Articles Posted in Health & Wellness

At some point in your life, a medical device will likely become a necessary part of your medical care. You may need external items such as hearing aids, blood glucose meters, insulin pumps, or feeding tubes. You may also need the help of surgically implanted medical devices like artificial hips, heart pacemakers, breast implants, spine…

On November 27, 2018, Teva Pharmaceuticals announced a huge recall of all products containing the medication valsartan. The prescription medications containing valsartan may contain chemicals that are considered possible carcinogens. So What is Valsartan? Valsartan is a drug used to treat hypertension, high blood pressure, congestive heart failure, and other conditions. It also improves health…

I’ve been representing people injured by defective medical devices and harm drugs for many years. Because I study these types of products on a daily basis, I have become leery about putting anything inside my body, whether it is an artificial joint like a hip or knee, or a prescription medication. As I often tell…

If you have any interest in artificial hips, you need to follow the work of Dr. Steven Tower. An orthopedic surgeon in Anchorage Alaska, Dr. Tower has built a one-man research laboratory studying the horrifying health effects of chrome and cobalt hip components. While hip manufacturers have been slow to produce meaningful studies on the…

You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours. Favors are often exchanged among friends and family. But what most people don’t know, or don’t want to know, is that questionable “favors” are also exchanged in professional and business relationships. Over the years, there have been reports that favors, or benefits, are too often exchanged between drug…

You go to the doctor to get help, not to be hurt. And you take medicine to be healed, not to be harmed. However, some prescription drugs, like Actemra, may do the latter – hurt you instead of help you. If you or a loved one have rheumatoid arthritis, you may have been prescribed or…

If you have a specific type of leukemia—Philadelphia chromosome-positive chronic myeloid leukemia, or Ph+ CML—you may have been prescribed the chemotherapy drug Tasigna (nilotinib). Tasigna offers promise for some patients and may even be associated with remission of their disease—but it’s not without risks. What’s more alarming, the drug’s manufacturer, Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation, may have…

For many years my clients with failing artificial hips have asked me about the health effects of high cobalt and chromium levels in the body. These questions usually arise after clients get blood work done and the test reveals abnormally high metal levels. If you are reading this article, you probably already know that cobalt…

Hair loss, or alopecia, is a common condition for many people, especially when they age. The exact reason for the hair loss can vary, but one particularly unpleasant cause is chemotherapy. However, not all patients will be affected the same way during chemotherapy, even when taking the same chemotherapy drug to fight the same type…

Many things in life involve a cost benefit analysis. We’re constantly taking risks that can cause harm, but choose to take on that risk because the benefits outweigh the dangers. A good example of this is driving a car. There is a risk of getting into an accident, but the benefit of having on-demand personal…