Free Republic

Two studies comparing injections commonly used to relieve the pain of knee osteoarthritis found that corticosteroid injections were associated with the progression of the disease. Osteoarthritis is the most common form of arthritis, affecting 32.5 million adults in the U.S. Knee osteoarthritis is a chronic, degenerative and progressive condition with an estimated incidence of 800,000 patients each year. More than 10% of patients with knee osteoarthritis seek noninvasive treatment for pain relief through corticosteroid or hyaluronic acid injections. In the first study, MRI was performed on all patients at the time of the injection and two years before and after....

Dementia impairs sufferers' ability to remember, is irreversible and there is a lack of effective treatments available. However, the effects of dietary sodium and potassium on cognitive function have not been explored in detail. A group of researchers looked at the impact of dietary sodium, potassium, sodium to potassium ratio, and salt on the cognitive function of a group of elderly people in China. The research team found that a high intake of sodium (> 5593.2 mg/day) and a high sodium to potassium ratio (> 3.8/day) increased the risk of memory impairment in the elderly. Conversely, higher levels of potassium...

Men benefit from going to work every day to provide for themselves and their families. Yet surveys and studies have consistently shown that millions of able-bodied men are not working or looking for work. Consider that in 1962 , about 97% of men ages 25 to 54 were working or looking for work. Today, that number is closer to 89%. This lack of working men hurts women too; one survey found that 78% of women picked “a steady job” as the most important characteristic of a potential husband. Women weighted this characteristic higher than sharing the same beliefs about religion...

The U.S. Senate voted Thursday to pass a resolution imposing a contract on freight rail workers but rejected a concurrent measure that would give workers seven guaranteed paid sick days. H.J. Resolution 100 passed the Senate by a margin of 80-15, surpassing the 60-vote threshold. The Biden Administration brokered a tentative deal in August between the unions and carriers, but rank-and-file members of four of the twelve unions in the deal rejected it. Paid sick leave for workers was a central hold-up to the deal moving forward.

Representative Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) said Thursday on MSNBC’s “Deadline” that former President Donald Trump trying to go to the U.S. Capitol during the January 6 attack turned it into a “coup attempt.” Discussing Secret Service members’ testimony to the January 6 Committee, Lofgren said, “I do have concerns either there were inconsistent recollections, or else there were, I mean, there were warnings that should have been heeded. There were certainly vulnerabilities that were left open and why that happened is a big question.” Anchor Nicolle Wallace said, “So this sounds like more than the area of the investigation around the...

We have seen an increase in calls for a negotiated solution of the war in Ukraine. From the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, from progressive members of Congress and from leading international relations scholars, a growing number of voices urge the United States to invest in negotiations between Russia and Ukraine and to give peace a chance. According to some reports, the Biden administration is also warming up to the thought.It’s a dangerous idea.Fears of nuclear escalation between Russia and NATO drive many to argue for negotiations, and although the impetus is well-intentioned, the suggestion is naive and impractical. In...

by Joe Gillmore | RNN President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden attended the 100th National Christmas Tree lighting ceremony in Washington, D.C. yesterday, but many left discussing Biden’s antics once again. In what has become an all too familiar sight, Biden ended his speech by standing and staring, seemingly completely lost and needing to be escorted off-stage by his wife while he took the microphone with him instead of leaving it on the podium. Rather than carrying the authority and gravitas expected of the leader of the free world, Joe Biden looks as if he is being escorted...

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Florida backup quarterback Jalen Kitna has been suspended from the football team after his arrest on child pornography charges.

Yesterday, Russian President Vladimir Putin had a very difficult day, which ended quite dramatically. Wednesday morning began for Putin with a depressing report on the state of the Russian economy and, as a result, a forecast of an aggravation of the situation in the near future. The sanctions imposed on Russia because of the invasion of Ukraine have a heavy impact on the country's economy and the effect of these sanctions is growing and intensifying over time. The main problems in the Russian economy, according to the forecasts of the authors of the report, will occur in the period of...

