Komen Foundation’s Continued Funding of Planned Parenthood Discussion-Worthy

Susan G. Komen Logo
After an outcry from scores of angry women (my technology-challenged mother being one of them … she actually made me walk her through the steps of how to sign an online petition because she felt so strongly about it), the Susan G. Komen For the Cure foundation has done a 180 on its plan to sever ties with Planned Parenthood, and all is right with the world, right?

Not so fast …

Approximately $600,000 of the foundation’s money has been used each year to pray for breast cancer screening.  You don’t need me to tell you that screening leads to early detection, which leads to early treatment, which leads to a ridiculously high percentage of successful cures (if breast cancer is caught early enough, we are in fact talking cure, not remission).

What kind of highly public foundation makes a big thing about being “for the cure” (puts it into its very name, in fact) and then intentionally pulls money from the very demographic of women that need it most considering that they’re the least likely to get regular medical attention?

That’s got to be among the most asinine things I’ve ever heard.

And, yeah, it’s the A-word.

From The Atlantic:

Komen, the marketing juggernaut that brought the world the ubiquitous pink-ribbon campaign, says it cut off Planned Parenthood because of a newly adopted foundation rule prohibiting it from …

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Tweet-a-Weiner

Photo of Anthony Weiner

The jokes about a politician named Weiner Tweeting pics of his package all over cyberspace practically write themselves, and, yeah, it’s funny as hell.  The underlying issue of the Weiner fiasco is not so funny, however.

In fact, it brings up a debate that has become increasingly common as social networking has become a way of life—namely, does cybersex fall under the “cheating” umbrella or is it on par with, say, porn?

Perhaps the biggest (I’m sorry, the puns are just unavoidable here, so bare bear with me) argument in favor of Weiner’s actions going beyond jerking off to Playboy pictorials is exemplified by his initial …

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Are You 100% Honest With Your Doctor?

Photo of a Doctor

If I had to guess, I’d bet that most people have lied to their doctor.  Speaking for myself, sometimes it’s just easier.  Now, I realize this is a stupid thing to do, but I guess I can take heart in recent news out of Dr. Barbara Korsch’s recent work out of the University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine in knowing that I’m not alone.

In fact, Korsch, the author of The Intelligent Patient’s Guide to the Doctor-Patient Relationship, led Fox News to recently explore the greatest areas of whopperdom faced by physicians when trying to treat their patients.

1.         Not taking prescribed medication correctly, completely, or … at all.

As embarrassing as it might be to admit it, “If you don’t tell us you’re skipping pills, we’ll assume you’re taking them and they aren’t working, so we might change the dosage or the prescription”—which may put off your recovery and cause side effects, says Laura Knobel, MD, a family physician in Walpole, Massachusetts, and a member of the board of directors for the American Academy of Family Physicians.

And when you toss antibiotics before you’re done with the full course, you may not kill off all the infectious bacteria in your body, leaving them resistant to drugs and possibly causing the illness to come back with greater force.

There’s a real science to pharmaceuticals, and the balance is often a dicey one.  Doctors making sound medical decisions operate under …

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Monstrous Migraines: An End in Sight?

Photo of Woman with Migraine Headache
There is almost nothing more debilitating than a migraine headache … particularly if you get the ones that render you helpless to do much more than sit in a silent, dark room waiting for it to get better.

I have ridden the migraine express for years, and I’ve realized that I get migraines when I’m really stressed out (for which there is very little you can do) and at a certain time of the month. And sometimes just for the hell of it, evidently.

I’ve also gone …

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