Thursday, Oct 23rd
Last update08:33:18 AM GMT
Health Glance
To hear Big Pharma tell it, statin drugs are "miracle" medicines that have prevented millions of heart attacks and strokes. But a recent study published in the British Medical Journal tells a completely different story: For every heart attack prevented by the drug, two or more people suffered liver damage, kidney failure, cataracts or extreme muscle weakness as a result of taking the drug.
Statin drugs, in other words, harm far more people than they help.
The Food and Drug Administration is cracking down on 23andMe and other companies that sell genetic tests directly to consumers.
"Our work shows that radiation can change the microenvironment of breast cells, and this in turn can allow the growth of abnormal cells with a long-lived phenotype that have a much greater potential to be cancerous," Paul Yaswen, a cell biologist and breast cancer research specialist with Berkeley Lab's Life Sciences Division, said in a statement to the press.
A new report says the Food and Drug Administration is stretched thin and needs to reorganize to better keep the nation's food safe.
The report released by the Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council Tuesday says the agency needs to become more efficient and better target its limited dollars to prevent foodborne illness outbreaks. The 500-page report says the FDA lacks the vision necessary to protect consumers.
A single dose of radiation during surgery is just as effective as a prolonged course of radiotherapy for breast cancer, a study suggests. Doctors have tested the technique, which involves a single shot of radiotherapy to a tumour site, in more than 2,000 patients.
It could save the UK £15m a year, the researchers said. Cancer Research UK said The Lancet study could have a "huge impact" for patients.
Scientists who drew up the key World Health Organisation guidelines advising governments to stockpile drugs in the event of a flu pandemic had previously been paid by drug companies which stood to profit, according to a report out today.
New York City anti-smoking symbols portraying a decaying tooth, unhealthy lungs and a spoiled brain breach cigarette sellers' free speech and should be taken out, tobacco companies and vendors said in a lawsuit.
Philip Morris USA, Lorillard Tobacco Company, and R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., in addition to two other main retail trade groups and two convenience stores, asserted in the Manhattan federal court suit that the symbols infringe the sellers' rights by inflicting the signs on them.
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