Top 10 Increases

The AARP report includes a list of the 10 brand-name prescription drugs with the highest rise in manufacturer list price.

Here is that list, along with the percentage increase in the manufacturer list price.

Ambien 5 milligrams (mg): 29.7%
Combivent 120-20 micrograms per spray (mcg/act): 18.3%
Atrovent Inhaler 18 mcg/act: 16.9%
Wellbutrin 150 mg: 16%
Clarinex 5 mg: 15.8%
Flovent 110 mcg/act: 14.6%
Ambien 10 mg: 14.5%
Flomax 0.4 mg: 13.4%
Serevent Disk 50 mcg: 13%
Serevent 21 mcg/act: 13%
Generic prescription drugs dropped 2% in their manufacturer list price in 2006, according to the AARP.

Source : www.webmd.com

Stress Makes Teen Acne Worse

The largest study ever conducted on acne and stress levels confirms what many have suspected for years: Stress can make acne worse among teenagers.

Researchers found teenagers who were under high levels of stress were 23% more likely to have increased acne severity.

Stress has long been thought to aggravate acne, but researchers say this is the first large-scale study to confirm the relationship and look at possible explanations.

“Acne significantly affects physical and psychosocial well-being, so it is important to understand the interplay between the factors that exacerbate acne,” says researcher Gil Yosipovitch, MD, professor of dermatology at Wake Forest University School of Medicine, in a news release.

Yosipovitch says the results suggest stress-related inflammation may be to blame for the breakouts.

Stress Worsens Teen Acne
In the study, published in the Swedish journal Acta Dermato-Venereologica, researchers looked at the relationship between stress levels and acne severity in 94 teenagers in Singapore with an average age of 15. Most of the teenagers had mild to moderate acne.

Researchers measured the teens’ self-reported stress levels and acne severity at a time of high stress (just before midyear exams) and at a time of low stress (two months after the end of exams).

At the same time, they also measured levels of sebum, the oily substance that coats the skin and protects the hair and plays a major role in acne. Researchers say sebum production is known to fluctuate with variations in temperature and humidity, and Singapore was chosen for the study because its temperature and humidity are consistent throughout the year.

The results showed that sebum production did not vary significantly during low or high stress periods.

But acne severity was significantly related to the teens’ stress levels.

“Our research suggests that acne severity associated with stress may result from factors others than sebum quantity,” says Yosipovitch. “It’s possible that inflammation may be involved.”

Researchers say acne is an inflammatory disease, and previous studies have shown stress can trigger inflammation in the body.

Source : www.webmd.com

Beyonce Knowles Cleared Of Hepatitis Risk From Hollywood Party Food

Beyonce Knowles is not at risk of developing Hepatitis A following a Sports Illustrated party in West Hollywood two weeks ago where guests were exposed to the highly contagious virus.

Her publicist, Alan Nierob, told the press that according to the health department, neither Ms Knowles nor he is at risk because they did not touch the food.

The party, which was held on 14th of February, celebrated the latest issue of the magazine, a swimsuit edition where Ms Knowles appears on the cover.

The edition also featured other well known artists such country star Kenny Chesney, rapper Kanye West, plus members of the bands Aerosmith and Gnarls Barkley. Many of them may have been at the party, along with other magazine models.

The food for the event was provided by Wolfgang Puck Catering who have revealed that one of their cooks is infected with Hepatitis A. The worker has also prepared food for 12 other events between 3rd and 20th February, exposing up to 3,500 people to infection.

Health officials and party organizers have been contacting guests from the 13 events, said a spokesperson for Los Angeles County Health Department yesterday. If they didn’t touch the food they should be alright, they said.

They said that the risk is low and that Wolfgang Puck prepacked food and restaurants are not affected.

Once a person is infected, they have 14 days within which they should be treated to avoid getting the disease. For many people that “window” is still open.

Meanwhile Wolfgang Puck Catering have put the infected cook on medical leave and disinfected the food preparation areas at their Hollywood kitchen.

