(Reuters) – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration found contamination of drug ingredients manufactured at a GlaxoSmithKline Plc plant in Ireland and said the company did not take sufficient action to resolve the problems. The news comes just days after GSK said it was recalling all supplies of its over-the-counter weight-loss drug in the United States and Puerto Rico, after concerns that bottles had been tampered with. In a warning letter dated March 18, the U.S. FDA said GSK did not fully investigate a list of objectional conditions the regulator sent after its inspection of the manufacturing plant at Cork, Ireland in October. The FDA said its investigator found that a certain drug ingredient, the name of which was not disclosed, was contaminated with material from the plant’s pharmaceutical waste tank.

New research further illuminates the heart-healthy benefits of the Mediterranean diet, tying the eating plan to lower levels of platelets and white blood cells, two markers of inflammation. Inflammation has an association with greater risk of heart attack and stroke. Study results are published online in Blood, the Journal of the American Society of Hematology (ASH).

By Andrew M. Seaman NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – How parents monitor the television and video game habits of their children is tied to the kids’ performance in school, their relationships with peers and their weight, according to a new study. “It’s a fairly small effect, but what’s interesting about this study is because we tracked these children over time we see these effects build,” lead author Douglas Gentile told Reuters Health. He is a psychologist at Iowa State University in Ames. According to Gentile, the researchers can’t say children will gain one fewer pound or get in one fewer fight for every show parents approve for their kids.

A new Canadian review of research on the relationship between weight and risk of premature death finds that having a body mass index in the underweight range is linked to an even higher risk of death than having a body mass index in the obese range.Led by Dr. Joel Ray, a physician-researcher at St.

Bariatric weight loss surgery on obese patients with type 2 diabetes helped many to get their blood sugar to healthy levels and to no longer require any diabetes medicines, including insulin, three years after the procedure, according to data presented at a major medical meeting on Monday. The surgery also helped patients reduce the need for high blood pressure and cholesterol medicines and led to quality of life improvements compared with those who received medical weight-loss therapy, researchers found. The study called Stampede, which involved 150 obese patients who had poorly controlled type 2 diabetes for at least eight years, was conducted by Cleveland Clinic researchers. It compared two types of weight loss surgery against weight loss attained by diet and exercise along with nutrition counseling and, for some, additional diabetes medicines that can help promote weight loss, such as Victoza from Novo Nordisk.

By Ransdell Pierson and Bill Berkrot WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Diet drinks may increase the risk of heart attacks, stroke and other heart problems in postmenopausal women, according to an informal study that could take some fizz out of enjoyment of the popular beverages. Compared to women who never or seldom consume diet drinks, those who drank two or more a day were 30 percent more likely to suffer a cardiovascular event and 50 percent more likely to die from related disease, researchers found. The findings were gleaned from an analysis of diet drink intake and consequences among almost 60,000 participants in the Women’s Health Initiative, a long-running U.S. observational study of cardiovascular health trends among postmenopausal women. “Our findings are in line with and extend data from previous studies showing an association between diet drinks and metabolic syndrome,” said Dr. Ankur Vyas of the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, lead investigator of the study.

Title: Weight-Loss Surgery Cuts Risk for Heart Attack, Death: Study
Category: Health News
Created: 3/28/2014 9:35:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 3/28/2014 12:00:00 AM