Reuters Health News Summary

Following is a summary of current health news briefs.

Migraine in pregnancy linked with complications for mothers and babies

Pregnant women with migraine headaches are more likely to develop complications, and their babies are at higher risk for complications early after birth, too, a large study from Denmark suggests. Using Danish registries, researchers identified 22,841 pregnant women with migraine and compared them with 228,324 pregnant women without migraine. They found that the debilitating disorder was tied to pregnancy-associated blood pressure problems as well as miscarriage.

Akorn gets FDA warning letter for another manufacturing plant

Akorn Inc said on Tuesday it received a warning letter from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration regarding its manufacturing facility in New Jersey, the latest in a string of setbacks for the generic drugmaker. Shares of the company were down 1% at $4.67 in afternoon trading. They had fallen nearly 13% in trading before the opening bell on the news.

Unproven stem cell therapies often peddled by doctors without training

At U.S. clinics advertising unproven stem cell treatments, roughly two-thirds of the clinicians may be physicians, but a new study suggests these doctors are often trained in specialties unrelated to the services they provide. "About half of the companies we examined offer unproven stem cell treatments for conditions (for) which they do not have a physician with the appropriate residency and fellowship training," said senior study author Zubin Master, of the Biomedical Ethics Research Program at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.

Tobacco, vape shops sell more to minors than other retailers

U.S. regulations require retailers to check ID for everyone under age 27 who tries to buy tobacco products, but half of tobacco and vape shops don't do this, a 2018 study of California retailers suggests. Forty-five percent of tobacco and vape shops sold e-cigarettes and vaping supplies to researchers posing as underage shoppers, the analysis also found. Sales violations were more common with vaping products than with traditional cigarettes.

Juul loses home turf as San Francisco bans e-cigarette sales

San Francisco will become the first major city in the United States to ban the sale of e-cigarettes as officials look to control the rapid uptick in teenage use of nicotine devices made by companies such as Juul Labs Inc. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors approved the ordinance on Tuesday, banning the sale and distribution of e-cigarettes until they have approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

U.S. pork lobby says regulatory changes needed after Trump biotech order

The U.S. pork lobby said on Tuesday that more must be done to simplify regulations for genetically altered livestock, weeks after President Donald Trump signed an executive order to streamline the review process for agricultural technology. Trump, who was elected in 2016 with broad support from farmers, signed the order in Iowa on June 11 and said it would speed up reviews of biotechnology.

Illinois joins 10 other U.S. states in legalizing recreational marijuana

Illinois on Tuesday became the 11th U.S. state to legalize the recreational use of marijuana by adults after Governor J.B. Pritzker signed into law a bill that also provides for the removal of certain previous drug convictions and will generate new revenue for the financially troubled state. The Democratic governor hailed the measure, which was passed by the legislature last month, for allowing as many as 700,000 marijuana-related records and convictions to be erased.

Opioid use booming as tramadol crisis emerges in Africa - U.N. drug report

Synthetic opioid use is booming, the United Nations said on Wednesday in a worldwide drug report that showed deaths in the United States from overdoses still rising and a "crisis" of tramadol use emerging in parts of Africa. The estimated number of people using opioids - an umbrella term for drugs ranging from opium and derivatives such as heroin to synthetics like fentanyl and tramadol - in 2017 was 56% higher than in 2016, the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime said.

Yes, counting steps might make you healthier

People who track their daily steps may not only be more active, they may also be less likely to develop health problems that lead to events like heart attacks or broken bones, a new study suggests. Researchers examined data on 1,297 participants from clinical trials that randomly assigned half of the people to track steps with pedometers over 12 weeks while the rest of them did no tracking at all. When they joined the trial, people took about 7,500 steps a day and got 90 minutes a week of moderate to vigorous physical activity in at least 10-minute bouts.

Vitamin deficiencies may be the only sign of celiac disease

Adults with undiagnosed celiac disease often have nutrient deficiencies as the only sign of the condition, researchers say. Doctors often look for typical signs like unexplained weight loss or extreme thinness, but the hallmark signal of celiac disease may be low levels of vitamins and other micronutrients, according to a report in Mayo Clinic Proceedings.