UPI Health Business articles from April 2006

UPI Health Business archives from April 2006

Analysis: New foam treats pelvic pain.
April 3, 2006... Byline: ED SUSMAN TORONTO, March 31 (UPI) -- Thousands of women in the United States can easily be easily treated for a painful, debilitating condition called pelvic congestion syndrome -- if they were properly diagnosed and sent to a...

Analysis: Anti-stroke device improves memory.
April 3, 2006... Byline: ED SUSMAN TORONTO, April 3 (UPI) -- Researchers said they were surprised to find that when they implanted tiny coils in blood vessels in the necks of patients to prevent strokes, the patients also improved their memory and other...

Rolling out healthier teens?
April 3, 2006... Byline: CHRISTINE DELL'AMORE WASHINGTON, April 3 (UPI) -- Despite their rapscallion reputation, skateboarders may actually have a leg up on their non-skating brethren: A new study has found skaters have higher self-esteem and engage in less...

Eat To Live: The Fair Trade food fight.
April 3, 2006... Byline: JULIA WATSON RYE, England, April 3 (UPI) -- Shopping at a supermarket on England's south coast, a chatty customer and I almost came to blows beside the broccoli. She was in favor of buying vegetables flown in from far-off lands to...

Analysis: Stimulant use levels off.
April 3, 2006... Byline: OLGA PIERCE WASHINGTON, April 3 (UPI) -- The number of prescriptions for stimulants like Ritalin for hyperactive children had already leveled off before recent safety concerns surfaced, according to a study published over the...

New hopes for early cancer detection.
April 3, 2006... Byline: CHRISTINE DELL'AMORE WASHINGTON, April 3 (UPI) -- Several new methods that interpret gene expressions and molecular pathways may be breaking down the code of cancer, helping scientists to detect -- and perhaps cure -- the disease...

Analysis: Radioactive beads fight cancer.
April 3, 2006... Byline: ED SUSMAN TORONTO, April 3 (UPI) -- Doctors say they can kill off cancers in the liver by sending millions of microscopic radioactive glass beads into the tumor in a procedure that can be offered on an out-patient basis. The...

FluWrap: Plague pits and mass burials?
April 4, 2006... Byline: KATE WALKER OXFORD, England, April 4 (UPI) -- Britain's contingency plans for an avian-influenza pandemic include the possible use of mass graves. A Home Office report entitled "Managing Excess Deaths in an Influenza Pandemic"...

The Age of Autism: Mercury ban opposed.
April 4, 2006... Byline: DAN OLMSTED Representatives of 22 medical organizations have written to all members of Congress opposing efforts to ban the mercury-based preservative thimerosal from vaccines. "Our organizations respectfully wish to state our...

Analysis: U.S. health access lags behind.
April 4, 2006... Byline: TODD ZWILLICH WASHINGTON, April 4 (UPI) -- U.S. patients rate their healthcare among the worst in the industrialized world, despite costs that surpass nearly all those in every other comparable country, a multi-national survey...

Vitamin D, flavonoids soften cancer's bite.
April 4, 2006... Byline: CHRISTINE DELL'AMORE WASHINGTON, April 4 (UPI) -- Although cod liver oil may not fit into the cheese-and-crackers palate of most girls, new research suggests the supplement, a major source of vitamin D, could help stave off breast...

Analysis: Amgen's p-mab sparks skepticism.
April 4, 2006... Byline: STEVE MITCHELL WASHINGTON, April 4 (UPI) -- Amgen said this week its colorectal cancer drug, panitumumab, substantially slowed the rate at which tumors progressed in a phase 3 trial, but some analysts think ImClone's Erbitux will...

Analysis: Environment key to kids' health.
April 4, 2006... WASHINGTON, April 4 (UPI) -- Preventable health problems like obesity continue to rise in American children, while disparities in safety and access to care are widening, public health advocates said Tuesday. Yet in the face of this...

Eat To Live: Father of food writers.
April 5, 2006... Byline: JULIA WATSON RYE, England, April 5 (UPI) -- Please raise a glass to Michael Bateman, who died this week at 74 following a traffic accident. You may never have heard of him, but if you care at all about food, he will have had an...

