Free Republic

  The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM), a ridiculously misnamed animal rights group, filed a complaint with the USDA yesterday against a Massachusetts hospital that uses pigs in its trauma treatment training. PCRM claims the hospital’s use of pigs violates the federal Animal Welfare Act. But the USDA was having none of it. As a government spokesman made clear, “The use of live animals in the type of training we’re talking about here is not a violation of the Animal Welfare Act.” And a medical center chief pointed out that the pigs are fully anesthetized in compliance with the...

After World War II, the U.S. government invested an enormous amount of money in medicine; medical research, medical procedures and medical technologies. This investment made contemporary scientific medicine into American medicine, characterized by a continuing flow of new treatment possibilities. These advances raised all kinds of ethical questions. Some were personal and individual, others were social and political. Both type questions are addressed by a new academic discipline called bioethics. The first attempt to develop a scientific medicine took place in Greece in the 5th century B.C. It was called Hippocratic medicine. Closely linked with this first scientific medicine was...

Op-Ed Contributor Washington IT’S Christmas in August for hopeful scientists. The National Institutes of Health is now sending out its annual “priority scores,” the indicators of whether grant requests will likely receive financing from the agency. And hearts are beating faster than ever, as the federal stimulus package has poured an additional $8.2 billion into the institutes’ budget specifically for research. However, for those grant-winners whose studies will involve human volunteers, another big hurdle remains: federal ethics regulations. No one denies the need to shield human subjects from undue risk. But current regulations have become so stringent and unwieldy that...

So many times you hear of someone having a heart attack just a few weeks after they have had medical exam or even a stress test that gave a clean bill of health. In most cases the doctor is not at fault, the growing heart problem was not detectable by present methods. A Doctor in Heart Institute at the Sheba Medical Center Israel, has found a solution, looking at the arteries in your arm. An accurate correlation between the elasticity of the endothelial lining of the brachial arteries in the arm has been shown scientifically to be a good predictor...

Scientists from Scotland and Singapore have unraveled a mystery that has perplexed scientists since red wine was first discovered to have health benefits: how does resveratrol control inflammation? New research published in the August 2009 print issue of The FASEB Journal, not only explains resveratrol's one-two punch on inflammation, but also show how it - or a derivative -can be used to treat potentially deadly inflammatory disease, such as appendicitis, peritonitis, and systemic sepsis.

Enlarge ImageMystery disease. Scientists monitor a narcoleptic patient. Credit: Donna E. Natale Planas/Miami Herald/MCT/Newscom The millions of people who suffer from narcolepsy might have their immune system to blame. Researchers have tied the disabling sleep disorder to two immune system genes, suggesting that it's an autoimmune disease. The discovery may eventually lead to improved narcolepsy treatments. Narcolepsy affects 1 in every 2000 people, making it about as common as multiple sclerosis. The disorder encompasses an odd constellation of symptoms, including overwhelming daytime drowsiness, uncontrollable sleep attacks, and cataplexy, a sudden loss of muscle tone after an intense emotional outburst,...

Over the past 12 years, anesthesiologist Scott Reuben revolutionized the way physicians provide pain relief to patients undergoing orthopedic surgery for everything from torn ligaments to worn-out hips. Now, the profession is in shambles after an investigation revealed that at least 21 of Reuben’s papers were pure fiction, and that the pain drugs he touted in them may have slowed postoperative healing. “We are talking about millions of patients worldwide, where postoperative pain management has been affected by the research findings of Dr. Reuben,” says Steven Shafer, editor in chief of the journal Anesthesia & Analgesia, which published 10 of...

Row over 'tree man' virus samples By Felix Lowe and agencies Last Updated: 5:00pm GMT 26/11/2007 An Indonesian fisherman who developed tree-like growths on his hands and feet is at the centre of an international medical spat after his country's health minister criticised doctors trying to treat him. Indonesia's health minister, Siti Fadilah Supari, lambasted the US doctor currently treating the 35-year-old man, who has the rare affliction caused by the Human Papilloma Virus. Indonesia's health minister Siti Fadilah Supari (second right) inspects Dede's tree-like growths Mrs Supari is angry that Dr Anthony Gaspari has taken blood and tissue samples...

McLean, VA - Senator Fred Thompson issued the following statement regarding today's scientific breakthrough in adult cell research: "There is exciting news for patients today. In yet another breakthrough for adult cell research, scientists have made normal human skin cells take on the relevant properties of embryonic stem cells. That is in addition to 73 breakthroughs for adult and cord blood research to date. There are still no embryonic stem cell breakthroughs. "For all who are concerned for patients and their families, the effective, ethical, and compassionate answer is to put our money where the breakthroughs are happening -- in...

A British pro-life group warns that a new type of embryo research, likely to be approved this week by a U.K. government panel, undermines human dignity. Britain's Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority is expected to give a green light this week to U.K. laboratories seeking to create the first animal-human embryos for medical research using eggs taken from dead cows. British scientists want to use the hybrid embryos in order to research genetic diseases. Anthony Ozimic, political secretary for the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, opposes the embryo-destructive research. He says that an "a-nucleated" cow egg will only...

