Image 1: Reductil 15mg.

The Irish Medicines Board (IMB) has today issued a statement recalling Reductil (Sibitramine) from the Irish market. In line with the European Medicines Agency (EMA) recommendation, the IMB have concluded that the risks of sibutramine-containing medicines outweigh their benefits.

The decision comes on the back of recent results from the Sibutramine Cardiovascular OUTcomes (SCOUT) trial, which showed an increased risk of serious cardiovascular events such as heart attack or stroke in patients with cardiovascular disease treated with this medicine. As obesity is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease, the risk is also considered to be applicable to all patients using the drug.

A research team headed by Dr David G. Bailey, a professor of clinical pharmacology at the University of Western Ontario, has discovered that consuming certain medications with certain fruit juices can increase or decrease their effectiveness.

Fruit juices like grapefruit, orange and apple juice, contain substances that reduce the effectiveness of common drugs, used to treat infections, allergy, transplant rejection, cancer, and high blood pressure.

New research has shown that cancer will overtake cardiovascular disease as the most fatal disease across the world in 2010.

The report from the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) is asking governments to take action and to help fund cancer research projects and prevention, as cancer numbers had doubled between 1975 and 2000 and are set to almost triple by 2030.

There has been yet more suggestion that even commonly used nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) like ibuprofen (Nurofen) and diclofenac (Difene) are dangerous for heart failure patients.

A study has shown that patients suffering from heart-failure are four times more likely to develop cognitive impairment than those who are not heart failure patients.

Dr Mary Sauvé, from the University of California Davis Medical Centre, led the research which compared 50 heart failure patients to 50 community controls. Age, gender and intelligence were taken into consideration when comparing patients.

Image 1: Bonjela and Teejel.

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) in the UK has issued new advice regarding the use of oral pain relief gels containing salicylate salts, such as Bonjela and Teejel. Since April 2009 MHRA no longer recommends the use of such products in children under 16 years of age.

This is in line with its policy on aspirin (acetylsalicylic acid) use, which has been associated with a rare but serious condition called Reye’s syndrome. In most Reye’s syndrome cases children had a previous viral infection, such as influenza (flu) or chickenpox in addition to being exposed to Aspirin. Reye's syndrome is characterized by acute encephalopathy and fatty liver.

Image 1: A Northern krill (Meganyctiphanes norvegica).

For anybody taking fish oil supplements, this is a must read article, as the latest research is suggesting that krill oil has a number of benefits over fish oil.

Krill oil is made from shrimp-like small crustaceans, which are an important part of zooplankton, inhabiting cold Antarctic and North Pacific oceans.

It becomes more difficult to use erectile dysfunction (ED) as an indicator of cardiovascular (CV) disease as age increases, according to a report in the February 2009 issue of the Mayo Clinic Proceedings.

Analysis has shown that the prognostic value of ED for risk of cardiovascular disease is much higher for men who have suffered erectile dysfunction in their 40s, but significantly lower for men who experience erectile dysfunction in their 70s.

Latest evidence suggests that internal fat, although invisible to the naked eye, is potently more harmful than external fat.

"Being thin doesn't automatically mean you're not fat," says Dr. Jimmy Bell, a professor of molecular imaging at Imperial College, London. Thin people can actually be fat at the same time, having a lot of internal fat stored around vital organs like the heart, liver or pancreas, possibly contributing to heart disease or diabetes.

A study published in the May 2008 issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry once again confirmed that breastfeeding has many advantages over bottle-feeding for infants, including a boost in IQ.