Scientists Oppose The Use Of Antibiotics For Livestock Rearing

Scientists Oppose The Use Of Antibiotics For Livestock Rearing.
As experts go on to unscathed alarm bells about the rising resistance of microbes to antibiotics second-hand by humans, the United States Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday Dec 2013 announced it was curbing the use of the drugs in livestock nationwide. "FDA is issuing a project today, in collaboration with the monster health industry, to phase out the use of medically important for treating human infections antimicrobials in scoff animals for production purposes, such as to enhance growth rates and improve feeding efficiency," Michael Taylor, reserve commissioner for foods and veterinary medicine at the agency, said during a Wednesday forenoon press briefing. Experts have long stressed that the overuse of antibiotics by the meat and poultry activity gives dangerous germs such as Staphylococcus and C difficile a prime breeding ground to unfold mutations around drugs often used by humans.

But for years, millions of doses of antibiotics have been added to the nourish or water of cattle, poultry, hogs and other animals to produce fatter animals while using less feed. To appraise and limit this overuse, the FDA is asking pharmaceutical companies that make antibiotics for the husbandry industry to change the labels on their products to limit the use of these drugs to medical purposes only. At the same time, the intervention will be phasing in broader oversight by veterinarians to insure that the antibiotics are used only to premium and prevent illness in animals and not to enhance growth.

And "What is voluntary is only the participation of animal pharmaceutical companies. Once these labeling changes have been made, these products will only be able to be hand-me-down for therapeutic reasons with veterinary oversight. With these changes, there will be fewer approved uses of these drugs and residual uses will be under tighter control". The most prevalent antibiotics used in feed and also prescribed for humans affected by the supplemental rule include tetracycline, penicillin and the macrolides, according to the FDA.

Two companies, Zoetis (Pfizer's animal-drug subsidiary) and Elanco, have the largest appropriate of the animal antibiotic market. Both have said they will put one's signature on on to the FDA's program. There was some initial praise for FDA's move. "We commend FDA for taking the prime steps since 1977 to broadly reduce antibiotic overuse in livestock," Laura Rogers, who directs the Pew Charitable Trusts' good-natured health and industrial farming campaign, said in a statement.

Opioid Analgesics Are More Dangerous For Health Than The Non-Opioid Analgesics

Opioid Analgesics Are More Dangerous For Health Than The Non-Opioid Analgesics.
Two recent studies suggest that Medicare patients who select opioid painkillers such as codeine, Vicodin or Oxycontin impertinence higher health risks, including death, humanity problems or fractures, compared to those taking non-opioid analgesics. However, it's not clear if the painkillers are as soon as responsible for the differences in risk and other factors could play a role. And one pain specialist who's close with the findings said they don't reflect the experiences of doctors who've prescribed the drugs.

In one study, researchers examined a database of Medicare recipients in two states who were prescribed one of five kinds of opiod painkillers from 1996-2005. They looked at almost 6,300 patients who took one of these five painkillers: codeine phosphate, hydrocodone bitartrate (best known in its Vicodin form), oxycodone hydrochloride (Oxycontin), propoxyphene hydrochloride (Darvon), and tramadol hydrochloride (Ultram). Those who took codeine were 1,6 times more right to have suffered from cardiovascular problems after 180 days, while patients on hydrocodone seemed to be at higher jeopardize of fractures than those who took tramadol and propoxyphene.

After 30 days, those who took oxycodone were 2,4 times more suitable to on than those taking hydrocodone, and codeine users were twice as seemly to die, although the tally of deaths was small. The reflect on authors care that their findings are surprising in some ways and have need of to be confirmed by further research. Commenting on the study, Dr Russell K Portenoy, chairman of the sphere of pain medicine and palliative care at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York City, said that the findings are of minimal value because many other factors could detail the differences between the drugs, such as how fast physicians ramped up the doses of patients.

Preliminary Testing Of New Drug Against Hepatitis C Shows Good Promise

Preliminary Testing Of New Drug Against Hepatitis C Shows Good Promise.
Researchers are reporting that a slip is showing hint at in early testing as a on new treatment for hepatitis C, a stubborn and potentially deadly liver ailment. It's too ahead to tell if the drug actually works, and it will be years before it's ready to seek federal blessing to be prescribed to patients. Still, the drug - or others like it in development - could tote to the power of new drugs in the pipeline that are poised to cure many more people with hepatitis C, said Dr Eugene R Schiff, big cheese of the University of Miami's Center for Liver Diseases.

The greater conceivability of a cure and fewer side effects, in turn, will lead more individuals who think they have hepatitis C to "come out of the woodwork," said Schiff, who's familiar with the bone up findings. "They'll want to know if they're positive". An estimated 4 million population in the United States have hepatitis C, but only about 1 million are thought to have been diagnosed.

The disease, transmitted through infected blood, can pass to liver cancer, scarring of the liver, known as cirrhosis, and death. Existing treatments can preserve about half of the cases. As Schiff explained, people's genetic makeup has a lot to do with whether they answer to the treatment. Those with Asian heritage do better, whereas those with an African family do worse.

And there's another potential problem with existing treatments. The side effects, expressly of the treatment component known as interferon, can be "pretty hard to deal with," said Nicholas A Meanwell, a co-author of the writing-room and a researcher with the Bristol-Myers Squibb pharmaceutical company.

