Category: Interesting Links

This is what I call “junk research.” Long finger linked to cancer risk, study finds.

A new way to diet.  On average, [marathon] runners lost 3.7 pounds during the race, though nearly one out of 10 runners gained weight through excess drinking.

A less radical way to keep trim. Highly active men gained 5.7 fewer pounds.  Highly active women gained 13.4 fewer pounds.

More than 25% of kids and teens in the U.S. take prescriptions on a regular basis. 45 million asthma medication prescriptions or refills a year.

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Legal ad offers to fund your malpractice suit.

A WikiLeaks cable:  when Michael Moore’s film Sicko was shown to Cuban doctors, they were “disturbed at the blatant misrepresentation of healthcare in Cuba.” Guardian retracts claim that Cuba banned the movie.

Did the tax deal Obama cut with the Republicans make the tax system more or less progressive than if the Democrat’s proposal had passed without amendment? David Friedman thinks it may be more progressive.

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Language barriers come tumbling down. At least, if you have the right app.

Cousins of the Neanderthals, the Denisovans appear to have interbred with the ancestors of today’s inhabitants of New Guinea. But the skeptics are responding.

In new clinical trials, doctors need cells, not people. But dying patients must consent.

World’s fattest mother eats 30,000 calorie Christmas feast. “I eat as much as I want, whenever I want but at this time of year I really go all out.”

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Doctor uses Facebook to save a patient’s life. Incident related by Newt Gingrich and Kamal Thapar.

There were 260 reports of health IT malfunctions in 2008 and 2009, including 44  injuries and six deaths.

Can a stem cell transplant cure AIDS? For one patient it has, but an expert says “it’s absurdly impractical.”

Study: brain death calls should be quicker: (1) we need your organs before they deteriorate  and (2) the longer we wait the more likely your family is to change its mind about organ donation consent.

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