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Back in 2015, Brazil reported a horrific a surge in birth defects. Thousands of babies were born with ... a condition called microcephaly. Scientists quickly concluded the Zika virus was the culprit. So when Zika returned last year during Brazil's summer months ... health officials expected another surge in microcephaly cases. But that never happened. "We apparently saw a lot of cases Zika virus in 2016. But there was no microcephaly," says Christopher Dye of the World Health Organization. The difference between 2015 and 2016 "is spectacular," he says. Health officials were predicting more than 1,000 cases of microcephaly in the northeast of Brazil last year. But there were fewer than 100, Dye and his colleagues report Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine. "This is a huge, huge discrepancy," Dye says. "So what could possibly be the explanation for that?" Scientists aren't sure, Dye says. But he and his colleagues suggest a few possibilities in their study. First off, Dye says, health officials could have vastly overestimated the number of Zika cases in Brazil. Another possible explanation: Zika might not be working alone. Maybe another infection combines with Zika to make the disease worse and increase the risk of birth defects.

Note: The hysteria around Zika was almost certainly manufactured, with complicity of the major media, as clearly evidenced by this article. For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing health news articles from reliable major media sources.

President Trump recently selected Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a prominent vaccine skeptic who believes that shots may cause autism, to chair a panel on the safety of vaccines. The appointment has provoked howls of outrage from public health officials. Unfortunately, in their zeal to defend the benefits of vaccines, these advocates have pushed a narrative that vaccines are without risk. Every year, thousands of Americans receive vaccinations and then suffer a host of well-recognized reactions, ranging from chronic pain to paralysis. A 30-year-old federal program - meant to encourage vaccinations - compensates these patients for their medical costs and suffering. Unlucky patients who have terrible reactions to vaccines can seek compensation for their lost wages, medical bills and suffering through the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program. Established in 1986, the vaccine program [grants] vaccine makers and doctors immunity from lawsuits. One of the most common vaccines, the flu shot, can trigger Guillain-Barré syndrome. Each year, as many as 6,000 Americans contract the disease, which causes an individual’s immune system to attack its own nerve cells. Persons diagnosed with the syndrome ... may experience permanent nerve damage, respiratory failure, or even death. Instead of seeking compensation from drugmakers, vaccine-injured patients can file a claim with the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. The program has awarded 5,269 victims more than $3.5 billion to date out of 17, 935 petitions filed.

Note: Robert F. Kennedy is highly respected for his great work as a lawyer defending the environment and much more. Yet now that he is challenging the safety of vaccines, most of the media are making him out to be a kook. If you want to understand why he is a threat to big pharma, which has a lot of control over the media, read Kennedy's excellent article "Deadly Immunity." For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing vaccine news articles from reliable major media sources.

It took years of public pressure and a lawsuit, but the California Department of Public Health has finally released a set of guidelines for the public about the risks associated with cell phone use and the best ways for cell phone users to reduce their exposure to potential dangers. What on earth took so long? We asked the department for an answer to this question. It didn’t offer us a direct response but wrote, “[This] project was discontinued when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued national guidance on the same subject.” However, the state’s document, dated April 2014 and stamped “draft and not for public release” ... paints a very clear picture of the potential dangers of cell phone use. “Health officials are concerned about possible health effects from cell phone EMFs (electromagnetic fields) because some recent studies suggest that long-term cell phone use may increase the risk of brain cancer and other health problems,” the guidelines read. The two-page document goes on to suggest ways to lower your exposure, including using speaker phone and headsets, keeping the phone away from your body when it’s not being used, and sending text messages instead of voice calls. California’s public health department released the document only after a judge said she would order the guidelines to be disclosed. Joel Moskowitz, a public health researcher at UC Berkeley, sued the department last year after repeatedly requesting them.

Note: The medical community has long been aware that cell phone use negatively impacts human health. Despite the American Academy of Pediatrics urging the US to reassess to cell phone safety standards for children in 2012, the Centers for Disease Control backed away from warning the public about the risks of cell phone radiation to kids. For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing health news articles from reliable major media sources.

