LisaBarger.com

The FDA announced today a recall of 3 Zicam zinc products designed to be used in the nose:

• Zicam Cold Remedy Nasal Gel (15mL, NDC 62750-003-10)
• Zicam Cold Remedy Swabs (20 swabs, NDC 67250-003-20)
• Zicam Cold Remedy Swabs, Kids Size (20 swabs, NDC 67250-003-21)

For several years, the nasal spray from of Zicam has been linked to sudden and permanent loss of smell; now, the FDA is placing the same warning on the swabs, as well.

To date, the FDA has logged only 130 reports of loss of smell but because the loss is most liklely permanent, the FDA is taking this very seriously. They urge you to stop using these products and either discard them or return them to the store for a refund.

In another astounding bit of why-didn’t-I-think-of-that wisdom, researchers have now discovered what teachers, parents and teenagers have known for decades. As sleep improves, grades do too.

In a study scheduled to be presented today at the annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies, a group of sleep specialists discuss their study of more than 50 teenagers who had previously complained about getting too little sleep at night or the inability to function satisfactorily during the day due to daytime sleepiness.

Researchers found that the less sleep the teenagers got, the lower their grades were—especially in subjects like math.

This story was first published on the health web site HealthDay.com.

First reported by Reuters, a new paper presented at the 2009 meeting of the American College of Sports Medicine says that 30-year-old women who exercise for at least an hour a week may reduce their risk of breast cancer, compared to women who don’t exercise.

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One particularly troublesome contaminate is nitrate. Young infants don’t develop the ability to break nitrates down in their bodies until they’re at least 3 years old.

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First reported by Reuters, a new study in the International Journal of Cancer finds that regular consumption of meat does not increase a woman’s risk of breast cancer. This flies in the face of some (but not all) past studies that did find a link.

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