Posted on September 29, 2014 in Uncategorized

Two recent studies have concluded that taking niacin to lower your cholesterol to reduce stroke and heart attack risks may be dangerous. Several past studies have shown niacin, which is vitamin B3, can be effective in lowering “bad” cholesterol while raising a person’s “good” cholesterol. Based on those studies, niacin has become a popular choice of prescribed medicine for patients who have high cholesterol. There are more than 700,000 niacin prescriptions written every month at a cost of $800 million per year. But two recent studies show that not only is there little evidence that niacin actually reduces heart attack and stroke risks, the drug can cause serious side effects in those patients taking the drug.

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 Posted on September 18, 2014 in Uncategorized

A recent poll shows that despite being aware of the dangers of texting and driving and other activities that contribute to distracted driving, many Americans still engage in these unsafe driving practices. In an online poll conducted by Harris Interactive, 90 percent of the 2,045 adults who participated in the survey said texting while driving was wrong, yet over one-third of participants admitted they read and send text messages when they are driving. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), in 2012, there were 3,328 people killed in crashes caused by a distracted driver. Another 420,000 people were injured. The risk of getting into a vehicle crash triples when a person uses a cell phone or other mobile device. The large number of distracted driving victims has spurred national campaigns by many organizations to educate the public about the dangers of distracted driving. According to poll participants’ responses, that education appears to be working:

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 Posted on September 16, 2014 in Uncategorized

In 1992, Congress enacted the Prescription Drug User Fee Act. This act enabled the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to accept fees from drug manufacturers when they submit a new drug for approval. In order to keep those fees, the FDA is required to keep on schedule during the testing process, which has resulted in a much quicker approval process than there was before the law was passed. But has that change caused more dangerous drugs to end up in patients’ medicine cabinets? That is the concern of many physicians after the results of a new study were published in the medical journal Health Affairs. Using data from the Tufts Center for Drug Development, researchers looked at the 748 medications which were approved by the FDA from 1975 to 2009 to find out how frequent there were safety problems with medications. What they found was that since 1992, one of four drugs that have gone through the process and have received the FDA’s seal of approval ended up either receiving a black box warning or being pulled off the market completely. A black box warning is the FDA’s most severe warning issued. A black box warning is put on all of a prescription medication’s packaging (including magazine advertisements) when the following apply:

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 Posted on September 11, 2014 in Uncategorized

Does the time of day, week and month a person has a heart attack play a role in whether or not a they survive the attack? According to a new study, it does.

The research, sponsored by the American Heart Association, found that heart attack patients who arrived at the hospital during the night, on weekends or on a holiday had a 13 percent more risk of not surviving the attack compared with patients who arrive at the hospital during regular daytime business hours.

The research team looked at the records of heart attack victims from 447 U.S. hospitals during the years 2007 to 2010. The records consisted of 15,972 heart attack patients who had arrived at hospitals during business hours and 27,270 patients who had arrived during non-business hours.

When a person suffers from coronary heart disease, the arteries become hardened, or even blocked, which reduces the blood flow to the heart. This restriction of blood causes heart attacks. When a person is having a heart attack, the sooner they receive a procedure called an angioplasty, the more likely they are to survive. Angioplasty restores blood flow and reduces the chest pain of an attack. The procedure also minimizes the damage an attack can do to the heart muscle.

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 Posted on September 04, 2014 in Uncategorized

Statistics show that more than 213,000 children under the age of 18 end up in emergency rooms for injuries they receive while at playgrounds. The majority of those children injured are between the ages of 2 to 9 years old; however, the ages of children who receive the most injuries are between the ages of 5 and 12 years old. Other statistics regarding playground injuries include:

• The majorities of injuries, 90 percent, are caused by a fall from playground equipment, especially if a child lands on a hard surface.
• The most common injuries received are fractures (35 percent), bruises (20 percent), cuts (20 percent), and sprains and strains (11 percent). Other injuries a child can receive are concussions, internal injuries, amputations and even death.

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 Posted on September 02, 2014 in Uncategorized

Parents use baby gates to help protect children from falling down stairs and keep them safe from other injuries. But a recent study reveals that those baby gates are responsible for almost 2,000 trips to the emergency room every year because a young child has received a baby gate-related injury.

