MoD blocks release of UFO files

The Press Association,

The release of files about a Ministry of Defence civil servant-turned-UFO expert has been blocked.

The release of files about a Ministry
of Defence civil servant-turned-UFO
expert has been blocked

Nick Pope has drawn on his experiences working for Britain's official UFO investigation unit for a number of books about aliens and strange sights in the skies.

Fellow UFO researcher David Clarke made a Freedom of Information request in 2007 for internal MoD documents about Mr Pope's decision to speak publicly about his conversion from sceptic to believer in the possibility that extra-terrestrials are visiting Earth.

But more than three years later, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has upheld the department's refusal to publish the files because they contain personal information.

Mr Pope worked on the MoD's UFO desk from 1991 to 1994, dealing with possible sightings sent in by the public. He published his first book about the phenomena - Open Skies, Closed Minds - in 1996, although he continued working for the MoD until November 2006.

The MoD's official line is that it has no opinion on whether or not aliens exist but 50 years of UFO reports uncovered no evidence of a potential threat to the UK.

Dr Clarke asked the department to release records of its internal discussions about how to respond when Mr Pope began talking to the media about UFOs in 1995-96.

He obtained an April 1996 memo written by a senior officer in defence intelligence, who said the matter should be approached "very delicately".

But the MoD refused to release other papers about Mr Pope, including some which contain "free and frank advice" from defence officials about how to handle the situation.

The ICO said in its ruling on Dr Clarke's request: "The commissioner feels that this is a finely balanced case and that the complainant has provided well reasoned arguments to support his case. However, in this particular case the commissioner does not believe that release of the information concerned would further the legitimate public interest in any significant way."

John Podesta writes probing foreword for new book on UFOs

Los Angeles Times, July 28, 2010 | 1:43 pm

Photo: Space aliens and cows make peace on South Park. Credit: South Park screenshot.

He’s not saying he was abducted by a UFO and probed or anything, but former President Clinton’s chief of staff John Podesta is lending his name to a new book on UFOs.

Podesta has written the foreword for “UFOs: Generals, Pilots and Government Officials Go On the Record” by investigative journalist Leslie Kean, which will be released Aug. 10.

This isn’t that shocking, as Podesta has been on the record before as an advocate for the Pentagon to release classified government papers on UFO investigations.

"It is time for the government to declassify records that are more than 25 years old and to provide scientists with data that will assist in determining the real nature of this phenomenon," he said back in 2002.

Now, eight years later, Podesta is still -- as he puts it -- "curious."

“As someone interested in the questions of UFOs, I think I have always understood the difference between fact and fiction. I guess you could call me a curious skeptic,” he's reported to write.

UFO enthusiasts say the inclusion of Podesta gives the book weight.

“Its credibility begins on the first page with John Podesta and continues with case studies of extraordinary quality to the very end,” writes John L. Petersen, the founder and president of the Arlington Institute (a think tank for futurists).

We prefer UFO tales like the first episode of "South Park." in which Eric Cartman, a skeptic of alien beings, finds out for himself that he’s been wrong on the topic.

Sadly, this book seems to be the antithesis of that masterpiece. But then again, Podesta probably wouldn’t have lent his name to that production.

-- Jimmy Orr

Related Articles:

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Commercial Airline Pilot Says UFOs Are Real

UFOs Shut Down Nuclear Weapons Sites Says Former Air Force Officer

2010 UFO Convention - David Sereda - Reverse Engineered UFO Technology (YouTube 1-12)

Clifford Stone & Robert Dean on UFO/ET Secrecy (YouTube)

The Day Before Disclosure - Full interview with Steven Greer (video)

(Astronaut) Wubbo Ockels on time and gravity

The Hemp Revolution (video)

Niburu, 28-07-2010

The Hemp Revolution tells the amazing and little known story of the Hemp plant.

Hemp, probably the first plant ever to be cultivated, was among the worlds largest agricultural crops until the 1800s. This feature documentary explores the plants facinating history, its thousands of uses, the economic and cultural forces behind its prohibition, and its modern potential to solve major environmental problems.

