health

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Trail of Chinese Chemicals Leads to Toothpaste

Governments on two continents investigate tainted product

(Newser) - The Dominican Republic is the latest country investigating the possibility that a poisonous chemical from China wound up in a consumer product. This time it's toothpaste that contains the industrial solvent diethylene glycol, which has already turned up in Panama and Australia, the Times reports. The Chinese government has tracked...

Diabetes Drug Ups Heart Risk
Diabetes
Drug Ups
Heart Risk
May 21, 2007 3:15 PM CDT

Diabetes Drug Ups Heart Risk

New study documents dangers of Avandia, but company nixes recall

(Newser) - A popular diabetes drug may increase heart attack risks, a study reported in the New England Journal of Medicine concludes. Patients who took Avandia, which treats Type 2 diabetes, were 43% more likely to have a heart attack than those who took a placebo, the Cleveland Clinic study found.

Psych Drugs Drove Kid Crazy
Psych Drugs Drove Kid Crazy
May 18, 2007 9:44 PM CDT

Psych Drugs Drove Kid Crazy

Careless prescriptions turned shy chess nerd into into belligerent hulk

(Newser) - The careless prescription of anti-psychotic drugs, often by psychiatrists who draw pay checks from the companies who make them, has drawn attention in the New York Times recently. Now Ann Bauer, writing in Salon, draws an intimate portrait of the effects of such carelessness on one autistic teenager, who turned...

Ban Chinese Ingredients? Easier Said Than Done

They're in virtually all processed foods. Six or more in the the Twinkie alone.

(Newser) - In the wake of the pet-food poisoning scandal, some of the biggest U.S. food manufacturers—Tyson and Mission Foods—have banned Chinese ingredients. But since China is the world's biggest supplier of the flavorings, vitamins and preservatives that are used in virtually all processed foods, the bans may be...

Britain OKs Human-Animal Hybrids for Research

(Newser) - The British government has reversed its stance on the creation of human-animal hybrid embryos and will propose allowing scientists to use them as sources of stem cells. Scientists developing treatments for incurable diseases would be allowed to grow the hybrid embryos for no longer than two weeks, and implanting them...

West Nile Turns Down Volume on Songbirds

Scientists hear trouble in quieter North American backyards

(Newser) - The West Nile virus is responsible for a major decline in North American bird populations, and the sudden quiet speaks volumes to environmental scientists. Beyond a lack of birdsong, a new National Zoo study reports, the decimation signals far-reaching ecological problems that have emerged since the mosquito-borne virus appeared on...

Big Pharma Loses Generic Drug Fight
Big Pharma Loses Generic
Drug Fight
May 17, 2007 10:23 AM CDT

Big Pharma Loses Generic Drug Fight

Deal for developing nations first blow by Dems in Congress

(Newser) - Congress and the White House have agreed to give developing nations more access to affordable generic drugs by easing some patent enforcement rules. Tucked into a broader trade agreement passed last week, the provision is the first blow to American pharmaceutical companies since the Democrats won control of Congress, the ...

Spider Venom the New Viagra
Spider Venom the New Viagra
May 16, 2007 7:31 AM CDT

Spider Venom the New Viagra

(Newser) - Men with erectile dysfunction may get an assist, believe it or not, from the Brazillian wandering spider—also dubbed the banana spider for its propensity to hide in bunches of the fruit. Researchers at Johns Hopkins have isolated a compound in the spider's deadly saliva that causes erections, der Spiegel...

Chemicals in Tap Water, French Fries May Cause Breast Cancer

(Newser) - Hundreds of common chemicals—from a substance used in French fries to one found in tap water—may cause breast cancer, a new report linking the disease to everyday products suggests. Researchers say they've found a link between cancer in animals and more than 200 common chemicals, many of which...