The study was performed by the Center for Injury Research and Policy and published in Academic Pediatrics. Researchers used data that was collected by the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System between the years 1990 through 2010.

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 Posted on August 28, 2014 in Uncategorized

Known as the last “official” weekend of the summer, this year Labor Day weekend arrives at 6 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 29, and ends at 11:59 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 1. The very first Labor Day was held in New York City on Tuesday, September 5, 1882, when the Central Labor Union held a demonstration, which was followed by a picnic. The U.S. Department of Labor credits machinist Matthew McGuire with coming up with the idea of a holiday.

AAA Travel is predicting there will be 35 million people traveling 50 miles or more from their home this Labor Day weekend, the highest it has been since the recession hit the economy in 2008. Over 29 million of those celebrating the holiday will be doing their traveling on the road.

Unfortunately, the increase in the number of vehicles on the road traveling for the weekend also means an increase in the amount of vehicle crashes. According to the National Safety Council (NSC), there will be 395 fatalities on the nation’s roads this Labor Day. Another 42,300 people will be injured in vehicle crashes.

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 Posted on August 26, 2014 in Uncategorized

Primary enforcement laws against texting and driving appear to be working in helping to reduce the number of vehicle accidents and fatalities, according to a recent study by the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). The study found that in states that had primary texting bans, there was a three percent decrease in fatalities, an average of 19 lives saved every year.

In data collected by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDCP) in 2011, 31 percent of drivers between the ages of 18 to 64 admitted to either reading or sending text messages or emails while they were driving within the prior 30 days of the survey. That year, there were 3,331 deaths and 387,000 injuries in accidents caused by distracted drivers.

The laws among states all vary. There are states which have banned texting while driving for all drivers, while others have only banned texting for younger drivers. In some states, the ban is a primary enforcement law, which means that law enforcement does not need another reason to stop a driver suspected of texting and driving. However, in other states, the ban is classified as a secondary enforcement law. This means that a police officer needs another reason, such as running a stop sign, brake light out, etc., in order for the officer to be able to stop you.

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 Posted on August 21, 2014 in Uncategorized

The guardrails that line major road roads across the country are supposed to act as safety barriers that reduce the risk of injuries in vehicle accidents by absorbing the impact of the vehicle and slowing it down. The guardrail ends are designed to hold the rail together during the impact of a crash so the metal rail does not impale the vehicle – or the passengers inside it. But one type of guardrail is being blamed for at least four deaths and multiple injuries, according to lawsuits that have been filed in several states. The state of Nevada has even gone so far as to remove the ET-Plus end terminal model of guardrail from its approved list of products. The original model had a guardrail head that was five inches wide. In 2005, Trinity Industries, manufacturer of the product, changed the width to four inches, and at the same time also made the feeder narrower. According to the lawsuits that have been filed, this change to the design causes the guardrail to not work properly. Compounding the issues for the manufacturer is their failure to notify the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) of the design change, which they were required to do by law. Trinity argues that the change was done on the recommendation of Texas A&M Transportation Institute researchers who had designed the original product. The company claims the reason why the government was not notified of the change until seven years later was because the researchers “inadvertently omitted” the design drawing that indicated those changes. Several victims of the crashes have been impaled by the guardrails, including one 24 year-old driver who had both legs severed when a guardrail impaled the bottom of his vehicles. That victim did survive the crash. If you have been injured in a vehicle crash and have received those injuries because of defective or malfunctioning product, contact an experienced San Antonio personal injury attorney to find out what compensation you may be entitled to for pain and loss.

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 Posted on August 19, 2014 in Uncategorized

Many sicknesses, illnesses, and injuries can bring a whole host of residual medical problems with them, oftentimes resulting in continuing and ongoing care. Medications have become very commonly prescribed in Texas and throughout the United States, creating a lucrative financial market for the manufacturers of these drugs, in addition to driving up the patient costs to obtain them.

For this reason, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted pharmaceutical companies the right to manufacture their own generic equivalents for certain common medications. Not only did this allow consumers to better access and afford their prescriptions, but it also helped to regulate the economics of the pharmaceutical market. On paper, this is a wonderful system that has the potential to save you money in the short and long term.

The problem with generic medications, however, is that they are often not held to the exact same health and safety standards as their brand name equivalents.

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