Injustice in Healthcare

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On Twitter, Lance Armstrong posted this quote: "Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane." - Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. This doesn't need further com...

Epidemics

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The extent to which contagious and infectious diseases spread through human populations is highly variable. In a developed country a few hundred cases of typhoid or plague may produce anxiety or even ...

Chronic Pain

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Unpleasant to unendurable pain. What can one do?

Predominance of fast food

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Due to two-career families, increased affluence, outside activities, and a faster paced lifestyle, fast food has become an integral part of life in some industrialized countries. Fast food eateries ar...

Bed Bugs are close to epidemic proprotions in major US cities

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Bed bugs were eradicated in the US by the 1930's but without the use of DDT they are now resistant to all pesticides. The movement of people into the US has brought the problem of infestation to epide...

Alzheimer's disease

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Alzheimer's disease is an incurable degenerative condition. It is a mentally disabling disease of the aged (rarely the young) which attacks the nerve cells of the brain and impairs a person's memory, ...

Inadequate health services

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The degree of general health improvement achieved by public and private health services is not as high as might be desired. Although technical knowledge for achieving better health is available, in mo...

Futures awareness in pandemics

The current influenza pandemic is the 1st of the 21st century. Governments, WHO and various health professional bodies have plans to deal with such occurrences. But is this just a plan on paper for c...

Global Health Care and Emergency Relief

I have a vision of a social network that can attract many companies from around the world. I would like to see them form one Group. I would like them to be able to list items they have that they may n...

Ignorance of traditional herbal remedies

Between 25,000 and 75,000 flowering plant species have been used in traditional medicine throughout the world. Only about one percent of these have been acknowledged through scientific studies to have...

Acquired human immunodeficiency syndrome

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Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) is the late stage manifestation of infection by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). The HIV virus lives in a type of immune cell (T-cell) which it destroy...

Shortage of biological specimens for medical study

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There is a general shortage of biological specimens for medical study. One example is skeletons. Partly because of a ban by India, traditional export leader in the field, there is now a serious shorta...

Multiple Sclerosis

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Multiple sclerosis is an often debilitating neurological condition that can severely constrain lifestyles and even paralyze. Symptoms include fatigue, vertigo, pain, difficulty walking, bladder and b...

Counterfeit drugs

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Fake medicines are responsible for the death and suffering of untold numbers of patients. A wide range of counterfeit medicines, including antibiotics, steroids, analgesics and heart drugs, allegedly ...

Drug resistant bacteria

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Bacteria can become resistant to antibiotics when the drugs are used too often or when patients do not take their medication appropriately. A few strong bacteria survive and reproduce, giving rise to ...

Disease transmission by international travel

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The transmission of communicable diseases by international travelling constitutes a menace to countries by the spread or potential spread of diseases across frontiers. When travelling, persons may com...

Pediatric HIV/AIDS

Imagine being born with what seems like a death sentence: you were born infected with HIV/AIDS. You may have caught HIV/AIDS in the womb, passed from mother to child. Or perhaps you were born HIV-fr...

Excessive consumption of salt

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The American government recommends that people reduce their salt intake by one third to 6 grams a day. Salt consumption levels per capita have been constant for the last century As an indication, the...

Insomnia

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Inability to sleep, causing excessive sleepiness during the day when one is required to be alert and possibly drive or operate dangerous machinery.

Bulimia nervosa

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People with bulimia nervosa have recurrent episodes of binge eating and once eating has begun they can't control their behaviour anymore. They regularly engage in self-induced vomiting that allows con...

Pharmaceutical Companies and Long Term Cures

Pharmaceutical companies have helped in developing wonderful drugs. Governments, universities, and individuals have played an essential role. Pharmaceutical companies well being is based on shareholde...

Misunderstanding Disability

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Many individuals view disability as the end of life as they know it. Many view assisted devices, such as walkers and wheelchairs, as impediments to full-fledged participation in humanity, and many ga...

Excessive influence of pharmaceutical manufacturers over doctors

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Education and advertising campaigns have raised concerns that pharmaceutical companies, traditionally in the business of finding new drugs for existing disorders, are increasingly in the businesses of...

Drug-Resistant TB

The World Health Organization is worried that there will be an explosion of drug-resistant tuberculosis that could flood hospitals with this nearly untreatable disease. Traditional drugs are useless ...

