| Debate again shadows Accutane
Virtually no one opposes the goal of the mandatory new federal program governing the use of Accutane: to prevent pregnant women from taking the potent acne drug, approved in 1982, because it causes serious birth defects. That is where the consensus about the unusually restrictive six-month-old program known as iPledge ends. The program requires registration of all parties: wholesalers who sell it, pharmacists who dispense it, doctors who prescribe it and, above all, patients who take the drug. Public health officials say such strict regulation is necessary because years of progressively stronger voluntary programs failed to prevent pregnancy in users of the medicine, a treatment of last resort for severe scarring acne. Most of the estimated 200,000 Americans who take the drug generically known as isotretinoin each year are younger than 30; half are female.
Early Signs Of Pregnancy - Sign 8
If you're usually pretty regular and your period doesn't arrive on time, you'll probably take a pregnancy test long before you notice any of the above symptoms. But if you're not regular or you're not keeping track of your cycle, nausea and breast tenderness and extra trips to the bathroom may signal pregnancy before you realize you didn't get your period.
What ever it is, it is never too safe to take a pregnancy test.
Food Allergies: Rare but Risky
Do you start itching whenever you eat peanuts? Does seafood cause your stomach to churn? Symptoms like these cause millions of Americans to suspect they have a food allergy. But true food allergies affect a relatively small percentage of people: Experts estimate that only 2 percent of adults, and from 2 to 8 percent of children, are truly allergic to certain foods. Food allergy is different from food intolerance, and the term is sometimes used in a vague, all-encompassing way, muddying the waters for people who want to understand what a real food allergy is. "Many people who have a complaint, an illness, or some discomfort attribute it to something they have eaten. Because in this country we eat almost all the time, people tend to draw false associations between food and illness," says Dean Metcalfe, M.D., head of the Mast Cell and Physiology Section at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
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