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Drug

Prescription drugs, vaccines and their risks and benefits.

Drug

What treatment should you use to treat coronary artery disease?

An analysis of 190,000 US patients using Medicare claims and registry data found 20.8% of angioplasty patients died within four years, against 16.4% of bypass patients. Lead researcher William Weintraub said the finding pushes toward surgery, "but not overwhelmingly so."

Drug

Birth control pills relieve menstrual pain

Swedish researchers followed 2,100 women from age 19 to 24 and found those on the pill reported less severe period pain over time, even after accounting for age and childbirth. The observational design cannot prove cause, and a 2009 review of 10 trials found little evidence.

Apr 2, 2012

Drug

All hormone therapies for menopausal symptoms raise breast cancer risk

USA Today reports on a study of about 60,000 nurses, presented at a Chicago cancer conference, finding that any menopausal hormone therapy used long term slightly raised breast cancer risk. Lead author Wendy Chen said risk kept climbing with duration, with no apparent plateau.

Apr 1, 2012

Drug

This Could Give Women Deadly Blood Clots - US Health Officials Admit

Mercola writes that the GAVI Alliance is launching a push to vaccinate millions with Cervarix or Gardasil, and that U.S. officials acknowledge reports of blood clots, respiratory failure, cardiac arrest and sudden death after Gardasil. The vaccines cover two of 100-plus HPV strains.

Mar 27, 2012

Drug

Aspirin may cut cancer risk, but pose other risks

Three studies led by Oxford's Peter Rothwell add to evidence that daily aspirin may prevent cancer in the short term and cut the chance of cancers spreading by about 40-50%, Reuters reports. Aspirin also raises stomach bleeding risk in roughly one patient per thousand each year.

Mar 26, 2012

Drug

Take aspirin to prevent cancer? Here are some better things to do

Lancet papers reported that daily aspirin may cut cancer death risk by 15 percent, but the piece notes serious internal bleeding risk doubles in the first three years while any anti-cancer effect appears only after three, and that the Women's Health and Physicians' Health studies found no benefit.

Mar 23, 2012

Drug

Antidepressant use during pregnancy and high blood pressure

A British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology study of 1,216 women found SSRI use in pregnancy tracked with pregnancy-induced hypertension rising from about 2% to 3.2%, and to 3.6% with paroxetine. The authors stress women should consult a doctor, not stop medication.

Mar 22, 2012

Drug

Pain Relievers Could be Spiking Your Blood Pressure (PR)

Prof. Ehud Grossman of Tel Aviv University reviewed drugs that raise blood pressure or interfere with anti-hypertensive medication, among them ibuprofen, contraceptive pills, some antidepressants and antibiotics. He says doctors often overlook them when diagnosing hypertension.

Mar 20, 2012

Drug

Trials of a painkiller that destructs patients' joints should continue, FDA advisers say

FDA advisers voted 21-0 to lift the agency's hold on trials of anti-nerve growth factor painkillers, halted in 2010 after nearly 500 study participants needed joint replacements. Panelists said companies should identify who benefits and exclude those prone to joint problems.

Mar 19, 2012

Drug

Diagnosis of ADHD on the Rise (PR)

A Northwestern Medicine study of office visits from 2000 to 2010 found ADHD diagnoses in children rose 66 percent, with specialists rather than primary care physicians treating a growing share. First author Craig Garfield attributes the shift largely to increased awareness.

Mar 19, 2012

Drug

Newborn screening for DMD shows promise as an international model

Nationwide Children's Hospital investigators, working with a University of Utah sequencing facility, describe in Annals of Neurology a newborn screening approach for Duchenne muscular dystrophy built on creatine kinase testing of dried blood spots. Diagnosis now comes at about age 5.

Mar 19, 2012

Drug

Is This Drug Behind Some War Atrocities?

The malaria drug Lariam, whose label warns of psychosis, hallucinations, paranoia and aggression, was suspected in the 2002 killings of four soldiers' wives at Fort Bragg. Military officials blamed marital problems and combat stress instead.

Mar 19, 2012

Drug

Obesity raises death risk tied to sleeping pills (PR)

Researchers told an American Heart Association meeting that obesity nearly doubled the death rate tied to sleeping pills, even among people prescribed 18 or fewer pills a year, about one extra death annually per 100 obese patients. Men on the pills were about twice as likely to die as women.

Mar 18, 2012

Drug

Menopausal hormone therapy and breast cancer risk: Emerging evidence from randomized trials

Reviewing two WHI randomized placebo-controlled trials, Rowan Chlebowski and Garnet Anderson report that estrogen plus progestin significantly raised breast cancer risk in women with an intact uterus, while estrogen alone significantly lowered it in women who had had a hysterectomy.

Mar 18, 2012

Drug

Asian breast cancer survivors suffer cognitive impairments associated with chemotherapy (PR)

Focus groups with 43 breast cancer patients in Singapore found those who had received or were receiving chemotherapy reported memory loss, trouble making decisions and speech problems, but blamed fatigue, anxiety or mood rather than treatment. Many turned to mahjong and qi gong.

Mar 18, 2012

Drug

New compound discovered that rapidly kills liver cancer (PR)

Virginia Commonwealth University scientists report that a compound called Factor Quinolinone Inhibitor 1 blocks the transcription factor LSF, rapidly killing hepatocellular carcinoma cells in the lab and sharply shrinking tumors in mice with no observed toxicity to normal liver cells.

Mar 18, 2012

Drug

Doctors Prove This Test Can Give Healthy People Cancer

Mercola draws on a Nordic Cochrane Center leaflet and Southampton research arguing mammography may have caused net harm for up to 10 years after screening began: for every 2,000 women screened regularly for a decade, one avoids a breast cancer death while 10 healthy women are treated unnecessarily.

Mar 14, 2012

Drug

This Foolish Cancer "Prevention" May Only Extend Your Life by 2.8 Days

Mercola notes that the USPSTF and American Cancer Society now advise Pap screening every three years rather than annually for women 21 to 65. He suspects cost drove the change, and says fewer than 27 percent of women have taken the HPV vaccine promoted as an alternative.

Mar 13, 2012

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