Free Republic

Vitamin pills 'increase risk of early death' By Kate Devlin, Medical Correspondent Last Updated: 12:01am BST 16/04/2008 Popular vitamin supplements taken by millions of people in the hope of improving their health may do no good and could increase the risk of a premature death, researchers report today. They warn healthy people who take antioxidant supplements, including vitamins A and E, to try to keep diseases such as cancer at bay that they are interfering with their natural body defences and may be increasing their risk of an early death by up to 16 per cent. Antioxidants, including vitamins A,...

AP Medical Writer Taking a blood pressure pill at bedtime instead of in the morning might be healthier for some high-risk people. New research suggests that simple switch may normalize patterns of blood pressure in patients at extra risk from the twin epidemics of heart and kidney disease. Why? When it comes to blood pressure, you want to be a dipper. In healthy people, blood pressure dips at night, by 10 to 20 percent. Scientists don't know why, but suspect the drop gives arteries a little rest. People with high blood pressure that doesn't dip at night - the non-dippers...

Philippine Population Control Groups Launch Suit Against Pro-Life Manila Former Mayor By Hilary White MANILA, Philippines, October 2, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Lito Atienza, the former mayor of the Philippine capital Manila, who has earned the wrath of abortionists and population control groups for his opposition to the killer abortion drug RU-486, is facing a lawsuit by those same groups. According to Elizabeth Pangalangan, executive director of the Reproductive Health, Rights and Ethics Center at the University of the Philippines, the suit aims to "hold [Atienza] liable for acts which caused injury to women." Atienza, who is now the Environment Secretary...

I like Arthur Branch, the tough-minded district attorney I used to see on NBC's "Law & Order." I like his deep voice and his comforting Southern charm. I like his steadfast determination to seek justice and his clear sense of right and wrong. I've been less certain about Fred Thompson, the actor who played him. He mismanaged his campaign and lost a wave of momentum by delaying the announcement of his presidential bid. He traded Republican debates for late-night talk shows. He's been unspectacular on the campaign trail. But this week, something happened that's making me reconsider my assessment of...

Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy said yesterday that he is entering treatment for an addiction to prescription medications, an announcement that comes as police continue their investigation into a car crash involving the congressman near the Capitol. Calling his addiction a "chronic disease," Kennedy said he does not even recall the accident, which occurred early Thursday and raised questions about his behavior and how U.S. Capitol Police deal with members of Congress. The congressman's office has said Kennedy (D-R.I.) was disoriented behind the wheel because he had taken prescription medication to calm stomach inflammation and to help him sleep. No one...

The Minneapolis school district suspended a boy in second grade after his teacher found mysterious pills had been placed in her water bottle, the district said. School district spokesman Josh Collins said the teacher was fine. She noticed something was wrong and did not drink out of the bottle on Monday. The incident was reported to school district officials on Tuesday and the student was suspended for five days. "This type of threat is not ever tolerated," he said. Collins said the matter had been referred to the police. "At this time, we don't know what the pills were," he...

Americans are taking sleeping pills like never before, fueled by frenetic workdays that do not go gently into a great night's sleep, and lulled by a surge of consumer advertising that promises safe slumber with minimal side effects. About 42 million sleeping pill prescriptions were filled last year, according to the research company IMS Health, up nearly 60 percent since 2000.

Unusual things are happening in the feminist world. The Hungarian representative to UN’s Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) said that, in the future, abortion will be viewed by women in the same way that torture is now viewed by human rights advocates. Now, given how often the UN turns a blind eye to torture, Saddam Hussein’s regime being a fine example of the carefully shielded glance, we may justifiably wonder if this means torture will become acceptable or abortion unacceptable. But even so, the possibility that CEDAW members are beginning to question the practice is telling....

When retired Boulder pharmacist and former pharmaceutical executive John Sichel saw his daughter Pam's test results, he knew he'd witnessed a medical miracle. The pills came from a former Soviet laboratory in St. Petersburg, Russia. Pam Sichel had taken them for six months. Now, her 10-year battle with hepatitis C, a viral infection that attacks the liver, was over. Her liver was healthy, its function normal. When Sichel saw what the drug did for Pam, he decided he had to bring it to the U.S., even if he had to do it on his own. Its main ingredient: a bacteria...

