“I know I need to quit, but I really am afraid of gaining weight,” Renee Polort said. “It’s tough to quit to begin with and then you think about adding pounds and it easily becomes something you can put off.”

Now new research may help scientists develop a drug that can help smokers quit and keep the weight off.  Smoking cessation researchers have found a specific pathway in mice that shows how smoking can suppress appetites.

Led by Yale School of Medicine, the research team found that a specific type of brain nicotine receptor in the hypothalamus, a brain center that controls feeding, allows nicotine to reduce food intake in laboratory mice.

Senior author Dr Marina Picciotto, the Charles B.G. Murphy Professor of Psychiatry, and professor of neurobiology and pharmacology at Yale School of Medicine says, “We found that nicotine reduced eating and body fat through receptors implicated in nicotine aversion and withdrawal rather than reward and reinforcement.”  He went on to say, “Ultimately, we would like to help people maintain their body weight when they kick the habit and perhaps help non-smokers who are struggling with obesity.”

While more research is needed, Picciotto believes it is the first step in developing new medications.

“These results indicate that medications that specifically target this pathway could alleviate nicotine withdrawal as well as reduce the risk of overeating during smoking cessation.”

The new study was published this week in the online journal Science.

About Zyban

Right now Zyban is the hot new medication designed to help smokers quit.  It is approved by the FDA and doesn’t force a smoker to quit cold turkey.  A smoker can take the pill while they are smoking and slowly wean themselves off cigarettes.  Zyban can be taken after a smoker kicks the habit to help deal with cravings.

“There just seems to be no end to my sneezing and runny nose,” Linda Hattle said.  “I’ve tried over the counter medications but they are more a reactionary treatment, rather than a proactive solution that could stop my symptoms before they start.”

At Pollen.com, a site that forecasts just how bad pollen is in the U.S., shows most of the country is dealing with medium to high pollen content.

“The increase in rainfall is the cause. When there’s more rain, everything has a burst of growth and vitality. More buds form. When the pollination process occurs, the buds are bigger. Our grass season this year is going to be brutal,” Dr. John T. Given said.

The allergist says tree pollen is the most prevalent allergen from March through the end of May. From May through June, grass pollen can cause the same allergic symptoms.

“Then about July and right up until right around Aug. 12, it’s almost a precise event, there usually is a let up in pollen allergens,” he added.

While people like Hattle have just about had it with this season’s allergy attacks, Given says she is not alone and suggests seeing a doctor to get a prescription to deal with onslaught of symptoms.

“You can try to live with it and hope it will go away on its own. That won’t happen,” he explained. “Some people go to the pharmacy and find an over-the-counter antihistamine and sometimes that works sufficiently. What it will not do is reduce the allergic inflammation of the mucous membranes. The third option is to see your doctor and come up with a pre-emptive plan. Maybe it will be a prescription for a cortisone spray like Flonase or Nasonex. They deactivate allergic inflammation.”

About Flonase

Flonase comes as a liquid spray for the nose. It is usually sprayed in each nostril once daily or twice daily in the morning and evening. It is sometimes used only as needed to treat symptoms. Follow the directions on your prescription label carefully, and ask your doctor or pharmacist to explain any part you do not understand.

“Mortality rates are going down for everybody with high blood pressure, but despite the availability of several types of medication to reduce blood pressure, there is still a large gap between those with hypertension and those without,” said Earl S. Ford, M.D., M.P.H., study author and medical officer with the U.S. Public Health Service at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The study found:

• Those with high blood pressure are 42 percent more likely to die than those without high blood pressure
• Mortality rates had fallen to 14.3 in hypertensive patients — 57 percent higher than in those without high blood pressure
• Although men are more likely to die than women the decline in deaths among hypertensive men was more than four times larger than among hypertensive women

People like Earl Spencer say medications help him keep his blood pressure under control but he knows he needs to take better care of himself.

