Health Canada has issued a warning to consumers about the Trophic brand natural health product labelled “Kelp and Glutamic Acid HCI” because of high levels of iodine.

It warns that pregnant or breastfeeding women, or people with thyroid conditions such as Graves’ disease, are most vulnerable.

Too much iodine can lead to the enlargement of the thyroid, the butterfly-shaped gland at the front of the neck that regulates metabolism, and can cause it to become underactive or overactive. While hypothyroidism (underactive thyroid) can lead to infertility and heart disease, hyperthyroidism (overactive thyroid) can cause sudden weight loss, rapid or irregular heart beat, increased sensitivity to heat or irritability.

Babies exposed to excessive levels of iodine while in the womb can be born with an enlarged thyroid. Such a condition can also cause the baby to have difficulty breathing.

In Graves’ disease patients, high levels of iodine can reduce the effectiveness of antithyroid medications.

People considering taking this product are advised to consult their doctors before doing so, according to Health Canada.

Kelp and Glutamic Acid HCI is not approved by Health Canada though it is sold in pharmacies and over the Internet.

The company that manufactures the product, Trophic Canada Ltd., has initiated its recall, and Health Canada says it will monitor the situation.

Should Bill C-51 pass, natural health products sold in Canada will require them to be licensed by Health Canada and labelled with a drug identification number before they can be sold in stores.
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- Commented 00 Women who are deficient in vitamin D when diagnosed with breast cancer may have a poorer prognosis compared to those with optimal amounts of the sunshine nutrient in their blood, a Canadian study suggests. 00 The Ontario government will soon pay for sex-change operations again, Health Minister George Smitherman has confirmed. 00 An early diagnostic test for autism could soon be available, according to Canadian researchers, who say they can detect autism in children as young as nine months. 00 Eastern Health was overwhelmed soon after the start of its crisis in dealing with flawed cancer tests, a judicial inquiry in St. John’s has been told. 00 Spending on prescription and non-prescription drugs in Canada reached $26.9 billion last year, an increase of 7.2 per cent over 2006, according to data released Thursday. Health Features «www.cbc.ca» «www.cbc.ca» «www.cbc.ca»

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Technologycompanies dominatedan annual list of the world’s most powerful brands, with internet search leader Google retaining the top spot and Research in Motion’s Blackberry brand one of the fastest risers.

Research from international consulting firm Millward Brown, published Monday, put the value of Google’s brand at $86 billion US, a 30 per cent increase in its value from the previous year.

General Electric was again ranked second with a value of $71.4 billion US, followed by Microsoft at $70.89 billion US and Coca-Cola at $58.2 billion US. China Mobile ranked fifth at $57.2 billion US.

Millward Brown bases its BrandZ rankings on the financial performance of the companies and the results of interviews with consumers globally.

While the top five brands remained unchanged from a year ago, a number of technology and telecommunications companies moved up in the rankings, the company said.

IBM moved from ninth to sixth, and Apple zoomed up from 16th to seventh, with its brand value rising 123 per cent from the previous year to $55.2 billion.

Rounding out the top 10 were U.S. fast-food giant McDonald’s, Finnish cellphone maker Nokia and tobacco brand Marlboro.

Waterloo, Ont.-based Research in Motion’s Blackberry brand had the biggest year-to-year change among companies in the top 10, rising 390 per cent to $13.7 billion US, according to Millard Brown.

Blackberry, which came in at No. 51, was one of two brands with Canadian origins to make the top 100. Royal Bank of Canada was No. 34 on the list, with a brand valued at $18.99 billion US.

Technology companies and mobile phone operators accounted for 28 of the top 100 brands and accounted for more than half the total brand value growth, the report found.

But not all technology companies fared well in the rankings. U.S. phone maker Motorola’s brand dropped 30 per cent in value from the previous year, the largest drop of any brand still in the top 100. Internet search portal Yahoo and online retailer eBay also dropped in value from the previous year. Post a commentPeople have commented on this story Recommend this story People have recommended this story Story Tools: | | Text Size: | | Story comments (0) Sort: Most recent | First to last | Most recommended