Vitamin D supplements could spare more than three million people from colds or flu in the UK each year, researchers claim. The sunshine vitamin is vital for healthy bones, but also has a role in the immune system. The analysis, published in the British Medical Journal, argues food should be fortified with the vitamin. The immune system uses vitamin D to make antimicrobial weapons that puncture holes in bacteria and viruses. But as vitamin D is made in the skin while out in the sun, many people have low levels during winter. The researchers pooled data on 11,321 people from 25 separate trials to try to get a definitive answer. The team at Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) looked at respiratory tract infections - which covers a wide range of illnesses from a sniffle to flu to pneumonia. Overall, the study said one person would be spared infection for every 33 taking vitamin D supplements. That is more effective than flu vaccination, which needs to treat 40 to prevent one case. There were greater benefits for those taking pills daily or weekly - rather than in monthly super-doses - and in people who were deficient in the first place. One of the researchers, Prof Adrian Martineau, said: "Assuming a UK population of 65 million, and that 70% have at least one acute respiratory infection each year, then daily or weekly vitamin D supplements will mean 3.25 million fewer people would get at least one acute respiratory infection a year."

Note: Explore a treasure trove of concise summaries of incredibly inspiring news articles which will inspire you to make a difference.

Robert De Niro and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. are looking for proof that vaccines are safe. The unlikely duo teamed up to offer $100,000 to anyone who can provide proof. “On one hand, the government is telling pregnant women which mercury-laced fish to avoid so that they don’t harm their fetuses, and on the other, the CDC supports injecting mercury-containing vaccines into pregnant women, infants and children,” Kennedy said at a joint press conference Wednesday. “This defies all logic and common sense.” De Niro, whose son has autism, and Kennedy specifically called out the use of thimerosal, which contains mercury. An FDA study in 1999 found that thimerosal used as a vaccine preservative posed no harm except for hypersensitivity. Despite that, the FDA phased the preservative out of vaccines for children and hasn’t been used since 2001, according to the Center for Disease Control. De Niro and Kennedy apparently don’t find that satisfactory and are offering a large cash reward, through Kennedy’s World Mercury Project, for anyone “who can find a peer-reviewed scientific study demonstrating that thimerosal is safe in the amounts contained in vaccines currently being administered to American children and pregnant women.” Kennedy, the son of the late Robert Kennedy and the nephew of the late John F. Kennedy, has long warned of the dangers of vaccines, [and] said recently that President Trump still wants him to chair a commission on vaccine safety and scientific integrity, which was proposed in early January when he met with the then-President Elect at Trump Tower.

Note: For more, see the World Mercury Project website. The major media consistently slams almost any news questioning the safety of vaccines, despite the fact that the US government's Health Resources & Services Administration website on this webpage states, "Since 1988, over 17,835 petitions have been filed with the VICP [Vaccine Injury Compensation Program]. Over that 27- year time period, 16,113 petitions have been adjudicated, with 5,205 of those determined to be compensable. Total compensation paid over the life of the program is approximately $3.5 billion." Why isn't that $3.5 billion price tag for compensation of vaccine injury being talked about?

Vaccines are ... under investigation for the possible side effects they can cause. In order to supply new information, an electron-microscopy investigation method was applied to the study of vaccines, aimed at verifying the presence of solid contaminants by means of an Environmental Scanning Electron Microscope equipped with an X-ray microprobe. The results of this new investigation show the presence of micro- and nanosized particulate matter composed of inorganic elements in vaccines’ samples which is not declared among the components and whose unduly presence is, for the time being, inexplicable. A considerable part of those particulate contaminants have already been verified in other matrices and reported in literature as non biodegradable and non biocompatible. The evidence collected is suggestive of some hypotheses correlated to diseases that are mentioned and briefly discussed. Not all the vaccines analyzed contain the same contamination, though the same vaccine belonging to different batches and, in some cases, coming from different countries can contain a similar contamination Vaccines by Glaxo – Infarix, Typherix and Priorix – contain Tungsten. Tungsten was also identified in [the vaccines] Menjugate Kit by Novartis, and Prevenar, Meningitec by Pfizer and Meningitec by Wyeth. Feligen, the only veterinary vaccine tested, proved to be the only sample free from inorganic contamination.

