Medicine

Making Drugs from Plants
by Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
In Samoa, native healers called 'taulasea' use the leaves of a small tree to treat back pain and abdominal swelling. They use the roots to treat diarrhea and the wood to treat yellow fever.

Medicine Safety and Effectiveness
by Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
At the turn of the 20th century, there were no federal regulations to protect the public from dangerous drugs. "It was a menacing marketplace filled with products such as William Radam's Microbe Killer and Benjamin Bye's Soothing Balmy Oils to cure

Pediatric Drug Safety
by Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
More than half of the prescription drugs that children are likely to use have not been adequately tested or labeled for youngsters. But an FDA rule now requires makers of many drugs to provide information on safe pediatric use.

Insulin Products
by Health Canada
Animal-sourced and biosynthetic (man-made) human insulins are used worldwide for managing diabetes. Recently, some concern has been expressed about the overall safety of insulins and the availability of animal-sourced insulins for those patients

Fish and Sea Life Yield Some Medical Answers
by Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
Osteoporosis, a crippling disease marked by a wasting away of bone mass, affects as many as 25 million Americans, 90 percent of them women, at an expense of $10 billion a year, according to the National Osteoporosis Foundation.

Drugs: Serious Liver Injury
by Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
Drug-induced liver injury has become the number one cause of acute liver failure and the leading reason that drugs are removed from the market or require restricted use. People who experience acute liver failure become critically ill in a matter of days

Drug Name Confusion
by Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
Health experts work to minimize the potential for confusion between products with names that look or sound alike. Medication errors can occur between brand names, generic names, and brand-to-generic names like Toradol and tramadol.

Spotting Health Scams
by National Institute on Aging
Unproven remedies promise false hope. Often they offer cures that are painless or quick. Why do people fall for these sales pitches? After all, at best these treatments are worthless. At worst, they are dangerous.

Serious Drug Interactions Prevention : Discoveries After Approval
by Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
Three phases of clinical trials in humans must happen before a drug can be marketed. Phase 1 studies focus on a drug's side effects and how the drug is metabolized and eliminated from the body. Phase 2 studies focus on a drug's effectiveness.

Just What Is a Biologic, Anyway?
by Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
It used to be that most common biological products were vaccines and blood products. But today, the emergence of biologics with drug-like actions and other uses have made the answer to this question more complicated.

BiDil: Heart Drug for Black Patients
by Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
BiDil is a combination of two older drugs, hydralazine and isosorbide dinitrate. Hydralazine relaxes the arteries so the heart doesn't have to work as hard to push blood through them. Isosorbide dinitrate relaxes both the veins and the arteries.

Pharmacists Help Solve Medication Mysteries
by Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
Whenever a patient comes in with a new prescription or for the first refill, Gideon discusses with the client how and when to take the medication, common side effects, and foods and drugs (both prescription and over-the-counter) to avoid

Proper Use and Disposal of Medication
by Health Canada
There is growing evidence that throwing out or flushing into the water system prescription drugs, non-prescription drugs and other health products may have a harmful effect on the environment.

Genomics and Personalized Medicine : What Are the Potential Benefits?
by Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
The main benefit of pharmacogenomics for consumers is the availability of drugs that have a greater chance of benefit in terms of treating illness, says Janet Woodcock, M.D., the FDA's deputy commissioner for operations.

Imported Drugs Safety: Benefits of a Closed System
by Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
Drugs sold in the United States also must have proper labeling that conforms with the FDA's requirements, and must be made in accordance with good manufacturing practices. As part of the FDA's high standards, drugs can only be manufactured at plants

Why Drugs Get Pulled Off the Market
by Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
Most drugs on the market are well-tolerated and their adverse effects are known. Known side effects cause more injuries and deaths than unrecognized side effects. But some problems happen so infrequently that they can't be seen or predicted before a drug

TV Drug Ads That Make Sense
by Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
The secret's out. The prescription drug Claritin is an antihistamine for seasonal allergies, new TV commercials reveal. Before August 1997, the Claritin television ads said little beyond, 'At last, a clear day is here' and 'It's time to see your doctor.'

Equivalence of Generic Drugs
by Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
After a scandal rocked the generic drug industry, FDA tightened up its regulation of the manufacture of medications that duplicate brand-name products but usually cost much less. Although not all approved drugs are available in a generic version

Truth in Drug Advertising : Education or Promotion?
by Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
At least one patient advocacy group is concerned about what it says are the downsides of advertising prescription drugs directly to consumers, claiming that DTC ads often masquerade as educational tools, but provide more promotion than education.

Careful with Pain Relievers
by Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
Experts urge care to avoid accidental overdosing and the risks for liver damage and other serious health problems. Acetaminophen is a safe and effective pain reliever that benefits millions of consumers.