PeterD's blog

Scientists at Washington University in St. Louis have completely decoded the genes of a cancer sufferer and discovered several mutations that may have caused the development of the fatal disease.

The results, published in the journal, Nature, stated that cells which were donated by a woman in her 50s – who subsequently died of leukemia – were studied by the researchers in order to help map the characteristics of the specific DNA of the cancer sufferer.

There are only a handful of states that require drug manufacturers to disclose the payments they make to doctors and other healthcare providers every year. Many of the states that otherwise require this disclosure also feature a provision that allows the companies to declare their payments as trade secrets so that the state can’t disclose to the public.

California has one of the nation’s largest populations of non-English speaking residents, possibly only second to New York or Miami. For these people, going to the doctor or pharmacist has been a nightmare. Without being able to get their message across, some patients have actually been given the wrong medications or been misdiagnosed, simply because they could not be understood.

Many women’s health activists are happy about Barack Obama’s recent election victory, hoping that he’ll reverse at least some of the health policies put in place by the Bush administration.

It may come as a complete surprise to you to find out that women pay much more for the same health insurance coverage than men of the same age. Some health insurance policies often cost women hundreds of dollars more a year than what a man would have to pay for the exact same coverage.

It may sound like a crazy idea but believe it or not, there are studies that prove that many people run the risk of having a heart attack simply by making the transition through daylight savings time. The average sleep period for someone working in Western civilization has dropped from 9 hours to 7.5 over this century and we’re all feeling the effects of that.