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Just got a call (here at work) from a telemarketer with a private number concerning "our local and long distance telephone provider" - I hung up as I always do. The woman called back 3 minutes later and said the following: "Now your getting your services changed bitch!" and hung up.

A cup of Brazilian mint tea has pain relieving qualities to match those of commercially available analgesics, a study suggests. Hyptis crenata has been prescribed by Brazilian healers for millennia to treat ailments from headaches and stomach pain to fever and flu. Working on mice, a Newcastle University team has proved scientifically that the ancient medicine men were right. The study is published in the journal Acta Horticulturae.

With flu vaccination season in full swing, research from the University of Rochester Medical Center cautions that use of many common pain killers – Advil, Tylenol, aspirin – at the time of injection may blunt the effect of the shot and have a negative effect on the immune system. Richard P. Phipps, Ph.D., professor of Environmental Medicine, Microbiology and Immunology, and of Pediatrics, has been studying this issue for years and recently presented his latest findings to an international conference on inflammatory diseases. (http://bioactivelipidsconf.wayne.edu/) “What we’ve been saying all along, and continue to stress, is that it’s probably not a...

WASHINGTON (CNN) — The man who ran John McCain's presidential campaign warned Friday that Sarah Palin could lead to a 'catastrophic' election result for the GOP in 2012 if the former Alaska governor captures the party's presidential nomination. "I think that she has talents," Steve Schmidt, the former campaign manager of McCain's failed presidential bid, told CNN's John King. "But my honest view is that she would not be a winning candidate for the Republican Party in 2012, and in fact, were she the nominee, we could have a catastrophic election result." The comments came during The Atlantic Magazine's First...

CLINTON v. OBAMA "Better put some ice on that..." --Bill Clinton to Juanita Broaddrick after he assaulted her in 1978.... ""Maybe you're better off, uh, not having the surgery, but taking, uh, the pain killer..."--Barack Hussein Obama to Jane Sturm on August 9, 2009FREEPERs VOTE...which one of these quotes is more outrageous?

Swearing may actually reduce the pain of, say, slicing your finger with a kitchen knife or accidentally banging your toes or your head. New research from Britain’s Keele University shows that when you let loose with a few four-letter words after these commonplace injuries, you can ease the discomfort. For the study, the investigators asked 64 volunteers to immerse their hands in a tub of ice water for as long as possible while repeating their favorite swear word. Then, they were asked to repeat the experiment but to choose a word that they would use to describe a table. The...

Stacy Porter, 29, can’t remember a time when she didn’t suffer from crippling, relentless migraines before having the surgery that changed her life eight years ago.“I was diagnosed with migraines when I was 2 years old,” the New Philadelphia, Ohio, marketing executive tells WebMD. “I had about 15 days a month of severe migraine pain.” Her symptoms included throbbing pain in her temples, nausea, and sensitivity to light so severe she remembers wearing sunglasses to more than one final exam in high school and college. None of the drugs used to prevent migraines helped, so her only relief came from...

Tears streamed down the little boy's face. He had just emerged from a memorial service for the crew of the space shuttle Challenger a few days after it had exploded in the sky over Florida, January 28, 1986, killing all seven astronauts. "I just don't understand," he told the TV reporter, "why God wanted to take them now." The young boy expresses our tendency to picture God as wanting human beings to suffer and die. But do we really buy this idea? Deep down we believe that God is all good and not to be blamed for space tragedies,...

A friend of mine got a call from the IRS. He is getting audited. He and another friend that worked for the same company, had the boss hanging out over their shoulder, who browbeat them into taking riskier deductions than perhaps they might have. Both are getting audited. My friend is seeking the collective wisdom of the group with regards to audits. 1) total transparency 2) get a lawyer 3) a particular strategery Thank you FRiends.

WASHINGTON – U.S. Sen. John Kerry must have been channeling his inner Letterman yesterday. The Bay State senator was telling a group of business and civic leaders in town at his invitation about the “bizarre’’ tale of how South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford had “disappeared for four days’’ and claimed to be hiking along the Appalachian Trail, but no one was really certain of his whereabouts.

... "I felt overall pain to the point that even when my children or husband just touched me it hurt."... ..."I am really, really good," Campbell said. "Having said that, I'm still not 100 percent. I'm still not that person I was before." Campbell was one of 10 women with fibromyalgia to take part in a small pilot study at Stanford over a 14-week period to test the new use of a low dose of a drug called naltrexone for the treatment of chronic pain. ..."Even after the study, it just got better and better and better," Campbell said. "I...

