Were you aware the patent office is granting exclusive ownership to THOUGTS these days?

I kid you not. Check out this article by Michael Crichton.

Elevated homocysteine is linked to B-12 deficiency, so doctors should test homocysteine levels to see whether the patient needs vitamins.

ACTUALLY, I can't make that last statement. A corporation has patented that fact, and demands a royalty for its use. Anyone who makes the fact public and encourages doctors to test for the condition and treat it can be sued for royalty fees. Any doctor who reads a patient's test results and even thinks of vitamin deficiency infringes the patent. A federal circuit court held that mere thinking violates the patent.

This same line of law would allow the patenting of plot-lines for novels (imagine having to pay DIsney for any "Boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy wins girl back" story), of research avenues (having to pay Bayer to do research on Diabetes), and of methods of public expression (having to pay Greenpeace for protests involving hand-carried signs). This is patents gone berserk.