There’s nothing wrong with working out and watching your diet to make yourself healthier, but attempting to speed up the process of weight loss or muscle building by taking over-the-counter dietary or herbal supplements may actually cause life-threatening liver injury. It might surprise you to know that one of the primary reasons that medications are…
Count yourself lucky if you’re NOT one of the estimated 50 million Americans who have allergies of some sort. Seasonal allergies send many people to the neighborhood pharmacy for relief in the form of an over-the-counter medication. The most common OTC medicine allergy sufferers seek is an antihistamine, which blocks the release of histamine that…
The 2012 Annual Meeting of the American association of Orthopedic Surgeons was held in February in San Francisco. Two of the studies presented addressed the use of bisphosphonates and atypical femur fractures. One looked at outcomes in patients who had sustained atypical femur fractures and the other addressed whether discontinuing bisphosphonate treatment decreased the risk…
Based on a recently completed safety review, the FDA has concluded that birth control pills containing drospirenone (a synthetic version of the female hormone progesterone, also known as progestin) may be associated with a higher risk for blood clots than other progestin-containing pills. The FDA is adding information about the studies to the labels of…
According to the FDA, there have been 26 incidents of accidental fentanyl exposure since 1997 resulting in ten deaths and twelve cases requiring hospitalization. Most of the cases invovled children. The FDA issued a consumer advisory Thursday reminding parents, caregivers and medical personnel of the deadly consequences posed to children from accidental contact with or…
A lawsuit filed by a physician who worked under contract for Takeda, the maunufacturer of Actos, a diabetes medication, alleges that the pharmaceutical company failed to accurately report cases of bladder cancer. The lawsuit was filed by Dr. Helen Ge who also asserts in the lawsuit that Takeda failed to report all cases of heart…
Zofran has been connected to a wide range of birth defects. Prescription drugs are often at the center of legal action. In many of these cases, it is uncovered that the drugs were not properly evaluated before they were marketed to physicians to prescribe to their patients. In other cases, drugs were prescribed outside of…
As the result of a packaging error, Pfizer has recalled 1M packets of birth control pills. A statement issued by Pfizer indicated that, “As a result of this packaging error, the daily regimen for these oral contraceptives may be incorrect and could leave women without adequate contraception and at risk for unintended pregnancy. The recall…
Newer isn’t always better. A new study links the drug metformin, prescribed for diabetes, to fewer cases of pancreatic cancer, at least in women, but finds other diabetes medications are associated with a higher risk of the disease. According to Dr. Peter Butler, a diabetes researcher at UCLA “the oldest drug we have for diabetes,…
The Journal of Pediatrics recently published a study showing thtat over the past decade increasing numbers of young children have been hospitalized or injured due to accidental poisoning from prescription and over-the-counter (OTC) medications. The majority of the cases involved unintentional self-ingestion for example where a child finds pills from an open container prescrived to…