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Woman dies months after doctors reportedly removed both of her healthy kidneys by mistake

A 73-year-old woman in Colorado died on Friday, nine months after doctors wrongly removed her kidneys. The surgery followed a mistaken diagnosis of cancer two months prior.

Prior to her death, Linda Woolley told Denver news station KDVR that her “life was totally changed” after she underwent the needless surgery in May, which doctors at the University of Colorado Hospital ordered after telling her in March that they’d found cancer in both of her kidneys based on pathology reports. But she later discovered that the reports actually showed “no evidence of malignancy” from results “consistent with a benign process.”

Woolley had been leading an active life before the surgery, riding horses and swimming in her free time. But the medical mix-up put an end to all that, leading the grandmother to undergo four-hour dialysis treatments three times a week.

“Dialysis is no picnic no matter how used to it you get,” she told KDVR. “It robs you of your life.” 

Woolley discovered the nightmare scenario when a follow-up biopsy of her kidneys revealed “no evidence of carcinoma” and “no mass lesion identified.” She called the ordeal “a big mistake,” and told KDVR at the time that she was considering a lawsuit. When asked if she felt the University of Colorado owed her an apology, she replied through tears, “I feel like they owe me a kidney.”

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10 Things You Never Knew About HIV and AIDS

On December 1, people around the globe who come together to recognize World AIDS Day will have much to mourn and also much to celebrate. Worldwide, about 35 million lives have been lost to HIV/AIDS, but remarkable strides have also been made in halting the disease’s progression.
World AIDS Day was first observed in 1988. The day was originally conceived by the World Health Organization to raise awareness and support. This year marks the 30th World AIDS Day, with the 2018 theme being Know Your Status. That theme comes with two major objectives, according to the WHO: “Urge people to know their HIV infection status through testing, and to access HIV prevention, treatment, and care services, and urge policy-makers to promote a ‘health for all’ agenda for HIV and related health services.”

The day is an opportunity to take stock of the epidemic’s scope and the everyday impact of the virus–and what better way to do this than by reminding ourselves of the often alarming numbers involved?

The stories of individuals who have lived with HIV/AIDS, or who have lost a loved one to the illness, will always have a unique power. But the following statistics, gathered from government data and scientific research, bring home the vastness and complexity of the epidemic.
RELATED: 16 Signs You May Have HIV

1.1 million = Estimated number of HIV-positive people in the United States
This figure works out to about 1 in every 200 people over the age of 13. What’s more, 1 in 7 don’t know they’re infected because they haven’t been tested for the virus.
Globally, an estimated 36.9 million people are living with HIV/AIDS—nearly 70% of them in Africa. While the rate in the United States may seem low by comparison, it still is one of the highest in the developed world, says Michael Horberg, MD, director of HIV/AIDS at Kaiser Permanente. (In the U.K., for instance, roughly 1 in 625 people are estimated to be HIV-positive.)

12,333 = Estimated annual U.S. deaths from HIV/AIDS
This statistic, from 2014 (the most recent year for which solid data is available), is heartbreaking yet also encouraging: It’s about a quarter of the number of people who died of HIV/AIDS in 1995, when mortality reached an all-time high and dramatically less than the 21,601 estimated deaths from HIV/AIDS in 2009.
The sharp decrease is a testament to improved testing, diagnosis, and treatment. “This number, while still too high, shows that quality HIV care, and the potent medications we now have, [have] dramatically improved the lives of HIV-positive Americans and people worldwide,” Dr. Horberg says.

8,164 = People ages 13 to 24 newly infected with HIV in the United States each year
In 2016, young people accounted for one in every five new infections in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). From 2010 to 2015, HIV infections among this age group fell 24%. In 2017, 8,164 teens and young adults between 13 and 24 were diagnosed, according to the CDC.
Unfortunately, only 10% of high school students and just 21% of male students who are sexually active with other males have been tested, according to the CDC.

