Antidepressants are one of the most prescribed medications out there.
One in six Americans takes antidepressants or other psychiatric medications, most of them (84.3%) on a long-term basis. (1) This is especially concerning when using addictive drugs like Valium and Xanax. (2)
That number is more than double what it was in 1999….
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Cipla, South Africa’s third-largest pharmaceutical manufacturer, in collaboration with Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd, has announced the launch of the country’s first biosimilar for the oncology and haematology markets.
Filgrastim Teva, manufactured by Teva and distributed in South Africa by Cipla, paves the way for more affordable treatments to aid in the fight against dread diseases such as cancer, according to Paul Miller, CEO of Cipla South Africa.
“This landmark development for the South African pharmaceutical industry only happened after a thorough approval process. Not only does the approval of Filgrastim Teva hold major significance for the advancement of affordable supportive oncology treatments, but the learnings from this process will assist in faster approvals for more biosimilar medicines in future.”
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Elderberry
It’s an old folk remedy. This fruit is loaded with nutrients called antioxidants, and it may help fight inflammation. In some lab studies, an extract from the berries appears to block flu viruses. But scientists caution that more study is needed. You definitely still need to get a yearly flu vaccination!
Button Mushrooms
They give you the mineral selenium and the B vitamins riboflavin and niacin. That helps you in several ways. If you’re low on selenium, you may be more likely to get a more severe flu. Riboflavin and niacin play a role in a healthy immune system.
Acai Berry
Its dark color is a sign that it’s got plenty of nutrients called anthocyanins.
There isn’t any research that shows acai is good for any specific condition. But in general, antioxidants from foods are a key part of a healthy lifestyle.
Enjoy these berries in juice or smoothies, or try them dried and mixed with granola.
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Imagine a world where smart pantries sense when you are running out of your favourite food and order more of it, without you lifting a finger. Where intelligent robots roam your grocery store, ever at your service. Where dynamic food pricing changes minute-to-minute depending on the weather outside, or what the store down the road is offering.
It may sound like a seismic shift in our food retail world, but these technological frontiers are real and the food sector is gearing up in a big way.
What is less certain is what impact such changes will have on our health. Just as entrepreneurs must capitalise on future trends when building a business, health professionals must delve into the future of retail technology to identify barriers and opportunities for the achievement of good health.
The retail technology frontier is already here
Amazon is one company leading the way with its nascent attempts to revolutionise convenient shopping.
Amazo
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If you shun the sun, suffer from milk allergies, or adhere to a strict vegan diet, you may be at risk for vitamin D deficiency. Known as the sunshine vitamin, vitamin D is produced by the body in response to skin being exposed to sunlight.
It is also occurs naturally in a few foods — including some fish, fish liver oils, and egg yolks — and in fortified dairy and grain products.
Vitamin D is essential for strong bones, because it helps the body use calcium from the diet. Traditionally, vitamin D deficiency has been associated with rickets, a disease in which the bone tissue doesn’t properly mineralize, leading to soft bones and skeletal deformities. But increasingly, research is revealing the importance of vitamin D in protecting against a host of health problems.
Symptoms and Health Risks of Vitamin D Deficiency
Symptoms of bone pain and muscle weakness can mean you have a vitamin D deficiency. However, for many people, the symptoms are
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Nutrition advice promising all sorts, from weight loss to healthier living and even cures for diseases, spread like wildfire across social media. In the era of ‘alternative facts’ and post-truth, ‘the latest, greatest nutrition advice’ from dubious sources can unfortunately tempt many away from accepted dietary guidelines and recommendations based on years of evidence.
‘Eat Fact Not Fiction’ is the theme of Dietitian’s Week 2017, highlighting the important role of dietitians who are able to interpret nutrition science and dietary guidelines in order to customise nutrition advice for each individual. This is vital because from weight loss to a disease like diabetes, there is no ‘one size fits all’ best eating plan. Dietitians happen to be health professionals trained and qualified to do this.
Dietitians and evidence
In the course of earning their degrees in the science of dietetics, dietitians are specifically taught the skills re
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A highly potent South African green tea extract has been voted among the world’s top new products at one of Europe’s most prestigious natural health trade shows.
Produced in the foothills of the Drakensberg in Mpumalanga and developed by scientists and medical experts, polyphenol-rich Origine 8 was voted as one of the top three out of 330 new health products in the Judges Choice Awards at the Natural & Organic Products Europe trade show (NOPE) in London…
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Rice is the primary food source for more than three billion people around the world. Many are unable to afford a diverse and nutritious diet that includes complete protein, grains, fruits and vegetables. They rely heavily on more affordable cereal crops, including rice, for most of their calories.