Ped Med: The ADHD treatment tradeoff.
April 5, 2006... Byline: LIDIA WASOWICZ SAN FRANCISCO, April 5 (UPI) -- In the end, treating attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder comes down to a tradeoff. For hyperactive children with severe disability, a pharmaceutically induced, fast-action...

Analysis: Hospitals fail stroke patients.
April 5, 2006... Byline: ED SUSMAN SAN DIEGO, April 5 (UPI) -- For the last decade -- since the approval of a clot-busting drug to treat strokes caused by clots in blood vessels leading to the brain -- doctors have been urging people with stroke symptoms...

Analysis: Cervarix's long-term advantage.
April 5, 2006... Byline: STEVE MITCHELL WASHINGTON, April 5 (UPI) -- A study released Wednesday indicates GlaxoSmithKline's cervical-cancer vaccine Cervarix protects women for up to 4.5 years, a finding that could give it an important advantage over...

Analysis: Do high premiums affect care?
April 6, 2006... Byline: LAURA GILCREST WASHINGTON, April 5 (UPI) -- The debate over whether exploding medical malpractice premiums are driving doctors out of certain high-risk specialties was the topic of discussion at the Washington, D.C.-based American...

Cervical cancer vaccine holds up.
April 6, 2006... Byline: CHRISTINE DELL'AMORE WASHINGTON, April 5 (UPI) -- A vaccine protecting against two types of viruses that cause cervical cancer has demonstrated unusual staying power, new research shows. In a follow-up study to a randomized...

Analysis: Mass. plan requires all players.
April 6, 2006... Byline: OLGA PIERCE WASHINGTON, April 6 (UPI) -- A landmark Massachusetts law, the first of its kind, is designed to cover 95 percent of the state's 550,000 uninsured individuals within three years by legally requiring that every person...

Caregiving: Home access -- Part 1.
April 6, 2006... Byline: ALEX CUKAN ALBANY, N.Y., April 6 (UPI) -- Each year about 1,800 people die in the United States as a result of a fall, making that the leading cause of injury-related death among the elderly, according to the Centers for Disease...

Analysis: Sangamo drug eyed by analysts.
April 6, 2006... Byline: STEVE MITCHELL WASHINGTON, April 6 (UPI) -- Sangamo BioSciences could get a boost from phase 1 trial results released Thursday that indicate its diabetic neuropathy candidate SB-509 is safe and improves symptoms of this devastating...

Analysis: Health fund fight stalls budget.
April 6, 2006... Byline: TODD ZWILLICH WASHINGTON, April 6 (UPI) -- A lingering dispute over health funding and other issues is threatening to derail a Republican-backed budget agreement in the House. A handful of GOP moderates have warned that they...

Secondhand smoke may spark diabetes.
April 6, 2006... Byline: CHRISTINE DELL'AMORE WASHINGTON, April 6 (UPI) -- In another smoking gun aiming at tobacco, researchers have reported for the first time that secondhand smoke may lead to glucose intolerance, a precursor of diabetes. In a...

Analysis: Congress mulls health IT boosts.
April 6, 2006... Byline: OLGA PIERCE WASHINGTON, April 6 (UPI) -- Electronic health records have clear promise for helping doctors streamline their operations, improve quality and cut costs but the high price tag on equipment and training puts them out of...

Ferring starts phase 3 trial of degarelix.
April 7, 2006... PARIS, April 7 (UPI) -- Ferring said Friday it was initiating a phase 3 trial of degarelix, a potential prostate-cancer treatment. The announcement came after the presentation of positive phase 2b results at the European Association of...

Ped Med: ADHD drugs subject to misuse.
April 7, 2006... Byline: LIDIA WASOWICZ SAN FRANCISCO, April 7 (UPI) -- There's little doubt some of the medicines used to treat attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder are addictive. The question under debate is who is susceptible to the threat. In...

Analysis: Parkinson's drugs and gambling.
April 7, 2006... Byline: ED SUSMAN SAN DIEGO, April 7 (UPI) -- Researchers are trying to figure out why -- in a small percentage of Parkinson's disease patients -- people who receive combination therapy to control the tremors associated with the disorder...