43% = HIV-positive people in the United States who are African-American
This is a startling number, given that African-Americans make up just 12% of the U.S. population. The burden of disease is even more disproportionate among 13- to 24-year-olds, an age group in which African-Americans or blacks (government agencies tend to use the terms interchangeably) account for 54% of new infections.
“HIV is now a disease of minorities—black, Latino, gay men—and people who have been often medically disenfranchised in the past,” says Dr. Horberg, who is also chair of the HIV Medicine Association, a professional association for doctors and health care providers who specialize in HIV/AIDS.

10 years = Time after HIV infection that can elapse before noticeable symptoms appear
People can live with HIV for a decade (or longer) before they experience symptoms such as fever, fatigue, and joint pain—a fact that underscores the importance of testing and early detection.
Thanks to virus-fighting drugs (antiretrovirals), this asymptomatic period, known as the “chronic” or “latency” phase of the disease, can essentially be extended indefinitely. “If people are diagnosed early and given effective treatment, and if they stay on their treatment, they won’t have any symptoms at all,” Dr. Horberg says.

46% = U.S. adults ages 18 to 64 who have never been tested for HIV
The number of people getting tested for HIV rose between 1997 and 2004 but has leveled off since then, according to the 2014 Kaiser Family Foundation survey results that produced the above statistic. Black and Latino survey respondents were much more likely than whites to report having been tested.
In the United States, National HIV Testing Day is observed on June 27, but World AIDS Day also features free testing and counseling events around the world.

13 to 64 = Age range for which routine HIV testing is recommended
The CDC recommends that everyone between these ages get tested for HIV at least once. People considered at higher risk for HIV should get tested more frequently, according to CDC guidelines.
Routine screening helps get more people into treatment sooner, Dr. Horberg says. “Not only does treatment help patients, but it will also greatly prevent others from getting infected.”
RELATED: How to Prevent HIV

75% = Proportion by which antiretroviral drugs can reduce the risk of HIV transmission
The antiretroviral Truvada became the first drug approved by the Food and Drug Administration for preventing the sexual transmission of HIV in 2012. In one study of heterosexual African couples in which one partner was HIV-positive, the HIV-negative partners who took Truvada had a 75% lower risk of becoming infected compared with those taking placebo.
There are a number of caveats—most notably, people must diligently take the drug every day in order for it to be effective. But the study results do “show that there are many effective ways to prevent HIV infection,” Dr. Horberg says. In 2017, 21.7 million people living with HIV were taking antiretroviral therapy, according to UNAIDS.

16% = Drop in new HIV infections between 2010 and 2017
This decline is among the many bright spots in the World AIDS Day 2018 fact sheet from UNAIDS. In some regions hit hardest by the epidemic, the numbers are even more encouraging: From 2010 to 2016, new infections dropped by 29% in eastern and southern Africa.

$21.3 billion = Money spent on HIV/AIDS efforts in low- to middle-income countries each year
This includes donations from governments, corporations, and individuals. Although the amount represents a huge increase from the $300 million spent in 1996, even more is needed: UNAIDS estimates $26.2 billion will be required to maintain these efforts in 2020.
Fighting HIV/AIDS is expensive. But in addition to saving lives, the investment will ultimately drive down worldwide health care costs, Dr. Horberg says. “There will be savings down the line, because you will have fewer newly infected people, people will be generally healthier, [and] they won’t be hospitalized,” he says.

Source :https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/medical/10-things-you-never-knew-about-hiv-and-aids/ar-BBQdvci?ocid=spartandhp

Malpractice, mistakes and misconduct: Doctors who surrender medical license in one state still practice in others

In Louisiana, Larry Mitchell Isaacs gave up his medical license in the face of discipline after he removed an allegedly healthy kidney during what was supposed to be colon surgery.

In California, he mistakenly removed a woman’s fallopian tube. According to medical board records, he thought it was her appendix — which already was gone. More surgeries on the woman followed, including one in which he allegedly left her intestine unconnected.

Facing state sanctions, he surrendered his license there, too.

In New York, where regulators were moving to take action based on his California problems, he also agreed to give up his license.

But in Ohio, he has found a home.

There, his medical license remains unblemished, allowing Isaacs to work at an urgent care clinic in the Cincinnati area.

