Medicine

SLU Doctor Explains How to Grow Flu Vaccine in Chicken Eggs, Dog Kidneys and Caterpillars

If you, like many, have wondered why it's taken so long for pharmaceutical companies to roll out the new swine vaccine, here's your answer. slu.eduVaccine Man: Dr. Robert Belshe​The vaccines must first be grown in fertilized chicken eggs, which requires getting a hen and a rooster to copulate -- n ... More >>

A New Take on "Killer Bees" -- Wash U. Researchers Use Bee Venom To Fight Cancer

http://pdphoto.org/PictureDetail.php?mat=pdef&pg=8202​Scientists at Washington University in St. Louis are working on a fascinating way to battle cancer in laboratory mice. The research involves the use of the bee venom, melittin, and so-called "nanobees" that fly through the bloodstream and d ... More >>

St. Louis is no fun — and that's a good thing! Plus: Obama's pants, an allegedly felonious Purina fat cat and more.

Cigar and Pipe Association Denounces Proposed Smoking Ban in St. Louis County

 Ever hear of the IPCPR? No? Well, they're not quite the NRA, but they do lobby hard for what they believe is a fundamental right for all Americans: the right to smoke in public. Today the International Premium Cigar & Pipe Retailers Association sent out a release alerting media that it wil ... More >>

Gone Are the Days When Bars & Restaurants Simply Stopped Allowing Smoking...

...in light of all the hullabaloo surrounding potential smoking bans, going smoke-free is now apparently an act worthy of a press release. To wit: The Fox & Hounds, at the Cheshire Lodge, is now prohibiting smoking, per a statement sent to RFT today."This isn't about the rules or financial impac ... More >>

Weird Science: Wash U. Researchers Breed Insomniac Fruit Flies

pbs.orgNotice the bloodshot eyes of this fruit fly. Must be an insomniac.Scientists at Washington University have bred generations of insomniac fruit flies they hope will shed light on sleeplessness in humans. The insects average only about one hour of sleep per day -- or less than 10 percent of the ... More >>

Butt Heads: Want to know where our public officials stand on smoking bans? OK, we'll ask 'em!

Enforcement Could Burn City Smoking Ban

flickr.com/photos/wallygThe ban prompts the questions: Will The Smokers abide? And who will make them?Alderwoman Lyda Krewson's bill banning smoking inside almost all public spaces in the city gets its first reading this morning in front of the Board of Aldermen. The ordinance would only go into eff ... More >>

Washington University Will Go Entirely Smoke Free Next Year

All of Washington University's St. Louis campuses will become entirely smoke- and tobacco-free by July of 2010. Current policy prohibits smoking inside any university building. The new ban will prohibit smoking anywhere on university property -- including outdoor areas. "We know it will be difficult ... More >>

Medical Marijuana Comes to the Midwest

http://imagecache2.allposters.com/images/pic/CMAG/938-022~Marijuana-Posters.jpgStarting next month, residents of Michigan will be able to petition their doctor for a pot prescription of up to twelve plants. Michigan is the first non-coastal state east of the Rocky Mountains to enact such a law.Techn ... More >>

Missouri Stem Cell Advocates Hail Obama's Executive Order But Say Fight is Far From Over

flickr.com/photos/dogwelderI don't see the evil here. You?The ink was barely dry on President Barack Obama's executive order on stem-cell research when the Missouri Coalition for Lifesaving Cures sent out an e-mail blast praising the president for his support. The order, signed Monday morning, remov ... More >>

No Smoking Ban for St. Louis? How Depressing.