Note: This important study showed that nanoparticles were found in vaccines that should not be there. The scientists were attacked by the vaccine lobby, which attempted to discredit them. Here is their rebuttal to these attacks on the website of the highly respected BMJ (British Medical Journal). More here. Another informative article reveals that the same scientists who debunked any link between agent orange and veteran illnesses are now in charge of vaccine safety. For more along these lines, see summaries of revealing vaccine controversy news articles from media sources.

As eight states plus the District of Columbia have moved to fully legalize recreational marijuana, debates on the merits of legalization have focused on the effects of marijuana use on individuals and society. The National Academies of Sciences, Medicine and Engineering have brought a great deal of clarity to the situation with an encyclopedic report summarizing pretty much everything researchers know (and don't know) about the health effects of marijuana use. For the 395-page report, a team of dozens of drug policy experts at some of the nation's most prestigious universities analyzed 24,000 scientific papers to arrive at more than 100 conclusions regarding the effects of marijuana use. The committee found strong evidence showing marijuana is effective at treating chronic pain in adults. Given the current public health crisis involving tens of thousands of deaths annually because of painkiller overdoses, this is a potentially significant finding. The report also turned up strong evidence that marijuana is effective at treating nausea and vomiting, [as well as] muscle spasticity. The literature shows limited evidence that marijuana use is linked to the use of other substances. The report does not address the implications of these findings for current legalization debates. The researchers do, however, state emphatically that the current designation of marijuana as a Schedule 1 controlled substance ... is one of the chief barriers to conducting more badly needed research.

Note: Big Pharma has been caught systematically bribing doctors to over-prescribe deadly painkillers, and an ex-DEA official has publicly accused Congress of helping drug makers avoid responsibility for their role in the US opioid epidemic. Meanwhile, more people are arrested in the US for marijuana use than for all violent crimes combined. For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing news articles on government corruption and health.

Jackson Leyden had always been a healthy kid. But in 2011, a few months after his eighth birthday, he began having seizures several times a day. His parents took him to more than 20 doctors. He tried more than a dozen medications. Nothing worked. Two years ago, the Leydens ... decided to see whether marijuana might help. “Within a few days, he was having hardly any seizures,” says his mother, Lisa. “I was shocked.” Over the next few months, he stopped taking other medications. Not only did the medicine help, it did so without making him high. The strain of marijuana that Jackson takes is unusual: It contains high levels of cannabidiol, or CBD, one of the two main molecules in marijuana; the other is tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC. While THC is famously mind-altering, CBD is not. Over decades, researchers have found that THC may help treat pain, nausea, loss of appetite and other problems, while CBD was thought to be biologically inactive. But in the past 10 years ... dozens of studies have found evidence that the compound can treat epilepsy as well as a range of other illnesses, including anxiety, schizophrenia, heart disease and cancer. Now 13, Jackson ... continues to use marijuana every day. He still has seizures, but they are less severe and they occur once every week or two, down from around 200 a month before he started using cannabis. Although it doesn’t make users high, CBD ... is classified by the federal government as a Schedule 1 drug [with] no accepted medical use.

Note: While more people are arrested in the US for marijuana use than for all violent crimes combined and the US federal government continues to regard non-psychoactive CBD as a dangerous drug, the UK government recently announced it will regulate CBD as medicine. For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing health news articles from reliable major media sources.

