Medical Treatments and Procedures

"Miracle" Cannabis Oil: May Treat Cancer, But Money and the Law Stand in the Way of Finding Out

Health Officials Ask Gay Men Traveling to New York for Sex to Get Vaccinated for Meningitis

If you are a gay man and making plans to ring in 2013 in New York City, be sure to get your shots before you go. Health officials are asking homosexual men to play it safe and get vaccinated for Meningitis before traveling to New York where there's been a recent outbreak among gay men. On Novemb ... More >>

Thief Snatches Unvaccinated Pup From SPCA, Reward Offered for Dog's Return

Readers, please be on the lookout for Violet, a 10-week-old terrier mix who was brazenly snatched in broad daylight from the San Francisco SPCA yesterday afternoon. Krista Maloney, spokeswoman for the SPCA, tells us that the brown-and-white pup had recently arrived at the adoption center after Anima ... More >>

Serj Tankian: Show Preview

Rabid Bats Found Near Lake Merced

Yikes! San Francisco health officials found five bats with rabies in the Lake Merced neighborhood, and want you all to watch out. The Health Department and the Mayor's Office issued a written warning to residents last night, and papered the neighborhood with flyers alerting people about the latest c ... More >>

Love's Grimm Outlook

Supervisor Wiener Wants Healthy SF to Cover Gender Reassignment Surgery

Healthy San Francisco, the city's attempt at universal healthcare, has helped many local residents who don't have health insurance receive affordable medical treatment. But who is hasn't helped entirely are San Francisco's transgender residents seeking certain medical procedures, such as gender reas ... More >>

Eliminating the "Crazy" Stigma, One Photograph at a Time

A local grassroots nonprofit launched a new campaign last month to eliminate the stigma that still shrouds mental health.The "Stomp Out Stigma" campaign, also referred to as the SOS campaign, is spearheaded by a locally based organization, Youth In Mind. Through the campaign, the group hopes to infl ... More >>

Five Things to Do in 2012 That Aren't
Radical Weight-Loss Surgery

An acquaintance traveled to Los Angeles recently and saw the ubiquitous 1-800-GET-THIN billboards. "It was like, 'Welcome to LA ... You're fat!'" said Jennifer Yendes. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration took note of the notorious billboards in early December. Regulators officially told marketing ... More >>

UCSF Medical Center, SF General Fined for Surgical Screw-Ups

​UCSF Medical Center and San Francisco General Hospital have both been fined tens of thousands of dollars for operating-room mishaps, the California Department of Public Health announced today.The two are among 14 major hospitals against which state health officials issued sanctions, including top ... More >>

Fresh Eats: Polata Organic: Chef Tenzin's Fare Passes the Vegan Taste Test

Polata Organic in Albany Is Hearty, Simple, Healthy Vegetarian Food

There's a new, extremely healthy, veg restaurant in the East Bay with roots going back over 15 years to the old Organic Cafe in Oakland. A Macrobiotic institution in Oakland, the Organic Cafe changed names to Manzanita and then to Shangri-La Vegan, but the food mostly stayed the same, thanks in larg ... More >>

Obama's War on Weed: President Attacks Medical Marijuana

Miracle Faker: Rick Perry's Texas Teaches America the Wrong Lessons

Gov. Jerry Brown Signs Bill That Heads Off Local Ban on Circumcisions

​The controversy over male circumcisions has officially been nipped in the bud. Governor Jerry Brown on Sunday signed off on a new law that puts the kibosh on local cities and counties looking to criminalize circumcision for males younger than 18.Lawmakers passed the bill last month, claiming a ci ... More >>

A Jewish Perspective on Circumcision: SF Weekly Talks to Cut Director Eli Ungar-Sargon

Eliyahu Ungar-Sargon​Eli Ungar-Sargon was raised in an Orthodox household, with rabbis in the family and a Talmudic scholar father. But Ungar-Sargon, who dropped out of medical school to pursue a film career, struggled to reconcile Jewish traditions and ethical questions, especially regarding ritu ... More >>

Circumcision Ban Cut from the Ballot

"Intactivist" David Pinckney​The city's controversial circumcision ban was officially snipped from the November ballot after Judge Loretta Giorgi ruled this morning that the measure would violate state law that prevents cities and counties from regulating medical services -- when they are a matte ... More >>

Circumcision Ban Compromise: Snip Only Some of the Foreskin!