Ever wish you got something really painful on camera, right at the moment of impact? Well these people managed. These have all got to hurt. More pics on site

You know that moment where time seems to slow down, as your body fills with adrenaline, anticipating the imminent pain? Well, I can guarantee these people were experiencing just that, and perhaps some are well passed that:

Prayer request for Brett,older brother to one of my son's baseball team mates. _________________________________________________________ First of all: THANK YOU! We appreciate your calls, texts, food, etc. thru the last few days. We have not been able to get back to everyone and thought we would try this to get many of you. I am home for a few hours and decided to try this option to reach most of you. I’m sure I have missed some, but it wasn’t intentional! Please feel free to forward on to anyone else you know has been interested. Update as of Tuesday Evening: Given...

I served as Deacon at the solemn “Celebration of the Lords Passion”. This frail couple approached. The wife could barely walk without her husband’s loving firm support. As they drew closer, I could see that the husband’s face was filled with deep wrinkles, the kind of love lines etched in the face from suffering borne with grace. His head was covered with unkempt white hair and framed with a coarse white beard. His eyes were filled with pure love for his beloved wife whom he assisted so tenderly as she came forward to venerate the Holy Cross.Her eyes were distant...

Enlarge ImageBrother morphine. Research with rats may explain why opioid painkillers work better for males.Credit: Scott Camazine/Photo Researchers Inc. Men get more relief than women do from painkillers like morphine, according to some studies. New research with rats hints at a possible explanation: Male rats have more receptors for the drug in a brain region involved in pain processing. Although it's not yet clear whether the same is true in humans, researchers say the study underscores the need for more research on the sex-specific effects of pain drugs. The new study used rats in part because they exhibit a...

The California Air Resources Board approval last week of top-down micromanagement of industries and commerce, ostensibly to rid California of global warming, is a broad intrusion into the private sector that not only will be costly, but ultimately a solution for a problem whose dimensions have been defined more by politics than science and probably doesn't even exist. The ARB's "scoping plan" details the regulations and costs to be imposed on nearly every facet of California economic life to implement 2006's presumptuously named "Global Warming Solutions Act." It's the last thing a struggling economy needs, and the last thing a...

Cheryl Weinstein’s left knee bothered her for years, but when it started clicking and hurting when she straightened it, she told her internist that something was definitely wrong. But in many cases it is just not known whether what is seen on a scan is the cause of the pain. The problem is that all too often, no one knows what is normal... --snip-- As a rheumatologist, Dr. Felson saw patient after patient with knee pain, many of whom had already had scans. And he was becoming concerned about their findings. Often, a scan would show that a person with...

Kim Adair fights a daily battle with arthritis. "With 10 being the worst, I would say it's about a 7 or 8,” she said. But she recently found relief in a study at Baylor University using cherries. "They have a lot of the same properties that common anti-inflammatory medicines like ibuprofen or naproxen will have," said Dr. John Cush, Rheumatologist. Kim took cherry extract gel caps. "I think about maybe three months, I didn't notice any pain at all," she said. "Overall, about five out of six patients did very well in the study," said Dr. Cush. Another plus, cherries...

“You just sit and you worry,” said Pat Weber, a construction administrator in Fennville who was laid off more than a year ago. “In the last year, I’ve put in for more than 100 jobs. I stopped counting after 110. It’s just so defeating.” All around Fennville and its neighbors here in southwest Michigan, front lawns are peppered with for-sale signs and merchants complain about slow days. But while this remains a beautiful place with none of the obvious blight of Detroit on the other side of the state, residents say the hardship beneath the surface is very real. It...

Enlarge ImageAltered perceptions? Minimally conscious patients may have a greater capacity to feel pain than do those in a vegetative state (such as Terri Schiavo, above).Credit: Reuters Most of the time, doctors have a simple way to determine if a patient needs pain medication: They ask. But when a brain injury renders someone unable to respond to questions, the right course of action becomes murkier. Now a study finds that the brains of some patients with brain injuries respond to an unpleasant electrical shock much as do the brains of healthy people, suggesting that these patients may feel pain...

Why pain is good – in both medicine and finance By John Kay Published: September 30 2008 18:57 | Last updated: September 30 2008 18:57 Pain has been described as the gift no one wants. There cannot be a single reader who has not, at some time, wished not to experience pain. But we are better off with the capacity to suffer pain than without it. A few people are born with a genetic deficiency that leaves them completely free of pain. They rarely survive to adult life. Leprosy has for thousands of years been the most dreaded disease. Only...

