Tag: healthcare

Doctor is stripped of his medical license after selling bogus $15,000 fecal transplants he claimed could treat AUTISM in toddlers

A Canadian doctor has been stripped of his medical licence after conning families out of thousands of dollars for bogus autism cures.

Charlatan Jason Klop charged $15,000 for fecal transplants which involved taking bacteria from the poop of healthy patients and transferring them to autistic children as young as two.

He claimed the treatment – carried out either with pills or enemas – caused ‘dramatic improvements’ in autism symptoms and offered them at clinics in Mexico, Hungary, Australia and Panama.

Klop admitted that his business violated multiple Health Canada rules as well as those standards set by the College of Naturopathic Physicians and will pay a meager $7,500 fine.

A notice by the College of Naturopathic Physicians of British Columbia said Klop was removed from the institution on Wednesday. He will have the right to apply for reinstatement in five years.

As well as admitting to promoting and selling fecal transplants that are not approved for autism, he admitted making ‘unverifiable statements’ in his advertising.

He has claimed to have seen ‘dramatic improvements’ in autism symptoms of young children he has treated at his clinics in Mexico, Hungary, Australia and Panama, for a measly $15,000. 

Klop also claimed to have met donor screening requirements from the Food and Drug Administration and American Gastroenterology Association. But it was later revealed that his lab had no protocols for screening donors or analyzing product, and disposed of fecal waste with household garbage.

Court documents reveal that he had ‘treated’ at least 60 children in this way.  

Fecal transplants are only approved in Canada and the US for the treatment of C.diff – a nasty and recurrent stomach infection. 

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Children on puberty blockers saw mental health change – new analysis

The majority of children in a landmark study on puberty blockers experienced positive or negative changes in their mental health, new analysis suggests.

The original study of 44 children, who all took the controversial drugs for a year or more, found no mental health impact – neither benefits nor harm.

But a re-analysis of that data now suggests 34% saw their mental health deteriorate, while 29% improved.

The authors of the original report have welcomed the new evidence.

The re-analysis, which has been seen by BBC Newsnight, questions some of the conclusions from the 2021 study about the potential mental health impact of puberty blockers on under 16s. It also sheds some light on this much-debated, but little understood, area of children’s medicine.

The new study has not been in a peer-reviewed journal yet. The authors say they felt there was an urgency in getting the information into the public domain.

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PAP SMEAR: French gynecologist called ‘transphobic’ for saying ‘I take care of real women’

A gynecologist in France has been accused of “transphobia” after refusing to see a male-to-female trans person. After going viral because of the incident, the doctor has defended his decision to the media, stating “a cavity is not a vagina.”

The 26-year-old was the first trans person Dr. Victor Acharian would have seen in his 30 years of gynecology practice. He was immediately uncomfortable with the request to examine the person and told his secretary he would not see her, stating “I only treat women.”

The patient’s boyfriend left a negative Google review after the incident, to which the doctor responded strongly:

“SIR. I am a gynecologist, and I take care of real women. I have no skills to take care of men, even if they have shaved their beards and come to tell my secretary that they have become women,” Acharian wrote.

The transgender person immediately went to the French press and reported feeling in “shock” and a “black hole.” After the online exchange went viral, with accounts such as Cerfia and SOS homophobie sharing screenshots on X, the doctor took action by speaking to the media.

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Pig kidney transplanted in a human lasted for TWO MONTHS in new record that could be a breakthrough for organ donations

A pig kidney transplanted into a brain-dead man continued to function for two months, marking the longest time a non-human organ has survived in a human.

The procedure, conducted on July 14, implanted the kidney in 58-year-old Maurice ‘Mo’ Miller, whose body was donated by his family after he was declared dead by neurologic criteria and maintained with a beating heart on ventilator support.

The experiment concluded Wednesday when doctors removed the genetically modified organ, and Miller’s sister said her final goodbyes.

