Health Glance
Experts from the Food and Drug Administration's safety office are recommending that medications like Advair and Symbicort no longer be used to treat children with asthma because of the risk of serious breathing problems. But the FDA office that oversees respiratory drugs says most patients benefit from the medications, and the risks can be addressed through warnings and educational materials for patients and doctors.
TVNL Editor's Personal Comment: Advair almost killed me. It made my asthma life threatening. It made so bad that rescue inhalers did not work. I have been weened off of it since June 30th of 2008 and I have had chronic asthma, but rescue inhalers work and the severity of my ashma has reduced by approximately 70%.
Major pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline has been accused of pressuring poor Third World parents into enrolling their children in experimental drug trials that have led to the deaths of at least 12 infants.
In older adults at risk for heart disease, a Mediterranean diet plus daily servings of mixed nuts may help manage metabolic syndrome, according to a Spanish study. Previous research suggests that a Mediterranean diet lowers the risk of abdominal obesity, high cholesterol, high blood pressure and high glucose levels -- all of which are risk factors for cardiovascular disease.
Mosquito-borne disease kills nearly 1 million people, mostly African children, every year. Results from two phase II trials in Africa show that a new malaria vaccine is effective at preventing both infection and the mosquito-borne disease itself in infants and children.
