Ongoing saga of contaminated sartans

·         In the ongoing saga of contaminated sartans, Torrent Pharmaceuticals Limited has expanded its voluntary recall of losartan potassium and hydrochlorothiazide combination tablets to include six more lots, for a total of 16 lots of losartan-containing medicines recalled since December. The recall, to the consumer level, stems from the detection of the probable carcinogen N-nitrosodiethylamine (NDEA) in the active pharmaceutical ingredient (losartan) manufactured by Hetero Labs Limited. The recalled lots have NDEA levels above acceptable daily intake levels released by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

·         Card diversions have beneficial effects on emotional wellness. In 2014, the University of Wisconsin-Madison completed an examination that discovered playing card diversions can enable individuals to remain rationally sharp in maturity, as detailed here and by Alzheimer’s Research UK. 90+ recommends that individuals who invest more energy taking part in mental exercises like card amusements might be at less danger of experiencing dementia. Other research like this New England Journal of Medicine ponder likewise proposes that relaxation exercises are related with a diminished danger of dementia. These reports unmistakably demonstrate that playing cards gives certifiable emotional wellness benefits, and particularly among the old.

·         Association between cholesterol levels and sepsis: Although low levels of low-density-lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) seem to be associated with an increased risk for sepsis and admission to the intensive care unit (ICU) in patients hospitalized for infection, the relation appears to be connected to comorbidities rather than LDL-C levels per se, suggests a new study published online Jan. 18, 2019 in JAMA Network Open.

·         Patients with NAFLD are at an increased risk for CVD compared to matched controls, but histological parameters do not seem to independently predict this risk (Liver International. 2018;39(1):197-204).

·         Need for vitamin and nutritional supplements: Most people do not need to take vitamins or nutritional supplements because they can get all the nutrients they need by eating a healthy diet, as per a new patient resource published Jan. 7, 2019 in JAMA Internal Medicine. But there are more than 90,000 supplements on the US market that include a wide range of vitamins, minerals and chemicals.

Dr KK Aggarwal

Padma Shri Awardee

President Elect Confederation of Medical Associations in Asia and Oceania   (CMAAO)

Group Editor-in-Chief IJCP Publications

President Heart Care Foundation of India

Past National President IMA