(AP) - WEST PALM BEACH, Fla.-A doctor accused of running a "pill mill" was convicted Thursday of drug trafficking but acquitted of first-degree murder in a patient's fatal overdose. Dr. Denis Deonarine could be sentenced to up to 25 years in prison after a jury found him guilty on 10 of a possible 86 felony counts, including Medicaid fraud. Sentencing was scheduled for July 15. Deonarine's medical license was suspended following the 2001 death of Michael Labzda, 21. Labzda's friends said he was snorting crushed OxyContin pills and drinking rum. Defense attorney Richard Lubin said Deonarine acted in good faith...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use.If a daily spoonful of cherry or blueberry concentrate is good for one's health, how about fruit in a capsule? Brownwood Acres Foods struck a deal last year to market and distribute capsules of whole fruit developed by Flavonoid Sciences, a Traverse City company. Founded by former cherry farmers Bob and Janet Underwood, Flavonoid developed a process of condensing cherries and blueberries into a paste, which is stuffed into bite-sized softgels. They retain 90 percent of the nutrients in fresh fruit, said Steve de Tar, Brownwood Acres president. The company is focusing...

Six pistol-toting Brazilian men appeared to have more than cash on their minds when they robbed a drug store in Rio de Janeiro. "They specifically demanded that we give them anti-impotence drugs. These drugs and the money was what interested them," Ailton de Souza, the drugstore manager said. On Sunday night, the robbers opened the vault with a blow torch and fled with an equivalent of about $US7,000 in cash and checks, as well as more than 100 boxes containing 400 pills worth about $US2,600 - enough for a two-month sex marathon for each of the six robbers. "They were...

Nearly one in four French people are on tranquillisers, anti-depressants, anti-psychotics or other mood-altering prescription drugs, a new report says. An average of 40 per cent of men and women aged over 70 in France are routinely prescribed at least one of this class of dependence-creating drug, as well as about 4 per cent of all children under nine. One medical expert, Martine Perez, said in the newspaper Le Figaro: "The French now consume between two and four times as many tranquillisers and anti-depressants as the British, Italians and Germans." The French are avid consumers of pills and potions of...

Liberals are revealing their true colors yet again in the happy dance they are doing over Rush Limbaugh’s admission that he is addicted to prescription painkillers and his trip to rehab. With a few notable exceptions, such as liberal commentator and radio talk show host Alan Colmes of Fox News’s “Hannity and Colmes,” the self-proclaimed Party of Compassion is gleeful over the problem that Limbaugh is experiencing. Liberal mean-spiritedness has shown up in many ways of late, including the scuttling of Miguel Estrada, demands to impeach President Bush for his military policy, their fervent scandal-mongering in the Joseph Wilson affair,...

Liberals are revealing their true colors yet again in the happy dance they are doing over Rush Limbaugh’s admission that he is addicted to prescription painkillers and his trip to rehab. With a few notable exceptions, such as liberal commentator and radio talk show host Alan Colmes of Fox News’s “Hannity and Colmes,” the self-proclaimed Party of Compassion is gleeful over the problem that Limbaugh is experiencing. Liberal mean-spiritedness has shown up in many ways of late, including the scuttling of Miguel Estrada, demands to impeach President Bush for his military policy, their fervent scandal-mongering in the Joseph Wilson affair,...

NEW YORK -- None of Rush Limbaugh's friends contacted by Newsweek seemed to know the talk-radio host had a drug problem. "What's interesting," one of these friends told Newsweek, "is that he apparently hid the pills from his wife." Limbaugh's dependence on painkillers began after an unsuccessful back surgery in the late '90's, reports Assistant Managing Editor Evan Thomas in the October 20 issue of Newsweek, (on newsstands Monday, October 13). In last week's radio confessional, Limbaugh told his listeners that he had twice gone to a hospital to detox. "What did he tell his wife when he checked into...

OCTOBER 3--Meet Louis Beshara and his wife, Gloria Rodriguez. The Florida couple are at the heart of the drug scandal now enveloping radio superstar Rush Limbaugh. Investigators allege that the duo illegally sold hundreds of thousands of prescription painkillers from a Palm Beach-area pharmacy they owned. According to a Palm Beach County Sheriff's search warrant affidavit, Beshara provided Hydrocodone, the powerful and addictive painkiller, to middlemen drug dealers like Joseph Coppola who then resold the pills to users. It has been reported that Limbaugh scored some of the Beshara pills via Wilma Cline, a former maid at the radio star's...

A lot of this drugs and Rush stuff isn't adding up for me. So let me try out a theory here. Read this on http://www.thesmokinggun.com/doc_o_day/doc_o_day.html If true it gives insight to the behind the scenes goings on. Note that the two were running a Palm Beach-area pharmacy. Now, what if Rush were a legitimate customer of the pharmacy these two owned. Just happened this way. With me so far? So the maid may have been picking up Rush's legitimate prescriptions all along. So if anyone asked, she just says these are for Rush. Cool cover story for the maid/pusher who...

Rush Limbaugh in a statement released moments ago said (paraphrased) "that he is unaware of an investigation into the alleged drup issue but would cooperate fully if there was one" just heard at top of the hour ABC news radio broadcast