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BOOSTER SHOTS

Needless run on Tamiflu

Consumer demand for the drugs Tamiflu and Relenza is skyrocketing -- which doesn’t sit well with some health professionals. The prescription drugs can be used to prevent infection with influenza, including the swine flu virus. The drugs are also mildly helpful to people who are already infected with flu, shortening the duration of the illness by a day or so.

But Pacific Palisades pharmacist Christine Amos was aghast when about 25 prescriptions for Tamiflu came into the store last Monday. Even during the winter months, the pharmacy usually only fills about one Tamiflu prescription per week, she says. The store also had many calls about the medications, but Amos informed customers that the medication was out of stock.

“Clearly these requests are for stockpiling and not for active infections,” says Amos, who has been a pharmacist for 24 years. She works at Pharmaca on Sunset Boulevard. “These drugs sit in the medicine cabinets of the well-heeled who can demand and get a prescription for every single member of the family while these drugs remain in short supply for populations that may need it. People in under-served populations without access to medical care rely on clinics that may not have these antivirals in part due to unnecessary hoarding.”

She noted that there are no active cases of swine flu in Pacific Palisades. Other area pharmacies are out of the medications, too.

“Forgive my cynicism, but it seems in private medical practices, the tail wags the dog. In this era of advertised pharmaceuticals, many patients demand prescriptions based on advertising and media without the benefit of a physical examination.”

There are problems of misusing antivirals. If the swine flu outbreak turns into a pandemic, the actions that Amos describes may come back to haunt us.

-- Shari Roan

From: Booster Shots: Oddities, musings and news from the world of health

For more, go to latimes.com/boostershots

CULTURE MONSTER

Cellphone use desired at play

Poor Neil LaBute. His latest play, “Reasons to be Pretty,” has been struggling to find an audience on Broadway, playing to 30% capacity last week despite strong reviews from the critics and a slew of theater award nominations.

Desperate times call for desperate text messages. In a bid to attract a younger audience, promoters of the show have introduced a texting game in which audience members are invited to rate their own attractiveness as well as the attractiveness of those seated next to them on a scale of Carrot Top to Angelina Jolie.

The results are then texted back to your phone during intermission. You can also check out the results from past performances on the show’s official website.

The marketing gimmick is intended to thematically echo LaBute’s play, the final installment in his trilogy of plays (“The Shape of Things” and “Fat Pig” are the others) about society’s obsession with physical beauty. “Reasons to be Pretty,” starring Marin Ireland, Thomas Sadoski, Piper Perabo and Steven Pasquale, follows the repercussions when one man refers to his girlfriend’s face as “regular” during a conversation with a friend -- and that gets back to her.

-- David Ng

From: Culture Monster: All the arts, all the time

For more, go to latimes.com/culturemonster

FABULOUS FORUM

Slimmer Daly back on course

John Daly, the troubled double-major-championship winner who was banned from the PGA Tour for six months last November, is back on the golf course again. Whether he has his life back on course remains to be seen.

Daly, 43, played competitively for the first time since December in the Spanish Open after having lost about 60 pounds, to get down to 220 -- about the weight he was when he won the 1995 British Open. He’s hopeful he can at some point regain the form of 1995 and 1991, when as an unknown alternate he won the PGA Championship.

“I wanted to lose the weight to get better at golf,” he told reporters. “You get to the point when nothing goes right and you almost give up on yourself, but I love the game. I want to keep playing, and no matter what it takes, I will do that.”

Daly is without sponsors. Banned from the U.S. tour after being accused of being drunk and incapacitated outside a bar, after years of erratic behavior on and off the course, Daly is looking to resume his career on the European tour.

He has always been a magnetic figure in golf, immensely talented, known for his power but blessed with a deft short game as well. If he were to overcome the demons that have swirled in his head for so long, the U.S. tour could benefit from his recovery. History, though, would indicate that that recovery is a long shot.

-- Mike James

From: The Fabulous Forum: The who, what, where, when, why -- and why not -- of L.A. sports

For more, go to latimes.com/fabulousforum

BOOSTER SHOTS

A good reason to drink diet soda

Rarely do health experts admit that drinking soda may be good for you. Here’s an exception: People who are prone to kidney stones may develop fewer stones by drinking diet soda.

The body needs to maintain a proper alkaline pH balance for healthy functioning. Increased alkalinity is known to be a factor in the development of kidney stones. A study presented last week at the annual meeting of the American Urology Assn. meeting in Linthicum, Md., examined 15 popular diet sodas for their citrate and malate content, substances in soda that may help dissolve kidney stones. They found the sodas probably have enough of these substances to inhibit the formation of calcium stones.

Of course, this doesn’t give kidney stone sufferers a license to drink up. Kidney stones may be caused, in part, by dehydration, and people with recurring stones are advised to drink a lot of water.

“This study by no means suggests that patients with recurrent kidney stones should trade in their water bottles for soda cans,” said Dr. Anthony Y. Smith, a spokesman for the American Urological Assn., in a news release. “However, this study suggests instead that patients with stone disease who do not drink soda may benefit from moderate consumption.”

-- Shari Roan --

From: Booster Shots: Oddities, musings and news from the world of health

For more, go to latimes.com/boostershots