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MIDDLETOWN – A convicted sex offender working at massage parlor across from a children's museum was arrested Friday night by Middletown Police. Douglas Spingola, 50, was arrested on three active arrest warrants and is accused of inappropriately touching women numerous times at Superssage, the massage parlor he owns. Superssage, 120 Washington St., is right across the street from KidCity, a well-known area children's museum. The warrants were a result of a two-month investigation in which Spingola, a massage therapist and personal trainer, allegedly inappropriately touched three women on three separate occasions at his massage parlor, according to WSFB. According to...

Dutch researcher Saskia Lindhoud has discovered a new way to package enzymes by causing charged polymers to form a 'ball of hair' around them. Her approach significantly increases the utility of the enzymes. For example, healthy enzymes with a foul taste can be packaged in such a way that they are released in the stomach without being tasted...

SAN ANTONIO – Naked mole rats don't get cancer. They shrug off brushes with acid and age so well, some are older than the college-aged researchers handling them. "They really are from Mars, I think," said Thomas Park, a professor of biological sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Actually, they're from the horn of Africa. But naked mole rats are becoming more popular in research laboratories, where the seemingly invulnerable rodents have surprised scientists with their ability to live up to 30 years and their potential to offer insights into human health. They're being used to study everything...

THREE Australian experts are making waves in the medical community with a report suggesting swine flu may have developed because of a lab error in making vaccines. "It could have happened in a lab where somebody became affected and then travelled with it," virologist Dr Adrian Gibbs said yesterday. Conjuring up a vision of Frankenstein's fictional monster fleeing the laboratory, he added: "Things do get out of labs and this has to be explored. There needs to be more research done in this area. "At the moment there is no way of distinguishing where swine flu has come from." The...

We came THIS CLOSE to having one of the most massive tax schemes enacted intlo law and we are just now finding out that Climate Data proponents are FRAUDS? What would have happend if these massive tax increases had already been put into place? The bigger question is this: Did the government know? If not - then they are guilty of incompetance on an unprecidented scale- Don't they check facts before they spend billions of our tax dollars? If they did- then they are guilty of complicity in a scheme that is nothing less than treason

US scientists are testing a radical new theory that multiple sclerosis (MS) is caused by blockages in the veins that drain the brain. The University of Buffalo team were intrigued by the work of Italian researcher Dr Paolo Zamboni who claims 90% of MS is caused by narrowed veins. He says the restricted drainage, visible on scans, injures the brain leading to MS. He has already widened the blockages in a handful of patients. The US team want to replicate his earlier work before treating patients.

Researchers have demonstrated a prototype device that can rid hands, feet, or even underarms of bacteria, including the hospital superbug MRSA.The device works by creating something called a plasma, which produces a cocktail of chemicals in air that kill bacteria but are harmless to skin. A related approach could see the use of plasmas to speed the healing of wounds. Writing in the New Journal of Physics, the authors say plasmas could help solve gum disease or even body odour.

Dr. Bob Johnson was there when Albert Kane started showing the symptoms of an abdominal aneurysm in his Concord office. He was there at 87-year-old Phil Speigel's house when Speigel was feeling sick but couldn't make it through the snow to get to the office. Johnson retired this month after more than 30 years serving patients as a primary care doctor in Concord. For his 1,700 patients, that retirement will be a big change. "I'm not nervous. I'm angry," said Marcia Davis, 84, a patient of nearly 15 years, during a recent visit. "He has no right to retire before...

A cup of Brazilian mint tea has pain relieving qualities to match those of commercially available analgesics, a study suggests. Hyptis crenata has been prescribed by Brazilian healers for millennia to treat ailments from headaches and stomach pain to fever and flu. Working on mice, a Newcastle University team has proved scientifically that the ancient medicine men were right. The study is published in the journal Acta Horticulturae.

e21 has a very perceptive post about the Medicare payroll tax that Harry Reid has inserted into his bill to pay for his health care proposal. Link here: http://www.economics21.org/commentary/payroll-tax-increase-loophole-and-ticking-time-bomb The Democrats are double-counting the money raised from the tax. They're counting it to reduce the coming deficit in Medicare and they're also counting it to help pay for the present bill. Revenues from the HI tax are “deposited” in the Medicare Part A Trust Fund, which is running a $20.5 billion deficit (p. 56 of pdf) in 2009. The Trust Fund is expected to continue to hemorrhage money for the...

