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Ephedra has been considered to be the most effective in aiding weight loss. Ephedra based diet pills were very popular till FDA imposed a ban on tit. Ephedra is a Chinese herb, called ma-huang, which has energy boosting properties. At one time, many of the top 10 diet pills listings included ephedra as a common ingredient. Though the ban has been lifted, many companies have still not started using it.

One such ephedra based diet pill is Superdrine Rx10. because it main ingredient is ephedra; the product is only sold at websites and not at any retail stores. Superdrine Rx 10 is ephedra based fat burner by American generic labs. It consists of ephedra, guarana and white willow bark, along with bitter orange. To increase the effectiveness of ephedra, guarana and white willow bark is added. White willow bark has salicylic acid, the main component of aspirin. It has a stimulating effect on the body. Ephedra is found to stimulate the system but it can be risky for people with heart related ailments as it can put pressure on the heart. It is a thermogenic fat burner and can help raise the energy levels. Still, people with heart ailments are advised to stay away from ephedra based diet pills.

A gel pack is nowadays widely used to get relief from body pains in a cheap and effective manner without having to consume tablets and pills and without visiting a doctor. The pack contains a gel made up of amino acids, anti-oxidants and carbohydrates inside a squeezable pack which when cooled and applied to the aching body parts, gives a healing effect. A gel pack can also be heated and applied to the body to ease pain, making it suitable for both cold and hot pain relief therapies.

A kind of gel pack manufactured by Allegro Medical, known as Colpac, is gaining popularity as a pain reliever. It can be cooled by keeping under refrigeration and then can be placed on the aching part of the body to eliminate the pain more or less instantly. A new colpac should be kept in the freezer for at least two hours initially but it should not be chilled lower than 0° F. The colpac should always be kept in the freezer in a sealed plastic bag to prevent it from drying.

To get relief from a knee pain, one can use a knee wrap. It helps improve the blood circulation and thus keeps the knee at ease. While using a knee wrap, always make sure that it is the right one for your knee as the wrong one can lead to a slip of the knee disc.

While dogs are usually friendly and cute, they can also be dangerous at times. More often than not, dogs become dangerous due to irresponsible or abusive owners. That’s why victims of dog bites can legally pursue compensation. If you have been bitten by a dangerous, unruly dog, then you need to call or pay a visit to a dog bite attorney. California has its share of dog biting incidents everyday, and many victims are children.

Ask any dog bite lawyer in Los Angeles, and he or she will tell you how many wounds, broken bones, and even deaths they deal with every year that occur from dog biting incidents. Injuries can cost a lot of money, sometimes even several thousand dollars. Not only that, but many victims are unable to work and no longer receive an income. They need to rely on dog bite lawyers in California to help them file suit.

Even if your wound isn’t all that bad, you should still consider seeking out dog bite lawyers. Los Angeles is home to many children, and families need to be warned about dangerous dogs. The best way to do this is to ask a Los Angeles dog bite lawyer to help you get the word out.

The first cementless metal cup design implant used in hip replacement by Rush University Medical Centre (RUMC) remains extremely durable even 20 years after repeat or “revision” hip replacement.

The Harris-Galante-1 acetabular metal shell, which is designed to allow a patient’s bone to grow into the implant, remained fixed in place in 95 percent of hip revision cases at a minimum follow-up of 20 years.

The implant and its bone in-growth surface were originally developed with Jorge Galante, RUMC orthopaedic surgeon and one of the investigators. The cup’s porous surface allows bone and tissue to grow into the device to keep the hip implant in place.

Earlier generation implants relied on the use of bone cement to secure the implant to the patient’s pelvis and were associated with a higher rate of failure, particularly when used in patients who had previously had a hip implant that had failed, said an RUMC release.

“The study’s results indicate that even the first generation of this device has excellent clinical results and durability,” said Craig Della Valle, orthopaedic surgeon at Rush and study investigator. “Even after 20 years, there is low rate of failure in terms of fixation.”