“The pills help, but I know that my weight is a concern and something I need to take a more active approach in dealing with,” he said.  This Minneapolis native weighs close to 300 pounds.  “I know if I get my weight under control it will help alleviate a lot of other health problems.”

Tips to eating healthier

• *Change gradually
• *Add a vegetable or fruit serving at lunch and dinner.
• *Use only half the butter or margarine you do now.
• *Spread out the servings. Have two servings of fruits and/or vegetables at each meal, or add fruits as snacks.
• *Treat meat as one part of the meal, instead of the focus. Try casseroles, pasta, and stir-fry dishes.
• *Have two or more meatless meals a week.

“Viagra has received more media attention and entered the pop culture to an extent greater than any other drug,” Pfizer attorney Daniel P. DiNapoli said. “Part of the reason for that, no doubt, is the subject matter to which Viagra relates – sex. But there were ED treatments before Viagra, and none of those received anywhere near the attention that Viagra has received.

Now the hot seller, which brings in about a billion dollars worth of sales of Pfizer, is tangled up in a court battle.   Pfizer has two patents; one that was approved for heart problems and another that was approved for treating erectile dysfunction, or ED.  One of the patents is set to expire in 2012.  When a patent expires typically other companies come in and sell a similar drug much cheaper, but Pfizer is fighting to stop that.

Teva Pharmaceuticals is trying to get the ball rolling to sell a generic form of Viagra, which has landed the company in court battling against Pfizer.

The maker’s of Viagra said, “We believe our patent is valid and infringed, and are enforcing our rights under the patent.”  They would like to see their patent upheld until 2019.  Their statement went on to say, “What distances Viagra from these other ED treatments was that Viagra was an effective oral treatment for erectile dysfunction, an ED pill. Pfizer’s success with Viagra was the end result of a long research and development project.”

Teva Pharmaceuticals declined to comment.  Lawyers say these kinds of lawsuits can take months to settle.

Google has recently been in the news, and not in the way it usually enjoys: it’s being investigated for its role in allowing fraudulent online pharmacies to advertise on its Google Ads network.  Since websites are on the hook for the behavior of sites they accept advertising from, Google is in some serious trouble: it’s being investigated by the Department of Justice, and their executives are so certain that the probe will reflect badly on them that they’ve set aside $500 million for potential settlements.

Five hundred million dollars is a heart-stopping number for any company, even a behemoth like Google, currently valued at $167 billion.  It’s especially problematic because it speaks to issues with how Google sells advertising: 96% of its online business revenue. So Google will need to take steps…but which ones?

In the short term, it will certainly tighten its verification process: businesses, including pharmacies, will no doubt need to verify their legitimacy with several different groups before Google will do business with them.  But that’s not going to slow down criminals for long: counterfeit medication rakes in billions for organized crime syndicates and other criminals, and the vast majority of their targets come from the Internet.  They’re going to do their best to get around Google’s safeguards, by any means necessary.

So what else might Google do?  The most drastic solution is to simply ban online pharmacies from advertising altogether, regardless of their legitimacy.  It would certainly keep Google from being investigated by the Department of Justice, but it would probably open a new legal can of worms, as Google will likely be taken to court by legitimate businesses demanding access to Google’s huge audience.  The free speech laws, especially international ones, are unclear, to say the least: doing this would mean Google is exploring some murky, ill-thought-out waters.

Another solution might be to simply ratchet up the requirements so high that only the biggest pharmacies can pass the checks and buy the ads.  This might well be the solution: it’s easier to do, and less likely to trigger a legal suit.  It also avoids the international ramifications.

Finally, it might simply restrict advertising to the pharmacy’s country of origin.  For example, a Canadian pharmacy could buy as many Google ads as it likes, but it will only be seen by Canadian IP addresses.  This might actually be the most effective method: even the best gangster shell company can’t stand up against restrictions like that.

