2 years ago

France Is Proposing to Allow Terminally Ill Patients to Take Lethal Medication

France’s government presented a bill Wednesday to allow adults with terminal cancer or other incurable illness to take lethal medication, as public demands grow for legal options for aid in dying. Many French people have traveled to neighboring countries where medically assisted suicide or euthanasia are legal. French President Emmanuel Macron has long promised such a bill. To benefit from the newly proposed measure, patients would need to be over 18 and be French citizens or live in France, Health Minister Catherine Vautrin said after a Cabinet meeting. A team of medical professionals would need to confirm that the patient has a grave and incurable illness, is suffering from intolerable and untreatable pain, and is seeking lethal medication of their own free will. Those with severe psychiatric conditions and neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease won’t be eligible. The patient would initiate the request for lethal medication and confirm the request after a period of reflection, Vautrin said. If approved, a doctor would then deliver a prescription, valid for three months, for the lethal medication. People would be able to take it at home, at a nursing home or a health care facility, Macron said. If their physical condition doesn’t allow them […]

2 years ago

Popular Paper on Ivermectin and COVID-19 Contains False Information

A popular study that claims ivermectin has shown no effectiveness against all-cause mortality contains false information but remains uncorrected. The meta-analysis, published in 2021 by the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases, explores how groups in randomized, controlled trials fared after receiving ivermectin compared to control groups. Among five trials included for the portion on all-cause mortality, none showed an effect for ivermectin, the authors claimed. Ivermectin “did not reduce all-cause mortality,” they wrote. But the claim is wrong. One of the five trials was described as finding ivermectin recipients were more likely to die, but actually found that ivermectin recipients were less likely to die. “The risk base estimation … confirmed that the average mortality obtained in all of ivermectin treated arms was 3.3%, while it was about 18.3% in standard care and placebo arms.” Dr. Adrian Hernandez, an associate professor at the University of Connecticut’s School of Pharmacy, and other authors of the meta-analysis are aware of the false information. The group released their study as a preprint before the journal published it. The first version included the false information. A corrected version properly portrayed the trial’s results for all-cause mortality in a figure summarizing the results, but still falsely said none of the trials showed a benefit […]

2 years ago

UAE Doctors Sound Alarm on Dangers of Viral Eye Tattooing TikTok Trend

A growing number of people are opting for a permanent way to change their eye colour through a surgical procedure known as Keratopigmentation (KTP). Also called eye tattoos, Keratopigmentation involves depositing coloured pigments directly into the cornea of the eye to alter its appearance. Though videos of the eye colouring technique have gone viral on social media, some experts warn that the potential health risks involved require more research as Keratopigmentation begins to move from an emerging trend to a mainstream procedure. What is Keratopigmentation? “It is a procedure where certain dyes/bio-pigments are injected into the cornea (the front and  transparent part of the eye) to change the colour,” Dr. Mandeep Lamba, Specialist Ophthalmologist and Head of Retina Services, Prime Hospital. Dr. Lamba explained that this process was initially used to cosmetically treat corneal opacities due to certain diseases or injury, causing the cornea to become white, making it unappealing. “Currently it has been used in conjugation with a laser to change the colour of the peripheral cornea, again for cosmetic purpose,” he said. Also known as corneal tattooing, Keratopigmentation has been used for centuries, according to Dr. Anjana Karunakaran, Specialist Ophthalmologist at Medeor Hospital, Dubai. “KTP has emerged as a therapeutic […]

2 years ago

Pfizer And A Corruption Too Deep To Fix

Let’s cite an astonishing example from this past week that should have been headline news but was utterly invisible to legacy media (speaking of corruption at the very top). The case involves the COVID medication Paxlovid. It was approved under “emergency use” in December 2021, and trumpeted by Fauci, President Biden, and the rest of the usual crowd. It was 90 percent effective, they said! The White House authorized $11 billion and more to pay for it, and dispatched the whole army of media mavens to push this thing. The White House was able to claim it was free, if you had insurance but even that would last only for so long. Eventually, the consumer had to pay and it was nearly $1,500 for 20 pills. In many places, the entire medical profession was insisting that this was the way to treat COVID, even as Ivermectin and Hydroxychloroquine were banned or impossible to get. Paxlovid was greeted with all the usual hosannas from the drug company as echoed by big media. The drug is 89 percent effective, they kept saying. The governments of Canada, the United States, and the UK all celebrated and showered Pfizer with multiple rounds of billions of […]

2 years ago

15 US Agencies Knew Wuhan Lab Was “Trying to Create a Coronavirus Like COVID-19”: Rand Paul

In a Tuesday op-ed, Paul writes that government officials from 15 federal agencies “knew in 2018 that the Wuhan Institute of Virology was trying to create a coronavirus like COVID-19.” These officials knew that the Chinese lab was proposing to create a COVID 19-like virus and not one of these officials revealed this scheme to the public. In fact, 15 agencies with knowledge of this project have continuously refused to release any information concerning this alarming and dangerous research. Government officials representing at least 15 federal agencies were briefed on a project proposed by Peter Daszak’s EcoHealth Alliance and the Wuhan Institute of Virology. -Rand Paul Paul is talking about the DEFUSE project, which was revealed after DRASTIC Research uncovered documents showing that DARPA had been presented with a proposal for EcoHealth to perform gain-of-function research on bat coronavirus. New documents released by Drastic Research show Peter Daszak and the EcoHealth Alliance had applied for funds that would allow them to further modify coronavirus spike proteins and find potential furin cleavage sites. Rep. Gallagher explains why that's so important. pic.twitter.com/6aEPyuW7Go — Rep. Gallagher Press Office (@RepGallagher) September 23, 2021 And according to Rand Paul, officials from 15 agencies knew about this. While the project was never funded (DARPA called it too […]

