NotesTo me, index fingers portray a hideous personality reflecting conceit and pantywaist attitudes. In essence, they are smart-ass digits we can often do without. If I had to lose a finger and had my choice, I would choose first my nondominant hand index ray and next the other index. I find index digits easy to hate and sometimes hard to love.Unfurl
NotesSo the anti-vaccine advocatesā fears of having the ānatural immunity sterilized out of usā just doesnāt cut it for me. How could I, with my idyllic childhood and my amazing health food, get so freaking ill all the time?Unfurl
NotesSurgeons will drain their blood and replace it with freezing saltwater. Without heartbeat and brain activity, the patients will be clinically dead.
And then the surgeons will try to save their lives.Unfurl
NotesIn a study published in The Lancet, about twenty-nine percent of patients who recovered from Russell's Viper venom had signs of hypopituitarism or Sheehan's Syndrome. Both conditions have unremarkable symptoms, like a constant feeling of cold and an unusual amount of fatigue. What distinguishes them is a sort of reverse-puberty in adults. They lose their sex drive. They lose fertility. They lose their body hair, especially pubic hair. Men lose facial hair and muscles. Women lose curves as the condition causes them to lose weight. Some doctors even report loss of mental faculties as the condition progresses.Unfurl
NotesI suspect United States is in fact ahead of the African nations in bringing the dead back to life. It's hard to find a good estimate of how many bodies are resurrected in the U.S. each year, but let's go with this vastly oversimplified figure: 92,000. 92,000 is the number of people the American Heart Association estimates are saved in the U.S. each year after their hearts or their lungs have stopped moving, i.e. by CPR. Or let's go with a percentage: 45.3%. That's the success rate in the bottom-quarter of American hospitals in a 2012 study in restoring circulation to a body whose heart has completely flatlined. 14.5% of the bodies treated managed leave the hospital. And that's in the hospitals with the lowest performance. Wait till you see American rates for getting the lame to walk and the blind to see.FeedUnfurl
NotesMy two kids at home almost lost their mother because someone decided that my life was worth less than that of a fetus that was going to die anyway. My husband had told them exactly what my regular doctor said, and the ER doctor had already warned us what would have to happen. Yet none of this mattered when confronted by the idea that no one needs an abortion. You shouldnāt need to know the details of why a woman aborts to trust her to make the best decision for herself. I donāt regret my abortion, but I would also never use my situation to suggest that the only time another woman should have the procedure is when her life is at stake. After my family found out Iād had an abortion, I got a phone call from a cousin who felt the need to tell me I was wrong to have interfered with Godās plan. And in that moment I understood exactly what kind of people judge a womanās reproductive choices.Unfurl
NotesThis is the true ābombā contained in Obamacare and the one item that will have more impact on the future of how medical care is paid for in this country than anything weāve seen in quite some time. Indeed, it is this aspect of the law that represents the true ādeath panelā found in Obamacareābut not one that is going to lead to the death of American consumers. Rather, the medical loss ratio will, ultimately, lead to the death of large parts of the private, for-profit health insurance industry.
...
If you believe that the end of private, for-profit health insurance is some type of nefarious step towards a socialist society, then you might want to attend church this Sunday to mourn the loss of health insurers being able to worm out of covering the bills of a cancer patient because she forgot to write down on her application that she had skin acne for three months when she was a teenager.FeedUnfurl
NotesSome of the most foul smelling creatures on Earth are known simply as odorous frogs. These amphibians have a normal odor like that of rotting fish, but it's worth braving their disgusting smell for the life-saving substances that coat their bodies. Because frogs live in warm, wet places ā the ...Unfurl
NotesThe development of general anaesthesia has transformed surgery from a horrific ordeal into a gentle slumber. It is one of the commonest medical procedures in the world, yet we still don't know how the drugs work. Perhaps this isn't surprising: we still don't understand consciousness, so how can we comprehend its disappearance?FeedUnfurl
Notes"Now there is hope that future implants might be powered not by batteries but by the fuels in our bodies that are used for energy. Scientists have shown that fuel cells implanted in rats can successfully generate electricity from sugar in the rodent's bodies. The devices kept going for months at a time."FeedUnfurl
Notes"The Russian surgeon Leonid Rogozovās self operation, undertaken without any other medical professional around, was a testament to determination and the will to life"Unfurl
Notes"This, it turns out, is the real problem. My whole life I've been unable to pick up on the scent that is so overwhelmingly good for cilantro lovers that it trumps any possible bad. I come to a disappointing realization: I am not an X-Man with superkeen sensory abilities. I am a sensory dud who's missing the true nature of cilantro."Unfurl
Notes"This problem is made worse by the fact that actually paying for your health care is a loss from an insurersā point of view ā they actually refer to it as āmedical costs.ā This means both that insurers try to deny as many claims as possible, and that they try to avoid covering people who are actually likely to need care. Both of these strategies use a lot of resources, which is why private insurance has much higher administrative costs than single-payer systems. And since thereās a widespread sense that our fellow citizens should get the care we need ā not everyone agrees, but most do ā this means that private insurance basically spends a lot of money on socially destructive activities."Unfurl
