PFT: Tracking all the Week 8 inactives

otl_ap_jbailes1_200AP

Over the last two years, the NFL has done plenty to improve the procedures that apply after a player has been diagnosed with a concussion.? The next frontier will be improving the procedures for determining that the player has a concussion in the first place.

The league?s various measures, which came promptly after Congress rattled the antitrust exemption sword in Octoer 2009, include the requirement that a player with a concussion be cleared by an independent neurologist before being allowed to practice or to play in a subsequent game.? More recently, the league promulgated the ?Madden Rule,? which provides that any player diagnosed with a concussion ?must leave the field and be immediately escorted to the locker/training room, and a member of the medical staff . . . must remain with the player to observe him if his injury does not require immediate hospitalization.?

But while the league also has generally mandated that if there is ?any suspicion? that a player has suffered a concussion, he must be pulled from the game, the league has yet to implement specific procedures for ensuring that such suspicions will be acknowledged before a given game ends.? There is no independent neurologist available during games ? there isn?t even a requirement that the teams have neurologists present.? Also, the NFL has no system in place for flagging players who may need to be evaluated for the presence of a concussion.

As a result, we?ve heard terms lately like ?dirt on the face? and ?concussion-like symptoms,? and we saw Chargers guard Kris Dielman stumble and bumble and ultimately remain in the game after giving a quick ?I?m good? wave to the sideline.

Improvements also are needed as to the process of evaluating players who may have concussions.? As Dr. Julian Bailes, Chairman of the Department of Neurosurgery at the NorthShore University Health System, told PFT via email this morning, ?Making the diagnosis of concussion on the field or sideline has always been difficult.? Lately I?ve come to think that the safest way if an athlete has ?concussion-like symptoms,? is?to remove them to the locker room where you can be away from the noise, cold, and distractions.? If there is any suspicion that a concussion has occurred, then they are not put back in the game.?

Dr. Bailes, who has been instrumental in the detection of Chronic Traumatic Encephelopathy, used that approach during his time as the on-field neurologist at West Virginia University.? And it makes plenty of sense.? It?s loud and it?s hectic and teammates are milling about and coaches are sticking their noses into the situation, hoping that their guys will get back on the field.? The better approach is to get the player into a more calm environment, get his shoulder pads off, let him sit and rest and try to collect his wits, and then engage in an assessment of his condition.

Of course, before it ever gets to that point, the league and its teams need to have a quicker trigger for conducting the review.? But these various steps must be taken by the NFL as soon as possible.? If another Congressional hearing is needed in order to make that happen, then another Congressional hearing should be held.

Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2011/10/30/week-eight-early-inactives/related/

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Rescue efforts suspended at Kansas grain elevator (AP)

ATCHISON, Kan. ? Crews temporarily suspended their search Sunday for three people missing since an explosion at a Kansas grain elevator that killed three workers and left two critically injured with severe burns.

Atchison City Manager Trey Cocking said officials with Bartlett Grain Co. decided it was unsafe for anyone to be inside the facility until later Sunday, when some heavy equipment was expected to arrive to assist them.

The explosion blew off a chunk of a grain distribution building that sits directly above the elevator, and Cocking said officials were fearful the building could fall on top of rescue crews amid the search. The efforts were already called off overnight because of darkness.

"It's a fairly dangerous situation. We don't feel comfortable putting fire crews in," Cocking said.

Although crews were considering the effort a recovery mission, Cocking said they hadn't given up hope that the one elevator company worker and two state grain inspectors might be found alive.

Family members of one of the missing, Travis Keil, 34, of Topeka, headed Sunday to Atchison to await news about his whereabouts. Gary and Ramona Keil, who made the drive from Salina with Travis Keil's three children, ages 8, 12 and 15, said their son was a war veteran who had been working as a site inspector for 16 years.

"We have all our prayers working for him," Gary Keil said.

Two other victims who were admitted to the burn unit of University of Kansas Hospital in Kansas City, Kan., were listed in critical condition there Sunday morning, hospital spokesman Dennis McCulloch said.

Cocking said four other people associated with the explosion escaped without injuries. No names were being released pending notification of families.

With smoke still billowing from the facility Sunday, train traffic past the elevator was being rerouted. A few emergency crews, including Union Pacific Railroad, drove to the scene as daylight broke.

The explosion could be seen and felt across Atchison, shaking homes and businesses up to four miles away. The cause was not immediately known, though grain elevator accidents can occur after grain dust becomes suspended in the air and turns explosive in the right conditions.