Surrendering a license is often done in the face of overwhelming evidence of unprofessional conduct. It can come after repeated surgical mishaps, churning out improper opioid prescriptions, or years of having sex with patients.

A license surrender can spare a doctor the time, expense and reputational harm that might come with formal charges and a hearing before a state medical board. Typically it comes with no restriction on practicing elsewhere.

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Food for thought: the smart way to better brain health

The human brain is made of food, so what we eat and drink affects our ability to keep a healthy, alert and active mind
We all intuitively appreciate that the foods we eat shape our thoughts, actions, emotions and behaviour. When you are feeling low, you reach for chocolate; when you are tired, you crave coffee. We all use food to soothe our moods and clear our heads without seeming to think much about it.

Yet the focus of most diets is on the way we look rather than the way we think. This is in part due to western society’s fascination with appearance, and medicine’s bias towards drugs and surgery. In fact, contemporary medicine often disregards the ways that our diet helps shape our cognitive health. Medical students are not trained in nutrition. And, for what it is worth, neither are scientists.

When I was a neuroscience student, I would marvel at how apparently simple substances such as sodium, potassium, magnesium and sugars determine whether our brain cells fire or not, grow or not, form new connections or wilt and die. It only became obvious in retrospect: the sodium, potassium, magnesium and sugars referenced were the same nutrients as in diet books or on food labels. To put it simply, the human brain is made of food.

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4 foods and drinks that could help smokers quit

Certain foods and drinks can be a potential benefit—or burden—when trying to quit smoking.

If you are looking to kick the habit, or know someone who is, here are four foods and drinks that could help smokers quit and stay tobacco-free.

1. Fruits and vegetables
What foods can help you quit smoking?

Cigarettes block the absorption of important nutrients, such as calcium and vitamins C and D. For example, smoking just one cigarette drains the body of 25 mg of vitamin C. Incorporating more fruits and vegetables into your diet will restore these nutrients and, as some research suggests, may help with reducing cravings to smoke.

Bonus: Once you begin to stop smoking, food starts to taste better and flavors are more noticeable, so you may also enjoy these foods more.

2. Ginseng Tea
Can tea help you quit smoking?

Some research suggests that ginseng could be therapeutic for nicotine addiction because it may weaken the effect of dopamine, a neurotransmitter in the brain that is associated with pleasure and is released when smoking tobacco. Drinking ginseng tea could reduce the appeal of smoking and make it less enjoyable.

3. Milk and dairy
Does milk make cigarettes taste bad?

Smokers have reported that drinking milk made cigarettes taste worse; most smokers said that it gave their cigarettes a bitter aftertaste. When facing a craving, consuming milk and other dairy products that make cigarettes taste bad might help deter smokers from cigarettes.

4. Sugar-free gum and mints
What helps with nicotine cravings?

Chewing gum and mints can keep your mouth busy when you have an urge to smoke. Plus, both gum and mints last a long time—typically longer than it does to smoke a cigarette.

Knowing what to avoid consuming when trying to quit smoking will help, too. Foods and drinks that have been shown to enhance the taste of cigarettes and trigger a craving to smoke include alcohol, caffeine, meat and sugary or spicy foods.

While eating and drinking the right things can make the struggle to quit a little easier, programs like BecomeAnEX.org, a digital quit-smoking program by Truth Initiative®, can improve chances of success and quitting for good.

 

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Harvard study: Avoid nutritional supplements with higenamine

Consumers should avoid all nutritional supplements containing the natural stimulant higenamine, according to a new study from Harvard University.

“If it lists higenamine on the label, don’t purchase it,” said Pieter Cohen, an associate professor at Harvard Medical School in Boston, who led the new research, published in the journal Clinical Toxicology. Norcoclaurine and demethylcoclaurine are different names for the same botanical ingredient.

Cohen and his colleagues found higenamine in 24 readily-available supplements, mostly marketed for weight loss and energy boost. In some cases, doses were a dozen times larger than has ever been tested in people.

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) banned higenamine last year as a performance-enhancing substance.

