With a few drops of a liquid hallucinogen under his tongue and the smell of incense in the air, Texas resident Frank Ramirez says he can transport himself to a different world. Eyes shut and legs crossed, he first feels warm and flushed. Then the rush of the drug swirls into his head and, Ramirez says, he becomes “one with the room,” able to see and talk with long-deceased relatives.
“Sometimes I cry or laugh,” Ramirez says. “It’s a spiritual trip. Read the rest of this entry »

The White House said no and pressed on with its doomed effort to get a bigger bill. The Republicans won control of Congress in the fall. It wasn’t until 1997, thanks to the unlikely duo of Sens. Ted Kennedy and Orrin Hatch, that a children’s health care program was finally passed.
One of the clearest signals President-elect Barack Obama has sent is his determination to learn from the Clinton years, and particularly from the former president’s failures Read the rest of this entry »

Many Americans are starved for sleep, and experts said the results may be showing up on your scale.
Numerous studies suggest not getting sufficient sleep makes it more difficult to lose weight or keep it off. Experts said restful sleep raises the level of a hormone that regulates hunger, but not getting enough sleep increases a hormone that stimulates the appetite.
Sleep experts Michael Breus, Ph.D. and Steven Lamm, M.D., created a “Sleep Diet” Read the rest of this entry »

will give away free generic drugs for the next three months.
The Landover-based grocer — which has 184 supermarkets and 164 pharmacies in Virginia, Maryland, Delaware and Washington, D.C. — will launch the program from Jan. 2 through March 21. About 36 prescription generic antibiotics will be free.
“We wanted to provide something to help customers in these tough economic times,” said Robin Michel, executive vice president Read the rest of this entry »

Teaming up with Gifts.com, Zac Efron gives away $10,000 worth of toys to patients at the Mattel Children’s Hospital at UCLA in Los Angeles.
brought cheers to patients at the Mattel Children’s Hospital at UCLA in Los Angeles when he took time Friday, December 19 to visit critically ill patients for approximately two hours. Teaming up with Gifts.com, he presented gifts, signed autographs and posed alongside his fans as he toured the wards.
Among Read the rest of this entry »

Starting Jan. 1, Massachusetts hospitals can’t send ambulances elsewhere when their emergency departments back up, a previously standard practice that often increased ride times and restricted patient choice.
“It’s not the best thing for the patient and it’s not the best thing for the hospital,” Marlborough Hospital executive Candra Szymanski said. “I won’t tell you it will be particularly easy for any hospital, but we’re ready.”
Faced with an Read the rest of this entry »

And it’s the big-ticket technology toys that seem to be targeted most often. While a random sampling of local consumers saw a willingness to try to bargain down prices on a host of objects including computers and refrigerators, most seem to aim their haggling at high-tech items. And they’re finding some surprising results.
“I’ve been to plenty of third-world countries; I know how haggling works there,” says Yair Flicker, co-founder of Baltimore-based Read the rest of this entry »

One community health center in Mesa is having to turn people away as a beleaguered economy increases demand for its discounted health services.
The Mesa Family Health Center, part of Maricopa Integrated Health System, had been tapped for a potential expansion project along with the health center’s Chandler campus.
The center has referred people with numerous chronic health issues to other immediate sources of health care, center manager Liliana Read the rest of this entry »

It’s often the security issue that dogs Google, Microsoft and other purveyors of personal health records (PHR): How will so much personal medical data be kept safe?
A tangential question for Google, however — one that has dogged the search giant since its
Health offering was first made available in May 2008 — is whether Google’s search-based advertising platform creates a conflict with storing personal health data.
Google Vice President of Read the rest of this entry »

BELLEVUE — The Bellevue Police Department is investigating an armed robbery that happened Thursday at a pharmacy when a lone gunman got away with narcotics.
Bellevue Police Chief Dennis Brandal said the robbery happened around 9 a.m. at the Medicine Shoppe, located at 234 W. Main St.
Police say a white gunman entered the store, brandished a semi-automatic handgun and demanded the store clerk to give him prescription narcotics. No one was injured Read the rest of this entry »