One thing Google will almost certainly do is work with other online companies to find and shut out these illegal operations.  In fact, Google’s top executives were at the White House with other high-tech stars doing precisely that on the day the Justice Department announced its probe.  Not the best timing, but perhaps an illustration of how Google intends to keep its money in its coffers and not distributed by courts.

Either way, we’ll need to see how the settlement goes, but one thing is for certain: the easy days of criminals selling bad medicine to the elderly and the uninsured are coming to a rapid end, and we’re all better for it.

It seems that just about everyone is taking several prescription drugs daily. In the old days, pharmacists kept track of all of your prescriptions, ensuring that no adverse drug reactions or dangerous drug combinations took place. Now, however, you’re mostly on your own.

Did you know that various combinations of medications can actually cause death? That’s just one of the many reasons why it’s important that you become educated regarding dangerous drug combinations and how to avoid them.

Some of the more common dangerous prescription drug interactions include:

• Several fatalities have been recorded due to the combination of sildenafil (Viagra) and nitrates.
• Taking warfarin (a blood thinner) and aspirin can increase the risk of bleeding.
• Taking lisinopril (a blood pressure medication) and potassium can cause abnormal heart rhythms.

So what can you do to prevent any sort of dangerous drug interactions? Follow these tips:

• Keep track of your prescriptions with technology. There are many apps and websites that can help you to keep track of your medications and will even alert you of any possible adverse drug reactions. Some examples are: the free desktop app My Medication Tracker by Consumer Reports, iRxHelper for Apple products, and the PDF document My Medicine List from SafeMedication.
• Keep a “master list” of the medications that you take on a daily basis — written down on an index card. Include the names of the medications, the names of the prescribing doctors, and the medication dosage. Keep this card in your wallet or purse for emergencies.
• Always read the labels! Even if it’s just an over-the-counter drug, be sure that you read the entire label and note any possible drug interactions.
• If you enjoy alcohol from time to time, become educated about how it interacts with your prescriptions. Ask your pharmacist or doctor what type of reactions you can expect after consuming alcohol while taking your medications.
• Try to get all your prescriptions at the same pharmacy. This way, your pharmacist will have your drug history on file and will be able to answer any questions you may have regarding possibly dangerous combinations.
• Always keep your doctors informed as to which prescription drugs you are currently taking.
• Never take a medication prescribed to anyone else, even a family member. Just because it’s okay for your sister to take a particular drug for a particular issue doesn’t mean that it’s okay for you to use that same drug for that same ailment. That drug could be dangerous when combined with a prescription that you’re currently taking.
• Remember that vitamins are considered drugs, too! Be sure to read the entire label on your vitamins, and become acquainted with what’s in your multivitamin so that you can avoid any dangerous drug combinations.

By taking control of tracking your medications with the above tips and tricks, you can help to avoid any sort of negative drug combination in the future.

(Picture Credit: Cialis Database, All Global News on One Page)

More and more people are purchasing their medications online today—and some are doing so without a prescription. That’s right—many online pharmacies that operate in foreign countries don’t even require that you have a prescription to purchase medications, including pain killers that are highly addictive. Could the easy accessibility of addictive medications through online pharmacies be causing a rise in narcotic prescription drug abuse in the United States?

A new study conducted by investigators from the University of Southern California and Massachusetts General Hospital showed that, over a seven-year span of time, the states that had the greatest expansion of high-speed Internet access showed the most significant increase in drug abuse treatment admissions. Specifically, for every 10% increase in high-speed Internet availability, a roughly 1% increase in prescription drug abuse admissions was seen.

Dana Goldman, director of the Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics at the University of Southern California, stated, “Our findings suggest that Internet growth may partly explain the increase in prescription drug abuse, since it is well known that these drugs are easily available online.”

What’s really interesting is that during that same seven-year period, rehab admissions to treat abuse of cocaine, heroin, alcohol, and other drugs that can’t be purchased over the Internet either rose very little or fell.

