Free Republic

HealthWatch Weight loss drugs have "no end game" amid lack of data on long-term use, former FDA commissioner warns healthwatch By Edited By May 13, 2025 / 1:03 PM EDT / CBS News Weight loss drugs have transformed how Americans lose weight, including former commissioner for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Dr. David Kessler. But, Kessler warns there are unknowns about long-term use of the drugs and how to get people off them. "There is no end game," he said on "CBS Mornings Plus" Tuesday. "FDA allowed these medicines out without a long-term strategy." Kessler faced unexpected weight gain...

Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has made psychiatric medications a focus of his review of the country’s childhood chronic disease crisis, claiming the drugs have been “insufficiently scrutinized” and are addictive. Childhood psychiatrists insist the drugs, for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and depression, are nonaddictive and proven safe and say they are more concerned about young Americans unable to access psychiatric medications that could help. Kennedy emphasized his skepticism of these medications during his Senate confirmation hearings. “Fifteen percent of American youth are now on Adderall or some other ADHD medication. Even higher percentages are on...

A popular thyroid medication taken by 23 million Americans may be associated with bone loss, a startling new study finds. Levothyroxine — marketed under brand names such as Synthroid — is the second-most commonly prescribed medication among older adults in the US. It’s consumed by about 7% of the US population. The drug addresses hypothyroidism, also known as an underactive thyroid, by replacing or providing more of a thyroid hormone naturally produced by the body. The study authors, from Johns Hopkins Medicine, linked levothyroxine use to a greater loss of bone mass and bone density over six years — even...

(The Center Square) – Medicare premiums and senior citizens' prescription drug costs have surged since passage of the $891 billion Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, according to data compiled by an advocate for seniors on the federal health care program. The legislation promised financial relief for millions of people with Medicare by expanding benefits, lowering drug costs, and strengthening Medicare for future seniors. Medicare Is for Seniors' "Misery Index," as the report is known, says prescription drug costs instead have risen nationally by 31%, leaving seniors with new expenses and fewer options. Those costs will rise again under the new...

My stance on the Second Amendment is simple: I’m not going to take anyone’s guns away. I believe in the Constitution. But Americans need to work together to figure out why we have mass shootings every 21 hours. Something changed around the time of the Columbine shootings in 1999, and it wasn’t the number of guns in America. The National Institutes of Health refuses to investigate the mystery; in fact, Congress prohibits the NIH from researching the cause of mass shootings. Under my administration, that rule ends — and our kids’ safety becomes a top priority.

(NewsNation) — The first quarter of 2024 recorded the country’s highest-ever number of ongoing drug shortages, American Society of Health-System Pharmacists data shows. A total of 323 drugs — including life-saving medicines like oxytocin, Rho(D) immune globulin and chemotherapy — were in a deficit during the first three months of the year. The January-March numbers were the highest number of shortages recorded since the ASHP began recording them in 2001. The University of Utah Drug Information Service collects data from pharmacists nationwide and compiles them into statistics on the ASHP’s website.

Some recent pro-abortion media propaganda has attempted to gaslight the public by painting “self-managed abortion,” sometimes known as “DIY” or “at-home abortion,” as if it is the fault of the pro-life movement and the result of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. But the abortion industry’s plan to move toward self-managed abortion was set in motion long, long before the Supreme Court’s June 2022 decision — in fact, over a decade before. It seems that now, the abortion industry and media’s plan is to blame pro-life laws when anything goes wrong with the self-managed abortions they endorsed...

Opinion The scientific community celebrated April 14 as World Quantum Day to raise awareness of quantum science’s impact across diverse fields The world of science is on the cusp of a transformative era driven by the burgeoning field of quantum technology. Quantum science is founded on several key principles that underpin the behaviour of particles and systems at the quantum scale. The term “quantum scale” refers to the realm of physics that deals with phenomena occurring at very small scales, typically at the level of atoms, subatomic particles and fundamental particles. It encompasses the principles of quantum mechanics, which govern...

Popular due to their effectiveness in fighting various bacterial infections, fluoroquinolone antibiotics carry risks that can be worse than the illness. SNIP>>>>>> Fluoroquinolones, including ciprofloxacin (Cipro), levofloxacin (Levaquin), and moxifloxacin (Avelox), are powerful antibiotics designed to battle various bacterial infections—from urinary tract and respiratory infections to dermatological conditions. Fluoroquinolones are broadly effective and can reach deep into tissues to combat bacteria, which made them increasingly popular among doctors after their U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval in 1980. They also require fewer doses than some other antibiotics, making them convenient for patients to use. Fluoroquinolones possess the ability to...

A new weight-loss pill made by Novo Nordisk — the manufacturer of Ozempic and Wegovy — helps patients shed weight twice as fast as the blockbuster injections, the company recently announced. The pill, called Amycretin, works similarly to the popular weight loss injections mimicking a natural hormone, GLP-1, which slows down the passage of food through the stomach, making people feel full for longer. However, this drug also stimulates a hormone called amylin, which also reduces hunger and slows stomach emptying. The combination of therapies seems to make it more effective.