FBI agents arrested former Insys Therapeutics CEO Michael Babich and five other former company executives on Thursday for allegedly bribing doctors to prescribe an extremely addictive opioid painkiller to patients who didn’t need it. The Department of Justice (DOJ) alleges that the executives took part in a “nationwide conspiracy” to give healthcare providers kickbacks in exchange for the improper prescribing of Subsys - an opioid medication containing the highly addictive substance fentanyl, which is considered even more dangerous than painkillers like Vicodin. Subsys is meant to provide pain relief to cancer patients who are going through particularly excruciating pain episodes. It’s reserved for these neediest of patients due to its potency and addictive qualities. But federal prosecutors allege that Babich and his co-conspirators doled out kickbacks to doctors who prescribed the drug even to non-cancer patients, and even set up a special “reimbursement unit” to sway insurance companies and pharmacy benefits managers to provide coverage for these non-authorized uses. The charges range from racketeering to conspiracy to mail and wire fraud. The FBI’s actions come in the wake of a newly invigorated federal effort to tackle the prescription painkiller epidemic, which has claimed the lives of more than 165,000 Americans since 1999.

Note: These charges come on the heels of an ex-DEA official's public accusation that Congress has been helping drug makers avoid responsibility for their role in the US opioid epidemic. How many deaths and ruined lives are being caused by greedy executives and the politicians in their pockets? For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing Big Pharma corruption news articles from reliable major media sources.

Sugar pills worked as well at preventing kids' migraines as two commonly used headache medicines, but had fewer side effects, in a study that may lead doctors to rethink how they treat a common ailment in children and teens. It's the first rigorous head-to-head test in kids of two generic prescription drugs also used for adults' migraines: topiramate, an anti-seizure medicine, and amitriptyline, an anti-depressant. The idea was to see if either drug could reduce by half the number of days kids had migraines over a month's time. Both drugs worked that well - but so did placebo sugar pills. The results "really challenge what is typical practice today by headache specialists," said study author Scott Powers, a psychologist at Cincinnati Children's Hospital. "The fact that it shows that two of the most commonly used medications are no more effective than a placebo and have adverse effects makes a very clear statement," said Dr. Leon Epstein, neurology chief at Ann & Robert Lurie H. Children's Hospital of Chicago. The only government-approved migraine medication for kids is topiramate. Side effects from the drugs [included] fatigue, dry mouth and forgetfulness. Kids on topiramate also had tingling sensations in their hands, arms, legs or feet. There was one suicide attempt in the topiramate group, another known side-effect of that drug. The side effects were not unexpected, but given the risks, the results suggest the drugs shouldn't be "first-line prevention treatments" for kids' migraines, Powers said.

Note: This study was published in the New England Journal of Medicine. For more, see this mercola.com article. For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing health news articles from reliable major media sources.

HIV likely landed in the United States a full decade before the first AIDS reports made headlines, according to a report released Wednesday that also strongly dismisses the long-held myth that a single man, a flight attendant notoriously known as “Patient Zero,” was responsible for the domestic epidemic. The report, published Wednesday in the journal Nature, traces the lineage of HIV from Africa to Haiti to New York and, finally, San Francisco. The virus seems to have arrived in New York around 1971, and in San Francisco five years later. By the time doctors were reporting the first AIDS cases in 1981, the virus would have been deeply embedded in cities all over the country. The fact that HIV predated those first AIDS reports - and that the so-called Patient Zero could not have been responsible for the epidemic - has long been known by AIDS researchers. But the new paper ... provides perhaps the most detailed genetic history of the virus’ geographic movement. The new study, when coupled with previous work, gives a fairly clear picture of HIV’s global travel, said co-author Michael Worobey, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Arizona at Tucson. He said studies suggest the virus moved from chimpanzees to humans in the early 20th century, but languished in rural villages for decades before passing into Kinshasa, the capital of Congo. From Kinshasa it may have spread throughout sub-Saharan Africa, and finally moved to the Caribbean, including Haiti, in the mid-1960s.

Note: Watch this astounding 10-minute video where one of the world's leading vaccine experts says that AIDS was imported through "wild viruses" in vaccines. For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing health news articles from reliable major media sources.

