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Over the last few years there have been a number of studies suggesting that male circumcision may protect against HIV infection. Several possible reasons have been offered by experts as to why circumcision offers protection against HIV infection. Now here's one more reason... A study led by Lance Price of the Translational Genomics Research Institute suggests that a significant shift in the bacterial community or microbiome of the penis as a result of circumcision could explain HIV protection. The researchers found that in men who were circumcised, the total bacterial load under the foreskin was 33.3 percent less than those...

‘SHE’S NOW OR NEVER’ FOUNDER MENNE TALIVA’A HALL RUNS IN NORTH SHORE MARATHON (Honolulu, HAWAI'I)--She’s running to fight obesity, diabetes and heart disease. She’s running for her family. “I run for change!” exclaims Menne Taliva’a Hall, founder of a health and wellness sisterhood and Blog called ‘She’s Now or Never’ or SNN. "My quest to run marathons is a demonstration to prove that change is possible! I leave footprints in honor of family and friends that have passed on and for those that I love dearly." After shedding 150 pounds and finishing more than 20 half-marathons, Hall – blogger and...

Researchers in China have shown that the organic component of mother of pearl can help repair damaged teeth, by acting as a template for the mineralisation of tooth enamel.Tooth enamel is made up of rod-like crystals of hydroxyapatite, a calcium phosphate mineral. It is the hardest tissue in the body, but is susceptible to erosion by food and bacterial acids. Once gone, it never naturally reforms, and cavities must be fixed using manmade materials. Methods of artificially rebuilding enamel often involve extreme temperature, pressure or pH conditions that make them impractical for clinical use.Researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences...

PHILADELPHIA — Take five or 10 minutes, the professor said, and write down things that you love, like, need or enjoy. Now pair up with someone you don’t know and spend 20 minutes introducing yourself. Talk about whatever you want. But don’t mention anything that you wrote down. Try going on for a half-hour without a word about the most important things in life. Imagine a full day. “It might be difficult,” said instructor Robin Brennan. “That’s what this course is about. That is just a glimpse of what it is like for somebody who is LGBT” — lesbian, gay,...

The Obama budget is finally out and there are, to no surprise, a potpourri of new tax hikes proposed, many of which are aimed at the "wealthy" among us. Deep within the bowels of the colossal budget, however, lies a proposed tax that targets the poor among us and it is perhaps a precursor of other health-related taxes to come. President Obama proposes raising the tax on cigarettes from $1.01 to $1.95 per pack--a whopping 93% increase in taxes. The White House estimates that the tax would raise $78.1 billion, of which around $66 billion would be used to fund...

According to Genworth, an insurance company that deals with long term care, a year in a private nursing home has jumped 24 percent over the past five years. The average price is nearly $84,000 a year –up from $60,000.... The company's vice president said insurance, food, building maintenance and labor costs are all going up and being passed onto the customer.

Hikers using part of the Appalachian Trail are being warned about a stomach virus. The U.S. Forest Service released a warning Tuesday to hikers traveling from Hot Springs north to the Tennessee border to be aware of a stomach virus, the Asheville Citizen-Times is reporting. That section of the trail goes through the Appalachian Ranger District in Pisgah National Forest. .....The article is excerpting one from the Asheville paper that hates FR and doesn't allow linking. If you click the article you'll see a link to the Asheville article. This is the time of year when through-hikers start out from...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Gay infertility. It is... (chuckles) It's about mandated insurance coverage for the inability to have babies. I know you're scratching your head. "Wait, wait, wait. There's no such thing as 'gay infertility.'" Oh, yes, there is now. The language doesn't mean anything anymore, folks. Truth doesn't mean anything anymore. Language doesn't mean anything. So if a bunch of activists want to create the concept of "gay infertility" and then tax all the rest of us to compensate them for the fact that they can't have babies, then that's gonna happen. You haven't missed anything yet. I'm just...

Drugs made from magic mushrooms could help treat people with severe depression, a new study suggests. Scientists believe that the chemical psilocybin, the psychedelic ingredient in magic mushrooms, can turn down parts of the brain that are overactive in severely depressive patients, the Guardian reported. The drug appears to stop patients dwelling on themselves and their own perceived inadequacies. However, a bid by British scientists to carry out trials of psilocybin on patients in order to assess its full medical potential has been blocked by red tape relating to Britain’s strict drugs laws. Professor David Nutt, professor of neuropsychopharmacology at...

