It’s one thing to be an occasional designated driver, but quite another to never enjoy a beer because you can’t handle wheat. But now you can raise a cold one, thanks to the rapidly growing variety and availability of new gluten-free beers that actually taste good.

These beers don’t have gluten—proteins from wheat, barley, rye, and oats—which can make millions of people sick. In fact, they’re the only choice for the nearly 2 million Americans with celiac disease who have to cut wheat from their diets because their bodies can’t process gluten.

Some early attempts at gluten-free beer weren’t exactly tasty. But brewers have kept experimenting, substituting rice, sorghum, honey, or molasses for grains with gluten. And some of the newer results are much better. Read more » »

A diabetes drug used by more than 30,000 Australians could be taken off the market after several studies linked it to heart attacks and death.

The Food and Drug Administration in the US will investigate the drug Avandia at a hearing on Monday after receiving data showing there was “considerable concern” about its risks.

Avandia, which is used to treat type 2 or mature-onset diabetes, came under fire in May when a study published in The New England Journal of Medicine found that its use increased the chances of heart failure and death by 43 per cent.

Another study published yesterday in the journal Diabetes Care looked at reports involving more than 78,000 patients and found that the risk of heart failure in some could be doubled. Read more » »

By Harry Jackson Jr.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Dr. Philip Majerus discovered a few decades ago that aspirin can help prevent heart attacks and stroke. Since then, Majerus, a professor at Washington University, has maintained a deep respect for this little white pill, which has been around since the 1800s.

“Aspirin is the most effective drug that we have,” Majerus says. “If we eliminated all but three drugs, aspirin would be one” we should keep, he says.

Much of America agrees with him. Aspirin is in virtually everyone’s medicine cabinet.

Doctors still like it because, while there’s a pill for every ailment aspirin addresses, aspirin is the only pill that takes care of so many conditions. Consumers still like it because it’s the least Read more » »

David Batty
Guardian Unlimited

What is the concern about?
A study of two of the drugs most commonly used to treat diabetes suggests that they almost double the risk of heart failure. The research, published in the journal Diabetes Care, is likely to cause considerable concern in the UK with around half a million patients taking the drugs. The researchers have called on the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice), the drugs and treatments watchdog for England and Wales, to review its guidance on the drugs, which recommends that they should be provided on the NHS.

Which two drugs are involved?
The drugs concerned are Avandia (rosiglitazone), manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline, and Actos Read more » »

HOUSTON - Boots & Coots International Well Control Inc., which provides pressure control and fire-extinguishment services to petroleum drillers, Friday said it will soon begin renting out equipment.

Boots & Coots said it plans to focus on the flow back rental market and other offerings that complement the company’s hydraulic workover, snubbing and well control services.

“Snubbing is the control of a tubing string while running it in or out of a well bore under pressure,” according to the Occupational Safety & Health Administration.

The company hired Mike Clark as vice president of operations, Tom Hendrix as vice president of business development and Glen Hendrix as operations manager, for its new rental tools division. Read more » »

PDT Sacramento — The state Air Resources Board, led by its newly appointed chair, overrode concerns from the construction industry Thursday and unanimously approved tough new regulations that will slash the amount of air pollution coming from bulldozers, backhoes and other off-road diesel engines.

Mary Nichols, who was appointed to head the board by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger earlier this month, beat back an eleventh-hour effort by three other board members to give the affected industries more time before they had to either retrofit their machinery to meet the new air quality standards or junk some of their dirtiest equipment.

The new rules “are balanced, strong and progressive in their effect on the state’s air,'’ she said. The regulations, which take effect in 2010, will give large companies until 2020 to either refit Read more » »

Tools, lights and workwear were taken from the former Carshock building on Skippers Lane, Middlesbrough.

The gear was being used by specialist contractors removing brown asbestos - one of the most dangerous forms of the material - from the premises.

A red letter “A” is marked on the stolen items, said Cleveland Police.

A force spokesman said: “Anyone who comes into contact with this equipment should contact us immediately, anonymously if necessary. Read more » »