Using the playbook of Mylan, Turing and, well, their own company, Valeant Pharmaceuticals has hiked the price of yet another life-saving treatment to astronomical values. This time, it’s calcium EDTA, a lead poisoning treatment that cost US hospitals and poison control centers about $500 for a packet of six ampules (6 grams) before 2012, when Valeant acquired the drug. Poison control experts now say that US centers pay about $5000 per gram for the drug, compared to $15 per gram for Canadians. In a 6-year period ... Valeant increased the US price of the drug by as much as 7200%. Two physicians - Michael Kosnett from the University of Colorado School of Medicine and Timur Durrani at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) - expressed their concerns about these price hikes in a letter to U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md), the ranking member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. According to Kosnett and Durrani, the average price per milliliter for the drug went from $18.57 in 2008 to $1346.37 in 2014. U.S. hospitals have no other source for calcium EDTA. Most of those who develop acute lead poisoning are children. The effects of lead poisoning are lasting and profound. Calcium EDTA is on the World Health Organization’s Model List of Essential Medicines, which lists medications that are most critical for a healthcare system to have on hand.

Note: For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing Big Pharma corruption news articles from reliable major media sources.

New research shows that human pollution of the atmosphere with acid is now almost back to the level that it was before the pollution started with industrialisation in the 1930s. The results come from studies of the Greenland ice sheet and are published in the scientific journal, Environmental Science and Technology. By drilling ice cores down through the kilometre-thick ice sheet, the researchers can analyse every single annual layer, which can tell us about ... pollutants in the atmosphere. Acid in the atmosphere can come from large volcanic eruptions and human-made emissions from industry. For many years, there has been a quest to solve the problem of measuring acidity in the porous annual layers of the ice and now scientists from the Niels Bohr Institute have succeeded [by employing] a Continuous Flow Analyses or CFA method. The CFA system can ... distinguish whether the emissions come from volcanic eruptions, large forest fires or industry. The researchers can therefore filter out both volcanic eruptions and forest fires in the assessment of industrial pollution and the new results are revolutionary. "We can see that the acid pollution in the atmosphere from industry has fallen dramatically since humanmade acid pollution took off in the 1930s and peaked in the 1960s and 70s. In the 1970s, both Europe and the United States adopted the 'The clean air act amendments', which required filters in factories, thus reducing acid emissions," explains [researcher] Helle Astrid Kjćr.

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Dr. Mark Knight calls himself an artist, one whose “gifted hands” sculpt bodies to perfection. Sometimes, though, Knight’s hands strayed. So last year regulators placed the plastic surgeon ... on probation for sexual misconduct with patients. He will be subject to restrictions on his practice and close monitoring until 2020. But when patients come to his office ... Knight doesn’t have to tell them about his disciplinary status. And he doesn’t have to explain why an extra person is supposed to always be in the room: to make sure Knight doesn’t violate patients again. Knight’s freedom to see patients without disclosing his tarnished record underscores the opaqueness of the physician discipline system across the United States, a national investigation by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution found. The AJC identified more than 2,400 doctors disciplined for sexual misconduct involving patients since 1999. Half are still licensed. No state routinely requires doctors to tell patients when they have faced disciplinary action. Four states post no disciplinary records online, and at least nine purge case files after as little as five years. Twenty-one states sometimes handle misconduct cases secretly and allow doctors to continue practice with no public hearings or public scrutiny. In 2015, advocates working with the Safe Patient Project petitioned California’s medical board to require ... a doctor on probation [to] give each patient a one-page form that briefly stated his offense. At a hearing in October, board members unanimously rejected the petition.

Note: If you live in the US, see how well your state does in protecting patients from sexual abuse using this chart. For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing news articles on sexual abuse scandals and health.