Researchers previously reported the results of the Harris-Galante-1 shell for total hip revision procedures in 138 hips at a minimum of three, seven, and 15 years postoperatively. The current report presents the long-term outcomes of this group at a follow-up of 20 years.

These results were published in the February issue of the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery.

Smoking marijuana over an extended period of time appears to greatly boost a young man’s risk for developing a particularly aggressive form of testicular cancer, a new study reveals.

In fact, researchers found that men who smoked marijuana once a week or began to use the substance on a long-term basis while adolescents incurred double the risk for developing the fastest-spreading version of testicular cancer — nonseminoma, which accounts for about 40 percent of all cases.

“Since we know that the incidence of testicular cancer has been rising in our country and in Europe over the last 40 years and that marijuana use has also risen over the same time, it seemed logical that there might be an association between the two,” said study co-author Janet Daling, an epidemiologist and member of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center’s public health sciences division in Seattle. “And when I analyzed the data, we found a fairly strong relationship with this aggressive type of testicular cancer.”

No link was found between the drug and a less aggressive and more prevalent form of the disease, known as seminoma, which strikes 60 percent of testicular cancer patients.

The findings were published in the Feb. 9 online issue of Cancer.

According to the U.S. National Cancer Institute, testicular cancer is very rare, accounting for just 1 percent of cancers among American men. Nevertheless, the disease is the most common type of cancer for American men between the ages of 15 and 34, the study noted.

Across North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand, testicular cancer rates have increased by 3 percent to 6 percent in the past half-century. That has led some researchers to suggest that the upward trend might be the product of increased exposure among young men to one or more external factors, including a simultaneous and comparable rise in the use of marijuana.

Along those lines, the researchers noted that the testes could be particularly vulnerable to the effects of marijuana, given that the organ — along with the brain, heart, uterus and spleen — carries specific receptors for tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the principal psychoactive ingredient in marijuana.

As well, previous human and animal research has indicated that marijuana use might lead to reduced hormonal production (particularly testosterone), poorer semen quality and impotency in men.

Daling and her team explored the notion of a marijuana-testicular cancer connection by analyzing data on 369 testicular cancer patients that had been collected by the Adult Testicular Cancer Lifestyle and Blood Specimen Study.

Participants were between the ages of 18 and 44, most were white or Hispanic, and all were residents of the Seattle-Puget Sound region. All had been diagnosed with the disease between 1999 and 2006. The men reported any history of marijuana use, as well as alcohol and smoking habits, and the same information was collected from about 1,000 healthy men.

The researchers found that current marijuana use was linked to a 70 percent increased risk for the disease.

Independent of known risk factors, nonseminoma risk was particularly high among men who used the drug at least once a week and among those who had started using it before age 18.

Though Daling emphasized that the findings are preliminary, she suggested that attention should be paid.

“We know very little about the long-term health consequences of marijuana smoking,” she cautioned. “So, although this is the first time this association has been studied and found — and the finding does need to be replicated before we are really sure what’s going on — this does give some evidence that testicular cancer may be one result from the frequent use of marijuana. And that is something that young people should keep in mind.”

But the prospect of a causal relationship between marijuana use and testicular cancer raised a lot of unanswered questions for Gary Schwartz, an associate professor in both the department of cancer biology and the department of epidemiology and prevention at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C.

“The consensus is that most testicular cancer is thought to originate with lesions in utero, and that the peak age for testicular cancer to actually occur begins, really, right after adolescence,” he noted. “That’s when hormones released during puberty appear to promote [full-blown] cancer by essentially throwing fuel on the lesion fire, following a relatively long latency. The point being that you don’t suddenly wake up one morning with a tumor. So it’s a little hard to understand how exposure to marijuana beginning at that point could somehow play an immediate causal role.”

“But certainly, the idea that cannabis may cause cancer cells to proliferate is interesting,” Schwartz acknowledged. “It could, however, also be that recreational drug use is simply a marker for affluence, since we know that testicular cancer is traditionally a disease that is more common among the affluent. Or it could be a marker for some other event that comes along with it, that triggers lesions that lead to tumors. So, at this point, it’s just not clear to me how exactly the association between marijuana and testicular cancer would work.”

