The Republican’s plan to privatize Medicare is steering fear on most of the country’s senior citizens.

Walter Dotson, 72, for example knows that the plan would not touch his benefits, but is afraid for what it might bring for his grandson’s future. Dotson, who is raising his high school sophomore grandson, said that he’d hate to see his kin be slashed of all the health benefits he is enjoying today.

The loudest and strongest objection on the GOP Medicare plan are coming from the seniors’ sector as they complain during town-hall meetings and even in the congressional elections last year.

A lot of experts say that the policymakers responsible for the GOP overlooked an all-encompassing trait among the seniors – their concern about the succeeding generations.

One other thing that bothers the seniors so much is the fear that the budget may be hazed with self-interest. If the Congress can do such a drastic change on the health care system of future retirees, many asks what is the assurance that they won’t come back and apply the Medicare plan to everyone who are currently in the program.

The budget that House Republicans passed a few weeks ago aims to remove Medicare and replace it with a government payment to purchase private insurance for people age 65 in 2022. Although dubbed as bold and visionary by others in Washington, many oppose the plan around the country.

Although seniors are exempted from this plan, economist Alice Rivlin said that they are not just thinking about themselves. They want to be guardians of the policies that can affect the children of their children.

Researchers from Louisiana discovered that armadillos can transfer Leprosy to human beings. DNA tests showed that a leprosy strain gathered from some patients matched with those of the nine-banded armadillos, the possible reason for the spread of the disease in southern United States.

Years back, many scientists believed that leprosy could only be passed on from one human being to another. An average of 150 people are diagnosed with this disease also known as the Hansen’s disease. Most of those affected by the disease traveled to a country where Leprosy is endemic but more than 30% of them have no idea where they got the disease.

However, it has to be noted that most of these cases are on Louisiana and Texas. Many armadillos infected with leprosy live in that area.

Director of microbiology Richard Truman of the National Hansen’s Disease Program said that they can now provide a link between armadillos and Leprosy.

Proponents of the study took sample from human skin lesions and armadillos and they found out that they are genetically similar. However, this strain of Mycobacterium leprae, the bacteria which causes Leprosy, is different from the common strains. That unique bacterium was found in 25 armadillos and 28 human patients.

Out of those 28 patients, 15 of them said they did not have any known contact to armadillos while 8 of them said they routinely hunt them to eat.

Although the study did not record a direct transmission from armadillo (or animals in general) to humans, but an infectious-disease specialist, Brian Curie, said that the evidence is very convincing.

Cassidy and Addison Hempel received an experimental drug that was injected straight to their spines in hopes of finding a cure for their rare and highly fatal disease. It is their mother who pushed for this experiment to become possible.

Home-maker Chris Hempel of Reno, Nevada persuaded scientists to contribute their time and research for her 7-year-old twins. She also found a way to get the government on her side and approve of her daughters’ extremely unusual experiment. Hempel told everyone that getting help for her kids and fighting off rare diseases ought not to be very difficult.

However, it is understandably challenging to ask drug companies to fund and take interest in a very expensive research for a disease or a disorder so rare that it only affects a couple hundred people per year. Hempel’s daughters have Niemann-Pick Type C.

At present, treatment is only available for about 200 out of 7,000 rare diseases. These diseases are very rare that less than 200,000 people have them. However, if one would look at it from a different perspective and add all those diseases up, an average of 20 million Americans are affected by these “rare” diseases.

That is why a campaign has started to push more funding and research on treatments for rare diseases. This fall, the National Institutes of Health is expected to open a center designed for speeding up genetic discoveries that may contribute on the growing number of rare diseases.

The International Rare Disease Research Consortium is also fighting to achieve treatment for at least 200 more rare diseases before 2020 ends.

The social media has become a worldwide phenomenon and many challenge it to support a cause and make a difference.

Marc Ecko, a world-renowned designer, took on this challenge. He launched Unlimited Justice, his campaign to stop corporal punishments in schools, and has brought it online.

This campaign is a perfect example of how the Internet has changed the face of modern activism. Online activism has received both praises and activism. Many perceive it as a hero that promotes social good.

However, many also believe that it promotes “slacktivism” or a lazy approach to activism. Social media has been coined innovative and many are impressed by this technology, but many also think it makes people lazy and apathetic.

