Diagnostic Tests Might Be To Blame

We undergo many types of screenings in order to find potential problems with our health. What if those tests weren't just looking for problems but causing them as well? That is exactly what some experts are talking about, such as doctor Keith Heller, a surgeon that shocked his colleagues at a medical conference by claiming that, " I do not believe that this epidemic (of thyroid cancer) is real. It is due to ....the  increasing use of ultrasound-guided needle biopsy of  thyroid nodules....We are performing far too many unnecessary thyroidectomies."

The problem is that thyroid nodules are considered fairly normal in most of the world, and in those places people don't rush into invasive medical procedures. Here if you have a nodule they perform an ultrasound guided need biopsy and this is the problem. This test, by the way, has a very poor track record of even being able to determine if a nodule is cancerous or benign.

This test, however, a very lucrative lead into thyroidectomy, which goes for 15 to 20 grand at a time. On top of that patients are roped into a lifetime of thyroid hormone replacement, which all adds up to big bucks, so why are we poking around and removing things considered normal all over the world on a test that can't even reliably detect cancer?

 

McDonald's Food Leads to Hospitalization

Photo Credit: Digital Art

A 17 year old British girl found this out the hard way after a life long diet of little other than McNuggets. Her diet from basically the age of 2 was daily McNuggets, fries and toast. She ended up collapsing and being hospitalized with trouble breathing and other complications.  She said she always ate the 20 piece McNugget meal and would share them with fries with her boyfriend.

A 20 piece serving of these highly processed foods have nearly a thousand calories and almost 60 grams of fat. On top of this they have plenty of un-tasty ingredients like dimethylpolysiloxan, an antifoaming agent. And, while people will just say this is an extreme case, and it is, it illuminates the lack of health in our fast food. What place does silicone, stabilizers and  preservatives have in our food supply?

Should McNuggest and similar items have to be labeled, ingredients fully disclosed? Would people turn them down if they saw ingredients like silicone and  dimethylpolysiloxan ?  What do you think?

Read original story here.

Restaurants Privacy Trumps Your Health

Credit: Digital Art 

Wouldn't you think that something like a salmonella outbreak would be made public knowledge? After all, salmonella is dangerous and even deadly. So, if a chain of restaurants were targeted for investigation due to an outbreak of salmonella you'd probably like to know, right?

Well, don't get your hopes up.  After a fast food chain was linked to an outbreak that put 20 people in the hospital food safety officials decided it wasn't necessary to tell the public which restaurant was having the problem. So as you pulled through the drive through the FDA knew that this chain had salmonella in their food supply, even if they didn't yet know the extent. 

                                                     
 Feel safe? I didn't think so. Check out the ABC News story here.

Politician Wants to Tax Violent Video Games

Massive economic woes stretch across the globe, people are struggling to survive out there, political unrest and violence have become common fair on the nightly news. So, in light of this it seems ridiculous that any politician wants to focus on raising tax revenue through taxing violent video games.

Seriously, folks, at this point aren't we faced with such dire problems that this sort of maneuver should be laughed at and ridiculed? The answer is yes, we are, and you can be sure that in this election season you'll see more of this grandstanding and pandering. Here is the link to check it our for yourself.