Researchers at the University of California, Riverside may as well tell smokers looking to switch to e-cigarettes to keep smoking regular cigarettes based on their study claiming that current versions of the cigarette alternative present a range of issues that pose possible public health risks.
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An FDA panel has recommended expanding the indications for Merck & Co.’s human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine Gardasil to include the prevention of anal cancer. The endorsement comes after a clinical trial that followed 4,065 men, 602 of them gay, for 36 months. At the trial’s conclusion, 3 percent of the gay men who received the vaccine had developed anal cancer or anal lesions, compared to 12 percent of the men who got a placebo.
The excessive and improper use of antibiotics has contributed to the evolution of drug-resistant bacteria, yet doctors are still prescribing antibiotics for ear infections when pressured by parents — which is not only unnecessary but expensive.
Former U.S. Surgeon General and longtime ACSH friend Dr. C. Everett Koop (known as “Chick”) is warning that the public’s “irrational fear” of AIDS has given way to a “a growing sense of complacency” that’s just as dangerous. The 95-year-old retired pediatric surgeon spoke at the National Press Club on Wednesday from a wheelchair while in Washington to attend a national summit on HIV.
Kids in the Buckeye school district of Arizona may now have yet another reason to tease some of their classmates. Students who are considered obese by a body mass index test administered during gym class are receiving letters to take home to their parents notifying them of the results.
“If I were a parent and got that letter, I’d just be angry,” says Dr. Whelan.
When it comes to following public health directives, it seems that infants, toddlers and even those petulant adolescents are better listeners than grown-ups, as the 2009 National Health Interview Survey reveals that vaccination rates are low in U.S. adults. Data from the survey indicates a 7.4 percent decrease in total pneumococcal vaccination rates in adults between 19 and 64, and the decrease is more prevalent in minority groups.
Today’s front page of The New York Times featured an article on the alleged health dangers associated with cone-beam CT scanners, devices that are gaining widespread popularity among dentists and orthodontists for their 3-D imaging capabilities, efficiency and versatility.
While today marks the 33rd annual Great American Smokeout, put away your firewood because this isn’t a call for a national bonfire, as the name might mistakenly imply, but is instead an event sponsored by the American Cancer Society that encourages smokers to drop the habit for 24 hours. By urging smokers to not puff on a cigarette for a whole day, the ACS hopes that this may be just the right kind of motivation to get them to quit permanently.
A new treatment for the retinal disease age-related macular degeneration (ARMD) is making progress in clinical trials. Macular degeneration is a disease that can cause blindness, leading to the loss of central vision as a result of damage to nerve cells in the region of the retina known as the macula. It is the most common cause of blindness in adults, except perhaps for cataracts. The new treatment — called VEGF Trap-Eye — was developed by Regeneron Pharmaceuticals.
Last December, the U.S. Preventative Task Force, an independent panel of health experts, raised some controversy when it upped the age at which women should receive yearly mammograms from 40 to 50.
Celebrity Vitamin D advocate Gwyneth Paltrow may (or may not) have a legitimate deficiency of the nutrient, but the notion of a pervasive problem of vitamin D and calcium deficiency in U.S.
A harmonious symbiosis between Big Pharma and academia will hopefully lead to the speedier development of better medications for the treatment of a spectrum of psychiatric disorders. Nine pharmaceutical companies have teamed up with a group of academic institutions to create a large database that will share results from previous clinical trials on drugs that have already gained market approval.
Josh Bloom, The New York Post, December 1, 2010
The 'pariahs' who tamed AIDS
Another study in Human Reproduction, which examined 13,815 Danish women, reported that women who smoked for part or all of their pregnancy bore daughters began menstruating at a slightly younger age than the daughters of non-smokers.Menarche is the age at which a girl has her first period.
In the first national physician survey conducted by the American Medical Association, study researchers found that 78 percent of the 2,400 participating physicians believe insurers mandate preauthorization requirements for an unreasonable list of tests, procedures and drugs. Health insurers often require physicians to ask permission first before performing a treatment, which consumes a significant amount of time and complicates medical decisions.
Two pieces of news appeared yesterday with respect to birth control. First, Reuters reported on a three year study evaluating the reproductive outcomes of 52,000 women in the United States. The study found that unintended pregnancy rates of those taking regimens of birth control pills were highest among obese women and adolescents.
Eighteen percent of American women and 6.5 percent of American men use tanning beds, according to a survey of more than 2,800 whites by University of Minnesota researchers reported in yesterday’s Los Angeles Times. Most of those employing tanning beds said that they did not know that their use magnifies their risk of skin cancer. In response, ACSH's Dr.
Last week brought news that Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) was holding a press conference about the perils of “toxic” chemicals. As cameras rolled and hot lights shone down, Markey displayed a letter addressed to the FDA asking for an expedited review of triclosan, an antibacterial chemical found in thousands of hand sanitizers, soaps and toothpastes sold in the U.S.
Remarkably little media attention has been given to some excellent news announced on Wednesday: U.S. deaths from heart disease dropped by 28 percent and those from stroke declined by 45 percent between 1997 and 2007, according to the American Heart Association (AHA).
This improvement reflects dramatic continued improvements in both the treatment and diagnosis of these ailments, says ACSH’s Dr. Gilbert Ross.
The U.S. Senate yesterday followed the lead of the House of Representatives and passed legislation setting up a National Alzheimer’s Project within the Department of Health. The President is expected to sign the bill, which calls for a “War on Alzheimer’s.”
The plan aims to coordinate and augment efforts to develop drugs to delay or treat the disease and to discover means towards earlier diagnosis.
While the World Health Organization (WHO) reported yesterday that confirmed malaria cases in 11 African nations dropped by more than fifty percent over the last decade, these results were mitigated by a number of less welcome findings.
An unintentionally amusing report entitled "On the Money: BPA on Dollar Bills and Receipts”, which was released yesterday by a radical advocacy consortium comprised of The Washington Toxics Coalition and Safer Chemicals Healthy Families, claims that 21 out of 22 dollar bills they tested contained trace levels of bisphenol A (BPA), a chemical sometimes alleged to be a causative agent for a slew of mysterious health maladies.
Yesterday marked another victory for e-cigarette manufacturer NJOY after a federal appellate court in Washington, D.C. unanimously upheld a lower court’s previous injunction against the FDA’s attempt to regulate the products as drugs or medical devices. The appeals court said that the e-cigarettes should instead be regulated under the less stringent 2009 Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, which allows the FDA to control tobacco products’ packaging and marketing.
The risk of both early- and late-onset macular degeneration (AMD), the leading cause of blindness, increases with age but can be prevented, a new study published in the journal Opthalmology finds. After taking detailed images of the interior of the eyes of 5,272 people in Iceland aged 66 and older, researchers found that 11 percent of those in their late 60s had an early form of AMD, and this rate increased to 36 percent for people 85 and older.
Media darling and Duke University Global Health Initiative Professor Eric Finkelstein is back in the news with the release of a report in The Archives of Internal Medicine in which he and three colleagues present economic models in support of taxes on sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs).
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