Dr. Alan Inglis' BestHealth Nutritionals

by Dr. Alan Inglis

Once again, it turns out mom knew best. I'm sure plenty of us grew up with a mother who insisted on operating a clunky humidifier in our bedrooms during cold and flu season. Our mothers swore the little puffs of steam helped ward off illness – and they were right.

A new study demonstrates how the flu jumps from one person to another through dry air. This explains why the flu season gets more intense in those calendar months when we are all indoors, where we breathe drier air.

Turns out, when the air is dry, the virus survives for a longer period. A group of Oregon researchers found strong links between absolutely humidity and trends in how the flu virus was transmitted and how long it lived. In short, by keeping your home and work space from getting too dry, you can cut down on flu transmission.

But if you're getting ready to haul out the trusty humidifier, don't go nuts. A little bit of moisture will allow you to reduce flu transmission, while too much moisture (especially in a small space) can lead to mold growth.

by Dr. Alan Inglis

I swear, sometimes I think if the FDA moved any slower, it would be going backwards. I told you earlier this week about the FDA finally getting around to establishing new testing guidelines for the blood thinner heparin, a year and a half after it was linked to hundreds of deaths.

Now, the organization charged with protecting our health has finally decided to do something about the abuse of prescription opioids, such as Vicodin and OxyContin. I don't know if anyone from the FDA has picked up a newspaper in the past several years, but abuse of these painkiller drugs has become rampant, and they're even being sold as street drugs.

To help curb the problem, the FDA says this March it will meet with officials from more than a dozen Big Pharma companies to work up some "risk-management plans." The goal will be to avoid hundreds of deaths caused every year by patients' misusing and doctors mis-prescribing opioids.

In very limited defense of the FDA, Congress only gave it the authority to order risk- management plans in 2007. Of course, there were plenty of other actions the FDA could have taken, particularly as it became evident that these highly addictive drugs were being widely abused.

Part of the problem is that doctors are prescribing these very serious drugs for conditions that don't call for them. For example, many doctors prescribe opioids for migraine headaches – problem is, opioids have never been approved for this use.

This over-prescribing is a big part of the reason that nearly 4 million Americans are currently taking an opioid drug. Many folks will become needlessly addicted to these drugs. Others will have their lives ended by opioids.

Hopefully, the FDA's meeting with Big Pharma will bear some fruit. There could even be public hearings later in the year. But I've been down this road too many times to have a ton of confidence that any real difference will be made.

In the meantime, there are things you can do to prevent opioid abuse. If you take one of these prescriptions, lock it up and never share it. Even better, look into some of the safer, natural alternatives for managing your pain.