Although Diprivan is widely used every day in hospitals and surgery centers across the United States, very few people, outside of medical personnel, were familiar with it or had even heard of it prior to its being found in Michael Jackson’s home after his untimely death. And while we still don’t yet know if it was related in any way to his death, many people want to know more about Diprivan and what its potential effects might have been.
I worked for ICI, now Astra Zeneca, the pharmaceutical company that originally developed Diprivan, in the mid-80s during the time it was being prepared for market launch. I was part of the team helping to train the sales people who would later be selling the product. But Diprivan was unlike any product previously sold by these representatives because it was going to be used by anesthesiologists in the operating room before and […]
Original post by admin and weightlossopinions.com
Depending on which headlines you’ve seen recently, you may think that some pain relievers are being recalled because they’re dangerous and you might be wondering if you need to clean out the medicine cabinet and throw out any number of these products. I’m going to try to explain this highly complex situation, but the bottom line is that when taken as directed, all of the pain relievers currently on the market, be they prescription or over the counter (OTC), are still considered to be safe and effective and you don’t need to throw them away (and nothing is being recalled at the moment either).
The bottom line problem, however, is that when it comes to pain relievers many people don’t follow directions and wind up taking far more pills than they should. And when those products contain acetaminophen it can lead to toxic levels of that drug, which can and all […]
Original post by admin and weightlossopinions.com
When any person dies suddenly or unexpectedly it becomes the responsibility of the medical examiner to determine the cause of death. Such is the case in the tragic death of Michael Jackson at the all too young age of 50. When I worked as a medical examiner in Washington, D.C., in the early 1980s, our policy was to automatically do a full autopsy investigation on anyone 50 or under regardless of their medical history. Over 50 and we might waive the autopsy if there were a clear medical history of illness or disease and there were absolutely no suspicious circumstances, as investigated by the homicide unit of the D.C. police force.
Of course it goes without saying that for someone like Michael Jackson, who died suddenly at age 50 yesterday without any obvious cause, that a full scale investigation will be conducted including a complete autopsy and full toxicology work up. […]
Original post by admin and weightlossopinions.com
When any person dies suddenly or unexpectedly it becomes the responsibility of the medical examiner to determine the cause of death. Such is the case in the tragic death of Michael Jackson at the all too young age of 50. When I worked as a medical examiner in Washington, D.C., in the early 1980s, our policy was to automatically do a full autopsy investigation on anyone 50 or under regardless of their medical history. Over 50 and we might waive the autopsy if there were a clear medical history of illness or disease and there were absolutely no suspicious circumstances, as investigated by the homicide unit of the D.C. police force.
Of course it goes without saying that for someone like Michael Jackson, who died suddenly at age 50 yesterday without any obvious cause, that a full scale investigation will be conducted including a complete autopsy and full toxicology work up. […]
Original post by admin and weightlossopinions.com
While the media fans the flames of mass hysteria over swine flu, which has infected only a small number of people and killed almost none, they routinely ignore the more common, if not widespread, causes of death, many of which are completely, or nearly completely, preventable if only people were educated and motivated enough to make changes to their lifestyles. Imagine if just a fraction of the energy that people are putting into avoiding swine flu were put into efforts to reduce smoking, high blood pressure and obesity, which together are responsible for over one million premature deaths every year. “To have hundreds of thousands of premature deaths caused by these modifiable risk factors is shocking and should motivate a serious look at whether our public health system has sufficient capacity to implement interventions and whether it is currently focusing on the right set of interventions,” said Majid Ezzati, PhD, […]
Original post by admin and weightlossopinions.com
Most women are aware of the need to follow certain nutrition and lifestyle guidelines after they become pregnant, but did you know that it’s actually important to begin these regimens well before you begin to start a family? Most likely you knew about recommendations to take pre-natal vitamins and not to drink alcohol or smoke cigarettes during pregnancy, but it’s equally important to start these behaviors much earlier, before you plan to become pregnant, so that you’ll be “covered” from the moment pregnancy occurs. But recent research has found that few women follow pre-pregnancy recommendations. In fact, a study just published online in the British Medical Journal found that only three percent of women who became pregnant were taking the recommended vitamins and limiting alcohol intake during the three months prior to conception.
One of the most important nutritional needs before and during pregnancy is folic acid. The American College of […]
Original post by admin and weightlossopinions.com
On New Year’s Eve many people party like there’s no tomorrow, and when New Year’s Day rolls in they often wish it hadn’t. Head pounding, cotton-mouthed, nauseated, sensitive to light and sound, they are suffering from the classic, but poorly understood, syndrome called hangover. Neither the cause nor the treatment of hangover is fully known. Some people suffer the ill effects of alcohol after only one or two drinks while others can drink like a fish without incident. And so-called hangover cures abound. Just ask anyone you know, everyone’s got their favorite (that they no doubt heard from someone else like in a game of telephone where the original message gets distorted the more times it’s repeated - but in this case even the initial recommendation is something someone made up in the distant past). Truth be told, no hangover treatment has ever been […]
Original post by natalieb and weightlossopinions.com
Many women worry obsessively about developing cancer, particularly breast or ovarian cancer. But, while these are obviously of concern, their actual risk of having either of these is far lower than is their major risk of having or dying from cardiovascular disease. In fact, heart disease is the number one killer of women and is responsible for more deaths in women than all cancers combined!
The numbers show that the risk of dying from heart disease is about 10 times higher than dying from breast cancer and about 20 times higher than dying from ovarian cancer. And that’s not even counting the deaths from stroke, a related problem, which would just magnify the overshadowing risk that cardiovascular disease presents in relation to cancer (stroke is usually related to the ‘vascular’ part of cardiovascular disease). Contrary to popular belief, heart disease, unfortunately, isn’t just a problem for men.
The good […]
Original post by admin and weightlossopinions.com
Tis’ the season to be jolly. But for some people this means suffering through the after effects of their jolliness in the form of a hangover. And based on the amount and variety of purported cures touted around the water cooler and on the Internet, the number of people seeking relief must be fairly high. So, what’s the best way either to prevent or treat a hangover?
Well, hangover remedies come in two basic flavors. There’s the free, but unproven, advice you can get from friends, family or the web, and there are the products you can pay for, which are equally unproven. Either way, nothing’s yet been proven to work. “No compelling evidence exists to suggest that any conventional or complementary intervention is effective for preventing or treating alcohol hangover,” was the conclusion drawn by researchers who reviewed the world’s medical literature on hangover and […]
Original post by admin and weightlossopinions.com