Hemp, together with bio-technologies presented in this film, offer a visionary yet practical solutions that could help solve many of our current environmental problems including energy, medicine, food and clothing, etc.

Featuring top scientists, academics and professionals from around the world.

Hemp facts are Courtesy of The Kentucky Hemp Museum & Library, Versailles, KY

1. One acre of hemp produces twice as much oil as one acre of peanuts.
   Agriculture, Papermakers have high hopes for Industrial Hemp.
   Agri-View. " Wisconsin's largest farm newspaper" April 27, 1995.
   
   
2. America's first hemp law was enacted in 1619 at Jamestown Colony, Virginia ordering all farmers to grow Indian hemp seed.
   Clark. V.S., History of Manufacture in the United States, Mcgraw Hill. NY 1929. pg 34.
   
   
3. Cannabis hemp was legal tender in most of the Americas from 1631 until the early 1800's. you could even pay your taxes with cannabis hemp.
   
   Clark. V.S., History of Manufacture in the United States. Mcgraw Hill. NY 1929. pg. 34.
   
   
4. "The earliest known woven fabric was apparently of hemp which began to be worked in the eighth millennium (8,000-7,000) BC).
   "The Columbia History of the World. 1981. pg. 54.
   
   
5. The original. Heavy-duty, famous Levi jeans were made for the California '49ers out of hemp sailcloth and rivets so that the pockets would not rip when filled with gold.
   
   Hemp and the Marijuana Conspiracy: The Emperor Wears No Clothes, Jack Herer, Revised and expanded 1995 edition: copyright March, 1995, HEMP Publishing. 5632 Van Nuys Blvd., Van Nuys. CA 91401. pg. 6.
   
   
6. One acre of hemp produces as much cellulose fiber pulp as 4.1 acres of trees.
   Dewey & Merrill. Bulletin #404. U.S. Dept. of Age. 1916.
   
   
7. Hemp paper is stronger and has greater folding endurance than wood pulp paper.
   Dewey & Merrill. Bulletin #404, US Dept. of Ag., 1916.
   
   
8. Cannabis hemp seeds contain all the essential amino acids and essential fatty acids, which are vital to the immune system necessary to maintain a healthy life.
   
   Hempseed Nutrition. Osburn, Lynn, Access unlimited, P.O. Box 1900. Frazier Park. CA 93225.
   
   
9. Hemp seeds contain up to 24% protein. A handful of seed provides the minimum daily requirement of protein for adults.
   
   Rosenthal. Ed. Hemp Today, pg. 101.
   
   14. August 13, 1941, Henry Ford first displayed his plastic car at Dearborn Days in Michigan. The car ran on fuels derived from hemp and other agricultural based sources, and the fenders were made of hemp, wheat, straw, and synthetic plastics. Ford said his vision was "to grow automobiles from the soil."
   
   The Kentucky Hemp Museum and Library. 1998 Historical Hemp Calendar, February. Roulac, John. Industrial Hemp Practical Products - Paper to fabric to Cosmetics, pg. 11. Hemptech

WHO swine flu experts 'linked' with drug companies

BBC News, Friday, 4 June 2010 12:14 UK

Governments around the world stockpiled antiviral drugs

Key scientists behind World Health Organization advice on stockpiling of pandemic flu drugs had financial ties with companies which stood to profit, an investigation has found.

The British Medical Journal says the scientists had openly declared these interests in other publications yet WHO made no mention of the links.

It comes as a report from the Council of Europe criticised the lack of transparency around the handling of the swine flu pandemic.

A spokesman for WHO said the drug industry did not influence its decisions on swine flu.

Guidelines recommending governments stockpile antiviral drugs were issued by WHO in 2004.

The advice prompted many countries around the world into buying up large stocks of Tamiflu, made by Roche, and Relenza manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline.

