Month: May 2013

Put “alcohol” and “apps” into Google and you’ll get dozens of possible downloads for your smartphone. Many are specifically aimed at helping you track your blood alcohol content (BAC), and each works pretty much the same way: You key in info every time you have a cocktail, and the app then uses that to track your BAC and gauges your fitness to drive. It’s just an app, though, and in many cases these tools don’t know how much you weigh; if you’ve taken medication; or even if you’ve eaten recently or had water—all of which affect your BAC.

By Andrew M. Seaman NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Older men with other illnesses may not live long enough to benefit from aggressive prostate cancer treatments, such as prostate removal or radiation, and they’d have to live with their side effects, says a new study. “If you’re going to die of a heart attack in five years, what’s the point of going through radiation?” asked Dr. David Penson, the study’s senior author from the Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee. …

Sleep. It occupies about one-third of our lives. We need it for our mental        

By Andrew M. Seaman NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Men who get an older and less costly form of radiation after their cancerous prostates are removed fare just as well as men who get a new and expensive type of radiation, according to a new study. “What we demonstrate is that both (therapies) are very safe and effective after prostatectomy, and patients should feel very confident receiving either technology,” said Dr. Ronald Chen, the study’s senior author from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Conformal radiotherapy (CRT) delivers radiation over a large area to kill cancer cells. …

By Katie Schubert OMAHA (Reuters) – Investigators in Omaha are looking at whether the murders discovered last week of a doctor and his wife are connected to the unsolved 2008 murders of a young boy and his family’s housekeeper, police said on Monday. Dr. Roger Brumback and his wife, Mary, both 65, were found murdered last Tuesday in their west Omaha home. Brumback was a professor at Creighton University School of Medicine and a doctor with Alegent Creighton Health. …

By Padraic Halpin and Jessica Toonkel DUBLIN/NEW YORK (Reuters) – Royalty Pharma raised its hostile bid for Elan to $12.50 per share and threatened to withdraw the bid if Elan shareholders approve a series of defensive transactions announced by the Irish drug firm. Royalty Pharma, which buys royalty streams of patented drugs, said Elan's efforts to reinvent itself through a series of acquisitions and debt deals were hasty and ill-conceived. Royalty's new bid for Elan values the company at around $6.4 billion and comes in the face of Elan's insistence that it is worth more. …

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Bayer said extended use of its experimental riociguat pill to treat a life-threatening form of high blood pressure in the lungs was shown to be safe and effective in a prolonged trial. In the extension of a late-stage trial, the drug was shown to help people suffering from pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), a progressively worsening condition that can overburden the heart, to better tolerate physical exercise. It said that side effects, including headache, dizziness, indigestion and low blood pressure, were tolerable. …

By Caroline Humer and Ransdell Pierson (Reuters) – Generic drugmaker Actavis Inc, itself a recent takeover target, said on Monday it would buy specialty pharmaceutical company Warner Chilcott Plc for $5 billion in stock to expand its branded drug portfolio, lower taxes and increase profits. The Warner Chilcott acquisition brings two new businesses – gastroenterology and dermatology – and adds additional women’s health drugs like branded contraceptives to Actavis, which makes and sells drugs that are no longer under patent protection. …

Discredited Study Tied Measles Vaccine to Autism        

First and foremost, spring and summer mean sun. We all know we need some of it (sunshine enables our body to absorb vitamin D, which is essential for bone density and a strong immune system), but there’s also the sun’s not-so-healthy aspect: skin cancer. Since 1975, rates of melanoma—the deadliest kind of skin cancer—have tripled, reaching nearly one-quarter of the population, according to the National Cancer Institute (NCI). …