Free Republic

With same-sex marriage and the transformation of Bruce Jenner into Caitlyn Jenner in the world headlines, it’s time to ask what LGBT bioethics would look like. Timothy Murphy, of the University of Illinois College of Medicine,  foreshadows some of the major themes in the journal Bioethics.Bioethics benefits. “Bioethics is better than it would otherwise have been, because people queer in their sexual interests and identities have challenged misconceived concepts of health and disease, challenged obstacles to access and equity in healthcare, and forced attention to professional standards in clinical care, among other things.”Defending LGBT parenting. To show that the battle...

I'm serious. Are you done yet? Are you ready to grab the wood, the nails, the hammer and the rope? Are you ready to demand that this crap -- all of it in the medical system -- be stopped? All of it -- not some of it, all of it. Monopolist practices, refusal to disclose prices before services are rendered, billing $157 worth of a nutritional supplement out for more than $44,000 and more? WHEN IS YOUR TOLERANCE LIMIT REACHED AMERICA? WHEN? Is it before or after you're financially and personally decimated? Why do you tolerate "Obamacare" or "Medicare" when...

As America hears of more doctors leaving the profession, the head of a patient-centered national health care organization based in St. Paul, Minnesota, sees both political parties in Washington making matters worse. “Huge things are happening under the surface that people don’t understand,” says Twila Brase, a public health nurse and the founder of the Citizens’ Council for Health Freedom in this 33 minute video interview with The Daily Caller. “The power of the doctor is becoming subsumed by the government.” America is moving, from Brase’s perspective, from the charitable human “mission of medicine” to a cold, sterile “business of...

A major publisher of scholarly medical and science articles has retracted 43 papers because of “fabricated” peer reviews amid signs of a broader fake peer review racket affecting many more publications. As The Washington Post reports, BioMed Central - a well-known publication of peer-reviewed journals - shows a partial list of the retracted articles suggests most of them were written by scholars at universities in China. The Committee on Publication Ethics stated, it "has become aware of systematic, inappropriate attempts to manipulate the peer review processes of several journals... that need to be retracted."Peer review is the vetting process...

Practice makes perfect.The old adage applies to many aspects of our life in a variety of ways. Practicing your backhand, learning a dance move, or rehearsing your speech. But where it may matter the most is for medical professionals who perform lifesaving interventions or procedures for patients in emergency departments or in the operating room. The reality is that there are some lifesaving procedures in emergency medicine that you rarely perform–but must always be ready to perform in a split second. One such a procedure–known as cricothyrotomy–which involves making an incision into a specific area of patient’s neck and inserting...

The United States is being flooded with potentially dangerous, toxic imports from China. Between 2006 and 2010, the FDA blocked 9,000 unsafe Chinese products from entering American borders. But the FDA also inspects less than 1% of all goods seeking entry into the US. So how much is getting through? From tainted milk to toxic pet food, the answer is costing American lives. Think twice about made in China.

A Syriac scholar at Philipps University in Marburg, Germany, Dr. Kessel was sitting in the library of the manuscript's owner, a wealthy collector of rare scientific material in Baltimore. At that moment, Dr. Kessel realized that just three weeks earlier, in a library at Harvard University, he had seen a single orphaned page that was too similar to these pages to be coincidence. The manuscript he held contained a hidden translation of an ancient, influential medical text by Galen of Pergamon, a Greco-Roman physician and philosopher who died in 200 A.D. It was missing pages and Dr. Kessel was suddenly...

Do you love the snap that chili peppers give to your food? Are you a fan of the heat they impart to a variety of dishes? Even if you’re not, you may want to take another look at the humble chili pepper. From migraine relief to weight control, researchers are verifying what some cultures have known for centuries: the chili pepper and its key constituents, like capsaicin, deliver a host of health benefits. Here are just some of the ways chili peppers are helping to fight some of the country’s most common health conditions: Migraine relief The World Health Organization...

Nell Barrie, a spokeswoman for Cancer Research UK, while calling the results "encouraging" and "promising," told CNN that much remains to be learned and the new drugs would not replace any of the existing cancer treatments. ... But Dr. James Larkin, the lead author of the melanoma study, called the results a game changer. "We've seen these drugs working in a wide range of cancers, and I think we are at the beginning of a new era in treating cancer," Barrie said immunotherapy could offer hope to people with cancers that are otherwise difficult to treat, such as melanoma, advanced...

There is a strange expectation that Medical Tourism holds the answer to what is wrong with American medicine: long waits, shortages of doctors, costs that are completely out of control, poor treatment and a sharp decline in the number of doctors who are willing to go into medicine. It’s true. Doctors are leaving medicine in droves while the corporations make more money than ever at the expense of both the patient and the doctor. We have written about this extensively. There is plenty wrong with healthcare in America. Hardly surprising, the overhead costs under Obamacare are expected to explode by...