A year after the swine flu pandemic was declared, stocks are left unused in warehouses and governments are attempting to unpick contracts.

Conflict of interest

The BMJ, in a joint investigation with The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, found that three scientists involved in putting together the 2004 guidance had previously been paid by Roche or GSK for lecturing and consultancy work as well as being involved in research for the companies.

Although the scientists involved had freely declared the links in other places and said WHO asked for conflicts of interest forms prior to expert meetings, the ties were not publically declared by WHO.

It is not clear whether these conflicts were notified privately by WHO to governments around the world, the BMJ said, and a request to see conflict of interest declarations was turned down.

In addition, membership of the "emergency committee" which advised WHO's director general Margaret Chan on declaring an influenza pandemic has been kept secret.

It means the names of the 16 committee members are known only to people within WHO, and as such their possible conflicts of interest with drug companies are unknown.

On its website, WHO says: "Potential conflicts of interest are inherent in any relationship between a normative and health development agency, like WHO, and a profit-driven industry.

"Similar considerations apply when experts advising the Organization have professional links with pharmaceutical companies.

"Numerous safeguards are in place to manage possible conflicts of interest or their perception."

ANALYSIS

• Fergus Walsh, Medical correspondent, BBC News
  
  Be open. Be transparent. That seems to be the key learning point for the WHO from this joint investigation.
  
  It is common practice for academic experts to work closely with the pharmaceutical industry, such as getting funding for drug trials, or to be paid for attending meetings.
  
  On all clinical papers authors must publicly declare any competing interests.
  
  So it is surely advisable that the WHO follows the same policy with its advisors.
  
  And there is surely no logic in refusing to name the members of the emergency committee which advised the WHO about the pandemic.
  
  To fail to do so presents an own goal to critics and conspiracy theorists.

Related Article:

The pandemic that never was: Drug firms 'encouraged world health body to exaggerate swine flu threat'

U.S. rehab centers see bankers driven to drink

By Claudia Parsons, Reuters, Tue Mar 24, 2009 8:05am EDT

A bartender at Suspenders bar in New York's as a television screen flashes the Dow Jones industrial average, March 18, 2009. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

NEW CANAAN, Connecticut (Reuters) - Cocaine and martinis On Wall Street? Nothing new there. Masters of the Universe admitting they have an alcohol problem? Not so common.

Experts say more and more people in finance are seeking treatment for addiction as the global economic crisis sinks its teeth into a high-stakes industry where confidence is the name of the game and nobody wants to admit to a weakness.

"We absolutely do see more people coming in naming either a job loss or huge financial reversals or big investments with Bernie Madoff," said Sigurd Ackerman, medical director at Silver Hill Hospital rehabilitation facility in New Canaan, Connecticut.

"They're being admitted with depression or increases in substance abuse, or both."

Ackerman said there was a high concentration of financial professionals in the town, 40 miles from New York, whose main streets are lined with high-end boutiques catering to the well-heeled wives of hedge fund managers and bankers.

"You're supposed to be a master of the universe, you're supposed to be on top of everything," said one financial services executive who began alcohol rehab in August.

"There's not a lot of sensitivity training or meetings where you sit around and ask how everyone is feeling," said the Connecticut executive, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "No one walks around saying 'I feel your pain.'"

Alcohol has long oiled the wheels of commerce on Wall Street, where bankers working long hours will entertain clients over dinner and drinks, or let off steam at late-night clubs with hard liquor and drugs.

Robert Curry, founder of Turning Point for Leaders, a coaching and consulting firm in New Canaan that creates treatment programs for senior executives, said the financial crisis was a factor in more drink and drug use.

"We've got more than 50 homes in foreclosure in this town and that's unheard of," Curry said. "Domestic violence incidents have spiked, and that is very closely tied to substance abuse."

Struggling with a divorce, the Connecticut executive sought help at Turning Point. A residential rehab program will be just the first step in a program that would last at least a year and include follow-up counseling, therapy and support groups.