Forget heart disease and lung cancer, which won't kill you for another 30 years or so, researchers from the University of Miami School of Medicine found that exposure to second-hand smoke may double the likelihood of depression:This study confirmed exposure to smoke by measuring cotinine -- a chemic ... More >>

Pot Hole: A southwest Missouri hamlet is leading the latest fight to legalize medical marijuana

Press Release of the Day

Unreal's inbox, as usual, overfloweth, so officially this should be yesterday's press release of the day, but what the hey...It comes to us from the good folks at the St. Louis County Department of Health, and you can read it after the jump.But first please permit us to note that not just any docume ... More >>

Fired Up: RFT readers are sharply divided on whether St. Louis bars should be smokeless

Drag King: Bill Hannegan can't stop huffing and puffing about smoking bans in St. Louis

Got Clap? St. Louisans Do. Chlamydia, Too!

Playas and hoes, take note: The Center for Disease Control is out with its annual report on sexually transmitted diseases. Once again St. Louis tops all other U.S. cities in the percentage of its population that came down with chlamydia and gonorrhea (right) in 2007 -- the most recent year in which ... More >>

Fitter, Happier, More Productive: Bon Iver, "Blood Bank"

(Tuesdays can be a trying day here in Club Land at the RFT. It's deadline day for the show/concert listings, and this fact hangs over my head just like all of those foreboding elementary school (and high school and college) homework assignments that I would inevitably put off to the l ... More >>

STD-Day: The recent HIV scare at Normandy High School has prompted cries for better sex education

'Fight McCain, Have Sex': Free Condoms Go Quickly at Debate

RFT readers agree: There's no birthplace like home

Certified professional midwife: Coming to a yellow pages directory near you

Smokers' Olympics

Stuff Unreal likes! Plus: We smoke and run and picture Abe Lincoln on a Segway.

The All Nude Bare Ass Naked Truth: It Ain't Over Till the Fat Lady Sues

Good Cause for Dessert -- Dessert for a Good Cause

Big Boobs: Read All About 'Em!

Smoke and Mirrors in Hermann, Missouri

The Egg Man

Dr. Sherman Silber says he can extend a woman's fertility by decades. All he needs is an ovary and some ice.

MO Midwifery Bill: Stillborn Again

Smoke Signals

Sultan of Skin

Flesh insight from an esteemed St. Louis plastic surgeon

Cell Block

Missouri scientists fear embryonic research may remain embryonic

The Great Imitator

The scourge of syphilis re-emerges, deadlier than before

AIDS Walk: A Big Deal

Take steps in the right direction with the AIDS Foundation of St. Louis

Up Yours

Dr. William J. Catalona's cancer-screening test sparks debate in the medical community

Gland of Opportunity

Dr. William J. Catalona built an unrivaled repository of blood and tissue samples. Washington University wants to keep it. Now a judge will decide: Who owns the prostates?

Up Yours

Explore the bowels of your bowels and learn how to prevent colorectal cancer at the Colossal Colon exhibit

Have Anti-Smoking Rules and Regulations Gone Too Far?

Week of April 23, 2003

Indoor Fireworks

A Teamster tries to smoke out lawbreakers at Schnucks

Vaginas, Unite!

The Vagina Monologues phenomenon finally reaches St. Louis

Unbroken Promise

A young woman raises her voice in the face of despair

Misplaced Morality

There's nothing holy about the war on family planning

The Media Go to Pot

How news outlets blew the medical-marijuana story

Letters

Week of April 18, 2001

Unhealthy Relationship

John Ashcroft gets a shot in the arm from the pharmaceutical and insurance industries, as well as other lobbying groups opposed to a true Patients' Bill of Rights

Will the Real John Ashcroft Please Stand Up?

Missouri's junior senator says he is a pro-consumer health-care reformist. But the insurance companies, HMOs and big business, which give him millions, think he's on their side.

Of Condoms, Catholics and Blood

Disturbed by the Red Cross' promotion of condom use, local Catholics are finding other organizations to handle blood drives. But is their stand having the intended result?

Waiting to Exhale

Dr. Joel Cooper pioneered lung-volume-reduction surgery to save the lives of thousands of emphysema patients. Now he wants the government to get out of the way.

Cultivating Injustice

The perfectly imperfect case for legalizing medical marijuana

WHEN PRO-LIFE MEANS MORE ABORTIONS