FDA Adds New Warnings to All Testosterone Product Labels

Testosterone and other AAS, which have a schedule III classification by the Controlled Substances Act, may be abused by adults and adolescents, including athletes and body builders.

“Abuse of testosterone, usually at doses higher than those typically prescribed and usually in conjunction with other AAS, is associated with serious safety risks affecting the heart, brain, liver, mental health, and endocrine system,” the FDA notes.

Reported serious adverse outcomes include myocardial infarction, heart failure, stroke, depression, hostility, aggression, liver toxicity, and male infertility. People abusing high doses of testosterone have also reported withdrawal symptoms, such as depression, fatigue, irritability, loss of appetite, decreased libido, and insomnia, the agency says.

Source: FDA Adds New Warnings to All Testosterone Product Labels

Source: Safety Alerts for Human Medical Products > Testosterone and Other Anabolic Androgenic Steroids (AAS): FDA Statement – Risks Associated With Abuse and Dependence

It is interesting you no longer see those Low-T commercials on television any more.  Really?  Just another clever marketing campaign to create a disease that doesn’t exist along with a convenient drug based solution.  What side effects?

Read this book.  Now.

Source: Bill Moyers Journal . Profile . Melody Petersen | PBS

Study highlights drug-drug interaction risk from two commonly used drugs – Pharmaceutical Journal

Combined treatment with the antibiotic ceftriaxone and the proton pump inhibitor lansoprazole can lead to an increased risk of drug-induced arrhythmia, a study has found.

Source: Study highlights drug-drug interaction risk from two commonly used drugs | News | Pharmaceutical Journal

Vital Signs: Disparities in Antihypertensive Medication Nonadherence Among Medicare Part D Beneficiaries — United States, 2014 – MMWR

Source: Vital Signs: Disparities in Antihypertensive Medication Nonadherence Among Medicare Part D Beneficiaries — United States, 2014 | MMWR

Conclusions and Implications for Public Health Practice:

More than one in four Medicare Part D beneficiaries using anti-hypertensives were non-adherent to their regimen, and certain racial/ethnic groups, states, and geographic areas were at increased risk for non-adherence.

Diabetes treatments and risk of heart failure, cardiovascular disease, and all cause mortality: cohort study in primary care – The BMJ

Conclusions –  There are clinically important differences in risk of cardiovascular disease, heart failure, and all cause mortality between different diabetes drugs alone and in combination. Overall, use of gliptins or glitazones was associated with decreased risks of heart failure, cardiovascular disease, and all cause mortality compared with non-use of these drugs. These results, which do not account for levels of adherence or dosage information and which are subject to confounding by indication, might have implications for prescribing of diabetes drugs.

Source: Diabetes treatments and risk of heart failure, cardiovascular disease, and all cause mortality: cohort study in primary care | The BMJ

iMedicalApps: Aspirin Guide – Medpage Today

Makes sense of USPSTF recommendations

Source: iMedicalApps: Aspirin Guide | Medpage Today

Loyal readers know I’ve been looking at this daily aspirin thing for quite some time.  Read this, or this, and this.  So when I learned about a new iPhone app I had to download it and enter my personal data.

The app says I should take low dose aspirin daily.  I stopped taking aspirin a few years ago after a minor bleeding episode.  I had bumped my shin, broke the skin and began bleeding.  The bleeding took forever to stop so I stopped the aspirin.  I’ve cut myself since and not had any difficulties coagulating.

Annual wellness visit is in a few months.  I’ll show the app to my doctor and see what he recommends.

Great little app by the way.