Curry is a former financial executive who started working with substance abusers two decades ago, around the time his alcoholic father died and he realized he had a drinking problem of his own. Despite the recession, demand is growing.

"Companies are downsizing," he said. "Budgets are being trimmed, and yet we're seeing an increase in our business."

Clients include bankers, businessmen and doctors and are overwhelmingly male.

ADRENALIN JUNKIES

Harris Stratyner, a psychologist with Caron Treatment Centers, a leading non-profit addiction treatment foundation with offices in Manhattan, said stars of the financial world were by nature more prone to risky and extreme behavior.

"There's an adrenalin rush that's connected to economics," he said. "Why are so many people attracted to that world? Not all, but many, already are adrenalin junkies, and are looking for the high highs and the low lows."

Stratyner said economic anxiety can push people over the edge, but also allows addicts to rationalize their behavior, blaming stress or claiming they can't afford treatment.

"There's a lot of people out there who are unconsciously ... grateful that there's a problem going on, so that someone really and truly has an excuse to get high," he said.

Stratyner said mental illness and addiction, which often occur together, cost the United States $171 billion a year in lost workplace productivity.

Joseph Califano, a former U.S. secretary of health who founded the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse in 1992, said anxiety clearly raised the risk of substance abuse in all socio-economic groups.

People drink more in hard economic times, Califano said, but banks and other financial firms have traditionally not done enough to help employees cope.

"There's still tremendous stigma and shame," he said. "This is not a moral failing, it's a disease."

Another recovering alcoholic, aged 64, who works on Wall Street also requested anonymity because of the stigma.

"It's not so easy to get somebody to recognize their problems," he said. "If you have a series of occasions where you don't remember parts of the evening, that is a bit of a warning sign that maybe you should be seeking some help. The other is if embarrassing things happen to you."

A month in rehab costs from $25,000 at Caron up to around $60,000 at high-end private facilities. Curry said most of his clients pay out of pocket for privacy reasons.

The Connecticut-based executive was paying his own way.

"It's more than I'd like," he said. But "it's less expensive than losing your job ... less expensive than losing a client or losing your family, or losing your home or getting in trouble with the law."

(Editing by Doina Chiacu)

Shocking study finds most will torture if ordered

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor, Fri Dec 19, 2008 2:26am EST 

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Some things never change. Scientists said on Friday they had replicated an experiment in which people obediently delivered painful shocks to others if encouraged to do so by authority figures.

 

Seventy percent of volunteers continued to administer electrical shocks -- or at least they believed they were doing so -- even after an actor claimed they were painful, Jerry Burger of Santa Clara University in California found.

 

"What we found is validation of the same argument -- if you put people into certain situations, they will act in surprising, and maybe often even disturbing, ways," Burger said in a telephone interview. "This research is still relevant."

 

Burger was replicating an experiment published in 1961 by Yale University professor Stanley Milgram, in which volunteers were asked to deliver electric "shocks" to other people if they answered certain questions incorrectly.

 

Milgram found that, after hearing an actor cry out in pain at 150 volts, 82.5 percent of participants continued administering shocks, most to the maximum 450 volts.

 

The experiment surprised psychologists and no one has tried to replicate it because of the distress suffered by many of the volunteers who believed they were shocking another person.

 

"When you hear the man scream and say, 'let me out, I can't stand it,' that is the point when the real stress that people criticized Milgram for kicked in," Burger said.

 

"It was a very, very, very stressful experience for many of the participants. That is the reason no one can ethically replicate the experiment today."

 

'SURPRISING AND DISAPPOINTING'

 

Burger modified the experiment, by stopping at the 150 volt point for the 29 men and 41 women in his experiment. He measured how many of his volunteers began to deliver another shock when prompted by the experiment's leader -- but instead of letting them do so, stopped them.

 

In Milgram's original experiment, 150 volts seemed to be the turning point.

 

In Burger's modified experiment, 70 percent of the volunteers were willing to give shocks greater than 150 volts.

