOO SMUG, TOO WHITE BREAD, TOO SELF-SATISFIED, TOO RICH, LETS DESTROY AMERICA. IT IS NOT THAT HARD TO DO. HISTORY...

Ayman al-Zawahiri Says Al Qaeda Wants to Spill More U.S. Blood Before America Leaves In a new video posted today on the Internet, al Qaeda's number two man, Ayman al Zawahiri, mocks the bill passed by Congress setting a timetable for the pullout of U.S. troops in Iraq. "This bill will deprive us of the opportunity to destroy the American forces which we have caught in a historic trap," Zawahiri says in answer to a question posed to him an interviewer. Continuing in the same tone, Zawahiri says, "We ask Allah that they only get out of it after losing...

For decades, researchers have puzzled over why rich northern countries have cancer rates many times higher than those in developing countries — and many have laid the blame on dangerous pollutants spewed out by industry. But research into vitamin D is suggesting both a plausible answer to this medical puzzle and a heretical notion: that cancers and other disorders in rich countries aren't caused mainly by pollutants but by a vitamin deficiency known to be less acute or even non-existent in poor nations. Those trying to brand contaminants as the key factor behind cancer in the West are "looking for...

WASHINGTON - Rudolph Giuliani's wife - joined by the ex-mayor himself - takes to the airwaves tomorrow in an interview the campaign hopes can put to rest questions about their public courtship and life together as presidential candidate and wife. Judith Giuliani's interview with Barbara Walters is set to air tomorrow, one week after disclosures that she has been married three times, not twice as previously believed. Giuliani aides refused to divulge what the Giulianis said in the pretaped interview and ABC News also was being tight-lipped, except for a news release promising that Judith Giuliani answers questions about whether...

A 62-year-old woman known as the "Black Widow" is being held in a North Carolina jail on $1.5 million bond for relatively petty charges, while police race to unravel a web of mysteries — including the deaths of her two husbands and a female "best friend" — before time runs out and "she's outta here."

For those who want to pull out of Iraq I ask this: Why is it that when it came to a mass murdering tyrant, you wanted to give him more time to come clean with the world despite 17 UN sanctions that he had previously ignored over the space of 13 years and yet now, when it comes to this fledgling Democracy in Iraq, you will give it less than 5 years? Why such patience with a man who killed thousands of his own people each year? Why the rush to abandon the people of Iraq? Why not give Iraqi's...

So how far back does the Free Republic archive articles and how can I go back and find some of the first threads that started the whole thing off ? It struck me I've hung out for a while and it was well established when I joined. Be fun to see what we were focused on day one. For me anyway.

Lewis Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney’s former chief of staff who is on trial for perjury and obstruction of justice, claims he doesn’t remember, or mis-remembers, some of the conversations he had with reporters concerning the former CIA employee Valerie Plame Wilson. That, Libby says, accounts for the differences between his testimony about talks with journalists like Tim Russert and Matthew Cooper and the accounts of Russert and Cooper themselves. -snip-

We are asking you to please assist in getting the following information out to EVERYONE YOU HAVE ON AN EMAIL LIST. There are two missing children who because of there age are not cover by the Amber Alert System. WE are hoping that by sending this information to the widest number of people perhaps they can be found. PLEASE HELP SEND THIS TO ALL OF YOUR LISTS! TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE Thank you, June K. Gutterman, Ed.D., Director Daniel S. Robins, Chair We received the below today from RAVSAK, the national organization of Jewish Day Schools. Rachel Smith (one...

New Lawsuit Alleges Pacificare Set Course Of Deception To Avoid Claims and Cancel Policy of 34 Year Old Kidney Cancer Patient To Increase Company Profits.Irvine, CA (PRWEB) November 18, 2006 -- UnitedHealth Group, the nations second largest health insurer, and its subsidiary Pacificare of California were named in a lawsuit yesterday for canceling the health insurance policy and refusing to pay medical bills after a cancer patient sought treatment. (D'ANNA vs PACIFICARE OF CALIFORNIA #GIN057028) The lawsuit was filed in the Superior Court of San Diego by attorneys Robert K. Scott and Scott Mahoney of the Irvine-based Law Offices of...

Finally some clear weather at Olney. There was a cool, slight breeze but the new faces at Olney were warmed by the FReep. FReeper roll call included 3D-Joy, TFroatz, Cindy_True_Supporter (CTS), [Mrs] Trooprally ([Mrs] T), Lurker Bill and his daughter, and myself. [Mrs] T took the pictures so there are no pics of her today. Including the local that joined us, we had 8 to the moonbats nine. TFroatz and 3D-Joy finally made it to Olney. Due to [Mrs] T's and my busy schedule for the day, we didn't have our regular breakfast at the Olney bunker. But TFroatz is...

