Author: Personal Liberty News Desk

A recent study has found that combining tamoxifen, the most prescribed breast cancer drug in the world, with a compound originating from the feverfew plant may help prevent initial or future resistance to the medication.

"A solution to tamoxifen resistance is sorely needed, and if a strategy like this can work, it would make a difference in our clinical care of breast cancer," said Robert Clarke, the study’s lead investigator.

Approximately 70 percent of newly diagnosed breast cancer patients are prescribed tamoxifen, although half of those individuals do not initially respond to the drug due to an aggressive resistance.

In the study, researchers from the Georgetown University Medical Center found that the purified chemical known as parthenolide, a derivative of feverfew, was able to successfully block the activity of nuclear factor kappa B (NF- κB), a protein complex that is often over-expressed in breast cancer patients, leading to the body’s resistance to tamoxifen.

Although the researchers are optimistic, they believe that it is too early to recommend the drug combination to patients as they are still unsure of its long-term benefits.

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has accused fellow Republicans of being hypocrites for criticizing last year’s recovery act while willingly accepting stimulus money for their own state.

Speaking on ABC’s This Week, Schwarzenegger stated that the $787 billion stimulus bill was imperative and mocked members of the GOP for not working with the current administration.

"I find it interesting that you have a lot of the Republicans running around and pushing back on the stimulus money and saying this doesn’t create any new jobs," Schwarzenegger said.

"And then they go out and they do the photo ops and they are posing with the big check and they say, ‘Isn’t this great? Look what kind of money I provide here for the state.’…It doesn’t match up," he added.

The California governor also agreed that the GOP was the "Party of No," as many liberals have branded it. He said that Republican opposition to President Obama is driven by the party’s desire to win mid-term elections in November.

With tax time just around the corner, many Americans may soon be looking to relieve their stress by drinking chamomile tea. A new controlled research trial has found that chamomile extract therapy can be effective in treating mild to moderate symptoms related to generalized anxiety disorder (GAD).

The study followed patients with moderate GAD who received either chamomile or placebo treatment. Patients who took chamomile extract were found to have a significant decrease in the severity of their anxiety compared to those who received the placebo.

These findings are significant "because many individuals who suffer from GAD do not view their anxiety as a medical condition, [so] self-diagnosis and self-medicating with alternative, over-the-counter remedies is common," said Michael Van Ameringen and Beth Patterson, who evaluated the study for Faculty of 1000, a website which assesses current scientific research papers.

They added that chamomile may be especially useful for those who are averse to conventional pharmacotherapy.

Chamomile has also been touted as a natural remedy for digestive disorders, including irritable bowel syndrome, Crohn’s disease and diarrhea.

A new survey has found that while Americans tend to appreciate President Obama’s efforts on the national security front, many are also disappointed with his handling of the economic policies at home.

The poll, conducted by Franklin & Marshall College in conjunction with Hearst Television, revealed that 57 percent of registered American voters approve of the way Obama is dealing with the situation in Afghanistan, and half also approve of the way he is handling national security issues.

However, only 45 percent of registered respondents agree with the way the president is dealing with the country’s economic problems.

Republicans may also find reason for optimism during this midterm election year, as the poll is just the latest to reveal that more Americans now say they would vote for the Republican candidate (39 percent) than the Democratic candidate (35 percent), if the House elections were held today. In September 2009, the Democrats led the Republicans, 43 percent to 30 percent, on this question.

Among other finds, the study uncovered a low level of optimism about the course the U.S. is on, with only one in three citizens (35 percent) believing the country is headed in the right direction.

And although most people cite the economy and personal finances as the most challenging problems their families currently face, an overwhelming 75 percent also agree that the healthcare system needs to be reformed.

Low potassium levels may lead to an increased risk of hospitalization or death in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) and heart failure, according to a new study.