Notes"Health-care reform would put one of the most productive sectors in the U.S. to work to shore up the nation's economy, says BW contributing editor Chris Farrell"Unfurl
NotesStill somewhat freaked out by the whole concept of Lasik surgery, yet intrigued by the opportunity for enhancement. "Once my corneas were cut open and I experienced that initial pain, I was definitely frightened, and escaped to a corner of my mind where I would not think too much about all the things they were doing to my eyes and what my life would be like if I happened to be the "less than 1%" of patients with vision-reducing complications.None of this bothers me much, save the fact that newer, better, safer technology will come around sooner or later, and my eyes may end up as out-of-date as back-to-school iPods. And I do not know if my eyes will be forward-compatible, having already been sliced. Still, for now I remain top-of-the-line, and I would gladly endure 10 times the (mostly imaginary) pain of LASIK to gain the quality of eyesight found in elite Major League Baseball pitchers."Unfurl
Notes"As a pharmacist, you have every right to refuse to fill contraceptive prescriptions. But your customers have every right to boycott your store, and your employer has every right to fire you. If you don't like your employer's policy, open your own pharmacy."Unfurl
Notes"Our study suggests that compounds such as sulforaphane from broccoli may help counter processes linked to the development of vascular disease in diabetes"FeedUnfurl
Notes"In the body, gradients like this strengthen the ends of tendons that attach to bones. Currently, lab-grown tendons put into the body often fail at the attachment end because they lack this property, says GarcĆa. ... His new technique should lead to more lifelike artificially-grown tendons, and better treatments for injuries like ruptured Achilles tendons."Unfurl
Notes"Some lucky evolutionary accident ensured the mammals' safety through a deep sleep, and that accident may still be dormant within us. That which allowed our ancestors to survive millions of years ago might also be a means of our survival now."Unfurl
Notes"One of the great unanswered questions in physiology is why muscles get tired. The experience is universal, common to creatures that have muscles, but the answer has been elusive until now."Unfurl
Notes"I can take a woman, in the biggest trouble she has ever experienced in her life, and by performing a five-minute operation, in comfort and dignity, I can give her back her life"Unfurl
Notes"An extraordinary new scientific study, which for the first time documents marked improvement in Alzheimerās disease within minutes of administration of a therapeutic molecule, has just been published in the Journal of Neuroinflammation."Unfurl
Notes"The so-called ācombination therapyā prevents HIV from mutating and spreading, allowing patients to rebuild their immune system to the same levels as the rest of the population."Unfurl
Notes"There is not a single fact that is "fudged" in the film. No one has proven a single fact in the film wrong. We expect CNN to correct their mistakes on the air and to apologize to their viewers."Unfurl
Notes"Drinking coffee can help ward off type 2 diabetes and may even help prevent certain cancers, according to panelists discussing the benefits ā and risks ā of the beverage at a scientific meeting."Unfurl
Notes"A Northwestern University scientist describes new research that used an innovative experimental approach to provide unique insights into how scientists can change human metastatic melanoma cells back to normal-like skin cells -- by exposing the tumor celFeedUnfurl
Notes"Spiders are getting a bad rap. Get a culture because what you are seeing is probably community-acquired MRSA (methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus)"Unfurl
Notes"Scientists are seeking ethical permission to produce synthetic sperm cells from a woman's bone marrow tissue after showing that it possible to produce rudimentary sperm cells from male bone-marrow tissue."Unfurl
Notes"In a report released Sunday, researchers describe the use of newly discovered enzymes to convert blood types A, B, and AB into O, the universal donor type."Unfurl
Notes"A "data cable" made from stretched nerve cells could someday help connect computers to the human nervous system. The modified cells should form better connections with human tissue than the metal electrodes currently used for purposes such as remotely coUnfurl
Notes"Smokers who believe they can avoid fatal disease by slashing the number of cigarettes they smoke each day are sorely mistaken, according to a new study which suggests the only safe way to escape the risk is to quit."Unfurl
Notes"Though an unprotected human would not long survive in the clutches of outer space, it is remarkable that survival times can be measured in minutes rather than seconds, and that one could endure such an inhospitable environment for almost two minutes withUnfurl
Notes"In just 15 years, we'll begin to see the merger of human and computer intelligence that ultimately will enable people to live forever. At least that's the prediction of author and futurist Ray Kurzweil."Unfurl
Why I hate the index finger - PMC
Growing up unvaccinated: A healthy lifestyle couldnāt prevent many childhood illnesses.
Why Are There So Few Resurrected Corpses in the United States? - Heather Horn - The Atlantic
Abortion saved my life - Abortion - Salon.com
The Bomb Buried In Obamacare Explodes Today-Hallelujah! - Forbes
Banishing consciousness: the mystery of anaesthesia - health - 29 November 2011 - New Scientist
California Medical Assn. calls for legalization of marijuana (Anthony York/Los Angeles Times)
Sugar Within Human Bodies Could Power Future Artificial Organs: Scientific American
zmayhem: Customer service is fun!
BBC NEWS | Science & Environment | Banjo used in brain surgery
Seed: Suspending Life
ABC News: Gay Groups Decry Bush Top Doc Nominee
Reversing cancer cells to normal cells