The next few days are going to be explosive in the Foley Scandal. Especially when we find out who is what Dick Morris called, a “senior democrat member of congress knew about the IMs months ago–unlike Hastert”. H/t Clarice in the comments section. Then there is this: “FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE" Passionate America to Release Identity of a Person Rep. Foley Instant Messaged Oklahoma City, OK – October 3, 2006 William Kerr a writer for http://passionateamerica.blogspot.com/ has discovered the identity of the one of the persons that Representative Mark Foley communicated with in instant messages. The information was found on a...

I heard the audio of this a while ago on Opie & Anthony's XM Sattellite show but I've never actually seen the video to go with it. Someone has taken words from thousands of Bush speeches and mashed them together so he actually sings U2's Sunday Bloody Sunday. Really creative and must have taken forever to create. http://my.break.com/media/view.aspx?ContentID=111184

Attempts to put limits on wartime behavior have been around since the beginning of recorded history and there have been numerous attempts to codify the rules of appropriate military conduct. In the sixth century BCE, Chinese warrior Sun Tzu suggested putting limits on the way that wars were conducted. Around 200 BCE, the notion of war crimes as such appeared in the Hindu code of Manu. In 1305, the Scottish national hero Sir William Wallace was tried for the wartime murder of civilians. Hugo Grotius wrote "On the Law of War and Peace" in 1625, focusing on the humanitarian treatment...

CIA agent's naming led to giant hoax by Bush foes Fred Barnes September 15, 2006 THE rogues' gallery of those who acted badly in the CIA "leak" case turns out to be different from what the media led us to expect. Note that we put the word "leak" in quotation marks, because it's clear now that there was no leak at all, just idle talk, and certainly there was no smear campaign against former US ambassador Joseph Wilson for criticising President George W.Bush's Iraq policy. It's as if a giant hoax were perpetrated on the country - by the media,...

"Support the Troops and Their Mission Weekend" Will Spread Message of Victory-Not Retreat-in the Global War on Terror Washington, DC-Military supporters from around the country will gather in support for the Second Annual Support the Troops and Their Mission Weekend in Washington, D.C. from September 22-23, 2006. The grassroots effort by military family members, veterans and other patriotic Americans will honor and celebrate the progress made by the men and women defending our nation in the Global War on Terror. Events will begin on the morning of Friday, September 22 as supporters visit congressional offices to encourage congressional members to...

Exclusive: New U.S. Government Videotape Simulates Terrorist Attacks September 12, 2006 7:41 PM Brian Ross and Asa Eslocker Report: ABC News has obtained videotapes of dramatic U.S. government field tests of new methods to thwart terrorist attacks against U.S. embassies abroad. In the videotape tests, government scientists stage real terror attacks -- slamming trucks at high speed into barriers and exploding bombs near buildings. Multiple camera angles capture the blasts' effects on test dummies, posing as diplomats seated at their desks. The U.S. Department of State spends $2 million a year to develop better boundary security equipment against such potential...

On Friday evening, Bill Clinton's lawyers sent a new letter to ABC chief Bob Iger demanding that ABC yank "The Path to 9/11." We've obtained a copy of the letter, and it reads in part: "As a nation, we need to be focused on preventing another attack, not fictionalizing the last one for television ratings. `The Path to 9/11' not only tarnishes the work of the 9/11 Commission, but also cheapens the fith anniversary of what was a very painful moment in history for all Americans. We expect that you will make the responsible decision to not air this film."...

http://hotair.com/archives/2006/07/27/video-kevin-cosgroves-911-call-from-the-world-trade-center/

UPDATE: Looks like Bill is going to need a case of Pepto, email from overseas, guess what “bootleg” movie is showing up? Told you, can’t stop the flood. Look for the “Berger Cuts” to show up on You Tube any day now.

The author of The Path to 9/11 is going to be LIVE, in-studio on The John Ziegler Show at 8pm Pacific. You can listen live ONLINE or if you're in Southern CA, tune in to KFI at 640AM. From John Ziegler.Com: If you want to tell ABC to not cave to Clinton's demands in the editing of "The Path to 9/11," call 818-460-7477. If you want to complain about the movies lessons plans being dropped by "Scholastic," go to this link for contact information. http://www.scholastic.com/aboutscholastic/offices/index.htm

Divisive and Politicized Accounts of September 11th Attacks and National Security Issues Endanger Nation Washington, DC - Rep. Louise M. Slaughter (D-NY-28), Ranking Member of the House Rules Committee, today called for ABC to make clear to viewers that its upcoming television mini-series The Path to 9/11 is not a documentary account of the events and political decisions that preceded the terrorist attacks of that day. "ABC has a responsibility to make clear that this film is not a documentary, and does not represent an official account of the facts surrounding the September 11th attacks," Rep. Slaughter said. "Disclaimers noting...