Some Pills For Heartburn Increased The Risk Of Pneumonia

Some Pills For Heartburn Increased The Risk Of Pneumonia.
Popular heartburn drugs, including proton examine inhibitors and histamine-2 receptor antagonists, may broach the jeopardy of pneumonia, new research finds. Researchers in Korea analyzed the results of 31 studies on heartburn drugs published between 1985 and 2009. "Our results suggest that the use of acid suppressive drugs is associated with an increased peril of pneumonia," said Dr Sang Min Park of the concern of folks medicine at Seoul National University Hospital in Korea. "Patients should be wary at overuse of acid-suppressive drugs, both high-dose and long duration".

Sales of these enormously popular drugs - the substitute best-selling category of medications worldwide - reached nearly $27 billion in the United States in 2005, according to distance information in the study, published Dec 20, 2010 in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal). Proton give inhibitors (PPIs) decrease acid production in the stomach and are used to treat heartburn, gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) and gastric ulcers. They allow for omeprazole (Prilosec), lansoprazole (Prevacid) and esomeprazole (Nexium).

Histamine-2 receptor antagonists, often called H2 blockers, use a divergent mechanism to reduce stomach acid and comprehend cimetidine (Tagamet), famotidine (Pepcid), nizatidine (Axid) and ranitidine (Zantac). According to Consumer Reports, sales of a Nexium unique hit $4,8 billion in 2008. Yet recently, studies have raised concerns about the drugs. Several studies have linked PPIs to a higher jeopardize of fractures and an infection with a bacterium called Clostridium difficile.

Some anterior studies also linked heartburn drugs to a higher imperil of pneumonia, but the research has been mixed, according to the study authors. Their meta-analysis combined the results of eight observational studies that found that taking PPIs increased the chances of developing pneumonia by 27 percent, while taking H2 blockers resulted in a 22 percent increased unexpected of pneumonia.

An division of 23 randomized clinical trials found commoners taking H2 blockers had a 22 percent increased unintentional of getting hospital-acquired pneumonia. "Gastroenterologists in general have become more cognizant of the fact that these drugs can have some interest effects," said Dr Michael Brown, a gastroenterologist at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. "For a fancy time, we were very happy to suppress people's acid without thinking about the consequences. Now we are starting to espy some issues".

Experimental Diet Pill Contrave Brought A Small Weight Loss

Experimental Diet Pill Contrave Brought A Small Weight Loss.
Contrave, an theoretical bias loss drug that combines an antidepressant with an anti-addiction medication, appears to inform users shed pounds when taken along with a healthy diet and exercise, researchers report. People who took the stupefy for more than a year lost an average of 5 percent or more of body weight, depending on the quantity used, the team said. However, the regimen did come with side effects, and about half of scrutinize participants dropped out before completing a year of treatment.

Contrave is combination of two well-known drugs, naltrexone (Revia, in use to fight addictions) and the antidepressant bupropion (known by a number of names, including Wellbutrin). The drug, which is up for US Food and Drug Administration evaluate this December, appears to promote weight loss by changing the workings of the body's central nervous system, the researchers report.

The researchers, who divulge their findings online July 29, 2010 in The Lancet, enrolled men (15 percent) and women (85 percent) from around the country, ranging in length of existence from 18 to 65. They were all either heavy or overweight with high blood fat levels or merry blood pressure. The participants were told to eat less and exercise, and they were randomly assigned to wolf a twice-daily placebo or a combination of the two drugs with naltrexone at one of two levels.

Sulfonylurea Drugs Increase The Risk Of Heart Disease

Sulfonylurea Drugs Increase The Risk Of Heart Disease.
New experiment with shows that older ladies and gentlemen with type 2 diabetes who take drugs known as sulfonylureas to humble their blood sugar levels may face a higher risk for heart problems than their counterparts who induce metformin. Of the more than 8500 people aged 65 or older with breed 2 diabetes who were enrolled in the trial, 12,4 percent of those given a sulfonylurea drug experienced a middle attack or other cardiovascular event, compared with 10,4 percent of those who were started on metformin. In addition, these heartlessness problems occurred earlier in the course of treatment among those people taking the sulfonylurea drugs, the lessons showed.

The head-to-head comparison trial is slated to be presented Saturday at the American Diabetes Association annual tryst in San Diego. Because the findings are being reported at a medical meeting, they should be considered preparation until published in a peer-reviewed journal. With type 2 diabetes, the body either does not spark enough of the hormone insulin or doesn't use the insulin it does produce properly.

In either case, the insulin can't do its job, which is to throw glucose (blood sugar) to the body's cells. As a result, glucose builds up in the blood and can impose havoc on the body. Metformin and sulfonylurea drugs - the latter a stock of diabetes drugs including glyburide, glipizide, chlorpropamide, tolbutamide and tolazamide - are often among the first medications prescribed to lower blood sugar levels in people with type 2 diabetes.

The findings are important, the researchers noted, partly because sulfonylurea drugs are commonly prescribed middle the senile to lower blood glucose levels. In addition, cardiovascular sickness is the leading cause of death among people with type 2 diabetes. For several reasons, however, the strange study on these medications is far from the final word on the issue, experts said.

For one, men and women who are started on the sulfonylureas instead of metformin are often sicker to begin with, said Dr Spyros G Mezitis, an endocrinologist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. Metformin cannot be prescribed to kinfolk with firm kidney and heart problems, he said. Both medications lower blood glucose levels, but go about it in clearly different ways, he explained.