My research focuses on health risks associated with climate variability and change. In a recently published study, I worked with scientists from China, Japan, Australia and the United States to assess how the rising carbon dioxide concentrations that are fueling climate change could alter the nutritional value of rice. We conducted field studies in Asia for multiple genetically diverse rice lines, analysing how rising concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere altered levels of protein, micronutrients and B vitamins.
Our data showed for the first time that rice grown at the concentrations of atmospheric carbon dioxide scientists expect the world to reach by 210
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Patients’ anti-depressant, anti-anxiety drugs cut – but department denies shortage
State patients needing anti-anxiety drugs or anti-depressants are being turned away from Provincial Hospital’s outpatient clinic and told by the nurses to buy their own drugs or that they do not need pills to stop an anxiety attack.
“I have lost so much weight that I now fit in a size 30 dress,” Cilla Uys, 67, said.
She developed an anxiety disorder after her husband was murdered. “I need my pills.”
Petro Wessels said: “They told me to drink less coffee and exercise more.”
Shelly Strimling, 50, was given a prescription for her anti-depressants on Thursday and told to go and buy the pills herself at the pharmacy. They cost R485.
“There are many others like me,” she said. “I am collecting letters of complaint to take to the Department of Health.”
Strimling has been a state patient for eight months.
When she went to collect her pills at the
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Malaria, a mosquito-borne parasitic infection that affects about 3.2 billion people in 95 countries, has become largely a disease of the young and poor.
Due to effective medications like chloroquine and artemisinins, malaria deaths dropped an estimated 60 percent worldwide between 2000 and 2015. The Americas and Africa saw the greatest improvements.
Still, 216 million new cases of malaria were reported in 2016, the latest data available. Most of them occurred in Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, Ivory Coast and Mozambique. And of the 445,000 people who died from the infection, about 70 percent were children under the age of 5.
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If malaria is a curable disease with ef
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KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia – The greatly excessive use of antibiotics in food production in recent decades has made many bacteria more resistant to antibiotics. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has estimated that antibiotic use in animal husbandry, poultry farming and aquaculture in the US is over four times USDA recommended levels. Meanwhile, the US Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) has estimated that 80 percent of all antibiotics sold in the USA are used on animals.
Cheap antibiotics prone to abuse
Antibiotics are used to ensure better health and survival of animals bred for food, but they are also believed by many farmers to promote growth. As prices of antibiotics remain attractively low, they offer the prospect of higher earnings from greater output at low cost. Hence, there is little or no market incentive to reduce excessive, if not indiscriminate use, and hence the abuse of antibiotics. Thus, such efforts to increase farmer incomes and pro
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Endometriosis is one of the least understood female conditions.
Despite the fact that roughly 1 in 10 women of reproductive age suffers from endometriosis (equivalent to 5 million women in the United States and 176 million women worldwide) very little is known about the condition (1,2).
Worse yet, about three-quarters of these women experience pelvic pain and/or painful periods as typical symptoms of endometriosis.
What is Endometriosis?
According to WebMD: “Endometriosis occurs when tissue that should line the inside of your uterus, the endometrium, grows outside of it instead. Even though the tissue is outside of your uterus, it still acts like it should during your menstrual cycles. That means at the end of your period, this tissue will break apart and bleed.”
“However, the blood from this tissue has no place to go. Surrounding areas may become inflamed or swollen, and scar tissue and lesions can develop. The most common site fo
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Worried your child could be at risk of contracting the bug as they head back to school? You might have to leave polony off the menu. South Africa’s ongoing spate of listeria cases has claimed more than 60 lives in what the World Health Organisation (WHO) is now calling the world’s biggest outbreak of the..
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It stands to reason that the weather can affect the sales of certain products – for example, more rainfall generally means that consumers purchase less sunscreen. But the phenomenon can go much further. In the UK market, warm summer weather led to a sales increase of 23% for frozen sweets and 10% for chilled drinks…
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Johannesburg – The economic impact of obesity in South Africa is more than R700bn per year, a study revealed. According to the Discovery Vitality OBEcity index for 2017, which presents insights on weight status and food purchasing behavior of Vitality members across six South African cities, the impact of obesity is not only limited to..
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