Companies get go-ahead on drug discount cards

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services today approved 28 private companies that will sponsor Medicare drug discount cards. The companies will start enrolling senior citizens in May. The government will offer guidance on choosing a drug discount card, starting next week with a booklet that will be available on www.medicare.gov. In late April, the same site will offer a way to compare prices of drugs in the drug discount card program.

The cards will cost $30 or less per year. They will be free to low-income seniors, that is, individuals making less than $12,569 a year – and couples making less than $16,862 a year. Consumer groups say seniors may be able to save more with other methods such as online pharmacies, drug company assistance programs or buying drugs from Canada.

Everything you always wanted to know about the drug discount cards, but were afraid to ask.

Research shows danger in sun's UVA rays

Most sunscreens protect against ultraviolet-B rays, which cause sunburn, but don’t block ultraviolet-A rays, which age the skin. New research shows that the UVA rays may also cause mutations that could lead to skin cancer.

Read more.

Counting calories online

A colleague recommends a web site where she tracks calories consumed and burned. Unlike other similar sites, FitDay.com is free.

"It helps me stay motivated," says my colleague. Her goal is weight loss. The site also helps with nutrition and exercise goals.

I played around with the site to see how it works. Say you ate a cup of Frankenberry cereal with a cup of 2 percent milk. You click those items on the web site, which calculates that you’ve consumed 238 calories. A pie chart shows what proportion of those calories are from protein (15 percent), carbohydrates (65 percent) and fat (20 percent).

Kinda cool.

Judge OKs testimony on fetal pain

A New York judge will allow testimony on whether a fetus experiences pain during abortion. The testimony will be allowed during a court challenge to the legality of the new law banning certain late-term abortions. Trials on the law are set to begin next week in New York, San Francisco and Omaha, Neb. Read more.

Anyone want my fries?

Pizza, hamburger and chicken nuggets were on the menu when the Casey Journalism Center on Children and Families served 31 journalists school lunches one day last week to make a point about childhood obesity.

While we ate our lunches (and grumbled about the food), we heard from Joan Carter, an instructor at Baylor College of Medicine’s Department of Pediatrics. A registered dietitian and a trained chef, she devised low-fat versions of typical school lunches. She eliminated 20 grams of fat from the chicken nugget meal while also adding vitamin A, calcium, iron and fiber.

I can report some food swapping among the journalists. Just like in the school cafeteria.

Making room for veterans ... in cemeteries

Today I’m writing about the Spokane VA Medical Center where war veterans with cancer are being told they now have to travel to Seattle or Portland for care. The hospital lost its cancer doc. Administrators think it could take 18 months to replace him.

During my research, I found this from a speech by VA Secretary Anthony Principi, delivered Feb. 2, 2004:

“VA is not only health care and benefits. We also have the important responsibility to honor our veterans in their final rest. The VA maintains our national cemetery program. The president's budget request will continue the greatest expansion in our national cemetery system since the Civil War. Five new additional cemeteries will be open very soon. These budget funds also advanced planning for six more national cemeteries in addition to maintaining the president's commitment to performing the long-deferred maintenance needed to recognize our national cemeteries as national shrines. When this expansion is completed, we will have expanded the national cemetery system by 85 percent, almost double the number of gravesites that we currently have. So, indeed, it is a very major expansion, and really critical because of the number of veterans, primarily World War II and Korea, who are passing from us at the rate of almost 1,800 a day.”

Read the entire speech.

FDA cracks down on `andro'

The Food and Drug Administration today announced a crackdown on “andro,” a dietary supplement popular among teenagers and athletes, who use it to build muscle faster during workouts. Found in products such as Andro-Gen and Animal Stak, androstenedione carries the same health risks as steroids, the FDA says. The FDA sent warning letters to 23 companies that distribute the dietary supplements.

Here’s a Detroit Free Press article headlined “Big Muscles, Big Trouble.”

