Direct-to-consumer drug advertising arrived in the late 1990s and, the writer argues, sold diseases along with the pills: GERD with the Purple Pill, seasonal allergies with Claritin. Mandated risk disclosures, she suggests, perversely helped sell the drugs.
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Drug
Prescription drugs, vaccines and their risks and benefits.
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Drug
Obesity Surgery Even Worse than Previously Thought
Ten years after laparoscopic gastric banding, nearly half of patients had the band removed for complications, the band eroded in almost a third, and 60 percent had further weight-loss surgery. A separate study found bone mineral content fell 7.4 percent in 61 obese teens two years after bypass.
Drug
Estrogen plus progestin more dangerous than thought
Rowan Chlebowski's team reported in JAMA that women who used estrogen plus progestin for an average of 5.6 years were 25 percent more likely to develop breast cancer and twice as likely to die from it, over follow-up running through August 2009.
Drug
Children's CT scans on the rise in ER's
A Radiology study of emergency department visits from 1995 to 2008 found pediatric visits including a CT scan rose fivefold, from 0.33 million to 1.65 million, and the share of visits involving CT rose from 1.2% to 5.9%. Doctors stress appropriate ordering to limit radiation.
Drug
How to Turn a $10 Treatment into a $30,000 Drug Money-Maker
After the FDA gave KV Pharmaceutical orphan drug status for a synthetic progesterone long used in high-risk pregnancies, the company raised the price from about $10 a dose to $1,500, up to $30,000 for a course of weekly injections. Preterm birth, Mercola notes, is not a rare condition.
Drug
Gene mutation in breast milk may help diagnose breast cancer
Researchers tested breast milk from about 250 women who had had or planned a breast biopsy and found methylation of the SFRP1 gene more often in milk from biopsied breasts, suggesting milk might help gauge breast cancer risk. More research is needed to confirm it.
Drug
Mercury-Containing Medicines: Harmful to Children
Mercola cites studies arguing that mercury from vaccines and dental amalgam, combined with genetic susceptibility, may trigger autism, and that thimerosal entered vaccines without sufficient safety testing. He also flags Polysorbate 80 in swine flu vaccines.
Drug
The Stealth Drug Cause of Diabetes
Pharmacist Suzy Cohen explains that statins stop the liver making cholesterol, which can send sugar back out into the bloodstream. She suspects some patients diagnosed with diabetes in fact have hyperglycemia caused by the drug they were prescribed months earlier.
Drug
Stem cells could give some people with MS a fighting chance
A single-centre phase I/II study of 35 patients with aggressive multiple sclerosis treated by hemopoietic stem cell transplantation reported 15-year progression-free survival of 44 percent among those with active CNS disease. Two patients died of transplant-related complications.
Drug
Supplementing With THIS Hormone Can Lead to Tumors and Insomnia
Dr. Mercola, who says hormones are not his specialty, summarises DHEA: an adrenal hormone that peaks in a person's late 20s and declines with age. He lists the benefits claimed for supplementation in deficiency and the conditions tied to low levels, and invites clinicians to correct him.
Drug
City kids with asthma could see relief with Omalizumab
In a 60-week trial in the New England Journal of Medicine, adding omalizumab to guidelines-based therapy cut symptom days 24.5% among 419 inner-city children and young adults with persistent asthma, and reduced seasonal exacerbation peaks from 48.8% to 30.3%.
Drug
Taking These Common Pills? You're Playing "Russian Roulette" With Your Heart
Mercola cites a BMJ analysis of more than 30 trials covering 116,000 patients: rofecoxib and lumiracoxib carried twice the heart attack risk, ibuprofen more than three times the stroke risk, and etoricoxib and diclofenac the highest risk of cardiovascular death.
Drug
Moms-To-Be--Are You Taking This Dangerous Drug?
The FDA warned that women who take the antiepileptic Topamax while pregnant are 20 times as likely to have a baby with cleft lip or cleft palate, and three times as likely as women on other seizure drugs. J&J paid a $6.1 million fine over illegal marketing of the drug last year.
Drug
What NOT to Do Before Your Next Dental Appointment…
In a New Zealand trial, 95 patients each had one impacted third molar removed with antibiotics and one with placebo. Pain, swelling, temperature and trismus did not differ, and post-operative infections occurred in 2% of the 380 extractions, with no significant gap between groups.
Drug
Meningitis and pneumonia vaccinations halted overseas due to deaths
A health ministry suspended Pfizer's Prevnar 13 and Sanofi's ActHIB after four children died in three days, pending an investigation. Sanofi's Victor Carey said no causal link to immunization has been established; Pfizer said the Prevnar doses came from three separate lots.
Drug
Anticonvulsant drugs used in pregnancy boost risk of birth defects
The FDA warned that women taking topiramate in the first trimester more often had babies with cleft lip and palate: 1.4% of infants exposed on single-drug therapy, against 0.38% to 0.55% on other anticonvulsants and 0.07% with no exposure. Stronger labeling will be required.
Drug
Opioid painkillers used before or early in pregnancy doubles birth defect risk
A CDC study found women who took opioid painkillers such as codeine, oxycodone or hydrocodone just before or early in pregnancy were twice as likely to have a baby with hypoplastic left heart syndrome. Researchers describe the overall risk as modest.
Drug
Makers of Avastin get to make their case
The FDA granted Genentech a two-day public hearing at the end of June to argue for keeping Avastin's breast cancer approval, which the agency moved to withdraw in December after four trials showed no survival benefit against serious risks.
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