Bartlett Grain President Bill Fellows said in a statement that workers were loading a train with corn when the explosion occurred about 7 p.m. Saturday. The company planned to issue an updated statement Sunday.

Explosions are a leading hazard at grain elevators. According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, there have been more than 600 explosions over the last four decades, killing more than 250 and injuring more than 1,000. Grain dust is the main source of elevator blasts, as the dust can become airborne and explosive ? needing only a slight ignition source, such as electrical sparks, to cause a blast.

OSHA says suffocations are the leading killer at grain bins when workers become trapped in cascading grain. A study by Purdue University and cited by OSHA found 26 suffocation deaths at grain bins in 2010, the highest number on record at the time.

An explosion at a grain elevator in Bartley, Neb., in April 2010, caused no injuries but sent workers scrambling out of the way, while another in Gothenburg, Neb., in December 2010, scattered debris over nearby railroad tracks and a highway, also without injuries, authorities reported at the time.

Elsewhere, explosions or fires were reported at two grain elevators in Illinois in 2010 while a fire burning at a grain elevator in the Toledo, Ohio, area in September 2010 forced people to evacuate from a nearby mobile home park and businesses as a precaution. There also have been explosions or fires at elevators in South Dakota and Louisiana that year, none of them fatal.

Authorities said two workers were killed in June 2010 when they were buried under a load of wheat at an elevator in the central Kansas town of Russell though no explosion occurred there.

Paul Moccia, 57, lives in Atchison about a half mile from the grain elevator. He said the explosion shook his house and that lights flickered across his neighborhood for about 30 seconds.

"It was extremely loud. It was kind of like to me a double whomp, ? a bomp bomp. It reverberated, and kind of echoed down through the valley. ... kind of like a shock wave," he said. "Everybody came outside. Neighbors were trying to figure out what was going on. It was quite a thump."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111030/ap_on_re_us/us_grain_elevator_explosion

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Restaurant foods that are ripping you off

If you thought you bagged a bargain by skipping the $29 burgundy-braised short ribs and opting for the $18 baked ziti with mushrooms, marinara sauce and chicken, you?d be wrong. With food costs only accounting for about 18 percent of the menu price, the pasta dish is where the restaurant is making the most profit. Believe it or not, the beef is actually the better deal, since it costs nearly half the menu price to source and prepare it.

If price alone isn?t the best indicator of value on a menu, what criteria should we use to ensure the most bang for our buck? ?Choose labor-intensive, time-consuming, complex dishes, that call for hard-to-find ingredients,? suggests New York-based restaurant consultant, Clark Wolf. ?If you can whip it up yourself in 20 minutes with stuff from your kitchen cupboard ? do that,? he says.

Wolf has a point. Avoid the ubiquitous, low-cost chicken breast dish. Dishes comprising of everyday, bulk ingredients like pasta or rice are cheap to prepare and as simple for the restaurant chef to put together as it is for the home cook. For this same reason, restaurants love brunch when they turn out highly-profitable, egg-centric meals, and bread, flour and dairy-based dishes, such as French toast, waffles and, pancakes.

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Then there?s making the most of specialized equipment ? and relationships ? that eateries have. Steakhouses, for example, Clark adds, not only have dry-aging cabinets to hang meat to develop flavor and add value, but the best ones have built links with suppliers that deliver the most prime cuts that aren?t available in retail.

Just as a diner should mull over these factors when selecting a meal, the restaurateur also considers them, and several others, when pricing his menu. ?Food cost, what nearby restaurants are charging for similar dishes, and perceived value ? what customers are willing to pay for certain foods, are all taken into account,? says Linda Lipsky who runs a Pennsylvania-based hospitality operations consulting firm.

While the average raw food cost for fine-dining restaurants is 38 percent ? 42 percent of the menu as a whole, there is no standard mark-up across the board for appetizers, entrees, and desserts. There is also significant fluctuation within these categories. If $1.50 worth of chicken and $1.50 worth of shrimp features in two distinct appetizers, the shrimp dish will be more expensive because customers perceive the crustacean to be of higher value, and so will shell out more for it. However, with a range of quality available, chefs can use a cheaper variety of shrimp unbeknownst to the diner who continues to pay a premium, says Lipsky.

