Article on doctors working toward coming up with a vaccine to combat staph infections.

The recommendation, published in the latest issue of the prestigious journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, follows from the Academy’s Arthur M. Sackler Colloquium on ‘‘Evolution in Health and Medicine’’ held in April 2009 at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, DC. The paper’s authors say “Better education about evolutionary biology and its applications in medicine will have substantial benefits for physicians, their patients, public health workers, researchers, and other health professionals.”

Take a look at this recent cover of BUSINESS WEEK. Reporters Chad Terhune and Keith Epstein write that the CEO's of the giant insurance companies should be smiling - their lobbyists have already won. Quote: "no matter what specifics emerge in the voluminous bill Congress may send to President Obama this fall, the insurance industry will emerge more profitable."

As soon as members of Congress are sworn in, they may participate in the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program as well as their spouses and dependents. Not only does Congress get to choose from a wide range of plans, but there’s no waiting period and no problem with preconditions. Unlike many Americans, Senators and Representatives are covered no matter what - effective immediately. The government pays up to 75 percent of the premium. That government, of course, is funded by taxpayers, the same taxpayers who often cannot afford health care themselves. Here's the website for the dreaded nightmare of socialized health care that Congress gets on your dime but don't want YOU or your loved ones to have.

New therapy works for 30% that cannot tolerate present treatments.

No proof anti aging hormones work - no work done on side afects

"The $787 billion economic stimulus bill approved by Congress will, for the first time, provide substantial amounts of money for the federal government to compare the effectiveness of different treatments for the same illness. Under the legislation, researchers will receive $1.1 billion to compare drugs, medical devices, surgery and other ways of treating specific conditions. The bill creates a council of up to 15 federal employees to coordinate the research and to advise President Obama and Congress on how to spend the money. The program responds to a growing concern that doctors have little or no solid evidence of the value of many treatments. Supporters of the research hope it will eventually save money by discouraging the use of costly, ineffective treatments. The soaring cost of health care is widely seen as a problem for the economy. Spending on health care totaled $2.2 trillion, or 16 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product, in 2007, and the Congressional Budget Office estimates that, without any changes in federal law, it will rise to 25 percent of the G.D.P. in 2025."

Reuben Grainger-Mead suffered a condition so rare that doctors did not even have a name for it. The schoolboy suffered from a low level of red blood cells, which left him with a weak immune system and needing blood transfusions once a month. Doctors compared his condition to living with a permanent hangover. But after years of research his parents Michelle and Peter, discovered Reuben lacked vital amino acids and proteins and put him on a course of dietary supplements.

The German Multinational company, Bayer, had been granted a patent for its drug, Sorafenib tosylate (marketed as Nexavar by the company), in India a few months back.

Injured troops are receiving 70% more legal painkiller since the start of the Iraq war, and more soldiers are suffering from prescription pain medicine addiction. According to one critic, "Clearly, at Fort Leonard Wood and potentially across the military, they have not prioritized this as a health issue," McCaskill said. "The culture has traditionally looked at this as a discipline issue." As a result, soldiers are not referred to appropriate counseling, and in some cases are punished when they step forward for help.

So many reforms would be necessary to restore integrity to clinical research and medical practice that they cannot be summarized briefly. Many would involve congressional legislation and changes in the FDA, including its drug approval process. But there is clearly also a need for the medical profession to wean itself from industry money almost entirely. Although industry–academic collaboration can make important scientific contributions, it is usually in carrying out basic research, not clinical trials, and even here, it is arguable whether it necessitates the personal enrichment of investigators. Members of medical school faculties who conduct clinical trials should not accept any payments from drug companies except research support, and that support should have no strings attached, including control by drug companies over the design, interpretation, and publication of research results.

