Amanda J. Crawford The Arizona Republic Mar. 4, 2008 12:00 AM Couper Harding was not yet in kindergarten when he started taking his meds. There had been uncontrollable rage, biting, kicking. One day he turned a hose on dozens of kids in his Montessori-school class. He saw therapists and psychiatrists. The meds didn’t help much. One day Couper, unusually strong for his age, picked up a vacuum cleaner and threw it at his parents. At age 6, he was admitted…

Over the summer, it was lead paint in toys that had parents on edge. Then, the recall of 1 million cribs raised further red flags. Today, baby bottles may stoke even more concern among stressed-out parents. Click here for a guide on how to find a plastic-free baby bottle. Read more about BPA and other potentially dangerous chemicals here. “It’s just so heartbreaking for moms,” says Mary Tyler Johnston, a new mother who lives in Manhattan, “to have to worry…

San Diego State isn’t the only university with a flu outbreak problem. *By the end of January, the health center at Miami University in Ohio saw 50 cases of the flu in a day, many of whom were sorority recruits. But the bug didn’t discriminate and soon spread to the general student body, wiping out the health center’s supply of Tamiflu. *At least 100 cases of the flu at the University of Mississippi prompted the school to distribute masks to…

Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle Community leaders pledged Thursday to take small steps to fight the HIV/AIDS epidemic that’s disproportionately affecting blacks in Houston. At a lunchtime gathering, pastors promised to spread the word among their congregations, employers promised to encourage testing at work and young people said they’d talk with friends about ways to prevent the disease. The campaign, organized by the Houston Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, kicked off…

The startling findings of a major federal study on the effects of lowering blood sugar are unlikely to change the way most people with Type 2 diabetes manage their illness, doctors said Thursday. The study, announced Wednesday, showed that an intensive program to lower blood sugar actually increased risk of death. The findings were so surprising that the study was stopped early, and they seemed to undercut the accepted wisdom that people with diabetes should do everything possible to get…

FRIDAY, Feb. 8 (HealthDay News) — Medical residents who are depressed are about six times more likely to make medication errors than those who aren’t depressed, says a study that looked a 123 pediatric residents at three children’s hospitals in the United States. Researchers found that 20 percent of the residents were depressed, and 74 percent were burned out. During the study period, the residents made a total of 45 medications errors, and those who were depressed made 6.2 times…

Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, February 8, 2008; A15 One billion people may die of tobacco-related illness this century, almost all of them in developing countries, the World Health Organization warned yesterday as it rolled out an unprecedented global campaign to limit the spread of smoking. The effort provides the first comprehensive look at tobacco use, as well as smoking control and taxation policies, in 179 countries. It also lays out six strategies to reduce tobacco use, many used by…

After years of having only one hospital to serve an area larger than Connecticut, Pinal County soon will have two more emergency rooms to handle its health-care needs. Idaho-based Initiatives Healthcare Inc. has announced plans to start refurbishing the former Central Arizona Medical Center in Florence, with plans to open the facility by the end of the year. The news comes weeks after Banner Health announced construction plans for a new hospital just east of Queen Creek. Both hospitals will…

02-06-2008 – ARIZONA DAILY STAR A series of five evening lectures known as “Mini-Medical School” kicks off next week to highlight major health issues. Presented by physicians and scientists at the University of Arizona College of Medicine, the Wednesday-evening topics include organ transplants, prescription drugs, Parkinson’s disease and hand injuries. The public is invited to attend the two-hour lectures for a cost of $50 per person for the entire series. That covers lecture notes and light refreshments — there is…

Associated Press WASHINGTON — Several outbreaks of ciguatera fish poisoning have been confirmed in consumers who ate fish harvested in the northern Gulf of Mexico, the Food and Drug Administration said today. The FDA said that fish such as grouper, snapper, amberjack and barracuda represent the most significant threat to consumers. They feed on fish that have eaten toxic marine algae. The toxin is stable in the tissue of living fish and does them no harm. But larger carnivores have…