Friday, Oct 24th
Last update07:50:22 AM GMT
Health Glance
A new food-labeling campaign called Smart Choices, backed by most of the nation’s largest food manufacturers, is “designed to help shoppers easily identify smarter food and beverage choices.”
The green checkmark label that is starting to show up on store shelves will appear on hundreds of packages, including — to the surprise of many nutritionists — sugar-laden cereals like Cocoa Krispies and Froot Loops.
The drugs, which contain codeine and include brand names such as Nurofen Plus and Solpadeine Plus, are sold over the counter and are routinely used to ease headaches, back problems and period pain.
But official figures show that tens of thousands of people have become dependent on the drugs, many accidentally, with women most at risk of developing an addiction.
Artificial sweeteners do nothing to help weight loss and could actually cause us to pile on the pounds, scientists say.
Artificial sweeteners behave in a similar way to sugar, by activating sensors in the gut which are key to the absorption of glucose.
As a result, the body processes extra sugar – and all the calories that go with it. For the dieter, it means little or no weight loss. Over time, it could even lead to extra pounds being put on.
Within minutes of each other last week, two defendants left the courthouse with slaps on their wrists: a 56-year-old man with cyclic vomiting syndrome, and a 19-year-old woman with epilepsy.
Their cases show how Maryland's little-known medical marijuana law might be applied in the future and how some ill pot smokers are beginning to raise awareness of it. "It's essential the state do more. Marijuana is critical for people with certain illnesses," said Steven Kupferberg, a defense lawyer in one of the cases.
A set of proposed international sex education guidelines aimed at reducing H.I.V. infections among young people has provoked criticism from conservative groups that say the program would be too explicit for young children and promote access to legal abortion as a right.
“Only 40 percent of young people aged 15 to 24 have accurate knowledge” of how the disease is transmitted, he said, even though that age group “accounts for 45 percent of all new cases.”
Even worse is a growing trend to invert this process: to promote diseases to fit existing drugs. In a fascinating New York Review of Books piece, Marcia Angell, M.D., denounced the practice of "disease mongering." As she put it, "The strategy is to convince as many people as possible (along with their doctors, of course) that they have medical conditions that require long-term drug treatment."
A British Medical Journal article said it more succinctly, "A lot of money can be made from healthy people who believe they are sick."
Pfizer Inc. agreed to plead guilty under a $2.3 billion federal settlement over unlawful prescription-drug promotions.The company in January disclosed it would pay the $2.3 billion over allegations it had marketed the since-withdrawn anti-inflammatory drug Bextra and possibly other products for medical conditions different than their approved use. Details of the settlement weren't available in January, however.
The final agreement, announced Wednesday, also resolves Justice Department investigations involving alleged past off-label promotional practices concerning Zyvox, Geodon and Lyrica and allegations related to certain payments to health-care professionals Pfizer medicines.
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