1 June 2020
MONDAY, June 1, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- U.S. children and teenagers are still downing too many "empty calories" -- primarily from sugary beverages, sweets and pizza, a new government study finds.
The study, based on a long-running federal health survey, did turn up some good news: In recent years, kids have been eating fewer empty calories, versus a decade before.
The bad news is, by 2016, those sources still accounted for more than one-quarter of kids' total calories.
The term "empty" generally refers to food and drinks that provide a lot of calories but little to no nutrition. In this study, empty calories were defined as those coming from added sugars or "solid" fats (like butter and shortening).
Sugary drinks, the study found, have consistently been a top source of U.S. kids'...
27 May 2020
WEDNESDAY, May 27, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- VESIcare LS (solifenacin succinate) oral suspension is now approved to treat neurogenic detrusor overactivity (NDO) in children 2 years and older, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced Tuesday.
VESIcare (solifenacin succinate) tablets were approved in 2004 to treat overactive bladder in patients 18 years and older. VESIcare LS is the first FDA-approved treatment for NDO in patients as young as 2 years and requires only once-daily dosing as opposed to the current standard treatment, which requires dosing up to three times a day, according to Christine P. Nguyen, M.D., acting director of the FDA Division of Urology, Obstetrics and Gynecology in the Office of Rare Diseases, Pediatrics, Urologic and Reproductive Medicine in the Center...
27 May 2020
WEDNESDAY, May 27, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- Intravenous (IV) artesunate received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat adults and children with severe malaria, the agency announced Tuesday.
This approval marks the first for severe malaria since the marketing of quinine was discontinued in early 2019. Before the current approval, U.S. patients with severe malaria and those with uncomplicated malaria who were not able to take oral medications were treated with IV artesunate under an investigational new drug protocol through the FDA Expanded Access program.
About 2,000 cases of malaria are diagnosed in the United States each year, and about 300 of those cases are severe, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The FDA notes...
27 May 2020
WEDNESDAY, May 27, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- Fatter wallets lead to fatter people, according to a new study.
Researchers examined the link between nations' wealth and their obesity rates. They discovered citizens get plumper as their country gets richer.
"As most people currently live in low- and middle-income countries with rising incomes, our findings underscore the urgent need for effective policies to break -- or at least weaken -- the relationship between income growth and obesity," said study co-author Debabrata Talukdar. He's a professor of marketing at the University at Buffalo School of Management, in New York.
His team analyzed 40 years of data from 147 countries. They found that a 1% increase in per capita income is associated with a 1.23% rise in obesity among men and a...