The Food and Drug Administration has disregarded government experts sounding the alarm about routine exposure to medical radiation, including the powerful CT scans used to screen for colon cancer. This is yet another example of why fundamental FDA reform remains so important.
Category: Regenerative Health
Acetaminophen: the Killer Painkiller
Acetaminophen (e.g. Tylenol) is linked to 50 percent of all liver failure in the United States. It can also cause eye disease, asthma, hearing loss — and death. Why is the FDA silent about the dangers of this country’s most commonly used painkiller?
Just How Broken is the FDA?
The reexamination of a knee device and a campaign to extend the patent of a blood-thinning medication underscore the need for FDA reform.
Expensive, Dangerous
Evidence mounts that many of the procedures that constitute the current “standard of care” fail to promote health, are unnecessary and may put patients at greater risk. These risks increase with a standardized, one-size-fits-all form of monopoly medicine.
FDA Memo Blasts Diabetes Medicine Avandia
Sens. Charles Grassley, I-Iowa, and Max Baucus, D-Mont., have released an October 2008 memo written by FDA drug-safety reviewers Drs. David Graham and Kate Gelperin. The memo concludes that Avandia poses serious risks exceeding those of Actos, a competing drug.
Death in a White Coat
Two fourth-year Harvard Medical School students question the slow trickledown to medical schools from the 1999 Institute of Medicine report blaming medical errors for 98,000 deaths annually.
Saving Lives, Wasting Money
It’s paradoxical that our healthcare system, which excels at saving lives, can’t seem to cure itself of squandering money. A landmark comparative effectiveness study suggests ways to improve care and reduce waste — but appears to be ignored
Who’s Minding the War on Bugs?
As China exports a wave of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, the disjointed effort by three different government agencies to address food safety are not likely to accomplish much.
GAO Hounds Supplement Makers
The Government Accounting Office has contacted makers of dietary supplements, announcing its review of the marketing of certain herbal supplements (chamomile, Echinacea, peppermint oil, ginger root, fennel seed). This is being done at the request of the Senate Select Committee on Aging.
NIH’s New Radiation Policy
National Institutes of Health now requires all CT and other radiation-producing scanners used at NIH clinics to come with software able to track the dosage of radiation given to every patient and log it into an electronic medical record.