Analysis: Sides react to FDA study rule.
April 7, 2006... Byline: STEVE MITCHELL WASHINGTON, April 7 (UPI) -- The pharmaceutical industry applauds the Food and Drug Administration's decision to evaluate its process for phase 4 commitments, but analysts and consumer advocates don't think any...

Caregiving: Home access -- Part 2.
April 7, 2006... Byline: ALEX CUKAN ALBANY, N.Y., April 7 (UPI) -- Although children under age 3 and the elderly suffer the most falls, anybody can fall anywhere at any time causing injury -- sometimes life-changing injuries. Even an astronaut. ...

Analysis: Mass. adopts pay for performance.
April 7, 2006... Byline: OLGA PIERCE WASHINGTON, April 7 (UPI) -- Tucked into the Massachusetts health reform package is a pay-for-performance program of unprecedented breadth and scope, but for the program to be successful, the single paragraph in the law...

FluWrap: Bekasi deaths cause cluster fear.
April 10, 2006... Byline: KATE WALKER OXFORD, England, April 10 (UPI) -- U.S. infants who received a combination vaccine had significantly higher rates of receiving all of their vaccinations on time, finds a U.S. study. An observational study of data...

Eat To Live: Historical food at Oxford.
April 10, 2006... Byline: JULIA WATSON OXFORD, England, April 10 (UPI) -- On a normal day at Christ Church College, Oxford, Chef Roland Depit feeds between 700 and 1,000 meals to the legendary university's students daily. His budget for a three-course meal...

Analysis: Early MS treatment slows disease.
April 10, 2006... Byline: ED SUSMAN SAN DIEGO, April 10 (UPI) -- In many chronic disease states, doctors are torn over whether they should treat patients early in the course of the disease or later. That is, is it better to be conservative and spare...

Long-term study supports virus-MS link.
April 10, 2006... Byline: CHRISTINE DELL'AMORE WASHINGTON, April 10 (UPI) -- Infection from a common virus may signal later development of multiple sclerosis, according to the longest study so far to bolster a connection. In a prospective study with...

Analysis: Experts slam 'disease mongering'.
April 10, 2006... Byline: STEVE MITCHELL WASHINGTON, April 10 (UPI) -- Experts from around the world Monday called on the global health community to challenge what they see as a trend of pharmaceutical companies blurring the boundaries of legitimate illness...

Caregiving: Home access -- Part 3.
April 11, 2006... Byline: ALEX CUKAN ALBANY, N.Y., April 10 (UPI) -- Anybody at any age can fall, but half of the falls in the United States are caused not by an extrinsic factors such as a loose rug, but intrinsic causes such as anxiety, fainting,...

Eat To Live: Don't super-size me.
April 11, 2006... Byline: JULIA WATSON OXFORD, England, April 11 (UPI) -- Your child may have slunk home with a sorry spring break school report. But it can't have been half so bad as the one the food industry has just received. A research team at...

Analysis: Prescription for high drug costs.
April 11, 2006... Byline: OLGA PIERCE WASHINGTON, April 11 (UPI) -- A new report shows dramatic increases in the prices of brand-name drugs, but experts disagree about the data itself and the policy prescriptions needed to address the problem. Prices...

Analysis: Aussies push for stem cell field.
April 11, 2006... Byline: STEVE MITCHELL WASHINGTON, April 11 (UPI) -- Australia is hoping a collaboration involving a U.S. university could make it the global leader in stem cell research, but experts doubt that will happen any time soon. "For now, I...

Analysis: New HRT data 'reassuring'.
April 11, 2006... Byline: ASTARA MARCH WASHINGTON, April 11 (UPI) -- A new analysis of data from the Women's Health Initiative (WHI) -- which first cast an ominous light on the health risks of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) -- reveals that postmenopausal...

Study: Estrogen not a breast cancer threat.
April 11, 2006... Byline: CHRISTINE DELL'AMORE WASHINGTON, April 11 (UPI) -- Estrogen does not increase risk of breast cancer in post-menopausal women with hysterectomies, according to a new study that may simmer down a heated debate on estrogen. The...

