Pharmacology
One of the greatest and most dangerous naturalistic fallacies is that if our ancestors used something, it must be as good or even better than modern science.
In An Account of the Foxglove and Some of its Medical Uses, published in 1785, Sir William Withering cautioned readers that extracts from the plant foxglove, also called digitalis, was not a perfect drug. "Time will fix the real value upon this discovery," he wrote.
Almost 230 years later, researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have validated Withering's warning with the discovery that patients with atrial…
Doctor Shopping: 21 Percent Of Adult Orthopedic Patients Find New Doctors For Narcotic Prescriptions
"Doctor shopping" is the term for obtaining narcotic prescriptions by seeking out multiple providers that has led to measurable increases in drug use among postoperative trauma patients.
A new paper links doctor shopping to higher narcotic use among orthopedic patients.
"There has been an alarming rise in opioid use in our country, and the diversion of opioids for non-therapeutic uses is dramatically increasing," said lead study author and orthopedic surgeon Brent J. Morris, MD. "Many suspect that orthopedic trauma patients may be at a higher risk for pre-injury narcotic use and '…
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved INVOKAMET™, a fixed-dose therapy combining canagliflozin and metformin hydrochloride in a single tablet, for the treatment of adults with type 2 diabetes. INVOKAMET provides the clinical attributes of INVOKANA® (canagliflozin), the first sodium glucose co–transporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitor available in the United States, together with metformin, which is commonly prescribed early in the treatment of type 2 diabetes.
INVOKAMET is the first fixed–dose combination of an SGLT2 inhibitor with metformin approved in the United States. The co–…
Oxazepam, a drug that is commonly used to treat insomnia and anxiety in humans, has been shown to reduce mortality rates in fish when it gets into natural water supplies.
For their study, researchers retrieved two-year-old Eurasian perch from a lake in Sweden and randomly exposed them to high and low concentrations of Oxazepam, a benzodiazepine which is commonly used to treat anxiety and insomnia in humans and regularly contaminates surface waters via treated wastewater effluent. The researchers have previously found that the drug can increase the activity and boldness of Eurasian perch…
Human milk is obviously baby food, but for sick, hospitalized infants, it's also medicine, according to a series of articles in Advances in Neonatal Care devoted to best practices in providing human milk to hospitalized infants.
"The immunological and anti-inflammatory properties of human milk are especially important for the critically ill infants in our intensive care units," said Diane L. Spatz, Ph.D., R.N.-B.C., FAAN, nurse researcher and director of the Lactation Program at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), and the invited guest editor of the August 2014 issue of the…
Aspirin has been linked to a significant reduction in the risk of developing – and dying from – the major cancers of the digestive tract, i.e. bowel, stomach and esophageal cancer in a recent Annals of Oncology paper. Some have been concerned about side effects, such as instances of bleeding, due to aspirin.
The review of the available evidence assessed both the benefits and harms of preventive use of aspirin. The researchers, led by Professor Jack Cuzick, Head of Queen Mary University of London's Centre for Cancer Prevention, found taking aspirin for 10 years could cut bowel…
Artesunate, a common herbal-based anti-malarial drug, can be used to control asthma, with better treatment outcomes than other drugs currently available, according to a paper by researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS).
The authors write that artesunate is able to suppress airway inflammation and produce an array of anti-inflammatory effects similar to those by dexamethasone, the most potent steroid currently available, and with less side effects.
Asthma is an incurable lung disease that inflames and narrows the airways, causing recurring periods of wheezing, chest…
Dietary capsaicin, the active ingredient in chili peppers, produces chronic activation of a receptor on cells lining the intestines of mice, triggering a reaction that ultimately reduces the risk of colorectal tumors, finds a study in The Journal of Clinical Investigation.
The receptor or ion channel, called TRPV1, was originally discovered in sensory neurons, where it acts as a sentinel for heat, acidity and spicy chemicals in the environment. "These are all potentially harmful stimuli to cells," said Eyal Raz, MD, professor at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and…
Resistance to artemisinin, the main drug to treat malaria, has become widespread throughout Southeast Asia.
Resistance among the Plasmodium falciparum (P. falciparum) parasites that cause the disease is likely caused by a genetic mutation in the parasites, but a six-day course of artemisinin-based combination therapy, as opposed to a standard three-day course, has proved highly effective in treating drug-resistant malaria cases, according to a study in the New England Journal of Medicine. DDT has also been effective for the last 70 years.
Previous clinical and laboratory studies suggest that…
The pesticide methoxychlor has been linked to adult onset kidney disease, ovarian disease and obesity - generations after rats were exposed.
Methoxychlor, also known as Chemform, Methoxo, Metox or Moxie, was invented in 1948 and became popular in the 1970s after DDT was banned. It was used on crops, ornamental plants, livestock and pets. It is still used in many countries around the world it was banned in the U.S. in 2003 due to concerns about toxicity and disruption of endocrine systems. Methoxychlor was found to behave like the hormone estrogen and affect the reproductive system.…