Year: 2013

Deep-fried foods may be causing trouble in the Deep South. People whose diets are heavy on them and sugary drinks like sweet tea and soda were more likely to suffer a stroke, a new study finds.

TLC’s “My Strange Addiction” episode profiles couple’s cleansing ritual.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Roman Catholic leaders on Thursday said the Obama administration did not go far enough toward their issues in the offer of compromise offered last week over health care coverage of contraceptives for employees of faith-based institutions. "The February 1 notice of proposed rulemaking … shows some movement by the administration but falls short of addressing U.S. bishops' concerns," the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said in a statement. "We have been assured by the administration that we will not have to refer, pay for, or negotiate for the mandated coverage. …

Researchers have drawn the strongest link yet between these kinds of foods and risk of stroke. Specifically, University of Alabama researchers found that people who regularly ate foods traditionally found in the southern diet had a whopping 41 percent increased risk of stroke — and in African-Americans, it was 63 percent higher risk.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Amgen Inc said it expects generic versions of biotech drugs, known as biosimilars, to be a multibillion-dollar opportunity for the company and has targeted some of the industry’s biggest sellers, including the main rivals for its own blockbuster rheumatoid arthritis drug Enbrel. The company on Thursday also said that between this year and 2016 it will have key late-stage data from eight experimental medicines. …

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The patent on Merck & Co's cholesterol fighters Zetia and Vytorin, two of the drugmaker's biggest products, is valid, a U.S. appeals court ruled on Thursday. Vytorin combines Zocor, a member of the statin family developed by Merck, with a newer Merck cholesterol treatment called Zetia. Sales of Vytorin are $1.75 billion while sales of Zetia used by itself are another $2.6 billion a year. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit did not discuss the ruling at length and simply affirmed a decision by a lower court in New Jersey. The U.S. …

(Reuters) – Vivus Inc, vying to create the world's first billion-dollar weight-loss pill, is taking a cautious approach to marketing in an attempt to overcome the skepticism, safety concerns and lawsuits that have dogged the diet drug industry. The company has lost nearly half of its market value since lackluster sales tarnished the September launch of the first new weight-loss pill in the United States for 13 years. Two of its it's largest shareholders have questioned the company's strategy. …

A new study published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives on Wednesday has found that pregnant women who are exposed to air pollution are more likely to have babies with a lower birth weight. Researchers looked at data from more than 3 million pregnancies and births in nine different countries in order to reach their conclusions.

Researchers have drawn the strongest link yet between these kinds of foods and risk of stroke. Specifically, University of Alabama researchers found that people who regularly ate foods traditionally found in the southern diet had a whopping 41 percent increased risk of stroke — and in African-Americans, it was 63 percent higher risk.

BERLIN (Reuters) – Just past midnight behind a Berlin supermarket, two youngsters with flashlights strapped to their woolen hats sift through trash cans for food that is still edible, load their bikes with bread, vegetables and chocolate Santas and cycle off into the darkness. It is not poverty that inspires a growing number of young Germans like 21-year-old student Benjamin Schmitt to forage for food in the garbage, but anger at loss and waste which the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation estimates at one-third of all food produced worldwide, every year, valued at about $1 trillion. …

NEW YORK (Reuters) – More than three months after Superstorm Sandy forced Manhattan’s Bellevue Hospital Center to evacuate 500 patients and shut down one of the busiest emergency rooms in the city, the hospital reopened for normal operations on Thursday. Bellevue, located near the East River, was evacuated on October 31 when its basement – which housed electrical switching gear and other equipment critical to the hospital’s operations – took in millions of gallons of water. It was the hospital’s first evacuation in its 276-year history. Several area hospitals, including Mount Sinai and St. …

Suicidal thoughts are common among stroke survivors, a study found.