Eideard

New research shows people who regularly take ibuprofen may reduce their risk of developing Parkinson’s disease, according to a study released February 17…

The research involved 136,474 people who did not have Parkinson’s disease at the beginning of the research. Participants were asked about their use of non-steroid anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), including aspirin, ibuprofen and acetaminophen. After six years, 293 participants had developed Parkinson’s disease.

The study found regular users of ibuprofen were 40 percent less likely to develop Parkinson’s disease than people who didn’t take ibuprofen. Also, people who took higher amounts of ibuprofen were less likely to develop Parkinson’s disease than people who took smaller amounts of the drug. The results were the same regardless of age, smoking and caffeine intake.

“Ibuprofen was the only NSAID linked to a lower risk of Parkinson’s,” said Xiang Gao, MD, with Harvard School of Public Health in Boston. “Other NSAIDs and analgesics, including aspirin and acetaminophen, did not appear to have any effect on lowering a person’s risk of developing Parkinson’s. More research is needed as to how and why ibuprofen appears to reduce the risk of Parkinson’s disease, which affects up to one million people in the United States.”

I’ll second that. I’ve seen a few folks waste away via Parkinson’s. Terribly frustrating ailment.

Like me.

Daylife/Getty Images used by permission

In a ruling of interest to educators, parents and students across the country, the Supreme Court ruled, 8 to 1, that the strip search of a 13-year-old Arizona girl by school officials who were looking for prescription-strength drugs violated her constitutional rights.

The officials in Safford, Ariz., would have been justified in 2003 had they limited their search to the backpack and outer clothing of Savana Redding, who was in the eighth grade at the time, the court ruled. But in searching her undergarments, they went too far and violated her Fourth Amendment privacy rights, the justices said.

Had Savana been suspected of having illegal drugs that could have posed a far greater danger to herself and other students, the strip search, too, might have been justified, the majority said, in an opinion by Justice David H. Souter.

“In sum, what was missing from the suspected facts that pointed to Savana was any indication of danger to the students from the power of the drugs or their quantity, and any reason to suppose that Savana was carrying pills in her underwear,” the court said. “We think that the combination of these deficiencies was fatal to finding the search reasonable.”

In fact, no pills were found on Savana when her underwear was examined by two school officials, both women, who were acting on a tip passed along by another student…

Questions of individual responsibility vs. institutional bureaucrat protections will come up in lower courts – if the young lass and her family care to pursue them.

Meanwhile, an important step in redefining privacy has been taken. I’d be the first to admit to contradictory feelings about crime vs. privacy; but, this appears to be just one more case of officials thinking they are little tin gods.

Hell apparently hath no fury like a Motrin mom scorned. It began innocently enough—a painkiller ad targeted to aching moms. But seems the spot touched a nerve in the ever-growing blogging mom community, drawing heat for claims that ibuprofen (brand name Motrin) could help cure the pain in the neck, not to mention back and shoulders, caused by carrying a baby in a sling, wrap or “schwing.”

Scores of angry moms took to Twitter to slam the ad’s flip tone (the narrator brags that toting her baby “close to the bod … totally makes me look like an official mom”). A number of Twitterers took offense at the spot’s lament: “And so if I look tired and crazy, people will understand why.” A typical response echoed this one posted by homemakerbarbi: “I love my front carrier, and don’t appreciate being told I look ‘crazy’ for baby-wearing. Bad job this time, Motrin.”

McNeil Consumer Healthcare, the maker of Motrin, responded by taking the ad down from the Motrin Web site. Marc Boston, McNeil’s director of communications, read a prepared statement when contacted by phone, apologizing for “any concerns raised” by the advertisement.

Har!

UPDATED

An Arizona school violated the constitutional rights of a 13-year-old student by conducting a strip search for ibuprofen, a divided U.S. appeals court has ruled.

Suspecting that a student had violated a policy against prescription or over-the-counter drugs without permission, public school officials in Safford, Arizona, ordered a search of Savana Redding. A school nurse had her remove her clothes, including her bra, and shake her underwear to see if Redding was hiding anything.

The 2003 search, prompted by a tip from another girl, did not find ibuprofen, which is found in common medications like Advil and Motrin to treat pain like cramps and headaches. Higher doses require a prescription…
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