"Health News - Medicine, Diet and Fitness"

By Bob Curley

 A bid to end federal student-aid penalties for those with drug convictions was launched with high hopes earlier this year, but now appears to be in deep trouble in Congress.

A broad coalition of drug-reform, educational, and addiction-related organizations  threw its weight behind a plan to amend the federal Higher Education Act (HEA) and overturn a policy of denying federal financial aid to students convicted of drug offenses. The policy, devised by Rep. Mark Souder (R-Ind.) and passed by Congress in 1999, requires students to divulge information about convictions for drug offenses — but not any other crimes — on the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA).

(more…)

Serious Adverse Reactions With This Vaginal Ring Birth Control Device Include Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT) And Pulmonary Emboli (PE)

(Posted by Tom Lamb at DrugInjuryWatch.com)

An abstract from the annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology (ASH) entitled “Venous Thromboembolic Events in Women Using the NuvaRing®.” (Blood — ASH Annual Meeting Abstracts — 2007 110: Abstract 3994) concludes with this statement:

Longer follow-up of safety studies and post-marketing adverse event reporting are needed to determine VTE [(venous thromboembolic event)] risks and incidence while using the NuvaRing®.

(more…)

Vermont Gov. James Douglas and Windsor County State Attorney Robert Sand have agreed to cooperate with each other in prosecuting marijuana-possession cases after a dispute centered on Sand’s support for decriminalization of the drug, the Barre Times-Argus reported Dec. 12.

Douglas had been bypassing Sand’s office in prosecuting marijuana-possession cases because he objected to the local prosecutor’s reputed policy of sending all such cases to a court diversion program.

“My office received an e-mail from Mr.  Sand today apologizing for the confusion over his policy or lack of policy and stating that he approaches each case on its own merit,” Douglas said. “That’s all I can ask of a prosecutor.”

(more…)

Despite getting little or no cooperation from baseball players or their union, an investigative panel has issued a report detailing widespread steroid use in Major League Baseball and naming dozens of current and former players who used the performance-enhancing drugs, CNN reported Dec. 13.

The report was commissioned by the league and prepared by former Sen. George Mitchell, who called steroid use in baseball “a serious problem that cannot be solved by anything less than a well-conceived, well-executed and cooperative effort by everyone involved in baseball.”

“Everyone involved in baseball over the past two decades — commissioners, club officials, the Players Association, the players — shares, to some extent, in the responsibility for the steroid era,” Mitchell said. “There was a collective failure to recognize the problem as it emerged and to deal with it early on.”

(more…)

Researchers may be underestimating alcohol consumption in the U.K. by failing to account for larger wine glasses in bars and increasingly strong beers and ciders on the market, Medical News Today reported Dec. 13.

The U.K.’s Office of National Statistics has announced that it will updates its methods for calculating alcohol consumption, saying that past research may be underestimating alcohol use by 30 percent. In some cases, people may not be drinking a greater volume of alcoholic beverages, the drinks they are consuming are stronger. And in the case of wine, some pubs and bars have replaced the standard 125ml wine glass with larger goblets.

(more…)

Serious Adverse Reactions With This Vaginal Ring Birth Control Device Include Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT) And Pulmonary Emboli (PE)

(Posted by Tom Lamb at DrugInjuryWatch.com)

An abstract from the annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology (ASH) entitled “Venous Thromboembolic Events in Women Using the NuvaRing®.” (Blood — ASH Annual Meeting Abstracts — 2007 110: Abstract 3994) concludes with this statement:

Longer follow-up of safety studies and post-marketing adverse event reporting are needed to determine VTE [(venous thromboembolic event)] risks and incidence while using the NuvaRing®.

(more…)

Youths and young adults who experienced a major depressive episode (MDE) in the past year are more likely to have also used alcohol or illicit drugs for the first time in the past year, according to a recent analysis of data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Men’s health (NSDUH).

Among youths ages 12 to 17 who had not previously used alcohol, those who had experienced a past year MDE were nearly twice as likely to have used alcohol for the first time in the past year as those who did not experience a MDE. Likewise, youths who experienced a MDE in the past year were more than twice as likely to initiate illicit drug use.

(more…)

More communities in the U.S. are distributing the opiate overdose antidote naloxone directly to addicts for emergency use, but the Bush administration continues to oppose such policies, the New York Times reported Dec. 11.

Naloxone works by blocking the opiate receptors in the brain; it has been used by emergency medical personnel since 1971 to prevent overdoses. In recent years, a number of communities have distributed the antidote directly to addicts and their friends and family members — a policy credited with reversing at least 1,000 overdoses.

“From a public (more…)

More communities in the U.S. are distributing the opiate overdose antidote naloxone directly to addicts for emergency use, but the Bush administration continues to oppose such policies, the New York Times reported Dec. 11.

Naloxone works by blocking the opiate receptors in the brain; it has been used by emergency medical personnel since 1971 to prevent overdoses. In recent years, a number of communities have distributed the antidote directly to addicts and their friends and family members — a policy credited with reversing at least 1,000 overdoses.

“From a public (more…)

The U.S. Sentencing Commission has ruled that recent changes to the federal sentencing guidelines for crack-cocaine offenses will be applied retroactively, meaning that up to 20,000 current prisoners may be able to apply for early release, USA Today reported Dec. 12.

The commission previously voted to reduce the disparity between crack-cocaine penalties and the penalties for offenses involving the powdered version of the drug; that change went into effect Nov. 1. In its latest action, the panel defied the Bush administration and voted unanimously to apply the lower crack sentences to offenders currently serving time.

(more…)