For the past 27 years, Marc Buoniconti has been paralyzed due to a football injury from his neck down. He sustained the injury while playing at The Citadel in South Carolina. His father, Nick Buoniconti, is a Hall of Famer who played football for the Miami Dolphins and Boston Patriots. He has worked tirelessly since his son was injured to find a cure for spinal paralysis. The father and son have been working on a joint venture for years and finally can see the fruits of their labor. The two are the... 

Overriding the advice of an expert panel, the Food and Drug Administration will not require special training for doctors before they could prescribe long-acting narcotic painkillers.  The announcement from the F.D.A. comes after several years of deliberations by the agency over the increasing problem of the abuse and misuse of prescription painkillers. These painkillers, including OxyContin, fentanyl, and methadone, can lead to addiction.  Overdose deaths related to the abuse and misuse of long-acting... 

McKesson Corporation has agreed to pay close to $151 million to different U.S. states for allegations it increased drug prices artificially for Medicaid over a period of years. This is another settlement the supply chain has reached over its prices of medications. McKesson is the largest wholesaler of prescription medications by revenue in the United States and federal and state officials alleged it increased the prices for a number of it 1,400 medications from 2001 to 2009. Prices of some of the... 

A deadly and rare form of Ebola virus in Uganda has killed 14 people. A western area of the country is where the deaths have occurred the government of Uganda said on Saturday. Health experts from the U.S. Center for Disease Control, the government of Uganda and the World Health Organization were sent to a western region of Uganda only three hours from Kampala, the country’s capital. The medical teams will begin important emergency measures said a government statement. The same strain of virus,... 

A new study finds that the aging of the brains of older honeybees is effectively reversed when they take on tasks typically handled by younger bees.  The aging of the brains of the honeybees seems to resemble that in humans.  The discovery suggests that social intervention should be considered, in addition to medications, as a way to treat age-related dementia in humans.  The findings are detailed in the journal Experimental Gerontology. Gro Amdam, who led the research at Arizona State University,... 

Johnson & Johnson announced that the Food and Drug Administration has agreed to expedite its review of three new uses for the anticlotting drug Xarelto.  Under priority reviews, the F.D.A. attempts to reach a decision within six months instead of the typical ten month time period.  Johnson & Johnson and Bayer are developing the drug together. The applications reflect the pharmaceutical companies’ efforts to compensate for the loss of revenue from blockbuster drugs that have lost patent... 

Working shift work can increase dramatically the risk of having a heart attack and stroke said researchers. A new study of more than two million people showed that shift workers are nearly 25% more apt to suffer from a heart attack or stroke. Shift workers who work at night have the highest risk factor at 41%, a study published this week says. People who work shifts also have a higher level of behaviors that are unhealthy such as sleeping poorly, not exercising and eating junk food, which all three... 

AIDS is starting to grey. The government projects that by the end of 2019, over half of the Americans currently living with HIV will be 50 years old or older. Even in countries that are still developing, many more people afflicted with AIDS are living to middle age or beyond. The government’s news is good, but it is challenging at the same time. More and more evidence shows that people who have battled the virus for decades may be prematurely aging. This week, in Washington D.C. at the International... 

A new study says that being exposed at night to a certain amount of light, could contribute to depression. At Ohio State University, a doctoral student performed an experiment that analyzed relationships between mood disorder and being exposed to artificial light during the night. Participants in the study were female hamsters, since both rodent and human females are over twice as apt to develop a major depressive disorder as males. One particular group of hamsters received 16 hours each day of normal... 

A recent Dutch study found that high blood sugar, high blood pressure and high cholesterol are more common and not an exception in both adolescents and children who suffer from obesity. It is known by many that obesity has been tied to heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes and ultimately to death. However, the new study done in the Netherlands is tying obesity to cardiovascular risks, even in young children that are only two years of age. The study was taken throughout the Netherlands and...