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The unbearable sadness of climate activism: Nicole Thornton remembers the exact moment her curious case of depression became too real to ignore. It was five years ago and the environmental scientist – a trained biologist and ecologist – was writing a rather dry PhD on responsible household water use. Fair enough. That would make anyone depressed. Thornton had always been easily upset by apathy towards, and denial of, environmental issues. But now she began to notice an oddly powerful personal reaction to "the small stuff" – like people littering, or neighbours chopping down an old tree. So, she's a bossy...

When Rachel Carson’s book, “Silent Spring”, was published, filled with totally false claims about DDT, the Environmental Protection Agency looked it over and concluded she had used manipulated data. They concluded that DDT should not be banned, but its first administrator, William Ruckleshaus, overruled the agency and imposed a ban. Ruckleshaus was a lawyer, not a scientist. He was also politically connected enough to hold a variety of government positions. He got the nod for the EPA job from John Mitchell, Nixon’s Attorney General who later went to jail for his participation in the Watergate cover-up.

The recent death of Robin Williams has put a spotlight on the matters of depression, how it’s treated, and the role of prescribed and illicit drugs. According to the American Psychiatric Association, “Depression is a serious medical illness that negatively affects how you feel, the way you think and how you act. Depression has a variety of symptoms, but the most common are a deep feeling of sadness or a marked loss of interest or pleasure in activities.” Three primary types are identified: bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder (clinical depression), and persistent depressive disorder. The Association details typical symptoms… Changes...

Most honest criticism of President Obama doesn't stem from racism or prejudice. When George Will claims, "As the president begins his second term, the signature achievement of his first term looks remarkably rickety," he's speaking from his own honest assessment of the ACA. Similarly, when Pat Buchanan asks, "Will Obamacare Be the Death of Liberalism?" he's voicing the genuine sentiment of millions of concerned citizens. However, conservative politics since President Obama's first term has blurred the lines between sincere analysis and surreptitious messages aimed at pandering to extremists. Whereas Republicans used to shy away from the mention of Willie Horton...

I have a large family. Yes, I have 5 children of my own, but I also have 23 nieces and nephews and 30+ great-nieces and nephews. Large.And we’ve heard it all. “Don’t you know what causes that?” (usually chortled with an accompanying poke in the ribs.) “Are you done now?” “Wow, you’ve got your hands full…” (translated: “Dear heavens, what is wrong with you people??”)It’s all good. Say what you want; we like having loud family gatherings, trying to figure out how many chairs we’re going to need for Thanksgiving, buying in bulk and generally holding up our end of...

Part 1: “IT’S A NIGHTMARE” After the Avandia debacle, is history about to repeat itself? Amy Lynn Evans remembers the onset of the illness that left her with seven hundred thousand dollars in medical bills. The morning began like any other. “My son was getting ready for work, and he said to me ‘Mom, you don’t look too well.’ When I went to the emergency room, they found a blood clot on my lung.

The cost of a product that half the world’s population needs multiple times a day, every month for approximately 30 years, is simply too much.When I got my first period, I was in the most embarrassing place my then-11-year-old self could have imagined: my grandparents’ house. I wasn’t sure what to do, so I just put on extra pairs of underwear and threw them away one-by-one, scrunched at the bottom of the bathroom trash bin, as I bled through them. Finally, with nary a pair of panties in sight, I was forced to tell my mother. I have never been...

Something happened yesterday. It began with a post I wrote about depression and suicide called “Robin Williams didn’t die from a disease, he died from his choice.” When I clicked “publish” on that piece, I felt confident. I was sad that it had to be written, and upset about the circumstances surrounding it, but sure that I was saying something that needed to be said; something truthful but uplifting, frank but compassionate. I actually found myself getting emotional as I wrote it. I’m not suicidal but I have demons of my own, so I submitted that post to the public,...

Actor and comedian Robin Williams died August 11th from a suspected suicide. Fans from around the world are grieving the tragic loss of this talented actor and comedian. Such an act of desperation reveals Williams was clearly in great emotional pain. A headline on NBC News Online shares that Robin Williams Battled Demons for Decades Before His Death. Many are aware that Williams struggled for years with serious addiction issues. However a lesser known fact is that one of those demons was an abortion that took place in the 1970’s. From Robin Williams: A Biography by Andy Dougan … His...

