The FDA watches risk factors of different drugs and occasionally they will either put out a warning or in some cases pull a product all together. Well today one product type for pain relief did get pulled

On July 7, 2009, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced actions it was taking to reduce the risk of overdose in people who use pain medications, such as Darvon and Darvocet. These medications contain the drug propoxyphene, which is linked to death from overdoses.

FDA finds there is evidence that propoxyphene can effectively treat pain at recommended doses. But because of the drug’s potential risks, the agency is requiring manufacturers to provide more information to help physicians and patients decide whether propoxyphene is the appropriate pain treatment. 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: Darvon, dizziness, fda, food and drug administration, lightheadedness, nausea, pain, vomiting

If weight loss were as simple as just popping a little pill a few times per day, everyone would be fit and flaunting the perfect weight. Unfortunately, it does not always work this way, and diet pills can often do more harm than good if they do anything at all.

Diet pills are either prescribed by a doctor, or they can be purchased at major retail stores, drug stores, or online. There is a distinct difference between the two, namely that prescription diet pills are given to patients who doctors deem to be seriously overweight. These pills might help, but that does not mean that they are completely fool proof, or that there have not been health concerns with prescription diet medications in the past.

Some weight loss pills contain something called ephedra that can cause irregular and rapid heart beat, and can sometimes result in death. Try to avoid any pills that contain ephedra if possible.

Each type of weight loss pill offers a different benefit. For example, some pills claim to increase metabolism, while others might block fat consumption or suppress the appetite. Decide on which kind of weight loss plan you want to engage in, and use that as a guide to help you find the right pill. Do not allow the pills to serve as an excuse to continue eating an unhealthy diet.
Often people think if a pill claims to “block fat” that they can eat whatever they wish and as much as they wish, as long as they keep taking the pill; in reality however, this is simply NOT the case.

Also, keep in mind there are often side effects with diet pills including headaches, nausea, and sometimes difficulty absorbing certain vitamins and minerals. Remember that all nutrition should come from your diet, so avoid any pills that claim to serve as a substitute for a meal.

Do your homework and read about several different weight loss pills before you decide on one to try. Look at the statistics, read the reviews, and check out the kinds of results people are getting from the diet pill of your choice. Be wary of any pills that make miraculous, unrealistic claims.

Keep in mind that weight loss pills are really designed to just help you jumpstart the process, not act as a miracle worker. These pills can be costly and usually people end up disappointed. Don’t spend a lot of your hard earned money on weight loss pills without knowing as much as possible about your choice.

Tags: headaches, miracle worker, nausea, retail stores

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 »

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

Hydroxycut is a product that many of us in the weight loss and muscle gain community have watched and used before and after health scares. Hydroxycut in the early part of the is decade, even in the 90s was a great product for stripping fat in the Spring and was already pulled once off the market and now Hydroxycut is gone again.

Hydroxycut has a history as a fat loss supplement and was one of the first popular products to have and ECA stack. Back in the 90s the ECA stack was Ephedra and caffeine to raise the metabolism and aspirin as a buffer to help your stomach and get rid of any shakes from the ephedra and caffeine. Well once ephedra was pulled from the market for giving seemingly healthy people heart attacks Hydroycut was gone to, at least I thought so.

Hydroxycut was eventually successfully relaunched as a completely natural product and I wrote a review of it just a little while back (now I will pull that review) and now the FDA had pulled Hydroxycut off the market again. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: abdominal pain, cardiovascular disorders, fatigue, Hydroxycut, Iovate Health Sciences Inc., Iovate Health Sciences USA Inc., itching, kidney failure, liver failure, liver injuries, liver transplant, nausea, Oakville, Ontario, rhabdomyolysis, seizures, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, vomiting

Dieting is not about following a fad diet for a few months, getting rid of a few pounds, and returning to your normal eating mode (which is nothing but gorging on more junk and fatty foods). Rather, dieting is about healthy eating, and if you want to gain the maximum mileage possible from your diet, you need to make it an essential part of your life just as you have done with those junk foods.

Of course there is a big difference between theory and practice. If you have been eating only junk foods all your life, it would be difficult if not impossible for you change your food habits for the better. However, I have a few tricks up in my sleeve which would help you with that.

Get rid of allergic foods: For the purpose of successful weight loss, you should not only get rid of junk foods but also those foods which make you allergic. Crabs are a good example; many people are allergic to crabs even though they have been touted by several experts as an ideal food for weight loss. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: dehydration, fatigue, food, food allergies, food habits, nausea, waiter, wheat-based food

To find the best home remedies for bladder infection, you need to understand what causes bladder infection and how to stop it happening with natural treatments.

What Is Bladder Infection?

The bladder is the place where urine is stored when the kidneys have produced it. Bladder infection is more correctly called urinary tract infection (UTI) and it can be an infection in either the bladder, the kidneys, or the passages that the urine travels along from the kidneys to the bladder (the ureters) and from the bladder when we pass urine (urethra).