Loss of female sexual desire

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The old saw is that women have low sex drive compared to men's It is hard to judge the degree of female sex drive, as women in many cultures have had a great deal to lose in the past by admitting t...

Web-Based Decision Support Software for Personalized Medicine

Many drugs in current use are ineffective or harmful to a proportion of people they are given to. Knowledge in the field of pharmacology is growing exponentially and allowing the translation of scient...

Genetic Science Advances

Scientific advances often bring many societal benefits, yet concerns have arisen over, in particular, the problems that may arise as a result of new developments in genetic science. Issues surroundin...

Denial of the right to die

The right to die may be claimed by each individual on account of his or her liberty to decide. For example, terminally ill patients in the final stages of a disease who are experiencing intense pain m...

Sports accidents

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Excessive engagement in a particular sport may give rise to permanent physical damage. Familiar examples are tennis elbow, football knee, and basketball back injuries. Sensitive areas in these cases a...

Health hazards of alcohol consumption

Alcohol is an addictive substance and adverse effects of drinking occur at moderate to heavy levels in some individuals. Current evidence suggests that moderate drinking is associated with a lower ris...

Overuse of sedatives and tranquillizers

When used appropriately, as prescribed, pharmaceutical drugs are indispensable in relieving a wide variety of medical conditions. But they can be extremely dangerous if misused, and under certain circ...

Risks of immunization

Relatively common adverse effects of immunization include high fever and fits. Other symptoms and death have also been linked to vaccinations. Often the symptoms are milder versions of the disease aga...

Religious opposition to birth control

Religious opposition to population control in practice mainly takes the form of opposition to family planning and artificial contraceptive methods based on interpretations of scriptures and religious ...

Routine sexual mutilation of males, circumcision.

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While circumcision may have some health benefits, the evidence does not warrant a call for routine circumcision. Circumcision carries pros and cons. It has been shown to reduce babies' urinary tract i...

Health hazards of passive smoking

Tobacco has its victims other than smokers: those living among smokers can be considered as passive smokers because they are exposed to smoke concentration in the atmosphere they live in. Tobacco use ...

Health effects of tobacco smoking

Tobacco use, fueled by widespread addiction to nicotine, is the root cause of the 20th century epidemic of lung cancer, emphysema and numerous other fatal illnesses and chronic health problems. The av...

Sudden unexpected infant death

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Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) refers to the sudden and unexpected death of an apparently healthy infant less than one year of age, which remains unexplained even after a full investigation. Such...

Motion sickness

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Motion sickness is rarely a pathological condition but rather a normal response to conflicting perceptions of motion by the body's sensory receptors (visual, vestibular, and body proprioceptors). It c...

Stress on families of the physically or mentally handicapped

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Stress on the family of handicapped people has often gone unnoticed as it is the handicapped person himself who usually receives all the attention For the families of handicapped persons living at h...

sponsors needed for r&d

some ideas are too good to let go, but need not make any money in the end. in this case i feel venture capital is not a very reasonable option, there is not yet a product or proof of concept or even a...

Criminalization of abortion

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"No woman wants an abortion as she wants an ice cream cone or a Porsch�. She wants an abortion as an animal caught in a trap wants to gnaw off its own leg"

Inadequacy of pain control

Factors contributing to lack of pain relief include exaggerated fears of drug addiction, lack of knowledge about the way people perceive pain, misunderstanding of the pharmacodynamics and pharmacokine...

Medical deception

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Doctors use information as part of the therapeutic regimen; it is given out in amounts, in admixtures, and according to timing believed best for patients. Accuracy, by comparison, matters far less. Th...

Physical unfitness

Working conditions in modern industrial societies are generally characterized by a gradual elimination of physical effort and a corresponding decline in physical fitness. Car ownership removes the for...

Adolescent pregnancy

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Adolescents in any country who become pregnant face severe health risks whether they are married or not. Adolescents are not fully physically developed: at menarche a young woman's pelvis has not fini...

Cancer-causing foods

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The view that dietary practices might be a causative factor in cancer is not new. There is increasing evidence that composition of daily food may significantly influence cancer incidence. This may be ...

Prostitution

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Prostitution is the promiscuous bartering of sex favours for money or gifts. Most prostitutes are females serving male customers, the next largest group are male prostitutes serving homosexual clients...

