The Two Things That Rarely Happen After a Medical Mistake

med_mistakePatients seldom are told or get an apology when they are harmed during medical care, according to a new study based on results from ProPublica’s Patient Harm Questionnaire.

Patients who suffer injuries, infections or mistakes during medical care rarely get an acknowledgment or apology, researchers at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine report.

The study was based on responses of 236 patients who completed ProPublica’s Patient Harm Questionnaire during the one-year period ending in May 2013 and who agreed to share their data. Continue reading →

Cancer Drug Company Accused of Hiding Cheap Alternative

This article is meant to simply showcase one of the many ways that Big Pharma practices corruption.

pills_money_pharma_greed-466Pharmaceutical companies have been known to discredit natural, cheap solutions that compete with their high-dollar drugs. Now, the British Medical Journal has unraveled new research revealing how the makers of a cancer drug are blocking public access to a cheaper, safe, and effective alternative. Continue reading →

Cooking With Nuts and Seeds

recipehealthpromo-tmagArticleFor years, nutritionists have been urging us to eat nuts in place of high-carb and sugary snacks. Regulators allow purveyors of peanuts, almonds, walnuts, pistachios, hazelnuts and pecans to make claims that these nuts, as part of a diet low in saturated fats and cholesterol, may help reduce the risk of heart disease.

Seeds like pumpkin, sunflower, chia and sesame would be worthy candidates for a similar push, since they too are loaded with many of the same nutrients – protein and fiber, calcium and vitamin E, healthy fats and omega-3 fatty acids. And oh, yes, they taste wonderful (at least sunflower, pumpkin and sesame seeds do – chia seeds are so small I can’t exactly tell what they taste like). Continue reading →

Six little-known natural remedies for tinnitus

tinnitus-ear-noise-buzzingBugged by ringing in your ears? After doctors have ruled out possible serious causes, for example the presence of a tumor, there is really very little else that they can do for you. Whether the sound in your ear is ringing, whistling, clicking or hissing; loud or soft; intermittent or incessant; mildly annoying or downright infuriating, one of the following natural remedies could be the answer you seek. Continue reading →

The Best Breast Test: The Promise of Thermography

~ Forewords ~

JFB_2009_portAs far back as the year 2000, this site and its Editor/Publisher were recommending our listeners and readers to avoid mammograms and the like and find a doctor who would work WITH you and not ON you – by going the route recommended in this marvelous five year old column.

Take heed – the answers are here – and out there. After all – it is YOUR health (J.B.)

Every year when Breast Cancer Awareness Month (October) comes around I am a saddened and surprised that thermography hasn’t become more popular. Part of this is my mindset. I’d rather focus on breast health and ways to prevent breast cancer at the cellular level than put the emphasis on testing and retesting until you finally do find something to poke, prod, cut out or radiate. That’s why I call October Breast Health Awareness Month, not Breast Cancer Awareness Month. I understand that mammography has been the gold standard for years. Doctors are the most familiar with this test, and many believe that a mammogram is the best test for detecting breast cancer early. But it’s not. Studies show that a thermogram identifies precancerous or cancerous cells earlier, and produces unambiguous results, which cuts down on additional testing–and it doesn’t hurt the body. Isn’t this what women really want? Continue reading →

Private Oncologists Being Forced Out, Leaving Patients to Face Higher Bills

chemo_02When Dr. Jeffery Ward, a cancer specialist, and his partners sold their private practice to the Swedish Medical Center in Seattle, the hospital built them a new office suite 50 yards from the old place. The practice was bigger, but Dr. Ward saw the same patients and provided chemotherapy just like before. On the surface, nothing had changed but the setting.

But there was one big difference. Treatments suddenly cost more, with higher co-payments for patients and higher bills for insurers. Because of quirks in the payment system, patients and their insurers pay hospitals and their doctors about twice what they pay independent oncologists for administering cancer treatments.

There also was a hidden difference — the money made from the drugs themselves. Cancer patients and their insurers buy chemotherapy drugs from their medical providers. Swedish Medical Center, like many other others, participates in a federal program that lets it purchase these drugs for about half what private practice doctors pay, greatly increasing profits. Continue reading →

Prostate Cancer Screening Still Not Recommended for All

A major European study has shown that blood test screening for prostate cancer saves lives, but doubts remain about whether the benefit is large enough to offset the harms caused by unnecessary biopsies and treatments that can render men incontinent and impotent.

well_men-prostateeThe study, published in The Lancet (August 6, 2014), found that midlife screening with the prostate-specific antigen, or PSA, screening test lowers a man’s risk of dying of the disease by 21 percent. The relative benefit sounds sizable, but it is not particularly meaningful to the average middle-age man, whose risk of dying of prostate cancer without screening is about 3 percent. Based on the benefit shown in the study, routine PSA testing would lower his lifetime cancer risk to about 2.4 percent. Continue reading →

BPA makes breast cancer tumors resistant to chemotherapy

breast_cancer_10The sudden diagnosis of cancer, the realization of its presence within, sends a cold paralysis through the mind, down the spine. The presence of cancer does not always mean that the end is imminent; instead, it can serve as an important message to the entire person, signaling for a new course in life.

The diagnosis of new-found cancer cells can immediately burden one’s emotions with grief and stress. At this emotional juncture, it’s important to turn the pressure around and begin thanking the cancer for serving as a warning message. Cancer can be a message to a person that the body is under stress, that the cellular environment within is in a state of acidosis and has become an ideal place for fungus to thrive. The cancer is a warning bell tolling on the inside, messaging that the cells are not being properly cared for, that the immune system is weak, that nutrients aren’t being properly utilized and that the cells are swelling and not producing adequate energy. Continue reading →

“I’ve lost so much!”: How Abilify became the best-selling drug in America

hahn040215“Psychiatry has destroyed my life in so many ways.”

