The number of patients being prescribed both opioids and benzodiazepine has risen by 41 percent

U.S. health officials informed that combining prescription opioids with sedatives such as Xanax and Valium can generate a lethal overdose.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said that the public and health professionals must be warned on more that 389 separate products of the potentially fatal overdose.

Dr. Doug Throckmorton, the manager of regulatory programs at the FDA’s Center for Research and Drug Evaluation, mentioned that benzodiazepines, including Xanax and Valium, attack the central nervous system, and are utilized to handle diseases like insomnia, anxiety, and seizures.

Throckmorton believes that when these medications are combined with opioids such as hydrocodone (Vicodin) and oxycodone (Oxycontin), a drug synergy can take place which could be followed by coma or death.

The move appears after an extended review of scientific proof by the FDA pointed out that doctors have been frequently prescribing these medications together. Moreover, in February, the health officials in states across the country requested the agency to change the drug labels, indicating a rise in overdoses from concomitant use of the drugs.

Baltimore’s health commissioner, Dr. Leana Wen and head of the effort mentioned that she had seen many patients who have been prescribed benzodiazepines and opioids together. She believes that changing the labels of the medicine could stop deaths from this deadly combination.

FDA’s commissioner, Dr. Robert Califf, says that the sharp increase of avoidable overdose and death associated with two extensively used drug classes being combined is close to a public health crisis.

The agency stated that the number of patients being prescribed both opioids and benzodiazepine has risen by 41 percent during the period of the research. It could be interpreted as an enhancement of more than 2.5 million opioid patients being prescribed benzodiazepines.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more individuals died from prescription medicine overdose in 2014 than any other recorded year. In 2014, opioids killed more than 28,000 people, and the CDC mentioned that more than half of the death were due to prescription drugs.

Dr. Leana Wen urged the patients to examine the drugs they use and doctors to notice the new warning.

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Excess weight increases the risk of being diagnosed with cancers

Excess weight can increase the possibility of being diagnosed with cancers of the gallbladder, stomach, liver, ovary, pancreas, and thyroid. Moreover, researchers have recently added eight more cancers to the list that we already knew could affect overweight people.

The list also includes a type of blood cancer called multiple myeloma as well as a brain cancer known as meningioma. An earlier review by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC),  part of the World Health Organization found that those who avoid gaining weight could reduce their risk for developing eight other types of cancer. These include cancer of the esophagus, colon, uterus, breast, and kidney.

The researcher’s next step is to find out whether overweight and obese individuals can reduce their risk for cancer by losing weight.

Director of Public Policy at Cancer Council Australia, Paul Grogan, mentioned that more cases of cancer connected to excess weight had been diagnosed in Australia than first believed. Around 4,000 such cases of cancer are diagnosed each year in Australia and are generated by excess weight.

According to the information published by Cancer Council Australia in 2015, one in 10 cases of colon cancer is immediately attributed to excess weight and 26 percent of endometrial cancers were linked to being overweight or obese.

However, it is premature to presume that obesity causes cancer, but we can say that there is a correlation between obesity and enhanced risk of many known malignancies.

The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) reviewed more than 1,000 examinations carried all over the world, involving both men and women. Some of the studies evaluated excess weight based on waist circumference measurements and some regarding body-mass index (BMI). They have classified overweight as displaying a BMI between 25 and 29.9 and obesity as reflecting a BMI of 30 or more.

The research team also highlighted that the absence of excess body fatness reduces the risk of most cancers. Because of the lack of human subjects, they failed to clarify this aspect.

However, the animal studies have indicated that weight loss may hold a cancer-preventive result.

The researchers stated that there are many good reasons to balance the food we eat with adequate exercise, get back into shape, and avoid excess weight. By doing so, the individuals will lower risk of heart disease, diabetes, as well as cancer.

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A constitutional amendment will increase more than three times the taxes on a pack of cigarettes.

The Secretary of State’s Office said that a proposed constitutional amendment will be on this year’s general election ballot and would increase more than three times the taxes on a pack of cigarettes in Colorado.

The initiative apparently has more than the needed 98,492 authentic signatures from enrolled voters to qualify. If the initiative passes in November, the tax will increase from 84 cents to $2.59 per pack starting January. Taxes on cigars and chewing tobacco would increase by 22 percent.

Moreover, the measure will move Colorado near the high end of tobacco taxes. Colorado ranks 38th in the nation for tobacco taxes and will move to 11th. Proponents turned in 161,412 petitions on the 8th of August.

The Campaign for a Healthy Colorado, an alliance of health groups and specialists, believes that its initiative would generate $315 million next year for existing tobacco prevention and suspension programs. According to the independent Colorado Fiscal Institute, the state obtained $165 million in cigarette taxes in 2013.

