Nobody Cares about Your Health

[Dakota Tebaldi]

I don't know who needs to hear this, but guys don't eat wild mushrooms.

Mushroom popularity is booming, but so are poisonings

When he didn’t get better, Tammy raced back to grab the mushrooms that remained in the yard. She took a photo and sent it to poison control. The workers told her that they thought her husband had eaten a toxic mushroom and that she needed to get him to the hospital right away.

It appeared that he had eaten a mushroom called a destroying angel. One mushroom has enough toxin to kill a person; Bill ate four.

I was in the CAP, not Boy Scouts, but I know the Scouts teach the same thing: they taught us to never eat mushrooms in a survival situation, ever. If you're lost in the woods and you haven't found literally anything else whatsoever to eat, you DO NOT eat mushrooms. They pointedly didn't teach us how to identify edible mushrooms because edible mushrooms just don't contain enough calories or nutrients to sustain you even if you ate them by the bucket-full, whereas a sliver of a toxic one will kill you and it will be a much more miserable death than starving; so mushrooms are basically ALL downside, no up.

Get your mushroom fix at the store.

 

[Veritable Quandry]

And Amazon has been trying to deal with ChatGPT generated books on foraging that incorrectly identify mushrooms and other toxic plants. Not sure how successful they have been, or if other platforms are making an effort.

 

[Free]

 

[Free]

Yikes.

Top Harvard cancer researchers accused of scientific fraud; 37 studies affected

Researchers accused of manipulating data images with copy-and-paste.

arstechnica.com

The Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, an affiliate of Harvard Medical School, is seeking to retract six scientific studies and correct 31 others that were published by the institute’s top researchers, including its CEO. The researchers are accused of manipulating data images with simple methods, primarily with copy-and-paste in image editing software, such as Adobe Photoshop.

The accusations come from data sleuth Sholto David and colleagues on PubPeer, an online forum for researchers to discuss publications that has frequently served to spot dubious research and potential fraud. On January 2, David posted on his research integrity blog, For Better Science, a long list of potential data manipulation from DFCI researchers. The post highlighted many data figures that appear to contain pixel-for-pixel duplications. The allegedly manipulated images are of data such as Western blots, which are used to detect and visualize the presence of proteins in a complex mixture.

Some laughable irony.

DFCI Research Integrity Officer Barrett Rollins told The Harvard Crimson that David had contacted DFCI with allegations of data manipulation in 57 DFCI-led studies. Rollins said that the institute is "committed to a culture of accountability and integrity," and that "Every inquiry about research integrity is examined fully."

The Wall Street Journal noted that Rollins, the integrity officer, is also a co-author on two of the studies. He told the outlet he is recused from decisions involving those studies.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Lesbian couple who want a baby ‘told by GP to sleep with a man’

Elissa Hillier and wife Kaylee say there were also told whether they knew they needed ‘human sperm’

www.independent.co.uk

It's a very long time ago now, but I can remember a medical student at university who I can imagine being like that. He must have been on the neurodivergent spectrum somewhere, in that he was apparently a brilliant student but the thought of what might happen if was confronted with actual patients was pretty upsetting. Some of his fellow students actually approached the college with their concerns, and were told that the faculty shared their misgivings but that they, and his future teachers and supervisors in the profession, would ensure he was steered towards fields like pure research or pathology where his inability to deal with patients would not be such an issue.

 

[Free]

Some honest to Artemis good news.

No cervical cancer cases detected in vaccinated women following HPV immunisation - News - Public Health Scotland

An exciting new study from PHS, in collaboration with the Universities of Strathclyde and Edinburgh, shows that no cervical cancer cases have been detected in women vaccinated at age 12-13 since the Human papillomavirus (HPV) immunisation programme started in Scotland in 2008.

publichealthscotland.scot

An exciting new study from Public Health Scotland (PHS), in collaboration with the Universities of Strathclyde and Edinburgh, shows that no cervical cancer cases have been detected in fully vaccinated women following the human papillomavirus (HPV) immunisation at age 12-13 since the programme started in Scotland in 2008.

The study, published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute today, concludes that the HPV vaccine is highly effective in preventing the development of cervical cancer.

HPV is a common virus, usually spread through sexual contact, and responsible for almost all cases of cervical cancer – the fourth-most common cause of cancer in women worldwide.

 

[Free]

I'm a little surprised we didn't have this bit of knowledge locked down until now.

