Free Republic

Windsor on Monday joined the growing number of municipalities which have voted to end the decades-old practice of adding fluoride to the water supply in the fight against tooth decay. “A lot has changed in the last 60 years … fluoride is not the be-all and end-all to prevent tooth decay,” said Mayor Eddie Francis, who voted with the majority.… “I want to be shown that when we ingest this, we are safe,” said Kimberley DeYong of Fluoride Free Windsor. She and others said not a single study among those cited by fluoridation proponents looked specifically at the industry-sourced chemical...

Faced with the high cost of caring for smokers and overeaters, experts say society must grapple with a blunt question: Instead of trying to penalize them and change their ways, why not just let these health sinners die prematurely from their unhealthy habits? Annual health care costs are roughly $96 billion for smokers and $147 billion for the obese, the government says. These costs accompany sometimes heroic attempts to prolong lives, including surgery, chemotherapy and other measures.

This morning I watched yet another video of something that disturbs me greatly: the events leading up to the “legal” theft of several tons of cheese produced on a small family farm in Missouri. This, after the cheese had been embargoed for over 2 years and thus was no longer fit for consumption anyway. All of this was done in the name and at the expense of the taxpayers of Missouri, under the guise of “food safety.”

•EU watchdog reveals approval for GM foods fails to identify poisonous gene •54 of the 86 GM plants approved contain the dangerous gene •Gene found in food for farm animals producing meat, milk and eggs •Biotech supporters argue there is no evidence that GM foods are harmful A virus gene that could be poisonous to humans has been missed when GM food crops have been assessed for safety. GM crops such as corn and soya, which are being grown around the world for both human and farm animal consumption, include the gene. A new study by the EU’s official food...

This is one brave woman, People like this put many of us to shame for our failure to act. Appropriately her last name means 'steel' in German. "Jennifer Stahl has been a strong advocate against the smart meter program in Naperville, Ill., for the last two years. The issue came to a head Wednesday afternoon when she was arrested while refusing to let the utility workers install the controversial device.... Stahl was at a friend’s house when she received the call from her husband that the utility workers had arrived. She was home within 15 minutes and saw they were...

(CNN) - The flu hasn't hit Europe as hard as it has the United States, health officials say, but when and if it does, don't expect a call for vaccination of the entire population. Only the U.S. and Canada actually encourage everyone older than 6 months to get the flu vaccine. Apparently, not a single country in Europe asks the general population to seek that same kind of protection, according to Robb Butler, the World Health Organization technical officer in vaccine preventable diseases and immunizations in the organization's Europe office in the Netherlands. That's because global health experts say the...

Thank goodness government is getting more involved in health care so we can finally put a stop to sick and injured people using too many painkillers. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced this week that the city is going to sharply restrict supplies of painkillers at the city’s emergency rooms to combat a rampant addiction problem. Yours, not his. I have to clarify that point, because otherwise you may have the impression that “Nanny Michael” is addicted to power, and being a bit of a bully. … “The city hospitals we control,” he said Friday in response to critics, “so...

Her death came just hours after she went to the hospital seeking help for severe abdominal pain. “Jamie was seeking help; she was in extreme pain,” family friend Kemper Kimberlin said. Hospital staff reported Jamie wouldn’t cooperate, in too much pain to even lie down, so employees asked a Pauls Valley police officer to assist. Unfortunately, when police found two prescription pills that didn’t belong to Jamie, police took her to jail for drug possession. That’s where Jamie sat for less than two hours before being found unresponsive.

...The four sisters are now suing Eli Lilly and Co., the former maker of DES (or diethylstilbestrol), in a case set to unfold in federal court on Friday when it will become one of the first of scores of such claims around the U.S. to go to trial. The Melnick women are seeking unspecified damages...

President Obama will deliver a second inaugural address later this month. He’ll no doubt reflect on what he’s done during his first four years in office — and on his signature healthcare law in particular. Let’s reflect with him. During his first campaign for the presidency in 2008, the president promised that his health reform plan would “bring down premiums by $2,500 for the typical family” by the end of his first term. Well, that first term is just about up. And health insurance isn’t any cheaper. In fact, it’s more expensive. Premiums have increased by an average of $3,065....

I am good about getting my shots. At my advanced age I was supposed to get a pneumonia shot and a shingles shot, so I got them. I also got a flu shot. I didn't get a flu shot in Tanzania or Kenya. I got it at my Doc's office on K Street so I can only assume it was full strength. Next year, I'm going to ask for super strength, because if I don't have the flu, I have a really, really bad cold. I am generally pretty healthy. Other than the occasional cardiac bypass surgery and a minor...

