Medical Health News

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License to Harm: Biggest number of offenders are "registered counselors"

The Seattle Times (WA)

by Julia Sommerfeld and Michael J. Berens

April 24, 2006

To be a manicurist in the state of Washington, you must take 600 hours of training and pass both a written exam and a skills demonstration. To cut hair, you need 1,000 hours of training and the two tests.

But to be a registered counselor, someone who will help guide troubled clients through some of their most difficult life challenges, you need take only a four-hour AIDS-awareness class. That's it - that and a $40 registration fee. You don't even need a high-school diploma. That sounds like an invitation for trouble - and it is.

Hidden Danger of Cholesterol-Lowering Drugs

News With Views

by Shane Ellison

April 22, 2006

As an ex-drug chemist, I witnessed how drug side-effects are hidden from patients and doctors by "big Pharma." Cholesterol-lowering drugs such as Lipitor, Crestor, Pravachol, Zocor and Mevacor serve as poignant examples.

Cholesterol-lowering drugs decrease CoQ10 levels within the heart. This essential nutrient serves as an energy producing molecule and is crucial to proper cardiovascular function. Without it, the heart fails. Congestive heart failure is the outcome. This was highlighted when Merck, makers of the first cholesterol-lowering drug, filed for a patent for its profit-pulling "Mevacor."

National health technology czar steps down / S.F. doctor spent 2 grueling years pushing digital medical records

San Francisco Chronicle (CA)

by Victoria Colliver

April 22, 2006

Dr. David Brailer, the man picked by President Bush to promote electronic health records and the modernization of medical technology, has resigned as national coordinator for health information technology effective next month. No replacement has been name

The San Francisco physician, who has held the position for two years, said he is leaving to spend more time with his family. He submitted his resignation Thursday. Brailer, who lives in Pacific Heights and is the father of a 5-year-old son, has been commuting to Washington, D.C., and traveling around the country for much of his tenure.

Firm seeks crackdown on custom made drugs

The Mercury News (CA)

by Andrew Bridges

April 21, 2006

WASHINGTON - Thousands of women who rely on custom-made hormone drugs for relief from menopause symptoms have flooded the government with letters opposing a drug company's effort to get health officials to crack down on pharmacies that sell them.

The drug company Wyeth wants the Food and Drug Administration to rein in the market for bio-identical hormone replacement therapy drugs. The hormones are custom mixed or compounded by specialized pharmacies according to a doctor's prescription. Compounding pharmacists can alter the dosages of a medicine, prepare it in creams or liquids that are easier to take than pills or eliminate preservatives or other secondary ingredients that might cause allergies in a patient.

Jury awards $32 million in Vioxx case

Reuters (TX)

by Jeff Franks

April 21, 2006

RIO GRANDE CITY - A Texas jury on Friday found that the withdrawn painkiller Vioxx caused the death of 71-year-old Leonel Garza and awarded a total of $32 million in damages to his family.

It was the latest verdict in lawsuits charging that Vioxx maker Merck & Co. Inc. did not disclose for several years that the drug increased the risk of heart attacks. The jury awarded Garza's family $7 million in compensatory damages and $25 million in punitive damages, but the punitive damages will be reduced to no more than $750,000 because of a cap imposed by Texas law.

The nuclear cloud that still hangs over Chernobyl

The Sydney Morning Herald (AU)

by Benjamin Seeder

April 21, 2006

Benjamin Seeder visits the danger zone and finds the full financial and social costs are yet to be felt.

Like thousands of Ukrainian-Belarusian peasants, Shilan and her cousin Salitona spend the spring and summer days cultivating their plots, and the long winter in hibernation in their dilapidated cottage living off pickled fruits and vegetables. At 76 she has outlived her sons, both of whom died less than two years ago, six months apart. Both were in their early 40s, and both died of cancer-related illnesses.

Chernobyl still controversial 20 years on

EUobserver

April 21, 2006

Days ahead of the 20th anniversary of Europe's worst nuclear disaster - Chernobyl - contradictory reports about the dangers of nuclear energy have sparked debate between pro and anti-nuclear groups.

The western Balkans, Finland, Sweden, Bulgaria, Norway, Romania, Germany, Austria and Poland recorded high levels of radioactivity. In total, some 40 percent of the European continent's surface was contaminated a European Parliament report debated earlier this week has concluded.

Mental illness writers had industry ties: study

Reuters

by Lisa Richwine

April 20, 2006

WASHINGTON - Most of the experts who wrote the manual widely used to diagnose mental illness have had financial ties to drug makers such as research funding or stock holdings, U.S. researchers said on Thursday.

Writing in a new study, they called for full disclosure of the relationships between companies and the medical experts on panels that craft future editions of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, known as the DSM.

No verdict in Texas Vioxx case

Reuters (TX)

by Jeff Franks

April 20, 2006

RIO GRANDE CITY - A Texas jury failed to reach a verdict Thursday on whether the painkiller Vioxx caused the death of a 71-year-old man who charged that Merck & Co. Inc. hid the dangers of the now-withdrawn medicine.

Attorneys for the family of the late Leonel Garza asked the jury in closing arguments to award more than $1 billion in damages, but Merck lawyers said the company should have to pay nothing. The damage request includes $22 million for mental anguish and personal loss and $1 billion in punitive damages, which punish a defendant for wrongful behavior.

America's Eating Disorder

AlterNet

by Blair Golson

April 19, 2006

Journalist Michael Pollan talks about fixing our industrial food system, what being a conscientious carnivore means, and how we can really eat healthily.

It became obvious to journalist Michael Pollan in the summer of 2002 that America had a national eating disorder. That July, The New York Times Magazine published an article titled "What if It's All Been a Big Fat Lie'" which reported that a growing number of respected nutritional researchers were beginning to conclude that perhaps Dr. Robert Atkins had been right all along: Carbohydrates, not fats, were the cause of America's obesity problem.

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