FDA: Do not use hundreds of drug products from King Bio Inc. Do not use water-based products made by King Bio Inc., the US Food and Drug Administration warned this week. "These products may pose a safety risk to people (especially infants, children, pregnant women and those with compromised immune systems), as well as pets due to high levels of microbial contamination identified at the manufacturing site," the agency said. The warning was issued as the company expanded a recall of
these products, which are labeled as Dr. King's. They include symptom relievers for ear infections, coughs, chicken pox, cold sores, warts, styes, swollen glands, snoring and tremors, appetite enhancers, attention and learning enhancers, and body detox. Also included are pet products for urinary incontinence, anxiety, allergies, muscle and joint arthritis, and digestion relief.
A list of the hundreds of products is posted onlinewith a message from company founder Franklin King. "While there have been no reports of illness or injury due to any of our products, we chose to issue the recall out of an abundance of caution," the message says. According to the FDA, King Bio said "several microbial contaminants were found in its
products, including Burkholderia Multivorans, which is a strain of bacteria called Burkholderia cepacia complex (BCC) that can cause illness in people with compromised immune systems. Additionally, evidence collected during the FDA's inspection indicates recurring microbial contamination associated with the water system used to manufacture drug products." ...Read More
A Simple Reason So Many Older Americans Are Overdosing on Opioids As the body ages, it often aches. In the U.S., 81 percent of adults over 65 endure multiple chronic conditions like arthritis, hypertension, heart disease, and diabetes. There also can be emotional pain from the loss of relatives and close friends and concerns about the continued ability to live independently. For those whose physical ailments prove almost paralyzing and chronic, health providers often prescribe opioid painkillers, such as hydrocodone and oxycodone. But that can lead to trouble. Last year, the Department of Health and Human Services declared the opioid crisis a public-health emergency. The department has
spent almost $900 million on treatment services and other initiatives, but still more and more Americans are dying of overdoses on opioids— in the forms of prescription pain pills, heroin, or synthetic drugs. While older adults are not the age group most affected by the crisis, the population of older adults who misuse opioids is projected to double from 2004 to 2020. A lot of factors contribute to this rise among the elderly. Many undergo several surgeries and are prescribed opioids that they use for a long time, which heightens their chances of
developing a disorder. Some take more than they need because the opioids they’ve been prescribed aren’t holding their pain at bay. Older adults of color, who face more barriers to getting the medications they need for pain, may get prescriptions from friends or family without proper instructions. But a recent poll highlights just how widespread another factor might be: doctors failing to warn their own patients about the risks that come with prescription pain relievers. Researchers involved with the University of Michigan’s
National Poll on Healthy Aging polled a nationally representative sample of 2,000 Americans, aged 50 to 80, about what their health-care providers talked about when prescribing opioid medication to them. In the past two years, 589 said they filled an opioid prescription. This group knew how often to take the medication, but the majority didn’t recall their doctors or pharmacists talking about the risk of addiction, the risk of overdose, or what to do with leftover pills. About 40 percent said their doctors didn’t talk to them about the side effects of opioid use or guide them on when to cut back on pain medications. ...Read More
Mediterranean diet shown to prolong seniors' lives A study of older adults by researchers in Italy suggests that the recipe for a longer life is to follow a Mediterranean diet. Many studies have already hailed the benefits to health and longevity of the Mediterranean diet, but few have focused on older people. The new research has come from the I.R.C.C.S. Neuromed Mediterranean Neurological Institute in Italy and comprises two parts. The first is a study that
followed 5,200 people aged 65 and older for approximately 8 years. The second is an analysis that added data from several other studies, bringing the total of older individuals evaluated to 12,000. In a paper on the findings that now features in the British Journal of Nutrition, the researchers describe how they found that the seniors whose
food intake most closely matched a Mediterranean diet lived the longest. First study author Marialaura Bonaccio, an epidemiologist at I.R.C.C.S. Neuromed, explains that while they knew "that the Mediterranean diet is able to reduce the risk of mortality in the general population," they did not know whether this might also be the case for older people
"specifically." She and her colleagues also observed that there was a "doseresponse" relationship between diet and survival in seniors: the closer the diet was to a Mediterranean one, the longer the survival. The findings support the idea that adopting or continuing with a Mediterranean diet could help older people "maximize their prospects for survival," they conclude….Read More
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