So says Jarrett, a young man from Orange County, who for the past three and half years has been taking a cocktail of various psychiatric medications, including America’s best-selling drug, Abilify.

Less than four years ago Jarrett was a newly minted university graduate with a bright future ahead of him. But he hit a bit of a rough patch. Discouraged by his failure to find a job, he went into counseling, which dredged up some painful memories he now believes would have been better left alone. Continue reading →

The Cost of a Cure

Medicare spent $4.5 billion last year on new, pricey medications that cure the liver disease hepatitis C — more than 15 times what it spent the year before on older treatments for the disease, previously undisclosed federal data shows.

© David Paul Morris/Bloomberg A research scientist for Gilead Sciences Inc., works on the synthesis of a potential hepatitis C virus drug candidate at the company's lab in Foster City, California, Feb. 8, 2012.

© David Paul Morris/Bloomberg A research scientist for Gilead Sciences Inc., works on the synthesis of a potential hepatitis C virus drug candidate at the company’s lab in Foster City, California, Feb. 8, 2012.

The extraordinary outlays for these breakthrough drugs, which can cost $1,000 a day or more, will be borne largely by federal taxpayers, who pay for most of Medicare’s prescription drug program. But the expenditures will also mean higher deductibles and maximum out-of-pocket costs for many of the program’s 39 million seniors and disabled enrollees, who pay a smaller share of its cost, experts and federal officials said. Continue reading →

Doctors Kill Golden Staph Using a 1,000-year-old Remedy

balds leechbookA recipe found in a ninth-century Anglo Saxon book of medical remedies has proven effective in killing methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.

The key to killing methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus — also known as MRSA or golden staph — may not be new-fangled treatments after all, but a treatment for an infected eyelash follicle found in a 1,000-year-old book.

The MRSA “superbug” is notoriously difficult to treat. Over the years, it developed resistance to beta-lactam antibiotics, which include common treatments like penicillin and its derivatives, cephalosporins, monobactams and carbapenems. It’s also a particular problem in hospitals and nursing homes, where a high percentage of the population of which have open wounds and weakened immune systems. Continue reading →

6 Things That Are Keeping You Fat

fatsoYou’re filling up on healthy foods, exercising daily and still, the scale isn’t budging. It’s mind-numbingly frustrating. Luckily, it’s also fixable. Here are six common things that could be standing between you and your weight-loss goals – plus easy ways to bust through each.

1. You Aren’t Tracking What You Eat
“Most of the time, when someone comes into my office saying they aren’t losing weight, the problem is that they are eating a lot more than they think they are,” says Holly Herrington, a registered dietitian and clinical nutritionist with the Center for Lifestyle Medicine at Northwestern Medical Faculty Foundation. “Almost every single person underestimates how much they are eating.” You can blame oversized restaurant portions, mindless munching and “health halos” for that, she says.

After all, French fries and ice cream aren’t the only things that are calorie-packed. Continue reading →

Will New Heart Study Using Chelation Change Treatment of Heart Patients and Diabetics?

boys111114Wouldn’t it be incredible if there was a proven, safe, inexpensive, painless, non-surgical medical procedure to eliminate the conditions that trigger heart attacks, strokes, senility, and death? Well, hold on to your seat because it is here! Some of us have known about it for years but now a lengthy study by establishment physicians proves the safety of Chelation Therapy for heart and diabetic patients! It is a surprising, stunning, substantial, and shocking study that supports Chelation Therapy!

The incredible results: Chelation Therapy was safe with no serious side effects for up to five years and beyond. The data supported the fact that cardiac events included fewer deaths, fewer heart attacks and fewer strokes. And fewer hospitalizations for any heart problem! Continue reading →

When tiredness is a warning sign you ignore at your peril

Why it’s men especially who need to wake up to the danger

Patrick, a finance executive, was diagnosed with bowel cancer after doctors diagnosed anaemia

Patrick, a finance executive, was diagnosed with bowel cancer after doctors diagnosed anaemia

Patrick McIntosh had given blood every six months for nearly two decades.

Then two years ago, when he went to donate as usual, he was told he couldn’t – because his iron levels were too low.

‘It came completely out of the blue,’ says Patrick, 58, a financier who lives with his wife, Sue, and their two dogs in Smallfield, Surrey.

‘I felt very healthy. I sail and I cycle – I’ve done the London-to-Brighton bike ride more than 25 times.’

At first, he wasn’t too concerned. ‘The nurse at the donor session said it was nothing to worry about, that I was probably a bit run-down, and I should try taking iron pills – which I did.’ Continue reading →

Is This the First Case of Breast Cancer?

Archaeologists find oldest evidence of disease in 4,200 year old Egyptian skeleton

Antiquities Minister Mamdouh el-Damaty said the bones of the woman, who lived at the end of the 6th Pharaonic Dynasty, showed'an extraordinary deterioration'.

Antiquities Minister Mamdouh el-Damaty said the bones of the woman, who lived at the end of the 6th Pharaonic Dynasty, showed’an extraordinary deterioration’.

A team from a Spanish university has discovered what Egyptian authorities are calling the world’s oldest evidence of breast cancer in the 4,200-year-old skeleton of an adult woman. Continue reading →