"Hypokalemia, or low potassium, is common in heart-failure patients and is associated with poor outcomes, as is chronic kidney disease," said study author C. Barrett Bowling, fellow at the University of Alabama at Birmingham division of gerontology.

"But little is known about the prevalence and effect of hypokalemia in heart-failure patients who also have CKD," he added.

In the study, researchers examined data from more than 1,000 patients suffering from CKD and heart failure. During the 57-month follow-up period, a total of 48 percent of patients with hypokalemia died, compared to only 36 percent of individuals with normal potassium levels. The hospitalization rate was also slightly higher for those with moderate to high hypokalemia.

The researchers concluded that physicians need to be aware of the risks heart failure and CKD patients with mildly low potassium levels may be facing.

Several major food groups that are high in potassium include root vegetables, fresh fruit, dairy and white meats.

The $15 billion jobs bill that was kept alive on Monday by five republicans who crossed the aisle to support cloture, including newly elected Senator Scott Brown (R-Mass.), passed in the Senate on Wednesday.

Brown and four other Republicans joined 57 Democrats in voting to block a GOP-led filibuster of the jobs bill, which was championed by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.).

"I came to Washington to be an independent voice, to put politics aside and to do everything in my power to help create jobs for Massachusetts families," said Brown, who represents the 41st Republican vote in the Senate.

"This jobs bill is not perfect … but I voted for it because it contains measures that will help put people back to work," he added.

Brown also noted that he wished the tax cuts for businesses outlined in the bill were deeper and more expansive.

If passed, the bill will exempt businesses from Social Security payroll taxes if they hire the unemployed as well as give them another $1,000 tax credit if new workers remain on the job for a full year, according to Fox News.

Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee has criticized the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), whose recent conference he refused to attend, alleging it has departed from its conservative principles.

Speaking on Fox News last weekend, Huckabee said that CPAC has become "more libertarian and less Republican over the last few years, one of the reasons why I [did not attend the event] this year."

The former GOP presidential candidate also suggested that the popularity of the Tea Party nation movement and its events all over the country have caused the influence of the CPAC to rapidly decline, and the organization is becoming irrelevant.

"The Tea Party has taken all the oxygen out of the room, where CPAC was historically the event," he told Fox News host Geraldo Rivera.

Huckabee was partially responding to the CPAC presidential straw poll over the weekend, in which he scored only 4 percent among CPAC voters and came in sixth place.

Meanwhile, CPAC representatives responded to the former governor’s allegations by saying they were "perplexed" and denied the purported libertarian slant.

According to the American Conservative Union, the organization that has hosted CPAC for 37 years, the 2010 event drew more than 10,000 conservative activists from across the country, including more than 5,000 college students.

At the recent Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) conference, Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) has once again called for a return to the gold standard and abolishing the Fed, and his message seems to be resonating with many conservatives. However, Paul’s growing popularity has many GOP insiders worried.

After the speech, in which he called national debt "the monster" that is keeping the economy close to the brink, the traditional CPAC presidential straw poll showed Paul winning over other potential candidates. In total, the Texas congressman garnered 31 percent of the vote, leaving former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney at a distant second with 22 percent, according to media reports.

However, even though The National Inflation Association said it was "thrilled" with Paul’s anti-inflation stance, many conservatives have been wary of his growing influence within the GOP.

Politicians such as former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee said it makes the party lean too much into the libertarian direction, while conservative commentator David Frum called Paul’s financial proposals "far from golden."

Writing for CNN, Frum suggested that the recession of 1929 turned into the Great Depression because political decision-makers at the time were "trapped" by the rules of the gold standard. Those rules forced them to cut spending and raise taxes during a downturn, thus "capsizing" the economy into depression.

In a recent speech, former Alaska governor and unofficial leader of the Tea Party nation, Sarah Palin, called on its activists to join forces with one of the established political parties to boost their electoral chances in November.

Palin pointed out that since independents are such an important part of the movement and "we have a two-party system, they’re going to have to pick a party and run one or the other: ‘R’ or ‘D’," quoted by CBS.

