XLPharmacy February 2008 News Archives

Today's Health Watch

Blocking Vaginal Transmission of HIV

Prescription drugs now used to treat human immunodeficiency virus infection in adults may prevent the vaginal transmission of HIV.

In this latest study, the mice were given the anti-retroviral drugs once a day for seven consecutive days starting 48 hours before being challenged intra-vaginally with HIV. None of the mice that had been given the anti-retroviral drugs contracted HIV; however, seven of the eight mice that didn't receive the anti-retroviral drugs tested positive for the infection as early as two weeks post-infection.

If this pattern proves to be true in subsequent trials, women someday might have to take one pill a day in order to potentially prevent vaginal transmission of HIV.

Read More at Science Daily

Flu, Virus’s and Allergies

Flu

An anti-virus drug attacks influenza A by changing the motion and structure of a proton channel necessary for the virus to infect healthy cells, according to a recently published research paper by two Iowa State University chemists.

Researchers are studying the effects of the antiviral drug amantadine on influenza A. That's the type of flu bug that most commonly makes people sick and the one that has caused the most serious flu epidemics. The findings are particularly important because mutations of the type A virus are resistant to amantadine treatment.

It is now imperative that the next step to understanding why amantadine is unable to be affective at attacking mutant versions of the virus are able to resist the flu-stopping changes caused by amantadine.

Allergies and Irritable Bowel Syndrome

Adults with allergy symptoms report a high incidence of Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), suggesting a link between atopic disorders and IBS according to a new study. Irritable Bowel Syndrome, affecting 15 percent of the general population, is a cluster of symptoms including abdominal pain for 12 weeks within the past year, change in stool consistency or frequency, and relief of abdominal pain with defecation. Various findings suggest indirectly that allergen exposure may lead to IBS symptoms in some patients, but the frequency has not been studied.

Regulatory T cells are believed to be vital for averting allergic reactions in healthy individuals because they keep the other cells in check, suppressing pro-allergic cells known as Th2 cells and stopping the immune system from needlessly attacking the body.

In people with allergies, some types of cells in the immune system, particularly the Th2 cells, wrongly identify a particular allergen, such as pollen, as being dangerous. Whenever the person encounters this allergen again, these cells promote the production of antibodies to attack it, causing an allergic reaction.

This finding will help us understand how healthy individuals are able to tolerate allergens and what we need to do to re-induce tolerance in the immune systems of patients with allergies. It is the hope that we will soon be able to help not only patients suffering from single allergies, but also those with multiple ones - the atopic patients.

The new findings will eventually lead to new, more effective treatments for hayfever and other allergies, to be used in combination with existing immunotherapies. They hope such treatments could help prevent hay fever and allergic asthma from reaching epidemic proportions.

Top 50 Best Hospitals List

To be listed among America's 50 Best Hospitals, facilities must have demonstrated clinical outcomes among the top five percent in the nation, not just in one medical specialty, but aggregated across 27 different procedures and diagnoses, and must have maintained this superior level of care during all years studied. These hospitals were found to have an average 27 percent lower mortality rate, on average, than all other U.S. hospitals.
For the second consecutive year, the HealthGrades America's 50 Best Hospitals list contains nationally known facilities, such as Cedars Sinai in Los Angeles, Mayo Clinic in Minnesota and the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland. But the list also identifies many hospitals that do not have national brand names, but that continue to demonstrate patient outcomes that are superior to their peers across the country.

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Healthy Living with XLPharmacy Blog Newsletter

In This Issue...

• Introduction
• Feature Article

• Featured Videos
• Latest Medicare News
• Articles of the Month
• Feedback from visitors

• Questions & Answers

• Health Links

• Health Article Archive

Introduction

Welcome to the newly redesigned XLPharmacy Health Blog. In each current months issue XLPharmacy Health Blog provides a wealth of up-to-date medical news we hope you find helpful and informational. At XLPharmacy we care about you and your family and we believe that everyone should have fast and reliable access to affordable high quality medications in order to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Staying in touch with the latest in health news is only part of what we do. Be sure to sign up for XLPharmacy's RSS or OPML health news feeds with your news reader below so you don't miss a single issue or health news story in today's ever-changing world of health care. XLPharmacy Health Blog will discuss everything from Medicare to Social Security, Cancer to New Cancer tests, Erectile Dysfunction and Medications like Viagra with Sexual Health, Smoking to Mental Health and so much more...

Featured Articles

Birth Control Choices Male and Female Condoms - Birth Control

With many women still searching for the perfect birth control method, there has been a host of new studies comparing the contraceptive skin patch or vaginal ring to the pill. Although perfection remains vague and choices are equally valuable, the studies pinpoint some preferences. One might also still consider the condom.

