Birth Control: Latest Collision Between Individual Conscience And Society
President Obama’s controversial decision to require Catholic employers to provide free contraceptives to their employees is still reverberating. A new New York Times/CBS News poll out this week shows 60 percent of the public supports the president, including 58 percent of all Catholics. But the leadership of the Catholic church is still mobilizing to increase [...]
Doctors Cheer As Feds Delay New Disease Codes, Again
Poking fun at a complex new system for classification of diseases is surprisingly easy and enjoyable. Yes, there are codes your doctor will be able to use someday to submit bills for treatment of a dolphin bite (W5601XA), being struck by a dolphin (W5602XA) or “other contact” with a dolphin (W5603XA). And that’s just the [...]
Can A Diet Clean Out Toxins In The Body?
Between lingering New Year’s resolutions and impending Lenten restraint, it’s the season when many people are inspired to get healthy by refusing foods they normally delight in. Increasingly, we’re seeing elimination diets that promise weight loss and a tantalizing bonus: detoxification. “Cleansing diets” trade on this most alluring idea: By limiting our intake of food [...]
Oklahoma Legislature Considers Anti-Abortion Laws
Should Oklahoma embryos and fetuses have “personhood” status?
Latest Drug Shortage Threatens Children With Leukemia
It’s a new kind of brinksmanship for U.S. doctors: caring for patients with life-threatening diseases when the supply of critical drugs threatens to disappear. The latest crisis concerns the old standby cancer drug methotrexate. For six decades, it’s made the difference between rapid death and lifelong cure for thousands of children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, [...]
Goodbye To The King Size: Mars To Downsize Candy Bars In 2013
Ready to say goodbye to a sliver of your Snickers? And how about a slightly slimmer Mars bar? By the end of 2013, chocolate-maker Mars says all of its chocolate bars will be under — or right at — the 250-calorie mark. The 2-ounce Snickers currently sold in our NPR vending machine has 280 calories, [...]
Kids Listen When Parents Say No To Teen Drinking
Parents are divided on how best to handle teenage drinking. Should they prohibit it outright, or let teenagers drink with parental supervision? Some parents think they might as well say OK, since the kids will drink anyway. But researchers in the Netherlands have found that parental disapproval can be a powerful force to keep teens [...]
FDA Warns About Fake Avastin In US
The Food and Drug Administration says counterfeit Avastin, a costly drug cancer drug, has made its way to doctors in the United States. The agency sent letters to 19 groups of cancer specialists in California, Texas and Illinois who are believed to have purchased the fake Avastin. It’s not clear how many patients may have [...]
Consumer Groups Want Lead Out Of Lipstick
Valentine’s Day brought new attention to an old issue. Is the amount of lead found in lipstick a health hazard? The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, a consortium of consumer and environmental groups, thinks so. They’ve argued that there’s no safe level for lead in lipsticks — especially for pregnant women and kids — and want [...]
Got A Sinus Infection? Antibiotics Probably Won’t Help
If you’ve ever had a painful sinus infection, all you want is relief — fast! So off to the doctor you go, and, as often as not, you get a prescription for an antibiotic. Three days later, you start to feel a little better. “Thank goodness for amoxicillin!” you might say. Well, probably not quite [...]
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