Friday, April 29, 2011

HOW TO FIGHT FAT AFTER FORTY

Weight-loss guru and women’s health advocate Suzanne Somers has a customized new weight-loss program. Suzanne will help you uncover the hidden obstacles preventing you from losing weight. Sexy Forever Online will give you all the tips and tools you need to lose weight and feel sexy. Suzanne will help you uncover the hidden obstacle preventing you from losing weight. Get started by taking Suzanne's FREE quiz right now!

HOW TO FIGHT FAT AFTER FORTY

Weight-loss guru and women’s health advocate Suzanne Somers has a customized new weight-loss program. Suzanne will help you uncover the hidden obstacles preventing you from losing weight. And she’ll give you all the tips and tools you need to lose weight.

Sunday, April 24, 2011

FDA looks to crack down on misuse of painkillers.

U.S. health officials unveiled Tuesday a new plan to try to curb misuse of extended-release and long-acting opioid pain killers such as OxyContin, morphine and methadone.


The new Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS) is part of a larger multi-agency initiative announced Tuesday by the White House to reduce overall prescription drug abuse in the United States.
"This new REMS will provide tools to doctors and other prescribers for appropriate pain management to reduce risks and at the same time preserve access for patients and appropriate management of pain for those suffering from moderate to severe pain," said Dr. Janet Woodcock, director of the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the agency that launched the new program.
For now, the initiative will be limited to extended-release and long-acting products, which, Woodcock said, "have a much greater risk than immediate-release because they contain more medicine."
She did not rule out the possibility that the approach could be expanded to include immediate-release drugs in the future.
Right now, the action affects 16 companies that make both branded and generic products. The products affected are known under their generic names as hydromorphone, methadone, morphine, oxycodone, oxymorphone, transdermal fentanyl and transdermal buprenorphine.
According to Woodcock, about 23 million prescriptions are dispensed each year for extended-release and long-acting opioids, which represented about 10% of the opioid market in 2009.
But, abuse and misuse is also extensive, with the FDA estimating that 33 million Americans aged 12 and older used such a drug for non-medical purposes in 2007, up from 29 million people in 2002.
Some 50,000 emergency room visits in 2006 were related to opioids, officials said.
"This is a large and growing problem and, despite a number of efforts over the years, it continues to grow," Woodcock said. "It's clear we have a huge problem on our hands."
One of the main components of the new FDA program will be educating doctors and other prescribers on proper ways to prescribe opioids, as well as how to identify appropriate patients for these drugs.
"If a prescriber has a concern that a patient might unintentionally or intentionally misuse the drug, they need to know how to spot these individuals," Woodcock said.
Doctors will also get materials on how to educate their patients, not only on proper use of opioids but also on proper storage and disposal.
Manufacturers will be required to use one central system to provide these educational materials, Woodcock said. And the FDA will monitor company-generated literature to make sure it isn't promotional but is effective, she added.
Companies have 120 days to issue a draft REMS and Woodcock hoped matters will be completed by early 2012.
"In the meantime, doctors should be prescribing opioids as they have been doing and we hope they thoroughly discuss risks and benefits with their patients," Woodcock said. "People taking opioids should continue to take them as directed and, if they have concerns, should consult a health-care professional."

Friday, April 15, 2011

Does taking multivitamins help prevent heart attacks?

A Swedish study found evidence that it does. Scientists followed nearly 34,000 Swedish women for 10 years to ascertain if multivitamin use would decrease the risk of developing a heart attack. Compared to women without heart disease who did not take a multivitamin, women who took a daily multivitamin had 27 percent less chance of having a heart attack. The women who took other supplements (in addition to a multivitamin) had a 30 percent lower risk of heart attack.

In women who had a prior history of heart disease, those who took a multivitamin had a 41 percent lowered risk of heart attack compared to women who did not take a multivitamin.

Life Extension multivitamins are of pharmaceutical grade quality, and contain some of the highest levels of content in the entire supplement industry.    

Friday, April 8, 2011

Tattooed Zombie Becomes Fashion Model and Lady Gaga's Co-Star

Getting tattooed to look like a cadaverous zombie was the best career decision Rick Genest ever made.
Seriously.
 Yeah, there were some people who thought Genest was crazy 10 years ago when he made the fateful decision to tattoo his entire body to look like a cadaver. To be fair, many of those same people probably haven't changed their minds about whether it was a wise decision for Genest to make his outsides look like his insides.

Read the whole amazing story at:  

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Microwave toxins.

Even "microwave-safe" products release the toxin bisphenol-A (BPA) when heated. BPA has been shown to cause neurological and developmental damage in laboratory animals. It is found in hard clear plastic, the linings of metal food cans, trays for frozen food, microwaveable soup containers and plastic baby-food packaging. Researchers are especially concerned about how the chemical affects fetuses and newborns, whose systems are not fully developed. Manufacturers have begun to remove BPA from their products. In the meantime, do not microwave or heat food in any type of plastic container.