Can anyone tell me where the archive posts that were done on 9/11/01 are located?

It turns out that the person who exposed CIA agent Valerie Plame was not out to punish her husband. WE'RE RELUCTANT to return to the subject of former CIA employee Valerie Plame because of our oft-stated belief that far too much attention and debate in Washington has been devoted to her story and that of her husband, former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, over the past three years. But all those who have opined on this affair ought to take note of the not-so-surprising disclosure that the primary source of the newspaper column in which Ms. Plame's cover as an...

Breast milk may not be enough Janet Raloff A new study finds a high incidence of vitamin D deficiency in breast-fed babies, mostly during winter. Such a deficiency limits the body's use of calcium, which is essential for healthy bones and teeth. As part of a trial of iron supplementation, Ekhard E. Ziegler of the University of Iowa in Iowa City and his colleagues regularly took blood samples over 2 years from 84 newborns who were initially breastfed exclusively. The researchers noticed that few infants were getting supplemental vitamin D. The scientists evaluated vitamin D in the infants' blood. They...

It can stop a bullet from an AK-47, shrug off a roadside bomb, and it makes a Hummer look like a chick car. The $200,000 (U.S.) Gurkha is coming to a road near you — thanks to a King City-based company that is finding itself in demand because of the global war on terror. "They are pretty awesome machines," says William Whyte, owner of Armet Armored Vehicles Inc., the company that builds the Gurkha. "We've been stopped on roads with people taking pictures and wanting to know what they are." The Gurkha can go more than 150 kilometres per hour...

Tropical Storm Ernesto has formed in the Caribbean Sea. Currently, wind shear is providing an adverse environment for development. The tropical system is moving over the open waters of the Eastern Caribbean. In other NHC news, Max Mayfield has announced his retirement after 34 years working for the NHC. He intends to continue working through the 2006 hurricane season. "I'm tired," he said with a smile. Public Advisories Updated every six hours until landfall threat, then at least every three hours. Tropical Storm Discussion Updated every six hours Three Day Tracking MapStorm Track ArchiveBuoy Data Caribbean Sea Hurricane Model TracksStorm...

When Reuters was forced to sever ties with free-lance photographer Adnan Hajj and remove more than 900 of his photos from its database earlier this month, long-whispered questions about the reliability of Arab stringers and freelancers came to the forefront. But while the widespread use of Arab locals in covering the Middle East raises many legitimate concerns, the Palestinian propaganda machine has enjoyed tremendous success over the years hoodwinking supposedly sophisticated Western journalists. And Hezbollah appears to have done the same over the past month. In short, almost nothing that is purported to happen in the Arab world can automatically...

Thanks to some intrepid digging from commenters Lancelot and Harris at EU Referendum, another video of the events at Qana has been found. This is one that I have never seen before and really shows what was going on that day. It is truly a must see for anyone that believes that the photos at Qana were staged. It completely debunks the "our photographers do not set up photos" and "the rescuers were not holding up the children for photos" claims. Believe it or not, it is a link from Wikipedia of all places. Here's the direct link to the...

Lebanese rescuer 'Green Helmet' injured A civil defense worker who has drawn controversy for holding up the bodies of children killed in Lebanon said Tuesday he was lightly injured fighting a weekend fire sparked by an Israeli bomb. Salam Daher, dubbed the Green Helmet for the color of his civil defense headgear, said he was hit by debris Sunday when a bomb or missile fell on a building while he was helping to battle a fire at a gas station in the port city of Tyre. "I fell over when the bomb hit, and I got some scratches from debris...

Ray Robison has yet another example of staged photojournalism from Lebanon, a car with verses from the Koran strategically placed for propaganda effect: Al-AP at it again with staged photos. Ray comments: Notice this car has a wall-hanging positioned on the door. An Arabic reader tells me this board has verses from the Koran on it. Because Islam does not allow for images of the Prophet Mohammed, Muslims use verses to adorn their homes the same way some Christians use paintings of Jesus. If you want to make the argument that this wall-hanging got where it is by chance, then...

Fox is now showing the German TV video of Qana showing Green Helmet Guy posing a dead child Click here to watch the Fox News video Here is the original FR post Here is the original video on YouTube: Green Helmet the movie director [Germany's NDR busts him in the act]

The recent discovery that a Lebanese freelance photographer, Adnan Hajj, had manipulated pictures he took for Reuters has raised questions about the standards of photojournalism at a time of widespread digital photography. The case also increased pressure on news photo editors, who select and edit thousands of photographs under deadline pressure each day, to detect digital alterations. "The Soviets had to have a whole department to doctor pictures," said David Friend, an editor at Vanity Fair and a former director of photography for Life magazine. "Now all it takes is a swipe of a mouse, and the kid down the...