The medicine watchdog in Europe announced on Friday that the benefits of Diane-35, the acne drug, also used commonly as a contraceptive, outweigh the possibility of blood clots developing in veins, when the medicine is correctly prescribed. The risk of developing a clot is low, said the European Medicines Agency in a ruling that had been initiated by the French over the safety of the drug. However, the EMA stressed that Diane-35 along with its generics should only be used for treatment of acne, as... 

This week regulators from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved a Bayer AG new drug to treat certain forms of prostate cancer that are advanced. The drug will be sold under the name Xofigo and is meant to be used for prostate cancer that has already spread into the patient’s bones, but not into other organs, in men who previously received therapy designed to reduce testosterone. The hormone testosterone can stimulate the growth of prostate cancer. The medication will cost around $69,000... 

Angelina Jolie the Oscar winning actress and movie director made a life changing decision. The 37-year old revealed in an article in the New York Times that she had a double mastectomy in order to lower her risk of one day developing breast cancer. Her article was published in the Tuesday edition of the newspaper and Jolie said she went through the surgery in February that was followed by nearly three months of follow up treatment. Jolie opted for surgery due to her high risk of developing the... 

New evidence is suggesting that the risk of pancreatitis and other problems may be increased by a group of recently approved diabetes drugs. The Food and Drug Administration is looking into the discovery that samples of pancreas tissue taken from a small number of patients showed inflammation and cellular changes that often precede cancer. Researchers obtained the samples from patients with diabetes that were taking the new medications, after they died from various causes. Details of the research... 

High fat dairy products may be dangerous for women that have survived breast cancer. According to a recent study, survivors of breast cancer who ate as little as one serving per day of high-fat dairy foods had a risk of dying from breast cancer that was 49 percent higher than those who ate little or no high-fat dairy. Survivors who consumed the most high-fat dairy had a nearly 12 percent risk of dying of breast cancer. Lead author Candyce Kroenke, a staff scientist at Kaiser Permanente said the elevated... 

GlaxoSmithKline and Merck, two of the world’s largest drug makers, have slashed the price of vaccines for cervical cancer in the world’s poor countries. The price cut will deliver the shots to these countries at a cost of only $5 per dose. The new low price for the HPV – human papillomavirus vaccines should mean that protection against the disease would be available to millions of girls in these developing countries, said the Global Alliance for Vaccines on Thursday. In a prepared statement,... 

University of Edinburgh scientists have suggested that the sun exposure benefits related to the health of the heart might outweigh the risk an individual has for skin cancer development. Researchers, in an unprecedented study, found that when the skin is touched by sunlight, nitric oxide a compound that helps to lower the body’s blood pressure is released into the blood vessels. Senior Lecturer of Dermatology, Richard Weller and his colleagues said the benefit is such that over time the exposure... 

In his lectures, Dr. Robert Lustig of the University of California, San Francisco, explains in depth how the sweeteners that have been added to our food contributes to obesity and other metabolic disorders. Dr. Lustig has written a best-selling book, Fat Chance: Beating the Odds Against Sugar, Processed Food, Obesity and Disease. He has also released a popular YouTube lecture, “Sugar: The Bitter Truth,”, and had a subsequent profile in the New York Times Magazine. In a new study, Dr. Lustig and... 

Public health officials at the federal and state level say that valley fever, a fever than could be lethal but often times is misdiagnosed, is infecting an increasing amount of people across the nation. The warming of the climate and drought that has kicked dust up and that helps to spread the fever is causing more and more cases of the fever. The agricultural heartland of California has been hit particularly hard by the fever over recent years as the incidence rate has dramatically increased between... 

If a man does not have any prostate risk factors he can go his entire life without needing to take the PSA test, said members of the American Urological Association. In an updated clinical guideline that was unveiled on Friday, urologists said that just men aged between 55 and 69, should consider getting a PSA test if they show symptoms or signs of prostate cancer. The guideline said men should be tested only after discussing the entire pros and cons regarding the test with their physician. If they...