The Food and Drug Administration has approved a drug to help people with food allergies in the event they are accidentally exposed. It’s called Xolair, and it’s been used to treat asthma for two decades. Now, it has a new use. News4JAX spoke to a local mom Monday who said her 9-year-old daughter, Catherine, ended up in the hospital last year after having an allergic reaction to a pecan on Thanksgiving. “It gave me hives. And um I think made me stop breathing for a little,” Catherine said. Catherine said it wasn’t scary for her. But it was for her...

The Biden administration on Thursday opened the door to seizing the patents of certain costly medications from drugmakers in a new push to slash high drug prices and promote more pharmaceutical competition. The administration unveiled a framework outlining the factors federal agencies should consider in deciding whether to use a controversial policy, known as march-in rights, to take patents for drugs developed with taxpayer funds and share them with other pharmaceutical companies if the public cannot “reasonably” access the medications. Doing so could lead to the development of lower-priced generic alternatives, which could cut into key drug companies’ profits and...

For patients with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP), doxycycline is associated with a reduced risk for Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI), according to a study. Ashley L. O'Leary, Pharm.D., from the Veterans Affairs Western New York Healthcare System in Buffalo, and colleagues conducted a retrospective analysis in hospitalized patients in Veterans Affairs Hospitals across the United States to examine whether doxycycline is associated with reduced CDI risk. During the study timeframe, about 156,107 hospitalized patients received care at a Veterans Affairs Hospital and were diagnosed with CAP. The researchers found that compared with azithromycin, doxycycline used with ceftriaxone for the treatment of pneumonia...

CNN — The price of the lifesaving Covid-19 antiviral medication Paxlovid will more than double as the United States transitions out of the emergency phase of the pandemic, drugmaker Pfizer said Wednesday. The list price, before insurance, will be $1,390 for a five-day course, Pfizer said in a statement. That’s 2.6 times higher than the $530-per-course price paid by the US government, which provided Paxlovid free to patients during the pandemic. The Wall Street Journal first reported the new price.

The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday fully approved the Alzheimer’s drug Leqembi, amid concerns about its safety, cost and accessibility. The move marks the first time that a drug meant to slow the progression of the disease has been granted full regulatory approval. Other approved drugs only target its symptoms. "I don't think we can understate the significance of this moment," said Donna Wilcock, the assistant dean of biomedicine at the University of Kentucky. About 6.7 million adults ages 65 and older in the United States have Alzheimer’s disease, according to the Alzheimer’s Association. Leqembi, from Japanese drugmaker Eisai...

* The siblings' mother April Lyda told police she was asleep when her daughter woke her up to say she had stabbed her brother, Zander **************************************************************** Police bodycam footage captured the horrifying moments after a 12-year-old girl allegedly stabbed her nine-year-old brother to death in their Oklahoma home. The siblings' mother April Lyda told police she was asleep upstairs when her daughter woke her up shortly before midnight to say she had stabbed her brother, Zander. The girl, who has not been named by police, is heard sobbing and repeatedly apologizing as officers arrived at the downtown Tulsa home on...

Thousands of patients are facing delays in getting treatments for cancer and other life-threatening diseases, with drug shortages in the United States approaching record levels. Hospitals are scouring shelves for supplies of a drug that reverses lead poisoning and for a sterile fluid needed to stop the heart for bypass surgery. Some antibiotics are still scarce following the winter flu season when doctors and patients frantically chased medicines for ailments like strep throat. Even children’s Tylenol was hard to find. Hundreds of drugs are on the list of medications in short supply in the United States, as officials grapple with...

China Controls Your MedsDemocrats and Republicans battered TikTok’s CEO at a House of Representatives hearing on Thursday — for good reason. The Chinese app poses a national security risk, accumulating troves of data on its American users. TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew’s slithery comment that “I don’t think spying is the right way to describe it,” only heightened concerns.Another Terrifying Chinese ThreatToo bad another Chinese threat — bigger and more immediate — isn’t getting the same attention. China has a chokehold on our medication supply chain. Beijing controls many — in some cases, all — active ingredients for the remedies...

Reaching out here because I haven't had any luck with search engines like google. I can no longer go to the free clinic thats near me to get my medications and the walkin clinics are ridiculously expensive. All I need is a doc to look at my medical history and medications and approve a refill. The meds are really cheap and I can handle the $15/mo cost but they want $165 just to acknowledge my existence at the walk-in clinic here. Appreciate any suggestions. Thank you.

Supposing that you’re a Canadian who mistakenly believes you enjoy the right to bodily autonomy, the Canadian Public Health™ overlords have plans to fix you right up. You’ll be administered psychiatric medications so you think right. Speaking with Lynn Tyler Thompson of the “Let Freedom Reign Tour,” Dr. William Makis revealed what is nothing short of a bombshell — the next step on the long, winding road to biomedical totalitarianism: So this has come out recently out of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario. The college sent out a letter or a memo to all the doctors in...