TV News LIES

To hear Big Pharma tell it, statin drugs are "miracle" medicines that have prevented millions of heart attacks and strokes. But a recent study published in the British Medical Journal tells a completely different story: For every heart attack prevented by the drug, two or more people suffered liver damage, kidney failure, cataracts or extreme muscle weakness as a result of taking the drug.

Statin drugs, in other words, harm far more people than they help.

The Food and Drug Administration is cracking down on 23andMe and other companies that sell genetic tests directly to consumers.

The F.D.A. sent letters this week to five companies involved in that business, saying their tests are medical devices that must receive regulatory approval before they can be marketed.

"Our work shows that radiation can change the microenvironment of breast cells, and this in turn can allow the growth of abnormal cells with a long-lived phenotype that have a much greater potential to be cancerous," Paul Yaswen, a cell biologist and breast cancer research specialist with Berkeley Lab's Life Sciences Division, said in a statement to the press.

A new report says the Food and Drug Administration is stretched thin and needs to reorganize to better keep the nation's food safe.

The report released by the Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council Tuesday says the agency needs to become more efficient and better target its limited dollars to prevent foodborne illness outbreaks. The 500-page report says the FDA lacks the vision necessary to protect consumers.

A single dose of radiation during surgery is just as effective as a prolonged course of radiotherapy for breast cancer, a study suggests. Doctors have tested the technique, which involves a single shot of radiotherapy to a tumour site, in more than 2,000 patients.

It could save the UK £15m a year, the researchers said. Cancer Research UK said The Lancet study could have a "huge impact" for patients.

Scientists who drew up the key World Health Organisation guidelines advising governments to stockpile drugs in the event of a flu pandemic had previously been paid by drug companies which stood to profit, according to a report out today.