Forbes.com: america?s best chain restaurants

Other than to avoid out low-quality shellfish, there?s another reason why diners should pay more attention to their appetizer order. According to Jody Pennette, founder of CB5 Restaurant Group, in the last 15 years restaurants have raised the price of appetizers disproportionately to the increase in food costs. ?This has gone under the radar because people form their perceptions of value by looking at the price of entrees,? Pennette explains. ?Restaurants keep mains as competitive as they can, knowing they have leeway in other parts of the menu.?

Sides are another area featuring unpalatably high mark-ups, especially when sold as ?family style? servings to be shared by the table. ?Diners have a hard time deciphering value when portion sizes become more abstract,? says Pennette, something that makes it easier to add extra dollars to the check. Throw in exotic, luxury or ethnic ingredients, like caviar, saffron, or fresh lemongrass even in the tiniest quantities, and again the diner swallows a disproportionate price hike. ?People are thrown off the scent of seeking out value with foods they are unfamiliar with and don?t know how to cost,? adds Pennette.

Despite inflated prices in the appetizer sections, there are still parts of the menu where diners can find good value. Red meat and seafood dishes will get more bang for your buck ? and don?t forget the dessert list. ?Dessert used to be a low-cost, money-maker until the ambitions of the modern day pastry chef got in the way,? says Pennette. Nowadays, indulging in elaborate, luxurious desserts is reason alone to eat out. Go on, order that triple-layered chocolate torte. You owe it to your wallet.

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Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45019409/ns/today-money/

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Larry King: I got back almost $1M after Madoff con (AP)

GLENDALE, Calif. ? Larry King says he invested $700,000 with Wall Street scammer Bernard Madoff (MAY'-dawf) but was lucky enough to get it all back.

The veteran journalist tells the syndicated TV news show "Extra" that he and his wife got money back from the Madoff estate and from the government for taxes they paid on stock they never had.

Madoff never made investments but used money from new investors to pay previous ones. He pleaded guilty to fraud and is imprisoned. His wife says in a CBS "60 Minutes" interview that they tried to kill themselves after he confessed.

King told "Extra" on Thursday that he thinks Ruth Madoff came forward to help her daughter-in-law's new book about her husband, Mark Madoff. He hanged himself with a dog leash last year on the anniversary of his father's arrest.

___

Online:

http://www.extratv.com

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/entertainment/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111028/ap_en_ot/us_people_larry_king

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22 wounded Libyan rebel fighters arrive in Mass. (AP)

BOSTON ? Nearly two dozen former Libyan rebel fighters were carried in stretchers or limped and hobbled out of a U.S. Air Force medical evacuation jet in Massachusetts on Saturday at the end of a 13-hour flight for treatment of wounds sustained in the war that ousted slain longtime leader Moammar Gadhafi.

The envoy of Libya's National Transitional Council said the 22 fighters are the first of an estimated 200 combatants who will be flown to the United States for treatment. But Mark Ward, senior adviser on Arab transitions for the U.S. Department of State, later said several European nations have offered to treat some fighters, and the number of those who could come to this country has not been determined.

The fighters were brought to the country following a request to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during her trip to the Libyan capital of Tripoli last week, Ward said shortly before their flight landed at Boston's Logan International Airport in the midst of a wintry storm.

"The United States was very proud to help the Libyan people in eight months of struggle against Gadhafi and his regime," Ward said. "We know the struggle will now continue as they rebuild their country and, in particular, we wanted to help with some of the war wounded, some of those brave, young men that fought the regime's forces and brought it to its knees."

"Libya's new freedom has come at a price in human life and suffering. Just as the United States and the international community stood with the Libyan people during the revolution, we continue to work with them now to address urgent needs," Ward said.

The wounded fighters will be treated at the Spaulding Hospital for Continuing Medical Care North Shore in Salem, Mass., a long-term care facility.

An internationally established fund used by Libya's transitional government says it will pay the fighters' hospital bills.

The fighters were met at the airport by Ward and Ali Aujali, Libya's ambassador to the U.S. The combatants did not speak to reporters. Firefighters stationed at the airport, Massachusetts state troopers and Emergency Medical Services technicians immediately helped them get into ambulances that were waiting on the tarmac in the freezing rain.

Still, Ward said the former rebel fighters had mixed reaction on arrival in the United States.

