Cannabis users were 45 percent less likely to contract bladder cancer than their more abstemeous peers, according to the National Cancer Institute (NCI) – a branch of the National Institutes for Health.
The NCI study examined 82,050 men of different ages and socioeconomic backgrounds from 2002-2003 with the purpose of discovering any links between smoking tobacco and smoking marijuana and the risk of bladder cancer. Researchers followed up with the respondents 11 years later.
Just over 40 percent of those surveyed said they had used marijuana compared to 57 percent who said the same of tobacco. The report found that “cannabis and cannabinoids may have benefits in treating the symptoms of cancer or the side effects of cancer therapies.”
Tobacco smokers were found to have higher rates of bladder cancer. The NCI, however, wasn’t wholly positive about the effects of cannabis use, with paranoia and low blood pressure listed as potential downsides of excessive marijuana smoking.
An obese woman, left, walks in New York, Monday, July 13, 2015. Credit: Mark Lennihan/AP
According to a study published online in JAMA today, nearly 50 percent of adults living in the U.S. have diabetes or pre-diabetes, a condition where a person already has elevated blood sugar and is at risk to develop diabetes.
Diabetes, a condition where blood sugar is elevated, may reflect lack of production of insulin to lower blood sugar, (Type 1) or insulin resistance (Type 2), generally the result of obesity, poor diet or lack of exercise leading to the metabolic syndrome.
If you’re looking to make some money, try locking up toddlers.
One for-profit prison company has found that incarcerating infants, toddlers, children, and mothers—as long as they’re undocumented immigrants—is a great way to boost their revenue by upward of $49 million over the previous year.
The latest quarterly finance report from Corrections Corporation of America, a for-profit prison company, indicates that its contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to manage a detention center packed with immigrant mothers and children is very helpful to its bottom line.
Part of the reason their deal is so lucrative? The public isn’t particularly bothered by it.
The company can thank President Obama. Facing enormous political pressure and eye-grabbing headlines, the Obama administration moved last summer to dramatically expand the federal government’s capacity for locking up young mothers and kids.
Before last summer—when thousands of mothers and young children fleeing gang violence and bad governance in Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador crossed the southern border into this country—the detention of immigrant families was rare.
Antonio Ginatta, the U.S. advocacy director for Human Rights Watch, said there were only 90 beds or fewer in facilities designated for the detention of […]
St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar
Credit: Daily Kos
As conservatives spread lies blaming the Black Lives Matter movement for the recent deaths of police officers, the greatest safety risk to police is all but being ignored publicly: suicide.
In 2013, the last year on public record, 126 police officers committed suicide.
“Suicides can happen in any profession, but they occur 1.5 times more frequently in law enforcement compared to the general population,” psychiatric nurse Pamela Kulbarsh wrote in an Oct. 9 article for Officer.com.”Quite truthfully, the actual rate is probably higher as law enforcement suicides are more likely to be underreported or misclassified as accidental deaths. This misclassification usually occurs to protect the family, other survivors, or the agency from the stigma of suicide,” she wrote.
Compare that to 47 police officers who were shot and killed in 2014 or the 43 that are predicted to be shot and killed this year, and it’s increasingly clear that people who love police officers and […]
Sheldon Adelson and a candidate kissing his ring.
In a few weeks, when the nuclear deal Barack Obama negotiated with Iran comes before Congress, it’s all but certain that not a single Republican will vote in support of it. With the possible exception of Maine’s Susan Collins, who has yet to reveal her position, each of the 246 Republicans in the House and 53 Republicans in the Senate has indicated his or her opposition to the deal. Not that a mere vote could possibly express the intensity of even that unanimous opposition — or the fervid support for Israel that lies behind it. “It is a fundamental betrayal of the security of the United States and of our closest allies, first and foremost Israel,” Texas senator and GOP presidential candidate Ted Cruz has said. Cruz’s 16 Republican-primary opponents have denounced the deal in similar terms. One of them, Mike Huckabee, has gone so far as to argue that […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
