Serial Rapist was Prescribed Viagra

A New York man convicted of multiple rapes was given a 50-year prison sentence as the court found out he was given taxpayer-provided Viagra.

Leroy Johnson was sentenced to the maximum number of years in prison Tuesday by Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Renee White for the 1996 rape of two roommates in Greenwich Village.

Johnson’s attorney, Bryan Konoski, argued his client had mental problems, said Johnson’s parents both had drug problems and pointed out that Johnson was prescribed five psychotropic drugs, as well as Viagra, last year, the New York Daily News reports. Because Johnson was on Medicaid, all the prescriptions was paid for with tax dollars, the Daily News said.

White said the rapes, along with a history of violent crimes, including other rapes, shows Johnson shouldn’t be in public. She also condemned the fact taxpayers paid for Viagra for Johnson.

Johnson was arrested for the 1996 rapes after DNA evidence tied him to the crime. Johnson was released from prison in 1989 after the 1982 rape of two people, including “Top Gun” actress Kelly McGillis.

New way to treat obesity heralded

Topping up levels of a hormone found naturally in the stomach could be a new way to treat obesity. Boosting oxyntomodulin limits appetite and raises activity levels at the same time – leading to speedy but healthy weight loss rates, a UK study suggests.

The hormone tells us we are full after a meal, but the obese have less of it. The fact dieting tends to lead to reductions in activity often makes weight loss harder, the International Journal of Obesity study says.

Professor Steve Bloom head of the Division of Investigative Science at Imperial College London said earlier studies had shown oxyntomodulin decreased appetite.

But this was the first time it had been shown to increase physical activity levels.

The fact that oxyntomodulin was naturally found in the body was also an advantage as it was unlikely to have unpleasant side-effects, he said.

“It is naturally a occurring hormone. We are using the body’s own method of limiting appetite.”

There are some conditions where people have high levels of the hormone after certain types of injuries to the gut, for example, and they tend to lose a lot of weight and stay very thin.

And there do not appear to be any harmful effects of having high levels of oxyntomodulin, he said pointing to some medical conditions that produce this.

Weight Loss Surgery Can Prove Risky For The Aged…

The risk of complications after weight loss or bariatric surgery increases slightly for each additional year over the age of 60, according to a report in the Archives of Surgery. The results also confirm previous reports that a “duodenal switch” operation is more likely to result in complications than the more commonly performed stomach bypass operation.

The stomach bypass results in weight loss by surgically “bypassing” the stomach, while the duodenal switch involves removing most of the stomach and reconfiguring the digestive tract to limit the amount of fat and calories that can be absorbed by the intestines. As with many other operations, age appears to be a risk factor for complications after bariatric surgery.

For smooth and effective short term weight loss, diet pills can prove really effective. Diet pills such as phentermnie, Adipex and Xenical have proven beneficial for millions of its users worldwide.

Obesity Can Be Harmful For Teeth

Researchers from the University at Buffalo have found that obesity is a significant predictor for periodontal disease, independent of age, gender, race, ethnicity, and smoking. Furthermore, the analysis suggests that insulin resistance mediates the relationship between obesity and periodontal disease.

It was found that the severity of periodontal attachment loss increased proportionally with increasing insulin resistance. In addition, the number of teeth lost increased significantly with increasing levels of insulin resistance. Individuals in the highest insulin resistance category lost 1.1 more teeth compared to individuals in the lowest category.

People who have a higher body mass index produce cytokines (hormone-like proteins), that lead to systemic inflammation and insulin resistance. The presence of periodontal infection combined with obesity may contribute to type 2 diabetes and its complications, such as coronary heart disease. Although further studies are needed, people should remember that living a healthy lifestyle along with daily brushing and flossing and visiting your oral health care provider is always in fashion.

Weight loss drugs or diet pills such as Phentermine, Adipex or Bontril can be of immense help in this regard.

Impotence Can Signal Heart Problem

Researchers from the University of Chicago have reported that erectile dysfunction may be a warning sign of serious heart disease. Recent studies have tied erectile dysfunction to vascular disease, but this study links it with abnormal results on cardiac stress testing. One recent report found that men who had no problems with sexual function at the start of the seven-year study but later developed erectile dysfunction were 25 percent more likely to have a heart attack or stroke compared with those who did not develop erectile dysfunction.

Among patients with symptoms that require stress testing, a very high prevalence of erectile dysfunction was found as over 50 percent of them had some degree of erectile dysfunction. The study examined 221 men who had nuclear stress testing, a common, non-invasive way of determining the severity of coronary heart disease. Before testing, the men completed a questionnaire that assessed erectile function.

Erectile dysfunction is a very common disease which can be treated with the help of prominent medications such as Viagra, Cialis and Levitra.

Nevada’s Attorney General Claims Canada’s Drug Plan Unworkable

Supporters of a new law allowing Nevadans to buy lower-priced prescription drugs from Canadian pharmacy suffered a setback on Tuesday with an adverse state attorney general’s opinion that favors this country’s pharmaceutical industry. Attorney General George Chanos said in the 19-page opinion that his office supports the idea of low-cost drugs – but it’s clear that state lawmakers also intended to ensure that the prescription drugs provided to the citizens of Nevada are both safe and effective.