A recent study confirms that the antioxidants and other plant-based nutrients in chocolate and cocoa products are highly associated with the amount of non-fat cocoa-derived ingredients in the product. The study expands on previously published results. The study, published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, was conducted by a scientific team from The Hershey Company, Brunswick Laboratories, and Cornell University, compared the detailed cocoa antioxidant contents of commercially available chocolate and cocoa-containing products sold in the United States. The flavanol compounds, with the exception of catechin, correlated very well with total polyphenols, the non-fat cocoa solids, and to...

Knowledge is power, unless that knowledge comes with so much baggage that it becomes crippling. Such is the trouble with many cancer and health screening tests. Last week the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force unleashed a maelstrom with its recommendations that women need mammograms less frequently, with regular breast-cancer screening starting at age 50, not 40, and only biennially, not yearly. The Task Force said it was responding to data showing that routine mammograms starting at age 40, as long recommended, rarely save lives and more often result in a misdiagnosis - detection of a breast cancer that's either benign...

Even those living legends who still rock are in need of a body tune-up every once in awhile. Little Richard, now 76, is recovering at a Vanderbilt University hospital after undergoing hip surgery. In a post to his official Myspace page, a spokesperson has said that although the surgery was successful, the veteran rocker is still in a lot of pain. "Please be praying for a quick and full recovery. He may have a long road ahead of him (i.e. physiotherapy) because he waited so long to have the surgery." Little Richard, a long-time born-again Christian, is asking his fans...

56-Year-Old Man Brought Back To Life After 47 Minutes, 4,500 Chest Compressions And 8 Zaps With Defibrillator Staff At New York Presbyterian Hospital Pulls Off True Medical Miracle Joe Tiralosi came back to life after being dead for 47 minutes thanks to a tireless effort from a team of physicians at New York Presbyterian Hospital. CBS 2 HD recently met a Brooklyn man who lived after his heart quit for 47 minutes, and it's all thanks to a team of doctors who refused to give up until they brought him back from the dead. "These doctors did not stop," Joe...

New study in mice by UAB researchers confirmUniversitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) researchers have confirmed that a diet rich in polyphenols and polyunsaturated fatty acids, patented as an LMN diet, helps boost the production of the brain's stem cells -neurogenesis- and strengthens their differentiation in different types of neuron cells. The research revealed that mice fed an LMN diet, when compared to those fed a control diet, have more cell proliferation in the two areas of the brain where neurogenesis is produced, the olfactory bulb and the hippocampus, both of which are greatly damaged in patients with Alzheimer's disease. These...

Since I will be spending the Thanksgiving holiday with a group of relatives, I thought I would take the time to develop a Fact Sheet covering the things they will be dealing with by next Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, most of them are liberals and one I think is a closet DU reader. Hopefully, at least a little education can be accomplished …and… some might even change their minds and call their Congresscritter or Senator. Clearly there may be a big chunk out of their wallet and some really painful health care insurance issues to deal with next year. If nothing else,...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Cases of a drug-resistant bacterial infection known as MRSA have risen by 90 percent since 1999, and they are increasingly being acquired outside hospitals, researchers reported on Tuesday. They found two new strains of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus -- MRSA for short -- were circulating in patients and they are different from the strains normally seen in hospitals. Ramanan Laxminarayan of Princeton University in New Jersey and colleagues studied data on lab tests from a national network of 300 microbiology laboratories in the United States for their study. "We found during 1999-2006 that the percentage of S. aureus...

I think of killing-womb-babies champion Joy Behar cackling away on The View. She gets absolutely evangelistic about preaching on behalf of the abortion evil.

There was an article that came out a few months ago about a doctor on the East coast who solved the healthcare problem. He cut out the insurance companies completely. He charged his patients a flat-rate ($170??) a month and they got unlimited dr visits, labs, x-rays, MRI's, etc. The government shut him down. They said he was acting like an insurance company. Does anyone know where I can find a copy of this article? I've been hunting for hours and can't find it anywhere. I know I've read about it and saw him a couple of times on FOX...

POLL: Should members of Congress be required to undergo random alcohol and drug testing? VOTE HERE!

CORVALLIS, Ore. – A string of recent discoveries about the multiple health benefits of vitamin D has renewed interest in this multi-purpose nutrient, increased awareness of the huge numbers of people who are deficient in it, spurred research and even led to an appreciation of it as "nature's antibiotic." On issues ranging from the health of your immune system to prevention of heart disease and even vulnerability to influenza, vitamin D is now seen as one of the most critical nutrients for overall health. But it's also one of those most likely to be deficient – especially during winter when...

Women who store fat on their waist in middle age are more than twice as likely to develop dementia when they get older, reveals a new study from the Sahlgrenska Academy. The study has just been published in the scientific journal Neurology. "Anyone carrying a lot of fat around the middle is at greater risk of dying prematurely due to a heart attack or stroke," says Deborah Gustafson, senior lecturer at the Sahlgrenska Academy. "If they nevertheless manage to live beyond 70, they run a greater risk of dementia." The research is based on the Prospective Population Study of Women...

Animal studies suggest that adding flaxseed oil to the diet could reduce the risk of osteoporosis in post-menopausal women and women with diabetes, according to a report to be published in the International Journal of Food Safety, Nutrition and Public Health. Mer Harvi and colleagues at the National Research Center, in Cairo, Egypt, have studied the effect of diabetes on bone health and evaluated how flaxseed oil in the diet might delay the onset of osteoporosis. The researchers studied 70 female albino rats of which 30 had their ovaries removed (ovx) to simulate the post-menopausal state and experimental diabetes was...

BRUSSELS – A mother says her son has emerged from what doctors thought was a vegetative state to say he was fully conscious for 23 years but could not respond because he was paralyzed. Rom Houben had a car crash in 1983 and doctors thought he had sunk into an apparent coma. Still, his family continued to believe their son was conscious and had sought further medical advice. Dr. Audrey Vanhaudenhuyse said Houben's mother finally met Belgian expert Steven Laureys, who realized that the medical diagnosis for her son was wrong.

Is there any good source for information on how much the various health care bills will cost in total? We've heard the estimates of $850 Billion to $1.2 Trillion, but that's just the government cost. Has anyone looked at the total cost to the economy, including things like increased insurance premiums, increased cost to individuals for medical expenses (non-covered items plus having to deal with service providers that are now outside the system)?

Is this cause for concern? I’m not sure, perhaps it’s common in severe cases of H1N1 that have progressed into a severe pneumonia. We attempted to contact the Polk County Medical Examiner on Sunday and were told to call back on Monday. Iowa has officially recorded 21 H1N1 deaths, including seven in Polk County alone. But the county’s medical examiner said he has performed autopsies on some residents who were never diagnosed with H1N1, but actually had it. “In the autopsy, what we’re seeing is very heavy, wet hemorrhagic lungs, lungs with a lot of blood in them,” said Dr....

A car crash victim diagnosed as being in a coma for the past 23 years has been conscious the whole time. Rom Houben was paralysed but had no way of letting doctors know that he could hear every word they were saying. 'I dreamed myself away,' said Mr Houben, now 46, who doctors thought was in a persistent vegatative state. He added: 'I screamed, but there was nothing to hear.' ...

New diet fads constantly offer hope to the unhappily overweight, before fading away, leaving only disappointed expectations and stubborn flab. The more extreme the eating plan, the more keenly it's adopted - until its followers realise that measuring portions with a thimble isn't sustainable in the long term. But there's a new diet trend which claims dizzyingly high success rates, promises painless life-long commitment and allows dieters to eat anything they want. Faith-based diets take the principles of Christianity and apply them to our overwhelming craving for chocolate, chips and cheese. Advocates say dieters learn to fill the spiritual hole...

My personal favorite is the Upside Down Mac and Cheese Pizza.

