Health Buzz: Plastic Surgery and Other Health News

Donda West's Death Leads to Increased Scrutiny of Plastic Surgery

California doctors and lawmakers are pushing for increased oversight of plastic surgery procedures performed at outpatient surgical centers following the November death of Donda West—the mother of popular rapper Kanye West, according to the Los Angeles Times. Plastic surgery procedures are often performed in outpatient centers, but some experts argue that doctors who operate at such clinics avoid undergoing as thorough a review as they would need in order to earn privileges to treat patients at a hospital. Newly proposed legislation calls for outpatient clinics to be inspected at least once every three years, requires patients to get a physical exam before cosmetic surgery, and bans photos or advertisements that create unrealistic expectations.

U.S. News reported on the risks of plastic surgery and answered common questions after West's death. And recently, Matthew Shulman explained the pitfalls of getting plastic surgery abroad.

Study Explores Inspect Repellent Possibilities

Scientists have found seven promising new mosquito repellents, and some of them last longer than DEET, the current popular offering, according to the Associated Press. The new repellents must be tested to ensure they're safe for widespread use, so it may be a few years before any are sold on store shelves. Early tests using cloth were promising, the AP reports. Some of the chemicals repelled mosquitoes for up to 73 days, compared with DEET's 17.5 day average, according to findings published today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

U.S. News's Katherine Hobson explained why some people are more attractive to mosquitoes than others, and Michelle Andrews described how mosquito traps are used.

Do You Need to Be Healthy as a President?

Every year, the White House issues a press release with the details of the president's annual physical exam—including such details as weight, blood pressure, body fat percentage, eye exam results, cholesterol numbers, and EKG reading. Now, the rest of us can get similar attention. A concierge medical practice in Los Angeles is offering a "Presidential Physical," starting at $1,400 a pop. The exam includes a lengthy list of tests it says is modeled after the president's own checkup, Katherine Hobson reports.

Should you spring for this exam? The answer is probably not, according to experts, and not just because of its price tag. Hobson explains what a $1,400 presidential physical includes.

What Parents Need to Know About Marijuana

A recent flurry of findings on marijuana's health risks may have parents wondering if their kids are in danger of heart or mental health issues, Sarah Baldauf reports. Researchers have learned plenty about pot in recent years, though there's much that is still not known and plenty that's hotly debated. Parents may just want to listen up: The most recent National Survey on Drug Use and Health found that among marijuana users over age 12, almost 35 percent used the drug 20 or more days in the past month.

Parents who used pot as kids should know that one thing has changed: Pot packs a bigger wallop now than it did in the '70s. Today's leaves are up to five times as potent. So, says Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, still-developing brains, which are "more plastic, more sensitive to being modified," are exposed to higher doses of THC, the psychoactive ingredient in cannabis.

In April, Baldauf described questions that teens pose on peer pressure and drugs, and she listed seven questions from teens on abusing easy-to-use substances.

—January W. Payne