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A Veterans Affairs hospital in Colorado falsified the wait times faced by thousands of its patients—the second VA facility to be found cooking its books in what has become a national scandal—USA Today reports: Clerks at the Department of Veterans Affairs clinic in Fort Collins were instructed last year how to falsify appointment records so it appeared the small staff of doctors was seeing patients within the agency’s goal of 14 days, according to the investigation. A copy of the findings by the VA’s Office of Medical Inspector was provided to USA TODAY. Many of the 6,300 veterans treated at...

Two teams of scientists published studies on Sunday showing that blood from young mice reverses aging in old mice, rejuvenating their muscles and brains. As ghoulish as the research may sound, experts said that it could lead to treatments for disorders like Alzheimer’s disease and heart disease. “I am extremely excited,” said Rudolph Tanzi, a professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School, who was not involved in the research. “These findings could be a game changer.” The research builds on centuries of speculation that the blood of young people contains substances that might rejuvenate older adults. In the 1950s, Clive...

Chronic Pain Linked To Vitamin D Deficiency In Men Tuesday 29 April 2014 - 8am PSTMedical News Today Vitamin D deficiency has been linked to a number of health issues. And now, a new study to be presented at a conference run by the British Society for Rheumatology suggests that low levels of vitamin D in the body are linked to chronic widespread pain. The researchers note that in the UK, chronic widespread pain is a major public health problem, affecting around 1 in 5 people, and it can be caused by rheumatic and neurological disorders. Also, around 50% of...

In a group of studies published Sunday in the journals Science and Nature Medicine, researchers say old mice who were infused with the blood of spry younger mice showed clear improvements in memory, sensory function, strength and endurance. Researchers say a specific protein, found in the blood of mice and humans, appears to be at the root of this rejuvenation. They say they hope to test the protein's effect on humans in clinical trials in the next few years.

Much-Needed Tool for Neuroscience Emerges After Years of Work.Nearly a decade ago, the era of optogenetics was ushered in with the development of channelrhodopsins, light-activated ion channels that can, with the flick of a switch, instantaneously turn on neurons in which they are genetically expressed. What has lagged behind, however, is the ability to use light to inactivate neurons with an equal level of reliability and efficiency. Now, Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) scientists have used an analysis of channelrhodopsin’s molecular structure to guide a series of genetic mutations to the ion channel that grant the power to silence neurons...

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) admitted Friday it’s “difficult to turn the clock back” on ObamaCare, but proposed making the law voluntary as a possible fix for consumers. “I think it’s going to be difficult to turn the clock back. People get assumed and accustomed to receiving things, particularly things that they get for free,” he told a crowd of students at Harvard’s Institute of Politics on Friday. Paul’s comments echo those of other Republicans who have admitted it will be difficult to fully repeal the law after some of its more popular provisions took effect. The potential 2016 presidential candidate...

As 3D-printing technology advances, researchers are finding new ways to apply it to health care. One of the latest advances includes a cast that uses ultrasound to stimulate bone healing. The future, it seems, will be filled with 3D printing. It's already been used to produce everything from food to organs, and there’s certainly more to come. In July last year, some of the first prototypes for 3D-printed casts were revealed. But now, researchers have taken the prototype a step forward, adding on a form of ultrasound known to hasten the healing process. Current casts, which are made of plaster,...

Several weeks ago the World Affairs Council of Philadelphia sponsored a debate–more a discussion–between me and Thaddeus Mason Pope about end of life care under the Affordable Care Act. He supports medical futility. I oppose it. We went from there. I began my presentation with the quote in the headline above–asserting that Palin’s term “death panels” may have put a spear through the heart of Obamacare. I then said: People are afraid of centralized bureaucrats dictating whether Craig’s [the moderator’s terminally ill babies) children can have medical care, whether my 96-year-old mother can have medical care, whether people with disabilities...

WATCHUNG, N.J., April 16, 2014 /PRNewswire-iReach/ -- In an April 8 interview on AutismOne's A Conversation of Hope radio show, Congressman Bill Posey's strong resolve and demands for transparency were evident as he discussed the Center for Disease Control (CDC)'s handling of vaccine safety studies which affect "our most precious resource in our nation – our children." The 30-minute interview, conducted by vaccine industry watchdog, PhD biochemist Brian Hooker, delves into what Posey called "the incestuous relationship between the public health community and the vaccine makers and public officials." The Florida legislator, known as "Mr. Accountabililty," did not mince words...