The former vice presidential candidate’s call may appear surprising, because when she addressed the first national Tea Party convention earlier this month, she praised its decentralized nature and said it consisted of "real people, not politicos, inside-the-beltway professionals."

However, it seems that at least some members of the anti-establishment movement may be receptive to her new message. According to The Daily Citizen, a newspaper in Georgia, local Tea Party organizers hope to recruit conservative Democrats.

"We need to reach out to Democrats," said Naomi Swanson, an organizer of area chapters, quoted by the news provider. "And you know what? I think they’re ready. So let’s put that on our list."

According to a recent study, middle-aged and elderly people need as much sleep as younger people to properly function the next day. The findings dispute the common belief that people need less shut-eye as they age.

Sean Drummond, a psychologist at the University of California, San Diego, and his colleagues studied sleep patterns and their impact on learning ability of 33 older and 29 younger individuals.

Both groups spent two nights in the lab while scientists monitored their sleep patterns. After the second night, both sets of participants were given memory tests and had their brains scanned using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), which monitors oxygen take-up by neurons.

Researchers found that the testing performance of the elderly person’s group was directly correlated to the previous night’s sleep.

"For older adults, the absolute number of minutes of sleep they got last night has a significant influence on brain function today," said Drummond. "Whereas in young adults, the amount of sleep they get isn’t so important."

He added that older people may need more time in bed as they commonly struggle to sleep through the night without waking up.

There are numerous herbal supplements on the market that can help with sleeping disorders, including melatonin, valerian and kava.

A recent survey of public opinion has found that regardless of their political views and voting preferences, most Americans are united in their criticism of the recent Supreme Court decision that relaxed campaign finance laws.

Citing constitutional rights to free speech, the highest court decided Jan. 21 to ease the limits on corporate campaign donations, allowing businesses, unions and advocacy groups to air political ads.

The decision came under fire from many politicians, with rivals such as Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) and President Obama speaking out against it, and it now appears the majority of Americans agree with both of them.

According to a new Washington Post–ABC News poll, approximately 80 percent of Americans said they are against the court’s 5-4 decision in Citizens v. Federal Election Commission, The Washington Post reported.

"If there’s one thing that Americans from the left, right and center can all agree on, it’s that they don’t want more special interests in our politics," said Senator Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), quoted by the news provider.

Schumer is spearheading the effort announced by President Obama during last month’s State of the Union speech to pass legislation that would limit the impact of the court’s decision.

As the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has decided to begin developing open Internet regulation, the Center for Individual Freedom (CIF) has unveiled a national grassroots campaign to rally conservatives in opposition to the efforts.

The Stop Net Regulation campaign was launched during the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, D.C., and it encourages Americans to go online and sign a national petition, and contact their elected officials.

"’Stop Net Regulation’ will serve as the hub for the growing movement of conservatives across the country opposed to the federal government regulating the internet," said CIF president Jeffrey Mazzella.

He added that "hundreds of thousands of American jobs depend on private investment by Internet companies and these new regulations stand directly in the way of the nation’s economic recovery."

The FCC plan is intended to put in place regulations that would prevent these companies from restricting access to Internet content, applications and services offered by competitors. However, big Internet providers such as AT&T, Verizon and Comcast have expressed their opposition, stating that regulations will prevent them from managing Internet traffic to keep services running smoothly to all subscribers.

Analysts say that applications such as Google, Skype and Facebook would be among the biggest beneficiaries of "net neutrality."

Republican members of the House Oversight Committee have issued a new report accusing the embattled Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now (ACORN) of political corruption and numerous fraudulent dealings.

The 50,000 page report, titled Follow the Money: ACORN, SEIU and their Political Allies, accuses the scandal-plagued organization of voter registration fraud, improper use of taxpayer’s money and an unlawful partnership with a major labor union.