The Age of Autism: Christian's mom speaks.
April 12, 2006... Byline: DAN OLMSTED A small earthquake rumbled through the autism world shortly after 7:30 a.m. on April 11, and the aftershocks are going to be felt for a long time. That's when Katie Wright, daughter of NBC Universal Chairman Bob...

Analysis: Is local health aid working?
April 12, 2006... Byline: OLGA PIERCE WASHINGTON, April 12 (UPI) -- Community-based initiatives to get healthcare to the uninsured have proliferated in the last decade -- spurred on by tight state budgets and a lack of federal action -- but politics and...

Analysis: TGN1412 clouds superantibodies' future.
April 12, 2006... Byline: STEVE MITCHELL WASHINGTON, April 12 (UPI) -- A new hypothesis offers an explanation for the devastating clinical trial results of TeGenero's experimental drug TGN1412 and raises safety questions about the superantibody field. ...

Minorities face mental-health challenges.
April 12, 2006... Byline: CHRISTINE DELL'AMORE WASHINGTON, April 12 (UPI) -- Minorities face formidable inequalities in mental healthcare, including lack of access to services and poor quality of care, experts said Wednesday. African-Americans tend to...

Ped Med: Wading through ADHD drug options.
April 12, 2006... Byline: LIDIA WASOWICZ SAN FRANCISCO, April 12 (UPI) -- Parents, patients and physicians who decide to launch a pharmaceutical course of treatment for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder must wade through a large pool of offerings --...

Analysis: May 15 Part D deadline draws near.
April 13, 2006... Byline: OLGA PIERCE WASHINGTON, April 13 (UPI) -- As the May 15 Medicare Part D deadline looms, industry and consumer groups are making a final push to enroll as many seniors as possible among the more than 10 million who are eligible but...

Caregiving: Home access -- Part 4.
April 13, 2006... Byline: ALEX CUKAN ALBANY, N.Y., April 13 (UPI) -- This column has dealt with the stigma of cancer, dementia and being disabled, but apparently there is even a stigma for bathroom grab bars. It doesn't show up in studies that say that...

Analysis: Experts split on Genentech boon.
April 13, 2006... Byline: STEVE MITCHELL WASHINGTON, April 13 (UPI) -- Analysts had mixed reactions to Genentech's announcement of a nearly 50-percent jump in its first-quarter profits that was attributed predominantly to robust sales of its cancer drugs,...

Interview: American Indians' new intruder.
April 13, 2006... Byline: CHRISTINE DELL'AMORE WASHINGTON, April 13 (UPI) -- Hundreds of years after the settlers came to North America, a new foreigner has arrived in American Indian communities -- HIV/AIDS. The disease has hit tribal communities hard,...

Analysis: 'Fair Share' debate not over.
April 14, 2006... Byline: OLGA PIERCE WASHINGTON, April 13 (UPI) -- After Maryland passed a landmark healthcare bill requiring large employers to adequately insure their employees or pay a penalty, dozens of other states moved to consider similar measures....

HealthWrap: China's new fast-food nation.
April 14, 2006... Byline: CHRISTINE DELL'AMORE WASHINGTON, April 14 (UPI) -- The wide adoption of Westernized food and lifestyles may be supersizing cardiovascular disease risk factors in China's older population, a new study shows. Researchers in the...

Ped Med: ADHD drug options expand.
April 14, 2006... Byline: LIDIA WASOWICZ SAN FRANCISCO, April 14 (UPI) -- In the past five years, the marketplace of medicines for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder has welcomed a host of revamped formulations, preparations and variations on old...

Analysis: No big changes for nanotech regs.
April 14, 2006... Byline: STEVE MITCHELL WASHINGTON, April 14 (UPI) -- The Food and Drug Administration plans to take a closer look at nanotech later this year, but experts said they don't expect the agency to make any significant regulatory changes that...

Eat To Live: Heston, the food scientist.
April 14, 2006... Byline: JULIA WATSON BRAY, England, April 14 (UPI) -- Heston Blumenthal, 3 Michelin-star chef of The Fat Duck in Bray, England, has just lost his first-place spot as the best restaurant in Europe to Ferran Adria of El Bulli in Spain. ...

