Pay women who are drug addicts to be sterilized. Good or bad? What about if men can be sterilized (and paid) too? Would that make a difference? What if committing to long-term contraception was an option – how would you feel then?

Does this smack of preserving the ultimate race, keeping quality control of babies, or a smart thing to do? Well, regardless of how you feel about it, it’s already happening in the United States, thanks to Project Prevention.

Project Prevention’s mission statement:

Project Prevention offers cash incentives to women that are addicted to drugs and/or alcohol to use long-term or permanent birth control.

Project Prevention is a national, 501 (C) 3 organization that has paid clients in 39 states and the District of Columbia.

Our mission is to reduce the number of substance exposed births to zero.

Because every baby deserves a sober start!

The organization has been subject to many criticisms, from accusations of racism to social engineering and yet, it is still here and still receiving donations from people who believe in the cause. Read More – Sterilize Drug Addicts – and Pay Them?

Not for kids? Really? Excuse me while I go pull my hair out – I won’t have much left after reading about this new product developed and marketed by R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company. What is the product? Dissolvable, flavored tobacco. A smaller company, Star Scientific Inc., is also involved as they have been marketing a similar product for about nine years already.
Now, if you go to the Reynold’s website for the product, www.cameldissolvables.com, you will see that you can’t get in without a huge song-and-dance. You either have to have a special code from one of their products, or go …read more

We may be entering a whole new world of home videos if researchers from Indiana University Hospital in the United States have their way. If you were offered the chance to take home a video of your very own colonoscopy, would you? Would you go as far as to pay for one?
The researchers conducted a survey of patients who underwent colonoscopies to see if they would like a video and if they would be willing to pay for one. Currently, videos are done if a procedure is going to be used as a teaching tool, but otherwise, recording is not …read more

And nowwwwwwwww…….it’s winner time here at Healthbolt.
On January 11, I posted this piece, Surgery for Hiccups… (and Contest!). I invited people to submit their solution for curing hiccups or to tell a hiccup story. The most common solution offered was to swallow a spoonful of sugar. Interesting – I wonder why that one is so popular? The next most popular one was to be scared by someone.
So, we received 260 ideas and I used the system at randomizer.org to come up with number at random. that number was 256, which means the winner of the Amazon.com/.ca or iTunes certificate is …read more

Getting quality health care can be difficult enough for some people, but if you throw into the mix being lesbian, gay, bisexual or transexual, getting quality health care can be even more difficult.
While the actual health issues, such as diabetes, cancer or hypertension, don’t differ from straights, all too often, medical professionals, from doctors and nurses to physiotherapists and nutritionists, don’t understand the cultural issues that affect LGBT patients. In some cases, the professionals may rely on misinformation or myths, or they don’t know where to turn for the information they need. Regardless of the problem, these barriers to adequate …read more

Ah, the throes of passion, the sounds of a good romp – while they may be sensual and a turn on for you, they may not be quite so much for your neighbors. And then, there’s also a big difference between a squeaking mattress and some extra, um, noise, and the screaming that was going on in Washington, south of Newcastle in northeast England.
It seems that Caroline Cartwright, a woman who lives in that town, has been making so much noise during her sexual activity that not only have her neighbors complained, she was given an eight-week prison term suspended …read more

It’s been a week since I started using my SAD light (My S.A.D. Light Experiment Starts Today) and here’s my update: I think it’s working.
I started using it for half an hour, the first two days on 50% strength, the next few on 60% and starting today at 70%. The first two days, I used it within the first hour of being up and then again for 15 minutes in the late afternoon. Since then, I’ve only done it in the morning, again within the first hour of being up, always for half an hour.
I had a few concerns before …read more

You just never know what your iPhone will do for you – and the next time someone comments on the cost or extravagance of your iPhone, tell them that if you want to try to save a life, there’s an app for that.
According to a Yahoo.com story, American film-maker Dan Woolley, who was in Haiti to make a documentary on poverty in that country’s capital, Port-au-Prince, was trapped beneath rubble after the hotel he was staying in collapsed. Unable to get help, Woolley was trapped with a broken leg and a bleeding head wound.
Although a fractured leg is serious, a …read more

You know the five-second rule if you drop food? Well, now you have proof of it:

Click on the paper to see.
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Image: iStock.com

We have drive through restaurants and drive-through banks. I even saw a story about a drive-through church once, so is it inevitable to have drive-through medical clinics at some point?
Actually, it just may be inevitable but not for the reasons you may be thinking. To me, drive-throughs are the height of excess and laziness. Not that I don’t use them myself, I do use drive-through fast food restaurants when they’re available. I don’t use drive-through banking. I do see how that could have its place with people with limited mobility or who have a sleeping infant in the back seat, …read more