Malaria: '700 million cases' stopped in Africa  17 September 2015   From the section Media caption Director General of the WHO, Dr Margaret Chan, and Secretary of State for International Development Justine Greening spoke to the BBC's Tulip Mazumdar Nearly 700 million cases of malaria have been prevented in Africa as a result of concerted efforts to tackle the disease since 2000, a study shows. The  report published in the journal Nature showed that overall the number of infections fell by 50% across the continent. Bed nets were responsible for the vast majority of the decrease. There have also been calls to maintain funding to ensure the progress is not undone. Meanwhile, a report by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the charity Unicef say malaria death rates have fallen 60% globally since 2000 and more than six million lives have been saved. The report said 13 countries that had malaria in 2000 reported no cases in 2014 while a further...

How the Power of Your Mind Can Influence Your Healing and Recovery March 05, 2015   By Dr. Mercola By definition, a placebo is an inert, innocuous substance that has no effect on your body. Placebos, such as sugar pills, are therefore used as controls against which the effects of modern-day medical treatments are measured. However, the placebo-effect, in which a patient believes he or she is getting an actual drug and subsequently feels better, despite receiving no “active” treatment at all, has become a well-recognized phenomenon. A number of studies have revealed that placebos can work just as well as potent drugs. Sham surgery has even been shown to produce results that are equal to actual surgery! Indeed, mounting research suggests this "power of the mind," or power of belief, can be a very healing force. Studies into the placebo effect also show that many conventional treatments "work" because of the placebo effect and little e...

Inevitably, death comes to be seen as the enemy in medical care. A resuscitation effort ends with success, or death. Death is the antithesis of triumph in medicine. It is where options run out, where treatments end, where the final desperations of hope surrender. It is failure. Nor are we in medicine unique in this tendency. Poets, too, have interposed their passions between the failing imperatives of  heart, and nerve, and sinew - and  the dying of the light . But of course, death cannot truly be the enemy. It is the common end to every story. We do not own life, we wear it for a while. It does not belong to us permanently; it flows through us. Death is no more enemy to us than autumn is to summer; it is what happens next. Indignity is the enemy. Pain is the enemy. Suffering, in all its vast vocabulary, is the enemy. Death figures in this, of course, for untimely death is the greatest indignity. Our losses to death as we linger here are the most excruciating pain. Deat...