Despite the attacks, many still support online activism because of its huge overall impact to whatever cause an organization is fighting for. Also, although online activism requires less physical efforts as going out on the streets, many officials consider it as a campaign that holds a lot of weight.

As a perfect example of how effective online activism is, Ecko’s Unlimited Justice is said to be thanked for New Mexico’s legislation that bans corporal punishment in schools.

Many think that corporal punishment had long been abolished in the United States school system, but this is sadly not the case. Spanking and even paddling is still highly practiced in states like Mississippi, Alabama, and Arkansas. Only 30 states have abolished US Supreme Court decision in 1977 saying that corporal punishment in schools is lawful.

Mary Fallin, Oklahoma Governor, signed a law prohibiting mothers from undergoing abortion after the 20th week of pregnancy. The law that was signed on Wednesday makes Oklahoma the fourth state banning late term abortions.

Alongside this law, Governor Fallin also signed a law stopping health insurance companies from insuring elective abortions. The Republican governor said that the laws are extremely important to safeguard both the life of the unborn child and the mother.

She said that she believes in the sacredness of human life. She further said that the law has a responsibility to protect the lives of its people. She believes that the two legislations can work hand-in-hand to expand the protection the law offers their citizens. Moreover, it will stop the tax-paying people of Oklahoma from unknowingly paying for a procedure that could be against their will.

However, Barabra Santee of NARAL Pro-Choice America said that the legislations are clear frontal assault to the 1973 Supreme Court decision to legalize abortion. She also said that the laws are slowly taking away women’s right to choose.

Violation of this law is a felony case for those who provided the abortion but will not penalize the mother who sought out the abortion. Laws in Oklahoma permit abortion if the pregnancy poses a direct threat to the life of the mother.

The law that stops mothers from committing abortion after 20 weeks in to the pregnancy is based on assumption that the fetus at this point can already feel pain. Idaho, Kansas, and Nebraska are the three other states that have passed the same legislation months earlier.

Decreased meat and increased vegetable intake can reduce the risk of cataracts, says a study performed in Britain.

Researchers have found out through a wide dietary survey, which lasted for 15 years, that three had cataracts out of 50 meat eaters. Meanwhile, only 2 had cataracts out of 50 vegans, as well as vegetarians.

The result of the study showed that vegetarians and vegans have about 30 to 40 percent less risk to get cataract compared to those of meat eaters.

Epidemiologist Naomi Allen of University of Oxford in UK, co-author of the study, said that people who do not eat meat have remarkably lesser risk to develop cataracts.

A cataract develops when the crystalline lens of the eye is covered with a cloudy envelope. It obstructs eye sight and usually causes blurring of vision. The condition occurs more often in the older people. In the United States, more than fifty-percent of the Americans have cataracts by the age of 80 or they have had fixed it through surgery, the National Eye institute stated.

Findings of the British research does not say a person should completely become a vegetarian to avoid getting cataracts. However, a large consumption of vegetables may likely protect them from the eye condition.

The study does not confirm that intake of meat promotes cataract. A diet increased in fruits and vegetables may also be a sign of other healthy response that contribute to the reduced cataract risk. Diabetes, exposure to bright sunlight, as well as smoking are also related to an increased risk for cataracts.

The lifestyle and the foods people take can also influences the occurrence of cataracts. But up to this day, there is still no known cause for the increasing rate of cataracts.

A mother from Massachusetts who withheld chemotherapeutic drugs was convicted Tuesday. Those were supposed to be given at home from her autistic son who also has non-Hodgkins lymphoma. She was convicted of attempted murder after jurors dismissed Kristen LaBrie’s claim that she thought side effects of those drugs could kill her son.

LaBrie was decided guilty of child endangerment, as well as battery and assault for not giving her son, Jeremy Fraser, 5 months worth of cancer medications. The boy was diagnosed with cancer in 2006 and died three years later at the age of 9.

LaBrie said that she deliberately stopped her son’s cancer treatment because she was seeing his son get really sick from the medicine’s side effects. Prosecutors see this as her way of running away from her responsibilities as a single mother to Jeremy.