Personal injury claims may include the cases of accidents, defective products, defamation or medical malpractices. The first step towards a personal injury claim is to consult a lawyer whether you have a case. People tend to be very emotional when they’re the victims of a personal injury case. Winning a personal injury litigation, however, is based the facts, not the emotion. For personal injury claims in Phoenix, you want to contact one of Phoenix personal injury attorneys as soon as possible to discuss your case to see whether you have a case at all. A good personal injury is willing to take your case when he sees the chance of winning. One of Phoenix personal injury lawyers can help you negotiate with other party before a third party is involved or getting your case to the courtroom when it’s necessary.

The cost of hiring a personal injury may not be as expensive as many thought. The consultation is free. If the case does to the courtroom, Phoenix personal injury lawyer usually take the case on contingency fee basis.

How healthy is the oil you are consuming? A new study has found that despite tall claims by manufacturers, most of the edible oils available in the market are full of trans fat that could lead to heart disease.

A study conduced by an NGO, Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), tested 30 samples of branded oils - vanaspati, vegetable oil, ghee and butter - widely available in the market. It found that all of them have several times higher percentage of trans fat than required.

Trans fat is a kind of unsaturated fat produced when hydrogen is added to the vegetable oil to increase its shelf life.

“Trans fats are deadly for health, especially for the heart, as they reduce the good cholesterol. They can increase the risk of infertility in women and cause diseases like cancer and diabetes. Some of the countries in the world have regulated the use of trans fats in oils,” said CSE director Sunita Narain.

The tests found that in all vanaspati brands, trans fat levels were five to 12 times higher than the world’s only standard for trans fat, set in Denmark, at two percent of total oil.

“The study found that if all oils are compared against Denmark standard, then no edible oil in the market could claim to be healthy,” said Narain.

According to her, while food regulators in India have accepted trans fat as a serious health concern, they are delaying setting the standard for trans fat in oils.

“In 2004, the health ministry’s oil and fats sub-committee began a discussion on a standard for trans fat. In Jan 2008, it forwarded its recommendations to the Central Committee for Food for standards but no decision has been taken yet,” said Chander Bhushan, head of the team that carried out the study.

Instead of standards, in Septemeber 2008, the health ministry issued a notification for labelling of trans fat on oil and food.

“Oil companies easily get away by giving composition in a range, which actually consumers do not even know. It is like playing with the health of citizens. We want the government to immediately set some standards for trans fat in oil and food products,” Narain said.

The study found that vanaspati has the highest amount of trans fat followed by vegetable oil. The least amount of trans fat was found in ghee and butter.

If you are the victim of a car accident, then you should start thinking about the legal steps you will need to take. You are going to need money to repair your vehicle and heal any injuries from the wreck. If you want to protect your rights, then you need to have an Arizona personal injury attorney. They will be able to handle the legal aspects while you focus on healing.

You also need to hire one as quickly as you can. The insurance companies don’t usually wait. They are usually right on the case with paperwork that limits their liability. Don’t sign anything until you get a lawyer to look at the paperwork. It’s really that simple. There are other precautions though. You shouldn’t discuss the case with any representatives or agree to be recorded. These can be attempts to trap you and limit their liability too. Just be polite and refer them to your attorney. They’ll know what to do. With any luck, you should be able to get your case settled out of court for a fair amount. In a few cases, you will have to go to court though. In this event, you’ll be even happier that you already have a good attorney on your side.

If you want to get your just compensation, then you need legal aid. Don’t hesitate to hire one of the many Arizona personal injury attorneys who have experience you need.

Older adults in the United States are popping prescription pills, over-the-counter drugs and dietary supplements in record numbers and in combinations that could be deadly, US researchers said on Tuesday.They said more than half of US adults aged 57 to 85 are using five or more prescription or non-prescription drugs, and one in 25 are taking them in combinations that could cause dangerous drug interactions.

