Last week, the USDA issued a Class I Recall (Health Risk: High) for 331,582 pounds of ground beef. Then they expanded the recall to 21,700,000 pounds of ground beef. How much hamburger is that? A lot. 21.7 million pounds of ground beef just happens to be an entire year’s worth of production. Topps Meat Company LLC has expanded its recall … Read More
Housecalls
Doctor Jay Parkinson just opened up a medical practice in Brooklyn. What makes his practice newsworthy? He makes housecalls. In fact, he only makes housecalls. For the kids: A "housecall" is a long-forgotten custom in which the doctor comes to your house to treat you when you are sick. See, e.g., Little House On The Prarie, The. But before you … Read More
Healthy Children Or War?
President Bush has threatened to veto legislation renewing and expanding the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). The legislation would extend health coverage to as many as 10 million children — four million of whom are currently uninsured. Bush has claimed the SCHIP bill contains “excessive spending”, even as he’s requested $200 billion more for the war in Iraq.. When … Read More
How To Deal With Autistic And Retarded Kids? Tase Them
I wish I was this was a joke: Every time [Rob] woke from this dream, it took him a few moments to remember that he was in his own bed, that there weren’t electrodes locked to his skin, that he wasn’t about to be shocked. It was no mystery where this recurring nightmare came from—not A Clockwork Orange or 1984, … Read More
I Don’t Know Why…
…but I suddenly feel empowered by this. UPDATE: Okay… maybe I should clarify. This is what did it for me: One day, they say, male patients may be able to turn to their own testicles as a source of stem cells to repair an ailing heart or kidney or to fix the brain damage caused by Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s disease.
Owen Wilson Is Not Alone
Lots of celebrity suicide attempts (or alleged one) listed here. A few surprises for me include: Donna Summer – tried to leap from an 11-story window at a New York hotel at the peak of her career in 1976, but was discovered by a housekeeper. Tai Babilonia – attempted suicide after she became addicted to alcohol and amphetamines following her … Read More
Microwave Popcorn Is The Harbinger Of Death
Cigarettes? Nah. Lung cancer is caused by microwaving popcorn: Consumers, not just factory workers, may be in danger from fumes from buttery flavoring in microwave popcorn, according to a warning letter to federal regulators from a doctor at a leading lung research hospital. A pulmonary specialist at Denver’s National Jewish Medical and Research Center has written to federal agencies to … Read More
Woman Looks Inside Her Heart
Fo rizzle: A woman has seen her own heart on display at a medical exhibition. Jennifer Sutton, 23, from Ringwood, Hampshire, successfully underwent an operation to replace her heart earlier this year. She had developed a life-threatening condition called restrictive cardiomyopathy in her teens. Now the original heart, which nearly killed her, has been put on temporary display by the … Read More
More On “Crazy Sexy Cancer”
I noticed I’m getting a spike in traffic here (for some reason, I’m ranked number five at Yahoo for searches on this subject), and it is largely due to people googling "Crazy Sexy Cancer", the TLC documentary I blogged about earlier in the week. For what it is worth, I finally got around to viewing it on my TIVO last … Read More
Katrina Doctor Tells Story
The doctor who was accused of murdering patients in New Orleans as Katrina approached (fortunately, the grand jury refused to indict her) recounts the heart-wrenching facts of those days in Time. A snippet: In normal triage situations, the sickest people are treated first. But my understanding is that conditions were so bad, you and the other medical staff switched to … Read More
Crazy Sexy Cancer
Best. Documentary. Title. Ever. Looks interesting too: Crazy Sexy Cancer is an irreverent and uplifting documentary about a young woman looking for a cure and finding her life. In 2003, 31-year-old actress/photographer Kris Carr was diagnosed with a rare and incurable cancer. Weeks later she began filming her story. Taking a seemingly tragic situation and turning it into a creative … Read More
The Coming Pandemic
I haven’t written in a while about the Avian Flu — mostly because it looked like it was under check. You know, a bunch of Asians french-kissing chickens. The virus wasn’t something likely to spread from human to human. Except… Oh, crap: A mathematical analysis has confirmed that H5N1 avian influenza spread from person to person in Indonesia in April, … Read More
A Failing Health Care System
To all the nay-sayers who think health care in this country is just hunky-dory: KANSAS CITY, Missouri (AP) — A man threw his seriously ill wife four stories to her death because he could no longer afford to pay for her medical care, prosecutors said in charging him with second-degree murder. According to court documents filed Wednesday in Jackson County … Read More
Marie Jon Apostrophe Thinks It Is Stupid To Focus On Hillary Clinton’s Cleavage; It’s Better To Focus On Her Ass
Poor Marie. She so badly wants to write an article with insightful political analysis about Hillary Clinton, the current Democratic frontrunner for President ’08. But she just can’t. Or can she? Just say no to socialized Hillary Care Ah, well, that’s a good start. A thought-provoking critique of Hillary’s plan for improved health care. Let’s see how far Marie can … Read More