Medical Watch for Sept 12

Cold medicine doesn’t work

Your favorite cold medication may not be on store shelves soon.

A Food and Drug Administration Advisory panel announced phenylephrine, an ingredient added to hundreds of medications to relieve congestion, doesn’t work.

Now the question is whether the FDA will order the removal of products containing phenylephrine.

Over the counter drugs like Mucinex, Tylenol Sinus, Sudafed PE, Benedryl Allergy and Dayquil, among others, could disappear from pharmacy shelves after an FDA panel unanimously voted to remove phenylephrine from its list of approved ingredients.

Experts recommended the FDA halt the sale of the more than 260 oral nose and sinus medications containing phenylephrine.

Drinking alcohol not only makes you gain weight, it can build up fat around vital organs.

Alcohol & Fat

A new study by Wake Forest University School of Medicine finds heavy alcohol consumption is linked to ectopic fat.

The fat that accumulates around the heart, liver and intestines can create multiple health crises.

The results are based on the multi ethnic study of atherosclerosis including nearly 7,000 people of European, African, Hispanic and Asian descent between the ages of 45 to 84.

People who had more than two drinks a day were considered heavy drinkers.

Researchers used CT scans to measure deep body fat and see how it surrounded vital organs.

Sitting & Dementia

Stand up for your health or risk losing your mind. That’s the advice from doctors writing in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

They say more time spent sitting is associated with a higher risk for dementia.

The finding is based on data collected from nearly 50,000 study participants wearing wrist monitors over about seven years.

Sedentary behavior, characterized as more than 18 hours a day seated or lying down, is also linked to heart disease and early death.