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(Note: CBC does not endorse and is not responsible for the content of external sites - links will open in new window) People who read this also read … Consumer Headlines 00 The Bank of Canada is widely expected by economists to cut interest rates by one-half of a percentage point on Tuesday in a bid to give the economy a boost. 00 Technology companies dominated an annual list of the world’s most powerful brands, with internet search leader Google retaining the top spot and Research in Motion’s Blackberry brand one of the fastest risers. 00 U.S.-based Marvel Entertainment is bringing its pantheon of superheroes to Dubailand, the United Arab Emirates theme park poised to become the largest of its kind. 00 The United Nations secretary general says the world must urgently increase food production to ease skyrocketing prices and has pledged to set up a task force on a crisis threatening to destabilize developing nations. 00 Skype, the internet calling subsidiary of eBay Inc., is introducing its first plan for unlimited calls to overseas phones on Monday. Consumer Life Features «www.cbc.ca» «www.cbc.ca» «www.cbc.ca» «www.cbc.ca» «www.cbc.ca»

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A television advertisement for a heart stent that promotes the products potential benefits but seems to play down the medical risks may deceive the public and should be reviewed by U.S. regulators, according to an op-ed article published on Wednesday by a leading medicaljournal.

The 60-second ad for the Cypher stent, made by the Cordis subsidiary of Johnson Johnson, failed to adequately warn consumers about the potential dangers of receiving a stent, according to the article published by The New England Journal ofMedicine.

Stents are metal mesh devices that are used to prop open arteries after they have been cleared of blockages. The ad uses the tag line “life wideopen.”

“We believe that the FDA should perform a critical post-release review of the Life Wide Open campaign to assess whether it meets the basic regulatory requirements for non-deceptive advertising,” the journals article said. It also questioned the validity of advertising such high-risk procedures directly to thepublic.

Cordis defended the ad in a written statement, saying its content and message was reviewed by the Food and Drug Administration before it began running last Thanksgiving Day, starting with a National Football League gamebroadcast.

“The goal of the Life Wide Open campaign is to foster an informed, balanced conversation between patients and physicians about treatment options for coronary artery disease, which kills millions of Americans each year,” the statementsaid.

A spokesman, Christopher Allman, said the television ad was no longer running nationally but was being broadcast in Baltimore. Allman would not explain why the ad was running in one localmarket.

The journal article, by the cardiologists Dr. William Boden of the medical school at the State University of New York at Buffalo and Dr. George Diamond of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, comes as pressure mounts on the FDA to limit consumer medical advertising or at least to increase oversight ofit.

The United States is one of the few industrialized countries that permit such advertising. On Friday, an FDA advisory committee plans to discuss whether television ads for prescription drugs should include a statement encouraging consumers to report negative side effects to a toll-free number operated by the agency. That is currently required for print prescription drug ads. There is no such requirement for ads for medical devices, which are not as closely monitored as drugads.

The trade group representing pharmaceutical companies, Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, said on Tuesday that it had not taken a position on the proposal being discussed by theFDA.

During a congressional hearing last week on drug advertising, the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, John Dingell, pressed several drug company representatives on whether they would support encouraging television viewers to call the 1-800 number to report adverseevents.

“They said they couldnt tell us, so were communicating with the CEOs of the companies,” Dingell said in a telephone interview on Wednesday. Dingell, a Democrat from Michigan, said he supported the requirement. “But understand one thing,” he said. “It might not beenough.”

He said the committee had found systemic violations of advertising requirements by drug companies. “Some ads appear to be misleading and others appear to be downright deceptive,” Dingellsaid.

The chairman of the House subcommittee investigating drug advertising, Representative Bart Stupak, said that Congress should consider banning drug ads aimed directly atconsumers.

Although the FDA currently does not scrutinize advertising for medical devices as closely as for prescription drugs, it does regulate ads for so-called high-risk medical devices, includingstents.

For several years the agency has been reviewing a set of guidelines proposed in 2004 for advertising medical devices. Karen Riley, an FDA spokeswoman, said the agency would have no comment on the articles call for a review of the Cypher stentadvertising.

The Cypher ad, which says that “when your arteries narrow, so does your life,” was the first to market a stent directly to consumers on television. Similar ad campaigns, however, have promoted hip and knee implants, include one featuring the golfer Jack Nicklaus, who underwent a hip replacement in 1999 using a device made byStryker.

In 2007 ad spending for medical devices was $200 million, according to TNS Media Intelligence, an advertising researchfirm.

Dr. Boden, one author of the journals article, said in a telephone interview on Wednesday that it was impossible to inform viewers adequately about the benefits and side effects of a stent operation in a 60-secondspot.

“This involves very sophisticated technology, totally in my view beyond what any sophisticated lay consumer could possibly learn from a 30- to 60-second television ad,” he said, pointing out that print ads require more detailed disclosure aboutrisks.

Islanders responded to an announced increase in the price of gas by pumping some service stations dry on Wednesday evening.