After medical regulators said he fondled patients, exposed himself and traded drugs for sex, Dr. David Pavlakovic easily could have lost his license. Law enforcement thought his acts were criminal. Instead of losing his job, Pavlakovic was placed in therapy. He was allowed to return to practice. And he didn’t even have to tell his patients. Society has become intolerant of most sex offenders, placing some on lifelong public registries and banishing others from their professions or volunteer activities. But medical regulators have embraced the idea of rehabilitation for physicians accused of sexual misconduct. It is left to private therapists ... to unearth the extent of a doctor’s transgressions. There is little pretense of the check and balance of public scrutiny. Even doctors with egregious violations are allowed to redeem themselves through education and treatment centers, which have quietly proliferated over the past two decades. These education and treatment programs are being used by regulators in virtually every state. The Catholic Church once secretly sent sex offender priests for psychiatric treatment, then returned them to service. The abuse, the church reasoned, was a spiritual failing requiring repentance and forgiveness. Most medical authorities have embraced a similar approach, but through the lens of sexual abuse as the sign of a mental disorder. Public board orders on regulators’ websites reveal dozens of physicians who were found to have re-offended after taking part in education or treatment programs.

Note: For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing news articles on sexual abuse scandals and health.

EpiPen prices aren't the only thing to jump at Mylan. Executive salaries have also seen a stratospheric uptick. Proxy filings show that from 2007 to 2015, Mylan CEO Heather Bresch's total compensation went from $2,453,456 to $18,931,068, a 671 percent increase. During the same period, the company raised EpiPen prices, with the average wholesale price going from $56.64 to $317.82, a 461 percent increase. In 2007 the company bought the rights to EpiPen, a device used to provide emergency epinephrine to stop a potentially fatal allergic reaction and began raising its price. In 2008 and 2009, Mylan raised the price by 5 percent. At the end of 2009 it tried out a 19 percent hike. The years 2010-2013 saw a succession of 10 percent price hikes. And from the fourth quarter of 2013 to the second quarter of 2016, Mylan steadily raised EpiPen prices 15 percent every other quarter. After Mylan acquired EpiPen the company also amped up its lobbying efforts. In 2008, its reported spending on lobbying went from $270,000 to $1.2 million, according to opensecrets.org. Legislation that enhanced its bottom line followed, with the FDA changing its recommendations in 2010 that two EpiPens be sold in a package instead of one. And in 2013 the government passed a law to give block grants to states that required they be stocked in public schools.

Note: For more, see this CNBC article. For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing news articles on corruption in government and in the pharmaceutical industry.

A safeguard for Medicare beneficiaries has become a way for drugmakers to get paid billions of dollars for pricey medications at taxpayer expense. The cost of Medicare’s “catastrophic” prescription coverage jumped by 85 percent in three years, from $27.7 billion in 2013 to $51.3 billion in 2015. Out of some 2,750 drugs covered by Medicare’s Part D benefit, two pills for hepatitis C infection - Harvoni and Sovaldi - accounted for nearly $7.5 billion in catastrophic drug costs in 2015. Medicare’s catastrophic coverage was originally designed to protect seniors with multiple chronic conditions from the cumulatively high costs of taking many different pills. Beneficiaries pay 5 percent after they have spent $4,850 of their own money. With some drugs now costing more than $1,000 per pill, that threshold can be crossed quickly. Lawmakers who created Part D in 2003 also hoped added protection would entice insurers to participate in the program. Medicare pays 80 percent of the cost of drugs above a catastrophic threshold that combines spending by the beneficiary and the insurer. That means taxpayers, not insurers, bear the exposure for the most expensive patients. Catastrophic spending accounts for a fast-growing share of Medicare’s drug costs, which totaled nearly $137 billion in 2015. The catastrophic share was 37 percent, yet only about 9 percent of beneficiaries reached the threshold for such costs. Catastrophic coverage will soon cost as much as the entire prescription program did when it launched. Experts say the rapid rise in spending for pricey drugs threatens to make the popular prescription benefit financially unsustainable.

Note: Read an excellent essay by former New England Journal of Medicine editor Dr. Marcia Angell exposing The Truth About the Drug Companies. For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing Big Pharma profiteering news articles from reliable major media sources.