A new type of drug could alleviate pain in a similar way to cannabis without affecting the brain, according to a new study published in the journal Pain on Monday 15 September. The research demonstrates for the first time that cannabinoid receptors called CB2, which can be activated by cannabis use, are present in human sensory nerves in the peripheral nervous system, but are not present in a normal human brain. Drugs which activate the CB2 receptors are able to block pain by stopping pain signals being transmitted in human sensory nerves, according to the study, led by researchers from...

Low levels of the sunshine vitamin, vitamin D, may contribute to chronic pain among women, scientists believe. The link does not apply to men, suggesting hormones may be involved, according to a study published in the Annals of Rheumatic Diseases said. The team from the Institute of Child Health in London said studies were now needed to see if vitamin D supplements can guard against chronic pain. About one in 10 people are affected by chronic pain at any one time in the UK. The causes are not well understood and much of the focus to date has been on...

Dallas, TX (AHN) - A University of Texas Southwestern Medical School study linked the rise in kidney stone ailments to global warming.The connection of kidney stone with warm weather has been established based on statistics that southeastern states have 50 percent higher incident than northeastern states. Kidney stones, although on the rise nationwide since 1976, were observed to have higher rates of occurrence during summer. With global warming even the northeastern region will likely experience higher incidents with an estimated 1.6 million new cases by 2050.The rise in kidney stone incidents by 25 percent in 2050 will be accompanied by...

Fibromyalgia Affects Women More Often Than Men ScienceDaily (Apr. 26, 2008) — Are you exhausted? Do you have pain all over but can’t figure out what’s wrong? If so, you may be suffering from fibromyalgia, a chronic condition that causes exhaustion, sleep disturbances and diffuse pain in your muscles, tendons, and ligaments. Fibromyalgia patients experience a range of symptoms of varying intensities that increase and decrease over time and often resemble other conditions. For years, because of their complex nature and a lack of research on the condition, many doctors misdiagnosed fibromyalgia symptoms or dismissed them as being in the...

Biological Link Between Pain And Fatigue DiscoveredImage of nerve endings in mouse muscle shows that ASIC3 (red) is present in pain receptors (orange). (Credit: Masahiko Ikeuchi M.D., Ph.D., UI visiting scientist from University of Kochi in Kochi, Japan) ScienceDaily (Apr. 8, 2008) — A recent University of Iowa study reveals a biological link between pain and fatigue and may help explain why more women than men are diagnosed with chronic pain and fatigue conditions like fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome. Working with mice, the researchers, led by Kathleen Sluka, Ph.D., professor in the Graduate Program in Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation...

In the slide show I narrated about the late William F. Buckley, Jr., I didn’t have room to get into a couple of issues we’ve been debating here at the Lab: the Drug Enforcement Administration’s campaigns against medical marijuana and against doctors who treat chronic-pain patients. Mr. Buckley was worried about the D.E.A. well before the OxyContin scare inspired the agency’s Operation Cotton Candy and led to doctors like William Hurwitz and Bernard Rottschaefer being sent to prison. In 1995, after criticizing presidents and members of Congress for pursuing a war on drugs he considered futile, Mr. Buckley wrote: But...

<p>My Daughter has come down with stomach ulcers, H. Pylori, my son has also come down with problem, a mite earlier.</p> <p>This has been the bane Of The Little Bill Clan for at least the past 150 years, killed my Old Man.</p>

As vulnerable as naked mole rats seem, researchers now find the hairless, bucktoothed rodents are invulnerable to the pain of acid and the sting of chili peppers. A better understanding of pain resistance in these sausage-like creatures could lead to new drugs for people with chronic pain, scientists added. Naked mole rats live in cramped, oxygen-starved burrows some six feet underground in central East Africa. Unusually, they are cold-blooded — which, as far as anyone knows, is unique among mammals. "They're the nicest, sweetest animals I've ever worked with — they look frightening, but they're very gentle," said neurobiologist Thomas...

In a 13-year study examining 150,000 emergency room visits, doctors were found more likely to prescribe strong narcotics to patients complaining of pain than in the past, yet less likely to prescribe them to minorities than to white patients. The study, appearing in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), said that this was the case even when patients complained of severe pain such as with kidney stones. From 1993 to 2005, prescriptions of narcotics for pain relief in emergency rooms rose from 23 percent to 37 percent overall. This increase appears to be the result of changing attitudes...