 

At one point, researchers brought in a volunteer who knew what was going on and refused to administer shocks beyond 150 volts. Despite the example, 63 percent of the participants continued administering shocks past 150 volts.

 

"That was surprising and disappointing," Burger said.

 

Burger found no differences among his volunteers, aged 20 to 81, and carefully screened them to be average representatives of the U.S. public.

 

Burger said the experiment, published in the American Psychologist, can only partly explain the widely reported prisoner abuse at the U.S.-run Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq or events during World War Two.

 

"Although one must be cautious when making the leap from laboratory studies to complex social behaviors such as genocide, understanding the social psychological factors that contribute to people acting in unexpected and unsettling ways is important," he wrote.

 

"It is not that there is something wrong with the people," Burger said. "The idea has been somehow there was this characteristic that people had back in the early 1960s that they were somehow more prone to obedience."

 

(Editing by Stacey Joyce)

US doctors group backs marijuana for medical uses

By Will Dunham, Fri Feb 15, 2008 5:39pm EST

WASHINGTON, Feb 15 (Reuters) - A leading U.S. doctors group has endorsed using marijuana for medical purposes, urging the U.S. government to roll back a prohibition on using it to treat patients and supporting studies into its medical applications.

The American College of Physicians, the second-largest doctors group in the United States, issued a policy statement on medical marijuana this week after it was approved by its governing body, the group said on Friday.

The group cited evidence that marijuana is valuable in treating severe weight loss associated with AIDS, and nausea and vomiting associated with chemotherapy in cancer patients.

"Additional research is needed to clarify marijuana's therapeutic properties and determine standard and optimal doses and routes of delivery. Unfortunately, research expansion has been hindered by a complicated federal approval process, limited availability of research-grade marijuana and the debate over legalization," the group said.

The Philadelphia-based group, founded in 1915, is made up of 124,000 doctors who treat adults.

"The richness of modern medicine is to carefully evaluate new treatments. Marijuana has been in a special category because of, I suppose, its abuses and other concerns," Dr. David Dale, the group's president and a University of Washington professor of medicine, said in a phone interview.

'SCIENCE SHOULD BE KEPT OPEN'

David Murray, the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy's chief scientist, said, "The science should be kept open. There should be more research. We should continue to investigate."

The policy statement said, "ACP encourages the use of nonsmoked forms of THC (the main psychoactive element in marijuana) that have proven therapeutic value." It also backed research into additional therapeutic uses of marijuana.

The government should review marijuana's status as a so-called schedule I controlled substance, alongside such drugs as LSD and heroin, given scientific evidence of its safety and efficacy for some medical conditions, the doctors group said.

It called for exempting doctors who prescribe or dispense medical marijuana in accordance with state law from federal criminal prosecution and other actions. It also urged protection from criminal penalties for patients who use medical marijuana as permitted under state laws.

A dozen states have laws allowing the use of marijuana for medical purposes. But supporters of medical marijuana accuse the federal government of undermining those state laws by having Drug Enforcement Administration agents raid medical marijuana providers.

Rob Kampia, executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project, which urges legal and regulated sales of marijuana, said, "This statement by America's second-largest doctors group demolishes the myth that the medical community doesn't support medical marijuana."

"The ACP's statement smashes a number of other myths, including the claims that adequate substitutes are available or that marijuana is unsafe for medical use," Kampia added.

Australian government cuts free massages for bureaucrats

CNN

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) -- Australia's new government has banned taxpayer-funded massages for pampered bureaucrats as part of an austerity drive, a minister said Wednesday.

While not all public servants are eligible for the perk, those that were spent an average of $176 for the year.

Assistant Treasurer Chris Bowen said public service chiefs have been told that they and their staff must pay for their own back rubs in the new government's clampdown on public sector largesse and waste.

"There are lots of very hard working people ... working 12 hour shifts in factories as well who would love a back rub at the end of the day, I am sure. But they don't get one," Bowen told Sydney radio 2UE.

