I love PRP. So far. Platelet rich plasma is a red liquid I have injected, to date, into five patient’s heels and four patient’s elbows. These people were probably going to need surgery. The foot patients had insertional Achilles …
Policy & Industry
Primary Care Without Insurance: Do Flat-Fee Medical Plans Work?
Monica Vigna-Bony was at the drugstore picking up a prescription for Advair, an asthma inhaler, when she finally lost her cool over the astronomical price of being uninsured. “I thought, ‘This is crazy. I can’t believe it is $240 …
FDA Announces Stricter Rules for Sunscreen Labeling
Labeling on sunscreen bottles is about to get a whole lot less confusing. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced on Tuesday stricter new rules for sunscreen manufacturers’ claims of sun protection, including new …
FDA Restricts Use of High Doses of Cholesterol-Lowering Drug Zocor
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Wednesday restricted the use of high doses of the cholesterol-lowering drug simvastatin, which is sold in generic forms and under the brand names Zocor and Vytorin, because of concerns …
Health Equality: Portland Embraces Transgender Rights
The Portland, Ore., city council voted on Wednesday to cover the cost of sex-reassignment surgery for municipal workers in its health-care plan. Portland is only the second major city, after San Francisco, to offer surgical …
Bratz Makeup Kit Recalled for Staph Contamination
Toy-maker MGA Entertainment of Van Nuys, Calif., is recalling 6,200 Bratz Makeup Design Sketch Book kits, which contain brightly colored lip glosses and eye shadows for coloring pictures of Bratz dolls, because the kits may be …
This Isn’t Your Mother’s Bayer Aspirin
The name Bayer has become highly recognizable, if you’re in the market for aspirin — and you’re about 60. That’s because the company has been so successful at marketing the drug for the prevention of heart attack and stroke in …
Advice From Doctors: Top 5 Ways to Lower Costs and Improve Care
If anyone knows where health-care dollars are being wasted, it’s primary-care physicians. So, the National Physicians Alliance recently assembled working groups of doctors within three fields of primary care — family medicine, …
Study Ranks 10 Football Helmets for Concussion Safety
No magic football helmet can prevent players from sustaining concussions. But thanks to new research out of Virginia Tech, football players, and their parents, now know which equipment could reduce the risks.
Abbottabad, a Hotspot for Medical Care
The scenic valley town of Abbottabad will forever be tied inexorably to Osama bin Laden, at least in Westerners’ minds. But the ordinarily calm, quiet town has long had another claim to fame: it is a major center of medical …
You Know Your Blood Type. What About Your Gut Bug Type?
Consider this: of the trillions upon trillions of cells in the human body, only about 1 in 10 is actually human. The rest belong to microbes, which colonize every inch of you, from the inside of your mouth to the skin between …
Hand Sanitizers That Prevent MRSA? Not So Fast
(Updated) On Wednesday, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said it had sent warning letters to four makers of hand sanitizing products that claim to prevent infection from methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA.
America’s 10 Most Popular Prescription Drugs
The contents of America’s medicine cabinets — as captured by IMS Health‘s new report on U.S. prescription drug use — offer an interesting snapshot of our national health. A look at the top 10 most popularly prescribed drugs, …