‘I’m so proud of you,’ Mary Miller-Duffy said in a tearful farewell at her brother’s bedside.

Surgeons at NYU Langone Health, who performed the experiment, determined no differences in how the pig kidney reacted to human hormones, excreted antibiotics or experienced medicine-related side effects.

It is the latest in a string of developments renewing hope for animal-to-human transplants, or xenotransplantation, after decades of failure as people’s immune systems attacked the foreign tissue.

A previous attempt saw the organ only last for 72 hours before it was rejected. 

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My doctors insist it’s time I died – but I will fight them: Extraordinary case of 19-year-old woman suffering from Charlie Gard condition battling medics’ attempts to ‘condemn her to death’

‘By the time you read this, I could be dead. That’s according to my doctors who, for the last year, have repeatedly told me that I have had only days to live. But I am a fighter and will continue to fight.’

These are the devastating words of a seriously ill — yet inspiringly defiant — 19-year-old girl who argues that she will be condemned to almost certain death if NHS doctors are successful in their bid to withdraw her life-preserving treatment.

Painstakingly dictating her thoughts to me from an intensive care unit, it’s clear her will is utterly undimmed by the many obstacles she faces in her battle for survival.

For she is now not just fighting her extremely rare degenerative disorder, but also the medical and legal establishment, which she feels has marshalled against her.

Despite the profound importance of her case, the Mail cannot even tell you her first name, nor any details of her family, nor the hospital that treats her.

Instead, her identity has been reduced to the initials ‘ST’ by a draconian court order preventing her from putting her name to her heartbreaking account.

‘They’ve done everything they can to stop me telling this story,’ says the brave teenager of her remarkable legal battle with the NHS Trust which has tried to place her in palliative care.

‘I have found myself trapped in a medical and legal system governed by a toxic paternalism which has condemned me for wanting to live.’ Determined to expose her ordeal she has, together with her parents and brother, spoken — anonymously for now — exclusively to the Mail.

She tells me how her condition — mitochondrial depletion syndrome (MDS), a genetic disorder which limits the functioning of the body’s cells — was made worse by a bout of Covid in August last year, resulting in her being hospitalised.

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‘Horrified’ hospital employee leaks DEI training pushing 3-year-olds identifying as transgender

A”horrified” hospital employee at Kaiser Permanente leaked a sex change training for diversity, equity and inclusion, which promoted the idea that a 3-year-old can be transgender. 

“The employee, who wishes to remain anonymous for fear of losing her job, was horrified,” according to the Wednesday report from Libs of TikTok. 

As part of the hospital system’s DEI training, medical employees were expected to watch a video with children explaining they knew they were transgender at age 3 and 4. 

“Many transgender people have ALWAYS known their true gender,” the video said. 

“My name is Rose. I’m a transgender girl. I was born a boy, but I always knew that I was a girl,” a child said. 

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Vivek Ramaswamy partnered with the Chinese government to advance ‘Chinese biopharmaceutical research abroad,’ but changed tune when much-hyped endeavors went belly up

Since announcing his candidacy for President of the United States, Vivek Ramaswamy has branded himself as a fierce China hawk, going as far as to declare that he would ban American companies from doing business with the Chinese government.

But not so long ago, Mr Ramaswamy was singing a very different tune.

The career biopharma boss has made a hasty 180 degree turn away from his pro-China advocacy and corporate fundraising in recent years.

The Dossier reviewed Vivek Ramaswamy’s business ties in China and found that he aggressively sought to partner with the Chinese government on multiple endeavors throughout the country.

It began in 2017. As the CEO and founder of the biotech company Roivant, Ramaswamy partnered with the CIVIC Group, the state-run investment company of the Chinese government, to form a corporation called Sinovant, which would serve as Roivant’s Chinese (Sino means Chinese or relating to China) “vant” arm.

