- FDA finds dangers in 28 diet products
If you're looking for a little help shedding extra pounds after the holidays, the government is warning you to stay away from 28 weight-loss products that contain unlisted and possibly dangerous ingredients.
The pills are advertised as "natural" fat busters and have intriguing names like Imelda Perfect Slim and Zhen de Shou. Some are touted as new versions of "ancient remedies" from Asia.
They may promise an easy fix to weight problems, but the Food and Drug Administration on Monday said the concoctions contain unlisted ingredients, including high doses of a powerful anti-obesity drug, as well as a suspected carcinogen.
"When consumers are buying these products online, we're telling them that if it sounds too good to be true, it is likely to be too good to be true," said Michael Levy, an FDA lawyer who works on enforcement issues.
FDA lab testing found 28 dietary supplements that could land unsuspecting users in the emergency room. Most of the diet pills appear to be coming from China. They are mainly sold on the Internet.
- Parents swear by chiropractic treatment of colic, but pediatricians are skeptical
As unlikely as it sounds, a gentle pressure technique on the abdomen of a colicky baby might bring relief to both baby and parents.
You won't find this treatment in the textbooks, and pediatricians won't comment on it, but the parents of colicky babies helped by Wichita chiropractor Dennis Scharenberg swear by him.
Scharenberg says colic generally is the result of a weak valve between the small and large intestine. If the valve doesn't close properly, he says, gas builds up in the small intestine, creating pain that results in inconsolable babies.
Wichitan Jill Laffoon, mother of Kai, knows.
"He screamed for nine months. Didn't sleep longer than two hours," she said. "It was crazy."
- Vitamins offer no benefit, studies say
They were some of the most promising medicines of the 1990s -- wonder pills that appeared to fight cancer, heart disease, stroke and other ailments.
Laboratory tests and initial studies in people suggested that lowly vitamins could play a crucial role in preventing some of the most intractable illnesses. The National Institutes of Health gave them the same treatment as top-notch pharmaceutical drugs, investing hundreds of millions of dollars in elaborate clinical trials designed to quantify their disease-fighting abilities.
Now the results from those trials are rolling in, and nearly all of them fail to show any benefit from taking vitamins and minerals.
This month, two long-term trials involving more than 50,000 participants offered fresh evidence that vitamin C, vitamin E and selenium supplements don't reduce the risk of prostate, colorectal, lung, bladder or pancreatic cancer. Other recent studies have found vitamins and minerals offered no help in fighting other cancers, stroke and cardiovascular disease.
Scientists have puzzled over how the benefits of vitamins could be so elusive in randomized controlled trials. Researchers have identified several reasons, chief among them that there is no true placebo group because everyone gets some in their diet.
- Generic drugs getting cheaper
Finally, a little good health care news for consumers: U.S. prices for generic prescription drugs, which already cost as little as one-third what their brand-name cousins do, have been getting cheaper and likely will keep doing so.
The causes? The ultra-low prices for generic prescriptions offered by giant retailers and drugstore chains and intense competition among the many generic drugmakers fighting for sales, according to health information firm IMS Health.
Those pricing pressures forced down dollar sales of generic drugs in the U.S. by 2.7 percent in the year ending in September, even though the number of generic prescriptions filled increased by 5.4 percent over the year before, IMS reported Wednesday.
"We're seeing the combination of pressure from large retailers to make generics available at ever-lower prices for their customers" and the intensified competition among generic drugmakers leading them to cut prices, said Murray Aitken, senior vice president for the Healthcare Insight unit at IMS.
Aitken said the price competition is particularly intense for drugs that had been brand-name blockbusters -- recent examples include osteoporosis drug Fosamax and cholesterol fighter Zocor -- where "there can be as many as 20 generic manufacturers competing for share."
- Report ranks Kansas low in public health preparedness
Kansas earned a six of a possible 10 on the latest "Ready or Not? Protecting the Public's Health From Diseases, Disasters and Bioterrorism" report, released Tuesday.
That makes the state one of 14 earning the lowest grades.
Tuesday's is the sixth annual report from the Trust for America's Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The report assesses states' readiness to meet public health emergencies, such as 2008's salmonella outbreak associated with jalapeno peppers, hurricanes, floods and wildfires.
States have shown steady progress toward public health preparedness, but the authors said cuts in budgets -- those already made and those anticipated -- could put that progress at risk.
The measures change each year because as some are adopted nationwide, they become less meaningful.
- A handful of nuts could keep your heart healthy
Here's a health tip in a nutshell: Eating a handful of nuts a day for a year -- along with a Mediterranean diet rich in fruit, vegetables and fish -- may help undo a collection of risk factors for heart disease.
Spanish researchers found that adding nuts worked better than boosting the olive oil in a typical Mediterranean diet. Both regimens cut the heart risks known as metabolic syndrome in more people than a low-fat diet did.
"What's most surprising is they found substantial metabolic benefits in the absence of calorie reduction or weight loss," said JoAnn Manson, chief of preventive medicine at Harvard's Brigham and Women's Hospital.
In the study, which appeared Monday in the Archives of Internal Medicine, the people who improved most were told to eat about three whole walnuts, seven or eight whole hazelnuts and seven or eight whole almonds. They didn't lose weight, on average, but more of them succeeded in reducing belly fat and improving their cholesterol and blood pressure.
Manson, who wasn't involved in the study, cautioned that adding nuts to a Western diet -- one packed with too many calories and junk food -- could lead to weight gain and more health risks. "But using nuts to replace a snack of chips or crackers is a very favorable change to make in your diet," Manson said.
- GraceMed Evergreen clinic to treat adults, too
GraceMed Health Clinic's Evergreen location, which has been limited to pediatrics care for the past 2 ½ years, will be a family medicine clinic again beginning today.
The clinic also will be open five days a week, rather than three. The clinic is at 2700 N. Woodland, in the Evergreen Neighborhood City Hall Complex just east of Cloud Elementary School.
Dave Sanford, GraceMed's executive director, said physician Paula Worley will staff the clinic. She has practiced at GraceMed's main site, at 1122 N. Topeka, for the past couple of years.
Sanford said GraceMed and other safety-net clinics often face challenges in staffing their facilities and have to craft the practice to the practitioner. The Evergreen clinic shifted from family medicine to pediatrics when a pediatrics physician assistant took the post in July 2006.
Worley, who is bilingual, was interested when the position came open but wanted to care for adults as well as children, Sanford said.
- It's not too late to receive a flu shot
It's not too late to get a flu shot, the Sedgwick County Health Department is emphasizing.
Next week is National Influenza Immunization Week. Tuesday is designated as Children's Vaccination Day. Dec. 11 is Seniors' Vaccination Day, and Dec. 12 will focus on the vaccination of health care workers.
The Health Department has been offering flu shots at its 2716 W. Central location since October.
The clinic is open 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday, and noon to 6 p.m. Thursday.
Shots cost $30 for people 9 years or older and $15 for those 6 months to 8 years old. Pneumonia shots are also available for $44.
- Holidays don't have to be stressful
Stress often goes hand-in-hand with the holidays. Whether you're wondering how to find enough time to finish your to-do list or you're worrying about how much money you'll be spending, we have some expert advice that can give you some breathing room.
"One of the biggest sources of stress is the pressure we put on ourselves to meet up to expectations," says Natha