Salk Institute researchers studied a mutation in Werner syndrome to get a better understanding of aging as well as age-related diseases, such as cancer, diabetes, and Alzheimer’s. Nobody likes the idea of aging. But the alternative — which is to die young — doesn’t have too many fans either. That’s why a study that offers possible new ways to prevent and treat age-related diseases such as cancer, diabetes and Alzheimer's disease has attracted attention. The study was published today in the journal Science. But don’t throw out that bottle of Gray Be Gone just yet. The scientists at the Salk...

The Texas Medical Board views rules it adopted April 10 as “expanding telemedicine opportunities,” but business and industry groups insist they’ll instead serve to “drive a stake through the heart” of telemedicine in the Lone Star State. At the center of the issue is whether a video consultation is enough to establish the requisite doctor-patient relationship for physicians to prescribe medication or provide a diagnosis. That convenience is critical if an overarching goal of telemedicine is to deliver care to the underserved, particularly in rural areas where geography and provider shortages create access issues. The board’s rules, however, require either...

A protein which ‘turbo-charges’ the immune system so that it can fight off any cancer or virus has been discovered by scientists. In a breakthrough described as a ‘game-changer’ for cancer treatment, researchers at Imperial College found a previously unknown molecule which boosts the body’s ability to fight off chronic illnesses. Scientists at Imperial College London, who led the study, are now developing a gene therapy based on the protein and hope to begin human trials in three years. “This is exciting because we have found a completely different way to use the immune system to fight cancer,” said Professor...

The essay section is out and sociology is in, and test-takers will need to be as familiar with psychology terms, such as “reciprocal determinism,” as they are with organic chemistry. ... [A] large new section—one quarter of the test—covers psychology, sociology and the biological foundations of behavior. Official review material includes concepts such as social inequality, class consciousness, racial and ethnic identity, “institutionalized racism and discrimination” and “power, privilege and prestige.” ... The committee considered making the test pass/fail. “There was some sentiment that a person’s future shouldn’t rest on a mathematical score,” said Dr. Lucey. But it was ultimately...

Gov. Scott Walker heads to Europe this week on a trade mission featuring private meetings with business and government representatives in Germany, France and Spain, as he ramps up for a likely bid for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016. The most high-profile event on Walker's itinerary comes Tuesday when he's slated to deliver a 15-minute speech titled "Opportunities for bilateral trade and investment" at the Hannover Messe trade show in Germany. That is the world's largest industrial fair, Walker's office said in the documents detailing the trip provided to The Associated Press. Walker's only other event that's open to...

It might sound like a really old wives' tale, but a thousand-year-old Anglo-Saxon potion for eye infections may hold the key to wiping out the modern-day superbug MRSA, according to new research. The 10th-century "eyesalve" remedy was discovered at the British Library in a leather-bound volume of Bald's Leechbook, widely considered to be one of the earliest known medical textbooks. Christina Lee, an expert on Anglo-Saxon society from the School of English at the University of Nottingham, translated the ancient manuscript despite some ambiguities in the text. "We chose this recipe in Bald's Leechbook because it contains ingredients such as...

Health Canada may have unduly “terrified” families Monday with a surprise warning that an array of widely used ADHD drugs could boost the risk of suicidal thoughts or actions in patients, says a prominent psychiatrist. With more than four million prescriptions for the medications dispensed yearly in Canada, the regulator said new and stronger warnings will soon be included in the products’ labelling to reflect the possible suicide-related risk. It also advised patients and their families to keep an eye out for the side effect, while stressing that the drugs’ benefits continue to outweigh their potential risks. Still, one specialist...

Our health, a precise equilibrium, may be disrupted by any disease at any given time. Scientific progress has moved beyond the realm of diagnoses and care of disease, and has now entered the new arena of prediction and prevention while still in the embryonic stage of life, in spite of unknown factors and risks. With the advancing technology comes challenges of safety and efficacy, along with ethical and social considerations. The 3-parent embryo or mitochondrial transfer technology ultimately raises one of the greatest questions we will perhaps ever face as voting Catholics. Are we willing to genetically modify humans on...

It’s estimated that at least 400 U.S. doctors kill themselves every year. Many are struggling with depression, anxiety, or addiction. Greg Miday was a promising young doctor with a prestigious oncology fellowship in St. Louis. He spoke conversational Spanish, volunteered with the homeless, and played the piano as if he’d been born to it. He had rugged good looks, with dark wavy hair and a tall, athletic build. Everybody—siblings, patients, friends, nurses, professors, fellow doctors, and above all, his physician-parents—adored him. On the evening of June 21, 2012, Greg drew a bath, lit candles, and put his iPod on speaker....

Newswise — SAN DIEGO, CA (March 16, 2015) - Researchers at UC San Diego and Creighton University have challenged the intake of vitamin D recommended by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) Institute of Medicine (IOM), stating that their Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) for vitamin D underestimates the need by a factor of ten. In a letter1 published last week in the journal Nutrients the scientists confirmed a calculation error noted by other investigators, by using a data set from a different population. Dr. Cedric F. Garland, Dr.P.H., adjunct professor at UC San Diego’s Department of Family Medicine and Public...