Word: fens
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...hypericum has some interesting properties. For starters, says University of Frankfurt psychopharmacologist Walter Muller, it appears to affect the brain in the same way Prozac does--by prolonging the activity of the mood-enhancing brain chemical serotonin. This is the same neurotransmitter acted on by the controversial diet pills fen-phen and Redux (see following story). But hypericum has much broader activity. In rats and mice, at least, it extends the action of at least two other powerful brain chemicals that are thought to play a role in depression: dopamine and norepinephrine. In each case, hypericum appears to work...
Less than a year ago, a new generation of diet pills seemed to offer the long-sought answer to our chronic weight problems. Hundreds of thousands of pound-conscious Americans had discovered that a drug combination known as "fen-phen" could shut off voracious appetites like magic, and the FDA had just approved a new drug, Redux, that did the same with fewer side effects. Redux would attract hundreds of thousands of new pill poppers within a few months...
...facing a backlash. Some of the nation's largest HMOs, including Aetna U.S. Healthcare and Prudential Healthcare, have begun cutting back or eliminating reimbursement for both pills. Diet chains like Jenny Craig and Nutri/System are backing away from them too. Several states, meanwhile, have restricted the use of fen-phen. Last week the Florida legislature banned new prescriptions entirely and called on doctors to wean current patients from the drug within 30 days; it also put a 90-day limit on Redux prescriptions. Even New Jersey doctor Sheldon Levine, who touted Redux last year on TV and in his book...
...August's Consumer Price Index was moderately good news on inflation, but analysts fear an interest rate hike may be ahead (Money Daily) ... NetChannel and Microsoft's WebTV Plus are gearing up for the battle of the browsers-on-the box (Netly News) ... and finally, now that Redux and Fen-phen have been recalled, which diet pills ? if any ? should you be taking? (Ask Dr. Weil...
...Mayo Clinic released another preliminary study two months ago linking the drugs to a rare form of heart disease. Determining the relationship between valve damage and taking fen-phen or Redux will be difficult, since several of the women examined in the Mayo study were taking higher-than-prescribed doses. Ultimately, the studies confirm FDA recommendations that these medications should only be prescribed to the dangerously obese...