The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration made a push over the weekend to empty our medicine cabinet shelves of the prescription drugs most of us have sitting there, setting up 4,000 points nationwide where people could drop off their expired or unwanted medications. Dr.

The Associated Press reported Sunday on biotech company Dendreon Corp.’s new anti-prostate cancer therapy, Provenge, whi

After the American Heart Association came out with a strong statement against the use of smokeless tobacco as a smoking cessation aid, Dr. Gilbert Ross sent them this letter on Sept. 23:
Re: Piano et al, "Smokeless Tobacco Products and CVD"

Hershey s is collaborating with the American Dietetic Association to jumpstart their Moderation Nation initiative, which aims to provide consumers with subsidized access to registered dietitians in the hopes of fighting obesity through a balanced diet and healthy lifestyle.

Following a split vote by an FDA advisory panel in July on whether Avandia was safe to stay on the market after evidence surfaced implicating the diabetes drug with an increased risk of heart attack, the FDA announced yesterday that it will place stringent restrictions on Avandia’s availability. Patients who wish to continue use of Avandia will have to enroll in a Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS) program along with their doctors and pharmacists.

In the largest analysis of U.S. gay and bisexual men at high risk for HIV, experts with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) evaluated more than 8,000 such men in 21 cities and found that 44 percent of those who had the virus were unaware of it.

The Sunshine State may become the first state in the nation to ban chocolate milk in public schools. Florida Board of Education members discussed the issue Tuesday and John Padget, a former school superintendent from South Florida, suggested eliminating all beverages except for water, pure juice and white, low-fat milk in an effort to combat childhood obesity.

A decline in the number of new breast cancers among postmenopausal women coincides with a decline in the use of hormone replacement therapy (HRT), a study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute says. Canadian researchers looked at 1,200 Canadian women between the ages of 50 to 69 and found that the number of new breast cancers fell nearly 10 percent between 2002 — the same time a large U.S.

Some House Democrats this week proposed giving the FDA new powers to inspect overseas drug plants, following the deaths of dozens in 2008 from the contaminated blood-thinner heparin produced in China by Baxter International.

The FDA has approved Novartis’ new drug Gilenya, the first oral medication for multiple sclerosis. The pill can ease muscle spasms, loss of balance and other movement programs associated with the disorder.