Gotta go? We’ve finally found out what makes urine yellow

The yellow color comes from bacteria metabolizing waste from red blood cells.

arstechnica.com

There are many mysteries in life that we end up shrugging off. Why is urine yellow? It just is, right? Rather than flush that 125-year-old question down the toilet, scientists sought out the answer, discovering a previously unknown microbial enzyme was to blame.

The enzyme that has eluded us for so long is now known as bilirubin reductase. It was identified by researcher and assistant professor Brantley Hall of the University of Maryland, who was part of a team based at the university and the National Institutes of Health.

Bilirubin is an orange pigment released by red blood cells after they die. Gut microbes then use bilirubin reductase to break down bilirubin into colorless urobilinogen, which degrades into yellowish urobilin, giving urine that infamous hue. While urobilin previously had an association with the color of urine, the enzyme that starts the process by producing urobilinogen was unknown until now.

“Though it was previously thought that multiple enzymes were involved in the reduction of bilirubin, our results support the finding that a single enzyme performs the reduction of bilirubin to urobilinogen,” the research team said in a study recently published in Nature Microbiology.

 

[Free]

Anti-abortion group’s studies retracted before Supreme Court mifepristone case

A large number of other, non-retracted studies find mifepristone to be very safe.

arstechnica.com

Scientific journal publisher Sage has retracted key abortion studies cited by anti-abortion groups in a legal case aiming to revoke regulatory approval of the abortion and miscarriage medication, mifepristone—a case that has reached the US Supreme Court, with a hearing scheduled for March 26.

On Monday, Sage announced the retraction of three studies, all published in the journal Health Services Research and Managerial Epidemiology. All three were led by James Studnicki, who works for The Charlotte Lozier Institute, a research arm of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America. The publisher said the retractions were based on various problems related to the studies' methods, analyses, and presentation, as well as undisclosed conflicts of interest.

Two of the studies were cited by anti-abortion groups in their lawsuit against the Food and Drug Administration (Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. FDA), which claimed the regulator's approval and regulation of mifepristone was unlawful. The two studies were also cited by District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk in Texas, who issued a preliminary injunction last April to revoke the FDA's 2000 approval of mifepristone. A conservative panel of judges for the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans partially reversed that ruling months later, but the Supreme Court froze the lower court's order until the appeals process had concluded.

 

[Free]

Wow.

Montefiore’s Albert Einstein College of Medicine Announces Free Tuition in Perpetuity for All Medical School Students

www.einsteinmed.edu

Dr. Philip Ozuah, President and CEO of Montefiore Einstein, the umbrella organization for Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Montefiore Health System, today announced that Albert Einstein College of Medicine has received a transformational gift from Ruth L. Gottesman, Ed.D., Chair of the Einstein Board of Trustees and Montefiore Health System board member. This historic gift — the largest made to any medical school in the country — will ensure that no student at Einstein will have to pay tuition again.

 

[Isabeau]

I don’t have private insurance (Canadian here, although some may also have private coverage) and maybe you all know about this, but just in case.

“Pro Publica has an online thing that will format a letter to your US health insurance company to demand the records behind a claim denial. (which the insurance is then legally required to provide in most cases).”

Find Out Why Health Insurance Denied Your Claim

You likely have the right to access records that explain why your insurer denied your claim or prior authorization request. Use ProPublica’s free tool to generate a letter requesting your claim file from your health insurance company.

projects.propublica.org

 

[Cindy Claveau]

 

[Free]

Oh, joy.

Measles could once again become endemic in the US, the CDC warns

This year's measles cases are over 17x higher than cases seen in the first quarters of 2000 to 2023.

arstechnica.com

 

[Isabeau]

Canada too.

Canada heading toward major measles outbreak without vaccine boost, new modelling suggests

 

[Sid]

Whooping cough is a from the past returning infection disease over here and we had a small outbreak of measles here too.
Vaccination grades don't hit the 80% mark any longer. Too many people think they know better than the doctors. So group protection goes down the drain.

 

[Free]

Nestle is barely this side of pure evil.

What is the point of having two different products for the different markets? Does it let them save 0.2 cents on each unit sold in developing countries?

 

[CronoCloud Creeggan]

Nestle is barely this side of pure evil.

What is the point of having two different products for the different markets? Does it let them save 0.2 cents on each unit sold in developing countries?