Stress

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Stress denotes a broad range of biological and psychological reactions to environmental influences; as such, it is an essential component of the equipment that enables man to survive in an hostile env...

Abortion-related deaths of mothers

As a growing number of non-communist countries outlaw abortion, the services available for women who need them are outside the purview of public health services. The inspection, advice and cooperation...

Loneliness

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Loneliness can afflict anyone, whether young or old, rich or poor, highly-educated or illiterate, healthy or infirm. Because children are almost invariably reared in a network of intimate relationship...

Organ transplantation taboo

In Japan there is considerable cultural resistance to organ transplantation, with the result that Japanese must go abroad to receive an organ transplantation. Politicians as of 1997 were reluctant to ...

Abuse of human growth hormone

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In the USA, doctors have been known to prescribe human growth hormone to children in shortest 3% of the population, despite their not suffering from a deficiency in growth hormone, and despite lack of...

Childhood obesity

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Early mortality in adulthood has been shown to be nearly double in those who had been obese in childhood, and is most frequently associated with heart disease. Birthweight tends to correlate with the ...

Maternal Mortality in Sierra Leone

Amnesty International has reported extreme concern about maternal mortality in Sierra Leone, saying that many women and girls in the country cannot afford proper obstetric and maternity care and that ...

Inadequate nutrition education

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A fragmentary approach to nutrition education has not brought about lasting developments; an effective nutrition education strategy is essential. Low literacy rate makes it more difficult to promote h...

Obesity

Overeating and lack of physical activity are the main causes of obesity, especially in combination. But many factors contribute to obesity The number of overfed people on the planet is at its highes...

Abuse of performance enhancing drugs

Just as aphrodisiacs have been marketed for centuries, synthetic drugs and human biomolecules are now being laboratory-designed to counter perceived personal deficiencies, such as moodiness, memory de...

Mental Illness - Stigma

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Great strides have been made in educating the public about mental illness and presenting those suffering from it in a sympathetic light. Nonetheless, much remains to be done. To this day, those suff...

Abuse of antibiotics

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Antibiotics are a uniquely potent defence against bacteria, but they have one fatal weakness: if used to excess, their power fails. This is now happening because of doctors who over-prescribe antibiot...

Denial of right of family planning

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The right of couples and individuals to freely decide the number and spacing of their children and the right to information and education that allow them to do so is a basic guarantee of individual li...

Inadequate housing for the aged

Progress in making the dwelling environment more appropriate has not kept pace with progress in extending the average human life-span. There is a need for the environment in which old people live to b...

Nutritional blindness

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Adequate vitamin A intake is important for maintaining good health and preventing disease. Vitamin A helps in the formation and maintenance of healthy teeth, skeletal and soft tissue, mucous membranes...

Arthritis

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Arthritis is a general term that refers to many rheumatic diseases that can cause pain, stiffness, and swelling in joints and other connective tissues. These diseases can affect supporting structures ...

Denial of the right to medical consent

Few patients have more than the barest understanding of how their bodies work, Their assumptions for treatment are based on a desire for health and on a conditioned respect for a doctor's care. A cons...

Elevated blood cholesterol

Over time, abnormal blood fats can contribute to atherosclerosis - the buildup of fatty deposits in arteries. Atherosclerosis increases the risk of coronary artery disease and stroke. Triglycerides an...

Irresponsible health professionals

Most incompetent medical decisions remain private, confined to and rarely challenged by medically unsophisticated patients who are likely to be frightened or intimidated. This is clearly compounded by...

Neglect of elderly in institutional care

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Focus on the aged as a discrete and problematic population tends to create a marked division between the "productive" and "post-productive" groups and disdain for the elderly as useless members of soc...

Tension headaches

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This headache may last from 30 minutes to a week. It is non-pulsating, mild to moderate in severity, generally on both sides of the head, not affected by physical exertion and not associated with othe...

Dioxin poisoning

Dioxins are a family of 75 synthetic (manufactured) persistent, bioaccumulative, carcinogenic toxins. The forms are called congeners. They are produced whenever chlorine-based products such as plastic...

Excessive consumption of sugar

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Sugar consumption may be a public health danger, particularly for infants and children who consume large quantities and can form an addiction to it. Sugar can be condemned for its proven ill effects o...