A news release from the Island Regulatory and Appeals Agency went out shortly after 4 p.m. Wednesday, and word spread quickly. Gas went up six cents a litre overnight, and many Islanders rushed out to fill up on cheaper gas.

“It was just chaotic,” said Michael Cahill, the assistant manager of the Shell station in Summerside.

“We were taking bets when we checked our fuel, what we had left in the tank. The manager and myself were taking bets on what time we were going to run out, and she won. She said 7, I said 7:15, and we ran out of fuel at 6:30. It was like a zoo.”

Cahill said the station received a delivery at 11:30 last night, but was closed by then. Several other gas stations in the Summerside area also ran out of gas.

The announced price increases caused a rush of orders from service stations, he said, and smaller stations are at the bottom of the delivery list.
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- Commented 00 Unmistakeable signs of cooling are appearing in the Canadian real estate market, but the chance of a big drop in prices is “very low,” according to an analysis from Scotia Capital. 00 Spending on prescription and non-prescription drugs in Canada reached $26.9 billion last year, an increase of 7.2 per cent over 2006, according to data released Thursday. 00 Islanders responded to an announced increase in the price of gas by pumping some service stations dry on Wednesday evening. 00 The Yukon became the last Canadian jurisdiction to pass a smoking ban Thursday, but the territorial government is still working out how it will enforce its new law. 00 Air Canada was forced this month to resume carrying pets on its flights, but as at least one Yellowknife passenger has found, restrictions can make it difficult for some to take advantage of the service. Consumer Life Features «www.cbc.ca» «www.cbc.ca» «www.cbc.ca» «www.cbc.ca» «www.cbc.ca» «www.cbc.ca» «www.cbc.ca» «www.cbc.ca» «www.cbc.ca» «www.cbc.ca» People who read this also read …

Unmistakeable signs of cooling are appearing in the Canadian real estate market, but the chance of a big drop in prices is “very low,” according to an analysis from Scotia Capital.

“After many false calls, there is now convincing evidence that Canadas housing market has come off the boil,” writes Scotia economist Adrienne Warren.

Warren cites a confluence of indicators to argue her case for cooling:

- Home sales are falling nationally.
- Demand for residential building permits has plunged.
- Average annual price increases are steadily easing back from the 10 per cent increases that marked the boom years of 2002 to 2007.
- Inventories of unsold new homes are trending higher.

But Warren does not see the same kind of price drops that followed the last two housing booms. In those booms, peak-to-trough selling prices plunged by 24 per cent and 15 per cent.

“However, we believe the current cycle has less downside risk, as it appears to be built on a stronger economic foundation than those of the 1970s and 1980s,” she says.

Warren lists five main reasons why this time should be different:

- Home prices in Canada are not overvalued.
- There’s little evidence of widespread speculation.
- Canada’s housing market is not overbuilt.
- Households are not over-leveraged, noting that mortgage carrying costs as a share of disposable income are historically low.
- Overall mortgage quality is still sound, as Canadian lending standards are tighter than those in the U.S.

Warren predicts a “soft landing” for the Canadian housing market, with “a period of relatively flat inflation-adjusted home prices.”

She acknowledges that there are risks to her forecast if the U.S. economic slump turns out to be deeper or longer-lasting than currently predicted.

“Tighter credit conditions and heightened global financial market volatility in the wake of the U.S. sub-prime mess pose additional downside risks to the sectors overall performance.”

The Scotia report came a day after the Canadian Real Estate Association released figures that showed the number of resales in Canada’s major markets fell 6.1 per cent from a year earlier. Average selling prices were up by 3.2 per cent year-over-year the slowest pace of increase in more than six years.

The number of new listings was also at a record high.
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- Commented 00 The Canadian Auto Workers union has reached three-year tentative contract deals with General Motors and Chrysler. 00 The roles of the internet and cellphones in broadcasting are up in the air as the CRTC has launched a public consultation on what its role should be in regulating these “new media.” 00 Unmistakeable signs of cooling are appearing in the Canadian real estate market, but the chance of a big drop in prices is “very low,” according to an analysis from Scotia Capital. 00 Canada’s manufacturing sector staged a broad retreat in March as shipments fell by 1.6 per cent to $49 billion, Statistics Canada said Thursday. 00 Russian energy giant Gazprom plans to enhance its North American presence by partnering with Canadian pipeline companies Enbridge Inc. and Gaz Metro to supply the proposed Rabaska liquid natural gas terminal in Lvis, Que. Money Features «www.cbc.ca» «www.cbc.ca» «www.cbc.ca» «www.cbc.ca» BIZ HITVideo Update Hourly market wrap from CBC Newsworld People who read this also read …