Causes Of Bladder Infection

Urinary tract infection is much more common in women than in men. UTI often begins when bacteria, usually originating in the colon, enter the urethra from the outside world. Another form of UTI can be sexually transmitted. UTI can also be caused when tubes are placed in the urethra to control urine flow during and after surgical operations.

Urine itself is sterile and does not contain any bacteria, viruses or fungi. In fact it is believed to have mild anti bacterial properties. However, this is not always enough to protect against infection in the passages, especially where the urine is not flowing fast enough through the system and stagnates in the bladder.

Symptoms Of Bladder Infection

You can guess that you may have a bladder or urinary tract infection if you have a burning sensation when you urinate. You are also likely to have frequent urges to urinate although you may pass very little. In some cases the urine looks cloudy or reddish.

If you also have fever, nausea or constant pain in the lower abdominal area then this is a sign that the infection may have spread to the kidneys and you should see a doctor immediately to prevent possible permanent damage to the kidneys.

Home Remedies For Bladder Infection

One of the most important things to do if you have a UTI is to drink plenty of water. Have one 8 oz glass every 20-30 minutes. Assuming that your kidneys and bladder are functioning correctly and the infection is limited to the urethra, this is often enough to flush out the system. The body’s natural healing process together with the mild anti bacterial properties of urine may be able to deal with the infection by themselves when fresh urine is washing through the system quickly.

However, if you want to give your body a helping hand, cranberry juice is the best known natural remedy for UTI. This has been used for over one hundred years to help people with infections of the bladder and associated passages. It appears to work because proanthocyanins in cranberry juice help to prevent bacteria sticking to the walls of the urinary passages. They can then be washed out more easily by the urine.

You can either eat cranberries, drink juice diluted in water (unsweetened) or buy supplements of cranberry extract from a health food store. Research seems to show that cranberry extract supplements are the most effective.

In the case of sexually transmitted bladder infection both partners will need tests and treatment although often only one partner has symptoms. If the other partner is not treated too, the infection will recur. Medical tests can identify this type of infection.

If the infection spreads to the kidneys it can become very serious, and in some cases this can happen even when the symptoms have been controlled. There is also a risk of recurrence. Therefore you should always see a doctor even if these home remedies for bladder infection seem to have worked for you.

Tags: bladder infection, fever, health-food store, home remedies, natural remedy, nausea, pain, urinary tract infection

Maybe you have heard of lapband surgery or maybe not. Actually lapband gastric surgery simply put is a method to squeeze the stomach so that you would feel fuller and not eat as much. The surgery is less invasive, I guess, than Gastic bypass but is still full of complications and often needs to be either adjusted or removed althogether.

In a surgical procedure, the band is placed around the upper part of the stomach, creating a small pouch that can hold only a small amount of food. The narrowed opening between the stomach pouch and the rest of the stomach controls how quickly food passes from the pouch to the lower part of the stomach. The system helps the patient eat less by limiting the amount of food that can be eaten at one time and increasing the time it takes for food to be digested.

Depending on the patient’s needs, after the device is implanted the narrowed opening between the pouch and the lower part of the stomach can be adjusted in size by inflating or deflating the hollow band. Inflating the band makes the opening smaller, causing food to pass more slowly. Deflating the band makes it wider, causes food to pass more quickly. This adjustment is made by adding or removing fluid inside the hollow band. The doctor does this by injecting or removing the fluid through a small button-like part called the access port. This access port is placed under the skin in a muscle in the chest wall. The port is connected to the band by the tubing. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: abdominal pain, body mass index, bypass, Bypass surgery, eating habits, food, food passes, Gastic bypass, intestinal disorders, nausea, stomach pouch, surgery, surgical weight loss, United States, vomiting

Teenage obesity is something we cannot ignore, for it is as much disastrous, perhaps even more disastrous, than adult obesity. For one, people who have been obese as teenagers are less likely to live a long life than those who live a healthy life as teens. For another, unlike adults who can control obesity with the help of diets, diet pills, and intense workouts, teenagers cannot do the same because of the following three reasons:

a) The teenage period is the period of growth for a human being. This is the time when our body needs more nutrition than at any other period. On the other hand, a lot of fad diets restrict your food intake in such a way that you are virtually cut off from eating most of the nutritious foods available. Obviously, teenagers cannot be prescribed such diets which would negatively affect their growth.

b) So far as diet pills are concerned, many of them come with harmful side effects. There are pills which have side effects such as nausea, vertigo, headache, indigestion, etc. Since teenagers tend to have weaker immune system compared adults, these side effects would cause great damage in their bodies.

c) Intense workouts are truly intense, in that they put a lot of stress on your body, particularly bone and muscles. As teenagers, we develop new muscles and our bones become stronger. However, since this is a period of bodily growth, a teenager’s body is not as strong as that of an adult. Consequently, if a teenager performs such intense workouts, he is very likely to injure himself seriously.

That said, all is not lost. There are several easy ways to keep your teenage kid fit and healthy. But it all depends on you. If parents are unwilling to cooperate, teenage obesity cannot be controlled. It is a fact that a child is more influenced by the lifestyle habits of his parents than that of strangers.