A federal judge has ruled that the Unites States government must make the most common morning-after pill available over the counter for all ages, instead of requiring a prescription for girls 16 and under. The decision, on a fraught and politically controversial subject, comes after a decade-long fight over who should have access to the pill and under what circumstances, and it counteracts an unprecedented move by the Obama administration's Health and Human Services secretary who in 2011 overruled a recommendation by the Food and Drug Administration to make the pill available for all ages without a prescription.

Earlier this month, British newspapers reported the story of Paul Marshallsea, a Welshman who, while on a two-month Australian holiday with his wife, wrestled a six-foot shark to prevent it from attacking children in the water. Marshallsea happened to be filmed while doing so, and the pictures went around the world. He was proclaimed a hero. Unfortunately for him, the pictures also reached Wales. He and his wife were supposed to be on sick leave at the time with “work-related stress,” and his heroics didn’t impress his employers: they sacked him, on the not-unreasonable grounds that if he could travel...

Cheap, no-frills insurance that doesn't cover medication, maternity or mental health services will get the scalpel in 2014. Know that health care plan you just signed up for? Don't get too attached. The Affordable Care Act mandate most commonly known as Obamacare has some tight stipulations that, CNN says, are forcing health care companies to rip up most of their current plans and draft new ones that comply. According to a University of Chicago study, just about half of the individual health care plans currently on the market won't cut it once key provisions of the Affordable Care Act kick...

Reader Scott wrote in to ask, “Does alcohol kill brain cells?”“Oh, Lisa, you and your stories. ‘Bart is a vampire.’ ‘Beer kills brain cells.’ Now let’s go back to that…building…thingy, where our beds and TV…is.” - Homer SimpsonWatch someone after they’ve had a few drinks, and you’ll find evidence that alcohol does something to their brain. They stumble, slur their words, lose control of their emotions, and forget things. Some people have tried to explain this behavior as the aftermath of cell death caused by alcohol. Often, it’s packaged as a neat factoid like “Three beers kill 10,000 brain cells.”Now, ethyl...

One in five high school boys and 11% of schoolkids overall have received an ADHD diagnosis, according to new data from the CDC. The data also shows two-thirds of children diagnosed with ADHD are prescribed stimulants like Adderall (above) and Ritalin. About 6.4 million children have received an ADHD diagnosis at some point — an increase of 16% since 2007 and 53% in the past decade. One in five high school boys and 11% of all schoolkids in the U.S. have been diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, according to new data released by the Centers for Disease Control and...

“Obamacare” looks increasingly inevitable, but one lawsuit making its way through the court system could pull the plug on the sweeping federal health care law. A challenge filed by the Pacific Legal Foundation contends that the Affordable Care Act is unconstitutional because the bill originated in the Senate, not the House. Under the Origination Clause of the Constitution, all bills raising revenue must begin in the House.

The Obama administration has withdrawn a proposal to allow Medicare to pay for sex-change operations. The policy change was expected to draw criticism from Congress and perhaps taxpayers. However, the Department of Health and Human Services said Friday the proposal was withdrawn until the agency’s appeals board considers a challenge to the federal government’s existing policy that such operations are experimental and should not be covered by Medicare or Medicaid, according to The Hill. snip The decision was made during Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Awareness Week, in which Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said President Obama’s Affordable Care Act will...

New York City is asking appeals judges to reinstate a ban on supersized sodas and other sugary drinks, which was struck down by a Manhattan judge the day before it was to go into effect. The city had vowed an appeal and said Thursday that lawyers had filed it late Monday. In his decision on March 11, State Supreme Court Justice Milton Tingling said the 16-ounce limit on sodas and other sweet drinks arbitrarily applies to only some sugary beverages and some places that sell them.

Just curious. Has anyone tried acupuncture? Any success?

For the first time since 1981, when it dubbed sex-change operations "experimental," Medicare has opened the door to covering transexual operations, adding to the growing list of operations that would be allowed under Obamacare. Acting on a new request, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services said it is starting a new analysis that could lift the spending ban for sex-change operations with a goal of making a decision two days after Christmas and on the eve of Obamacare kicking in January 1. A 30-day public comment period just opened on the proposed "National Coverage Determination." "Surgical Treatment for Gender...

A few minutes after the Supreme Court issued its landmark decision upholding President Obama’s health care law last summer, a senior adviser to Mitch McConnell walked into the Senate Republican leader’s office to gauge his reaction. McConnell was clearly disappointed, and for good reason. For many conservatives, the decision was the death knell in a three-year fight to defeat reforms that epitomized everything they thought was wrong with Obama’s governing philosophy. But where some saw finality, McConnell saw opportunity — and still does. Sitting at his desk a stone’s throw from the Senate chamber, McConnell turned to the aide and,...