By NICHOLAS BAKALAR 

Danish researchers have found that statins, the drugs widely used to control cholesterol, may have another beneficial effect: lowering the risk of death from pneumonia.

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Having more generic drug alternatives helps people save big dollars on medication costs. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is responsible for reviewing generic drugs before they are approved for sale and use, and the FDA is doing something to get more generic drugs on the market sooner.

What Are Generic Drugs?

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration defines a generic drug as one being identical to a brand name drug in dosage form, safety, strength, administration type (oral, injection, etc.), quality, performance characteristics and intended use. The chemical make up of a ...

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Zocor loses patent protection; generic simvastatin and pravastatin added as ‘Best Buy’ picks by Consumer Reports

(Washington, D.C.) – Consumers who need medicine to lower their cholesterol should talk with their doctors about two new generics that could save them up to $1,800 per year, according to the latest report from Consumer Reports Best Buy Drugs.

The updated report on a class of drugs called “statins” adds generic simvastatin and pravastatin as Best Buys for millions of people who need a ...

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Obesity drug shows 9% weight loss

Drug developer Vivus Inc has said the first of three late-stage trials found that obese patients treated with the highest dose of its experimental drug Qnexa on average lost 9.2% of their weight.

Vivus said the 28-week, 756-patient study met its main goal of superior weight loss with two different doses of Qnexa, compared with the drug’s individual components and a placebo pill. Patients in the placebo group on average lost 1.7% of their weight, while patients on “mid-dose” Qnexa lost 8.5%.

Qnexa is a ...

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(WebMD) Cardiac patients who are depressed are less likely to exercise, which increases their risk of a cardiac event such as a heart attack or heart failure, a new study suggests.

So heart patients who experience depression may be able to lower their cardiac risk simply by getting more physical activity.

It's long been recognized that patients who suffer from depression are more likely to have heart attacks or other cardiac events. But the reason for the association has been unclear.
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(CBS) Better cancer detection, better treatments and fewer people smoking - all of these factors are driving cancer statistics that have never been better, CBS News medical correspondent Dr. Jon LaPook reports.

"For the first time in the history of this report, both the rate of cancers and the rate of cancer deaths are both declining significantly," said Robert Croyle, director of the Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences at the National Cancer Institute.

The most common cancers have ... << MORE >>

SAN DIEGO, Calif. (Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Skin cancer is the most common type of cancer in this country. About one in 55 of us will get the most deadly form -- melanoma -- in our lifetime. Last year, more than 8,000 Americans died of melanoma. Now, six common myths about skin cancer.
 

We all love a sunny day, but do you know how harmful those rays can be? You might not think you're at risk, but everyone is, which brings us to our first myth: only fair-skinned ...

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We are a pill-popping nation. From TV and magazine ads hawking the latest cures to the estimated $287 billion prescription drug business, Americans are taking medicine for everything from heartburn to erectile dysfunction.

But a growing number of people are having trouble paying for medicine. A recent Kaiser Family Foundation poll found that 29 percent have not filled prescriptions in the last two years because of cost.

And insurance seems to be ...

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Medical Author: Melissa Stoppler, M.D.
Medical Editor: Barbara K. Hecht, Ph.D.

Almost half of all prescriptions today in the US are filled with generic drugs. Still, I am often asked if generic drugs are really as good as their brand-name counterparts. After all, goes the reasoning, don't you get what you pay for?

Generic drugs are copies of brand-name drugs that have exactly the same dosage, intended use, effects, side effects, route of administration, risks, safety, and strength as the original drug. In other words, their pharmacological effects are exactly the same ...

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Latest reports from the World Health Organization (WHO) bulletin, reveal that no fewer than 500 million people are infected worldwide with the virus that causes genital herpes and more than 20 million people become newly infected each year.

This first-ever estimate of the global burden found that roughly 16 of the world’s population in the 15-49 year-old age group were infected, with considerable geographic variation. Women are more commonly infected than men, with the highest prevalence in sub-Saharan Africa where up to 70 percent of women are infected.

Reports available shows ...

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Lifestyle medications are now affordable.   What does that mean?  First, you need to understand what a lifestyle medication is.   Your insurance company realizes what a lifestyle drug is because they will not pay for any of it.   A lifestyle drug is one that is deemed to improve your way of living, or lifestyle, but is not necessary to cure or reduce the symptoms of any life threatening disease or ...

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Lifestyle drugs—medicines that treat conditions associated with lifestyle such as weight-loss tablets, anti-smoking agents, impotence therapies and hair restorers—are now a major research and development area for the pharmaceutical industry. In fact, companies have invested over $20 billion in research into such drugs since the 1990s. The reason why is clear: the market lifestyle for drugs is forecast to rise to over $29 billion by 2007 from its current $20 billion.

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