Chris Stille, a pediatrician at Children’s Hospital Colorado, assumes that this is an exceptional measure that will save lives. It could also create healthier environments for future generations and avoid getting more kids addicted to tobacco related products.

With the revenue generated by the tax, medical research into cancer and other diseases could be properly conducted. Moreover, smoking cessation programs could be expanded, or the much-needed medical and mental health care for veterans could be attended.

It could be a significant advance in health care plans and medical investigation to access youth behavioral health services or student-loan payment programs for specialists in rural areas.

David C. Goff Jr., board president of the Denver chapter of the American Heart Association and dean of the Colorado School of Public Health, states that this is the best measure they can take to improve health in Colorado.

Four other bills have suited for the ballot through citizen petitions: medical aid in dying, an increase in the state’s minimum wage to $12 an hour by 2020, the ColoradoCare single-payer health care measure and a change in rules to amend the Colorado Constitution.

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People suffering from gallstones could have an increased risk of heart diseases.

Recent studies show that people who suffer from gallstones could have an increased risk of heart diseases.

People that live in neighborhoods that do not have access to healthy food stores are more likely to develop heart diseases. Scientists proved that having a healthier diet due to access to healthier foods is equal to less coronary plaque formation.

Neighborhoods with more fast foods restaurants and with access to limited fresh food alternatives have been linked to unhealthy diets which exposed the residents to signs of early heart diseases.

The explanation might be the fact that the evolution of gallstones is often attributed to excess cholesterol. The studies were conducted on more than 269,000 men and women for up to 30 years. It was concluded that over 6 percent of women and 3 percent of men said they’d ever been diagnosed with gallstones. Moreover, people who had a family history of this disease were 33 percent more likely to eventually develop heart diseases.

By connecting the findings with other studies that included nearly 900,000 people it was proved that adults with a history of this disease were 23 percent more likely to develop heart disease.

Researchers assumed that cases of gallstone disease might spur low levels of inflammation in the body that lead to the progression of heart disease. Moreover, gallstones disrupt the balance of trillions of bacteria and microbes in the human body, and recent studies have demonstrated links between such disturbances and the risk of heart disease.

A gallstone is a stone formed within the gallbladder out of bile components. Most of the people with this condition (about 80%) never have symptoms. Complications of gallstones include inflammation of the gallbladder, swelling of the pancreas, and liver inflammation. They might also include pain of more than five hours duration, fever, yellowish skin, vomiting, or tea-color urine.

Risk factors for gallstones include birth control pills, pregnancy, obesity, diabetes, liver disease, or rapid weight loss.

One can prevent the disease by maintaining a healthy weight and eating a proper diet. If there are no symptoms, treatment is usually not needed.

Cardiologist Dr. Richard Stein highlighted that gallstones and heart disease share some of the same risk factors like obesity or high levels of cholesterol which makes it possible that gallstones, themselves, are a risk factor for heart disease.

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Minorities are less likely to get help when dealing with mental problems

A new study has proved that minorities are less likely to get help when dealing with mental problems. The study investigated how often adults or children benefit from mental health services based on whether they are Hispanic, black or white.

Using the data picked from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey between 2006-2012, researchers decided how often people went to see a specialist concerning this matter. For this study, researchers analyzed data on adults aged 18-34 and children under 18.

A professor at the City University of New York and lecturer at Harvard Medical School revealed that minority kids do not get the help needed when confronted with mental issues. Instead, they get expelled or jailed. He finds that the real crime here is the lack of interest for minorities and believed that punishing people for their mental illness is ineffective and inhumane.

Researchers found that white children make 37 percent more visits to psychiatrists than black children and 49 percent more visits than Hispanic children. However, black children’s moderate use of the services was not due to lesser need.

The mental health problems of black and white children are similar. Moreover, the rates of brutal episodes that lead to psychiatric hospitalization or emergency visits were also similar for white and black children.

It has been proved that whites receive about three times more mental health services than Hispanics or blacks in the same age group.

While poor children had lower rates of medical care, the differences in income did not account for the racial/ethnic disparities in care.

Among children, boys got more mental health services than girls. Among young adults, women reported more visits.

Hispanic parents reported less mental health issues among their children but the finding reported underuse compared to non-Hispanic whites.

The findings also proved that the minorities with the highest rates of incarceration –Hispanics and blacks- make fewer visits to a mental health specialist than whites. However, other studies showed that half of the minority inmates had untreated mental illnesses when they were first convicted.

The author of the study also revealed that minorities’ very low substance abuse treatment rates contrast with their high rates of arrests due to substance abuse.

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