Health & WellnessS


Pills

Johnson & Johnson Accused of Drug Kickbacks

Natasha Singer
New York Times
Sun, 17 Jan 2010 09:12 UTC
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© J.B. Reed/Bloomberg NewsRisperdal is approved to treat schizophrenia, but not specifically approved to treat problems in elderly people with dementia.
Johnson & Johnson paid kickbacks to the nation's largest nursing home pharmacy to increase the number of elderly patients taking the antipsychotic Risperdal and several other medications, according to a complaint filed Friday by the office of the United States attorney in Boston.

Risperdal is approved to treat schizophrenia, but not specifically approved to treat problems in elderly people with dementia.

The payments violated the federal anti-kickback statute and led Omnicare, a pharmacy company specializing in dispensing drugs to nursing home residents, to submit false claims to Medicaid, the complaint charged.
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Ambulance

FDA says it's unable to regulate BPA

Meg Kissinger
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Sun, 17 Jan 2010 08:50 UTC
Milwaukee sentinel BPA
© UnknownWarning: Chemicals in the packaging, surfaces or contents of many products may cause long-term health effects, including cancers of the breast, brain and testicles; lowered sperm counts, early puberty and other reproductive system defects; diabetes; attention deficit disorder, asthma and autism. A decade ago, the government promised to test these chemicals. It still hasn't.

As 'indirect food additive,' substance is exempt from scrutiny

U.S. Food and Drug Administration officials say they are powerless to regulate BPA, although they have declared the chemical to be a safety concern for fetuses, babies and young children.

A quirk in the rules allows BPA makers to skirt federal regulation.

"We may have to go after legislation to change it," Joshua Sharfstein, the FDA's principal deputy director, told the Journal Sentinel. The newspaper has been investigating the government's lack of regulation regarding BPA for three years.

FDA officials announced Friday that they had reversed their position that bisphenol A is safe. The chemical, used to line most food and beverage cans, has been found in the urine of 93% of Americans tested.

Comment: "They couldn't take it off the shelves when there aren't substitutes in place,"

Ok, So it is just fine for people to consume these dangerous substances until someone gets around to finding substitutes. How can these products continue to be used when the risks have long been known?

The only protection we have from these and other toxins is our own knowledge and wisdom. Read, learn, take action to protect yourselves and your families.

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Bulb

Nations scrap orders for GSK swine flu jab

Alistair Dawber
The Independent
Sat, 16 Jan 2010 22:24 UTC
British drugs company renegotiates H1N1 deals with 'many governments'

The British pharmaceuticals giant GlaxoSmithKline has confirmed it is in talks with several countries keen to reduce their orders of its swine flu vaccine Pandemrix. The Belgian government yesterday became the latest to tell the company that it was paring back its requirement.

The health ministry in Brussels said it would be cutting its order by about €33m (£29m) after initially asking for 12.6 million doses of Pandemrix. The cancellation comes after a host of countries in the northern hemisphere told the pharmaceuticals industry that there was insufficient demand for the treatment. Britain, France, Germany, Spain and the US have all indicated in the past two weeks that they will be renegotiating their deals.

Demand for vaccines to combat H1N1 influenza has fizzled out because the pandemic has proven to be less aggressive than was first feared. Regulators who initially indicated that two vaccinations would be needed by each swine flu patient now say that one dose is sufficient. Analysts predict that European governments could return or cancel up to 50 per cent of what they ordered, which could reduce GSK's income from Pandemrix by £300m.
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Magnify

Gender-Biased Heart Damage


ScienceDaily
Sat, 16 Jan 2010 00:00 UTC
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© Sieveking, D.P.Androgen treatment repaired (arrows) damaged vessels in castrated mice.
A man's male hormones may ward off heart damage by helping vessels around the heart regenerate, suggest Australian researchers in a report posted January 13 in the Journal of Experimental Medicine.

While studies have shown that estrogen helps blood vessels regenerate, both in the uterus after menstruation and around the heart after wear and tear, little is known about whether or not men make up for a lack of the female hormone. Some researchers have theorized that this disparity accounts for why men tend to suffer worse heart attacks more often and earlier in life than women.

However, Sieveking and colleagues find that this trend may be due to a drop in androgens, a collective term for male hormones, as men age.
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Info

Good night rest cannot compensate for sleep deprivation


Press TV
Sat, 16 Jan 2010 14:57 UTC
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Experiencing a good night of sleep does not overcome the poor functioning and thinking problems imposed by long-term sleep deprivation, a new study finds.

Previous studies have linked sleep deprivation with various health conditions including high blood pressure.

According to the study published in Science Translational Medicine, a good night of sleep can improve the short-term function, having no significant influence on the long-term performance of sleep deprived individuals.

