Health Buzz: Supreme Court Phenergan Ruling and Other Health News

Supreme Court Upholds $6.7 Million Verdict Against Wyeth

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled yesterday that the Food and Drug Administration's approval of the antinausea medication Phenergan and its warning label does not protect drugmaker Wyeth Pharmaceuticals from being sued, the Associated Press reports. In a 6-to-3 ruling, the court upheld a $6.7 million verdict in favor of 63-year-old Diana Levine against Wyeth Pharmaceuticals. Levine was given Phenergan twice in 2000 while seeking treatment for migraines. The second injection of the medicine accidentally punctured an artery, resulting in gangrene. Her arm had to be amputated several weeks later, according to the AP.

Shoddy and fraudulent pharmacy products pose a growing threat, so it's important to be careful about which medications you or family members take. Consider these 4 ways to avoid dangerous drug errors.

Is Your Depo-Provera Causing Weight Gain?

Depo-Provera, the progesterone-only birth control shot, has a lot of advantages, but there's one big drawback: weight gain, enough to make you go up one or two dress sizes, according to a new study published yesterday in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology . In the study, more than 700 women were allowed to choose among various contraceptive methods and then were followed for three years to measure their gain in weight and body fat. Those who chose the Depo shot gained an average of 11 pounds over three years and experienced a 3 percent increase in body fat compared with an average of 3 to 4 pounds and less than half the increase in body fat for those who used other forms of contraception.

Selecting the right form of contraception can be a daunting task for women of any age. Here is what you need to know about your birth control options if you're over 35 or have been diagnosed with breast cancer.

Why Embryonic Stem Cells Are Obsolete

Scientists may be growing impatient, but President Obama has been rightly taking his time in addressing a campaign promise to lift the ban on federal funding for research using new lines of stem cells to be taken from human embryos. Even for strong backers of embryonic stem cell research, the decision is no longer as self-evident as it was, because there is markedly diminished need for expanding these cell lines for either patient therapy or basic research, Bernadine Healy reports. In fact, during the first six weeks of Obama's term, several events reinforced the notion that embryonic stem cells, once thought to hold the cure for diabetes, Alzheimer's, and Parkinson's, are obsolete. The most sobering: a report from Israel published in PLoS Medicine late last month that shows embryonic stem cells injected into patients can cause disabling if not deadly tumors.

Still, many think that stem cells hold promise as tools for developing new treatments. Here are 3 ways that stem cells may speed new cures.

—January W. Payne

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