KEEP BUT DO NOT DISPLAY

Roche Suspends Dosing in Drug Trials for its GLP-1 Compound, Taspoglutide. See this week’s Item #6.

A1c Test for Diagnosis Not Perfect: Study (See this week’s Item #1.)

West Virginia Is the Most Heavily Medicated American State: According to Forbes, West Virgina has the highest prescription drug use of any U.S. state. Citizens of the Mountain State filled 18.4 prescriptions per person last year, compared with a national per-capita rate of 11.6 prescriptions. The other states that made …

Ornish, Pritikin Cleared for Medicare Payment: Medicare will pay for intensive diet and exercise programs developed under the Ornish and Pritikin brands for reducing cardiovascular event risk, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced.

Americans Don’t Know They’re Fat: Many Americans have skewed perceptions when it comes to their weight, often believing they are thinner than they really are, even when the scales are shouting otherwise, a new poll finds. As part of the survey, respondents were asked to provide their height and weight, …

Switching Statins Often Leads to Wrong Doses. See this week’s Item #5.

Medicare to Cover Smoking Cessation: Good news for seniors who want to quit smoking: Medicare will now cover tobacco cessation counseling. Previously, Medicare only covered smoking cessation counseling if a recipient had already been diagnosed with a tobacco-related disease or showed symptoms of such a disease. All Medicare beneficiaries already …

Diabetes Incidence May Depend on Socioeconomic Status: It seems that women who make less money than their counterparts are more likely to develop Type 2 diabetes, Canadian researchers found in a new study. The study, which was conducted over a 14-year period from 1994 to 2008 by Statistics Canada, found …

Simple Solution to Preventing Risk for Diabetes: A change in diet may help reverse the growth in the number of people with Type 2 diabetes. While this number has grown significantly over the past twenty years, British researchers say one specific change may help. They reviewed several studies and discovered …

Diabetes-Related Hospitalizations on the Rise: Nearly one in five hospitalizations in 2008 were related to diabetes, according to a recent report by the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. That means a total of more than 7.7 million hospital stays and $83 million in hospital costs, of which Medicare …