"We were just on the plane with them ... they look very excited, but also a little bit apprehensive," Ward said. "Many of them have never been on an airplane before, this is a new country, it's very cold for them. ... Tripoli was warm when they left 13 hours ago, so this is going to be quite an experience for them, but also for the wonderful staff at Spaulding Hospital."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111030/ap_on_re_us/us_wounded_libyans_boston

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Riverfront flooding widens, but Bangkok mostly dry

Thai woman floats on a tube through floodwaters in Bangkok, Thailand on Friday Oct. 28, 2011. The Chao Phraya river coursing through the capital swelled to record highs Friday, briefly flooding riverside buildings and an ornate royal complex at high tide amid fears that flood defenses could break and swamp the heart of the city.(AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

Thai woman floats on a tube through floodwaters in Bangkok, Thailand on Friday Oct. 28, 2011. The Chao Phraya river coursing through the capital swelled to record highs Friday, briefly flooding riverside buildings and an ornate royal complex at high tide amid fears that flood defenses could break and swamp the heart of the city.(AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

Thai residents walk along floodwaters in Bangkok, Thailand on Friday Oct. 28, 2011. The main river coursing through Thailand's capital swelled to record highs Friday, briefly flooding riverside buildings and an ornate royal complex at high tide amid fears that flood defenses could break and swamp the heart of the city. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

A Thai man takes pictures with his son on a custom-built tricycle designed to go through floodwaters in Bangkok, Thailand on Friday Oct. 28, 2011. The Chao Phraya river coursing through the capital swelled to record highs Friday, briefly flooding riverside buildings and an ornate royal complex at high tide amid fears that flood defenses could break and swamp the heart of the city. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

Motorists pass by flooded streets at the Grand Palace in Bangkok, Thailand on Friday Oct. 28, 2011. The Chao Phraya river coursing through the capital swelled to record highs Friday, briefly flooding riverside buildings and an ornate royal complex at high tide amid fears that flood defenses could break and swamp the heart of the city. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

A Thai woman pedals her bike in floodwaters in Bangkok, Thailand, Friday, Oct. 28, 2011. Thailand's capital braced Friday for a crucial weekend that will mark the most critical test yet of its flood defenses, as Bangkok's main river Chao Phraya swelled to record high levels amid fears it could swamp the heart of the city. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)

(AP) ? The main river coursing through Thailand's capital swelled to record highs Friday, briefly flooding riverside buildings and an ornate royal complex at high tide amid fears that flood defenses could break and swamp the heart of the city.

Ankle-high water from the Chao Phraya river spilled through one sandbagged entranceway of Bangkok's treasured Grand Palace, which once housed the kingdom's monarchy. The army was pumping out the water, and tourists were still entering the white-walled compound.

The river has filled roads outside the palace gates for days, but the water has receded with the tides, leaving streets dry again.

But the higher-than-normal tides in the Gulf of Thailand, expected to peak Saturday, are obstructing the flood runoff from the north, and there are fears the overflows could swamp parts of downtown. The government also is worried major barriers and dikes could break.

The flood walls protecting much of the inner city are 2.5 meters (8.2 feet) high, and Saturday's high tide is expected to reach 2.6 meters (8.5 feet).

Friday's morning high tide passed without a major breach, but the waters briefly touched riverside areas closer to the city's central business districts of Silom and Sathorn.

"It is clear that although the high tides haven't reached 2.5 meters, it was high enough to prolong the suffering of those living outside of the flood walls and to threaten those living behind deteriorating walls," Bangkok Governor Sukhumbhand Paribatra said.

Seven of Bangkok's 50 districts ? all in the northern outskirts ? are heavily flooded, and residents have fled aboard bamboo rafts and army trucks and by wading in waist-deep water. Eight other districts have seen less serious flooding.

New flooding was reported Friday in the city's southeast when a canal overflowed in a neighborhood on the outer parts of Sukhumvit Road.

The floods, the heaviest in Thailand in more than half a century, have drenched a third of the country's provinces, killed close to 400 people and displaced more than 110,000 others. The water has crept from the central plains south toward the Gulf of Thailand, but Bangkok is in the way. The capital is literally surrounded by behemoth pools of water flowing around and through the city via a complex network of canals and rivers.

Economic analysts say the floods have cut Thailand's 2011 GDP projections by as much as 2 percentage points. Damage estimates of $6 billion could double if floods swamp Bangkok.

Most of Bangkok, however, has remained dry and most of its more than 9 million residents were staying put to protect their homes. Still, fears the inner city could flood have fueled an exodus as Thais and expatriates alike seek refuge outside Bangkok and foreign governments urge their citizens to avoid unessential travel to the threatened city.

The U.S. State Department cautioned against all but essential travel to areas of Thailand affected by the flooding, including Bangkok, because of transportation difficulties and shortages of certain food items.

