From foodconsumer.org
Health Highlights: Sept. 6, 2006
By HealthDay
Sep 6, 2006, 12:41
* FDA Wants to Regulate New Diagnostic Tests
* Obesity Harder on Women: Report
* Hypertension Drug Lowers Diabetes Risk
* EPA Orders Stores to Eliminate Illegal Confetti String
* Drugs for Overactive Bladder Offer Only Modest Benefits: Report
Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by the editors of HealthDay:
FDA Wants to Regulate New Diagnostic Tests
Draft guidelines for regulating a new category of complex diagnostic tests were released Tuesday by the U. S. Food and Drug Administration.
Theses tests, called multivariate index assays, measure multiple genes, proteins or other pieces of clinical information from patients. An algorithm or software program is used the analyze the data, The New York Times reported.
The FDA said requiring approval for such tests before they're marketed may better ensure that the tests are valid. But some experts caution that increased regulation and associated costs may discourage development of new diagnostic tests.
"We don't want to see innovation and access inhibited," Kathy Hudson, director of the Genetics and Public Policy Center at Johns Hopkins University, told the Times. "On the other hand, it's really important to make sure that patients and providers have accurate and reliable tests. It's a fine balance."
The FDA's draft guidelines are currently open for public comment.
-----
Obesity Harder on Women: Report
Obesity causes more physical and social harm to women than men, an expert told delegates Wednesday at the International Obesity Congress in Australia.
Berit Heitmann, a nutritional and medical research advisor to the Danish government, said research shows that being "obese and female is as bad as it gets," Agence France Presse reported.
Obese women suffer more social stigma than obese men, Heitmann said. "Obese women are deprived of friendships, intimate relationships, social interactions, education, income and respect," she said.
Heitmann also said obese women suffer more health problems -- such as diabetes, hypertension and heart disease -- than obese men, AFP reported.
However, obese men and women have similar death rates. This may be because women tend to collect fat on the backside, while men collect it more on the stomach, where it is more dangerous to health, she said.
In related news, a study by the Royal National Institute of the Blind in England found that obese people have double the risk of vision loss. This is because obesity increases the risk of diabetes, cataracts, glaucoma and age-related macular degeneration, BBC News reported.
-----
Hypertension Drug Lowers Diabetes Risk
The hypertension drug Norvasc, made by Pfizer inc., reduced the risk of diabetes in people with high blood pressure, according to a study presented Wednesday at the World Congress of Cardiology in Spain.
The study found that Norvasc reduced the risk of developing diabetes by 34 percent, compared with beta blockers, a class of drugs widely used to treat hypertension and abnormal heart rhythm, MarketWatch reported.
Among 14,120 patients who did not have diabetes at the start of the study, 8 percent of those who took Norvasc and a drug called Coversyl developed diabetes by the end of the study, compared with 11.4 percent of the patients who took the beta blocker atenolol.
The study authors said the finding is important because diabetes significantly increases the risk of heart attack and stroke, MarketWatch reported.
-----
EPA Orders Stores to Eliminate Illegal Confetti String
Five national store chains in the U.S. have been ordered to clear their shelves of, and destroy, cans of illegally imported confetti string products that contain banned hydrochlorofluorocarbon (HCFC) propellants, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Tuesday.
HCFCs, which were banned in the U.S. more than a decade ago, deplete the Earth's ozone layer, which protects humans, animals and plants from the sun's harmful radiation. Damage to the ozone layer increases the risk of skin cancer, cataracts and crop damage.
The five chains -- American Greetings Inc., Dollar Tree, Dollar General, Target, and Too, Inc. (which owns Limited Too) -- have complied with the EPA order and pulled the children's products off their shelves. The companies will send more than 2.7 million cans of confetti string to a commercial incinerator for destruction.
The companies also agreed to audit their operation and adopt new policies to prevent a repeat of this kind of problem.
The illegal canned string products were made in China and Taiwan and went by various names, including Zany String, Crazy String, and Party Streamer.
-----
Drugs for Overactive Bladder Offer Only Modest Benefits: Report
Five prescription drugs used to treat overactive bladder are only modestly effective and can cause side effects -- such as dry mouth, constipation, and mental confusion -- that can limit their usefulness, says a report from Consumer Reports Best Buy Drugs.
About 15 million to 20 million Americans have overactive bladder. People with severe overactive bladder may have to urinate up to 20 times a day. People without overactive bladder urinate an average of 6 to 10 times a day.
The report recommends that people with mild symptoms of overactive bladder try non-drug measures first, such as lifestyle changes and learning Kegel exercises to strengthen pelvic muscles. These techniques may also provide added relief for people with severe symptoms who are taking drugs to treat the condition, the report said.
People taking any of the five drugs -- oxybutynin (Ditropan, Ditropan XL and Oxytrol, a skin patch); tolterodine (Detrol, Detrol LA); trospium (Sanctura); solifenacin (Vesicare); and darifenacin (Enablex) -- can expect the number of times they need to urinate to drop from an average of about 12 per day to 7 to 10 a day, the report said.
Among people with severe overactive bladder, the drugs may reduce urination frequency from up to 20 times a day to about 15 to 18 times a day.
About half of people with overactive bladder also have incontinence. Among these people, the drugs reduce the average number of incontinence episodes from 3 to 5 per day to about 2 to 4 per day, the report said.
According to the report, studies have found that that lifestyle changes and other self-help measures -- when adhered to diligently -- can reduce the urge to urinate, decrease frequent urination, and restore sense of control in 80 percent of people who try them. One in four people get complete relief using such measures.
The authors said the report is based on a review of available medical evidence.
Last Updated: Sept. 6, 2006
Copyright © 2006 ScoutNews LLC. All rights reserved.
© 2004-2005 by foodconsumer.org unless otherwise specified.