“Older adults in the United States use medicine and they use a lot of it,” said Dr Stacy Tessler Lindau of the University of Chicago Medical Center in Illinois, whose study appears in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

“While medications are often beneficial, they are not always safe,” she said in a telephone interview.

She noted a recent report that estimated US adults over 65 make up more than 175,000 emergency department visits a year for adverse drug reactions, and commonly prescribed drugs accounted for a third of these visits.

For the study, Lindau teamed up with Dima Qato, a pharmacist and researcher at the University of Chicago. They used data from a national survey of adults aged 57 to 85 and interviews with nearly 3,000 people in their homes to get a read on the medications they used on a regular basis.

Obese postmenopausal women who have never used hormone replacement therapy may face an increased risk of ovarian cancer, compared to normal-weight women, a new study suggests.

Interestingly, obese women who have used hormone replacement therapy (HRT) for symptoms of menopause may not face increased risk for this type of malignancy.

The study findings are published in the Feb. 15 issue of the journal Cancer.

The take-home message is a familiar one, experts said: Maintain a healthy body weight.

“This is another, very fine epidemiologic study that shows a relationship between obesity and female-related cancers,” said Dr. Jay Brooks, chairman of hematology/oncology at Ochsner Health System in Baton Rouge, La. “The two leading causes of cancer in the western world today are tobacco and obesity. We’ve made enormous progress with tobacco-related malignancies — it’s really stunning. The next wave is obesity-related illness.”

Added Dr. Elizabeth A. Poynor, a gynecologic oncologist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, “This is yet another health risk that we can talk about with women who are overweight, and yet another reason to lose weight.”

Ovarian cancer is the fifth leading cancer killer of U.S. women and the leading killer among gynecologic malignancies. Only about 37 percent of women with this diagnosis will survive beyond five years, according to background information in the study.

Women who’ve had children and who’ve used oral contraceptives appear to have a decreased risk of the disease.

A family history of ovarian cancer along with HRT use is known to contribute to the risk, and there has been some evidence that excess body weight also ups the risk.

For the new study, investigators from the U.S. National Cancer Institute followed almost 95,000 U.S. women, aged 50 to 71, for an average of seven years.

Overall, obese women — those with a body mass index (BMI) or 30 or above — had a 26 percent higher chance of developing ovarian cancer than women of normal weight, a figure the researchers said was not statistically significant.

However, the picture was somewhat different among subgroups of women. Obese women who had never used hormone therapy had an 80 percent higher risk of developing ovarian cancer, compared with their normal-weight counterparts. There appeared to be no relationship between BMI and ovarian cancer among women who had used hormone therapy for menopausal symptoms.

Obese women without a family history of the disease had a 36 percent higher risk of developing ovarian cancer, although there was no heightened risk in obese women who did have a family history.

According to the study authors, the findings indicate that obesity may increase ovarian cancer risk through hormonal effects. Specifically, excess fat increases production of estrogen, which may spur the growth of ovarian cancer.

But the picture is likely much more complicated than that, said Dr. Michael A. Bookman, vice president for ambulatory care and clinical research at Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia.

Overall, obese women in the study did not have a notably higher risk for ovarian cancer. The increased risk was only seen in a subgroup of the women, he noted.

“When you do a subset analysis, there’s always a risk,” Bookman said. “They wave their hands and think maybe this is because estrogen is bad for you, but there are a lot of other things obesity does than create endogenous estrogen, like other growth factors.

“It’s interesting that, in women who were exposed to menopausal hormones, there was some evidence that [hormones] actually protected them,” he added. “It’s, at best, a modest effect and not nearly as strong as the data with endometrial cancer. I’m not a fan of obesity, but I think, in this particular analysis, it’s a pretty modest effect. It would be much more convincing if it were significant for the entire population.”

Study lead author Dr. Michael Leitzmann, of the National Cancer Institute, said one “possible reason for the observation that obesity might lead to increased ovarian cancer risk in women who have not used HRT versus women who have is that exogenous estrogens supplied by menopausal hormones fail to add further to the high background levels of endogenous estrogens among obese women.”