TopNews

Health officials in Massachusetts on Friday overhauled the process of granting licenses for medical marijuana dispensaries.

Regulators from the administration of Governor Charlie Baker revamped licensing strikes away the subjectivity and secrecy that had ruined the system under former governor Deval Patrick’s tenure.

It has been found that the controversy surrounding the previous system sparked more than two dozen lawsuits, and left patients without any dispensaries 2½ years after voters approved marijuana for medical use.

A new map released by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has offered the most distinctive causes of death in each state across the country. The map suggests that heart disease and cancer could be counted as the leading cause of mortality around the United States. The CDC map uses the data and medical records between 2001 and 2010.

After heart related ailments and cancers, diabetes, flu related illnesses and inflammatory diseases of pelvic organs were among the causes of death.

Some of the ratings highlighted in the map were quite surprising, such as in mining states of West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Kentucky, where pneumoconioses, was the most distinctive cause of death. Pneumoconioses are brought on by inhaling certain dusts.

The Boardman Relay for Life always has something interesting when it starts and on Friday night, the Survivors Lap featured some enthralling stories. According to the Survivors Lap, it was for a number of people in the country who have been saved by the American Cancer Society due to the funding from Relay for Life.

On Friday, two individuals who have beaten cancer twice were holding a banner of the Survivors Lap at Boardman Center Middle School. It included John Whitinger, who is founder of Poland Relay. According to Whitinger, he came back to the place where his journey against the cancer had started.

According to Columbia University researchers, a new study conducted by them has found that more than half of the popular probiotics contain traces of gluten. That amount of gluten could trouble a number of people who are suffering from digestive illnesses, the researchers said.

The Celiac Disease Center at Columbia University stated that the researchers examined more than 20 top-selling probiotics and found that about 55% of them contained detectable gluten. Samantha Nazareth, a gastroenterologist at CUMC and lead author of the study, said probiotics are very popular as a number of people who have been suffering from celiac disease take dietary supplements.

The controversial school vaccine bill SB 277, which met several protests by supporters and opponents of the bill, has been passed by California Senate on Thursday by a vote of 25-10. The bill aims at improving the vaccination rates among children in the state. The senate has permitted medical exemptions, but the exemptions based on personal and religious objections will not be permitted.

Now, the bill will go through the Assembly. It would not offer any option to parents in the state to opt out of state immunization requirements on the basis of their personal beliefs. According to reports, only those children will be excused from vaccinations who have medical problems like weakened immune system. The medical problems should also be verified by a physician.

On Friday, officials said all the poultry shows have been canceled at the Minnesota State Fair and all county fairs across the state this year as authorities are trying to stop a deadly bird flu virus. Other states have already made or are also considering such kind of moves.

Dr. Beth Thompson, assistant director of the Minnesota Board of Animal Health, said the cancellations will prove helpful in preventing the spread of the disease ‘by not allowing the birds to be comingling’.

So far till Friday, 88 Minnesota turkey and chicken farms had been affected by confirmed or presumed outbreaks of the H5N2 avian influenza virus, costing the state's producers around 5.8 million birds.