"Perceptions that ACORN is a charitable organization are simply wrong and part of ACORN’s efforts to deceive the American people," said Representative Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), the top Republican on the committee.

"ACORN is a political machine that uses a complex corporate web [and] powerful political allies to break laws in pursuit of a partisan agenda," he added.

The report also alleges that ACORN contributed to the financial collapse by intimidating banks into lowering mortgage lending standards, Fox News reports. Moreover, it accuses the organization of entering into an illegal agreement with the Service Employees International Union, a partnership that has been used to target political candidates, Republicans say.

Officials with the group are currently challenging Congress’ decision to strip ACORN of its financing in federal court.

According to a recent study, beneficial properties found in green tea may help protect against glaucoma and other common eye diseases.

Researchers have long thought that antioxidants in green tea known as catechins were capable of protecting the eye, but no one knew for sure if they could actually pass from the stomach and gastrointestinal tract into the tissues of the eye.

After conducting various experiments with lab rats, study author Chi Pui Pang and his colleagues concluded that eye structures are in fact capable of absorbing significant amounts of individual catechins. The beneficial effects of antioxidants found in green tea lasted in the eye for up to 20 hours.

"Our results indicate that green tea consumption could benefit the eye against oxidative stress," which can lead to retinal diseases such as age-related macular degeneration and glaucoma, said Pang.

Additional studies need to be conducted to confirm green tea’s protective effect in humans.

Separate studies have also suggested that antioxidants may help prevent heart disease, improve immune system function and protect against certain forms of cancer.

Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush told Fox and Friends last week that populist anger toward Washington could result in a political "tsunami" that sweeps many Democrats out of Congress come the mid-term elections this November.

"I think we’re living in such a complex world and our federal government just appears—and not just appears—is pretty incompetent," said Bush.

The former governor blasted President Obama for not adapting his ideology in light of populist displeasure regarding the administration’s policies. Bush also mentioned that the president and other Democrats should have learned something from Republican Scott Brown’s recent senatorial victory in Massachusetts, a historically liberal state.

"My prediction is if the administration and Congress doesn’t try to change its course, there will be huge gains for challengers to incumbents, but most particularly for conservatives, most particularly for Republicans," said Bush.

Meanwhile, former Vice President Dick Cheney told political activists at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Thursday that he believes Barack Obama is a "one-term president."

Cheney noted that the recent GOP victories in Massachusetts, New Jersey and Virginia are "enormously encouraging" for Republican prospects this fall, according to The Washington Post.

In Mitt Romney’s upcoming book, No Apology: The Case for American Greatness, the former Massachusetts governor blasts President Obama for continually apologizing for the United States on a global stage.

"Never before in American history has its president gone before so many foreign audiences to apologize for so many American misdeeds, both real and imagined," wrote Romney, quoted by Fox News.

The former GOP presidential candidate added that Obama’s remorseful tone often kindles anti-American fires that are burning overseas.

Romney also heavily criticizes the implementation of the Wall Street bailout, uncontrolled government spending and the "all-Democratic" stimulus package passed in early 2009.

"New expensive programs and entitlements must be off the table," he says, quoted by the news source. "If we do not bring government finances under control, our recovery will be long and slow, and we will risk another downturn precipitated by a severely weakened dollar," he added.

Many commentators believe that Romney’s book tour will set the stage for a second White House run in 2012. He plans to make a stop in 19 states, including several swing states also visited by former Alaska governor Sarah Palin on her recent book tour.

Just a few days before the White House-initiated bipartisan healthcare summit is to take place, President Obama released a new reform proposal on Monday that builds on legislation that was created by the Senate late last year. However, the administration’s latest attempt at an overhaul of the healthcare system has drawn ire from many Republicans who see it as another example of the Democrats’ refusal to compromise.

Obama’s new plan is, in essence, a combination of the House and Senate bills that were created by Democrats in 2009.

