Immune cell plays unexpected role in autoimmune disease


A new study provides fascinating insight into the underlying pathology associated with the autoimmune disease, systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE).  The research, published by Cell Press in the December issue of the journal Immunity, reveals an unexpected role for a key type of immune cell and provides a potential new therapeutic strategy for SLE and, potentially, other autoimmune diseases.

The high price of sleep disorders


Danish sleep researchers at the University of Copenhagen and the Danish Institute for Health Services Research have examined the socio-economic consequences of the sleep disorder hypersomnia in one of the largest studies of its kind. The sleep disorder has far-reaching consequences for both the individual and society as a whole.

US Surgeon General lies by omission: Smoking one cigarette can kill you? Seriously?

US Surgeon General lies by omission: Smoking one cigarette can kill you? Seriously?

(NaturalNews) In what can only be called a bizarre leap of pseudoscience, U.S. Surgeon General Dr Regina M. Benjamin recently announced that smokingone cigarettecan kill you. In fact, she says, just breathing in the smoke from someone else cigarette can kill you, she claims. It's all part of a just-released report entitledA Report of the Surgeon General: How Tobacco Smoke Causes Disease: The Biology and Behavioral Basis for Smoking-Attributable Disease(http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/libra...)


Learn more:http://www.naturalnews.com/030820_Surgeon_General_cigarette_smoke.html#ixzz18w7Dk8RQ

Drugmaker pulls painkillers from US market over heart risks


Drugmaker Xanodyne Pharmaceuticals Inc. agreed Friday to pull two of its painkillers, Darvon and Darvocet, from the US market over heart risk concerns, the US Food and Drug Administration said.

Similar withdrawals from the market of the drug also known as propoxyphene were recommended in Europe in 2009 and are already under way.

"The FDA sought market withdrawal of propoxyphene after receiving new clinical data showing that the drug puts patients at risk of potentially serious or even fatal heart rhythm abnormalities," the agency said.

"As a result of these data, combined with other information, including new epidemiological data, the agency concluded that the risks of the medication outweigh the benefits."

Preventing physician medication mix-ups by reporting them


The most frequent contributors to medication errors and adverse drug events in busy primary care practice offices are communication problems and lack of knowledge, according to a study of a prototype web-based medication error and adverse drug event reporting system.