Health News from Medical News Today
Wed, 10 Mar 2010 05:00:00 PST
Los Angeles Times Profiles Antiabortion Pastor Who Travels Southern Calif. In Mobile Pregnancy Clinic
The Los Angeles Times on Monday profiled Dave Wilkinson, an evangelical pastor who runs three Ventura County, Calif., pregnancy clinics that try to urge women not to have abortions. Once weekly, Wilkinson and other antiabortion-rights advocates drive to Los Angeles in a donated motor home to offer ultrasounds to pregnant women and urge them not to have abortions through "prayer-filled counseling sessions," according to the Times. Wilkinson said that many of the women promise to carry their fetuses to term...
Study Shows Need To 'Speak Plainly' When Discussing Sex, Columnist Writes
"A new study suggests that what people mean when they say they've had sex -- or haven't -- depends on whom you ask," St. Petersburg Times columnist Colette Bancroft writes in an opinion piece about new research from the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction and the Rural Center for AIDS/STD Prevention. The study, published in the journal Sexual Health, examined how men and women in various age groups classify whether various physical acts constitute "having sex...
Health Overhaul Policy Tidbits
NPR: For those who have forgotten what the Senate's bill would actually do as the debate has turned to politics and procedure, "a short refresher" may come in handy. The legislation's main concepts include the requirement that individuals buy health insurance, a plan that would help eliminate pre-existing condition exclusions and spread risk more widely, and subsidies to help people buy coverage to meet the new requirement (Rovner, 3/9)...
Senate Test Vote Today On Bill To Extend COBRA Subsidy, Doc Fix And State Medicaid Funding
The Senate is poised to consider a measure today that would include extending subsidies for COBRA benefits and unemployment insurance, prevent the Medicare payment cut for doctors and provide additional funding to state Medicaid programs. The legislation "faces a key test vote in the Senate, its momentum helped by about 60 popular tax breaks for individuals and businesses that expired at the end of last year," The Associated Press reports. "All told, the measure would add $107 billion to the deficit over the coming decade...
Questioning The Benefits Of Elective Removal Of Ovaries During Hysterectomy: Evidence Suggests Procedure May Do More Harm Than Good
Removal of the ovaries (bilateral oophorectomy) while performing a hysterectomy is common practice to prevent the subsequent development of ovarian cancer. This prophylactic procedure is performed in 55 percent of all US women having a hysterectomy, or approximately 300,000 times each year. An article in the March/April issue of the Journal of Minimally Invasive Gynecology suggests that this procedure may do more harm than good.. William H...
Brain Activity Predicts Emotional Resiliency Following A Fight With A Partner
Common wisdom tells us that for a successful relationship partners shouldn't go to bed angry. But new research from a psychologist at Harvard University suggests that brain activity - specifically in the region called the lateral prefrontal cortex - is a far better indicator of how someone will feel in the days following a fight with his or her partner. Individuals who show more neural activity in the lateral prefrontal cortex are less likely to be upset the day after fighting with partners, according to a study in this month's Biological Psychiatry...
Fashion And IT
Consider this T-shirt: It can monitor your heart rate and breathing, analyze your sweat and even cool you off on a hot summer's day. What about a pillow that monitors your brain waves, or a solar-powered dress that can charge your ipod or MP4 player? This is not science fiction - this is cotton in 2010. Now, the laboratory of Juan Hinestroza, assistant professor of Fiber Science and Apparel Design, has developed cotton threads that can conduct electric current as well as a metal wire can, yet remain light and comfortable enough to give a whole new meaning to multi-use garments...
Male Batterers Consistently Overestimate General Rates Of Violence Toward Partners
Men who engaged in domestic violence consistently overestimated how common such behavior is, and the more they overestimated it the more they engaged in abusing their partner in the previous 90 days, according to new research conducted at the University of Washington. Those men overestimated by two to three times the actual rates of seven behaviors ranging from throwing something at a partner to rape, according Clayton Neighbors, lead author of a paper to be published in a spring issue of the journal Violence Against Women...
New Research Looks At Beliefs About God's Influence In Everyday Life
Most Americans believe God is concerned with their personal well-being and is directly involved in their personal affairs, according to new research out of the University of Toronto. Using data from two recent national surveys of Americans, UofT Sociology Professor Scott Schieman examined peoples' beliefs about God's involvement and influence in everyday life. His research discovers new patterns about these beliefs and the ways they differ across education and income levels...
Federal Funds Support Health Depts., But Leadership Is Key - Study
The surge of funds for bioterrorism preparedness over the past decade does not appear to be improving local public health resources in general, according to research from Purdue University. However, the funding increase to health departments does spur epidemiologic activity that is key in detecting infectious disease risks, such as a surge in communicable disease like influenza or tuberculosis, at the local level, says George Avery, an assistant professor of health and kinesiology...
Research Identifies New Mechanism Regulating Embryonic Development
A Princeton University-led research team has discovered that protein competition over an important enzyme provides a mechanism to integrate different signals that direct early embryonic development. The work suggests that these signals are combined long before they interact with the organism's DNA, as was previously believed, and also may inform new therapeutic strategies to fight cancer. The fought-over enzyme, known as the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK), is found in all complex organisms, ranging from yeast to humans...
Low-Income Women Living In Small Cities Have Higher Chance Of Obesity
A recent Kansas State University study found that the availability of supermarkets -- rather than the lack of them -- increased the risk of obesity for low-income women living in small cities. This suggests that policies to increase healthful eating behaviors might need to be tailored based on geographic location. K-State researchers studied the availability of food stores for low-income women in Kansas to see whether there was a link to obesity...
Washington Post, 'Marketplace' Examine Issues Related To HPV Vaccines
The Washington Post on Tuesday published a list of questions and answers from a Consumer Reports review of the safety and efficacy of Merck's human papillomavirus vaccine, Gardasil. A new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and FDA found that a few women and girls vaccinated with Gardasil experienced serious complications but that the rates and severity of most side effects appear to be consistent with those of other vaccines, the Post reports. FDA approved the vaccine in 2006 for women and girls ages nine through 26...
GOP Candidate For Calif. Gov. Switches Positions On Abortion-Related Issues
California Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, who is seeking the Republican gubernatorial nomination, took liberal positions on abortion-rights issues when he unsuccessfully ran for state Assembly in 2004, the Los Angeles Times reports. Poizner's past statements supporting abortion-right issues contradict the conservative stance he has taken in his current campaign. On Friday, the Poizner campaign sent an e-mail claiming that he is "the only Republican candidate for governor who is against taxpayer-funded abortion...
Stupak Indicates Abortion Compromise Possible For Health Bill
Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., who is leading a coalition of anti-abortion Democrats standing in the way of party leadership efforts to pass a health bill, signaled Monday that the impasse may be close to resolution. The Associated Press: Stupak "said he expects to resume talks with House leaders this week in a quest for wording that would impose no new limits on abortion rights but also would not allow use of federal money for the procedure. ''I'm more optimistic than I was a week ago,' Stupak told The Associated Press between meetings with constituents in his northern Michigan district. ...
