HEALTH

ROCKVILLE, Md. — To help ensure the quality of popular food ingredients increasingly being incorporated into products sold in the United States and worldwide, standards for omega 3-rich krill oil and natural, low-calorie stevia sweeteners are among the latest proposed revisions to the Food Chemicals Codex, the U.S. Pharmacopeial Convention that publishes the codex announced Wednesday.  

ATLANTA — The incidence of influenza continued on an upward trajectory heading into the Christmas holiday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Friday. Nationwide for the week ending Dec. 22, 4.2% of patient visits reported through the U.S. Outpatient Influenza-like Illness Surveillance Network were due to influenza-like illness, above the national baseline of 2.2%. 

PALATINE, Ill. — In support of its December launch of the pseudoehedrine product Nexafed, Acura Pharmaceuticals recently kicked off a national e-mail campaign to help drive pharmacists to the Nexafed website with content specifically designed for the pharmacist audience, including infographics, graphic representations of study data and a behind-the-scenes look at Nexafed's abuse-deterrent technology.

NEW YORK — Convenience retailer 7-Eleven has jumped on the "fresh" bandwagon, according to a report published last week in the New York Times. And while 7-Eleven has been serving up fresh for more than a decade with its variety of hot dogs and breakfast fare, now the focus is on fresh food items that will fit within a consumer's diet plan, too. 

GOTHENBURG, Sweden — Researchers at the University of Gothenburg along with the Chalmers University of Technology earlier this month demonstrated that an altered gut microbiota in humans is associated with symptomatic atherosclerosis and stroke. 

These findings were presented in a study published in Nature Communications on Dec. 4.

CONEY ISLAND, N.Y. — ProPhase Labs recently announced that its Cold-Eeze Cold Remedy will sponsor a New Jersey television personality to help raise money for Camp Sunshine, a retreat in Casco, Maine for kids with life-threatening illnesses and their families. 

On Jan. 1, "Jersey Shore" star Vinny Guadagnino will take the plunge as part of the annual Coney Island Polar Bear Plunge New Year’s Day event. 

This is Vinny’s second year doing the Polar Bear Plunge, ProPhase noted.

WASHINGTON — The Consumer Healthcare Products Association last week applauded Ohio Gov. John Kasich for signing into law House Bill 334, an anti-methamphetamine bill authored by Reps. Terry Johnson, R-Portsmouth, and Danny Bupb, R-West Union. With the new law, Ohio now becomes the 25th state to adopt real-time, stop-sale technology known as the National Precursor Log Exchange.

PITTSBURGH — Women deficient in vitamin D early in their pregnancies are more likely to deliver babies with lower birth weights, according to research released last week by the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health.

The study, funded by the National Institutes of Health, will be reported in the January print edition of the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.