Disease is the absence of health. Although many diseases still have the potential to end our life we have found ways to combat them and avoid the deadly pandemics of the past. History tells us between 75 and 200 million people died in Europe during the middle years of the 14th century. It took just six years to sweep across the continent and reduce the population by at least 1/3. Those who survived were emotionally and financially destroyed. Because of modern medicine and a clearer understanding of the how and why of epidemics we are at much less risk of...

Michael Snyder asked the obvious question, “How in the world is it possible that more than 170 health workers have been infected by the Ebola virus?” The World Health Organization (WHO) does not seem to have the answer even though health workers are dressed “head to toe in suits that are specifically designed to prevent the spread of the virus.” The WHO released the information that West Africa has tallied 1,711 Ebola diagnoses and 932 deaths. Ken Isaacs of the Samaritan’s Purse said, “We believe that these numbers represent just 25 to 50 percent of what is happening.” CDC Director...

With Ebola in the news, there are some that have pointed out the possibility that some nations may attempt to weaponize the virus. This is a concern that deserves discussion, so let’s talk about something that few consider a likely cause of a collapse scenario: biological warfare. Biological warfare is the use of infectious agents such as bacteria, viruses, fungi or their by-products to wreak death and havoc among a specific population. The user’s goal is to achieve control over an area or a segment of the population by weakening the ability to resist. Biological weapons don’t necessarily have to...

Importing Dangerous Diseases With reports that illegal immigrants bring the risk of Ebola and other viral illnesses, Association of American Physicians and Surgeons representative, Dr. Elizabeth Lee Vliet, has noted that, “Border Patrol sources repeatedly warn that we do not know who is coming across our southern borders, all the countries of origin, what diseases they may carry, or where they go after being released with a summons to appear months later in court.” An investigation by the Accuracy in Media Center for Investigative Journalism shows that American religious groups, using federal money, are facilitating this growing crisis and trying...

How in the world is it possible that more than 170 health workers have been infected by the Ebola virus? That is the one question about Ebola that nobody can seem to answer. The World Health Organization is reporting this as a fact, but no explanation is given as to why this is happening. We are just assured that Ebola “is not airborne” and that getting infected “requires close contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person”. If this is true, then how have more than 170 health workers caught the disease? These workers are dressed head to toe...

One of President Obama’s top national security aides said Tuesday that the president did not take criticism from former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton over his handling of foreign policy personally. “I think their relationship is very resilient,” deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes told CNN. “They’ve been through so much together.”

<p>The lunches students bring from home are often filled with unhealthy packaged foods and sugary drinks and little that would win any nutrition awards, according to a new study by university researchers. Missing from those lunches, they said, were fruits and vegetables, low-fat dairy, whole grains and, nearly 25 percent of the time, anything that resembled an entree.</p>

“MY SPIRIT IS BROKEN” Will the New Statin Guidelines Do More Harm Than Good? Part 1: A $29-billion-dollar-a-year industryWhen he was nearing the end of his career, Henry Gadsden, then-CEO of pharmaceutical giant Merck, gave an interview to Fortune magazine in which he said that he regretted that he couldn’t sell drugs to healthy people. He said his dream was to be able to peddle his company’s wares to everybody, like chewing gum giant Wrigley’s. Mr. Gadsden’s dream soon began to come true. A few years earlier, Japanese biochemist Doctor Akira Endo surmised that a compound that could inhibit the...

The mobile health revolution has been discussed in this column on previous occasions. While it is a cliché to note that people had better start taking ownership of their own health, the tools of mHealth, as it is now called, will prove invaluable to achieve this goal. Two years ago, at a summit on mHealth organized by the FCC, the term “mobile health” was expanded to include wireless health and e-Care technologies that improve patient care and the efficiency of health care delivery. “e-Care” is the electronic exchange of information—data, images and video—to aid in the practice of medicine and...

Part 1: My Spirit is Broken: Will the New Statin Guidelines Do More Harm Than Good? “You use them or you die.” This is what a doctor told Sulette Brown, a psychotherapist from Oklahoma, when she balked at taking statins, after she’d been rushed to the emergency room for a heart attack. Since that night, her life has changed in ways she could not have imagined.

Hoskins’ plan to bring 100 children to Ontario for medical treatment, like the relocating of the gas plants, is nothing more than a political gesture. While the government of Ontario announced the province would permit 100 injured children in Gaza to be treated in its hospitals, the federal government, accused of being too pro-Israel, used common sense and said not so fast. Last week, Dr. Eric Hoskins, Ontario’s Minister of Health, announced the plan that was requested by Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish, a Toronto doctor who lost three of his daughters in Gaza in 2009.