Search results

The Annals of Internal Medicine has just reported on a large-scale study at more than 4,000 U.S. hospitals which showed that thirty-day survival rates for patients diagnosed with congestive heart failure were more than twenty percent better among those who went to hospitals more accustomed to providing care for the condition.

A study published in The Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal provides more powerful evidence of the transformative effect of childhood vaccination — the celebrity critics of it notwithstanding. Researchers in four countries proved that the rotavirus vaccine saves lives. Worldwide rotavirus is responsible for the death of 500,000 infants and children annually.

Yesterday the World Health Organization (WHO) announced a $175 million plan to try and cut off the spread of a drug-resistant form of falciparum malaria which has emerged in South East Asia. Falciparum malaria is the most deadly form of the disease. Traditionally, doctors have fought malaria infections with a combination of drugs which includes artemisinin, known as ACT.

After vilifying sugary soft drinks as one of the main causes of our nation’s obesity epidemic, the media is now going after diet sodas as well by publicizing a thoroughly unscientific, poorly executed study presented yesterday at the American Stroke Association International Stroke Conference in Los Angeles. Researchers used data on 163 people who drink one or more diet sodas per day and found that they had a 61 percent increased risk of cardiovascular events compared to 901 participants who reported drinking no diet soda.

Americans should focus on achieving a “balance” in their diets, stressed First Lady Michelle Obama at a press meeting celebrating the first-year anniversary of her anti-obesity Let’s Move campaign yesterday.

An observational study published in the journal Diabetes Care is calling into question recent Dietary Guidelines for Americans that recommend adults, and especially diabetics, should consume no more than two-thirds of a teaspoon of salt per day, or about 1.5 grams. Australian researchers followed 638 participants with longstanding type 2 diabetes. Roughly half the patients were obese.

Roche Holding AG’s cancer drug Avastin has been shown in a new study published in this week’s New England Journal of Medicine to hold great promise for treating retinopathy of prematurity, a devastating condition among some premature babies.

As the bed bug epidemic continues to spread through New York City and elsewhere, the EPA is now planning to commence research aimed at developing pesticide alternatives, especially genetic-based solutions, rather than allow DDT to be used. PBS NewsHour reported Monday that chemically-based anti-bed bug methods, particularly DDT, are “noxious but effective” and highlight the growing resistance of bed-bugs to more commonly employed pesticides. “DDT is not noxious.

First Lady Michelle Obama announced that President Obama has been cigarette-free for a year now. We here at ACSH wish to congratulate him, as we are aware of the great difficulty smokers face while trying to quit. “However, many smokers fall back to smoking even after a year of being smoke-free,” says ACSH's Dr. Gilbert Ross. So keep up the good work, Mr. President.

Dr. Gilbert Ross in the DesMoines Register, March 2, 2011
Guest opinion: Don't let money cloud the vision of drug regulators

The question of whether the federal government has its priorities straight arises again with news first reported in The New England Journal of Medicine. A new macrolide antibiotic called fidaxomicin has been found to be more effective in treating the common but deadly bacterial infection known as C. difficile than the standard antibiotic currently in use, oral vancomycin.

VitaminWater advertisements are under attack again, this time by the National Consumers League, for suggesting that the beverage can eliminate the need for flu shots. In a poster ad, consumers are told that flu shots are so last year because VitaminWater s Vitamin C content means more immunity.

Parental fears over trace levels of PCBs in New York public schools made the front page of The New York Times today. News of PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) leaking from old light fixtures spread quickly after a pilot study conducted by the EPA last year found that PCB levels in the air in three public schools exceeded federal health limits.

Under its accelerated approval program, the FDA announced Friday that it has given the go-ahead to K-V Pharmaceutical Co.’s new drug Makena, a synthetic form of progesterone used to reduce the risk of premature delivery.

While more consumers may begin looking to zinc as remedies for their colds, new data indicate that many parents are inappropriately administering other over-the-counter (OTC) cold remedies to their infants. The National Poll on Children’s Health conducted by researchers at C.S. Mott Children's Hospital in Ann Arbor, Mich.

In a decision providing comfort to anyone hoping to protect children from the ravages of preventable diseases, the United States Supreme Court voted six-to-two yesterday that the special Vaccine Injury Compensation Court must remain the only judicial means through which to settle vaccine lawsuits. In this case, the parents of a girl who developed a seizure disorder after receiving the diptheria-pertussis-tetanus (DPT) vaccine brought a lawsuit against Wyeth Pharmaceuticals.

Yesterday we reported on a bizarre letter from EPA administrator Lisa Jackson that ran in USA Today. Coincident with the missive’s appearance, the agency announced that it was setting new limits on the amount of “toxic substances” permitted in U.S. drinking water. Among the chemicals specified by the EPA as a target is perchlorate.

ACSH scientific advisor and Professor of Community Health Sciences, Boston University School of Public Health, Dr. Michael Siegel points to a troubling misrepresentation by advocates of smoking bans. University of Iowa researchers claimed that a state ban on smoking in public places had lowered rates of heart disease by, as an NBC TV affiliate put it, “staggering numbers.” But Dr.

A new meta-analysis concludes that up to 100 million Americans diagnosed with prehypertension do not actually face an increased risk of blood-pressure related health consequences. Published in The Journal of General Internal Medicine, the results were derived from two decades of blood pressure data on 13,792 people from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.

On Friday, the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) officially launched its database for consumer complaints but has already been met with industry concerns. The New York Times interviewed Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-Kansas), who argues that the database, called SaferProducts.gov, should be stripped of funding and delayed until certain defects can be ironed out.

Josh Bloom, The Daily Caller March 2, 2011
The NIH on Drugs

Yesterday s The New York Times reported on worrisome trends in the pharmaceutical industry: the dearth of big drug breakthroughs, research and development downsizing and more stringent FDA regulations. Of course it also doesn t help that the drug industry stands to lose nearly $50 billion in annual sales this year after relinquishing control of more than ten medicines to cheaper generics due to expiring patents. Currently, 75 percent of all U.S.

Down syndrome, characterized by varying degrees of intellectual impairment and distinguishing facial features, as well as other internal maladies that often contribute to a shortened life expectancy, is caused by carrying three copies (trisomy) of chromosome 21 instead of two. While in the general population it affects one in every 600 babies born, the rate significantly increases to one in every 385 births for pregnant women who are 35, and the incidence continues to rise as a woman ages.

Late last week USA Today’s Life & Fitness section included a 1052-word attack on genetically-modified (GM) foods in the guise of an objective look at their increasing use. Tellingly, the article was headed, “Shoppers wary of GM foods find they’re everywhere.” Typical of the level of thought in the article was this passage:

We encourage our Dispatch followers to read an op-ed by ACSH’s Dr. Josh Bloom that criticizes the Obama administration’s attempt to hasten the currently slow drug development process through a $1 billion plan by which the government will allocate funding to work with private industry to develop new drugs. The new NIH branch would focus its efforts on areas the pharmaceutical industry perceives as too risky, but as Dr. Bloom points out, the NIH has very little expertise in this high-risk arena: