Marvel creates "Blue Ear" superhero for deaf boy
Marvel created blue ear for Anthony Smith, a 4-year-old who refused to wear his hearing aid because "superheroes don't wear hearing aids."
(Credit: Marvel)(CBS News) Marvel usually gets mail from die-hard fans asking extremely detailed questions about their favorite characters, but one request from a desperate mother led staffers to put their thinking caps on and come up with a brand new superhero.
Blue Ear -- a super hero with a special listening device that gives him super-sonic hearing -- was created in the likeness of Anthony Smith, a four-year-old boy born with mosaic trisomy 22.
"We were raised with the words of Stan Lee ringing in our ears: 'With great power, there must also come a great responsibility,'" Marvel editor and writer Bill Rosemann told HealthPop. "If we don't use whatever skills we have to help others, why are we here at Marvel?"
Continue »Best and worst foods for your Memorial Day picnic
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But it doesn't have to be that way. From our friends at Health.com, here's a list of the best and worst foods you should pick or skip if you're attending a barbecue, as well as healthy recipes you can bring or serve at your own Memorial Day spread...
Continue »Poisoning risk from mini laundry detergent packs
Laundry detergent makers introduced miniature packets in recent months such as this one photographed Thursday, May 24, 2012, in Houston. But doctors across the country say children are confusing the tiny, brightly colored packets with candy and swallowing them. Nearly 250 cases have been reported to poison control centers.
(Credit: AP)(CBS/AP) Miniature laundry detergent packets have been popping up more on store shelves as an alternative to bulky bottles prone to spills. But doctors across the country are warning parents that kids are confusing the tiny, brightly colored packets with candy and eating them.
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Nearly 250 cases have been reported this year to poison control centers. Though they remain a tiny fraction of the thousands of poisoning calls received every year, doctors are concerned. No deaths have been reported but the symptoms they see in connection with ingesting the packets -- such as nausea and breathing problems -- are more severe than typical detergent poisoning.
"We're not quite sure why it's happening, but we've clearly had some kids who have become much more ill," said Dr. Kurt Kleinschmidt, a Dallas toxicologist and professor at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. " We look at these pods as being clearly more dangerous than the standard detergent."
Continue »German medical group apologizes for Holocaust role
Helen Rappaport, survivor of Auschwitz and the experiments of Dr. Joseph Mengele, lights a candle at a Holocaust Remembrance Day Ceremony at the Harold Washington Library April 21, 2005 in Chicago, Illinois.
(Credit: Scott Olson/Getty Images)(CBS/AP) BERLIN - The German Medical Association has adopted a declaration apologizing for sadistic experiments and other actions of doctors under the Nazis, asking forgiveness of victims.
In the statement adopted earlier this week in Nuremberg, the association, called the Bundesarztekammer, said many doctors under the Nazis were "guilty, contrary to their mission to heal, of scores of human rights violations and we ask the forgiveness of their victims, living and deceased, and of their descendants."
In addition to performing pseudo-scientific experiments in concentration camps, German doctors also were key to the Nazi's program of forced sterilization or euthanasia of the mentally ill or others deemed "unworthy of life."
Continue »Sperm gene discovery may lead to male birth control
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(CBS News) A male birth control pill might not be so far-fetched, now that Scottish scientists have uncovered a key gene essential for sperm development.
The gene - called Katnal1 - is critical for sperm production because it enables sperm to mature in the testes. Thus, if scientists can somehow regulate this gene with a pill, sperm production will be stalled.
Continue »More than half of kids with autism diagnosed at 5
Children with autism typically have difficulty communicating and interacting with others.
(Credit: CBS)(CBS News) Although the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends pediatricians screen children for autism at 18 months, new government research shows more work has to be done. More than half of school-aged kids with autism in the U.S. were 5-years-old or older by the time they were diagnosed.
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The new study is part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) 2011 Survey of Pathways to Diagnosis and Services. It was nationally-representative look at children between the ages of 6 and 17 with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and special health care needs. The report also found less than 20 percent of children with autism were diagnosed before age 2. Results appear in the National Center for Health Statistics' Data Brief.
Continue »CDC: States not spending on smoking prevention
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(CDC/AP) Tobacco taxes and legal settlements have raked billions of dollars for states around the country according to a new study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but over the past decade, only about 3 percent of that money has been spent funding tobacco prevention programs.
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That makes it tougher to reduce the death and disease toll caused by tobacco use, the CDC said in the report, published in the May 24 issue of Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
Continue »POM Wonderful's new ad campaign hits back at FTC
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POM Wonderful)
(CBS News) POM wonderful has hit back at the Federal Trade Commission with a new advertising campaign, telling consumers when it comes to "FTC v. POM - You be the judge."
POM Wonderful deceptively advertised health claims in juice ads, judge rules
The ad references a Monday ruling by Chief Administrative Law Judge Michael Chappell, that ruled POM Wonderful deceptively advertised its pomegranate products when it cited research saying the juices could treat, prevent or reduce the risk of heart disease, prostate cancer and erectile dysfunction.
Continue »16-month-old gets smallest artificial heart
The artificial device only weights 11 grams. A normal adult heart weighs 900 grams.
(Credit: Bambino Gesu)Italian doctors implanted the device -- weighing in at 11 grams -- into the infant to give him more time to wait for a heart donor. For comparison, an adult heart weights 900 grams. In the future, doctors told Reuters that they hope devices like this can be a permanent fix.
Continue »Birth control pills more likely to fail than IUDs
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CBS)
The statistics are especially concerning for women under 21, for whom the risk of unplanned pregnancy when using birth control pills, the patch or ring was almost twice as high as the risk for older women.
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"This study is the best evidence we have that long-acting reversible methods are far superior to the birth control pill, patch and ring," study author Dr. Jeffrey Peipert, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, said according to the press release. "IUDs and implants are more effective because women can forget about them after clinicians put the devices in place."
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