Health and Science

Rose Madeline Mula writes: In the fantasy world of my mind, I can still climb endless flights of stairs without losing my breath; I can walk — even jog — for miles; I can get down on the floor and, even more important, get up again. I can get in and out of a car without having passers-by rushing over to help. When I go to an airport, attendants don't run to greet me at the door proffering wheel chairs. Old geezers with walkers don't offer me their seats on crowded busses. more »

To keep even more people from becoming addicted to medicines such as Percocet, OxyContin and Vicodin, lawmakers in five states set limits on the number of pills a physician can prescribe to a patient for the first time. Twenty-nine states beefed up monitoring of filled prescriptions to prevent addicts from "doctor shopping" for more pills. Roughly 2.5 million Americans are addicted to opioids, and more than 28,000 people died of overdoses of painkillers or heroin in 2014, the highest toll ever.   more »

"This conference report is an effective, responsible approach to addressing the Zika crisis. It will get money out the door immediately to help stop the spread of the virus and respond to the ever-growing number of cases within our borders and around the globe." Offsets include $107 million from leftover funding from the 2014 Ebola outbreak, $100 million in unused funding within HHS, and $543 million in unspent ObamaCare funding intended for territories to set up health care exchanges. more »

Joan L. Cannon writes: When the first brilliant leaps of credibility struck the known universe, from ancient civilizations that modern Man has unearthed and learned to interpret, to the 21st Century comprehension of such things as the 'God particle' and the elasticity of gravity, nuclear physics, genetics, brain imaging — the minute human place in what's out there becomes ever smaller. more »