The legislators tried to balance the need for affordable drugs with the need for quality and safety of those drugs, and their policy decisions which now serve as insurmountable legal obstacles to the importation of virtually any drugs from Canada. Nevada’s Canadian drug program had been put on hold while the attorney general studied the new law that states a Canadian pharmacy shall not sell to a Nevada resident a drug that hasn’t been approved by the federal Food and Drug Administration.

Erectile Dysfunction Increases Risk For Cardiovascular Events

A recent study has found that men suffering with erectile dysfunction have a higher risk of subsequent cardiovascular events such as myocardial infarction, stroke, and angina. Erectile dysfunction has taken millions of men under its grip. More than 10 million men in the United States are affected by erectile dysfunction (ED), with an estimated 100 million men affected worldwide.

Erectile dysfunction is related to many factors; including age, smoking, diabetes, heart disease, depression, and hypertension and as cardiovascular disease and erectile dysfunction share etiologies as well as pathophysiology (endothelial dysfunction) therefore evidence shows that the degree of erectile dysfunction correlates with severity of cardiovascular disease. It has been postulated that erectile dysfunction is a sentinel symptom in patients with cardiovascular disease.

Get the Best Deal: Pharmacy drug costs vary widely

Ben Pond was in a tough situation.
He needed several prescriptions at once for chronic pain, but lacked insurance. After calling major pharmacy chains, he realized his prescriptions would cost him nearly $1,000 a month, an amount that didn’t seem feasible. He had nearly given up when he called locally owned Hyland Pharmacy in Salt Lake City. After comparing prices, he realized the pharmacy would save him about $400 a month.
“They were dramatically less than everyone else,” said Pond, who drives from the mouth of Cottonwood Canyon to pick up his prescriptions. “The biggest endorsement I can give them is how much money I’ve saved.”
Price checking at various Utah pharmacies can save patients without insurance hundreds of dollars each year. In a non-scientific study conducted by The Salt Lake Tribune, big chain pharmacies such as Walgreen’s and Rite-Aid charged about $500 more for a month’s supply of six, name-brand prescriptions, including such widely used drugs as Lortab and Augmentin. Warehouse store Sam’s Club was cheaper, but some locally owned pharmacies charged even less.
Such a discovery was a shock for Pond, who thought prescription drugs cost about the same at every pharmacy. Federal anti-trust laws require pharmacies to vary their prices. And many pharmacies choose to charge uninsured customers more to make up for the low negotiated prices insurance companies secure.
Other pharmacies simply won’t fill for those plans, such as Medicare, which is one way locally owned pharmacies can save their cash customers money.
Hyland Pharmacy, at 1297 E. Miller Ave., does not accept certain insurance plans, including several Medicare plans.
“Why should the insurance company get a price break but not a grandma or a niece in college?” asks Glade Baldwin, who has owned Hyland for 12 years.
Other pharmacies, such as University Pharmacy at 1320 E. 200 South, accept Medicare plans, but help offset costs through other means. University does so by offering drug compounding, which is creating drugs-to-order for patients who need a combination of pills not yet available on the market. Owner Richard Rasmuson also focuses on keeping his prices down for uninsured patients, who make up about half of University’s business.
“We make cash customers our specialty. They’re the good folks who keep us in business,” Rasmuson said.
Both pharmacies are closed on Sundays, and keep fairly typical business hours, saving on labor costs. University Pharmacy is able to keep prices low because it has so many cash-paying customers. Pharmacies that have a large majority of insured customers often have cash-flow problems because insurance companies often only pay once a month or six weeks, when pharmacies have to pay bills every 15 days.
One locally owned pharmacy has fallen victim to that trend, Mountain View Pharmacy in Bountiful. The store charges almost as much as Walgreen’s and Rite-Aid, two of the priciest places for cash customers.

Vietnam legalises Viagra

Vietnam has legalized the sale of Viagra years after smuggled and copied versions of the anti-impotency drug first hit the black market, a health ministry official said.

The blue pill made by US drugs giant Pfizer will now be prescribed in public hospitals, said an official in the ministry’s pharmaceutical products management department, who asked not to be named. Viagra has been sold illegally in the communist nation for around two dollars a tablet, and generic Indian, German and locally-made versions have been sold on prescription for the past two years. According to official figures, around two million of Vietnam’s more than 40 million men suffer from erectile dysfunction.

Sex Health Record Causes Concern

According to the most recent statistics, the region had the highest rate of Chlamydia infection in Scotland for women under 25.

Pregnancy rates for girls between the ages of 13 to 15 are also amongst the highest in the country.

The draft sexual health strategy said a wide range of social issues needed to be addressed to tackle the problem.

The document has been put together by the region’s multi-agency, sexual health strategy group.

It said the issue was not simply one of reducing sexually transmitted infections and unwanted pregnancies.

The group said it was also vital to address a complex range of factors which could affect people’s sexual health, such as attitudes in society, culture, religion and economics.

Inadequate premises

Local and national targets have been set to improve the region’s sexual health record, which is described as poor.

That is in recognition of year on year increases in transmitted infections and abortion rates for unwanted pregnancies.

The number of HIV infections recorded locally was also said to be increasing.

Under-funded treatment services, inadequate premises and limited provision for those living in remote areas were highlighted as key challenges.

The draft sexual health strategy is currently the subject of a three-month public consultation.