Health Highlights: June 19, 2012

Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments,
compiled by the editors of HealthDay:

Kentucky Doctor is AMA
President-Elect

Dr. Ardis Hoven, an internal medicine doctor and infectious disease
specialist from Kentucky, is the new president-elect of the American
Medical Association.

Hoven will become the third woman to lead the nation’s largest
physicians group when she becomes AMA president in 2013, the Associated
Press
reported.

Hoven is a former president of the Kentucky Medical Association and has
served on the AMA’s Board of Trustees.

On Tuesday evening, Denver psychiatrist Jeremy Lazarus ends his
year-long term as president-elect and officially becomes AMA president,
the AP reported.

—–

Teen Shot in Head with Spear is Recovering:
Doctors

A 16-year-old Florida boy who was shot through the head with a spear is
lucky to alive and is recovering, doctors say.

Nasser Lopez was injured June 8 when a friend accidentally hit the
trigger of a spear gun while loading it. The three-foot long spear entered
Lopez’s head about an inch over his eye and the point came out the back of
his head, the Miami Herald reported.

It took surgeons three hours to remove the spear from the teen’s brain.
He has no recollection of the accident. Lopez is in serious condition at
University of Miami/Jackson Memorial Hospital and is expected to remain
hospitalized for several more months.

“It’s a miracle the spear missed all the main blood vessels of the
brain,” neurosurgeon Ross Bullock said at a news conference Monday, the
Herald reported.

—–

Roger Clemens Found Not Guilty of Lying About
Drug Use

Former star pitcher Roger Clemens was acquitted Monday of all charges
that he lied when he told Congress in 2008 that he never used steroids or
human growth hormone during his career.

The verdict came on the second full day of deliberations in United
States District Court. It was the federal government’s second failed
attempt at convicting Clemens, The New York Times reported.

Clemens, 49, had been charged with one count of obstructing Congress,
three counts of making false statements, and two counts of perjury in
connection with his testimony to a House committee.

If convicted on all six counts, the seven-time Cy Young Award winner
would have faced up to 30 years in federal prison, The Times
reported.

—–

No Single Food Product Responsible for Rising
Obesity Rates: Coca-Cola CEO

Rising obesity rates in the United States cannot be blamed on any
single ingredient, product or category of food, according to Coca-Cola
Company CEO Muhtar Kent.

“This is an important, complicated societal issue that we all have to
work together to provide a solution,” Kent said in a Wall Street
Journal
interview published Monday, Agence France-Presse
reported.

“That’s why we are working with government, business and civil society
to have active lifestyle programs in every country we operate by 2015,” he
said.

Kent’s remarks were made as New York City considers a proposal to
restrict the sale of sugar-sweetened beverages such as soft drinks to
16-ounce servings, AFP reported. The law would apply to restaurants
and public entertainment venues such as stadiums.

The ban is needed to help deal with the obesity epidemic in the U.S.,
according to Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

—–

Lobbying Scuttles Proposed Painkiller
Restrictions

Lobbying by pharmacist and drugstore groups appears to have derailed
efforts to impose stricter controls on prescription painkillers that are
widely abused, according to members of Congress.

The restrictions would apply to products like hydrocodone that are used
to treat moderate to severe pain. The Senate approved the restrictions
last month as part of a bill reauthorizing user fees for the Food and Drug
Administration, but the House version of the bill does not include the
provisions, The New York Times reported.

The proposed controls are supported by senators and law enforcement
officials, but pharmacists and drugstore organizations say they will make
it more difficult for patients to get the drugs and will increase overhead
costs for pharmacies.

“We don’t want to put anybody out of business,” Senator Joe Manchin
III, a West Virginia Democrat who led the push for the new restrictions,
told The Times.

“But perhaps the chain pharmacies and druggists need to change their
business model a bit. These are legal drugs needed by some people. But
they can also be addictive. They are so readily accessible, so easy to
obtain, that they are ravaging society and ending many young lives,”
Manchin said.

—–

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