Call them “breast-obsessed” if you like, but more than 3500 years ago, Egyptian physicians documented breast cancer on papyri that survive to this day. Some authorities claim that these documents could date back much earlier than that. A key entry describes “bulging tumors of the breast that have no cure.” From Hippocrates on, causes of the disease were proffered by the leading minds of the day. These would include excess of black bile; lack of sexual activity; overly vigorous sexual activity; depression; childlessness, and sedentary lifestyle. Famed French physician Henri Le Dran was among the first to advocate surgical removal...

LONDON (Reuters) - British scientists have for the first time used regenerative medicine to fully restore an organ in a living animal, a discovery they say may pave the way for similar techniques to be used in humans in future. The University of Edinburgh team rebuilt the thymus - an organ central to the immune system and found in front of the heart - of very old mice by reactivating a natural mechanism that gets shut down with age. The regenerated thymus was not only similar in structure and genetic detail to one in a young mouse, the scientists said,...

Researchers at Stanford University have designed a new technique that may soon make this a reality. Tumours are called 'solid' or 'liquid' based on where in the body they grow. More than 80 percent of all cancers are caused by solid tumours that grow as a mass of cells in particular organ, tissue or gland. The new technique called CAPP-Seq (cancer personalised profiling by deep sequencing) is sensitive enough to detect just one molecule of tumour DNA in a sea of 10,000 healthy DNA molecules in the blood.

CONAKRY (Reuters) - An angry crowd attacked a treatment center in Guinea on Friday where staff from Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) were working to contain an outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus, forcing it to shut down, a spokesman for the medical charity said.

The emerging process of 3-D printing, which uses computer-created digital models to create real-world objects, has produced everything from toys to jewelry to food. Soon, however, 3-D printers may be spitting out something far more complex, and controversial: human organs. For years now, medical researchers have been reproducing human cells in laboratories by hand to create blood vessels, urine tubes, skin tissue and other living body parts. But engineering full organs, with their complicated cell structures, is much more difficult. Enter 3-D printers, which because of their precise process can reproduce the vascular systems required to make organs viable. Scientists...

There are a number of obstacles Americans will face this year related to access to affordable medicine. One of the most troublesome involves Section 708, a portion of the FDA Safety and Innovation Act (S. 3187) passed in 2012. Section 708 requires the Secretary of Health Human Services (HHS) to establish rules regarding the seizure and destruction of imported medicines valued at $2500 or less. The proposed rules are set to be released on April 18. A minimum of 60 days review and comment period will follow. During this time, RxRights intends to mobilize our 75,000 members to respond on...

Washington (AFP) - One in four American adults over 60 being treated for high blood pressure could go off their medication under recent guidelines issued in the United States, a study said Saturday. The changes, which stirred controversy in the medical community, could mean nearly six million may no longer need drugs to control their blood pressure, Duke University researchers said in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The findings are the first to analyze the impact of 2014 guidelines that raised blood pressure targets to 150/90, instead of the previous goal of 140/90, in adults age 60 and...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)NORTH ADAMS, Mass. – After 129 years, North Adams Regional Hospital is shutting down. Hospital workers were informed of the decision on Tuesday. Around 530 people will lose their jobs. The decision to shut down comes as the hospital files for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. It also affects the VNA & Hospice, along with the Northern Berkshire Healthcare Physicians Group. Current patients will be transferred to other facilities through April 4. The emergency room will close on Friday. “In the six years that I have been on the board we have investigated every possible avenue and exhausted all options as we...

You won’t read about the International Classification of Disease (ICD) on TMZ or hear it discussed on The View, but it has the potential to be an unpleasant October surprise in the health care world. It is a list of codes that physicians and hospitals use when billing insurance companies. These codes cover all manner of medical diagnoses for diseases, conditions, and injuries. The first version of the ICD appeared in 1946, with periodic revisions since. Six months from now, on October 1, the latest version, the ICD-10, will be implemented in the U.S. We are late to the party,...

Doctors feel a "deep sense of outrage" at the failure to grant them a 1% increase in basic pay, the head of the British Medical Association has said. In a letter to Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt, Dr Mark Porter urged the government to reconsider the decision. Many NHS staff will get a 1% rise, but those receiving automatic "progression-in-job" increases, "typically worth over 3%", will not get the 1% as well. The government said a 1% across-the-board rise would cost jobs. The Consumer Prices Index (CPI) measure of inflation is currently at 2%, and the NHS pay review body had...

ACA Grace Period Rule Could Put Physicians at Financial Risk Mark Crane March 19, 2014 Physician practices could be put at financial risk because of a little-known rule in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) that provides a 3-month grace period for consumers who do not pay their premiums on time, several national medical organizations have complained.The rule, published by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), grants individuals who purchase subsidized coverage through the state insurance exchanges a 90-day grace period before their coverage is cancelled for nonpayment.During the first 30 days of the grace period, insurance companies are required to...