The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved the first generic version of Copaxone (glatiramer acetate injection), used to treat patients with relapsing forms of multiple sclerosis (MS). [Read more…]
Corneal Implant to Improve Near Vision Wins FDA Approval
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved the KAMRA inlay, a device implanted in the cornea of one eye (the clear, front surface) to improve near vision in certain patients with presbyopia. It is the first implantable device for correction of near vision in patients who have not had cataract surgery. [Read more…]
New Dietary Guidelines: What Are We Supposed to Eat?
By Elena Carbone, Associate professor, Nutrition at University of Massachusetts Amherst
Since 1980, the Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA) have been providing information to Americans on how to make choices to reach a healthy weight, prevent disease and promote overall good health.
The Dietary Guidelines provide recommendations on food and physical activity for Americans aged two and older and are the driving force behind federal nutrition policy, education, outreach and food assistance programs, including school breakfast and lunch programs. The Guidelines are used by both the public and industry, and by a wide variety of nutrition educators, health professionals and government agencies. [Read more…]
Studying Down Syndrome Might Help Us Better Understand Alzheimer’s Disease
By Elizabeth Head, Associate Professor at University of Kentucky
Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia in older adults. At the moment there is no cure, but many clinicians feel that the earlier one is diagnosed, the better the possibilities are for treatment or slowing the disease.
But developing treatments or prevention approaches for Alzheimer’s disease is difficult. There is no biomarker (for example a blood test) or definitive medical test for it and there is no set age where people develop memory impairments and dementia. [Read more…]
Why Too Much Iron Can Be Dangerous
By Richard Stevens, Professor, School of Medicine at University of Connecticut
Iron is a most versatile element. It is essential to many of the enzymes that are the engines for life, and in mammals is also used to carry oxygen on hemoglobin in blood. Remember Popeye and his spinach: all that iron made him strong.
But the very quality that makes iron so useful also makes it dangerous. Iron can easily lose or gain one electron going from the ferrous (Fe++) to the ferric (Fe+++) state, back and forth indefinitely. This is how it carries oxygen, for example. [Read more…]
Lawmakers Aim to Curb Skyrocketing Generic Drug Prices
Two prominent lawmakers are following through on a promise to do something about recent rises in generic drug prices, with identical House and Senate bills that would force generic drugmakers to pay state Medicaid rebates when prices rise faster than inflation. [Read more…]
Understanding the Link between Bullying and Suicide
By Melissa Holt, Assistant Professor, Counseling Psychology at Boston University
Bullying and suicide are both significant public health concerns for children and adolescents, and we need to understand the link between the two. Bullying, most of us probably know, can be a tremendously painful experience for a young person. Stories about teens like Phoebe Prince or Amanda Todd who killed themselves after experiencing bullying have driven this point home. All 50 states have some kind of anti-bullying law, and schools are increasingly being called upon to implement bullying prevention programs. [Read more…]
A Measles Mystery: How Could the Vaccine Prevent Deaths from Other Diseases Too?
By Michael Mina, Postdoctoral researcher at Princeton University and MD/PhD candidate at Emory University
If infectious diseases were a monarchy, measles might be king. Not only does measles reign among the most contagious diseases known to man – likely to infect any non-vaccinated individual who stands in the same room as an infected person – measles has long been known to be one of the great killers of children. Before vaccination, measles was responsible for millions of childhood deaths. Today it remains a cause of great illness and death in low-resource countries, killing over 140,000 children worldwide every year. [Read more…]
The Epidemic of Burnout, Depression and Suicide in Medicine: One Doctor’s Story
By James W Lynch, Professor of Medicine at University of Florida
The suicides of two medical residents in New York City last fall have thrown a spotlight on a real problem among health care professionals, particularly physicians. Medical students, residents and practicing physicians commonly report symptoms of burnout and depression. Rates vary depending on the group, but range from 20-60%. [Read more…]
EMA Reviewing Pneumonia Risk With Inhaled Corticosteroids
The European Medicines Agency is taking a hard look at whether patients taking inhaled corticosteroids for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease are at higher risk for pneumonia. [Read more…]