Category: news-perspectives

More than half a million U.S. children each year are treated for bad reactions or side effects to medicines. So says new research published in the journal Pediatrics. The Associated Press wrote about the study September 28. The study was based on national data about visits to clinics and emergency rooms. It focused on reactions to both prescription and over-the-counter drugs. The years covered were 1995 through 2005. The numbers remained steady through those years. Nearly half of the children involved were under 5. Many of these were cases of accidental overdose. A frequent cause was that parents did not understand dosing instructions. About 1 out of 20 treated children was sick enough to require a hospital stay.

Alabama will become the first state to charge obese workers for insurance. More than 37,000 state employees have one year to show some progress. If they don’t, they’ll have to pay $25 a month for insurance that is currently free. Other states reward workers who practice good health. Alabama already charges workers who smoke. The Associated Press reported the announcement on August 22.

Couch potatoes can get some of the benefits of exercise with a new drug, researchers say. So far, it has been tested only in mice. After four weeks of taking it, they burned more calories and had less fat than other mice. They also could run 44% farther and 23% longer on a treadmill. Mice who also exercised regularly got even more benefit with a second drug that was tested. They could run 68% longer and 70% farther than mice that exercised but didn’t get the drug. The Associated Press wrote about the study July 31. It was published online by the journal Cell.

Flu viruses change as they pass back and forth between people who have been exposed to the virus and those who had not been exposed before, new research suggests. People are exposed by getting infected or vaccinated. Researchers say vaccinating more people who have not been exposed — especially children — may slow the process of change. The study looked at changes in an H1N1 virus, an older strain that is similar to the current H1N1 (swine) flu. Researchers injected virus into several groups of mice. Some had been vaccinated. Some had not. In the vaccinated mice, the virus changed into a form that clung tighter to cells. This helped the virus to fight off antibodies in the immune system. But it also meant the virus did not spread as easily. In the unvaccinated mice, the virus spread and multiplied easily. It didn’t change much.

A study has found one common treatment for HIV more effective than another in people who started with a lot of the virus in their bloodstream. The study was published online December 1 by the New England Journal of Medicine. The study included 797 people who had a very high level of HIV in their bodies. They had not been treated for HIV before. Researchers divided them into four groups. Two groups received the drugs abacavir and lamivudine. The other two were given tenofovir DF and emtricitabine. Depending on the group, they also received other drugs. In the next five years, treatment stopped working for 7% of those in the groups that took tenofovir DF and emtricitabine. The rate was twice as high, 14%, for the groups that took the other two drugs.

Researchers are gathering this week to talk about a seeming relic of the ’60s, experiments with psychedelic drugs. The conference in San Jose, Calif., will draw people from around the world, the New York Times said April 11. Much of the new research uses psilocybin, an ingredient in certain mushrooms. The new studies are small. They are also much more carefully controlled than early studies of LSD, the Times said. To guard against bad reactions, people receive the drugs in a calm, controlled environment. Results are measured in standard ways. Some studies use scans to see what occurs in the people’s brains. The drugs are being used to treat depression in cancer patients, obsessive-compulsive disorder, end-of-life anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder and addiction to drugs or alcohol. Early results are promising, the Times said.

A new study has found no clear increased risk of suicide or depression from a drug that helps people quit smoking. U.S. labels for varenicline (Chantix) warn that it could increase the risk of behavior changes. Depression, thoughts of suicide and suicide attempts are among the changes listed. The study used a database of 80,660 people. All had been prescribed a product to help them quit smoking. Nearly 11,000 used varenicline. Researchers found no clear increased risk of suicidal thoughts, self-harm or depression in this group. But researchers said the study was too small to provide a definite answer. They said it’s possible that a larger study would find that varenicline doubles suicide risk or even cuts it in half. The journal BMJ published the study. HealthDay and Reuters news services wrote about it October 2.

People exposed to pesticides at work have a higher risk of Parkinson’s disease, a study has found. The study compared two groups of more than 500 people each. They were similar in age and in other ways. But one group had Parkinson’s disease and the other did not. People who were exposed to pesticides on the job had an 80% higher rate of Parkinson’s disease. This means there were 18 people with job exposure who had Parkinson’s disease for every 10 people with no job exposure who had the disease. The risk of Parkinson’s disease was more than triple the average for people exposed to one of three chemicals. They were Agent Orange, paraquat and permethrin. The study appeared in the journal Archives of Neurology. Reuters Health news service wrote about it September 14.

Drinking green tea may reduce the risk of lung cancer in both smokers and nonsmokers, new research suggests. The study was done in Taiwan. It included 170 people with lung cancer and 340 healthy people. They were asked questions about their diet, tea drinking and smoking. They also were given gene tests. People with some variations in their genes are more likely to develop lung cancer than others. In the study, lung cancer risk was 13 times lower for smokers who drank at least one cup of green tea daily than for smokers who drank none. Nonsmokers’ risk of lung cancer was five times lower among tea drinkers. Tea drinkers with “low-risk” genes were even less likely to have lung cancer. Researchers said the best way to prevent lung cancer is to avoid smoking. The study was presented at a conference on lung cancer. HealthDay News wrote about it January 12.

A salmonella outbreak involving large tomatoes and roma tomatoes has hit people in 17 states. At least 23 people were hospitalized, and one tomato eater died. The Associated Press reported on the outbreak June 10.