The Patch The Patch - Birth Control

Basically, all of these methods were similar in preventing pregnancy. The contraceptive skin patch has been shown to carry a greater risk of blood clots than pill users. Women using the patch were more likely to use the medication as prescribed than those on the pill were. However, patch users experienced more side effects and were more likely to abandon their method eventually than pill users were. Patch users have more bleeding breakthroughs, breast discomfort, painful periods, and nausea and vomiting. With the patch there is twice as much hormone entering the body.

The Ring The Ring - Birth Control

Ring users generally had fewer serious side effects than pill users, but have more vaginal irritation and discharge. Despite this, vaginal ring users tend to stick with their approach longer than the pill group. The patch is a small adhesive square that dispenses hormones and which a woman must replace every week for three weeks, and then leave off for a week. The Ortho Evra contraceptive patch is the only patch approved for use to date.

The NuvaRing, which Organon manufactures, releases hormones into the vaginal cavity. A woman inserts the ring, a flexible piece of plastic tubing, where it remains for three weeks; she then removes it for one week. Many consider the ring and patch easier to use than birth control pills because women do not have to attend to them every day. Rings users have more vaginal irritation and discharge

The Implant

The Implant is injected underneath the skin of the upper arm during an in-office procedure that takes about one minute. The implant, the size of a matchstick, releases a steady stream of the female hormone etonogestrel (Implanon) over a three-year period.

This is a great option for women who can't take pills or don't easily tolerate other birth control options like IUDs and the patch.

Etonogestrel works by thickening the cervical mucus, which prevents sperm from fertilizing an egg and also stops any egg that does get fertilized from implanting itself in the uterine wall. Etonogestrel completely inhibits the release of eggs from the ovaries during the first two years. In the third year, it begins to lose its effectiveness.

Women don't have to worry about taking a pill every day or changing their birth control ring every month. The implant is not for everyone. Irregular bleeding is a side effect. Women have to be willing to tolerate this possibility. Also, women who experience heavy bleeding or are significantly overweight may want to consider other birth control options.

The Pill

Some women are beginning to understand that taking a pill every day is difficult. Female oral contraceptives, colloquially known as the Pill, are the most common form of pharmaceutical contraception. Many doctors prescribe the Pill to women who complain of dysfunctional uterine bleeding.

The Pill that Eliminates Menstruation

There is a new contraceptive called Lybrel that comes in a 28 day-pill pack with low-dose combination tablets that contain 90 micrograms of a progestin, levonorgestrel, and 20 micrograms of an estrogen. The safety and efficacy of Lybrel as a contraceptive method were supported by two one-year clinical studies, enrolling more than 2,400 women, ages 18 to 49.

Health care professionals and patients are advised that when considering the use of Lybrel, the convenience of having no scheduled menstruation should be weighed against the inconvenience of unscheduled bleeding or spotting. The occurrence of unscheduled bleeding decreases over time in most women who continue to take Lybrel for a full year. In the primary clinical study, 59 percent of the women who took Lybrel for one year had no bleeding or spotting during the last month of the study.

Like other available oral contraceptives, Lybrel is effective for prevention of pregnancy when used as directed. The risks of using Lybrel are similar to the risks of other conventional oral contraceptives and include an increased risk of blood clots, heart attacks, and strokes.

Featured Videos

Are Your Dishes Clean?

You've seen the restaurant reports -- health departments shut down hundreds of restaurants each week because they don't meet health standards. E. coli and salmonella outbreaks make customers sick -- dirty dishes could be to blame. Restaurants clean plate after plate after plate -- but just how clean are the plates you're eating off?

Watch the Video to learn more

Latest Medicare News - Fiscal Year 2009 Medicare Cuts

Here's the latest Medicare News-

President Bush will release his budget for the 2009 fiscal year on Monday and it is expected to include spending cuts in Medicare and Medicaid. President Bush on Monday will release a fiscal year 2009 budget request that includes large reductions in Medicare spending growth and a decrease in Medicaid spending, according to Bush administration officials and budget documents, the New York Times reports.

(Picture from Liberty Post)

The budget request will propose legislative changes that would reduce Medicare spending by $6 billion in FY 2009 and by $91 billion over five years. In addition, the request will seek to reduce Medicaid spending by $1.2 billion in FY 2009 and by $14 billion over five years.

Under the budget request, most of the reductions in Medicare spending would result from decreases in annual updates in reimbursement payments to hospitals, nursing homes, hospices, ambulances and home care agencies.