Bowen's Labor Party, which was elected to government on November 24, has long railed against the free massages provided for some privileged public servants.

"There are lots of public servants that work very, very hard and they need to be rewarded, but we've taken the view that this is not an appropriate way of rewarding them," Bowen said.

The most recent figures produced in Parliament showed that bureaucrats spent $95,451 in public money on rub downs in 2004. While not all public servants are eligible for the perk, those that were spent an average of $176 for the year.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has established a task force to cut waste in a public service that he said became bloated during the previous government's 11-year rule.

The public sector massages cost up to $13 for 15 minutes

US 'penis photo doctor' loses job

BBC News

A surgeon who allegedly took a photo of a patient's penis during an operation at a US hospital is no longer working there, it has been announced.

Dr Adam Hansen, of Arizona's Mayo Clinic Hospital, is accused of taking the snap while conducting gallbladder surgery earlier in December.

The chief of general surgery allegedly showed the photo to fellow surgeons.

The patient is a strip club owner, Sean Dubowik, whose penis is tattooed with the words "Hot Rod".

A member of the surgical staff tipped off local newspaper The Arizona Republic about the incident in an anonymous call on Monday.

The announcement that he was "no longer practising" at the Mayo clinic was posted on the hospital's website. It is not clear whether he resigned or was dismissed.

'Great outrage'

On the same day, Mr Dubowik, 37, learned about the photo when the Nobel Prize-winning clinic, based in Scottsdale, telephoned him.

The businessman said: "I got a strange call after my surgery from a doctor who said there was a problem. He said Hansen was on the phone and would explain."

Mr Dubowik said that the surgeon confessed to having used his mobile phone to take the picture while inserting a catheter into his penis.

The patient, who said the tattoo was done for a $1,000 (£500) bet, continued: "Now I feel violated, betrayed and disgusted.

"The longer I sit here the angrier I get."

Saudi king 'pardons rape victim'

BBC News

The Saudi king has pardoned a female rape victim sentenced to jail and 200 lashes for being alone with a man raped in the same attack, reports say.

The "Qatif girl" case caused an international outcry with widespread criticism of the Saudi justice system.

Saudi women are subject to strict sex segregation laws

She male and female victims were in a car together when they were abducted and raped by seven attackers, who were given jail sentences up to nine years.

Press reports say King Abdullah's move did not mean the sentence was wrong.

Quoted by the Jazirah newspaper, Justice Minister Abdullah al-Sheikh said the king had the right to issue pardons if it served the public interest.

Women in Saudi Arabia are not allowed to mix with men who are not close family members.

The custodial sentence plus 200 lashes was imposed after the woman, who has not been named, appealed against an earlier sentence of 90 lashes.

'Astonishing' case

The Saudi king frequently pardons criminals at the Eid al-Adha festival which takes place this week, but correspondents say that is usually announced by the official press agency.

The BBC's Heba Saleh says the king's decision to pardon the woman victim is already arousing controversy with some contributors to conservative websites, who say he has breached the rules of religion in order to appease critics in the West.

The US had called the punishment "astonishing", although it refused to condemn the Saudi justice system.

Human rights groups had been calling on King Abdullah, who has a reputation as a pro-Western reformer, to change it.

The justice ministry recently rejected what it saw as "foreign interference" in the case and insisted the ruling was legal and that the woman had confessed to having an affair with her fellow rape victim.

Earlier, the woman - who is a Shia Muslim from the Qatif area - had reportedly said she met the man in order to retrieve a photograph of them together, having herself recently got married.

She says two other men then entered the car and took them to a secluded area where others were waiting, and both she and her male companion were raped.

The woman's companion was sentenced to 90 lashes. It is not known if his sentence was also lifted.

Indonesia may stop `Tree Man` being treated in US: report

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - An Indonesian villager dubbed "Tree Man" for massive bark-like warts growing on much of his body may be barred from traveling to the United States to receive treatment, a report said Tuesday.

