Health Glance
From Texas to Alabama, laws are being enacted that would greatly restrict access to abortion, forcing many women to travel hundreds of miles to find a clinic. The laws, requiring abortion doctors to have privileges to admit patients to local hospitals, could have a profound impact on women in poor and rural sections of the Bible Belt.
In many places in the South, clinic doctors come from out of state to perform abortions and don't have ties to a local hospital. Critics say the laws mean hospitals, leery of attracting anti-abortion protesters, could get veto power over whether the already-scarce clinics remain in business. They say the real aim is to outlaw abortions while supporters say they are protecting women's health.
Abortion doctor restrictions take root in South
Wisconsin abortion providers challenge law on admitting privileges
Abortion providers in Wisconsin tried Tuesday to persuade a federal judge that a state law requiring them to have hospital admitting privileges was unnecessary and harmful to women seeking the procedure.
Planned Parenthood and Affiliated Medical Services contend the law will force AMS's Milwaukee clinic to close because providers there lack such admitting privileges. State attorneys counter that the law provides continuity of care if complications arise.
Trial Drug Reverses Alzheimer’s Disease in Mice
A drug in early animal trials has shown promising results, appearing to reverse the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease in mice.
Additionally, in mice, the treatment reduced inflammation in parts of the brain that are associated with memory and learning, according to a study led by Susan Farr of Saint Louis University School of Medicine, published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease.
The mice were engineered to produce a mutant form of human beta amyloid, one of the proteins associated with Alzheimer’s disease. In a previous study, the researchers had tested mice that naturally overproduced mouse beta amyloid; this step was to see if the drug would work with the human version. Both types of mice showed impaired learning as they aged, much like humans with Alzheimer’s disease.
Colorado Will Spend $10 Million Researching Marijuana's Medical Benefits
Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper (D) signed a bill Wednesday that will fund up to $10 million for research into the medical efficacy of marijuana.
"SB 155 invests the dollars collected from medical marijuana fees into a meaningful effort to study the therapeutic and medical benefits of the drug," state Rep. Crisanta Duran (D), a co-sponsor of the bill, told The Huffington Post. "Patients will benefit from this investment and Colorado will become a national leader in developing medical marijuana research."
E-cigarettes boost quitting success among smokers, study finds
Smokers trying to quit are 60 percent more likely to report success if they switch to e-cigarettes than if they use nicotine products like patches or gum, or just willpower, scientists said on Tuesday.
Presenting findings from a study of almost 6,000 smokers over five years, the researchers said the results suggest e-cigarettes could play an important role in reducing smoking rates and hence cutting tobacco-related deaths and illnesses.
As well as causing lung cancer and other chronic respiratory diseases, tobacco smoking is also a major contributor to cardiovascular diseases, the world's number one killer.
1.8 million pounds of beef recalled, linked to E. coli
About 1.8 million pounds of ground beef products are being recalled due to possible E. coli contamination, according to federal food safety regulators.
Detroit-based Wolverine Packing Company had shipped the meat for restaurant use in Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri and Ohio, according to the Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service.
Drug can reduce HIV infection rates by more than 90 percent
New guidelines published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta recommend daily drug therapy for people who are at high risk for contracting HIV.
The U.S. Public Health Service recommends doctors evaluate their male and female patients who are sexually active and at high risk of contracting human immunodeficiency virus or who are injecting illicit drugs, and consider offering Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis for HIV Prevention as a prevention option.
The federal guidelines recommend PrEP be considered for those who are HIV-negative, but at substantial risk for HIV, such as a person who is in an ongoing relationship with an HIV-positive partner, or heterosexual people who do not regularly use condoms during sex with partners of unknown HIV status.
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