A series of studies published in the journal Health Affairs offers both hopeful and discouraging news on the vaccine front.
Previous studies have suggested that certain pain-relieving drugs, with the exception of aspirin and acetaminophen, may increase the risk of heart attack or death from a cardiovascular event. The drugs under suspicion are non-steroidal anti-inflammatory agents (NSAIDs). Now a new study published in the American Journal of Medicine and led by Dr. Anthony A.
As a heat wave sweeps over New York City and much of the rest of the country, we’d be remiss if we didn’t pass on a recommendation from New York City’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.
First of all, it’s important to remember that those at increased risk for hospitalization and death from heat stroke include adults ages 65 and older, as well as patients with cardiovascular disease, psychiatric illness (often involving substance abuse), diabetes, or respiratory illness. Poorer neighborhoods also see a higher rate of heat-related illness and death.
In the most recent issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, Dr. Walter C. Willett of the Harvard School of Public Health, along with two doctors from other institutions, countered claims made by Dr. Willett’s HSPH colleague Dr. David C. Christiani in an article asserting that environmental factors account for 85 to 95 percent of cancers. Dr. Willett and his colleagues are especially concerned that Dr.
The June issue of Pediatrics confirms that physicians truly can be a significant influence on their teenage patients’ attitudes toward tobacco use.
Recent shortages of cancer medicines have brought to light an often problematic disconnect between the financial incentives of drug manufacturers and the needs of patients. Dr.
Atrazine, the herbicide most responsible for the well being of the cornfields across so much of the U.S. countryside, has once again been deemed a non-threat to human health. Most recently, the respected ongoing Agricultural Health Study (AHS) found no link between exposure to atrazine and overall cancer risk.
Media coverage of the disastrous E. coli outbreak in Europe has become a source of both anxiety and relief for Americans: In Germany, nearly 3,000 have fallen ill thus far — 700 with acute kidney failure — and 27 have died, but there’s been no sign that this highly virulent form of E. coli has caused any illness in the U.S.
Statin drugs have been notably free of serious side effects, despite being used by millions of patients since the late 1980s. However, a new FDA safety advisory announced Wednesday should result in a decreased dosage of the cholesterol-lowering drug simvastatin (Zocor) for some of the 2.1 million Americans on the drug.
In response to our Thursday piece on the public health implications of lowering the legal drinking age, for which ACSH's Dr. Elizabeth Whelan came out in favor, a Dispatch reader with some expertise on the subject writes:
