FDA approves first rapid, take-home HIV test

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FDA approves first rapid, take-home HIV test

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Killer Abs: Rapid Fat Loss Revealed

July 2, 2012 by admin

Rapid Fat Loss?

There is no magic pill nor exercise that can make you lose weight speedily in a healthy manner. The best way to lose belly fat and get those six-pack abs is through proper diet and exercise.

Abs Workout

There are different abs preparation and abs training techniques that will help achieve washboard abs. Usually abdominal muscles consist of three layers. In the food pyramid, fruits and vegetables are given a large proportion in nutrition. Following the food pyramid will rule out eating junk food like burger, hot dogs, french fires and the like. Great care and excellent techniques are required to strengthen the abdominal muscles. Aiming for a perfect body figure, well shaped body or flat abs takes handwork and lots of self discipline and self sacrifices.

Exercise Routines

The truth is, its not only about trimming and getting rid of fat, it should be more on strengthening the abs muscle.

With this few, well-chosen abs exercises, for sure your dream for flat belly and six packs will not be out of your reach.

FLR comes to the rescue

William D. One can follow a flexible fat loss system to improve general health and attain that dream figure.

Fat Loss Revealed (FLR) Program in capsule:

- Does not condemn the use of food supplement but shows the acceptable ones.
- Good results can be seen in as short period as 12 weeks so you are constantly motivated.

Exercises You can Do At Home

- Plank (Hover) Exercise.
- Long Arm Crunch.
- Bicycle Crunch Exercise.

.Exercise regularly, have a daily schedule. Of course, it’s not necessary to perform all of abs exercise.

To order, just visit fatlossrevealed website.
www.fatlossrevealed.com

Weight Loss

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Rapid HIV Test Could Reduce Stigma and Curtail Disease

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has launched an initiative to motivate people to get tested for HIV. A free rapid test is being offered in select pharmacies nationwide, within their small clinics, which involves a swab test that renders results in approximately 20 minutes, the Associated Press reports. If the result is positive, the patient is sent to a department of health or other clinic to have the result confirmed by blood test.

With an estimated 1.1 million Americans infected with the disease and an estimated 20 percent of them unaware, this is a wise move to help to curtail the spread of the disease. So many people are unaware of the facts about HIV and AIDS that perhaps being confronted by the testing center and the information offered there will prompt people to know more. In the back of so many minds is the fear the possibility of infection exists.

Too many people still believe HIV and AIDS are the disease of gay men and drug users. While statistics still confirm these groups are still at higher risk, the truth is the condition is increasing in women, particularly minority women. HIV is more easily spread from man to woman because the virus exists in a man's semen, which can live inside the vagina for several days. But the female bodily fluids from which a man can contract the virus through intercourse with a woman have more limited means to enter the penis and infect a man's body.

In order for this condition to be dealt with, the stigma must decrease. There have been tremendous strides made in regard to treating the disease, making it possible for those infected to live productive and happy lives, to enjoy careers and have families. In fact, with treatment, the chances of a woman passing along the virus to her unborn child are reduced to as low as 2 percent.

Symptoms of the illness often don't appear for nearly 10 years in many patients. It is important to be tested for this virus, regardless of whether any sexual partners "appear" to be ill and whether a person has had few or several partners. It's better to know early. Though there is no cure, treatment is possible to help to maintain a normal life.

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Looking For Rapid Fat Loss?

May 17, 2012 by admin

Right now I’m going to share with you some ways to achieve rapid fat loss.  Weight loss isn’t rocket science.  It really isn’t hard at all.  Listen, if you’re willing to take some constructive advice and actually put these suggestions into practice, you’ll be amazed at what you are able to achieve.

Keep reading this article to learn how to quit being a fatty.

Rapid Fat Loss – Now!

Include chicken, tuna, black beans, or eggs with every meal

Each of these foods is packed with protein to speed up your metabolism. Black beans are also packed with fiber, so they win a special award.

All of these foods are also pretty decent at making you feel full.  And that will curb your cravings for over processed junk foods between meals. 

If you aren’t crazy about any of the foods I just mentioned, try to remember this rule of thumb:  each and every meal should contain at least 15 grams of protein.  That is not a hard rule to live by.

Make it happen.

Eating protein with every meal is crucial for your success with weight loss. 

During commercial breaks on tv, run up and down stairs

This is a great one.  But make sure you understand what I’m talking about before doing this.

If you want to get rid of that soft, excess flab around your mid section, you need to perform some sort of exercise that is short and intense in nature.  If you have stairs in your home, that’s all you need.

If you don’t have stairs, go find some, or substitute jumping jacks.

Here’s the deal.  Pick any show that lasts an hour.  During every commercial break of that show, I want you to run up the stairs and walk back down – without stopping.

That’s maybe a total of 4 commercial breaks.  With each break lasting about 3 minutes, that’s 12 minutes of exercise total.

Don’t tell you can’t do that!  If you do, you’ll get some results VERY FAST!

Commit to doing this for 5 days out of every week.  Within about 10 days, a new, slimmer you will begin to emerge.

And those are 2 techniques for achieving rapid fat loss.

Weight Loss

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FDA reviews first rapid, take-home test for HIV

The Food and Drug Administration is considering approval of the first over-the-counter HIV test that would allow consumers to quickly test themselves for the virus at home, without medical supervision.

FDA reviewers said Friday the OraQuick In-Home HIV test could play a significant role in slowing the spread of HIV, according to briefing documents posted online. But they also raised concerns about the accuracy of the test, a mouth swab that returns results in about 20 minutes.

The review comes one day after an FDA advisory panel endorsed the HIV pill Truvada for preventive use. If FDA follows the group's advice, the daily medication would become the first drug approved to prevent healthy people from becoming infected with the virus that causes AIDS.

Public health experts estimate one-fifth, or about 240,000 people, of the 1.2 million HIV carriers in the U.S. are not aware they are infected. Testing is one of the chief means of slowing new infections, which have held steady at about 50,000 per year for two decades.

In a trial conducted by the company OraSure Technologies Inc., the test correctly detected HIV in those carrying the virus 93 percent of the time. That rate is below the FDA-recommended 95 percent threshold for accuracy.

The FDA estimates the test would miss about 3,800 HIV-positive people per year, if approved for U.S. consumers.

The test was more accurate at correctly clearing patients who do not have the disease. In company studies, OraQuick correctly identified HIV-negative users 99 percent of the time.

In their briefing documents, FDA scientists noted both the benefits and risks of expanding HIV testing with the take-home diagnostic kit.

"There is considerable personal and public health value in informing infected, but otherwise untested, persons of their true positive HIV status," the reviewers state. "However, this benefit is offset in some measure by HIV-positive individuals who receive an incorrect message that they are not infected."

The lukewarm endorsement apparently spooked investors. OraSure's stock tumbled $1.32, or 11.8 percent, to close at $9.85 in trading Friday.

On Tuesday, the FDA will ask a panel of outside experts whether the test should be approved for over-the-counter sales in U.S. The agency is not required to follow the group's advice, though it usually does.

Based in Bethlehem, Pa., OraSure has marketed a version of OraQuick to doctors, nurses and other health care practitioners since 2004. The test sells for $17.50, though OraSure declined to discuss how it would price the consumer version. When used by professionals, the test is shown to accurately identify both carriers and non-carriers 99 percent of the time.

While it's not clear why the test was less accurate in consumer trials, CEO Doug Michels said company researchers anticipated that its "performance in the hands of a consumer would be different from that observed in hands of a professional."

OraSure tried the new version of the test in a study of 5,800 people of various sexual orientation, race and income levels. The trial identified about 100 HIV carriers who were previously undiagnosed.

The FDA has already approved HIV test kits that people take home. However, those kits, which require a blood sample, must be sent to a laboratory for development. But OraSure argues that a test that can be done at home will appeal to a much broader group of people.

According to the company's study, 41 percent of people who discovered they were HIV-positive using OraQuick had never been tested previously. In its own briefing documents, the company estimates that 9,000 new HIV carriers would be identified for every 1 million people who use the test.

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FDA reviews first rapid, take-home test for HIV

The Food and Drug Administration is considering approval of the first over-the-counter HIV test that would allow consumers to quickly test themselves for the virus at home, without medical supervision.

FDA reviewers said Friday the OraQuick In-Home HIV test could play a significant role in slowing the spread of HIV, according to briefing documents posted online. But they also raised concerns about the accuracy of the test, a mouth swab that returns results in about 20 minutes.

The review comes one day after an FDA advisory panel endorsed the HIV pill Truvada for preventive use. If FDA follows the group's advice, the daily medication would become the first drug approved to prevent healthy people from becoming infected with the virus that causes AIDS.

Public health experts estimate one-fifth, or about 240,000 people, of the 1.2 million HIV carriers in the U.S. are not aware they are infected. Testing is one of the chief means of slowing new infections, which have held steady at about 50,000 per year for two decades.

In a trial conducted by the company OraSure Technologies Inc., the test correctly detected HIV in those carrying the virus 93 percent of the time. That rate is below the FDA-recommended 95 percent threshold for accuracy.

The FDA estimates the test would miss about 3,800 HIV-positive people per year, if approved for U.S. consumers.

The test was more accurate at correctly clearing patients who do not have the disease. In company studies, OraQuick correctly identified HIV-negative users 99 percent of the time.

In their briefing documents, FDA scientists noted both the benefits and risks of expanding HIV testing with the take-home diagnostic kit.

"There is considerable personal and public health value in informing infected, but otherwise untested, persons of their true positive HIV status," the reviewers state. "However, this benefit is offset in some measure by HIV-positive individuals who receive an incorrect message that they are not infected."

The lukewarm endorsement apparently spooked investors. OraSure's stock tumbled $1.32, or 11.8 percent, to close at $9.85 in trading Friday.

On Tuesday, the FDA will ask a panel of outside experts whether the test should be approved for over-the-counter sales in U.S. The agency is not required to follow the group's advice, though it usually does.

Based in Bethlehem, Pa., OraSure has marketed a version of OraQuick to doctors, nurses and other health care practitioners since 2004. The test sells for $17.50, though OraSure declined to discuss how it would price the consumer version. When used by professionals, the test is shown to accurately identify both carriers and non-carriers 99 percent of the time.

While it's not clear why the test was less accurate in consumer trials, CEO Doug Michels said company researchers anticipated that its "performance in the hands of a consumer would be different from that observed in hands of a professional."

OraSure tried the new version of the test in a study of 5,800 people of various sexual orientation, race and income levels. The trial identified about 100 HIV carriers who were previously undiagnosed.

The FDA has already approved HIV test kits that people take home. However, those kits, which require a blood sample, must be sent to a laboratory for development. But OraSure argues that a test that can be done at home will appeal to a much broader group of people.

According to the company's study, 41 percent of people who discovered they were HIV-positive using OraQuick had never been tested previously. In its own briefing documents, the company estimates that 9,000 new HIV carriers would be identified for every 1 million people who use the test.

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Rapid Asthma Treatment in ER May Prevent Admission

HealthDay – 1 hr 1 min ago FRIDAY, April 6 (HealthDay News) -- Rapid treatment with asthma medications seems to help reduce hospitalizations among children with asthma, a new study finds.

Canadian researchers analyzed data from 406 children and found that those with moderate or severe asthma attacks who received systemic corticosteroids within 75 minutes of arriving at a hospital emergency department were 16 percent less likely to be admitted to the hospital.

Corticosteroids reduce inflammation.

The findings illustrate the importance of rapidly identifying and treating children with asthma when they arrive at an emergency department, the researchers said.

The study was recently published online in the journal Annals of Emergency Medicine.

"We knew that corticosteroids could help avoid hospital admissions and relapses. However, just how delays between emergency department admission and administration of the treatment impacted outcomes remained unclear," lead author Dr. Sanjit Bhogal said in a University of Montreal news release.

"Our study demonstrates that, to be effective in preventing hospital admission, treatment with corticosteroids should be administered within 75 minutes of triage, regardless of patient age," senior author Dr. Francine Ducharme said in the news release.

"In fact, the earlier the treatment is given within this time frame, the more effective it is, hence the advantage of starting treatment right after triage," she added. "Furthermore, beginning early treatment reduces emergency department stay by almost 45 minutes for patients who will be discharged from the emergency department."

More information

The American Academy of Pediatrics has more about asthma and children.

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