Free Republic

One hundred years ago this month, just as the first world war was drawing to a fitful close, an influenza virus unlike any before or since swept across the British Isles, felling soldiers and civilians alike... ...On 11 September 1918, Lloyd George, riding high on news of recent Allied successes, arrived in Manchester to be presented with the keys to the city. Female munitions workers and soldiers home on furlough cheered his passage from Piccadilly train station to Albert Square. But later that evening, he developed a sore throat and fever and collapsed. He spent the next 10 days confined...

A 55-year-old patient complaining of nausea and a bad taste in her mouth was actually suffering from a rare condition known as “black hairy tongue.” A case report published in the New England Journal of Medicine said the patient, who was not identified by name, saw her tongue turn black after being prescribed medication for a bacterial infection. The patient had been admitted to the hospital after a severe motorcycle injury that injured both her legs. According to the report, the patient had developed a bacterial infection and was treated with intravenous meropenem and oral minocycline. She reported her nausea...

A professor at George Washington University Law School has released a report claiming that milk is a "racist tool" that is used by "White supremacists." Legal Writing Professor Iselin Gambert writes in a new research paper, warning of the consequences of drinking milk can have on American society, saying: “Sociologist Professor E. Melanie Dupuis has studied the historical links between milk-drinking and manifestations of White supremacy in society.”

Diabetes complications can include nerve damage and poor blood circulation. These problems make the feet vulnerable to skin sores (ulcers) that can worsen quickly. The good news is that proper diabetes management and careful foot care can help prevent foot ulcers. In fact, better diabetes care is probably why the rates of lower limb amputations have gone down by more than 50 percent in the past 20 years. When foot ulcers do develop, it's important to get prompt care. More than 80 percent of amputations begin with foot ulcers. A nonhealing ulcer that causes severe damage to tissues and bone...

The Immigration and Nationality Act mandates that all immigrants and refugees undergo a medical screening examination to determine whether they have an inadmissible health condition. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has technical instructions for medical examination of prospective immigrants in their home countries before they are permitted to enter the U.S. They are screened for communicable and infectious diseases such as tuberculosis, malaria, hepatitis, polio, measles, mumps and HIV. They are also tested for syphilis, gonorrhea and other sexually transmitted diseases. The CDC also has medical screening guidelines for refugees. These screenings are usually performed 30 to 90...

The Health Ministry has said two people who received an experimental Ebola treatment have recovered. Yet officials are worried as the virus continues to spread into conflict areas. The death toll from an outbreak of the Ebola virus in eastern Congo has risen to 67 people, health officials said Saturday, with response efforts complicated by the virus spreading further into conflict areas. Since August 1, there have been 105 reported cases of Ebola in North Kivu and Ituri provinces, of which 77 have been confirmed by laboratory tests, according to the Health Ministry. Eleven people have recovered from the virus,...

After nearly 15 years of planning, hundreds of public comments, and a handful of lawsuits, a page turned Friday morning for a 10-mile stretch of Interstate 70 in north Denver.A slate of prominent transportation officials and politicians, including Gov. John Hickenlooper, formally broke ground on the $1.2 billion "Central 70" Project that will remake that section of freeway that officials call the lifeblood of the quickly growing Denver metro area."Without infrastructure, you can't grow. That's just a fact of life," Hickenlooper said after the event. "It's really building the foundation for the next 50 years of economic development for Colorado."Critics...

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] -- For individuals with gender dysphoria, the conflict between experienced gender identity and sex observed at birth produces significant emotional distress. Until recently, it was unusual for a teen to report initial feelings of gender dysphoria during or after puberty without childhood symptoms. Clinicians have reported that this kind of gender dysphoria is on the rise, particularly for patients whose sex was observed to be female at birth. Additionally, the numbers of adolescents seeking care for gender dysphoria has increased dramatically. It is unknown why these changes are occurring. This month, a Brown University researcher published...

The University of Copenhagen in Denmark is home to a unique collection of Ancient Egyptian papyrus manuscripts. A large part of the collection has not yet been translated, leaving researchers in the dark about what they might contain. "A large part of the texts are still unpublished. Texts about medicine, botany, astronomy, astrology, and other sciences practiced in Ancient Egypt," says Egyptologist Kim Ryholt, Head of the Carlsberg Papyrus Collection at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark... "It's totally unique for me to be able to work with unpublished material. It doesn't happen in many places around the world," says PhD...

Online retail giant Amazon has made another splash into the healthcare pond by hiring cardiologist Maulik Majmudar, MD, . Majmudar, who announced he will be moving to “an exciting and challenging role” at Amazon via Twitter, is associate director of the Healthcare Transformation Lab at Massachusetts General Hospital and a lecturer at MIT. The new hire comes at a time when healthcare executives are beginning to see Amazon as a potential competitor and disruptor in the field, according to a recent survey. Majmudar did not specify the exact nature of the work he will be doing at Amazon, adding to...