Sales of dietary supplements and multivitamins reached $20.7 billion last year in the United States, according to Euromonitor International, which tracks the industry but not sales of specific ingredients.

There hasn’t been much research into higenamine, but what there has been shows it can powerfully speed up the heart, much like the supplement ephedra that was taken off the market by the U.S. government in 2004 for causing strokes and heart attacks.

In China, where most of the research has taken place, scientists use higenamine in heart stress tests, because it puts extra strain on the heart to pump blood, said Cohen, also an internist with the Cambridge Health Alliance.

Higenamine has been mainly delivered directly into the blood stream at doses of around 2.5 to 5 milligrams, he said.

But over-the-counter products are sold without any dosage information, so consumers don’t know how much they’re getting. And Cohen’s analysis reveals that some supplements contain as much as 60 mg of higenamine per serving – and over 100 mg per day.

Swallowing higenamine rather than having it injected into the bloodstream probably cuts down on the amount that reaches the heart, Cohen said, but there are no reputable studies showing the safety of taking higenamine by mouth at doses above 5 mg.

Although most competitive athletes stopped using higenamine after it was banned, it’s still on the shelves. Kamal Patel, co-founder of Examine.com, an independent database of nutrition and supplement evidence, said he thinks non-athletes may still be using it as an alternative cough and asthma treatment, and he’s heard of people “stacking” higenamine with caffeine and other ingredients to promote fat loss.

Endurance athletes looking for a quick boost might take it too, he said, “although the half-life is really short, which limits its usefulness for many endurance activities.”

The supplement has never been studied for weight loss, and Cohen said he can’t see how it would help someone lose weight, although a faster heart rate might make someone think it is doing something. “It seems like a crazy way to try to lose some weight,” Cohen said.

Federal regulations require that manufacturers understand the safety of ingredients as directed for use on a product label, said Duffy MacKay with the Council for Responsible Nutrition, a Washington, D.C.-based trade and lobbying group. His organization maintains a database called Supplement OWL for companies to voluntarily make their ingredient lists available to the public and to provide confidential information to government regulators.

Higenamine may be a case, he said, where government regulators should step in and explore the data.

But everyone bears some responsibility for the appropriate use of supplements, he said.

“Consumers have a part to not be gullible, in the area of weight loss in particular,” MacKay said. “And make sure they do buy from brands they know and trust and talk to their doctors – and just not get pulled into one of these products that makes us all look bad.”

Cohen said people should avoid supplements that suggest they’ll boost workout performance, particularly if they contain higenamine. “Because this is only one of dozens of ingredients that will likely have real effects, but you don’t know how much you’ll get,” he said. Plus, there’s likely no research on how the ingredients interact. “These aren’t just benign placebos, they’re often potent drugs,” he said.

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Donations pour in for man holding yard sales to fund funeral

BROWNSTOWN, Pa. — Two friends who set up a GoFundMe page for a Pennsylvania man who’d been holding yard sales to pay for his own funeral expenses say they’ve received so many donations they’re planning to help other veterans in similar situations.

David Dunkleberger and his friend Ed Sheets pulled into a yard sale in Brownstown last month. The man running it, 66-year-old Willie Davis, was selling his belongings to pay for his funeral.

Davis, who served in the Navy in the 1970s, has stage 4 squamous cell carcinoma, a type of skin cancer.

Dunkleberger initially set a $6,000 goal then raised it to $40,000. By Friday morning, nearly $50,000 had been donated .

GoFundMe says they’ll work with the campaign organizers to make sure excess funds are managed appropriately.

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Student’s thumb amputated after skin cancer found after biting her nails

You might want to think twice about the next time you bite your nails after reading this story.

A student from Australia had to have her thumb amputated after doctors diagnosed her with skin cancer following a nail-biting incident.

Courtney Whithorn, 20, had developed a nail-biting habit while she was at school. According to an interview with The Mirror, her thumb started to turn black after she bit the entire nail off, but she kept it hidden from friends and family for four years.

She continued to the publication, “I didn’t even know I was biting my nails sometimes – it just happened. I sort of lost the feeling because I was doing it that often.”

