Whistle-blower suit against Bayer over unsafe drug can continue: Court
By Judy Greenwald
A whistle-blower lawsuit against Bayer A.G. alleging it knowingly sold an unsafe drug to the Department of Defense can proceed based on the precision of its allegations, an appeals court has ruled.
Units of Leverkusen, Germany-based Bayer began marketing Baycol to compete with other cholesterol-lowering or statin drugs in early 1998, according to Tuesday's ruling by the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis in In re: Baycol Products Litigation.
Certain studies concluded that the drug was less effective at lowering cholesterol than competing drugs when prescribed at the dosage initially approve...
Source: PharmaGossip - October 15, 2013 Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: insider Source Type: blogs
Medical Mispronunciations and Misspelled Words: The Definitive List.
Hearing medical mispronunciations and seeing misspelled words are an under appreciated joy of working in healthcare. Physicians often forget just how alien the language of medicine is to people who don't live it everyday. The best part about being a physician is not helping people recover from critical illness. The best part is not about listening and understanding with compassion and empathy. Nope, the best part about being a physician is hearing patients and other healthcare providers butcher the language of medicine and experiencing great entertainment in the process. Doctors c...
Source: The Happy Hospitalist - October 2, 2013 Category: Internists and Doctors of Medicine Authors: Tamer Mahrous Source Type: blogs
The Pros And Cons Of CrossFit: A Physician’s Perspective
I’ve been following (and often participating in) fitness trends for decades. From Jim Fixx’s outdoor running to Jane Fonda’s work out videos, to Conan-the-Barbarian body building, to step aerobics, to Tae Bo, to hot yoga, to Zumba, and now CrossFit… America’s exercise pendulum has been swinging wildly across the spectrum of possible physical activities. So have we finally reached a balanced mix of strength and cardio for optimum fitness? Maybe.
CrossFit is a system of exercise and nutrition (founded in 2000 by Greg Glassman) that claims to “forge elite fitness.” Their Reebok-sponso...
Source: Better Health - September 27, 2013 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Dr. Val Jones Tags: Health Tips CrossFit CrossFit Games Exercise Fitness Fittest On Earth HIIT Injury Nutrition Physician Pros And Cons Reebok Safety Strength Training Source Type: blogs
Statins and their risk/benefit
A recent large Meta-analysis (a study which combined the results of 135 randomized trials) has shown that statins did not significantly increase risk for myalgia (muscle pain), myopathy (muscle weakness), rhabdomyolysis (muscle breakdown) or cancer as compared with control treatment. There was a slight increase in the risk of diabetes. I remain a strong believer in the benefit of statin therapy to reduce heart attack, strokes and death in patients with known heart disease and in those at intermediate-to-high risk for heart disease. See my prior blog posting explaining my rationale. I have also previously written ab...
Source: Dr Portnay - July 23, 2013 Category: Cardiology Authors: Dr Portnay Source Type: blogs
Healthcare Update Satellite — 07-09-2013
More updates available tomorrow on my other blog at DrWhitecoat.com
Why does an $11,596 emergency department visit cost $1,100? A spokesperson for the California Hospital Association says that it is because of government regulation. I want to know what doctor ever gets paid $4,242 for a Level 4 emergency department visit.
California attorneys are trying to raise the cap on damages under California’s Medical Injury Compensation Reform Act. Caps are currently $250,000 and haven’t been raised in more than 35 years.
The article says that many attorneys won’t take medical malpractice cases in California because they are t...
Source: WhiteCoat's Call Room - July 9, 2013 Category: Emergency Medicine Doctors Authors: WhiteCoat Tags: Healthcare Update Source Type: blogs
Conor Goes For A Swim (and a Dive and a Slide) and Shows Terrific Progress In His Rhabdomyolysis Recovery
Conor home after a great swim adventure;
making terrific progress on his recovery
Conor's autism and profound developmental delay were supplemented by two grand mal seizures between November 2012 and April 2013. The second seizure occurred two days after he began treatment with the anti seizure medication Lamotrogine. During the second week of treatment when his dosage was increased from 1 to 2 25 mg tablets a day he began to sleep and medical advice was sought. The specialists were not available quickly but our family doctor saw us early the next day and advised us to cut back on the dosage which we d...
Source: Facing Autism in New Brunswick - May 24, 2013 Category: Autism Authors: H L Doherty Source Type: blogs
Statins and exercise
Several years ago, one of my best friends complained that a statin was interfering with his exercise routine. While I believed him, I was a bit skeptical. We have known for some time that statins can impact muscles – pain and even rhabdomyolysis. But what about routine exercise?
Can Statins Cut the Benefits of Exercise?
But until the current study, no experiment scrupulously had explored the interactions of statin drugs and workouts in people. And the results, as it turns out, are worrisome.
The unmedicated volunteers improved their aerobic fitness significantly after three months of exercise, by more than 10 perc...
Source: DB's Medical Rants - May 22, 2013 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: rcentor Tags: Medical Rants Source Type: blogs
Conor's Physiotherapy With CBC's Terry Seguin
Conor is still recovering from Rhabdomyolysis, an adverse reaction to anti-seizure medication, Lamotrogine and needs phsyiotherapy to rebuild his damaged muscles, balance and co-ordination. Just being home is a huge help for Conor, back home with Mom, Dad, his brother and his familiar routines. One of those routines has been to get out of bed every morning at 6 am. If he is awake at 5:30 he stays in bed until 6. That is his routine and Conor has a classic autism need for routine. When he gets up each morning his routine has also included turning on the television and watching "CBC Terry S...
Source: Facing Autism in New Brunswick - May 15, 2013 Category: Autism Authors: H L Doherty Source Type: blogs
Conor Is Home From the Hospital!
Above Conor, and Mom, in the bottom pic, on the way home.
Conor's Mom stayed at the hospital with him 24/7, for 2 weeks
Dad spelled her off at times and the nursing students also sat
with Conor and gave Mom some breaks once he was moved
from the Intensive Care Unit to a room in Pediatrics.
In the grainy pic below (taken in dark lighting) Conor rests
at home on one of our living room cozy couches.
Conor is home! After 2 weeks in the hospital, including 6 days in intensive care, it feels great to have our buddy home with us. Yesterday I told Conor I would be back at 8 am this morning to take him home...
Source: Facing Autism in New Brunswick - May 11, 2013 Category: Autism Authors: H L Doherty Source Type: blogs
Answering the Question ‘Can i stack a complete body cleanse with hydroxycut hardcore x?’
Here a good question I found in the comments section of a previous post. ‘justinwebber1′ asks us the question:
i wanna lose some weight before spring break. i workout regularly and run and play lots of basketball. i was advised to do a complete body cleanse and get on some hydroxycut im wondering if i should do the cleanse first or if i can do them at the same time?
Answer: Justin -Detoxing and cleansing have absolutely no medical benefit and are in fact harmful to the dietary tract and internal organs. There is no “build up” of bad plaque in a normal system. Our bodies “detox” 24 hours...
Source: Addiction Recovery Blog - February 3, 2013 Category: Addiction Authors: Addiction Recovery Author Tags: Medical Detox Source Type: blogs