Nestle's been evil for how many decades now? Water, formula, chocolate.... they have been doing evil. My church of my youth (mainline Progressive Presbyterian) was boycotting Nestle in the early 80's because of the evil they were doing.

 

[Free]

*sigh*

New Hampshire's GOP are taking a stand—against the polio vaccine

The Granite State could be the first to ditch polio and measles requirements for child care.

www.motherjones.com

New Hampshire could soon beat Florida—known for its anti-vaccine Surgeon General—when it comes to loosening vaccine requirements. A first-in-the-nation bill that’s already passed New Hampshire’s state House, sponsored only by Republican legislators, would end the requirement for parents enrolling kids in childcare to provide documentation of polio and measles vaccination. New Hampshire would be the only state in the US to have such a law, although many states allow religious exemptions to vaccine requirements.

Currently, Republicans control New Hampshire’s state House, Senate and governor’s office—but that isn’t a guarantee that the bill will be signed into law, with GOP Gov. Chris Sununu seemingly flip-flopping when it comes to disease control. Sununu did sign a bill in 2021 allowing people to use public places and services even if they did not receive the Covid-19 vaccine. But the next year, the governor vetoed a bill that would bar schools from implementing mask mandates.

 

[Bartholomew Gallacher]

Nestle is barely this side of pure evil.

What is the point of having two different products for the different markets? Does it let them save 0.2 cents on each unit sold in developing countries?

The point is to turn these babies into sugar addicts, what else? In Europe sugar in infant milk is highly regulated, which is why there is none.

Let's also get back to 1974, Mike Muller's "The Baby Killer." http://archive.babymilkaction.org/pdfs/babykiller.pdf So basically Nestle is coming to a full circle here again.

Also during WWII Nestle put always slightly less infant milk into stock units than it was printed on the outside.

Nestle as company is being considered as pure corporate evil by many here in Europe due to their business practices. And sometimes selling your startup to Nestle might be good for you but bad for your startup.

In Germany there was a young startup called Ankerkraut, which was getting pretty high traction in many supermarktes for its mixed herb packages. The company was started in 2013 in the kitchen of their founders, and they had some core values for their company like using fair trade ingredients only, no artificial additions, being sustainable and other stuff. Herbs are really a business with profit margins of 3-5 times, so great to make money fast.

They used social media a lot to grow, and at some time almost 90% of the active German Youtube scene with enough followers was cooperating with them. The list was really, really long.

Then back in April 2022 the founders sold the majority of their company, which was valued around 300 million Euro at that time, to Nestle. The company back then had a revenue of around 40 million EUR/year, and the founders were paid - as some people estimate - a two digit million number.

When the news spread around, that Nestlé is the new majority owner of Ankerkraut, almost all Youtubers stepped back from their cooperation with Ankerkraut. And in 2022 the company had a massive revenue backlash as well.

The founders stated that they really underestimated the epic proportions of the shitstorm selling to Nestle will create. The founders later stated they would in restrospective still sell again to Nestle. And Nestle made a company tour after the inquisition, playing "we are really nice guys all around here" - but none of the Youtube community believed them.

Statements from the founders still in 2023 like "Nestle is a sustainable company" are what really enraged many former customers and supporters.

 

[Veritable Quandry]

*sigh*

New Hampshire's GOP are taking a stand—against the polio vaccine

The Granite State could be the first to ditch polio and measles requirements for child care.

www.motherjones.com

I did a project documenting cemeteries in NE Arkansas. The number of infant/toddler graves dramatically fall off around 1950. There's a fucking reason for that. Those vaccines have been so successful that we have parents and grandparents who have not seen the results of theses diseases, and can't imagine it. Because we fixed it. And now they Freedumb us all out of basic public health.

 

[Free]

Not good.

More than 200 people with diabetes injured after software issue drained insulin pump batteries

More than 200 people with diabetes were injured when their insulin pumps shut down unexpectedly due to a problem with a connected mobile app, the US Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday.

Version 2.7 of the t:connect Apple iOS app – used with the t:slim X2 insulin pump with Control-IQ – has been recalled due to a software issue that causes the app to crash and relaunch. This cycle drains the pump battery, causing it to shut down sooner than expected and suspend insulin delivery.

The issue “may result in hyperglycemia or even diabetic ketoacidosis, which can be a life-threatening condition due to high blood sugars and lack of insulin,” the FDA said.

The agency said there have been 224 reported injuries as of April 15. No deaths have been reported.