"Chronic sleep loss from six hours of sleep per night for two weeks causes a similar level of impairment as staying awake for 24 hours," said lead researcher Daniel Cohen.
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Attention

Throw Away Kid's Jewelry From China, CPSC Head Says


NewsInferno
Fri, 15 Jan 2010 05:42 UTC
Parents should throw away any cheap, Chinese-made jewelry their children may have. That's the warning, from Inez Tenenbaum, head of the Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC), who said the jewelry could contain hazardous levels of heavy metals, including cadmium and lead.

Tenenbaum's warning, written in a blog post, came a day after the Associated Press reported that children's jewelry from China was made with cadmium. According to the Associated Press, the most contaminated piece analyzed for its investigation contained a whopping 91 percent cadmium by weight. Other pieces of jewelry tested at 89 percent, 86 percent and 84 percent by weight. Overall, 12 percent of 103 pieces of jewelry contained at least 10 percent cadmium.

Chinese manufacturers likely switched to using cadmium in the jewelry because they are barred from using lead, the Associated Press said. But cadmium is every bit as dangerous. Cadmium is a known carcinogen, and can interfere with brain development in very young children. On the Centers for Disease Control's priority list of 275 most hazardous substances in the environment, cadmium ranks No. 7. Kids can ingest the cadmium in jewelry by sucking or biting it.
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Pills

Johnson & Johnson issues massive recall of Tylenol

Marley Seaman
The Associated Press
Sat, 16 Jan 2010 01:14 UTC
Johnson&Johnson headquarters
© AP Photo/Daniel HulshizerThis July 19, 2002 picture shows the Johnson & Johnson corporate headquarters in New Brunswick, N.J. Johnson & Johnson issued a massive recall Friday, Jan. 15, 2010 of over-the-counter drugs including Tylenol, Motrin and St. Joseph's aspirin because of a moldy smell that has made people sick.
Johnson & Johnson issued a massive recall Friday of over-the-counter drugs including Tylenol, Motrin and St. Joseph's aspirin because of a moldy smell that has made people sick.

It was the second such recall in less than a month because of the smell, which regulators said was first reported to McNeil in 2008. Federal regulators criticized the company, saying it didn't respond to the complaints quickly enough, wasn't thorough in how it handled the problem and didn't inform the Food and Drug Administration quickly.

The recall includes some batches of regular and extra-strength Tylenol, children's Tylenol, eight-hour Tylenol, Tylenol arthritis, Tylenol PM, children's Motrin, Motrin IB, Benadryl Rolaids, Simply Sleep, and St. Joseph's aspirin.

The FDA and Johnson & Johnson's McNeil Consumer Healthcare Products said they did not know the number of bottles recalled. It included caplet and geltab products sold in the Americas, the United Arab Emirates, and Fiji.
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Radar

Study Reveals Wanted Objects are Seen as Closer


PhysOrg
Thu, 14 Jan 2010 15:00 UTC
We assume that we see things as they really are. But according to a new report in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, if we really want something, that desire may influence how we view our surroundings.

Psychological scientists Emily Balcetis from New York University and David Dunning from Cornell University conducted a set of studies to see how our desires affect perception. In the first experiment, participants had to estimate how far a water bottle was from where they were sitting. Half of the volunteers were allowed to drink water before the experiment, while the others ate salty pretzels, thus becoming very thirsty. The results showed that the thirsty volunteers estimated the water as being closer to them than volunteers who drank water earlier.
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Arrow Down

US: Families of autistic kids sue over therapy's elimination

Alan Zarembo
Los Angeles Times
Fri, 15 Jan 2010 18:03 UTC
Families of autistic children in eastern Los Angeles County filed a class-action lawsuit today against the nonprofit agency that provides them with state-funded services, alleging that it had illegally discontinued their therapy for the disorder.

The agency, the Eastern Los Angeles County Regional Center, informed more than 100 families late last summer that the therapy - known as the DIR model, or "developmental, individual difference, relationship-based" - was being eliminated for their children because of state budget cuts.

The therapy is the basis for a popular treatment known as Floortime, in which a therapist follows a child's lead during play activities to build communication and social interaction skills.
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Arrow Down

Chemical in plastic products may be linked to heart disease risk

Health News Team
DrCutler.com
Fri, 15 Jan 2010 17:56 UTC
A new study has found that the chemical bisphenol A (BPA), which is commonly found in plastic products, may increase individuals' risk for developing heart disease.

Researchers in the U.K. analyzed data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that studied BPA exposure in Americans between the years 2003 and 2006.

They found that those with the highest BPA levels had a significantly higher risk of heart disease than those with lower levels of the chemical in their bodies.

"The risks associated with exposure to BPA may be small, but they are relevant to very large numbers of people," said study collaborator Dr Tamara Galloway. "This information is important since it provides a great opportunity for intervention to reduce the risks."
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