A proposal to limit embryonic stem cell research at the University of Nebraska failed to win the approval of the NU Board of Regents Friday, a critical verdict that came after one regent broke ranks with his pro-life colleagues to cast the deciding vote. Lincoln Regent Jim McClurg's about-face split the regents' vote 4-4, stalling the proposal and opening the door to expanded research at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. Supporters of embryonic stem cell research hailed the vote as a hallmark opportunity for NU to play a key role in lifesaving work. The vote also helps counter a...

Buddy Lou, a 10-year old tabby cat, has become the first feline death from H1N1 in the United States. It appears the cat acquired the H1N1 virus from the owner’s niece who had been sick with an influenza-like illness the previous week. H1N1 in cats: Buddy Lou’s illness The cat was brought to the Animal Clinic in Lebanon, Oregon, on November 4, with labored breathing and was initially diagnosed with pneumonia. His breathing worsened by the next day and the cat was admitted to the veterinary clinic for treatment with antibiotics and oxygen. Buddy Lou did not respond to treatment...

Heavy College Students Must Pass Fitness Class Pa. university requires those with high BMI to take a 3-hour a week class Nov . 20, 2009 PHILADELPHIA - A Pennsylvania university's requirement that overweight students take a fitness course to graduate has raised the hackles of students and the eyebrows of health and legal experts. Officials at historically black Lincoln University said Friday that the school is simply concerned about high rates of obesity and diabetes, especially in the African-American community. "We know we're in the midst of an obesity epidemic," said James L. DeBoy, chairman of Lincoln's department of health,...

MI-5, Volume 5 is an unbelievable blue print of the complete take-over of the British government by a dictatorship. The similarities in this season of MI-5 is a carbon copy to how the American Congress is now going to a dictatorship. It really is a must see because you can view how things may indeed be unfolding. It is an amazing series as if it was made with Great Britain as the setting but in reality it is talking about the USA.

Unless you've just arrived in 2009 on a time machine, you know that smoking isn't good for you. Did you know, that smoking isn't good for your computer, either? It's true, at least according to Apple. Two readers in different parts of the country claim that their Applecare warranties were voided due to secondhand smoke. Both readers appealed their cases up to the office of God Steve Jobs himself. Both lost. Back in April, Derek copied us on his e-mail to Jobs: I took my mid 2007 apple macbook (black) into the Jordan Creek Apple Store in West Des Moines,...

Four people have been arrested in Peru on suspicion of killing around 60 people to sell their fat on the blackmarket for cosmetic use in Europe, authorities say. Three suspects who were arrested in central Peru this month have confessed to killing five people for their fat, according to Colonel Jorge Mejia, chief of Peru's anti-kidnapping police. A search is now underway for seven others, including two Italians, lead prosecutor Jorge Sans Quiroz said. The fat was purchased "to be commercialised in European [cosmetic medicine] laboratories," he said. The prosecutor's indictment said that the gang allegedly targeted farmers and indigenous...

India Tells West To Stop Eating Beef India has urged the West to give up eating beef to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions responsible for global warming. Dean Nelson in New Delhi 20 Nov 2009 According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation, livestock is responsible for 18 per cent of the the Earth's greenhouse gas emissions. Photo: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images The environment minister, Jairam Ramesh, said if the world abandoned beef consumption, emissions would be dramatically reduced and global warming would slow down. "The solution to cut emissions is to stop eating beef. It leads to emission...

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Here is a video report that mentions a new study out today that says women can wait until 21 to be screened for Cervical Cancer, and only need to have "Pap Smear" tests every two years during their 20's. This report comes on the heels of a separate report that urges women not start having mammograms until age 50, and then every two years. It also says self-exam is not necessary. The video reports on a backlash brewing across the country against the new mammogram guidelines. . . . (VIDEO)

Now, findings from the Stanford University School of Medicine and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital shed light on the neural basis of memory defects in Down syndrome and suggest a new strategy for treating the defects with medication. The study, which was conducted in mice, is the first to show that boosting norepinephrine signaling in the brains of mice genetically engineered to mimic Down syndrome improves their cognition. Norepinephrine is a neurotransmitter that nerve cells use to communicate...