Patrick Kennedy has introduced legislation that would advance the promises of personalized medicine. As a senator, Obama championed individualized treatment based on a patient's genetic makeup and other biological markers. It is a concept ready to be implemented, and one that would be overall extremely cost-effective. With newly developed technology and the knowledge we have, physcians could in many instances move beyond the expensive and sometimes life-threatening “trial and error” approach to prescribing medications and at the same time contribute a wealth of new data to researchers. This is a win/win issue.

A report just published in the Journal of the American Medical Association's Archives of Internal Medicine (Arch Intern Med. 2008;168[21]:2302-2303) reaches a startling conclusion. Breast cancer rates increased significantly in four Norwegian counties after women there began getting mammograms every two years. In fact, according to background information in the study, the start of screening mammography programs throughout Europe has been associated with increased incidence of breast cancer. This raises some obvious and worrisome questions: Did the x-rays and/or the sometimes torturous compression of breasts during mammography actually spur cancer to develop? Or does this just look like an increase in the disease rate because mammography is simply identifying more cases of breast cancer? The answer to the first question is that no one knows (and it isn't addressed in the Archives of Internal Medicine study). But the second question has an unexpected and – for those interested in the human body's innate ability to heal itself – potentially paradigm-shifting answer.

"China’s leap to one of the biggest suppliers of pharmaceutical ingredients in the world happened over the last decade, as the Chinese government subsidized the construction of manufacturing plants that have undercut prices everywhere. Generic drug makers in the United States, where price competition is fierce, were the first to seek cheaper drug ingredients in China. Last year, generic drug applications to the F.D.A. listed 1,154 plants providing active pharmaceutical ingredients: 43 percent of them were in China, and another 39 percent were in India." The concerns over the quality of ingredients has heightened. FDA's ability to inspect and monitor Chinese pharmaceutical ingredients does not work.

"China now produces about two-thirds of all aspirin and is poised to become the world’s sole global supplier in the not-too-distant future. But are the Chinese factories safe? Who knows? The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the European Medicines Agency and other competent government regulators rarely, if ever, inspect them."

"Doctors cannot discriminate against gays and lesbians in medical treatment, even if the procedures being sought conflict with physicians' religious beliefs, the California Supreme Court decided unanimously yesterday. In the second gay-rights victory this year, the state Supreme Court said religious physicians must obey a state law that bars businesses from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation."

"-Proposal Would Deny Federal Money if Employees Must Provide Care to Which They Object- The Department of Health and Human Services is reviewing a draft regulation that would deny federal funding to any hospital, clinic, health plan or other entity that does not accommodate employees who want to opt out of participating in care that runs counter to their personal convictions, including providing birth-control pills, IUDs and the Plan B emergency contraceptive."

When I came across a story about a 15 year old who was stricken from a list of liver-donor recipients because he didn't live in a stable-enough environment, my mind went back over a few other stories and pieces that covered some of the general malaise that appears to enabling and encouraging an atmosphere of economically-driven triage and "murder by numbers" -- and a Congress that appears to be unable to step in to help clear up the mess...

Babies born in Fallujah are showing illnesses and deformities on a scale never seen before, doctors and residents say. The new cases, and the number of deaths among children, have risen after "special weaponry" was used in the two massive bombing campaigns in Fallujah in 2004. After denying it at first, the Pentagon admitted in November 2005 that white phosphorous, a restricted incendiary weapon, was used a year earlier in Fallujah.

When the U. S. Food and Drug Administration began to dedicate itself to the heparin problem, (between the end of 2007 and the beginning of 2008) the situation had already become very serious. It defined the situation as an "international problem." But let’s start at the beginning. Heparin is a blood anticoagulant produced in China by 12 different companies. It is exported to the United States, Europe, Australia and Asia. The heparin situation degenerated early in 2008, when infected lots of heparin caused the deaths of at least 81 people in the U.S. alone, not including the various cases of serious allergic reactions. Clinical analyses demonstrated the presence of a contaminant, chondroitin sulphate, derived from animal cartilage, in the drug. Tests performed by the FDA brought to light in ...