Analysis: Protein expands obesity arsenal.
April 17, 2006... Byline: MEREDITH MACKENZIE WASHINGTON, April 13 (UPI) -- A protein that stimulates metabolism, while at the same time suppressing appetite, might someday give doctors a new weapon for their anti-obesity arsenals, according to new research...

Analysis: Vaccines need shot in arm.
April 17, 2006... Byline: OLGA PIERCE WASHINGTON, April 17 (UPI) -- Public health experts are raising alarm about a growing vaccine crisis where market forces are insufficient to ensure that needed vaccines are developed and manufactured in sufficient...

Tanning's burning questions.
April 17, 2006... Byline: CHRISTINE DELL'AMORE WASHINGTON, April 17 (UPI) -- The tanning debate is sizzling again with a new study showing high-schoolers are advertising targets of the tanning industry. The study comes amid recent proposed legislation...

Analysis: Fed-run care 'huge mistake,' CEO.
April 17, 2006... Byline: LAURA GILCREST WASHINGTON, April 17 (UPI) -- National health insurance for catastrophic care, but not a government-run healthcare system was one of the key healthcare reforms urged by GlaxoSmithKline CE0 J.P Garnier Monday at the...

Analysis: Lilly's Evista beats tamoxifen.
April 17, 2006... Byline: STEVE MITCHELL WASHINGTON, April 17 (UPI) -- Eli Lilly, which is still recovering from last week's disappointing results for Evista from the RUTH trial, welcomed positive results from the STAR trial released Monday that suggest the...

The Age of Autism: Pox -- Part 1.
April 17, 2006... Byline: DAN OLMSTED Children in families with problematic reactions to chickenpox virus may be at risk for developing autism if they get that live-virus immunization too close to other live-virus vaccines, a three-month United Press...

Analysis: Former HHS chiefs talk health.
April 17, 2006... Byline: OLGA PIERCE WASHINGTON, April 17 (UPI) -- With no movement on healthcare reform in Congress, state-level experiments like the one just signed into law in Massachusetts are key to heading off an impending healthcare crisis, two...

Eat To Live: When butter is better.
April 17, 2006... Byline: JULIA WATSON WASHINGTON, April 17 (UPI) -- For Brits, the brief Easter break is the last-minute panic moment to book their summer holidays 'sewer lee continong." This is how even those fluent in the language like to pronounce the...

CostRx: Health cares for Medicare patient?
April 18, 2006... WASHINGTON, April 18 (UPI) -- In the April edition of CostRx, regulatory consultant and former Food and Drug Administration physician Jean Fourcroy comments on the ethics of the increasing trend of physicians turning away Medicare patients. ...

Analysis: Flat growth seen for flu drugs.
April 18, 2006... Byline: STEVE MITCHELL WASHINGTON, April 18 (UPI) -- Fear of an influenza pandemic has increased sales of anti-virals in recent months, but typical annual use of the drugs -- which consists predominantly of Roche's Tamiflu and...

FluWrap: China reports new human case.
April 18, 2006... Byline: KATE WALKER OXFORD, England, April 18 (UPI) -- China's Health Ministry Tuesday reported that a 21-year-old man from central Hubei province had been infected with avian influenza. While the man's status has not yet been...

Ped Med: ADHD drug paradoxes.
April 18, 2006... Byline: LIDIA WASOWICZ SAN FRANCISCO, April 18 (UPI) -- Even after decades of discussion and debate, scientists have yet to unravel many of the paradoxical puzzles presented by pharmaceuticals used to treat attention-deficit/hyperactivity...

Global partnerships fight avian flu.
April 18, 2006... Byline: KATHERINE GYPSON WASHINGTON, April 12 (UPI) -- Partnerships between public institutions and private companies are becoming the most effective means of combating an avian flu pandemic and its potential effects on the human...

Analysis: Health IT czar touts Bush plan.
April 18, 2006... Byline: OLGA PIERCE WASHINGTON, April 18 (UPI) -- The Bush administration is pursuing a "guided market" approach to encouraging doctors and hospitals to adopt healthcare information technology, health IT czar David Brailer said Tuesday....

