Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by editors of HealthDay:

Bowel-Cleansing Products Linked to Chronic Kidney Failure

Some bowel-cleansing products that are used prior to colonoscopies are linked to chronic kidney failure, says the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen.

In a new posting on its WorstPills.org Web site, the Washington, D.C.-based group cites a recent study in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology that shows bowel-cleansing products that contain sodium phosphate are an under-recognized cause of chronic kidney failure.

The research listed several factors that may contribute to the development of kidney problems as the result of using bowel cleansing products that contain sodium-phosphate. These include: inadequate hydration; a history of high blood pressure; and the use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs such as ibuprofen and Celebrex.

For the study, researchers at the Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons reviewed all the kidney biopsies received at the facility between January 2000 and December 2004. They identified 31 patients with kidney damage consistent with phosphate toxicity. Of those 31 patients, 20 had taken oral phosphate solutions before a colonoscopy.

Common bowel-cleansing drugs that contain sodium phosphate include the prescription oral tablet Visicol and the non-prescription product Fleet Phospho-soda, Public Citizen said.

—–

Millions of Americans Take Rx Drugs for Headaches: companies Report

In 2002-2003, headaches prompted about 7.5 million American adults to buy prescription medicines and/or visit a medical office, hospital outpatient department or hospital emergency room, says a new survey by the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).

The cost to patients and insurers was about $4.3 billion. About 60 percent of the money was spent on ambulatory care and 40 percent on prescription drugs, according to the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS).

Women were more than three times as likely as men to be treated for migraine or other headache (5.3 percent vs. 1.6 percent) and adults ages 45 to 64 were more likely (4.5 percent) than younger or older adults (1.9 percent) to obtain medical care and/or prescription drugs for headache.

MEPS collects information about healthcare use, expenses, access, health status and quality from a nationally representative sample of U.S. households. The survey doesn’t include data from people in nursing homes, the military or other institutions.

The AHRQ also released headache-related findings from another healthcare data program, the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP). It found that 77,000 Americans were hospitalized for migraine and other headaches in 2003, incurring hospital charges of $813 million. That figure doesn’t include doctors’ charges, which are billed separately.

About half the patients hospitalized for migraine and other headaches were ages 18 to 44, followed by patients ages 45 to 64 (30 percent), patients ages 65 to 84 (10 percent) and patients ages one to 17 (8 percent).

Women accounted for about 74 percent of people hospitalized for migraine or other headaches.

—–

Medicare Complaints’ Process ‘Broken’

Medicare does a poor job of investigating complaints about bad care, U.S. Senate investigators contend.

They say Medicare’s process for handling these kinds of grievances is “broken,” leaves patients in the dark, and does nothing to improve the overall quality of medical care received by millions of elderly and disabled beneficiaries, the Washington Post reported.

The situation is being investigated by the Senate Finance Committee. In a five-page letter sent to Medicare officials last