"Health News - Medicine, Diet and Fitness"

Supporters vow to keep fighting for measure this year

SACRAMENTO—Doctors, patients, consumer groups and health care advocates were dealt a setback by the state Senate this week when it failed to advance the Pharmaceutical Drug Right-to-Know Act. The legislation, SB 1683 by Senator Jack Scott (Altadena), would have required pharmaceutical companies to disclose the results of all their health studies, good and bad. It was introduced in response to the VIOXX tragedy, which was worsened by drug giant Merck's cover-up of its own negative health studies, and other drug safety tragedies like it.

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BOSTON, Oct. 3 — Adding capsaicin to an unusual anesthetic resulted in a combination that blocked pain but didn’t cause numbness or paralysis, researchers here said. Action Points
Explain to interested patients that current anesthetics block pain, but also cause numbness and inability to move, because they affect a variety of nerve cells, not just those that sense pain.

Note that this research, carried out in animals, suggests a way to block the activity of only the pain neurons, leaving other nerve cells unaffected.
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AKRON, Ohio, Oct. 3 — Myocardial infarction, although rare, can occur in adolescents even in the absence of congenital heart defects or drug abuse.Action Points
Inform interested patients that heart attacks in children and adolescents are rare if the child has no heart defects and doesn’t abuse drugs.

Note, however, that MI is possible, so evaluation of chest pain in an adolescent if warranted.

Although MI may not usually come to mind for otherwise Men’s healthy teens, acute typical chest pain in the emergency department should not be dismissed as noncardiac, as illustrated by a small case series reported in the October issue of the journal Pediatrics.

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The use of condoms for better sexual health is well known nowadays. There are many condom brands available which help couples enjoy safe sex. Some of the brands available include Durex, Kama sutra, Trojan and Rough Rider. The facilities provided by these also differ with more and more condom manufacturing companies looking to create condoms which enhance the sexual pleasure of the users. Right now, there are also lubricated, vibrating condoms available. However, there is a condom which help men have longer lasting and firmer erections— Viagra condoms. Before discussing this product, it would (more…)

The NBC affiliate KSBW has a brief item on a medical marijuana lawsuit that is interesting just because of the legal angle that is being explored:

SANTA CRUZ, Calif. — The city and county of Santa Cruz, along with the Women’s Alliance for Medical Marijuana, are suing the federal government over the use of pot to help ease chronic pain.

The groups are asking the courts to reconsider an earlier decision denying their motion for a preliminary injunction, Action News reported.

They argue that the 10th Amendment protects a state’s right to govern itself.

The case is expected to be heard by the U.S. District Court as soon as next week.

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CALPIRG and Senator Scott introduce the Pharmaceutical Drug Right-to-Know Act

SACRAMENTO—Responding to public outcry over recent prescription drug scandals, CALPIRG and Senator Jack Scott (D-Altadena) have introduced legislation in Sacramento to make sure that drug companies finally come clean about the safety of the medicines. The bill, SB 1683, requires drug companies to publicly disclose the results of all their clinical trials for each drug they sell in California.

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I’ve only just started going through the transcript of the oral argument in Kimbrough, the case the Supreme Court heard today on the crack-powder sentencing disparity, but I think it’s interesting that the 1996 case of Neal v. United States is coming up again and again as a point of reference.

Neal concerned the federal sentencing scheme around LSD, and specifically the use of blotter paper weight to calculate the amount of LSD a person possessed.

In today’s case, Justice Stevens suggests that he thinks Kimbrough may be “controlled by the decision in Neal,” while Justice Souter describes one argument as a way of saying “well, in the LSD case, you approved of incoherence and irrationality, therefore, you want to do it across the board.”

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PITTSBURGH, October 02, 2007 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Mylan Inc. today announced the appointment of Rajiv Malik as Executive Vice President in charge of Global Technical Operations. Mr. Malik has served in a similar capacity for Mylan since the Company acquired a controlling stake in Matrix Laboratories Limited (Matrix), where he is Chief Executive Officer, in January 2007.

As Head of Global Technical Operations, Mr. Malik will oversee the Company’s global research and development (R&D) centers and manufacturing and distribution units, with responsibility for enhancing and rationalizing Mylan’s global supply chain and expanded product pipeline, as well as leveraging Matrix, one of the world’s largest suppliers of active pharmaceutical ingredients, across the enlarged company.

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STOCKHOLM, Oct. 2 — A Men’s healthy cognitive reserve, deposited over a lifetime of learning, appears to protect the better-educated patients from dementia, investigators here suggested. Action Points
Explain to patients that this and several other studies have suggested that keeping the mind active through education and other forms of stimulation appears to reduce the risk for Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia.

Among nearly 1,500 adults followed for more than 20 years, those who had at least six years of formal education had a significantly lower risk for any form of dementia and for Alzheimer’s disease than adults who had five years of schooling or less, reported Tiia Ngandu, M.D., Ph.D., of the Karolinska Institute, and colleagues.

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Jordan W. Smoller, M.D.
Mass. General Hospital

BOSTON, Oct. 2 — Panic attacks may be an independent risk factor for cardiovascular events in older women, researchers said.

Postmenopausal women who reported a panic attack were three times more likely to have a heart attack or stroke over the next five years, according to results of a cohort study reported in the October issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry. They also had nearly twice the risk of all-cause mortality than other women. Action Points
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