September 12th, 2011 by David Kroll, Ph.D. in News, Research
Tags: Adulteration, American Botanical Council, American Herbal Products Association, American skullcap, Chemical Research in Toxicology, ConsumerLab.com, Drugs, ED, Erectile Dysfunction, FDA, germander compound teucrin A, HerbalGram, Herbs, KeepSupplementsClean.org, Larry Marnett, Mark Blumenthal, NutraIngredients USA, Scutellaria lateriflora L., Supplements, Vanderbilt, Viagra
No Comments »
As early as 2006, I used to be able to write monthly about US FDA warnings on erectile dysfunction supplements being found adulterated with prescription drugs such as sildenafil, the phosphodiesterase-5 inhibitor found in Viagra. These adulteration episodes raised the question of how many anecdotal reports of herbal products “working” had to do with them containing approved medicines.
So common was this practice that FDA created a site in 2008 that was dedicated to this problem: Hidden Risks of Erectile Dysfunction “Treatments” Sold Online. Indeed, these products were more commonly encountered from online retailers and not in health food stores. Other similar practices include bodybuilding supplement being spiked with anabolic steroids and weight loss supplements being adulterated with sibutramine (formerly Meridia), an anorectant removed from the market last year after showing increased incidence of heart attacks and stroke in patients with preexisting cardiovascular disease.
The herbal industry, led by the American Herbal Products Association (AHPA), aimed to clean up this problem and launched an initiative called, KeepSupplementsClean.org. Spurred by an FDA letter to the industry on 15 December 2010 of increased scrutiny on the adulteration problem, AHPA actually encouraged FDA to Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Science-Based Medicine*
September 11th, 2011 by RyanDuBosar in Research
Tags: ACP, American College Of Physicians, Complex Information, Confidence, Health 2.0, Health Information Technology, Internet, Medical Education, Medical Educators, Online, Patient Communication, Poll, Younger Physicians
No Comments »
Nearly three-quarters of survey respondents said they look up information online in front of a patient sometimes or often, and another 11% said they do when absolutely needed. Only 13% deliberately avoid it.
ACP Internist polled its readers in relation to its story on computers in medicine, in which it focused on whether doctors should look up information in front of a patient. From this, 362 readers responded in August that: Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at ACP Internist*
September 10th, 2011 by GruntDoc in Health Policy, Research
Tags: Antony Davies, Democrats, Doctors, Donations, Government, Money, NRO, Ph.D., Physicians, Policy, Political Candidate, Politics, Republicans, Washington D.C.
3 Comments »
Why don’t docs get more of what they want in DC? There’s a quite instructive graph in a blog post from NRO last week (talking about Union campaign donations), but I found this one to be very instructive, and have added labels so the point cannot be missed:
In politics, generally what you give is what you get. I’ve taken to giving more to the PACs that represent me.
As an aside, it’s political malpractice to give only to one party (Teachers). Eventually that one party will be on the outs, and then where are you?
*This blog post was originally published at GruntDoc*
September 10th, 2011 by John Mandrola, M.D. in Research
Tags: Anger, Artery Constriction, Blood Vessel Constriction, Cardiac Disease, Emotion, Endothelium, European Society of Cardiology, Healthy Living, Heart Attack, Heart Health, Inflammation, laughter, Research, Smile, Type-A Personality
No Comments »
How could it have happened?
He was strong; do you remember how he could get uphill? He was fit; can you ever recall seeing him out of shape? His blood pressure was perfect, low even. He bragged about his exemplary cholesterol levels.
He was lean and mean.
Wait a minute…what was that about being mean?
When an endurance athlete in middle age is felled by a sudden heart attack, these questions always arise. It’s mysterious, as the idea holds that exercise and fitness should inoculate one from heart disease. But it does not.
There is more to the story of heart attacks than just the big five: genetics, smoking, high blood pressure, diabetes and cholesterol. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Dr John M*
September 10th, 2011 by Medgadget in Research
Tags: Cardiac Disease, Cardiac Surgery, Cardiomyopathy, Cleveland Clinic, Clinical Trials, Columbia University Medical Center, Donor, Dr. Abbas Ardehali, New York-Presbyterian, OCS, Organ Care System, TransMedics, Transplant, UCLA, UCLA Heart Transplant Program
No Comments »
Packing hearts on ice destined for transplantation may eventually become a thing of the past. The Organ Care System from TransMedics, which delivers a still-beating heart to a transplant patient, continues to show promise in clinical trials. UCLA recently reported that Rob Evans, a 61-year-old patient suffering from cardiomyopathy, is the most recent recipient of a heart delivered by the device.
We’ve actually covered the Organ Care System (OCS) several times before (we first caught wind of it in 2006). The device, however, is still classified as an investigational device by the FDA; it is undergoing phase II clinical trials in the United States at three sites: the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, the Cleveland Clinic, and New York-Presbyterian, Columbia University Medical Center.
Check out the UCLA press release explaining the technology and its use in the university’s Heart Transplant Program: Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Medgadget*