Woody growths entirely cover 32-year-old Dede's hands in long, root-like tendrils that leave him unable to work -- except as a member of a travelling "freak show". He was in a Discovery Channel documentary this month.

"We're clear about not giving them (US doctors) permission to bring Dede to the US," health ministry spokeswoman Lily Sriwahyuni Sulistiyowati was quoted as saying by Warta Kota daily.

"Moreover, people like Dede, who live in small villages, don't want to be taken away, especially to give blood samples. Normally village people don't easily give foreigners permission to test their blood," she said.

The spokeswoman declined to give an immediate comment when contacted by AFP.

Anthony Gaspari, a dermatologist from the University of Maryland, examined Dede as part of the documentary.

He believes the massive growths are a combination of the human papilloma virus, which causes warts, and a genetic disorder that means his immune system is too weak to fight them off.

Gaspari told AFP from the United States that he was disappointed by the reported health ministry decision but said it would not stop his initial plan to treat his condition.

Gaspari said he was in negotiations with a US pharmaceutical company to provide Dede with an ongoing supply of vitamin A, which would hopefully boost his immune system and hinder the growth of the warts.

"My initial plan would be to send medication to Indonesia to a local doctor to administer," he said. "If it doesn't work I won't have any choice but to try to get him over here."

Possible alternative treatments, such as chemotherapy, carried higher risks and needed to be closely monitored outside of Indonesia, Gaspari said.

Genetic testing would also require fresh blood samples, which meant they would have to be taken in the United States, he added.

"I suppose at a university in Indonesia it's maybe possible to do the testing, I just don't know whether the expertise would be available," he said.

Panel: Kids Shouldn't Use Cold Medicines

Panel Suggests That Cold, Cough Medicines Shouldn't Be Taken by Children Less Than 6 Years Old

ABC News

By ANDREW BRIDGES Associated Press Writer, WASHINGTON Oct 20, 2007 (AP)

The medicines long used by parents to treat their children's coughs and colds don't work and shouldn't be used in those younger than 6, federal health advisers recommended Friday.

The over-the-counter medicines should be studied further, even after decades in which children have received billions of doses a year, the outside experts told the Food and Drug Administration. The FDA isn't required to follow the advice of its panels of outside experts but does so most of the time.

"The data that we have now is they don't seem to work," said Sean Hennessy, a University of Pennsylvania epidemiologist, one of the FDA experts gathered to examine the medicines sold to treat common cold symptoms. The recommendation applies to medicines containing one or more of the following ingredients: decongestants, antihistamines and antitussives. It doesn't apply to expectorants, though many of the medicines also contain that ingredient.

The nonbinding recommendation is likely to lead to a shake up in how the medicines which have long escaped much scrutiny are labeled, marketed and used. Just how and how quickly wasn't immediately clear.

Read More ....

My insides are taped to stop urine leaks'

By Jane Elliott, Health reporter, BBC News

When Paula Webley crossed the winning line first at her child's sports day her elation soon turned to embarrassment.

She found that the exertion of the sprint had caused her to wet herself and the front of her jeans was soaking wet.

For six years, ever since the birth of her second child, she suffered from incontinence.

Paula, who runs a dog grooming business, found that lifting the heavier animals would cause her to leak, as would any running or gym activity.

'Exercise routine'

Even sneezing or coughing could cause problems.

So Paula, 38 and from Wiltshire, started to wear dark clothes to avoid the staining being too visible and cut down on her exercise routine.

I can do everything I used to - running, lifting heavy dogs and high impact exercise

Paula Webley

"When I did high impact exercise it was really obvious to other people what was happening.

"You feel like you have a balloon inside you which you know is going to burst and leak.

"I was very open about my problem with people, but it was still very embarrassing.

"Once I went out for a out night to the pub and, as I was late, I had to run a little. My jeans became soaking wet. If I hadn't had a long top on, I would have had to go home."

Read whole article ....