Don’t ever think that obese parents have obese kids solely because of genetic reasons. While genetic factors may have a key role to play regarding a person’s body weight, they are only as much powerful as one’s destiny. If a human wants, he can easily control his body weight just like he can master his density.
Okay so here are two tips to fight teenage obesity:

1) Weight loss experts often tout food as the biggest reason behind obesity. However, it is not food, but rather “bad food”, which causes weight gain. If a person keeps eating burgers, pizzas, cookies, cakes, soft drinks, soda, alcohol, processed fruit juices, etc., it is only natural that he would become overweight in the long run.

Remember that when it comes to eating, there is no healthier substitute than organic fruits and vegetables. Nature has plenty of healthy foods to offer us and if we wish to stay healthy and fit, we must eat only those foods and nothing else.

That doesn’t however mean that these natural foods need to be eaten raw. Get out of your laziness and start cooking meals at home using low fat oil. Remember that unless you become proactive about it, the health of your teenage kid would only get worse over time.

2. Today’s teenagers prefer to remain glued to television and video games instead of engaging in outdoor sports. Once again, parents have a key role to play here. If you watch television or remain glued to your computer screen for hours, it is natural that your kid would do the same.

Now, if you or your kid doesn’t want to workout, then don’t. But walking, running and jogging are some of the easy activities both of you could do to keep obesity at bay.

Tags: bad food, fat oil, food, food intake, headache, indigestion, nausea, obesity, outdoor sports, vertigo

I have been compiling info on artificial sweetners for years and there are some that are OK and some that are really bad for you but here is a bit of an overview of he dangers of using different artificial sweeteners to try to drop your calorie intake.

Aspartame

Aspartame, a dipeptide of aspartic acid and a methyl ester of phenylalanine, is approved for use in pharmaceutical products and is being used increasingly in chewable tablet and sugar-free formulations. Labels for both prescription and nonprescription products must include the phenylalanine content. The major consideration in the use of aspartame in children is in patients with autosomal recessive phenylketonuria. Although heterozygotes do not appear to have clinically significant increases in phenylalanine after ingestion of even large amounts (equivalent to 24 12-oz cans of diet beverages), homozygotes with strict dietary restrictions should avoid aspartame. Children without dietary restrictions could safely ingest 10 mg/kg/day. Dietary consumption of aspartame is typically less than 5 mg/kg/day; young children, however, could ingest considerably more. For example, a 2-year-old child weighing 12 kg consumes 17 mg/kg from drinking one 12-oz can of diet soda and one serving of a sweetened product (eg, cereal, pudding, gelatin, or frozen dessert). Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: absence seizures, affective disorders, albuminuria, allergy, American Herbal Products Association, American Medical Association, artificial chemical, artificial sweetners, aspartame, aspartic acid, bladder cancer, blisters, Brazil, cancer, chemical, dairy by-product, dairy products, depression, diarrhea, diet beverages, Dietary Supplement, dietary supplements, dizziness, eczema, epilepsy, evidence, fda, FDA/National Cancer Institute, food, food additive, Food additives, food processors, food products, headache, headaches, Hypersensitivity, insomnia, Japan, Japanese government, migraine headaches, mitral valve prolapse, nausea, neuropsychiatric disorders, nonprescription products, oliguria, panic attacks, Paraguay, pharmaceutical agents, pharmaceutical products, phenylketonuria, placebos, product, prurigo, pruritus, Saccharin, salty applications, SeaLife SL 200C 35mm Film Camera, seizure disorders, seizures, sodium chloride, Stevia, strabismus, Sucralose, tachycardia, Tagatose, United States, urticaria, vascular headaches, visual hallucinations, wheezing

Eating before or after a workout is one of the most important determinants to whether you perform at the peak of your ability and recover from the workout as best as possible. There is a lot of science behind exercise and eating and in this article, I found this article in a magazine at a hockey rink a couple of weeks ago and could not believe how great it was, thanks to the Calgary minor Hockey Association we can tell you exactly how to eat. Following this pregame and postgame eating should make your workouts better and your performance better as well.

THE PREGAME MEAL

What you eat each day can have a big effect on how you perform. What you consume right before a game can be critical. Wrong choices can slow you down and even take you out of the game, while right choices can give you that competitive edge. The pregame meal can supply your body with significant amounts of energy, although don’t rely on it to supply you with everything you’re going to need. You’ll want to have eaten the right kinds of food for several days prior to your game to charge up your muscles with glycogen. Your body converts food into glycogen – the key energy source your muscles use during intense physical activity such as hockey. The pre-event meal can help with the following; Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Alberta, competition eating, dehydration, diarrhea, eating exercise, energy, fat dairy products, fatigue, food, food choices, food remaining, hockey, Illinois, key energy, nausea, postgame meal, pregame meal, registered dietitian, Sport Medicine Council of Alberta, sports drinks, sports performance, the Calgary minor Hockey Association, University of Illinois, vomiting