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Thanks to continued advances in HIV treatment, patients who previously had to take 20 or more pills a day can now control their infections with a single daily cocktail drug. The first once-a-day therapy to hit the market was Atripla, which, when approved in 2006, vastly simplified the dosing schedules for many HIV-positive patients and is currently considered the gold standard regimen.

Creating designer drugs is an insidiously clever business, and as chemists prepare new street drugs, the results can be disastrous. That s the thrust of a recent blog post by ACSH s Dr. Josh Bloom for Medical Progress Today.
Lately in the news, you may have heard about a few cases in which some deranged folks have started eating the flesh off of the face of another person. Though grotesque and creepy, Dr. Bloom explains how such events are largely due to the powerful psychotropic effects of some street drugs.

This week, two studies presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons examined the effects of smoking on joint replacements of the knee and the hip.

Here s one more reason not to skip your next eye appointment. A recent analysis sponsored by Prevent Blindness America and the National Eye Institute found that, in the past decade, the number of people over 40 with vision impairment and blindness increased by 23 percent. Even more disturbing, for those with diabetes, there was a whopping 89 percent increase in the incidence of diabetic retinal abnormalities known as diabetic retinopathy.

Ah, summer. That time of year when the sun is shining, barbecues are fired up, and your favorite fruits and vegetables are finally ripe and available in bountiful supply. But before you head to the grocery store to enjoy these tasty treats, the Environmental Working Group (EWG) wants you to know that many of these delights are not safe to eat. That s because they re covered in dirty pesticides (gasp)!

Dr. Ruth Kava in the Financial Post
Junk Science Week: CT scans are the real risk, not plastics

As the Alzheimer s Association International Conference 2012 in Vancouver, Canada wraps up today, we find ourselves inundated with new findings related to the disease. Among these were two studies revealing that binge drinking among older people increases the risk of cognitive decline and memory loss.

A survey just published in the CDC s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report revealed that 1 in 13 or about 8 percent of pregnant women drink alcohol. The report also noted that about 1.4 percent of pregnant women binge-drink defined as having four or more drinks on one occasion.

A recent study published in JAMA finds that patients undergoing total hip replacement (THR) and total knee replacement (TKR) surgeries have an increased risk of heart attacks.

Claiming the lives of nearly 1.4 million people globally in 2010, tuberculosis (TB) is second only to HIV/AIDS as the greatest killer due to a single infectious agent. And while TB, a contagious bacterial disease whose greatest damage is generally done to the lungs, is curable, standard anti-TB drug regimens require long treatment durations at least six months, which often becomes a therapeutic barrier.

Last week, Mayor Bloomberg announced yet another beverage restriction in New York City. But rather than reducing soda sizes, this time he s targeting baby formula. In an effort to encourage more mothers to breast-feed, Bloomberg and the NYC Department of Health are pushing for hospitals to keep track of the quantity of baby formula stored, as well as how much is distributed.

A researcher whose work was supported by the Federal government, among others, has agreed to retract two of her papers published in 2009 in the pages of Environmental Health Perspectives and the Journal of Biological Chemistry, respectively.

In yet more dismal news from the smoking front, researchers at Cambridge University have found that, compared to standardized feedback, tailored online advice may be no better at helping smokers quit.

As the much anticipated Fourth of July festivities approach, we d like to remind readers of some of the dangers associated with the holiday: Namely, the improper use of fireworks. As a recent study by the Consumer Product Safety Commission points out, 65 percent of all firework injuries last year occurred within 30 days of Independence Day and more than half resulted from the unexpected ignition of these devices or from their unintended use. In total, four celebrants were killed and as many as 9,600 were injured by either professional-grade or homemade firework devices.

Non-nutritive sweeteners (NNS) are a potentially useful option for losing weight, with some caveats, announced the American Heart Association and the American Diabetes Association in a joint statement yesterday. Excess consumption of sugar can result in adverse health effects, including obesity and type 2 diabetes, yet NNS can provide foods with the same sweet taste without the worry of extra calories.

Encouraging news about the hepatitis B vaccine: Vaccination at birth appears to protect against the virus well into adulthood, according to a new study from Taiwan. The results suggest that booster shots in adulthood are not necessary. Nearly four million people world wide are newly infected with the hepatitis B virus (HBV) every year.

Too many women who have had a C-section aren't aware that they can still opt for a vaginal delivery the next time, according to a small study just published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology. The authors of the study suspect that most of these women aren't being given all the information they need in order to make this choice.

A new mother is faced with many important issues and must make key decisions while still in the fog of post-partum joy and pain, and confusion. One such decision is whether to breastfeed or hit the bottle: infant formula.

For years, cranberry products have been touted as a folk remedy to prevent urinary tract infections (UTI), but now a new study seems to arrive at the same conclusion, but this time uses science to support it.

In April, we lauded the FDA for ignoring chemophobic hype when the agency refused to ban the use of bisphenol A (BPA) in food packaging, cans, and other consumer products. Despite activist pressure including a lawsuit by the Natural Resources Defense Council the FDA stuck to its scientific guns and determined that BPA posed no health threats to consumers.

Last week, the European Medicines Agency the EU analog of our FDA announced that it is, for the first time, recommending a gene therapy product for the treatment of a rare disease called lipoprotein lipase deficiency.

It s no secret that staph infections resistant to multiple antibiotics have become a major problem in hospitals over the past few decades. But such infections contracted outside of a medical setting have also been problematic: The rate of community-onset methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) peaked at 62 percent of the population in 2006. However, the increased awareness of this problem may finally have had some impact.

n a recent Op-Ed for Reuters, FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg boasted about the success of the 2009 Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act. The news would be quite welcome if only it were true.

Josh Bloom, Forbes August 9, 2012, "The Contraction Of Pharma Means Innovation Goes Out With a Bang"
Given all the analyses and post-mortems of America s pharmaceutical industry, it is impossible to avoid the notion that a lack of innovation has left the industry in its current, sorry state.

Radiation therapy appears to be a good choice for older women with early-stage breast cancer, according to a recent study published in Cancer. In fact, the retrospective, observational study found that women ages 70 to 79 reduced their risk of a follow-up mastectomy by two thirds if they received radiation therapy after their lumpectomy.