Roughly 4 million additional Californians are expected to obtain health insurance by 2014 through the federal health law, an expansion that will likely exacerbate the state's doctor shortage and could even squeeze primary care access in the Bay Area, experts say. Even without the Affordable Care Act, a worsening doctor shortage had been forecast as the state's and nation's population ages and grows, and as a generation of older doctors retires. But by mandating that individuals have insurance and expanding Medicaid, the law will extend coverage to an additional 30 million Americans and place a greater strain on the physician...

We have the flu. I don't know if this particular strain has an official name, but if it does, it must be something like "Martian Death Flu." You may have had it yourself. The main symptom is that you wish you had another setting on your electric blanket, up past "High", that said: "Electrocution". Another symptom is that you cease brushing your teeth because [a] your teeth hurt and [b] you lack the strength. Midway through the brushingprocess, you'd have to lie down in front of the sink to rest for a couple of hours, and rivulets of toothpaste foam...

The top science reporter for NBC News raised questions Monday about Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s hospitalization, raising the possibility the blood clot causing isn’t linked to an earlier concussion. “It’s not exactly clear what is happening with Secretary Clinton’s health,” NBC News chief science and health correspondent Robert Bazell said “All we have is a statement from her office. The hospital isn’t saying anything and the statement from her [office] says that she had this blood clot that stemmed from the concussion and she’s being treated with blood-thinning drugs,” Bazell continued. “The problem is that usually when blood clots...

"I've been preaching this since long before Gary Taubes' books came out. That's because I have a colleague who studies the physiology of insulin. From what I know, Taubes is right. A quote re Dietary Incorrectness at Powerline:...Taubes disputes the connection between dietary fat and high cholesterol. He challenges the thesis that dietary fat is detrimental to our health. He rejects a balanced diet. He advocates a high-fat diet. He opposes dieting. He doesn’t object to exercise, but he asserts that it makes you hungry. It’s almost funny. He is the dietary equivalent of politically incorrect.

The Obama administration’s HHS mandate may force the Catholic Little Sisters of the Poor to cease their U.S. operations, according to Sister Constance Carolyn Veit, the religious order’s communications director.The Little Sisters currently provide group homes and daily care for the elderly poor in 30 U.S. cities.Sister Constance told The Daily Caller that the Little Sisters may not qualify for a religious exemption from ObamaCare’s requirement that employers provide coverage for contraceptives, sterilizations and abortion-causing drugs free of charge to female workers.“We are not exempt from the [ObamaCare] mandate because we neither serve nor employ a predominantly Catholic population,” Constance...

A study by the UK-based biotech company Lycotec found that blue cheese may have anti-inflammatory properties that protect against many diseases. Blue cheeses like Roquefort and Bleu d'Auvergne are being credited with helping reduce cardiovascular disease in France. A studyby the UK-based biotech company Lycotec found that blue cheese may have anti-inflammatory properties that protect against many diseases. The anti-inflammatory properties increased the longer the cheese was ripened, said the Globe and Mail. AFP reported that the benefits of the cheese work best in the gut and just underneath the skin, which may help slow signs of aging. The researchers...

MADRID (AP) -- Several thousand Spanish public health workers and other people marched from four main hospitals in Madrid to converge on a main square in the capital Sunday, protesting the regional government's plans to restructure and part-privatize the sector. The marches, described as a "white tide" because of the color of the medical scrubs many were wearing, finally met mid-afternoon in Puerta del Sol. On Monday, the region's health councilor will meet with a committee responsible for coordinating professional services and union representatives to try and agree how to achieve €533 million ($697 million) in savings. Doctors, nurses and...

The other ObamaCare middle class tax hike arrives in 2014By: John Hayward 12/12/2012 09:14 AM If you think it’s been horrifying to watch ObamaCare pop open like a jack-in-the-box filled with tax increases over the last couple of weeks, just wait until the huge new taxes on health insurance companies hit in 2014. A study commissioned by America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) lays out the details: The [Affordable Care Act] imposes a new sales tax on health insurance that starts at $8 billion in 2014, increases to $14.3 billion in 2018, and will continue to increase each year. The Joint...

Obesity has become the leading cause of new recruits being rejected from the US Army as they struggle to meet fitness standards. And military officials have warned expanding waistlines in the warrior corps are causing a national security concern as the Army is being forced to dismiss a rising number of overweight soldiers. During the first 10 months of this year, the Army, under pressure to cut the number of troops, kicked out 1,625 soldiers for being out of shape - around 15 times the number discharged for that reason in 2007. Between 1998 and 2010, the number of active-duty...