Migraine suffers have 'different brains' By Nick Allen Last Updated: 11:01am GMT 20/11/2007 Scientists have discovered structural differences in the brains of people who suffer from migraines. The researchers found variations in the cortex area that processes pain and other sensory information from the body. They said it was unclear whether the anomalies actually cause migraines or are themselves caused by severe, recurrent headaches. Brain scans were carried out on 24 people who had a long history of migraines and 12 who did not. The area of the brain that detects pain, touch and temperature, known as the somatosensory cortex,...

Morphine's little helper. Glia (green) contribute to the opioid's downsides.Credit: Steven Pollard/Wellcome Images SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA--Opioid drugs such as morphine are the most powerful painkillers. Unfortunately, in some patients their narcotic effects lead to addiction and the need for ever-escalating doses to quell pain. New research with rats shows that blocking morphine's action on glia--a type of support cell in the nervous system--can reduce these downsides while heightening its potency against pain. Over the past decade, scientists have discovered that glial cells heighten nerve pain, such as sciatica, by exciting the neurons that transmit pain signals. Morphine deadens pain by...

Going to a chiropractor to treat back pain could be a waste of time, according to a new study which found that having your spine manipulated does nothing to speed up recovery. Current treatment guidelines for acute back pain recommend that, in the first instance, GPs advise patients to remain active and avoid bed rest and take paracetamol for the pain. If that does not work, patients are referred for spinal manipulative therapy and given non-steroidal anti-inflammatory (NSAID) drugs such as ibuprofen and diclofenac to treat the pain. Mark Hancock, of the back pain research group at the University of...

Source: University of Chicago Date: September 30, 2007 Doctors Learn To Control Their Own Brains' Pain Responses To Better Treat Patients Science Daily — Physicians apparently learn to "shut off" the portion of their brain that helps them appreciate the pain their patients experience while treating them and instead activate a portion of the brain connected with controlling emotions, according to new research using brain scans at the University of Chicago. Because doctors sometimes have to inflict pain on their patients as part of the healing process, they also must develop the ability to not be distracted by the suffering,...

Late payments on U.S. home equity lines of credit rose to a 5-1/2 year high in the second quarter of 2007 but delinquencies on many other types of consumer loans fell, the American Bankers Association said Wednesday. In its quarterly report on consumer borrowing, the bankers group said delinquencies in repaying home equity lines of credit rose to 0.77 percent in the April-June period. That compared to a rate of 0.60 percent in the first quarter and represented the highest rate since the fourth quarter of 2001 when the rate was 0.81 percent. However, the rate of closed-end home equity...

Euthanasia Video, Turning the Tide, Incredibly Well Received September 10, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Turning the Tide, the powerful DVD on euthanasia and assisted suicide, has been incredibly well received. The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition has sold more than 700 copies of Turning the Tide since its release in April and Turning the Tide has received positive reviews from people across Canada and the US. Turning the Tide is produced by the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition and Salt and Light media foundation. Turning the Tide was designed to change the way secular society perceives the issues of euthanasia and assisted suicide. Secular society views the...

CHARLESTON, W.Va. - Drug shipments from illegal online pharmacies were once so frequent in Appalachia that delivery companies had to add trucks to their routes. Police have cracked down on such deliveries but are confronted by a booming global network of so-called rogue pharmacies operating online. For people addicted to prescription medications such as the painkiller hydrocodone - sold mostly as Vicodin - the days of 'doctor shopping' are over as long as they have Internet access. With the help of unscrupulous doctors and pharmacists, hundreds of Web sites dispense prescription narcotics to customers in exchange for nothing more than...

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (AP) - People in the United States are living in a world of pain and they are popping pills at an alarming rate to cope with it. The amount of five major painkillers sold at retail establishments rose 90 percent between 1997 and 2005, according to an Associated Press analysis of statistics from the Drug Enforcement Administration. More than 200,000 pounds of codeine, morphine, oxycodone, hydrocodone and meperidine were purchased at retail stores during the most recent year represented in the data. That total is enough to give more than 300 milligrams of painkillers to every person...

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - A South African man shot three weeks ago was told to "walk the pain off" and is still trying to persuade hospitals to remove the bullet lodged in his side, a newspaper said Thursday. Three Johannesburg hospitals refused to remove the bullet for security guard Phillip Mashiane, 38, who was shot during a burglary at the property of South Africa's ambassador to the United Nations, the Star newspaper said. The bullet passed through his elbow and entered his body just above the hip, missed his vital organs and stopped beneath the skin on the opposite side of...

