Weight loss and Weight Chat Blog

As I wrote earlier if you’re an average person living in the U.S. there’s absolutely no reason now to panic about the current swine flu situation in spite of the media hysteria. That may change as time passes, but it could just as easily go the other way and not become a full-blown pandemic. That’s what happened in 1976, when a swine flu scare led to emergency vaccination of some 40 million Americans in 10 weeks but the feared pandemic just never panned out. The Los Angeles Times has a nice piece on that story.
But many people have questions about the flu vaccine right now. Does this year’s vaccine cover the current swine flu strain? Why doesn’t the flu vaccine cover all strains? Why do I need to get a new flu immunization every year when I don’t have to do that for most of the other illnesses I got […]

Original post by admin and weightlossopinions.com

Many of our readers either already have or will in the future encounter the possibility of being treated with a biologic medication. This is because biologics have revolutionized the treatment of such chronic illnesses as rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, psoriatic arthritis, Crohn’s disease, and multiple sclerosis, and are widely used in treating a variety of cancers. To name just a few, these products include Enbrel, Humira, Remicade (infliximab), Avonex (inteferon beta-1a), Betaseron (interferon beta-1b), Tysabri, Cimzia (certolizumab pegol), Herceptin (trastuzumab), Rituxan (rituximab), Neupogen (filgrastim), Neulasta (pegfilgrastim) and Leukine (sargramostim). So just what are biologics, how do they differ from more traditional drugs, and why are they so expensive?Although some biologics have been around for a long time, I’m not talking about these first-generation products, which include things like vaccines, blood and blood components. Instead, I’m focusing on the newer, second-generation biologics that have come to market only […]

Original post by natalieb and weightlossopinions.com

You’ve probably heard that we’re in the midst of flu season and that cases are being reported from all around the country. You may have also read that this year’s vaccine isn’t protective against most of the influenza virus that’s circulating around. In fact, it seems as though this year’s formulation is only protective against about 40 per cent of this year’s flu strains. How can this be and who’s to blame?
I learned a lot about influenza vaccine when I worked for Wyeth Pharmaceuticals back in the mid-eighties. And one of the main things I want you to understand is that of all the people involved in creating each year’s influenza vaccine, the pharmaceutical manufacturers are in no way responsible for deciding which strains are put into the product. In the case of influenza vaccine, the pharmaceutical manufacturers are just that: manufacturers. They take […]

Original post by admin and weightlossopinions.com