Made in Puerto Rico, shipped to Germany, sold in Canada to U.S. citizens

The News Hour with Jim Lehrer followed Lipitor from where it's made in Puerto Rico to the United States and Canada. The only difference -- besides a lower price -- in the Canadian version was packaging; it's sent first to Germany where labels are printed in English and in French. The show aired last night, but you can watch it online or read the transcript here.

'Cheeseburger bill' would protect fast food industry

During the Clinton Administration, "Cheeseburger Bill" might have been a nickname for the Commander in Chief. Today, it's a nickname for a proposal introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives that would protect the fast food industry from lawsuits by obese Americans. The White House supports the Republican bill. Read more.

Did oxygen masks spread SARS?

Oxygen masks may have contributed to the spread of SARS in hospitals. Toronto researchers found that the masks spray exhaled droplets more than five yards on each side.

Read more and see a photo.

Medicare drug discount cards will bring confusion, critics say

Consumer advocates say senior citizens will be flooded by advertisements for the new Medicare drug discount cards this spring. It will be difficult – if not impossible – to tell which card will offer the best deal because the companies can change the discounts on a weekly basis. Read more in this Chicago Tribune story.

Click here for "76 Things You Should Know About the New Medicare Drug Discount Cards," a resource put together by the Medicare Rights Center.

'Super Size Me' documentary takes credit for McDonald's menu change

The American Heart Association and other health groups are praising McDonald’s for its decision to eliminate supersize drinks and fries from its menu by the end of the year. The Chicago Tribune reports the restaurant chain’s move is related as much to skinnying down its operations as to concern for supersize Americans and their health problems.

A documentary film called “Super Size Me” is making the rounds of film festivals and taking credit for changing McDonald's menu. The filmmaker tried to live on McDonald’s food for a month while taking a look at the problem of obesity in America. The “Fat Ronald” poster on the film’s web site is something to see.

Scientist to give away new stem cell lines for research

Harvard biologist Douglas Melton wants to find a cure for diabetes because both his children have it. He announced Wednesday that he has created 17 new lines of embryonic stem cells that can be used in research, although not in federally funded research because of Bush Administration policy. Melton is willing to give them to scientists for free.

Read a Boston Globe article on Melton’s work and the embryonic stem cell debate.

And here’s the New England Journal of Medicine report to the research community in which Melton and his colleagues announced their work.

Imported seafood: problems go ignored

In 2002, it took the U.S. Food and Drug Administration an average of 348 days to alert port-of-entry workers about serious food-safety problems with seafood products coming into the U.S. from six foreign companies. That was one of the findings in a U.S. General Accounting Office report to Congress released today. Even when FDA inspectors had recommended that seafood shipments be immediately detained for safety reasons, many days passed while FDA headquarters reviewed the recommendations.

The GAO report made six recommendations to the FDA on seafood safety.

Q&A with colorectal cancer expert

Patients, caregivers and family members will have the chance to ask questions of a colorectal cancer expert during a live online chat March 9 from 2 to 3 p.m. Eastern (11 a.m. to noon Pacific).

Dr. Daniel Haller is the medical director at the Hematology-Oncology Outpatient Practice at the University of Pennsylvania and co-program leader of the Clinical Oncology Research Program at the University Cancer Center.

The chat is hosted by People Living with Cancer, the patient web site of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. To find out how to view the chat or to submit a question now, go to the People Living With Cancer web site.

The other shoe drops on estrogen

After seven years of follow-up, the National Institutes of Health has stopped the estrogen-only arm of the Women’s Health Initiative study one year early. The study was stopped because so far it has found no effect on heart disease and a slight increased risk of stroke in women who've had hysterectomies and take estrogen.

"The NIH believes that an increased risk of stroke is not acceptable in healthy women in a research study. This is especially true if estrogen alone does not affect (either increase or decrease) heart disease, as appears to be the case in the current study," says a statement released today by Dr. Barbara Alving, Director of the Women’s Health Initiative.

In July 2002, the NIH halted the estrogen-progestin arm of the study. The combination hormone therapy was found to increase the risk of stroke, heart disease, blood clots and breast cancer.