Ayurvedic medicines sold over the Internet in the United States contain harmful levels of toxic metals such as lead, a new study has found. A team of researchers from Boston University used five different Internet search engines to locate 25 sites selling Ayurvedic medicines.

The researchers randomly chose 230 sites to order the medicines in 2005 and sent their purchases to the New England Regional Environmental Protection Agency for testing. The agency measured metal concentrations using x-ray fluorescence spectroscopy and found that 20.7 percent of the products contained lead, mercury, and/or arsenic

The drug allopurinol, often used to lower uric acid levels, may lower blood pressure in adolescents with high blood pressure, a new study shows. The drug is prescribed to lower uric acid levels in adults who suffer the painful arthritic condition known as gout.

The current study, published in the Aug. 27 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, tested whether treatment with allopurinol would reduce blood pressure in 30 11- to 17-year-olds who had high uric acid levels and newly diagnosed high blood pressure

Eli Lilly and Co.'s Cymbalta depression treatment significantly reduced back pain in comparison with a placebo, new studies suggest. The drug is prescribed to treat depression, generalized anxiety disorder, diabetic nerve pain, and fibromyalgia.

The pharmaceutical company carried out a study on 236 adults with chronic low back pain who weren't depressed. They took Cymbalta or a placebo drug daily for 13 weeks. The study found that 31 per cent of patients receiving the treatment experienced a 50 percent reduction in pain, compared with 19 percent of individuals who were in the placebo group

Women who undergo severe stress during pregnancy risk giving birth to children who develop schizophrenia, a complex brain disorder, a study suggests.

Study leader Dr. Dolores Malaspina, from the New York University School of Medicine, and colleagues looked at birth data for 88,829 people born in Jerusalem from 1964 to 1976 and cross-referenced the information with Israel's national psychiatry registry

A draft report from the federal inspector general belied a 2006 Medicare claim that it prevented the filing and payment of fraudulent billings, which it said saved the government billions of dollars.

To compute Medicare's rate of wrong payments, Medicare officials instructed auditors to set aside government policies that accurately measure fraud. One example was sales invoices for claims that were not compared against physicians' records