info
Welch’s Fruit Juice = More Corn Than Fruit
If you buy fruit juices at your local grocery store, you might notice the Welch’s brand juices sold in refrigerated cartons. Welch’s calls them “refrigerated cocktails” and offers exotic-sounding flavors like Strawberry Peach, Dragon Fruit Mango Cocktail and Orange Pineapple Apple.
These products are aggressively marketed with pictures of splashy fruit and loud label claims like “Fruity and Refreshing!” But what Welch’s doesn’t reveal anywhere except in the fine print on its ingredients label is that these juice cocktails contain more high fructose corn syrup than fruit.
In fact, they contain so much high fructose corn syrup that the front label should actually show chunks of corn rather than the fruit they currently depict.
Alien-Looking Skeleton Poses Medical Mystery
A teensy skeleton with a squashed alien-like head may have earthly origins, but the remains, found in the Atacama Desert a decade ago, do make for quite a medical mystery.
Apparently when the mummified specimen was discovered, some had suggested the possibility it was an alien that had somehow landed on Earth, though the researchers involved never suggested this otherworldly origin.
Now, DNA and other tests suggest the individual was a human and was 6 to 8 years of age when he or she died. Even so, the remains were just 6 inches (15 centimeters) long. [See Images of the Alien-Looking Human Remains]
Bangladesh: Smile, Work, and Die
The 300-plus people killed in the collapse of a garment factory in Bangladesh this past week were not lost to an accident, but are among the many unnecessary victims of predatory, globalized capitalism, argues Vijay Prashad, a professor of South Asian history and the director of international studies at Trinity College in Connecticut.
Prashad informs the moment with an excerpt taken from Karl Marx’s “Capital,” the title referring to the component of the capitalist economy that pushes for maximum industrial output with no consideration for the laborer except that which is required to keep him or her alive and working.
5 Achievable Resolutions for a Longer, Happier Life
Resolutions are notorious for falling by the wayside a few months or even days into the New Year. A 2012 University of Scranton study revealed that only 8 percent of people who make New Year’s resolutions are successful in achieving them. This low success rate may relate to the fact that many of us are more inclined to center our resolutions on self-criticism than on real aspirations or desires. Rarely do we set a goal to spend more time joking around with friends or listening to music we enjoy. Rather, our resolutions tend to focus on “fixing” our flaws or “correcting” our failures. This negative viewpoint comes from a “critical inner voice” we all possess that alerts us of what we need to fix, while reminding us that we won’t succeed. Filtering our personal goals through this critical lens only sets us up for failure. With that in mind, this year, I want to propose a new list of deeply rewarding and reachable resolutions. These activities have been proven to benefit us on every level, increasing both the quality and length of our lives.
Stress-Free New Year’s Eve: 13 Things Not To Worry About
New Year’s Eve is, decidedly, one of the most stressful nights of the year: we pile on the pressure to execute out-of-the-ordinary, over-the-top plans, find the perfect person to kiss at midnight and welcome the new year with an enthusiasm that we hope will foreshadow the next 364 days. Oh, and we need to document it all on social media.
Healthy New Year’s Eve: 8 Ways To Celebrate
New Year’s Eve: Endless waterfalls of crisp champagne, party-pumping pop music and the perfect, sequined outfit. Yea, right. In reality, it’s usually more like an “open” bar with hour-long waits and watered-down drinks, a stranger spilling a mystery substance down the front of your over-priced outfit — and, ah yes, January 1’s infamous hangover.
This year, why not do things a little differently? Below are eight healthy ways to ring in the New Year. We’ll be making our toast to stressing less about this ordinarily high-pressure evening, and celebrating by doing the things that make us feel good, plain and simple.
The 12 Biggest Health News Stories Of 2012
As the year draws to a close, we are taking time to reflect on all the new understandings about our health that we’ve gained this year.
From the hidden risks of sleep deprivation, to the life-extending benefits of eating a plant-based diet, the insights we’ve learned in 2012 help to shape and mold the way we lead our lives. And, of course, we can’t forget the biggest health stories that have emerged this year — a potential cure for leukemia, a mysterious SARS-related virus cropping up in the Middle East, and perhaps the most influential event of the year: the Supreme Court’s upholding of the Affordable Care Act.
We rounded up 12 of what we think were the biggest health news stories from 2012. Did we leave any off the list? Let us know in the comments..
I’m the Doctor, that’s why!
This is the age of intellectual democracy. In a frightening departure from millennia of human tradition, everyone is now an expert in everything. Turn on the television or surf the Internet. We somehow believe that polls of individuals are useful for guiding policy, in everything from international politics to morals and religion. Legislators and marketing experts trust this information, as if masses of humans had extensive experience in diplomacy and warfare, in economics and federal tax structures, rather than what so many do have expertise in; video games and the accumulated out-takes from American Idol.
It’s especially odious in the world of medicine. How many times do we argue with patients that they don’t need an antibiotic or x-ray, admission or laboratory test? A family once skeptically asked me to show them the x-ray I had taken of their child, who swallowed a coin. Once they saw it, they were satisfied that I hadn’t missed anything. They weren’t radiologists, but they were experts. Because any idiot can be a physician, right?
Will you have a residency spot?!
I’m sure most of you have heard it before, or something similar — but as you know there is a significant possibility that the number of residency positions available nationally could be cut. Seriously? This just doesn’t work for me — especially when combined with a mandate out for medical schools to increase their class size by 10%. All this will do will cause a flux of students who can’t complete their training!
Lets get some background on the issue — the Congressional Supercommittee was contemplating cuts to federal funding for residency programs by more than 50%, it is imperative that we, as future physicians, make our voices heard on Capitol Hill.
If Congress reduces Medicare Graduate Medical Education (GME) funding, a recent survey of residency programs suggests that there will be significant reductions in the number of residency positions available with some programs indicating that they will be forced to shut down altogether. Such a dramatic reduction in training opportunities will reduce Americans’ access to care at a time when we need it most.
In August — our beloved Congress passed the Budget Control Act of 2011 which created the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, otherwise known as the “Supercommittee.” The Supercommittee, comprised of six Democrats and six Republicans, is charged with developing recommendations to reduce spending by $1.5 trillion in the next ten years. The Supercommittee was supposed to make its recommendations by November 23, 2011, which it failed to do.
So now what happens when these deadlines aren’t met? Well, since the Supercommittee recommendations weren’t met, there will be an automatic sequestration – or across-the-board cuts – totaling $1.2 trillion with 50% taken from defense and 50% taken from other spending. In the sequestration scenario, most of Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security funding will have cuts from next year until 2021.
How much of a cut may occur? Well.. Last year, the President’s “Deficit Commission” recommended slashing Medicare Graduate Medical Education (GME) funding by more than 50%. So if that’s the case, then what do we do now? Perhaps we can ask Congress to repeal the Budget Control Act altogether? I think us as physicians, and physicians-in-training, should contact our representatives and senators and do something about this.. I already have, will you?
Fired from Northwestern for speaking up?
Why would a bright and promising cardiologist be fired from the University hospital that she had practiced at since 2000?
Apparently, protecting her patients is grounds for dismissal. At least, that is the case at Northwestern University here in the windy city.
Despite being promoted to Valve Director in 2006, Dr. Nalini M. Rajamannan was terminated in 2008 after reporting the use of non-FDA approved, experimental medical devices being implanted in patients without their knowledge.
The doctor conducting these human experiments, Dr. Patrick McCarthy, was testing his own inventions, an IMR annuloplasty device and a Myxo annuloplasty device manufactured by Edwards Lifescience.
Read more at: Top Secret Writers