Anupam Jena of the MGH Department of Medicine elaborated, “The lack of an increase in abuse of drugs not available on the Internet suggests that an overall growth in drug-seeking behavior cannot explain the rise in prescription drug abuse.”

The results seem to speak for themselves: The rise of online pharmacies coincides with a rise in prescription drug abuse. The scary thing is that this study could only report on those that were admitted to rehab facilities due to prescription drug abuse. Unfortunately, all those that are addicted to prescription drugs and haven’t gotten help yet couldn’t be counted, so who knows what the real numbers look like and how large the effect of online pharmacies on prescription drug abuse really is.

Generic alternatives are offered for about 75% of medications approved by the Food and Drug Administration. They save both patient and insurer a bunch of money, sure, but did you realize that switching medications—even just from brand-name to generic—can actually be dangerous? And that’s a real issue now, as insurance companies are beginning to push generic medications more than ever before.

Earlier this month, Deborah Jordahl, a volunteer with Lily’s Fund, wrote an informative and disturbing article that discussed her daughter’s struggle with finding the right epilepsy drug. Along the search for the right epilepsy drug for Anna, Jordahl’s daughter, Anna’s doctor informed the mother-daughter pair that while the differences between name-brand and generic drugs may be minimal, they’re enough to worsen side effects or to cause breakthrough seizures. Jordahl believes that a generic drug that her daughter was on may have caused her breakthrough seizure and led to the worsening of her epilepsy symptoms.

She goes on to explain that her home state of Wisconsin, like many other states, doesn’t require pharmacists to inform customers if their medication has been switched to a generic drug. “Insurance companies not only push, but actually pay ‘bonuses’ to pharmacists who do this because generic drugs are cheaper and will save the insurance companies money,” Jordahl explains. “While switching to generic allergy or acid reflux medications might carry little to no risk, that’s not the case with epilepsy.”

Indeed it’s not. We’ll take it one step further and say that while it may be fine to switch acne or dandruff medication to a generic, it would not be acceptable to switch birth control pills, blood thinners, or other medications that can have life-changing consequences to generic medications.

If you are contemplating switching to a generic medication, there are several things you can do to ensure a smooth transition. Dr. Oz, that beloved celebrity doctor, recommends doing the following after switching to a generic medication:

• Monitor how you’re feeling before and after the switch.
• For diabetic medication switches, keep close track of your blood sugar count and report any significant changes to your doctor immediately.
• For blood pressure medication switches, keep track of your blood pressure and report any changes to your doctor.
• With epilepsy drugs, request that your doctor take blood levels before and after switching to generics.

What do you think? Are insurance companies putting their customers’ health at risk by pushing generic medications?

Google is many things to many people, but as a business, Google is in one industry above all others: selling advertising.  96% of its billions upon billions of profits come from those ads you see next to and above your search results.  Google ads are valuable because Google can guarantee the traffic to the keyword: most of the Internet uses Google as its default search engine.

The problem, though, is that anybody can buy a Google ad, including criminals, and Google keeps the money while the consumer has no one to turn to.

It’s more than just an ethics issue: websites are legally on the hook for the behavior of their advertisers.   It’s an especially big problem for Google, which largely automates its advertising purchases: customers bid on keywords to place ads next to, just like any other online auction.  Google works hard to maintain the security of its system and verify the identity of its customers, but like any system, it can be tricked, and that’s where the problems come in.

One of the biggest areas in online fraud is illegal pharmacies.  As we’ve mentioned, illegal pharmacies cost legitimate pharmacies, pharmaceutical companies, and consumers billions, as well as putting their health at risk with low-quality or even counterfeit medication.  In a recent example, hundreds of men in Singapore took counterfeit Viagra that contained a potent diabetes treatment, causing serious organ damage, coma, and even death.  Even worse, they have connections with organized crime and other dangerous entities.  Counterfeit medication is one of the few areas where public health and racketeering intersect.

