Author: Staff (Page 80 of 158)

Forgetful at 45 Could Be the Norm

January 11, 2012 / Staff

Scientist have discovered that memory loss and cognitive function start slipping earlier than once thought.

Maintaining and improving mental health should start early in life.

Living a healthy lifestyle and being active seems to be the best way to ward off mental decline.

Researchers haven’t conclusively proven that cognitive decline in middle age predicts Alzheimer’s or other dementias, but on balance the evidence suggests that small changes in midlife mental function can become magnified later in life, says Francine Grodstein, Sc.D., an epidemiologist and associate professor of medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, in Boston.
“There is a lot of evidence that [people] with cognitive decline are at highest risk of later developing dementia, so it is likely that preventing or delaying cognitive decline today will help reduce risk of dementia tomorrow,” says Grodstein, who was not involved in the research but wrote an editorial accompanying the study.

Quality Control, Research, Wellness

Alzheimer's alzheimer's disease dementia early onset dementia symptoms of Alzheimer's symptoms of dementia

Drug Mix-Up Prompts Recall

January 10, 2012 / Staff

Consumers are being warned to visually inspect medications bought over the counter.

For those who purchased bottles of Excedrin, Bufferin, NoDoz and Gas-X, produced by Novartis, they are being told to discard or return the products in a voluntary recall that started Sunday.

“Due to problems that occurred when these products were packaged and labeled at the site, it’s possible that tablets from one product may have been retained in the packaging machinery and then may have carried over into the packaging of another product,” said Dr. Edward Cox, director of the Office of Antimicrobial Products, Office of New Drugs, Center for Drug Evaluation of Research for the FDA.

Quality Control, Wellness

Bufferin recall drug recall drug safety Excedrin Excedrin recall Gas-X recall NoDoz recall public health public health concerns public health safety public safety

The Safety of Fracking Has Health Groups Concerned

January 10, 2012 / Staff

Environmental concerns over fracking have heightened as the practice has grown to address the nation’s demand for fossil fuel.

Fracking involves injecting water mixed with sand and chemicals into shale formations at high pressures to extract fuel.
The recent spread of fracking has raised concerns among environmentalists, public health advocates and some neighbors of shale wells who worry about issues such as water contamination and increased truck traffic. Some have also linked earthquakes to disposal of waste water from shale wells.

Quality Control, Research, Wellness

clean drinking water dangers of fracking drinking water fracking fracking safety public health

Aspirin Therapy Under Review

January 9, 2012 / Staff

An aspirin a day used to be the recommendation for stroke and heart attack patients for preventative measures.

However the risk of heavy internal bleeding is worse than the potential benefits, especially to healthy people.

The message seems to be that aspirin therapy causes more harm than it’s worth.

Currently, U.S. guidelines all recommend aspirin for primary prevention as long as the benefits outweigh the harms, an equation that depends on baseline risk. This advice is backed by an editorial accompanying the new report.

Health Care Policy, Quality Control, Research, Wellness

aspirin aspirin therapy aspirin to prevent cancer aspirin to prevent heart attack aspirin to prevent stroke cancer prevention heart attack internal bleeding caused by aspirin side affects of aspirin therapy Stroke

Antibiotic Use in Livestock Coming Under Scrutiny

January 9, 2012 / Staff

The Food and Drug Administration is calling for restrictions in use of antibiotics in animals.

Crowded and filthy conditions call for the use of the drugs to prevent illness in the animals which could be passed on to humans.

However, it seems that the antibiotics are indeed being passed on to humans and helping to create super-bugs which are becoming increasingly drug resistant.

Some 80 percent of antibiotic drugs in the United States were sold for use in food animals, according to the FDA. Many of those are used to help animals grow faster and prevent infections from breaking out on big farms. Today’s announcement on cephalosporins doesn’t affect those antibiotics in feed.
Still, the more the cephalosporins are used, the greater the chances that they will stop working because bacteria can become resistant to them.

Quality Control

antibiotic use in farm animals antibiotics drug resistant bacteria factory farms FDA Food and Drug Administration