Steroids: Not Just for Athletes

Time, Friday, Oct. 12, 2007 By MICHAEL D. LEMONICK

Anyone who follows the news probably has a picture of the typical steroid user: an elite athlete — a home-run hitter, say — trying to get an edge on the competition, or a high-school or college kid who wants desperately to get into the pros.

But while those cases make headlines, the stereotype turns out to be largely off base, according to a new study published online in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition. In a web-based survey of nearly 2,000 self-prescribed steroid users (the stuff has legitimate medical uses as well, such as correcting hormone imbalances), it turns out that the typical user isn't a competitive athlete at all. He (and it's pretty much always "he") is a highly educated professional, about 30 years old, who doesn't participate in organized sports at all — and never has. He uses steroids to build muscle, increase strength and look good. And he does it, not as an easy, stand-alone shortcut to body modification, but as a supplement to a carefully planned regimen of diet and exercise. In short, says one internist: "They're gym rats."

A majority of steroid users say they'd be willing to consult with doctors about their steroid use — in principle. In practice most didn't actually reveal their habit to their physicians. The reason: they don't believe doctors know a lot about the drugs, and they suspect that physicians, like the general public, have an exaggerated idea about how dangerous steroids really are.

The users themselves tend to be aware of side effects like liver damage, high blood pressure and behavioral changes. That's why most users inject the steroids instead of taking them by mouth, in order to better control blood levels and lessen the risk of liver toxicity. A majority of habitual users also get blood work at least once a year, probably to make sure the drugs aren't throwing hormone levels too far out of balance.

The authors make it clear that they don't approve of the non-medical use of steroids — but do believe that reducing the potential harm they can cause is never going to be possible if nobody understand who the users really are.

Better Bedside Manners

Wednesday, Sep. 05, 2007 By LAURA BLUE, TIME

Every patient wants to find a doctor who listens. But wouldn't it be easier if all doctors were just better listeners?

A new paper in the Sept. 5 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association suggests that it might not be so hard to make it happen: in the first comprehensive study of clinical-skills exams given to doctors, researchers from McGill University in Montreal show that poor scores in the communication portion of the test are highly predictive of which new doctors are likely to clash with patients in the future.

By evaluating communication skills early on, say the study's authors, physicians and academics can better train and select the next generation of medical professionals.

Read More ....

Alcohol Problems Plague 1 Out of 3 Americans

Abuse, Dependency Affect Many but Few Seek Treatment

By Dan Child, ABC News Medical Unit. July 2, 2007


Whether it's binge drinking or addiction to alcohol, Americans have a real problem with the bottle.

So says new research released Monday, which found that nearly one out of three Americans can expect to have a problem with alcohol at some time during their lives.

"We found that 30.3 percent of the U.S. population at some time in their lives -- though maybe not currently -- has had an alcohol use disorder," said study author Bridget Grant of the Division of Biometry and Epidemiology at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

But the nature of this problem can vary widely -- from a sustained streak of binge drinking behavior all the way to serious physiological addiction to alcohol.

The findings, generated from face-to-face interviews with more than 43,000 U.S. adults, appear in the July issue of the journal Archives of General Psychiatry.

To find out whether subjects had experienced problems with alcohol, interviewers questioned them looking for the symptoms of alcohol abuse and dependence listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition.

What researchers found was that 17.8 percent of those interviewed reported that they had abused alcohol at one time or another, and 12.5 percent reported alcohol dependence.

But perhaps most sobering was the fact that few with alcohol problems ever reached out for help.

"What we found was that very few people who have lifetime disorders ever seek treatment," Grant says, adding that only 24 percent of those suffering from alcohol dependency seek help. The percentage of those seeking treatment for alcohol abuse is even lower, at 7 percent.

"This is a big problem in our society, and every time we write a paper it becomes more clear," says Dr. James C. Garbutt, medical director of the Alcohol and Substance Abuse Program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

"Nearly 100,000 people die every year of alcohol-related causes. Alcohol carries a $200 billion or more cost to society. These are huge statistics."

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