OxyContin Maker Pleads Guilty
OxyContin Maker Pleads Guilty
May 10, 2007 12:01 PM CDT

OxyContin Maker Pleads Guilty

Manufacturer, execs admit misleading public about risky painkiller

(Newser) - The company that makes OxyContin pleaded guilty today to misleading the public about the effects of the potent painkiller. Purdue Pharma and three executives will pay $634.5 million in civil and criminal fines. Federal prosecutors accused the firm of "misbranding" the drug, marketing it as a less addictive...

Doctors Paid Millions To Use Anemia Drugs

Among the world's top-selling medicines, the FDA now says they may be unsafe

(Newser) - Doctors are paid millions of dollars by drug companies to give their patients anemia medicine which regulators now say may be dangerous. Spurred by competiton between several similar drugs, companies reward doctors with rebates, which allow them to make a significant profit, the New York Times reports.

Gluten-Free Sticks for Many Dieters

Mild-mannered wheat protein is the latest dietary scourge

(Newser) - Gluten-free diets, once the purview of those with life-threatening conditions like celiac disease, have hit the mainstream. Docs now estimate that gluten allergies strike one in 100 North Americans, and even those who aren't allergic are turning onto gluten-free, blaming the protein for ailments from infertility to anxiety.

Toxic Cough Syrup Causes Deaths in Panama

How a tailor in China passed glycol off as glycerin, and killed hundreds of children

(Newser) - American drugmakers are on the lookout this week for another in the growing list of potentially deadly Chinese exports. This time, it's diethylene glycol, a sweet-but-toxic chemical that masquerades as glycerin in common medications like cough syrup and that has already killed almost 400 people—many of them children—in...

Melamine Death Toll Passes 8,000 Pets

FDA says health risk for humans unlikely

(Newser) - More than 8,000 deaths of cats and dogs that may be linked to melamine-tainted food have been reported to the FDA in the two months since the pet food recall. The statistics come as the FDA tries to assure Americans that the tainted protein concentrates, also fed to hogs...

Researchers Link Gene, Heart Disease

Common variation dramatically increases risk

(Newser) - A gene that can more than double the risk of heart disease, especially in relatively young people, is present in about half of those of European descent, researchers say. The discovery, reported this week, raises hopes of more accurate genetic testing for heart disease—the world's leading cause of death—...

China Detains Pet Food Contaminator

Beijing cracks down on source of melamine-tainted gluten

(Newser) - Chinese authorities have jailed the head of a company accused of selling pet food makers  the melamine-contaminated gluten that's killed thousands of cats and dogs. The detention of Mao Lijun suggests Beijing is eager to cooperate with the FDA investigators currently on its turf, after initially disavowing any gluten sales...

TB Patient Spends Nine Months In Lockdown

ACLU questions forcible quarantine of man with drug-resistent TB

(Newser) - A tuberculosis patient has been in forced quarantine in an Arizona hospital's jail ward for nine months for failing to wear a face mask and take his medication. Robert Daniels committed no crime, but neither did he follow doctor's orders to avoid transmission of his drug-resistant TB. 

Lefty Women Die Younger
Lefty Women Die Younger
May 2, 2007 12:01 PM CDT

Lefty Women Die Younger

Stunner Dutch study shows 70% higher risk of dying from cancer

(Newser) - Left-handed women have a dramatically higher risk of mortality from just about every disease, a new study reported in the Telegraph shows. Dutch researchers who followed more than 12,000 women for nearly 13 years found lefties had a 40% greater chance of dying from any cause, 70% higher from...

FDA Names Food Safety Czar After Chicken Scare

Democrats seek other roads to effective FDA

(Newser) - The FDA appointed a food safety czar yesterday, as the news that 3 million chickens had been fed melamine-tainted feed exacerbated growing public anxiety about food safety. The FDA said the chickens weren't recalled because most of them would have been sold by now, and the melamine was too diluted...

Preschool Kids Get Socked In the Mouth

Cavities are on the rise for the first time in 40 years

(Newser) - Young children are developing more cavities in their baby teeth than kids were a decade ago, the CDC reported yesterday, a worrisome development that reverses a 40-year trend. Preschool children—"thousands and thousands of kids," in the words of one researcher—were the only age group in which...

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