With the Food and Drug Administration's approval today of the first birth control pill to stop menstruation, women may soon come to view their period as just another lifestyle choice. Drug manufacturers have already tinkered with the monthly flow; Berlex's Yaz and Warner Chilcott's Loestrin shorten periods to three days or less, and Duramed's Seasonique, and the older Seasonale, reducethem to three or four times a year. But Lybrel, made by Wyeth, would stop them altogether.
This week's New England Journal of Medicine is bound to trigger a barrage of calls to doctors from worried diabetics who have been taking Avandia, a pill that helps control blood sugar. An analysis of 42 different studies concluded that people on the drug have an unmistakably higher risk of heart attacks than do those who aren't on the drug.Why wasn't clear. The authors suggested a few possibilities, such as Avandia's tendency to increase levels of LDL cholesterol, the bad variety. What to do if you're taking it? U.S. News asked Bruce Psaty, an internist at the University of Washington Health Sciences Center and coauthor of an editorial in the New England Journal that looked closely at the analysis, to respond to questions that patients might have.
It's not exactly the clash of the titans, given their unpopularity, but the dust-up between Jimmy Carter and George W. Bush illustrates some important trends in the modern presidency--and the modern post-presidency.
AP - President Bush, trying to defend his war strategy, declassified intelligence Tuesday asserting that Osama bin Laden ordered a top lieutenant in early 2005 to form a terrorist cell that would conduct attacks outside Iraq — and that the United States should be the top target.
AP - The Senate turned back an early attack on the broad immigration overhaul Tuesday, keeping alive a temporary worker provision that could bring in as many as 600,000 foreign laborers each year.
AP - Flinching in the face of a veto threat, Democratic congressional leaders neared agreement with Bush administration Tuesday on legislation to pay for the Iraq war without a troop withdrawal timeline.
At a kindergarten graduation ceremony, young girls smiled behind their brightly colored princess dresses and the boys showed off their best dress shirts. But when these 5-year-olds spoke, it became apparent just how much the ongoing Iraqi violence has affected them. One girl sang: "I give a knife to my father to slaughter the chicken. He gives me a machine gun and a rifle. Now, I am a soldier in the liberation army."
President Bush on Tuesday declassified intelligence showing in 2005 Osama bin Laden planned to use Iraq as a base from which to launch attacks in the United States, according to White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe.
The Senate on Tuesday defeated a measure that would have eliminated a guest worker program from a bipartisan immigration bill. The plan is endorsed by the White House but has critics who describe it as amnesty for illegal immigrants, or as a way of keeping down American wage levels.
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