Sorry, there is no main body associated with this thread, just links that don't work when I post them here. But... the original U. of Wisc. source url above ( http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/GenderStudies/GenderStudies-idx?scope=GenderStudies.DovieHorvitz&type=browse ) does have links that seem to work. Besides, they have a rather ominous copyright warning at the end that I wouldn't want FR or me to run afoul [of]!

Despite numerous promises from congressional Democrats and President Barack Obama when they passed the Affordable Care Act in 2010, the health care law has created far more problems than it has solved. Premiums, deductibles, and health care choices have all worsened since Obamacare went into effect, and there’s no sign America’s health insurance system will improve anytime in the near future.President Trump inherited a health insurance crisis when he took office in January 2017, so he and congressional Republican leaders immediately began to work to implement their plan to replace Obamacare with a more market-centered approach to improving the...

Looking for a more natural digestive system cleanse? You may be able to find the ingredients right in your own backyard. A new study finds that adding crickets to your daily diet regimen may be good for your gut and offers several health benefits. Valerie Stull, lead author of the study and recent doctoral graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Institute for Environmental Studies, started eating insects herself at age 12 during a family vacation to Central America. She recalls being “grossed out” when she found herself having to eat a plate of fried ants, but took a surprising liking...

Hospitals will be required to post online a list of their standard charges under a rule finalized Thursday by the Trump administration. While hospitals are already required to make this information public on request, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) said the new rule would require the info be posted online to "encourage price transparency" and improve "public accessibility." Starting Jan. 1, hospitals will be required to update the information annually. The CMS said it is also considering how to "allow consumers to more easily access relevant healthcare data and compare providers." Increasing price transparency has been a...

Sen. Bernie Sanders’ “Medicare for all” plan has gained traction among some mainstream Democrats, including possible presidential contenders... New analysis...found that single-payer health care for all Americans would cost at least $32.6 trillion during the first decade...but it’s worth keeping in mind that a Sanders-style single-payer system would transfer all health care spending to the federal government. “I’m scoring the federal cost here, and it’s enormous,” Blahous told Yahoo Finance. “The other side of the coin is businesses, individuals, states and others are not going to be paying these costs. They’re going to be given to the federal government.” ...total...

For at least the last 10 million years every yeast cell of the sort used to make beer or bread has had 16 chromosomes. But now—thanks to CRISPR technology and some DNA tinkerers in China—there are living yeast with just one. Genome organizer: We humans have our genes arranged on 46 chromosomes, yeast use 16, and there’s even a fern plant with 1260 of them. That’s just the way it is. And no one is quite sure why. The big one: Do we really need so many chromosomes? That’s what Zhogjun Qin and colleagues at the Key Laboratory of Synthetic...

What countries have the longest life expectancies? Author: Marina Pitofsky, USA TODAY Updated: 3:21 PM EDT July 27, 2018 Okinawa, Japan is often known as "the land of immortals," with hundreds of residents over 100 years old. Last year, the number of people 90 years old and above in Japan hit the two million mark. So when Chiyo Miyako died Sunday as the oldest person in the world at 117 years old, she was certainly not alone at her age in Japan. The new oldest person in the world is Kane Tanaka, a 115-year-old woman living in Fukuoka, Japan, according...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — President Donald Trump's speech in Kansas City on Tuesday brought praise from many veterans who spoke to 41 Action News following the event. The president spoke in front of around 4,000 people during a speech inside Municipal Auditorium at the 119th VFW National Convention. President Trump touted his administration's plans to improve the VA health system and invest in military equipment. "We have secured $700 billion for defense this year and $716 billion next year approved," he told the crowd. "My administration is committed to ensuring that our warfighters have the tools, the resources, the firepower...

Research Check: Does drinking coffee help you live longer? Like many previous studies, the JAMA Internal Medicine paper found people who drank coffee had a lower risk of dying of any cause – and specifically, of dying from heart disease and cancer – over the course of the study GOOD NEWS. The study contains some good news for people who drink a lot of coffee. StudioByTheSea/Shutterstock There’s only one thing better than a hot cup of coffee in the morning: a new research paper telling you your daily habit is good for your health. Headlines this week presented the good...

The recall of a common drug used to control blood pressure and help prevent heart failure was announced by the US Food and Drug Administration on Friday, a week after 22 other countries recalled it because the drug contains a chemical that poses a potential cancer risk. Valsartan is off patent and is used as a component of other generic medicines, but not all medicines containing the ingredient are involved, according to the FDA. The US recall includes the the versions of valsartan that are made by Major Pharmaceuticals, Solco Healthcare and Teva Pharmaceuticals Industries Ltd. as well as valsartan/hydrochlorothiazide...