On Thursday, an emotional Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra acknowledged her government could not control the deluge.

"What we're doing today is resisting the force of nature," Yingluck told reporters. She said the water bearing down on Bangkok was so massive that "we cannot resist all of it."

Flooding has closed Bangkok's Don Muang airport, mainly used for domestic flights, but Thailand's main international airport is operating as usual.

The government's Flood Relief Operations Center says its contingency plan involves the Thai military and government agencies transporting people from evacuation points in the capital to outlying provinces.

___

Associated Press writers Thanyarat Doksone, Vee Intarakratug and Grant Peck contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2011-10-28-AS-Thailand-Floods/id-2a227ba9b60f41ed817e3f8e72ad4354

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Expert says Jackson likely addicted to pain med (AP)

LOS ANGELES ? An addiction expert testifying for the doctor charged in Michael Jackson's death told jurors Thursday he believes medical records showed the singer developed an addiction to a powerful pain medicine in the months before his death.

Dr. Robert Waldman told jurors that Jackson was receiving "above-average doses" of the painkiller Demerol in the months before his death.

"I believe there is evidence that he was dependent on Demerol, possibly," Waldman said. The witness said he also thinks Jackson had an addiction to opioids by May 2009, the month before his death.

Waldman said a symptom of Demerol withdrawal is insomnia. Jackson complained that he couldn't sleep as he prepared for a series of comeback concerts.

Attorneys for Dr. Conrad Murray have suggested Jackson was undergoing withdrawal from Demerol before his death. None of the drug was found in the singer's system when he died.

Defense attorneys contend Jackson gave himself a fatal dose of the anesthetic propofol, which they say he was taking as a sleep aid.

Authorities found propofol throughout Jackson's body during an autopsy, and they contend Murray gave the singer a fatal dose of the drug while using it to help him sleep.

Jackson received the Demerol shots from his longtime dermatologist, Dr. Arnold Klein, who has not been accused of wrongdoing and will not be called as a witness during the trial.

Waldman said he had not treated a case of Demerol addiction in recent memory.

Murray has pleaded not guilty to involuntary manslaughter in Jackson's June 2009 death.

The Houston-based cardiologist's attorneys plan to call a propofol expert later Thursday.

Murray's attorneys have yet to show evidence of how their self-administration theory would have been possible. Several prosecution experts have said the self-administration defense was improbable, and a key expert said he ruled it out completely, arguing the more likely scenario was that Murray gave Jackson a much higher dose than he has acknowledged.

The scientific testimony of Waldman and Dr. Paul White comes a day after jurors heard from five of Murray's one-time patients, who described the cardiologist as a caring physician who performed procedures for free and spent hours getting to know them. When Ruby Mosley described Murray's work at a clinic he founded in a poor neighborhood in Houston in memory of his father, tears welled up in the eyes of the normally stoic doctor-turned-defendant.

White and Waldman do not necessarily have to convince jurors that Jackson gave himself the fatal dose, but merely provide them with enough reasonable doubt about the prosecution's case against Murray.

Prosecutors have portrayed Murray, 58, as a reckless physician who repeatedly broke the rules by giving Jackson propofol as a sleep aid. But jurors heard a different description of the doctor Wednesday.

Several of the character witnesses called described Murray as the best doctor they had ever seen and highlighted his skills at repairing their hearts with stents and other procedures.

"I'm alive today because of that man," said Andrew Guest of Las Vegas, who looked at Murray. "That man sitting there is the best doctor I've ever seen."

Another former patient, Gerry Causey, stopped to shake Murray's hand in the courtroom and said the physician was his best friend.

A prosecutor noted none of them were treated for sleep issues, although Causey and others said they didn't believe the allegations against Murray.

Defense attorneys have told Superior Court Judge Michael Pastor they expect their case to conclude Thursday. Pastor has said if that happens, closing arguments would occur next week.

___

AP Special Correspondent Linda Deutsch contributed to this report.

___

McCartney can be reached at http://twitter.com/mccartneyAP

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/celebrity/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111027/ap_en_mu/us_michael_jackson_doctor

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Pritzker family business founder dies at 85 (AP)

CHICAGO ? Businessman Robert Pritzker, who led a global industrial conglomerate and whose family founded the Hyatt chain of hotels, has died. He was 85.

Pritzker died Thursday evening in a Chicago nursing facility after suffering from Parkinson's disease, his executive assistant Becky Spooner said Friday.