But there’s no denying the market is there.  Fraudulent pharmacies target customers who may potentially be embarrassed about going to their doctor to obtain drugs like Propecia or Viagra, or whose doctor has refused to prescribe them the medication, or who may simply be looking for the cheapest possible deal.  In addition, there are millions of seniors, some with thirty or more prescriptions, on fixed incomes, looking to save a few dollars in their already tight budgets.  Fraudulent pharmacies use targeted keyword ads to find these customers as they Google for their medication, offering them surprisingly low prices and a reassuring, but false, word of comfort as their money is taken and they get nothing in return.

Recently, Google admitted it had set aside $500 million for a potential settlement of fines with the Justice Department, catching even the most dedicated and keen-eyed Google watchers by total surprise.  It turns out that fraudulent pharmacies had bought hundreds of millions of dollars in Google Ads…which raises the troubling question of just how much money these fake pharmacies made, if they could spend that much money attracting customers.  It’s very difficult to track just how much money the fake drug industry collects in a given year, but it’s been speculated to be billions in fraud.

It’s doubtful that Google was knowingly selling advertising to fraudulent pharmacies: this is a company whose motto is “Don’t be evil”, and they recently teamed up with other Internet giants like Microsoft to fight fraudulent pharmacies.  It is, however, a potent reminder of some old, old advice: let the buyer beware.

Image Credit:

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You’ve heard the jokes.  We here at eDrugstore.md have heard them twice, plus we get them as email forwards: people buy the kinds of drugs online that they don’t even want their doctor to know about.  Erectile dysfunction drugs like Viagra or Cialis, baldness drugs such as Propecia…drugs people want, but maybe don’t really need.

The reality, though, might surprise you.

In recent surveys of online drugstores, the number one pill purchased is…various forms of high blood pressure medication.  Surprised?  Don’t be.  74.5 million Americans from all walks of life have high blood pressure, also called hypertension.  It can be caused by anything from alcohol abuse to diabetes to simple aging, and is also generally the source of a wide range of medical problems.  It’s vital to keep it under control, medically speaking, as even mild high blood pressure can aggravate a whole host of problems.  And as many people need to cut costs, so they find the lowest price available, especially for the more advanced prescriptions.

Second?  Abilify, aka aripiprazole, an antidepressant and antipsychotic medication.  Again, it’s less than surprising: depression is extremely common across America and Abilify, while effective, isn’t cheap.  In fact, anti-depressants are extremely common.

Third?  None other than…Provigil.  What’s that?  It treats narcolepsy: kind of important for narcolepsy sufferers.

This is a common theme throughout the list: the most popular drugs are the ones that treat common problems like thyroid disorders, cholesterol control, and, er, athlete’s foot (Lamisil is a popular prescription).  Especially common are drugs that don’t currently have a generic on the market, which isn’t surprising.  The difference between a generic drug price and a “brand name” can be enormous.

In fact, you have to almost leave the top ten before you come across an ED drug, and it happens to be Bayer’s Levitra, third place in sales next to Viagra and Cialis.  Those drugs?  Float at 19 and 21, respectively, barely making the top 25.

So why are all these utilitarian drugs on the list while the ones you’d expect aren’t the hits you thought they were?  It’s all about the market you’re looking at, and the big market for pharmaceuticals is…senior citizens.

Our seniors consume enormous amounts of pharmaceuticals.  Seniors spend nearly $3000 a year on medications, and can average a total of 30 prescriptions, an average that only goes up the older they get. Furthermore, many seniors live on a fixed income; as their doctor puts them on more drugs, and as those drugs become rarer and thus pricier, they look to cut corners to maintain their health while having a little money in their wallet.  Online purchases have a second advantage: no driving, so it’s one less trip they need to take.  This is especially important for shut-ins and seniors with limited mobility.

So, in short, the person buying drugs online isn’t your vain, aging uncle: it’s your grandmother.  Well, also your vain, aging uncle, but your grandmother outspends him.  Online pharmacies fill an important niche for our elderly, keeping them healthy, happy, and running fewer errands.