I'm usually adept at catching the embedded politics, in tv and movies, and I usually change the station or turn it off when I do. Tonight was the first time, and I was taken aback by it, that I discerned such tactics in the series "Bones"

Science is rich with happy flukes. Remember the story of penicillin? Alexander Fleming discovered the bacteria-destroying mold by accident when he left a culture dish uncovered in his lab in 1928. Eight decades later, here's another one: a Googlesoftware program called SketchUp, which was intended largely for architects and design professionals, has found a very unexpected and welcome fan base—children with autism. SketchUp is not only entertaining kids with autism spectrum disorders, it's providing them with skills that might one day help them as they age out of school and into the workforce. It all started when Google's Tom Wyman...

Drinking alcohol every day cuts the risk of heart disease in men by more than a third, a major study suggests. The Spanish research involving more than 15,500 men and 26,000 women found large quantities of alcohol could be even more beneficial for men. Female drinkers did not benefit to the same extent, the study in Heart found. Experts are critical, warning heavy drinking can increase the risk of other diseases, with alcohol responsible for 1.8 million deaths globally per year. The study was conducted in Spain, a country with relatively high rates of alcohol consumption and low rates of...

A U.S.-based group representing people who portray Santa Claus during the Christmas season wants its members to be designated a priority group to receive the swine flu vaccine. Over the next few weeks, Father Christmases will come into contact with thousands of children at shopping malls and Santa Claus parades. The Amalgamated Order of Real Bearded Santas, a fraternal organization that provides training and resources for people who work or volunteer as Santa Clauses, said the health of its roughly 700 members is a real concern. "Yes, we should be given the needle," said Nicholas Trolli, the organization's president. "Many...

SPRINGFIELD - The VA won't pay for one Marine's injury. Lance Cpl. Josef Lopez deployed to Iraq in 2006 when he was 20 years-old. He enlisted in the Marine Corps fresh out of high school and was enthusiastic about serving to protect the lives of others. He never thought that he would almost lose his own life from something as routine as a vaccination. "I started having trouble walking," Lopez said. "There was a numbness that started in my feet and gradually worked it's way up." After being overseas only nine days Lopez had trouble with his legs tingling. Literally...

Stefanie Spielman, 42, wife of OSU great Chris Spielman, has died. She is beloved for her courageous struggle against breast cancer. Stefanie is survived by her husband, Chris, and four children. A fund named for her -- Stefanie Spielman Fund for Breast Cancer Research -- has raised more than $6.5 million for breast cancer research, according to the Spielman Fund Web site.

Kids have got stuffed toy bug   By STAFF REPORTER Published: Today     NOT many of us would want to cuddle up to E.coli and Streptococcus this winter, but that's exactly what these cuddle toys are. The bizarre creatures, designed to look like the bugs that cause common colds, sore throats and coughs have become the latest craze. The fluffy GiantMicrobes are the same shape and colour as the real thing — but one million times bigger. They have been given human features such as eyes, a mouth and nose to make them more appealing to young children....

Joubert/Photo Researchers, Inc A neuron in the brain. Researchers at Princeton University recently made a remarkable discovery about the brains of rats that exercise. Some of their neurons respond differently to stress than the neurons of slothful rats. Scientists have known for some time that exercise stimulates the creation of new brain cells (neurons) but not how, precisely, these neurons might be functionally different from other brain cells.In the experiment, preliminary results of which were presented last month at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in Chicago, scientists allowed one group of rats to run. Another set of...

A retired nurse has been forced to take care of his sick partner in one of the county's hospitals because he claims staff are too busy to treat her condition adequately. Hospital bosses admitted they were "very busy" at the moment and for the past nine out of 14 days the hospital had been on its highest alert status of black which means it is under incredible pressure. Mr Herbert said: "The staff are so busy at that hospital it is unbelievable. I am not knocking them because most of them do a great job but I am concerned patients'...

This might be in our future too.

Scientists from the University of Granada have used two new techniques, capillary electrophoresis and high resolution liquid chromatography, to enable them to identify and quantify a great part of the phenolic compounds in such foods. These compounds have a chemopreventive effect in humans and a great influence on the stability of oxidation levels of food. UGR News Scientists at the University of Granada have identified and characterized for the first time different antioxidant compounds from foods such as olive oil, honey, walnuts and a medicinal herb called Teucrium polium. They have used two new techniques, capillary electrophoresis and high resolution...