2 years ago

New ‘Super Supplements’ Can Boost Memory And Muscle Strength

New “super supplements” can boost memory and muscle strength, a study has revealed. Blended antioxidant supplements were found to enhance spatial cognition, short-term memory, and muscle durability in aged mice. The discovery could eventually lead to a breakthrough for those looking to combat age-related cognitive decline and muscle weakness. Antioxidants, often found in both foods and supplements, can even mitigate the damaging effects of oxidative stress on the body. The findings also offer hope for tackling Alzheimer’s disease and sarcopenia in humans. However, further research is needed to confirm their efficacy and establish safe, effective dosages. Professor Koji Fukui affiliated with the Shibaura Institute of Technology (SIT) and Dr Fukka You from Gifu University also found a blended mix of antioxidant supplements in aged mice significantly improves their spatial cognition, short-term memory, and muscle durability. Professor Fukui said: “In this study, significant improvements were observed in the spatial learning ability and short-term memory in supplement-treated aged mice. “Long term intake of blended antioxidant supplements may be effective, even considering the effects of aging and related increased oxidation in the body.” He added: “Frailty and sarcopenia are now serious problems and potent risk factors for dementia. “Although the mechanism is unknown, […]

2 years ago

Fasting-Style Diet Seems to Result in Dynamic Changes to Human Brain

Scientists looking to tackle our ongoing obesity crisis have made an important discovery: Intermittent calorie restriction leads to significant changes both in the gut and the brain, which may open up new options for maintaining a healthy weight. Researchers from China studied 25 volunteers classed as obese over a period of 62 days, during which they took part in an intermittent energy restriction (IER) program – a regime that involves careful control of calorie intake and relative fasting on some days. Not only did the participants in the study lose weight – 7.6 kilograms (16.8 pounds) or 7.8 percent of their body weight on average – there was also evidence of shifts in the activity of obesity-related regions of the brain, and in the make-up of gut bacteria. “Here we show that an IER diet changes the human brain-gut-microbiome axis,” said health researcher Qiang Zeng from the Second Medical Center and National Clinical Research Center for Geriatric Diseases in China when the results were published in December 2023. “The observed changes in the gut microbiome and in the activity in addiction-related brain regions during and after weight loss are highly dynamic and coupled over time.” Right now it’s not clear what causes these changes, or whether […]

2 years ago

The Reality Of Vitamin D Supplementation

One in five Americans regularly reaches for vitamin D supplements, yet most are unaware that they’re taking not just a vitamin –  but a hormone. While renowned for bolstering bone strength and immune health, vitamin D’s story is not straightforward. A blend of myth and established science invites a closer look into its true nature and impact. Vitamin D: Understanding Its Dual Role Vitamin D stands apart in the world of nutrients. It’s a sun-sourced substance acting as both a nutrient and a hormone. This dual role is significant, as hormones, which orchestrate many bodily functions, aren’t typically taken as supplements like vitamins. Endocrinologist Dr. Michael Holick, a leading vitamin D expert, tells sources, “The body more effectively utilises vitamin D when it’s naturally synthesised from sunlight, compared to standard supplement doses.” This difference is key to understanding vitamin D’s health role and the complexities of supplementing a hormone. Unlike most nutrients, the hormonal nature of vitamin D means it has a broader systemic impact, influencing not just bone health but also immune function, cell growth, and inflammation control. This understanding is crucial in guiding medical approaches to its use, including the potential risks and benefits of supplementation. Beyond Bone Health Vitamin D is […]

2 years ago

These Are The World’s Deadliest Behavioural Risk Factors

“Smoking kills” is but one of the slogans connected to anti-tobacco advocacy groups, and it’s quite true. When looking at behavioural risks, meaning types of risk that can largely be avoided, especially in highly industrialised nations, smoking cigarettes, cigars and other tobacco products is connected to a variety of diseases responsible for 7.7 million deaths worldwide. As Statista’s Florian Zandt shows in the chart below, based on data from the 2019 Global Burden of Disease study by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, no other behavioural risk factor comes close to the disease burden of smoking. Coming in second on a global level as well as in terms of risk-factor-associated deaths in the United States in 2019, is alcohol use, with an estimated 2.4 million global and 137,000 U.S. deaths in 2019. Roughly 57 and 30 percent of global deaths associated with risk factors and connected to substance abuse and digestive diseases, respectively, can be traced back to alcohol use. While a high-sodium diet is connected to almost two million deaths on a global scale and therefore ranks third worldwide, the United States has a different problem: drug abuse. In 2019, around 105,000 people were estimated to have died from diseases connected […]

2 years ago

How Satisfied Are People in Different Countries With Their Health?

Sunday, marks World Health Day and the 75th anniversary of the World Health Organisation. The theme this year is: “My health, my right” and was chosen by the WHO to “champion the right of everyone, everywhere, to have access to quality health services, education, and information, as well as safe drinking water, clean air, good nutrition, quality housing, decent working and environmental conditions, and freedom from discrimination.” With this in mind, Statista’s Anna Fleck looks at data to find out: how satisfied are we with our health? According to the Statista Consumer Insights macro-survey, respondents in Nigeria were particularly likely to say that they were satisfied or very satisfied with their general state of health in the last twelve months (85 percent). By contrast, respondents in South Korea responded more negatively, with only 36 percent answering that they are satisfied or very satisfied with their health. It’s worth noting here that this data does not necessarily mean that the inhabitants of South Korea are in worse health than those of Nigeria, for example, but that perceptions of health may differ. This survey does not offer a look at the level of health of the population, but a glimpse of how people in different countries perceive their general state of health.

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