Over 100 US House Members Co-Sponsor Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act WASHINGTON, August 7, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - On Friday, Representative Chris Smith (R-NJ)- Co-Chairman of the Bipartisan Pro-Life Caucus - introduced legislation to expand and strengthen informed consent requirements abortion providers must follow by requiring information on pain and the unborn child be made available to women seeking abortions. "Expert testimony and scientific studies have shown that unborn children have the ability to feel pain from 20 weeks of gestation. You can be assured that abortion providers are aware of this information which, I might add, is well documented and...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- One of the top pro-life members of Congress has reintroduced a bill in the House that tells women of the pain an unborn child feels during an abortion. The bill also requires abortion practitioners to offer mothers a chance to provide the baby pain control before birth in an effort to encourage her to not have the abortion. Rep. Chris Smith, a New Jersey Republican who co-chairs the pro-life caucus in Congress, is the key sponsor behind the modest bill. Smith told LifeNews.com the goal of the bill is to expand and strengthen informed consent requirements...

NEW YORK - Worried about that niggling pain in your arm? Concerned about those persistent headaches? If you’ve searched online for information about medical woes you’re not alone. The number of so-called cyberchondriacs seeking health information on the Web has soared to about 160 million in 2006 — a 37 percent rise over two years, according a new poll. “Cyberchondriacs now represent 84 percent of all online adults, up from last year’s 80 percent, and 72 percent in 2005,” Harris Interactive, the market research firm that conducted the survey, said in a statement.

Ronald McIver is a prisoner in a medium-security federal compound in Butner, N.C. He is 63 years old, of medium height and overweight, with a white Santa Claus beard, white hair and a calm, direct and intelligent manner. He is serving 30 years for drug trafficking, and so will likely live there the rest of his life. McIver (pronounced mi-KEE-ver) has not been convicted of drug trafficking in the classic sense. He is a doctor who for years treated patients suffering from chronic pain. At the Pain Therapy Center, his small storefront office not far from Main Street in Greenwood,...

HOW much pain would you put up with to help your friend? Less than you would for your close relatives, but more than you would for a charity, according to a study that looked at the basis of altruistic behaviour. For women, however, best friends rank higher than cousins, while men put all family members ahead of friends.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – After deliberating for seven days in federal court here, a jury late this afternoon found Dr. William Hurwitz guilty on 16 counts of drug trafficking. Dr. Hurwitz, whose legal battles over his opioid prescriptions made him a hero to some chronic-pain patients, was not convicted of the other 29 counts against him. The bad news for Dr. Hurwitz (and his many supporters who have been posting here) is that he remains in prison and will be sentenced on July 13 for writing prescriptions of OxyContin and other opioids to drug dealers and addicts. But his prospects are...

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — His retrial in federal court here isn’t over yet, but Dr. William E. Hurwitz is already doing much better than he did the first time. Judge Leonie M. Brinkema has dismissed the most serious charges against him. Dr. Hurwitz, whom I wrote about in a recent column, is the most prominent of the doctors who have been prosecuted for writing prescriptions for OxyContin and other painkillers. In 2004, he was convicted of drug trafficking and, most significantly, of writing prescriptions that led to bodily injury and deaths, crimes that carried a mandatory minimum sentence of 20 years....

Much attention has been focused on the cardiovascular risks posed by Vioxx and other so-called cox-2 inhibitors in recent years, so the American Heart Association provided an important service this week by reminding us that many other painkillers have risks associated with them. The association spelled out gradations of cardiovascular risk and recommended a step-by-step approach — starting with nonmedicinal remedies — that doctors should follow when treating joint and ligament pain. The scientific statement applies specifically to patients who already have or are at risk of heart disease and also need relief from pain — whether caused by short-term...

'Perfectionism' bowel pain link Women are more prone to IBS Perfectionists are more prone to developing irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) after an infection, a study has suggested. University of Southampton researchers asked 620 people with gastroenteritis about stress and their illness. Those who pushed themselves or were particularly anxious about symptoms were more likely to develop IBS. Experts said the study, published in Gut, may explain why only some people develop IBS after a gut infection. About 5% of the UK population have IBS. Up to one in 10 people develop it after a having a bacterial gut infection, having...

Researchers foresee a day when people tortured by chronic, unexplained pain will be able to prove that they really hurt -- evidence that could help sufferers be taken more seriously and could even lead to better treatments. Recent studies suggest that prolonged, ongoing pain leaves a signature in the brain that can be detected using advanced imaging techniques. In other work, researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital and elsewhere have found that excruciating nerve damage can be detected in bits of skin the size of a pinhead. And genetic tests may someday prove useful, researchers believe: Certain genes appear to be...