Pritzker founded and was chairman and president of the Marmon Group, an international conglomerate of manufacturing and service companies. His business acumen helped Marmon Group revenues grow into the billions of dollars and through hundreds of acquisitions over 50 years, company officials said. The company was sold to Berkshire Hathaway in 2008.

In 2002, at age 76, Pritzker acquired several caster, medical device and hardware companies to form Colson Associates.

Pritzker was the brother of Jay Pritzker, who was founder and chairman of the Hyatt Hotel chain and among the richest people in the United States when he died in 1999 in Chicago.

Pritzker was born in Chicago on June 30, 1926. He graduated from the Illinois Institute of Technology with an industrial engineering degree in 1946 and later became chairman of the school's board of trustees. The school now has a Pritzker Institute for Medical Engineering.

Throughout his career Pritzker taught management and engineering courses at IIT, the University of Chicago and Oxford University. He also was chairman of the National Association of Manufacturers and worked with the National Academy of Engineering.

Pritzker is survived by his wife, Mayari, five children, 10 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/obits/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111028/ap_on_re_us/us_obit_pritzker

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More Evidence Shows Newer Forms of 'Pill' Raise Clot Risk, FDA Says (HealthDay)

THURSDAY, Oct. 27 (HealthDay News) -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Thursday said it "remains concerned" that a newer generation of birth control pills may raise the odds for serious blood clots more than older forms of the Pill.

The announcement concerns oral contraceptives containing a newer type of progestin hormone called drospirenone, which includes Bayer's Yaz or Yasmin. According to the FDA, the new study found a higher risk of venous thromboembolisms (VTEs) -- potentially dangerous clots -- in women on the drospirenone-containing pills vs. those on older forms of oral contraceptives.

The FDA-funded review involved the medical histories of more than 800,000 American women, all of whom were on some type of birth control between 2001 and 2008. The study found that women taking the newer oral contraceptives experienced a higher rate of clots than women on older forms of the contraceptive pill.

The review also found that women on two other forms of birth control -- the Ortho Evra patch from Johnson & Johnson and the NuvaRing vaginal ring from Merck -- had a higher rate of clots.

For now, the FDA is not advising that most women switch to another form of contraception. "If your birth control pill contains drospirenone, do not stop taking it without first talking to your health care professional," the agency said. "Contact your health care professional immediately if you develop any symptoms of blood clots, including persistent leg pain, severe chest pain or sudden shortness of breath. If you smoke and are over 35 years of age, you should not take combination oral contraceptives because they increase the risk that you could experience serious cardiovascular events, including blood clots."

Thursday's announcement was not the FDA's first word on this issue, nor is likely to be the last. The agency issued a similar warning in September, and in a statement released Thursday said that, "given the conflicting nature of the findings from six published studies evaluating this risk, as well as the preliminary data from the FDA-funded study," it plans to host a public meeting on the issue on Dec. 8.

The announcement Thursday comes a day after the release of a study in BMJ that also found newer birth control pills were tied to a higher risk for clots.

In that study, researchers reviewed data on all Danish women, aged 15 to 49, who were not pregnant between January 2001 and December 2009. During that time, more than 4,200 first episodes of VTEs occurred.

Women taking birth control pills with a newer progestin hormone had twice the risk of clots compared to those who took the older form of contraceptive pills.

Compared to women who did not use birth control pills, the risk of VTE was three times higher among those who used pills with levonorgestrel and six times higher among those who took pills with drospirenone, desogestrel or gestodene.

But the absolute risk of VTE associated with taking the newer pills remained relatively low, about 10 per 10,000 women, according to the University of Copenhagen researchers.

For every 2,000 women who switched from using newer pills to pills with levonorgestrel, there would be one less case of clots a year.

While some doctors may choose to prescribe birth control pills with a lower risk whenever possible, it is crucial not to exaggerate the risk of VTE, Dr. Philip Hannaford of the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, wrote in an accompanying editorial in the journal.

"Oral contraceptives are remarkably safe and may confer important long-term benefits in relation to cancer and mortality," he said in a journal news release.

Dr. Glenn Jacobowitz, vice chair of the division of vascular surgery at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York City, said: "The information for Yaz is not new. That has recently already been shown in studies to have an increased risk of blood clots than other oral contraceptives. The information on NuvaRing and Ortho Evra would be a new, but similar finding. This is certainly worrisome, particularly for women over age 35 and for smokers."

More information

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has more about birth control pills.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/parenting/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20111028/hl_hsn/moreevidenceshowsnewerformsofpillraiseclotriskfdasays

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