One of the jurors Paul Holladay said that it was easy for them to reach a decision on the minor charges but had a really difficult time discussing LaBrie’s attempted murder case. He further said that when the trial started, they did not think they’d find her guilty and neither did they want it to end up that way.

However, Holladay also said that as more pieces of evidence were reviewed, the more they were pushed to the conclusion that the single mother is guilty. LaBrie was aware of the implications and importance of the treatment for her son but continued to deprive him of it.

LaBrie became teary-eyed while the verdict was read but consoled her sister who was then sobbing in the front row. When she was led away, she mouthed “I love you” to her family.

Bugs are once again here to bug us. But they are not only irritating; they can pose real threat to our health too.  Tiny ticks can cause Lyme disease; mosquitoes cause West Nile virus; and even the allergic reaction to bee stings can be fatal.

How much it itches and how huge the red spots are from bug bites, depend highly on your skin type. Yes, there are just some people whose genetic make-up makes them mosquito magnets. Many blame the poor spiders, but most of our bites are really from mosquitoes.

Jonathan Coddington, a spider expert, said that a lot of people call them and are either panicking or bummed out about their spider bites. Coddington said that there are actually two families of spiders that may cause real problems in the U.S. – those from the brown recluse family and black widows. More often than not, he said that people who call them just want to be reassured.

In the U.S. however, mosquito bites are the most common. In the past, they usually attack during dusk or dawn but recently, a new type bites any time of the day. It is the Asian tiger mosquito that just recently immigrated in Texas.

Many physicians agree that you can’t get infection from scratching bug bites but a Blacklegged tick species or deer ticks may transmit Lyme disease. Blacklegged ticks are very common during May up until July, or during spring time.

Antibiotics can easily cure people with Lyme disease but they are not easily detected because early signs and symptoms are only flu-like. Long-term exposure to the disease may lead to arthritis.

Stroke (Cardiovascular Accident) and all other illnesses related to estrogen pill intake disappear after women quit taking them during menopause, a study found. This is really good news for women who started taking the hormone supplement in their 50s.

This latest study also found out that there is no truth to concerns about heart attacks and breast cancers if you take the hormone to relieve hot flashes associated with menopause, for a short period of time only.

Pills containing pure estrogen are only recommended for those women who underwent hysterectomy or the removal of the uterus. 25 per cent of the study’s respondents have had hysterectomies. The rest were prescribed with combination pills to alienate or lessen the risk for uterine cancer.

However, the results of the study do not change the doctors’ advice for women taking estrogen-only pills – take the pills in the lowest dose for the shortest time possible.

The respondents of this study took estrogen for an average of six years, and were tested four years after they stopped. The slight increase in the risk of stroke while they were still taking the pills went away after stopping. Unfortunately, estrogen’s bone-strengthening benefit went away with it too.

The same study also found out that women who took pills with estrogen content only in their 50s had better prognosis, than those who started when they were already 70. Many doctors believe that at 70, women are no longer recommended to take hormonal supplements.

Five new genes linked to the degenerative condition, Alzheimer’s disease, have been identified by a group of scientists in the United States. Researchers say the discovery of these genes will help develop a drug that will be used to treat people affected with the disease.

The scientists came from 44 different universities, as well as research laboratories in the United States. They have identified the genes through an analysis performed on a genetic data derived from about 54,000 people in the Europe and United States.

Gerard Schellenberg, professor of pathology from University of Pennsylvania and lead author of the study, said the identification of the new Alzheimer’s genes will help improve the knowledge on what causes the disease.

The five new genes discovered include ABCA7, CD2AP, CD33, EPHA1 and MS4A. Previously, there were only four variants of Alzheimer’s genes confirmed by the scientists. Until now, there is no available cure for the condition. Treatment involves small symptomatic relief, but most are palliative in nature.

Moreover, the identification of new genes reinforce the latest theories that certain lipids and cholesterol passing around the brain have particular relationship to the onset of Alzheimer’s disease. The study also suggests that the operation of the immune system in the brain plays a particular role.

Today, there are over 10 genes linked to the disease. Dr. Ausim Azizi, head of neurology department at Temple University School of Medicine, said the genes will not be utilized in predictive tests for patients. Alzheimer’s disease affects people over 65 years old. In America, there are one in eight elderly people affected with the disease.