Health Highlights: May 13, 2015

• Tweet
• Pin It

Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by the editors of HealthDay:

NFL’s Safety Efforts Can Benefit Other Sports: Official

The NFL’s health and safety efforts will improve safety in all sports, according to the league’s chief medical adviser.

Dr. Elizabeth Nabel said “the NFL has a major leadership role nationally to improving the health and safety of players in all sports, and will have a watershed effect on college sports and the NCAA, and on pro sports for men and women,” the Associated Press reported.

She was hired in February to supervise all of the NFL’s health and safety committees and programs. She is president of Brigham and Women’s Hospital and a professor of medicine at Havard Medical School.

Medical research, behavioral health and keeping the public informed about how the NFL is dealing with player health and safety are among Nabel’s goals, the AP reported.

“There’s a lot we don’t know yet about long-term health and safety issues,” Nabel said Tuesday at a gathering of six NFL medical advisers. “We’re just at the beginning of understanding the long-term effects of repetitive head injury, for example.”

—–

Number of Americans Spending at Least $100,000 on Rx Drugs Tripled in 2014: Report

More than half a million Americans were prescribed $50,000 or more worth of medications last year, and 139,000 were prescribed $100,000 or more worth of drugs, according to pharmacy benefits manager Express Scripts.

The number of people prescribed $100,000 or more worth of medications nearly tripled from the previous year, and many of these people are very sick, NBC News reported.

“Among patients whose drug costs reached at least $100,000, more than one-third were treated for at least 10 conditions and more than 60 percent were taking at least 10 different prescription medications,” said the Express Scripts study released Wednesday.

Two-thirds of the costs for people prescribed $100,000 or more worth of medications last year were for hepatitis C and cancer drugs, and for made-to-order medicines called compounded therapies, NBC News reported.

Insurance covered more than 98 percent of the costs for patients with $100,000 or more in prescriptions in 2014. “Across the cost spectrum, patients in 2014 paid an average of 13.5 percent of their total medication costs, down from 14.9 percent in 2013,” according to the study.

—–

Cuban Lung Cancer Vaccine Could Become Available in U.S.

A Cuban-developed lung cancer vaccine could become available in the United States as relations between the two countries improve.

The Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo is working with Cuba’s Center for Molecular Immunology to bring the Cimavax vaccine the U.S., ABC News reported.

The vaccine targets a specific hormone that helps lung tumors grow. Cimavax works by priming the immune system to attack epidermal growth factor (EGF), a naturally occurring hormone in the body, according to Dr. Kelvin Lee, chair of the immunology department at Roswell Park.

The institute is seeking U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval to begin a phase I study in the next six to eight months to confirm that the vaccine is safe and causes minimal side effects, ABC News reported.

Cimavax is meant to stop tumor growth but does not cure cancer or put patients in remission, Lee said. Patients receive one shot a month to help stimulate their immune system.

—–

Child Safety Gates Recalled by Ikea

About 75,000 child safety gates are being recalled in North America by Ikea because they may fail to remain closed.

So far, there have been 18 incidents of failure worldwide, including three reports of children suffering injuries after falling down stairs, according to the company.

The recall covers about 58,000 Patrull Klamma and Patrull Smidig safety gates in the U.S. and 17,000 in Canada, the Associated Press reported.

Consumers should stop using the gates and return them for a full refund. For more information, call Ikea at 1-888-966-4532.

—–

Study Links Amphetamine-Like Stimulant in Dietary Supplement to Woman’s Stroke

Researchers have linked an amphetamine-like stimulant in a dietary supplement to a bleeding stroke in a woman.

The 53-year-old woman took the supplement called Jacked Power — marketed to promote weight loss and improve athletic performance — before working out, according to the case report in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine.

The woman, who was in good health and good physical condition, suffered the stroke 45 minutes after her workout, CBS News reported.

An analysis of the supplement showed that it contained a high dose of a synthetic compound called BMPEA, which was not listed on the ingredients on the label.

The study is the first to suggest a link between BMPEA and an exercise-induced stroke, CBS News reported.

In April, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration warned five companies to stop selling products that contain BMPEA because it does not meet the definition of a dietary ingredient.

The FDA issued the warning after Harvard Medical School researchers found that nearly a dozen weight loss and performance dietary supplements contain BMPEA but disguise it using the name of the plant extract Acacia rigidula, CBS News reported.

BMPEA has been shown to increase blood pressure in dogs and cats.

—–

Sandra Lee Reveals Breast Cancer Diagnosis

Food Network star Sandra Lee has breast cancer and will soon undergo surgery to have both breasts removed, she announced Tuesday.

Lee, 48, said she found out about the cancer late last month. She had a cancerous lump removed and will have more extensive surgery later this week, the Associated Press reported.

A routine mammogram detected the cancer. Lee said she decided to go public about her illness to encourage other women to get screened for breast cancer.

“If it saves one person, and makes one more person go get a mammogram, and if they’re sitting down right now watching this, don’t watch this TV,” she said on “Good Morning America.”

“Go pick your phone up,” Lee said, “and call your doctor and get your rear end in there and get a mammogram right now.”

Lee — a television chef, cookbook author and magazine publisher — is the live-in girlfriend of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. He says he will take time off to support Lee after her surgery, the AP reported.

Early detection of the cancer “could very well have saved Sandy’s life,” Cuomo told reporters at an event on Long Island.

“It’s not easy to talk about this operation and the recovery and have everyone know. But she thought she could do some good,” he said. “She wants to help people. She wants to make the world better, and that’s where she always goes. I’ve been with her for 10 years and that’s been a constant.”

Copyright © 2024 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

• Tweet
• Pin It