For patients with early-stage renal cell carcinomas (RCCs) that measure between 3 and 4 centimeters, a procedure that destroys the cancer by freezing—called cryoablation—yields a lower-risk of cancer-related death compared to heat-based thermal ablation, reports a study. Renal cell carcinoma is the most common type of kidney cancer. For patients with early-stage RCCs smaller than 4 cm, an increasingly popular treatment option is destroying the cancer by freezing it or heating it. For these clinical stage T1a RCCs, this cancer-destroying procedure, called ablation, can provide high survival rates without the need for more extensive kidney surgery. However, the outcomes of...

1st Week of AdventMatthew 7:21, Matthew 7:24-27 Friends, today’s Gospel challenges us to act on the Good News. On what precisely is the whole of your life built? Your heart or soul is the center of you, the place where you are most authentically and deeply yourself. That is your point of contact with God. There you will find the energy that undergirds and informs all the other areas of your life: physical, psychological, emotional, relational, and spiritual. As such, it is the most important and most elusive dimension of who you are.If you are rooted in God at the...

A paedophile was able to groom, sexually assault and get a 14-year-old schoolgirl pregnant after identifying as a transgender women. Tattooed David Orton befriended the young victim and her family and was trusted to be alone with her because of the 25-year-old's gender status. But Orton was beginning a nine-and-a-half year jail sentence today after her parents alerted the police in October 2020. Orton - of Hinckley, Leicestershire - had groomed the victim so extensively she had at first refused to believe she was being exploited and sexually abused. But last June she told officers about the relationship and revealed...

Police on Thursday reaffirmed that the grisly killings of four University of Idaho students were part of a "targeted attack" the day after authorities appeared to suggest the opposite. “We remain consistent in our belief that this was indeed a targeted attack but have not concluded if the target was the residence or its occupants,” a spokesperson for the Moscow Police Department told NBC News. Authorities have released conflicting statements since Madison Mogen, 21; Kaylee Goncalves, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20; and her boyfriend, Ethan Chapin, 20, were found fatally stabbed at an off-campus home in Moscow on Nov. 13. The...

In a major defeat for former President Donald Trump, a federal appeals court on Thursday halted a third-party review of documents seized from his Mar-a-Lago estate.The ruling removes a major obstacle to the Justice Department’s investigation into the mishandling of government records from Trump’s time in the White House.In a ruling on Thursday, the 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a lower court’s order appointing a so-called special master to sort through thousands of documents found at Trump’s home to determine what should be off limits to investigators.“The law is clear,” the appeals court wrote. “We cannot write a...

Video of homeless camps surrounding the White House...

Election results have now been certified.

“‘And He shall proclaim justice to the Gentiles’” (Matthew 12:18). Contrary to Jewish thinking and expectations, the Messiah would be the Redeemer for all nationalities, not just the Jews. In fact, the Jews were to be the ones to proclaim God’s grace to the rest of the world. God told Abraham, “In you all the families of the earth will be blessed” (Gen. 12:3). It is therefore rather ironic that the Jews would resist the concept that God’s good news was for all peoples. The reality that Jesus’ message would be for all mankind was readily apparent early in His...

John Fredericks appears with Steve Bannon to discuss the current state of the Georgia Senate runoff. Fredericks is on the ground in Georgia trying to help early ballot collection on behalf of Hershel Walker and gives a brutally honest assessment. {Direct Rumble Link} According to Fredericks, the DNC wanted to start early voting last week and the RNC wanted to fight them in court. The DNC started collecting ballots last week on Wednesday and Saturday in key Democrat areas while the RNC led by Ronna McDaniel and her legal team including Harmeet Dhillon had no plan other than the lawsuit....

Millions of Brazilians have called for the military to step in and protect democracy after claims the election was stolen in favour of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva who is due to be inaugurated Jan. 1. President Jair Bolsonaro’s party leader says he will meet with protestors and” will not let them down.”

There’s no doubt that our nation, which a majority of voters say is headed in the wrong direction, needs salvaging. Half of Americans are counting on Republican politicians to get serious about the myriad of crises facing our country and actually do something effective. The problem? Congressional Republicans are, as of late, historically weak.