The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery (American). 2007;89:74-81. doi:10.2106/JBJS.E.01396  © 2007 The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, Inc. This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Letters to the Editor: Submit a response Alert me when this article is cited Alert me when Letters to the Editor are posted Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to My File Cabinet Download to citation manager Reprints and Permissions Google Scholar Articles by Chong, A. K.S. Articles by Lim, B....

<p>Scientists are conducting experiments to change the sexuality of “gay” sheep in a programme that critics fear could pave the way for breeding out homosexuality in humans.</p> <p>The technique being developed by American researchers adjusts the hormonal balance in the brains of homosexual rams so that they are more inclined to mate with ewes.</p>

November 30, 2006, 0:00 a.m. The Animal House Falls ApartPeter Singer shocks with monkeys. By Wesley J. Smith Is the animal-rights movement beginning to fracture? The evidence definitely points in that direction. Liberationists have been engaged recently in some nasty infighting over basic issues of ideology and the propriety of violent and intimidating protest tactics. Indeed, the antipathy among the various factions seems to have grown so intense that the animal-rights movement could soon segregate into antagonistic camps. A shattering blow accelerating this potential disintegration may have just been struck — ironically, by Princeton bioethicist Peter Singer, who is...

Women Consider How to Interpret Health Study Results October 01, 2006 As results emerge from one of the largest women's health studies ever undertaken, women are trying to sort out how to apply the findings to their own lives. With more than 160,000 participants, the Women's Health Initiative (WHI) tracked postmenopausal women for seven to 12 years looking at, among other things, the value of menopausal hormone therapy, a low-fat diet, and calcium and vitamin D supplements. UCLA participated in the study under the direction of Howard Judd, M.D., now professor emeritus of obstetrics/gynecology. Some of the still-emerging results have...

UCLA/VA Study Finds Chemical Found in Curry May Help Immune System Clear Amyloid Plaques Found in Alzheimer’s Disease UCLA/VA researchers found that curcumin — a chemical found in curry and turmeric — may help the immune system clear the brain of amyloid beta, which form the plaques found in Alzheimer's disease. Published in the Oct. 9 issue of the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, the early laboratory findings may lead to a new approach in treating Alzheimer's disease by enhancing the natural function of the immune system using curcumin, known for its anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant properties. Using blood samples from six...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 12 /Christian Newswire/ -- The Foundation for Biomedical Research today applauds the stiff sentencing imposed against three members of a radical animal-rights activist group, known as SHAC USA. Federal District Court Judge Anne E. Thompson delivered the sentencing against the group and three of its six members – who were convicted last March on all charged counts for their roles in a campaign to terrorize an animal research company and its employees. Judge Thompson stopped short of delivering the maximum punishment available, though she did sentence the SHAC entity to five years of probation plus restitution and assessments...

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. Legislators have approved $155.3 million to lure yet another California biotechnology institute to Florida. The Burnham Institute for Medical Research, based in the San Diego area, now is deciding whether to build its 175,000-square-foot facility in Port St. Lucie or Orlando. "This is the beginning of us becoming the premier research state in the nation, if not the world," state Sen. Ken Pruitt, R-Port St. Lucie, said Thursday after the Legislative Budget Commission's approval of the funds. The commission meets periodically when the Legislature isn't in session to make certain state financial decisions that can't wait until the...

July 19, 2006, 1:28 p.m. Ethical Alternatives Keeping a focus on ethics in medical research. An NRO Q&A Dr. David Prentice, senior fellow for life sciences at Family Research Council and founding member of Do No Harm, the Coalition of Americans for Research Ethics. A stem-cell expert, he’s been closely involved in the recent congressional action on stem-cell research. As President Bush prepared to veto legislation that would federally fund embryo-destroying stem-cell research for the first time, Dr. Prentice spoke to NRO editor Kathryn Lopez about the debate. Kathryn Jean Lopez: Do adult stem cells have more promise than...

SPRINGS, South Africa, May 23, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – South African researchers have discovered a medication that temporarily arouses patients from a permanent vegetative state.Scientists Ralf Clauss, now practicing nuclear medicine in the UK, and Wally Nel, in family practice in South Africa, found that Zolpidem, an insomnia drug, effectively restored consciousness to three individuals who were all in permanent vegetative states for at least three years before commencing the trial. After administering the drug, which the doctors have been doing every morning for three years, the three individuals all “wake up” to varying degrees, answer simple questions and engage...

China, with lower regulatory hurdles, is racing to a lead in gene therapy. Once a week, Hashmukh Patel, a 62-year-old retired semiconductor engineer from Silicon Valley, travels with his wife, Bena, from their Beijing hotel to Beijing-Haidian Hospital. They ride the crowded elevator to the ninth floor, enter a pleasant, sun-filled ward with private rooms, and Patel gets an injection that he hopes will save his life. Suffering from late-stage cancer of the esophagus, he has come to Beijing for a Chinese gene-therapy drug called Gendicine that's supposed to kill tumor cells. Patel tried just about everything before coming to...

