The most significant differences between those who smoked marijuana and those who never or no longer did was that current smokers’ insulin levels were reduced by 16 percent and their insulin resistance (a condition in which the body has trouble absorbing glucose from the bloodstream) was reduced by 17 percent.The Atlantic’s Lindsay Abrams, reporting on the results of a recent study on the health effects of marijuana. In addition, regular pot smokers were skinnier than those who abstained, “even after adjusting for factors like age, sex, tobacco and alcohol use, and physical activity levels,” and had higher levels of HDL (“good cholesterol”). source
Young New Yorkers would not be able to buy cigarettes until they were 21, up from the current 18, under a proposal advanced Monday by Dr. Thomas A. Farley, the city’s health commissioner, and Christine C. Quinn, the City Council speaker.
The proposal, which would give New York the highest smoking age in the country among major cities, is the latest effort in a long campaign to limit smoking that began soon after Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg took office, with bans on smoking in restaurants and bars, and expanding more recently to bans at parks, beaches, plazas and other public places.
Given some of the responses to New York’s last major health initiative, we imagine more than a few residents won’t be particularly fond of the proposed change; however, it is likely to see some support. Thoughts?
The Maryland Senate has approved a medical marijuana bill on Monday by a vote of 42 to 4.
The bill passed on the last day of the legislative session.
The bill now heads to Gov. Martin O’Malley’s desk. According to the Baltimore Sun, he is expected to sign the bill, having called the bill a “yellow light” approach toward medical marijuana. The AP reports the bill would create a state commission to oversee medical marijuana programs at academic medical research centers that decide to participate.
Of course, as the Department of Justice will likely remind people when asked about the new laws later today/this week, marijuana remains a Schedule 1 substance under the Controlled Substances Act. Still, with the majority of Americans firmly against the continued criminalization of marijuana use, we imagine that even the federal government knows it will likely be forced back down on this issue relatively soon.
52% support marijuana legalization in a new Pew poll, compared with 45% who don’t. It’s the first national poll ever to show majority support for legalization.
Former President Nelson Mandela of South Africa was readmitted to the hospital overnight because of a recurring lung infection, President Jacob Zuma said in a statement on Thursday, appealing to people around the world to pray for Mr. Mandela.
It was the third time in four months that Mr. Mandela, 94, South Africa’s first black president and former leader of the dominant African National Congress, had been hospitalized. He was admitted shortly before midnight on Wednesday, the statement said, but the authorities delayed the announcement for several hours. The episode rekindled worries about his frailty.
Mr. Mandela has struggled with lung issues since his 27-year incarceration during South Africa’s apartheid era, and was most recently hospitalized for a lung infection back in December.
The deadly and mysterious coronavirus that first appeared in Saudi Arabia last year has claimed two more victims, bringing the official death toll to 11.
The World Health Organization said a 73-year-old man from the United Arab Emirates who was taken to Germany for medical treatment died at a Munich hospital Tuesday. The United Nations health authority also announced that a man from Britain who became sick in January has died. That man had traveled to Saudi Arabia and Pakistan and presumably became infected there.
A total of 17 cases of the new coronavirus have been confirmed by the WHO at this point, but a point of origin has yet to be determined. The virus is believed to have been first transmitted by a bat, but it’s unclear if another animal(s) served as an intermediary between the bat(s) and the first infected human(s).
A treatment that genetically alters a patient’s own immune cells to fight cancer has, for the first time, produced remissions in adults with a deadly type of acute leukemia that resisted chemotherapy and left little hope of survival, researchers are reporting.
In one patient who was severely ill, all traces of leukemia vanished in eight days.
While it’s far from a cure, the new T-cell treatment successfully sent several patients leukemia into remission for periods ranging from a few months to two years. Currently, only 40 percent of adults diagnosed with acute leukemia survive the disease, though the rate is now much higher among children (80-90%).
Vladimir Putin has reached back to Joseph Stalin’s era for a plan to improve Russians’ physical fitness, appearing with the film actor Steven Seagal at an event aimed at promoting healthy lifestyles among young people.
In a meeting at a martial arts school on Moscow’s outskirts, Putin called for physical education rooted in a Soviet-era system.
“I think it would be quite appropriate to recall the positive experience of past decades when the so-called GTO, Ready for Labour and Defence, was in use in our country,” he said. The GTO mass physical training programme was introduced in the 1930s under Stalin.
All of the jokes that could be made about this aside (Steven Seagal? Really?), while we certainly support the idea of improving children’s physical health, we’re not sure why a new program couldn’t have been created to serve this purpose. Even if there’s nothing malevolent going on behind-the-scenes, reviving a program first created by Joseph Stalin just doesn’t look good.
The risk increase isn’t drastic when taken as a whole, to be clear, but the FDA’s decision to force the new warning (such risks were already mentioned on the Zithromax label, though apparently not strenuously enough for their liking) came after reviewing a New England Journal of Medicine study, which found the increased risk of death relative to other, similar antibiotics. Zithromax is a popular prescription for cases of bronchitis and pneumonia, in large part because it only requires five days of consumption, nearly half of some of its similar alternatives. The drawback is that it can cause changes to the heart’s electrical activity, potentially causing fatal rhythmic irregularities.
Watch: PCB gets a visual shout out on GMA’s Yahoo/Tumblr...
Wrote a thing.
Hat tip to this headline writer.
Congrats Tumblr!
Don’t screw this up Yahoo.
In 2007, I was...
I started tumblr when I was at one of the lowest points of...
A judge invalidated New York City’s ban on large sugary drinks on Monday, one day before it was to go into effect, dealing Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg a major blow.
The decision by Justice Milton A. Tingling Jr. of State Supreme Court in Manhattan blocks the city from putting the rules into effect or enforcing them.
Well, it looks like the first point goes to Starbucks after all. The Bloomberg administration has already announced that it will challenge Judge Tingling’s decision; however, it doesn’t look like the planned 16-ounce restriction will be taking effect on Tuesday after all.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s health is on the decline according to a new report from the Venezuelan government which confirmed that Chavez continues to have trouble breathing, and has developed a new respiratory infection. In fact, many are apparently beginning to wonder if we aren’t witnessing the outspoken South American leader’s final days. (Photo courtesy of Ukberri) source
EDIT: Hugo Chavez has died. Follow this tag for more info.
A baby girl in Mississippi who was born with HIV has been cured after very early treatment with standard drug therapy, U.S. researchers reported on Sunday, in a potentially ground-breaking case that could offer insights on how to eradicate HIV infection in its youngest victims.
The child’s story is the first account of an infant achieving a so-called functional cure, a rare event in which a person achieves remission without the need for drugs and standard blood tests show no signs that the virus is making copies of itself.
Huge story that could potentially redefine the fight against AIDS.
Venezuela’s vice president says that President Hugo Chavez is fighting for his life while he continues to undergo treatment more than two months after his latest cancer surgery.
Vice President Nicolas Maduro said on television Thursday that, in his words, Chavez “is battling there for his health, for his life, and we’re accompanying him.” The vice president has used similar phrasing in the past.
Chavez last underwent surgery during a trip to Havana, Cuba back in December, but doesn’t seem to have shown any progress since that time. (He wasn’t looking so hot in recent photos.) The Venezuelan president was re-elected last October; however, it’s unclear if he will live to see the end of his fourth term in office.
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