‘Health’ Archives
Placebos more effective than most new drugs
CRYSTAL CAULDRON, Goldacre, Monday (NotScientist) — The pharmaceutical industry is reeling from the news that more and more new drugs do no better than a placebo. Despite historic levels of industry investment in research and development, the FDA approved only 19 new drugs in 2007 and 24 in 2008. The placebo effect has been [...]
Instant-message psychotherapy helps health care budgets
RACTER, Eliza Alice, Friday (MX Doctor) — Online talking treatment using instant messaging can help NHS budgets recover from depression, say management researchers. The study looked at 297 people with anxiety and depression. Half had up to 10 one-hour sessions with an online therapist, LOLbot. The other half were sent to sit in a GP's [...]
West fights for democracy, justice and marital rape in Afghanistan
REEPERBAHN, Helmand, Friday (NNN) — Afghanistan has passed a law permitting Shia men to deny their wives food if they refuse to obey their husbands' sexual demands, to the embarrassed silence of the international community and its fighting forces. Activists say the law contradicts the Afghan constitution and international treaties the [...]
Obama fights back on health care plan
RATCHED, Massachusetts, Tuesday (NNN) — President Barack Obama has asked Americans not to believe "rumors" that his health reform initiatives will lead to a government-run health care system, push Medicare recipients to die rather than run up their bill or lead to widespread euthanasia of the Republican "base." "Let me start by dispelling [...]
Women urged by marketer to test for fertility
WAKEFIELD, Sheffield, Sunday (NNN) — Britain is facing an infertility timebomb, according to Professor Bill Ledger of Sheffield University, who just happens to have a side business, Biofusion plc t/a Lifestyle Choices, selling fertility tests, in the Observer yesterday. "Couples are sticking their heads in the sand," he said. [...]
More women binge drinking real ale
CELEBRITY GOSSIP, Smile for the CAMRA, Sunday (NNN) — The number of women binge-drinking real ale has doubled in the past year to almost one in three, says the Campaign for Real Ale. Z-list celebrities are regularly photographed in the London Lite supping a "pint," little finger extended, a different beer each drink, discussing the shades [...]
Ministry of Health welcomes suicide ruling
MINILUV, Oswiecim, Friday (NNN) — The Ministry of Health has applauded the Law Lords' verdict in the assisted suicide case, suggesting it opens the way to fixing the NHS budget. "Where there's a living will, there's a way!" said health secretary Andy Burnham. "Of course, the death of a patient is a tragedy every time. I cry real tears, [...]
WHO declares swine flu an end in itself
MRSA MEMORIAL, Staffordshire Hospital, Thursday (NNN) — There were an estimated 100,000 new cases of swine flu in Britain last week, the Health Protection Agency said today, after 55,000 new cases in the previous week. At this rate, every person in Britain will be infected by November. Although considered a "mild" flu, with sufferers only [...]
Pain essential to childbirth, says male midwife
SHIPMAN BUILDING, University of Crippen, Monday (NNN) — The pain of childbirth is essential to proper bonding with the child and a "rite of passage" experience, said a male professor of midwifery today. Dr Denis Walsh, who will never get sex again in his life, said pain helped regulate childbirth and prepared her for the responsibility of [...]
Differently-competent PM pleads against assisted career suicide
THE WAITING ROOM, Westminster, Wednesday (NN) — The House of Lords voted against a controversial move to protect Britons who help people bring an end to terminally-ill political careers. The law presently states that anyone who helps another to commit suicide can be jailed for up to 14 years. However, destroying one's career and future [...]
