Health Glance
It used to be that when you talked about Big Government conspiring with Big Pharma to use human beings as guinea pigs in bizarre medical experiments, people would look at you as if you were some kind of loon. "Oh, the American government would never do that," they'd say, smug in their self assurance that they are somehow ruled by compassionate, honest government operatives and corporate do-gooders who are always looking out for the public's best interest.
Government collusion in human medical experiments no longer just a conspiracy theory
Traumatic brain injury leaves an often-invisible, life-altering wound
Warren has trouble remembering a lot of things. Which isn't surprising, considering that several pieces of shrapnel tore through his skull after insurgents outside Kandahar blew up his truck with a rocket-propelled grenade in May.
Since 2000, traumatic brain injury, or TBI, has been diagnosed in about 180,000 service members, the Pentagon says. But some advocates for patients say hundreds, if not thousands, more have suffered undiagnosed brain injuries. A Rand study in 2008 estimated the total number of service members with TBI to be about 320,000.
Novartis fined $422.5M in marketing, kickback case
Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp. will pay $422.5 million in penalties for marketing an epilepsy medicine for unapproved uses and for paying kickbacks to doctors to prescribe it and five other drugs, federal officials announced Thursday.
The company agreed to plead guilty to distribution of a misbranded drug, a misdemeanor, and pay a criminal fine and forfeiture totaling $185 million in the case involving Trileptal, U.S. Attorney Zane Memeger said at news conference in Philadelphia.
Female sexual dysfunction 'was invented by drugs industry'
Female sexual dysfunction – which is claimed to affect up to two thirds of women – is a disorder invented by the pharmaceutical industry to build global markets for drugs to treat it, it is claimed today.
Drug companies have invested millions in the search for a female equivalent of Viagra, so far without success. But while doing so they have stoked demand by creating a buzz around the disorder they have created, according to Ray Moynihan, a lecturer at the University of Newcastle in Australia.
Painless laser device could spot early signs of disease
Portable devices with painless laser beams could soon replace X-rays as a non-invasive way to diagnose disease. Researchers say that the technique could become widely available in about five years. The method, called Raman spectroscopy, could help spot the early signs of breast cancer, tooth decay and osteoporosis.
Scientists believe that the technology would make the diagnosis of illnesses faster, cheaper and more accurate. Raman spectroscopy is the measurement of the intensity and wavelength of scattered light from molecules.
After 10 years in US, abortion pill still divisive
Ten years ago, after long and bitter debate, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved use of the abortion pill by American women. It is hailed as safe and effective, but new turmoil may lie ahead as the pill's proponents consider using telemedicine to make it more available.
Already, a pioneering telemedicine program in Iowa has provided the pill to about 1,900 women - with a doctor able to consult with a faraway patient in a video teleconference, then unlock a container by remote control to release the pill. To the alarm of anti-abortion activists, abortion providers in other states are pondering whether similar programs would enable them to serve more women, especially in rural areas.
Diesel Dangers: Mining Companies Get First Look at Government Cancer Study
A long-delayed government epidemiological study of possible ties between diesel exhaust and lung cancer in miners may finally be published this fall -- but only after a mining industry group, represented by the Washington lobbying powerhouse Patton Boggs, finishes a pre-publication review of the study's drafts.
Eighteen years in the making and eagerly awaited by public health officials, the cancer study evaluates more than 12,000 current and former workers from eight mines that produce commodities other than coal. Its goal is to determine whether ultrafine diesel particulate matter -- a component of exhaust from diesel-powered machinery -- poses a serious hazard to miners in confined spaces.
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