Sports Illustrated said they have taken the warning very seriously and are also working closely with health officials to track down the guests and staff who were present on the 14th.

Hepatitis A is an acute infectious liver disease caused by a virus that is spread by fecal-oral contact. It can be caught for example by shaking hands with an infected person who has not washed their hands after going to the bathroom, or by eating food that they have been handling. It can also be caught by drinking water contaminated with feces from infected people.

The virus attacks the liver and causes jaundice, but rarely does permanent damage or leads to death. Mortality rate is less than 4 deaths in 1000 infections.

Not everyone infected experiences symptoms but if they do they occur abruptly and include feeling very tired, having a fever, vomiting, diarrhea, darker than usual urine, and pain in the right upper abdomen. The definitive diagnosis is a blood test (IgM anti-HAV).

According to the Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention (CDC), Hepatitis A occurs in isolated cases and widespread epidemics and can affect anyone.

Good personal hygiene and sanitation can help to prevent contamination and vaccines are available for long term prevention of the disease for people over 1 year of age.

Short term prevention is by immune globulin injection which has to be administered within 14 days of infection

Source : www.medicalnewstoday.com

Reduced Fertility In Women Linked To Low Fat Dairy Food

A new US study suggests that eating low fat dairy food every day can reduce a woman’s fertility by affecting ovulation.

The study is published in the journal Human Reproduction.

Researchers from Harvard School of Public Health and Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, followed 18,555 married, premenopausal women aged between 24 and 42, with no history of infertility, who were either trying to become pregnant or became pregnant over an 8 year period from 1991 to 1999.

The study was led by Dr Jorge Chavarro, a research fellow in the Department of Nutrition at Harvard School of Public Health.

The women were part of a cohort of 116,000 women in The Nurses’ Health Study II.

Their dietover the 8 years was assessed with questions about type and frequency of dairy food intake. They were also asked questions about the regularity of their menstrual cycle, whether they had been diagnosed with ovulation failure, and whether they had been trying to conceive and with what success.

438 women reported ovulatory disorders during the period of the study.

The study showed that women who ate more than two portions a day of low fat dairy foods were 85 per cent more likely to be infertile due to ovulatory disorders than those who only ate it less than once a week.

Conversely they found that women who ate full-fat dairy foods, including ice cream, more than once per day had a 25 per cent reduced risk of infertility due to ovulatory disorders compared to those who ate full-fat dairy foods only once a week.

Previous studies have suggested that dairy foods can interfere with ovulation, but few of them have been on humans and they are inconsistent. The researchers in this study wanted to assess to what extent the fat content of dairy foods in a woman’s diet might be linked to infertility due to ovulation problems.

The researchers concluded that “High intake of low-fat dairy foods may increase the risk of anovulatory infertility whereas intake of high-fat dairy foods may decrease this risk”.

The study found no links between normal intake of lactose, vitamin D, calcium and phosphorous and infertility due to ovulation disorders.

Dr Chavarro’s advice to women trying to conceive is to change their diet for a while. He said “They should consider changing low-fat dairy foods for high-fat dairy foods; for instance, by swapping skimmed milk for whole milk and eating ice cream, not low fat yoghurt.”

But it was important to do this without increasing their daily calorie intake or upsetting the balance of overall saturated fat consumption, he said.

“Once they have become pregnant, then they should probably switch back to low-fat dairy foods as it is easier to limit intake of saturated fat by consuming low-fat dairy foods,” said Dr Chavarro.

The researchers suggest that a fat-soluble substance in the full-fat dairy foods could be responsible for improved ovarian function, and that this substance is removed when full-fat dairy produce is converted to low-fat.

There could be other reasons too, to do with hormone balance. For instance, when full-fat milk is processed to give skimmed milk, whey protein is usually added back in to improve taste and colour. In tests with mice, whey protein is suspected of increasing testosterone-like effects.

Source : www.medicalnewstoday.com