A third way?​The topic of babies' foreskins has been oddly prominent in our city's political and legal discourse as of late. With a ballot initiative that would ban circumcision going before San Francisco voters this fall, various legal authorities, religious groups, and comic-book illustrators ha ... More >>

Circumcision Ban Is Unconstitutional and Anti-Semitic, City Attorney Says

Now things are really becoming uncomfortable ​City Attorney Dennis Herrera has weighed in on San Francisco's proposed circumcision ban issue, saying that, among other things, it's patently unconstitutional and should be removed from the November ballot. In a brief  filed Thursday afternoon, H ... More >>

Circumcision Ban Didn't Make the Cut in Santa Monica

Only in San Francisco​So it is only in San Francisco that a ban on circumcising would make it to the ballot. Efforts to replicate the city's outlandish proposal in Santa Monica are no more. Jena Troutman, a self-described child advocate, has been leading the charge to gather signatures to place a ... More >>

Circumcision Ban Isn't "Only in San Francisco" After All

S.F. isn't the only city that wants to cut circumcision from its laws​Apparently, you can find a little touch of San Francisco's bizarre in nearly every corner of the country. The city isn't the only one looking to criminalize male circumcision. This national effort to ban the "mutilation" of fore ... More >>

S.F. Circumcision Ban Is a Bad Idea But It Could Still Become Law

TSA Scanners: U.C. San Francisco Radiologists Debunk Radiation Fears

Calm down, people...​Update 12/3: TSA slaps us on the wrist about using this picture. This is an old image. The newer ones look more like Egyptian hieroglyphics. Among the elements of paranoia and righteousness emanating from those opting out of TSA scans today, U.C. San Francisco radiology specia ... More >>

San Francisco Circumcision Ban Unconstitutional, Professor Says

Perform a brit milah, go to jail? ​San Francisco can have its proposed circumcision ban, or it can have the First Amendment. But it can't have both. That's the opinion of Peter Keane, dean emeritus at Golden Gate University School of Law and a constitutional law professor. The potential ballot mea ... More >>

Carly Fiorina Hospitalized

No campaign pit stop...​In a role reversal from having angry nurses follow her around the state, Carly Fiorina has opted to visit them instead. The Republican Senate candidate's campaign confirmed that the breast cancer survivor was undergoing treatment due to an infection related to reconstructiv ... More >>

It's Free

San Francisco Department of Public Health Contained Measles Outbreak, Possibly Saving Lives

Without a measles vaccine, your children's lives may be in danger.Just weeks ago, a San Francisco man who had traveled abroad brought back a deadly souvenier. He had spent some time in Europe with a friend who had been diagnosed with measles, and several days aft ... More >>

Former President of Botswana

Monkey Room

Get Your Teenage Soccer Slut HPV-Proofed

The Future of Hyphy?

The Federation and Turk Talk survive major-label incompetence

No Hail Caesarean

Expectant mothers are losing an option to birth babies naturally and activists are charging it is more about money than safety

Lust for Life

Testing of a promising HIV vaccine requires volunteers who will couple for the cause

Beaming in on The Cure

A new type of radiation therapy, developed by a Bay Area company, shows astonishing promise in fighting cancer

Letters to the Editor

Week of August 7, 2002

The Revolutionary Test for Lung Cancer

... the medical establishment doesn’t want you to have. Yet.

Dying to Know

As a young doctor's tragic fate makes clear, a lack of information about hepatitis B has put many Asian-American lives at risk

Staying Alive

An AIDS vaccine should be our government's highest priority. So why is one researcher forced to seek funding from the War on Terrorism?

Cell Therapy

Bay Area researchers are using a particular cancer to produce neuronlike cells that, when injected into the brain, seem to reverse the effects of stroke. Is the treatment a historic medical breakthrough, or a reckless ploy to attract investors?

Best Place to Get Eyeballed

Urban Eyes

Sticking Point

An AIDS vaccine designed by renowned researcher Don Francis is in final testing. The Plague could be over - but the gay and scientific establishments are utterly unenthused.

Surgery Sans Blood

Jehovah's Witnesses refused transfusions -- and led the way to bloodless surgery

Beat the Press

Slap Shots

Chick's in the Male

Under a proposal receiving serious consideration by the city, health insurers may be required to cover the cost of municipal workers' sex changes

The Living Daylights

Some people with HIV don't get sick for years and years and years. Their lives might contain the clues for the cure.

Phallus in Blunderland

The insatiable desire for bigger and better lured thousands of men into the operating room for penile augmentation surgery. Now, one of the nation's top docs is trying to clean up the mess.

Getting Hep

Hepatitis B is the Rodney Dangerfield of diseases: It just can't get respect. But it sure can kill you.

Letters

Beauty Knows No Pain

Building a Better Body at the 28th Annual Session of the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery