The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved Caldolor, the first injectable dosage form of the common pain medication ibuprofen, to treat pain and fever.

“Injectable ibuprofen and other nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are promising pain management options,” said Bob Rappaport, M.D., director, Division of Anesthesia, Analgesia and Rheumatology Drug Products in the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. “But until now there were only oral forms of most NSAIDs. An injectable ibuprofen product can provide patients with relief from pain and fever when they cannot take oral products.”

Caldolor will be available for hospital use only. It is approved to be administered in 400 mg to 800 mg doses, over 30 minutes, every 6 hours for acute pain. To treat fever, the drug is approved in a 400 mg dose administered over 30 minutes, followed by 400 mg every 4 to 6 hours, or 100-200 mg every 4 hours, as necessary. Read the rest of this entry »

Looking to make a change and lose some weight? I have reviewed the top diet on the internet and you can go and read over 200 comments people have made about why this diet has worked well for them, as well as some of the problems.

Tags: allergic reactions, Bob Rappaport, Congestive heart failure, director, Division, Division of Anesthesia, fda, FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, fever, headache, high blood pressure, hysterectomy, ibuprofen, nausea, pain, pain management, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, vomiting

This report and study is not new news to me and I would bet that you would agree that it make sense that losing sleep and not sleeping is really unhealthy.

Men have an increased risk of premature death if they have chronic insomnia along with a short sleep duration, researchers here said.

In a longitudinal study of more than 1,700 men and women followed for more than 10 years, men with insomnia and short sleep duration were almost five times more likely to die than men who had normal sleep, said Alexandros N. Vgontzas, M.D., professor of psychiatry and director of the Sleep Research Center at Penn State University Milton S. Hershey Medical Center in Hershey, Pa.

Dr. Vgontzas reported the findings at the annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies.

“Until now, most studies had failed to show that insomnia, like sleep apnea, is associated with medical morbidity and mortality,” said Dr. Vgontzas. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Alexandros N. Vgontzas, chronic insomnia, depression, director, Hershey, insomnia, Penn State University Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, Pennsylvania, professor of psychiatry, professor of psychiatry and director, sleep apnea, Sleep Research Center, sleep-disordered breathing

Healthy eating is the first step to making sure that you are getting yourself more fit. There a a lot of great advantages to eating better and these include more energy, better concentration and less stomach and digestive problems. Currently, the typical American diet is low in fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, and high in saturated fat, salt, and sugar. As a result, more Americans than ever are overweight, obese, and at increased risk for chronic diseases such as heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, and certain cancers.

Older people are most likely to improve their eating habits, but nutrition is important for people of all ages, says Walter Willet, M.D., chairman of the nutrition department at the Harvard School of Public Health. “We know that when people have health problems or their friends become ill, these are strong motivators of change,” says Willet. “The more serious the health condition, the more serious the change. We’d rather people made changes early and prevent health problems in the first place.”

So what if you’re feeling trapped by a diet full of fast-food burgers and cookies? You can work your way out slowly but surely. Here are tips to move your eating habits in the right direction.
Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: and Blood Institute, and Dietary Supplements, baked whole-grain corn tortilla chips, Barbara Schneeman, broil food, cancers, Chairman, chairman of the nutrition department, Cindy Moore, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, corn tortilla chips, diabetes, director, director of nutrition therapy, energy, Eric Hentges, fat-free products, food, Food and Drug Administration's Office of Nutritional Products, food diary, food groups, food package, food product, food products, grain products, Harvard School of Public Health, heart disease, high blood pressure, hypertension, kidney disease, Labeling, lower-salt products, Lung, make smart food choices, Marilyn Tanner, milk products, National Heart, nutrition therapy, pediatric dietitian, physician, potassium chloride, similar products, squash, St. Louis, stroke, Tennis, USDA Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion, vegetable oil, Walter Willet, Washington University School of Medicine

Wired Magazine has an article this month talking about a study showing that astronauts returning from the International Space Station and shuttle flights have 25% reduced strength in their calves. I am not sure how to react to this study. As we are all aware in our daily lives we live in gravity, sure, but we also have to walk around a lot while on the space station I am under the impression that this lack or gravity and close quarters means that there is not as much need to use your calves, arm strength is probably not reduced by much in comparison.

Here is the guts of the article:

Without stricter workouts, the bodies of long-distance space travelers will be ravaged by the time they return to Earth, or reach another planet.

A NASA-funded study of astronauts freshly returned from six-month stays aboard the International Space Station found that their calf muscles were about 15 percent smaller and 25 percent weaker than when they left. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Ball State University, Ball State University's Human Performance Laboratory, director, interim resistive exercise device, International Space Station, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Scott Trappe

Three new studies have suggested that consuming meals after exercising may go against the overall health benefits that physical work outs create.

The three studies, published by kinesiology researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, suggest that, unless you are a competitive athlete, consuming sports drinks or high-carbohydrate foods such as energy bars right after exercising may negate the health benefits that physical exercise creates.

According to Barry S. Braun, associate professor of kinesiology and director of the Energy Metabolism laboratory at UMass Amherst, most people who exercise are not competitive athletes. They exercise to help their overall health, seeking to manage their weight and reduce risk for diabetes, heart disease or other health problems. For them, the potent benefits of exercise are quickly reversed by consuming high-carbohydrate foods such as sports drinks and energy bars after workouts.

But, for ordinary people who are using physical activity to improve their health, exercise is a medicine. Though each ”dose” of exercise gives benefits, the effects are lost in one to two days. Like other medications, exercise also has interactions with food.

Recommendations for athletes seeking to optimize their performance may be precisely the wrong advice for people using exercise to improve their health. “The latter might be wiser to avoid sports drinks and energy bars during, and for one to three hours following, exercise to maximize the positive effects of each exercise dose,” said Braun.

In three recently published studies, graduate students under Braun’’s direction looked at how the total calories, the carbohydrate content, and the timing of post-exercise meals influence metabolic health.

To understand whether the negative effects of the post-exercise meal were due to the total calories or to the carbohydrate content of the meal, Braun’’s student Kaila Holtz tested two different meals given immediately after 75 minutes of moderately intense bicycle exercise. The meals contained exactly the same amount of calories but one was high in carbohydrates and the other was very low in carbohydrates. Her results showed that the effectiveness of insulin to clear sugar from the blood was greater after either exercise/meal combination compared to participants who did not exercise. The effects were larger, however, when the meal was low in carbohydrates.

These results suggest that, when the post-exercise meal is low in carbohydrates, more of the metabolic benefits of exercise are retained. Although there were a few subtle differences, the results were similar among all three exercise/meal combinations, suggesting that timing of the meals was not an important consideration.

Tags: associate professor, Barry S. Braun, carbohydrate content, competitive athlete, diabetes, director, energy bars, Energy Metabolism laboratory, food, health benefits, heart disease, Kaila Holtz, physical exercise, professor of kinesiology, sports drinks, University of Massachusetts Amherst

The Center for Disease Control is reporting that Measles Cases are at the highest rate in over 10 years. Most of the reason for the really high rate of Measles outbreaks is because of the fear of Autism from kids getting the

More measles cases have been reported in the United States since Jan. 1, 2008 than during the same period in any year since 1996, according to a report released today in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

Measles Results for 2008

Between January 1 and July 31, 2008, 131 cases were reported to CDC′s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases (NCIRD). At least fifteen patients, including four children younger than 15 months of age, were hospitalized. No deaths have been reported. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Academy of Pediatrics, Anne Schuchat, Arizona, Arkansas, Austria, Autism, Belgium, California, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, China, D.C., director, encephalitis, Europe, Georgia, Germany, hawaii, Illinois, immunization, India, Israel, Italy, Louisiana, measles, Michigan, Missouri, mmr vaccine, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, Mumps, National Center for Immunization, National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, New Mexico, New York, Pakistan, Pennsylvania, preventing infections, Respiratory Diseases, rubella, Russian Federation, Switzerland, the Philippines, United Kingdom, United States, vaccination, vaccination program, vaccination status, vaccines, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin

The Daily Mail in England has this very interesting story that seems to give hope to the millions of people worldwide that suffer from Alzheimers disease.

Doctors are calling for a clinical trial of an experimental drug treatment that it is claimed can reverse the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease “in minutes”.

U.S. researchers say the treatment allowed an 82-year- old sufferer to recognize his wife for the first time in years.

In the UK, specialists believe the claims should be properly tested as only a few patients have been treated so far.
The treatment involves injecting a drug called Enbrel – which is normally used to treat arthritis – into the spine at the neck. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Alzheimer's, Alzheimer's disease, Alzheimer's Research Trust, Alzheimer's Society, ankylosing spondylitis, arthritis, California, chief executive, cough, diabetes, director, Edward Tobinick, Enbrel, experimental therapy, fever, head of research, immune disease, inflammation, Institute for Neurological Research, Institute of Neurological Research, juvenile idiopathic arthritis, Los Angeles, Marvin Miller, necrosis, nurse, professor, psoriasis, psoriatic arthritis, Rebecca Wood, rheumatoid arthritis, Serious infections, Susanne Sorensen, TB, tuberculosis, tumor, tumour, United Kingdom, United States, University of California Los Angeles

The FDA is advising people to be more aware of food labels and has written and extensive article on what to look at and why. I also wrote and article on how to decipher the important parts of understanding food labels last year.

Consumers often compare prices of food items in the grocery store to choose the best value for their money. But comparing items using the food label can help them choose the best value for their health.

The food label identifies a variety of information about a product, such as the ingredients, net weight, and nutrition facts.

“The food label is one of the most valuable tools consumers have,” says Barbara Schneeman, Ph.D., Director of the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) Office of Nutrition, Labeling and Dietary Supplements. “The food label gives consumers the power to compare foods quickly and easily so they can judge for themselves which products best fit their dietary needs.”

For example, someone with high blood pressure who needs to watch salt (sodium) intake may be faced with five different types of tomato soup on the shelf, says Schneeman. You can quickly and easily compare the sodium content of each product by looking at the part of the label that lists nutrition information (Nutrition Facts Label) to choose the one with the lowest sodium content.

Read the rest on the FDA site on Food Labeling

Tags: Barbara Schneeman, consumers, director, fda, food, food and drug administration, food items, food label, food labels, high blood pressure, Labeling and Dietary Supplements, nutrition facts, nutrition information, nutrition labeling, Office of Nutrition, sodium content

As the parent of two young kids I am always aware of the drugs being pushed on parents to treat ADD and the fact that in the past no kids were using Adderall or Ritalin or even Prozac.  Some people think that may of the problems assicated with ADD and ADHD are caused by food additives that have been added over the last 20 years in the foods that kids eat. Well there was just a new research paper released in Britain that is having people take notice.

“Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is an increasingly common problem, and theories abound to account for that,” said Dr. David Katz, director of the Prevention Research Center at Yale University School of Medicine. “Among them is the notion that food additives induce hyperactivity.”

Despite this apparent connection, Katz cautioned that the increasing number of children with ADHD cannot be blamed on food additives alone.

“No one factor is solely responsible for rising rates of ADHD,” Katz said. “Along with the hazards of a highly processed food supply, children are getting less and less physical activity as a means of dissipating their native rambunctiousness.”

In the study, Jim Stevenson, a professor of psychology at the University of Southampton, and his colleagues gave drinks containing additives to 297 children. The children were in two groups: 3-year-olds and 8- and 9-year-olds. The drinks contained artificial food coloring and additives such as sodium benzoate, a preservative.

These concoctions were similar to the drinks that are commercially available. The amount of additives were also similar to what is found in one or two servings of candy a day, according to the report. As a control, some children were given drinks without additives, according to the report in the Sept. 6 issue of The Lancet. Over the six weeks of the trial, Stevenson’s team found that children in both age groups who drank the drinks containing additives displayed significantly more hyperactive behavior. These children also had shorter attention spans. However, which specific additives caused specific behavioral problems is not known, the researchers said.

One of the additives, sodium benzoate, has been linked to cell damage in a previous study, and to an increased for cancer. Sodium benzoate is found in Coca-Cola, Pepsi Max and Diet Pepsi, and in many fruit drinks.

Other additives assessed in the study include a number of colorings — sunset yellow (E110), found in fruity drinks; carmoisine (E122), a red coloring often added to jams; ponceau 4R (E124), a red food coloring; tartrazine (E102), found in lollipops and carbonated drinks; quinoline yellow (E104), a food coloring; and allura red AC (E129), and orange-red food dye.

“Although the use of artificial coloring in food manufacture might seem to be superfluous, the same cannot be said for sodium benzoate, which has an important preservative function. The implications of these results for the regulation of food additive use could be substantial,” the researchers conclude.

Based on these findings, the British government’s Food Standards Agency cautioned parents to be on the lookout for hyperactive behavior linked to food additives.

Tags: adderall, add_and_adhd, adhd, artificial food coloring, attention_deficit_hyperactivity_disorder, Britain, British government, cancer, Coca-Cola, David Katz, director, E102, food additive use, Food additives, food coloring, food manufacture, Food Standards Agency, hyperactivity disorder, Jim Stevenson, NEC e122 Cell Phone, orange-red food dye, Pepsi, Prevention Research Center, Prevention Research Center at Yale University School of Medicine, processed food supply, professor of psychology, red food coloring, University of Southampton, Yale University School of Medicine

Put aside the white bread and pick up an apple. A diet of foods less likely to spike blood sugar levels helps dieters lose more weight, according to a new systematic review from Australia.

�Losing weight is very difficult and many people are unable to sustain a weight-loss diet. The low glycemic index diet is satisfying and has proven benefits,� said review co-author Elizabeth Elliott, Ph.D., professor at the University of Sydney, The Children�s Hospital at Westmead.

The glycemic index (GI) ranks carbohydrate-rich foods based on their effect on blood sugar levels. Compared to high GI foods such as white rice and French fries, low GI foods, such as lentils, sweet potatoes and apples produce more consistent blood glucose levels. Previous studies have indicated that keeping blood sugar levels steady throughout the day may stimulate more weight loss in obese people.

Researchers evaluated randomized controlled trials that compared weight loss in people eating foods low on the glycemic index to weight loss in people on higher GI diets or other types of weight loss plans.

Six trials, involving 202 adults from Australia, France, South Africa, Denmark and the United States were included in the review. The diets lasted from five weeks to six months.

The review appears in the latest issue of The Cochrane Library, a publication of The Cochrane Collaboration, an international organization that evaluates medical research. Systematic reviews draw evidence-based conclusions about medical practice after considering both the content and quality of existing medical trials on a topic.

The review found that dieters focused on eating low GI foods dropped significantly more weight � about 2.2 pounds more � than participants on other diets. Low GI dieters also experienced greater decreases in body fat measurements and body mass index.

None of the studies reported adverse effects associated with consuming a low glycemic index diet.

�Compared to other diets, the low GI diet is more satisfying � people are less inclined to feel hungry. One advantage of this type of diet is that it is more likely to be maintained than other strict diets on which people feel hungry,� Elliott said.

Low glycemic diets appear to be effective even in obese people who need to lose considerable amounts of weight, the authors said.

In the two studies that evaluated only obese participants, low GI dieters lost about 9.2 pounds, compared with about 2.2 pounds shed by other dieters.

Low glycemic index diets might also benefit heart health.

In the three studies that measured cardiovascular risk factors, people eating low GI foods experienced greater improvements in total blood cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) � sometimes called �bad� cholesterol. High levels of total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol increase the risks for heart disease.

After reviewing the findings, Lawrence Cheskin, M.D. said, �There�s surprisingly little in the way of studies to draw any hard and fast conclusions.� Cheskin is director of the Johns Hopkins Weight Management Center and associate professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore. He was not involved with the review.

Low glycemic index diets can be effective for weight management, Cheskin said, but the success of low glycemic diets lies with an individual�s willingness to comply with its nutritional principles.

�There aren�t many people who need to lose weight who are willing to eat lots of vegetables and whole grains. If they did, they wouldn�t have a weight problem in the first place,� Cheskin said.

Nevertheless, he said, choosing foods low on the glycemic index does have value for overweight or obese people who want to lose weight.

�It uses a lot of the generally healthful principles, such as eating lots of vegetables and high fiber and avoiding very energy-dense foods that are high in simple sugars and simple carbohydrates,� Cheskin said.

Tags: associate professor, Australia, Baltimore, Children�s Hospital, Denmark, director, Elizabeth Elliott, energy-dense foods, France, heart disease, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins Weight Management Center, Lawrence Cheskin, professor, said review co-author, South Africa, The Children�s Hospital, The Cochrane Collaboration, The Cochrane Library, United States, University of Sydney