A new study in the New England Journal of Medicine has generated a lot of media attention this week (such as this NY Times article). The study pooled prior randomized studies that compared patients taking the diabetes medicine Avandia (ro...
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It Might Be More Convenient to Just Keep Coughing
This is another example of a tiny number of irresponsible people imposing a lot of inconvenience on millions of others. The Associated Press reports in this Forbes article that four East Coast supermarket chains will only sell products containing dextromethorphan (DXM) to customers over 18 years of age. DXM is a cough suppressant and is very common in over-the-counter cough remedies. I recommend it all the ...
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Human Papilomavirus: The Latest Celebrity Pathogen
Recently human papilomavirus (HPV) has been making a lot of news. The story involves big business, cancer, government policy, and sex. I'm surprised HBO hasn't made a series about it.
HPV is a sexually transmitted virus that causes genital warts, cervical cancer, and has recently been associated with oral cancers. Merck recently released Gardasil, a vaccine that protects against the strains of HPV that cause most (but not all) of the cas...
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Getting Better at Treating Heart Attacks
Though heart attacks continue to be the number one cause of death in the United States, the news for treatment and prevention of heart disease keeps getting better. An article in this issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association examines the rates of death in a multinational study of heart attacks and heart-related acute chest pai...
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