The woman decided to consult a plastic surgeon when the doctor diagnosed her with acral lentiginous subungual melanoma, a rare form of skin cancer. “When you think about it how many kids bite their nails it’s crazy it came to that,” she explained.

Since her initial diagnosis in July, Whithorn has had to have four surgeries. The last operation removed her thumb completely.
“When I found out that biting my nail off was the cause of the cancer it shattered me,” she said. “There’s not enough research to say what the survival rate is or what the likelihood of it coming back is because – we just don’t know much about it.”

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The appearance of your tongue can tell you about your health

Many people may not give much attention to their languages, including differences in the shape or color of the tongue, but scientists emphasize that it is necessary to pay attention to such fine details that much about the Health Status of the Person Can Disclose

The Daily Mail newspaper quoted Australian Chinese doctor Aveni Holland because he said that much information could be drawn from the size, texture, color and shape of the tongue.

She explained that there is a “blueprint for the sun”, which is associated in parts. Other organs of the body, which make it easier to detect signs of disease. The color of the tongue

Holland The color of the natural tongue is pink or light red, covered with a white layer be.

The tongue can be “pale”  if there is a lack of vitamins or minerals. The body, which is common among those who suffer from anemia.

If the tongue becomes red, it may indicate a fever due to fever or body temperature associated with menopause.

Figure Tongue
Many people may not see differences in the shape of the tongue, but Holland emphasized that “the tongue Puffy” can indicate a lack of nutrients and fluid in the body while indicate the thin tongue dehydration.

The layer covering the tongue
If the tongue contains a thin white layer, it is considered healthy and natural, but as

The dry tongue refers to “heat” in the body, and the more intense the color, the higher the temperature of the body, and it can cause the presence of inflammation in the body or bacterial accumulation or other imbalances.

If the tongue is gray or black, it refers to the “stagnation” in the flow of energy, blood and fluids in the

The surface of the tongue
A tooth that protrudes or Incisions may also reveal a variety of potential health problems.

The protrusions on the tongue are diagnosed, depending on where they are and how they look, For example, a bolt on the front of the tongue can be a sign of a bacterial or viral infection or even a possible allergic reaction to the drug.

Deep gaps in the middle indicate that the patient is susceptible to gastrointestinal problems, while indicating sores.

The tongue known as the “geographical language”, which forms the white layer on its surface forms. Semi “spots” can it mean the presence of heat in the stomach, which may occur in the form of BUOO.

axis, indicates the tongue that contains protrusions in the outer tip for fluid retention in the body.

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Brother arrested after bodies of sister, her boyfriend found in trash bags

CLINTON TOWNSHIP, Mich. — A suburban Detroit man wanted by police in the slayings of his sister and her boyfriend has been arrested at an Ohio library. Clinton Township police say Robert Marzejka was arrested Wednesday, three days after the victims’ bodies were found in trash bags. He’s charged with first-degree murder in Macomb County.

Police say Marzejka was arrested without a struggle at a library in Cincinnati. He’s being held Thursday at the Hamilton County, Ohio, jail while awaiting an extradition hearing Friday.

The bodies of 18-year-old Danielle Marzejka and 19-year-old Seren Bryan were discovered Sunday in a shed in Clinton Township.

MLive reports Danielle Marzejka and Bryan were last seen alive Aug. 23. Danielle Marzejka’s father filed a missing person report when he hadn’t heard from her two days later.

The next day, Danielle Marzejka’s brother — not the one charged — noticed an odor coming from a small storage unit near the back of the family’s property. He cut open a black trash bag and saw an arm.

Police determined the bodies belonged to Danielle Marzejka and Bryan before announcing that they were searching for Robert Marzejka.
The Macomb County Medical Examiner’s Office hasn’t officially released the cause of death.

Clinton Township police Capt. Richard Maierle told People that motive for the slaying is a mystery.

“What possessed him to do it?” Maierle says. “We don’t have any idea.”

According to court records, Robert Marzejka was the subject of a petition for forced hospitalization due to mental illness in February 2015.

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