The proposal still gives the federal government the power to regulate the health insurance industry by blocking or limiting substantial premium increases for consumers. It will also dramatically scale back the Senate proposal for a tax on high-cost insurance plans and will utilize a Medicare payroll tax increase to plug the revenue gap, according to The Associated Press.

In evaluating the new plan, GOP leaders have said that the proposed legislation and the bipartisan summit on Thursday are simply veiled efforts by Democrats to push through their own agenda.

"This week’s summit clearly has all the makings of a Democratic infomercial for continuing on a partisan course that relies on more backroom deals and parliamentary tricks to circumvent the will of the American people and jam through a massive government takeover of healthcare," said House Minority Leader John Boehner.

White House spokesman Dan Pfeiffer said the proposal is simply an "opening bid" going into Thursday’s summit.

Senator Evan Bayh (D-Ind.) announced last week that he will not seek re-election in November, and the media have been filled with speculations about his possible motives ever since.

Although Bayh officially stated that he was disillusioned with what he termed as a "dysfunctional" political system riddled with "brain-dead partisanship," and added that he had "no idea" what he would be doing next, many observers believe there may have been other reasons behind his decision.

In fact, the term "lobbyist" began appearing in post-announcement commentaries, as The Huffington Post pointed out that based on figures from the progressive watchdog group Public Citizen, a total of 43 percent of Congress members who retired between 1998 and 2004 registered as lobbyists.

One news website, called The Seminal, drew a link between the senator’s announcement and the decision of Billy Tauzin, the former Louisiana congressman who is the head of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, the industry’s lobby group, to retire at the end of June.

The news provider stressed that until Tauzin’s announcement, Bayh’s campaign team and Capitol Hill staff apparently believed he was still on course to run for re-election.

Whatever he ends up doing next, Bayh—who prior to becoming senator in 1999, served as the 46th governor of Indiana from 1989 to 1997—has reportedly ruled out running for the White House in 2012.

Fox News commentator Sarah Palin said she was disappointed with the animated comedy Family Guy’s joke in which the character Chris falls for a girl with Down syndrome who says her mother is "the former governor of Alaska."

Palin, whose youngest son has Down Syndrome, wrote on her Facebook page that she felt like she received "another kick in the gut," and asked "when is enough enough?" quoted by the Associated Press (AP).

Various members of the former Alaska governor’s family also weighed in, with her daughter Bristol stating that the producers of the parody show that airs on Fox were "heartless jerks" for what she said was an act of mocking her brother.

This is not the first time Sarah Palin has been caught up in a "political correctness" controversy surrounding the way public figures have used terms that may refer to people with disabilities in a derogatory manner.

Earlier this month, she blasted White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel for calling some Democrats "f*** retarded," something which Palin said amounted to a "racial slur."

The former GOP vice presidential candidate called on President Obama to remove the Chicago politician from his inner circle.

America’s most famous plumber was the talk of the 2008 presidential campaign, but it seems that two years later there is no love lost between Samuel J. Wurzelbacher, who came to symbolize the GOP’s popular appeal, and Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.), who was the party’s presidential candidate.

During last weekend’s campaign rally in Pennsylvania for gubernatorial candidate Sam Rohrer, Wurzelbacher—commonly known as Joe the Plumber—said McCain is "no public servant" and a "career politician."

In a subsequent interview with Pennsylvania Public Radio, Wurzelbacher went on to claim that McCain tried to use him in the 2008 campaign and he "really screwed up my life."

"I don’t owe him s**t," he responded to the host’s suggestion that he is famous because of McCain.

Joe the Plumber also said he no longer supported Sarah Palin—McCain’s 2008 running mate—since she has endorsed the Arizona senator for reelection in November.

Surprisingly, the 36-year-old had kinder words for President Obama, reportedly saying that "his ideology is un-American, but he’s one of the more honest politicians. At least he told us what he wanted to do," according to media reports.

Since the 2008 presidential election, Wurzelbacher published a book about his experiences, and has appeared as a motivational speaker and commentator.