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‘This Is Not an Emergency’

Documents uncovered in a civil rights lawsuit show Florida prison officials and medical staff allowed an incarcerated man’s prostate cancer to spread untreated until he was left paralyzed, terminally ill, and afflicted with infected bed sores that rotted to the bone.

When he wrote desperate pleas for help, one official concluded, “This is not an emergency.”

In a federal civil rights lawsuit filed last year, former Florida inmate Elmer Williams alleges that corrections officers and nursing staff denied and delayed medical treatment for months after he filed a grievance against them. The complaint argues these delays were not just bureaucratic incompetence but retaliation “intended and designed to prevent [Williams] from receiving a timely diagnosis.” The lawsuit alleges violations of the Eighth Amendment and the Americans with Disabilities Act; it names several Florida Department of Corrections (FDC) officials and medical staff employed by Centurion, a private health care provider that contracts with the FDC.

Williams, 56, spoke to Reason from the hospital bed where he has spent most of his time since the FDC granted him medical release last October, and where he will in all likelihood spend his final days.

“Slowly, slowly, slowly, they just let me fall apart,” he says.

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States With Legal Medical Marijuana See ‘Significant And Sizable’ Reductions In Health Insurance Premiums, Study Finds

A new study in the International Journal of Drug Policy found that states with legal medical marijuana enjoyed significant reductions in health insurance premiums compared to states where cannabis remained completely illegal.

Analyzing a decade’s worth of private health insurance data from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, researchers determined that in the years following a state’s implementation of a medical cannabis law, premiums dropped dramatically.

While the reductions were modest immediately following implementation, the study found that by seven years afterward, annual premiums had fallen $1,663 compared to states in the control group. Similar reductions were seen after eight years ($1,542) and nine years ($1,626), indicating that the decline was fairly stable over time.

“Although the effect does not begin until seven years post-medical cannabis law implementation,” the authors conclude, “there is a significant and sizable reduction in health insurance premiums” in states that legalize medical marijuana.

“Due to the nature of insurance pooling and community rating,” they add, “these savings are appreciated by cannabis users and non-users alike.”

As the study’s authors point out, the findings undermine concerns that legalization would risk increasing healthcare costs. “Initial concerns about medical cannabis legalization leading to increases in medical care costs, which would be reflected in higher insurance premiums, appear to be unfounded,” they wrote.

Researchers were specifically looking at individual private health plans rather than employer-sponsored insurance plans or Medicaid. The study notes that health insurance spending in the U.S. accounts for between 16 percent and 34 percent of the average household budget.

In an attempt to control for other variables, authors focused on states where only medical marijuana was legal, excluding from the analysis states where adult-use legalization was already in effect. States in the control group, meanwhile, included those without medical cannabis or those that had passed but not yet implemented a such a policy

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Canadian Hospital Suggests Euthanasia to Suicidal Woman Who Went There For Help

A Canadian woman who went to a hospital for help managing her suicidal thoughts and chronic depression was asked if she had considered euthanasia.

Kathrin Mentler, 37, says that she went through a traumatic event earlier this year. When seeking psychiatric help at the Vancouver General Hospital, the doctor suggested the nation’s Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) program.

The Globe and Mail reports, “Ms. Mentler says a clinician told her there would be long waits to see a psychiatrist and that the health care system is ‘broken.’ That was followed by a jarring question: ‘Have you considered MAID?’”

“She was like, ‘I can call the on-call psychiatrist, but there are no beds; there’s no availability,’” Mentler explained. “She said to me: ‘The system is broken.’”

Mentler said that she had not considered MAID but had considered overdosing on pills herself. The doctor told her that attempting suicide on her own could lead to brain damage and other harm but that the euthanasia program would be a more “comfortable” process as she would be sedated.

“I very specifically went there that day because I didn’t want to get into a situation where I would think about taking an overdose of medication,” Mentler said. “The more I think about it, I think it brings up more and more ethical and moral questions around it.”

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