On May 18, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced new restrictions for the prescribing and use of medications containing rosiglitazone (Avandia, Avandamet, Avandaryl).
Due to data suggesting that patients who take rosiglitazone are at an increased risk for heart attacks, healthcare providers and patients who wish to prescribe or receive these drugs must now enroll in a special registry called a Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Survey, or REMS.
Continue reading
American scientists have confirmed the efficacy of drugs for baldness. They found that the drug online Propecia, also known as finasteride, slows hair loss and promotes their growth. This was proven in a study on twins suffering from male-pattern baldness.
A study conducted by Burke Research by experts in Hot Springs, Arkansas, attended by nine pairs of twins aged 20 to 45 years. Throughout the year, one of them took the drug, and another – a placebo (a pill with no active ingredient), not guessing about this.
Continue reading
Smokers diagnosed with prostate cancer are more likely to have the cancer recur after treatment and are more likely to die than non-smokers, a new study says.
The study included 5,366 men in the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study who were diagnosed with prostate cancer between 1986 and 2006. There were 1,630 deaths in this group of men, including 524 (32 percent) from prostate cancer and 416 (26 percent) from cardiovascular disease. There were 878 cases of prostate cancer “biochemical recurrence,” the researchers said.
Continue reading
Non-nicotine drug generic Zyban, which helps people to quit smoking, was approved by the European Union and became available to consumers. Zyban, the purple color pill, whose active component can also treat depression, can effectively help smokers addicted to nicotine. It has already helped to quit smoking almost a million smokers in the United States.
The drug was approved in all EU countries except France and Finland, where further negotiations are underway.
Continue reading
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is warning consumers that the popular diabetes drug Actos (pioglitazone) may increase the risk of bladder cancer when used for more than a year.
The agency’s warning comes five days after Germany and France pulled Actos from the market, citing similar concerns. Actos is in a class of drugs called thiazolidinediones, the only other member of which, Avandia (rosiglitazone), was taken off U.S. pharmacy shelves in May because it was linked to an increased risk of heart attacks. The new cancer warning will appear on the labeling, the FDA said.
Continue reading
Osteoarthritis (OA) – a common joint disease that is characterized by local loss of articular cartilage and the replacement of defect in the center and edges of the bone tissue. The most common injuries among the large joints are the knee OA.
In a study published in the journal “Rheumatology”, compared the analgesic effect of Tylenol without prescription and selective inhibitor of cyclooxygenase type 2 for degenerative joint diseases.
Continue reading
When Alaina Giordano’s story of losing custody of her two children because of breast cancer went viral online, it seemed like a callous injustice. Blogs and social networking sites rallied to her cause, and soon she had a law firm willing to appeal the judge’s decision. But the real story is far more complicated and features a night in jail for both parents, accusations of infidelity on both sides and corresponding restraining orders.
The case has become an international cause celebre, driven by Giordano’s claim that a Durham District Court judge granted her estranged husband primary custody of their children because she has breast cancer. Three days after that ruling, Giordano launched a blog with a post that declared, “I am a mother of two remarkable children. I am not cancer.”
Continue reading
For people who suffer from chronic allergies, it is hard to lead a normal life and they often feel a sense of inferiority. In order to relieve symptoms that are associated with allergies, they must make special preparations.
In the treatment of allergies patients should distinguish few key points:
The use of cell phones and other wireless communication devices are “possibly carcinogenic to humans”, the World Health Organisation’s cancer research agency said Tuesday. The radio frequency electromagnetic fields generated by such devices were deemed as potential cancer agents “based on an increased risk for glioma, a malignant type of brain cancer,” the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) said in a statement. A group of experts meeting in the French city of Lyon over the past eight days “reached this classification based on its review of the human evidence coming from epidemiological studies,” said Jonathan Samet, president of the work group.
Two studies in particular, the largest conducted over the last decade, provided evidence that cell phone use was associated with higher rates of glioma, “particularly in those that had the most intensive use of such phones,” Samet said. A number of individuals tracked in the studies had used their phones for 10 to 15 years. “We simply don’t know what might happen as people use their phones over longer time periods, possible over a lifetime,” he said.
Continue reading
Earlier it has been proved that drugs from a group of statins possess anti-inflammatory properties. Scientists from the Glasgow University (UK) tried to find out how is it well the appointment of Lipitor in patients with bronchial asthma (BA). They conducted a study that examined the effect of generic Lipitor on lung function and severity of airway inflammation in adults with asthma treated with inhaled corticosteroids.
In a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled crossover study have been included 54 patients with atopic asthma. During 8 weeks patients have been taken Lipitor 40mg/day or placebo.
Continue reading
