Federal regulators say they soon will ban the manufacture, distribution, and retail and wholesale selling of menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars, an action expected to take effect in a year or two and which anti-smoking advocates argue could save hundreds of thousands of lives of black and young Americans. The Food and Drug Administration says….
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Calories, not clock watching, are key to weight loss, researchers say
Americans’ obsession with weight control can lead them to embrace diet theories and convert too many of them into conventional wisdom. Alas, when medical researchers put widely accepted notions to scientific testing, they can evaporate faster than a rain drop on a hot summer sidewalk. That’s the potential fate of the idea that when people….
Continue ReadingCautions issued over prenatal genetic tests in IVF and for rare diseases
Expectant parents, doctors, and regulators need to reconsider the rising use of gee-whiz genetic testing as doubts emerge about popular blood screenings to detect rare prenatal disorders and a costly test relied on by couples undergoing in-vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment. This is what the New York Times reported about what researchers have found about preimplantation….
Continue ReadingSpecialized cancer hospitals hike drug costs by up to 630%, study finds
While patients often seek treatment at big, fancy hospitals, in part because they are designated as National Cancer Institute centers, these institutions provide a sticker-shock surprise for those receiving their specialized care: They jack up the already sky-high cost of prescription cancer drugs with markups going up from 120% to 630% above what they pay….
Continue ReadingFDA a giant failure on food safety and nutrition guidance, report finds
Its official title is the federal Food and Drug Administration. But taxpayers are ill-served by the $1 billion they fork over to this behemoth agency to safeguard the foods all of us must consume and to provide sound nutritional guidance in especially confusing times. That’s a significant takeaway for readers of a new, magazine-length takedown….
Continue ReadingOpioid crisis takes a new scary turn: Mass casualties at once
The opioid abuse and drug overdose crisis has veered into a frightening new phase in which the rise of the easy-to-make, exceedingly powerful synthetic painkiller fentanyl is causing multiple, interconnected deaths at one time. The nation’s capital already has experienced this grim situation, which only shows signs of worsening, the Washington Post reported on April….
Continue ReadingMedicare angers patient groups with limits on Alzheimer’s drug coverage
Although Medicare officials have slammed the door for now on paying for widespread use of a drug targeted for Alzheimer’s treatment, patient advocacy groups have thrown themselves into the battle over Aduhelm and whether taxpayers should pay its hefty price. Aduhelm is the risky, costly prescription medication with sparse evidence of its purported benefits for….
Continue ReadingAlcohol abuse spiked during coronavirus pandemic, killing 100,000
Alcohol abuse blew up from a rising concern to a significant killer during the coronavirus pandemic, with 100,000 Americans losing their lives to booze-related causes, a 25% increase year-over-year in the first 12 months of the global infection’s outbreak. The figures from research newly published in the Journal of the American Medical Association shows the….
Continue ReadingAs ‘synthetic’ nicotine loophole shuts, warnings about cannabis edibles
Grownups have gotten stark reminders why they must stay vigilant against buck-raking enterprises that exploit young people’s experimentation with intoxicants. Even as Congress has shut a legal loophole used by the vaping industry to keep addicting its customers to harmful nicotine, other dealers are pushing candy-like marijuana edibles on youths. In passing a $1.5 trillion….
Continue ReadingPlutocrats up the ante by a few billion to settle a sorry opioids saga
A plutocratic clan has upped its ante by $1.5 billion in an apparently successful bet that using bankruptcy courts, mediation, and offering to settle giant claims in the opioid abuse and drug overdose crisis will be cheaper and less risky than battling on with thousands of plaintiffs seeking billions of dollars more. Members of the….
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