If a weight-loss supplement does contain an undeclared active
pharmaceutical, the F.D.A. considers the product to be an illegal,
unapproved drug. Doctors said undeclared drugs could cause problems on
their own, like elevated blood pressure or seizures, could have toxic interactions with other medications people take and
could make it difficult for physicians to diagnose patients.
As the F.D.A. continues to investigate, many questions remain Read the rest of this entry »

The FDA did not formally announce the new findings about the company’s testing, but rather made small revisions to an online report about the investigation on Thursday. Only when a Washington Post reporter discovered the changes did the news become more widely known.
As part of the investigation, the FDA found that 12 contaminated lots from the small Blakely, Ga., plant were shipped to schools in California, Minnesota and Iowa from January 2007 Read the rest of this entry »

One in seven Americans under age 65 went without prescribed medicines in 2007 as drug costs spiraled upward in the United States, a nonprofit research group said on Thursday.
That figure is up substantially since 2003, when one in 10 people under 65 went without a prescription drug because they couldn’t afford it, according to the Center for Studying Health System Change in Washington, D.C.
The current figure may be even higher because of Read the rest of this entry »

10:27 PM CST on Friday, January 30, 2009
New research by a UT Southwestern Medical Center physician calls into question whether health insurers are adequately performing one of their main functions: containing costs.
Dr. Ethan Halm, chief of internal medicine at UT Southwestern, found that private managed-care plans for Medicare do no better job of steering patients away from unnecessary surgeries than the traditional Read the rest of this entry »

The economy may be in the toilet, but that doesn’t mean a gal can’t dream of a beach and a bikini and a fitness program that joins the two — if only for a week. At
, an eco-resort in Tulum, Mexico, about two hours south of Cancun, participants (men and women welcome) in the six- night Bikini Boot Camp get posh lodging, sumptuous but healthy food, and a workout schedule that includes yoga, hiking, kayaking, snorkling, dance and cycling, Read the rest of this entry »

ScienceDaily (Nov. 17, 2008)
— At least one in four of the 697,000 U.S. veterans of the 1991 Gulf War suffer from Gulf War illness, a condition caused by exposure to toxic chemicals, including pesticides and a drug administered to protect troops against nerve gas, and no effective treatments have yet been found, a federal panel of scientific experts and veterans concludes in a landmark report released Monday.
The Congressionally-mandated Read the rest of this entry »

The Public Health Association of Australia is calling for a new national food policy, taking into account disease prevention, sustainability and social equity.
It wants a focus on diversity in diet, with an emphasis on whole foods and those shown to protect from disease, according to the report, A Future for Food Addressing public health, sustainability and equity from paddock to plate, to be issued today.
Association chief executive officer Read the rest of this entry »

Grady Jackson, a defensive tackle with the Atlanta Falcons, said he used the weight-loss capsules. Kathie Lee Gifford, a former talk show host, was enthusiastic about them on the “Today” show. Retailers like GNC and the Vitamin Shoppe sold them, no prescriptionrequired.
But the U.S. Food and Drug Administration now says those weight-loss capsules, called StarCaps and promoted as natural dietary supplements using papaya, could be hazardous to your Read the rest of this entry »

A dramatic rise in the use of the medical imaging tools like CT scans are increasing health care costs and patients’ exposure to radiation, according to a new study.
The provocative conclusion by a University of California-San Francisco research team challenges the more-is-better conventional wisdom of many consumers and their doctors.
The use of innovative imaging tests like computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), which Read the rest of this entry »

ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN- A few months ago, swimmer Michael Phelps was largely considered to be the most annoying living human being on earth. Obnoxiously successful at the 2008 Summer Olympics due to years of intense, some say obsessive, training, Phelps became the very definition of “trying too hard.” Worse still, his grotesquely elongated face was everywhere- talk shows, sit-coms, and the occasional feminine hygiene product. Even cave-dwelling hermits Read the rest of this entry »