Something strange is going on in medicine. Major diseases, like colon cancer, dementia and heart disease, are waning in wealthy countries, and improved diagnosis and treatment cannot fully explain it. Scientists marvel at this good news, a medical mystery of the best sort. The leading killers are still the leading killers - cancer, heart disease, stroke - but they are occurring later in life, and people in general are living longer in good health. Colon cancer is the latest conundrum. While the overall cancer death rate has been declining since the early 1990s, the plunge in colon cancer deaths is especially perplexing: The rate has fallen by nearly 50 percent since its peak in the 1980s. [Dr. Steven R. Cummings of the California Pacific Medical Center Research Institute], intrigued by the waning of disease, has a provocative idea for further investigation. He starts with two observations: Rates of disease after disease are dropping. Even the rate of “all-cause mortality,” which lumps together chronic diseases, is falling. And every one of those diseases at issue is linked to aging. Perhaps, he said, all these degenerative diseases share something in common, something inside aging cells themselves. The cellular process of aging may be changing, in humans’ favor. For too long, he said, researchers have looked under the lamppost at things they can measure. “I want to look inside cells,” Dr. Cummings said. Inside, there could be more clues to this happy mystery.

Note: Explore a treasure trove of concise summaries of incredibly inspiring news articles which will inspire you to make a difference.

In a national investigation, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution examined documents that described disturbing acts of physician sexual abuse in every state. Rapes by OB/GYNs, seductions by psychiatrists, fondling by anesthesiologists and ophthalmologists, and molestations by pediatricians and radiologists. A few physicians — with hundreds of victims — are among the nation’s worst sex offenders. The Roman Catholic Church, the military, the Boy Scouts, colleges and universities ... have all withered under the spotlight of sexual misconduct scandals and promised that abuse will no longer be swept under the rug. The medical profession, however, has never taken on sexual misconduct as a significant priority. And layer upon layer of secrecy makes it nearly impossible for the public, or even the medical community itself, to know the extent of physician sexual abuse. The AJC launched its national investigation a year ago after reaching a surprising finding in Georgia: two-thirds of the doctors disciplined in the state for sexual misconduct were permitted to practice again. Some states are apparently more forgiving than others when disciplining doctors in sexual misconduct cases. Georgia and Kansas, for example, allowed two of every three doctors publicly disciplined for sexual misconduct to return to practice. In Minnesota, it was four of every five. Nationwide, the AJC found that of the 2,400 doctors publicly disciplined for sexual misconduct, half still have active medical licenses today.

Note: If you live in the US, see how well your state does in protecting patients from sexual abuse using this chart. For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing news articles on sexual abuse scandals and health.

In public, Louis William Bair was brilliant, warm and engaging. In private ... women would later tell of groping, of vulgar comments and of aggressive, closed-door sex in his office. Bair was a doctor, and the women were his patients. Sexual contact between doctors and patients in Colorado, as in other states, is prohibited. But when Bair drew the attention of the Colorado Medical Board in 2002, it wasn’t because of violations. It was because the governor chose him to serve on the board, where he could help judge disciplinary cases for other physicians. Bair’s dual existence illustrates one of the most surprising findings of an Atlanta Journal-Constitution investigation of sexual misconduct by doctors. Among those found to have sexually abused patients are some of the most accomplished and admired – revered, even – physicians in the country. Their violations range from subjecting patients to lewd remarks ... to rape. Often, despite significant evidence to the contrary, doctors balk at acknowledging they have done anything wrong , whether they have victimized a sole patient or hundreds. They may say they were helping their victims, or that they weren’t even doing anything sexual. Bair ... liked to revel in his sexual exploits, sipping scotch with his friend Kent Black, bragging about how good he was in bed. Black recounted to the investigator that he once warned Bair that someday, someone would turn him in. But ... Bair had a ready response: That was "'the benefit of sitting on the board,'" Bair quipped. "'You can quash this stuff'."

Note: For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing news articles on sexual abuse scandals and health.

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