Public Health: The American Council on Science and Health

Opium Dens(e) - A debate has been going on recently about how to manage the growing problem of opiate addiction in the US. It is now heating up even more as a new advisory about an apparent epidemic of heroin overdoses was just released by the CDC. There are two rather disparate camps. The most vocal critics maintain that strict guidance and regulations about prescribing narcotics will cut down on both the number of addicts and the number of deaths from these drugs. Others maintain that this will do more harm than good. Read more.

My Take – This article hits home, since I have a lot of joint pain, even after having my knees replaced.  My experience with pain medication has been dismal.  They just don’t work - at least for me.  Neither Percocet or Vicodin helped after any of my surgeries.  After I had both knees replaced I was prescribed Percocet for pain relief.  After the first few days I stopped using it because it did no good.  As for the over the counter medications - I get one good day from Ibuprofen and then it has little effect on me. I had to continually go with higher doses for relief, until the doses became too large to take safely, and that still didn’t give me any relief worth mentioning.  Make sure to read the whole article as there are interesting insights worth noting. 

Flu season is here: get vaccinated now! - Flu season runs from October until as late as May, but the peak does not usually occur until January or February. Now is the perfect time to get the flu vaccine, as it's the best way to protect yourself and your family from this potentially deadly infection. Read more.

 Experts say ovarian tissue and egg freezing should be made widely available. - Freezing ovarian tissue or eggs has been used in the past to restore fertility in female cancer patients. The authors of a new article in The Lancet state that these methods of fertility preservation should be made more widely available to healthy women as well. Read more.

An e-vapor company's attack on unscientific EU regulation moves forward - A potentially groundbreaking ruling in the UK may portend the removal of an unscientific and anti-public-health provision of the European Union's tobacco regulation proposal. This would be a case of addition by subtraction, we hope. Read more.

FDA-approved drugs cause most deadly allergic reactions - Anaphylaxis can be fatal, and common causes of deadly allergic reactions include drug allergies, food allergies, and insect bites and stings. A new study reports that over half of fatal allergic reactions are caused by medicine……. ACSH’s Dr. Josh Bloom says, “Although the rates have doubled during that time, if you do the math, this comes out to 136 drug-based anaphylactic deaths per year. Yes—some people do have very bad reactions to penicillins and some imaging agents. To put this in perspective, more than 33,000 people died last year from riding bicycles.” Read more.

Some answers on enterovirus 68, but questions still remain - Federal officials have confirmed cases of enterovirus 68 in almost all 50 states and there are a lot of questions surrounding the current outbreak, as it is unlike those of previous years. Here are some answers, although many questions still remain. Read more.

Missing IV vitamins. Enough to make you sick. IV nutrients are important for the more than 50,000 people who receive parenteral (IV) nutrition at home, but there are extreme shortages of the components of this life-saving therapy. ACSH friend Dr. David Seres writes about this issue. Read more.

What is really known about Ebola? Depends on who you ask. - Opinions and reactions regarding the Ebola outbreak range from the end of the world to absolutely nothing to worry about. Here are some of the questions being asked and the answers, although there are many differing opinions and unknowns. Read more.

The NFL not promoting public health in its breast cancer awareness message - October marks breast cancer awareness month, and the NFL lends its two cents with its "A Crucial Catch" campaign. However, the message the NFL is promoting that women age 40 and over receive annual mammograms is incorrect and may be harmful. Read more.

My Take - I do wish the NFL would stick to what they do best - score touchdowns - and stop trying to be "in the moment" with every philosophical flavor of the day that comes along. 

It's known that heart attacks kill more women than all the cancers combined.  So why this issue?  Because breast cancer is an emotional issue that's a feminist tenet of leftism.  Worse yet, they have no idea what should be done or shouldn't be done.  They only know what they're told by activists about breast cancer, and it appears they're wrong! 

All this stuff about community relations, is in my opinion, foolish.  If some player, manager or owner wants to support some cause or other then...fine...let them.  But organizing this kind of thing as a league is the kind of stuff that gets the league in trouble. 

Being politically correct is an unending and impossible task for normal people since the leftie maniacs keep moving the goal post.  Even the NFL should be able to understand that.

Let's get some clarity on this. 

If a team scores more touchdowns than their opponents the fans - the people who keep them in business - could care less if they support breast cancer causes or not, because they're winning.  And if a team fails to score more touchdowns than their opponents the fans - the people who keep them in business - could care less if they support breast cancer causes or not, because they're losing.  Let's understand the mentality of football fans. Vince Lombardi said that "Winning isn’t everything; it’s the only thing".  And the fans agree.

Clarity!