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Boehringer Ingelheim s new anticoagulant drug Pradaxa was approved yesterday by the FDA to prevent blood clots in patients with atrial fibrillation. Compared to warfarin, an anticoagulant medication that has been in use since the 1950s, Pradaxa does not require frequent monitoring with blood tests. Further, it was more effective at preventing strokes the result of clots being embolized to the brain than the older drug in clinical trials.

A new report produced by the Alzheimer's Foundation and Maria Shriver, California's first lady, concludes that women bear the biggest burden of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) — both as patients and caregivers. The report predicts that the rate of Alzheimer’s disease — a form of dementia and degenerative brain condition leading to memory loss, cognitive impairment, and ultimately death — will triple worldwide in the next 40 years due to an aging population that is living longer.

Health officials in Ontario are realizing that the government’s anti-tobacco policies may actually be bolstering the cigarette black market since 43 percent of high school smokers use contraband cigarettes, according to a new study by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health published online in the journal Tobacco Control.

Against our best efforts, the newest BPA headline and its accompanying “study” managed to worm its way into today’s Dispatch, but only as an example of the utterly absurd. “Bisphenol A linked to sterility in roundworm,” Canada’s CBC News tells us. But the study wasn’t a complete waste of time and money — some of us got a good laugh out of it. “I only wonder how much federal money — that’s your tax money, by the way — went towards this study.

My mother smoked while she was pregnant with my sister and me. I used to light her cigarettes while she was driving. One time I handed her a lit Benson & Hedges backwards, burning her lip and nearly causing a huge freeway accident. Swerving wildly, she managed to avoid the car in front of her — and quickly grabbed for the cigarette, which had flown out of her hand. Puffing rapidly, she got the cherry back up to a glow, and a look of calm passed over her face as she blew out her first inhale.

The scale of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) current assault on industry is unprecedented. That’s the view of an editorial in yesterday’s The Wall Street Journal.

In a similar display of regulatory overreach, California s Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) is revising the rules of a bill signed two years ago by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger that allows the state to regulate toxic chemicals in consumer products.

A zap to the kidneys might safely reduce hypertension in patients whose high blood pressure is resistant to three or more medications. The new treatment works by deactivating nerves in the kidney (renal denervation) using a catheter that sends a burst of radio frequency energy directly to kidney nerves.

Two weeks ago, we covered a meta-analysis of 50 studies indicating that doubling the alcohol tax would reduce alcohol-related mortality by 35 percent. At Monday’s Annual Meeting of the American Public Health Association, the very same publication was referenced by Alexander C. Wagenaar, Ph.D., in support of a tax increase to boost public health.

After more than a year of delays, a long-awaited measure designed to give the Food and Drug Administration and the Agriculture Department more authority to enforce preventive measures against foodborne illness today passed a procedural vote in the Senate. By voting 74-25 for cloture, the Senate must now bring the Food Safety Modernization Act to a floor vote in 60 days.

For the first time in 50 years, a new drug to treat lupus seems on the verge of coming onto the market. An FDA panel has voted 13-2 to recommend approval of Benlysta, used to treat sytemic lupus erythematosus (SLE, or lupus), an autoimmune condition.

The latest report from the CDC on mortality in the U.S. presented a mixed picture. Welcome news arrived with word that the incidence of stroke has declined such that it has dropped to the fourth-leading cause of death. It had been the third most common cause of death for the past five decades.

Starting yesterday, the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) launched a pneumococcal vaccination campaign in Nicaragua that aims to prevent 700,000 deaths in poorer nations by 2015. Drug makers Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline signed a 10-year contract with GAVI and will supply 60 million doses of their pneumococcal shots — Pfizer’s Prevnar and GSK’s Synflorix — for a discounted price of $7 per dose for the first 20 percent and $3.50 per dose for the remaining 80 percent.

Secondhand smoke supposedly contributed to one percent of the worldwide mortality rate during the course of 2004, according to a study published in last week’s The Lancet.

Perhaps too many teenagers are spacing out during safe sex education courses, since the CDC’s 2009 STD Surveillance Report indicates that 19 million new sexually transmitted disease (STD) cases occur annually, and active adolescents and young adults are at a significantly higher risk. Since physicians do not have to report cases of HPV or genital herpes, the total number of STDs is actually much higher.

Canadian Radio host Rob Breakenridge has a cogent op-ed in theCalgary Herald taking on various fears that have popped up in recent months, including BPA, cellphones, Wi-Fi and fluoridation. City officials in Waterloo, Ontario voted to stop fluoridation last week after a non-binding referendum lost by 195 votes out of 30,727 ballots cast.

Breakenridge writes:

If you were to view a map of the world and light up all of the countries who use biotechnology to generate more abundant and nutritious food supplies, all of Europe would be dark, says ACSH's Dr. Gilbert Ross. This is the subject of an op-ed published in yesterday’s The Wall Street Journal by Irish agronomist and farmer Jim McCarthy.

In Wednesday’s Dispatch, ACSH's Dr. Gilbert Ross commented on the new Food Safety and Modernization Act that was recently approved by the Senate. Dean O. Cliver, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus of the School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of California, Davis, calls attention to an interesting point:

ACSH President Dr. Elizabeth Whelan refuses to let the Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) spoil consumers holiday cheer with its alarmist attempts to create unnecessary panic over toxic chemicals in toys. In an op-ed published in yesterday s The Daily Caller, Dr. Whelan discredits PIRG s annual Trouble in Toyland report and provides parents with reliable holiday advice.

A new study appearing in today’s issue of JAMA, which examines 200 commonly-sold liquid non-prescription (OTC) medications for children, suggests that there is a serious problem of mislabeling with respect to dosage. In many cases, the study’s authors say, the dosage instructions on the label do not match the dosage measurements produced by using the product’s cap.

Here’s a surprise: researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health reported that higher intake of whole fat dairy products correlated with a lower incidence of type II diabetes in adults aged 65 and older. Published in yesterday’s Annals of Internal Medicine, the study analyzed data from a cohort of approximately 3,700 Medicare-eligible patients.

Patients and doctors cheered in 2008, when the Food and Drug Administration approved Genentech s Avastin for treating women with advanced breast cancer. Scientists had found that in many cases, the drug could prolong life, and today doctors prescribe it to some 17,500 women a year as their last, best hope.
In July, though, the FDA s advisory board recommended revoking Avastin s approval, which would be a nearly unprecedented step. A final decision will likely come Friday, but the agency usually follows the board s recommendations.

Looking (once more) to garner attention, the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) made a considerable media splash after they announced yesterday that they were starting a lawsuit against McDonald’s. CSPI and California mother Monet Parham are going after Ronald McDonald and friends with mysterious claims that the toys found in the fast-food restaurant’s Happy Meals violate consumer protection laws.

Yesterday brought news that smokeless tobacco manufacturer Star Scientific had issued a press release saying that they would ask the FDA to formally acknowledge that their new moist smokeless tobacco product, called Stonewall Moist-BDL, was 90-99 percent lower in carcinogens than those offered by their competitors.