Analysis: Hospitals can't sustain flu plan.
April 19, 2006... Byline: TODD ZWILLICH WASHINGTON, April 18 (UPI) -- Hospital leaders warned Tuesday that they lack the resources to properly prepare for a potential flu pandemic or other disaster while maintaining day-to-day operations. Bush...

Caregiving: Home access -- Part 5.
April 19, 2006... Byline: ALEX CUKAN ALBANY, N.Y., April 19 (UPI) -- If putting a grab bar in the bathroom sounds like the first step toward acknowledging frailty and old age -- in other words, something you'd rather not think about -- then just make them...

Eat To Live: Alzheimer's and good diet.
April 19, 2006... Byline: JULIA WATSON WASHINGTON, April 19 (UPI) -- The infernal noise pollution from the weed whackers and lawn mowers of landscape companies -- the American way of gardening -- says it's spring again. Time to roll out the barbecue for a...

Analysis: Part D deadline debate heats up.
April 19, 2006... Byline: TODD ZWILLICH WASHINGTON, April 19 (UPI) -- Senate Democrats on Wednesday claimed growing support for extending the Medicare's enrollment deadline for the Part D prescription-drug plan. Sign-up for the program ends May 15,...

Analysis: Experts split on Gilead growth.
April 19, 2006... Byline: STEVE MITCHELL WASHINGTON, April 19 (UPI) -- Gilead beat Wall Street's expectations in first-quarter results released Tuesday, but analysts are split on whether the company can sustain the growth of Truvada and the...

HealthWrap: Let's spit on it?
April 19, 2006... Byline: CHRISTINE DELL'AMORE WASHINGTON, April 19 (UPI) -- Saliva may eventually answer why your kid could be happy, sad or spitting mad, according to a new study. By analyzing kid drool, researchers have gained insights into social...

Cancer drug stops vomiting in children.
April 19, 2006... Byline: ED SUSMAN BOSTON, April 19 (UPI) -- Doctors said Wednesday that the anti-nausea drug that changed the face of cancer treatments can safely be given to children who are taken to the emergency room for uncontrolled vomiting. "We...

Analysis: Snow forecasts healthcare change.
April 20, 2006... Byline: OLGA PIERCE WASHINGTON, April 20 (UPI) -- At a time when mounting healthcare costs threaten to devour an ever-increasing piece of the U.S. gross domestic product, Treasury Secretary John Snow said Wednesday, the nation is at a...

Analysis: Mixed reaction on Amgen spike.
April 20, 2006... Byline: STEVE MITCHELL WASHINGTON, April 20 (UPI) -- Amgen, the world's largest biotechnology company, announced a 17 percent rise in its first-quarter profits, but analysts were split on whether the company's future looks bright or bleak....

The Age of Autism: Pox -- Part 2.
April 20, 2006... Byline: DAN OLMSTED Call it the silence of the feds. This week, The Age of Autism began a series of articles entitled "Pox," laying out the compelling observations of a group of parents in Olympia, Wash., who are concerned live-virus...

Obesity main culprit in diabetes boom.
April 20, 2006... Byline: CHRISTINE DELL'AMORE WASHINGTON, April 20 (UPI) -- The incidence of self-reported diabetes has ballooned immensely in the past six years, and obesity is a key offender, experts from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention...

Analysis: Board room takes on cancer.
April 21, 2006... Byline: OLGA PIERCE WASHINGTON, April 21 (UPI) -- The chief executive officers of some of the nation's largest drug companies have found a way to protect their employees from the human costs of cancer and reduce their company's healthcare...

Ped Med: ADHD drug remedies hit and miss.
April 21, 2006... Byline: LIDIA WASOWICZ SAN FRANCISCO, April 21 (UPI) -- Treating attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder with medication can take some fiddling. Among the difficulties is the high rate -- as many as one in three -- of children who...

Eat To Live: Milk -- organic or not?
April 21, 2006... Byline: JULIA WATSON WASHINGTON, April 21 (UPI) -- Excuse me while I pour myself another coffee and camel milk -- writing is thirsty work. Before you splutter over your own coffee, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United...