Hundreds of people marched in support of animal testing at Oxford University's new £18m biomedical research centre on Saturday. Students, academic staff and members of the public gathered near the lab site, being built under strict security. Anti-vivisection activists, who believe animal testing "belongs in the past", want to stop the centre opening. (snip) Laurie Pycroft, the 16-year-old founder of the student movement Pro-Test, which sparked the campaign in favour of the new laboratory, said: "I felt that it was about time to speak out in support of scientific research." At one point, the two rival groups stood just a...

Eating carrots, which are rich in the nutrient beta carotene, as well as foods containing the antioxidant vitamins C and E and zinc, results in a significantly reduced risk of age-related macular degeneration in elderly people, a new Dutch study has found. Currently, age-related macular degeneration affects 11.5 percent of white people over the age of 80. The number of people severely disabled by late-stage AMD in the United States is expected to increase by more than 50 percent, to 3 million, in the next 20 years. Previous studies evaluating antioxidants had shown conflicting results, with one major study showing...

The Washington Timeswww.washingtontimes.com Attack on medical researchBy David MartoskoPublished April 21, 2005 Last week the world celebrated an historic medical research milestone, the 50th anniversary of the polio vaccine. But Hollywood glitterati -- including Alec Baldwin, Noah Wyle and Emmylou Harris -- dishonored that life-saving moment by celebrating another milestone -- the 20th birthday of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM). This is an organization which opposes the very research that made the polio breakthrough possible.     In 1949, Science magazine explained to readers that animals (including mice, oxen and rhesus monkeys) were needed in every phase of polio...

OPINION THE RECORD Education, politics and a tasteless display Wednesday, April 6, 2005 By JAMES AHEARN AS PLANNED, the party for John Petillo's inauguration as president of the state University of Medicine and Dentistry was going to set a New Jersey record for vulgar extravagance. Bear in mind that the university is a public institution, supported by taxes. Bear in mind that the State House is struggling to fill a $4 billion hole in the budget for next year. Against that background, consider that the university was going to spend $20,000 to rent the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in...

The slick Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International flyer that appeared in Sunday newspapers throughout the country showed a little girl on monkey bars with her hand just inches from the next bar. "The cure is so close we can almost touch it," her accompanying mother says. Likewise, JDRF Chairwoman Mary Tyler Moore proclaimed in a recent TV commercial, "We are so close to finding a cure." So wrong. JDRF is the world's largest juvenile diabetes philanthropy, distributing over $85 million in grants last year. Yet it supports no efforts that could lead to a cure any time soon for this...

ALAN Mackay-Sim and his small team of researchers investigating the human sense of smell have tended to get up the noses, pardon the pun, of the serious scientists working in the field of stem-cell exploration. Most of the real players were to be found studying embryonic stem cells at such long-established research centres as Monash University and the University of Queensland, although the work of those other Australian scientists targeting bone marrow and neural stem cells was also highly regarded. But no one quite knew what to make of Mackay-Sim's Griffith University team that somehow had taken an odd turn...

If you live in Illinois, please act today to stop a pernicious bill that is expected to come up for a vote tomorrow in the state Senate The bill, HB 3589, sanctions human cloning, the purposeful destruction of human embryos, and the donation of tissue form aborted fetuses for medical research. Call your state Senator today to tell him or her to vote NO on HB 3589. If you get this message in the evening, call first thing tomorrow (11/16). To get contact information on your state senator, see this page: http://www.elections.state.il.us/DLS/Pages/DLSAddressCrit.asp If the link above gets broken by your...

Glenn Beck this morning listed off the dollars spent on various medical research project and how AIDS dwarfed everything else. Does anyone have a link to a list of thise numbers?

Details of how the Spanish flu virus that killed up to 50 million people in 1918 originated from a bird flu have been revealed by a study of the most destructive outbreak of disease in recorded history. Reassuringly, a reconstruction of parts of the extinct virus, also published in the journal, Science, suggests that the outbreak in Asia does not, at present, pose anything like the same threat. Because the virus kept key characteristics of its avian precursor, it could catch the human immune system off-guard, accounting for its high infectivity and the extraordinary mortality. The new understanding has come...

For the first time, scientists have identified a gene that appears to influence the development of at least some cases of dyslexia. This learning disorder is characterized by difficulties in perceiving sounds within words, spelling and reading problems, and troubles with written and oral expression. It's estimated that dyslexia affects at least 1 in 25 people. Although scientists are investigating dyslexia's suspected neural roots (SN: 5/24/03, p. 324: http://www.sciencenews.org/20030524/fob4.asp), the condition's causes remain unknown. If confirmed in further studies, the new genetic finding represents a major step forward for dyslexia researchers. Until now, investigators have only been able to link...