HEALTH

LOS ANGELES — ThinkThin last week launched its ThinkThin Divine nutritional bar featuring chocolate and coconut. 

 "ThinkThin Divine redefines the nutrition bar category," suggested Lizanne Falsetto, CEO ThinkThin. "With ThinkThin nutrition bars, it's never a choice between meeting your health needs and satisfying your sweet tooth. The new Divine line proves that natural, better-for-you ingredients can actually taste good — allowing chocolate-lovers to manage nutrition in a surprisingly delicious way."

The January/February 2013 Vitamins & Supplements Ingredient Guide breaks down the indication, ingredients, purpose and dosage of Centrum, One-A-Day, NatureMade, VitaFusion, Alive, VirMax-T, MoveFree, Bioglan and Voots products.

Click here for the complete guide.

BALTIMORE — "Too sick to go to work, but not sick enough not to tweet about it" Twitter users are helping to predict flu trends. Johns Hopkins researchers recently created a Twitter search method that helps differentiate between people merely tweeting about the flu in general and those who are actually sick, the university announced Thursday. The new tweet-screening method not only delivers real-time data on flu cases, but also filters out online chatter that is not linked to actual flu infections. 

ATLANTA — If the flu were a storm cloud, the influenza virus is hovering over America's Bread Basket on its way to the Southwest, according to data provided through the U.S. Outpatient Influenza-like Illness Surveillance Network. 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday reported that 4.3% of patient visits reported through ILINet were due to influenza-like illness, above the national baseline of 2.2%. But as the map indicates, influenza rates are declining up and down the East Coast and is most virulent in Texas and states west.

WHITEHOUSE STATION, N.J. — Merck on Friday announced the Food and Drug Administration has approved the switch of Oxytrol for Women (oxybutynin transdermal system, 3.9 mg/day) from prescription-only to nonprescription, creating a new category — overactive bladder in women — in the OTC area. Most notable about this switch is the fact that the FDA approved Oxytrol for Women against the majority opinion of its Nonprescription Drug Advisory Committee, which voted five in favor and six opposed to the switch in November. 

GEORGIA, Vt. — Perrigo Nutritionals is introducing new packaging that the company said would make providing nutrition to infants more convenient.

BUFFALO, N.Y. — Wellco Brands on Thursday launched Healerz for Noses, a pain relief cream to soothe the skin under the nose that becomes irritated during cold and allergy season.  

Healerz is formulated with lidocaine for pain relief, benzalkonium chloride antiseptic to help guard against infection and aloe for its soothing properties.  

Each package contains six single-use packets.

WASHINGTON — A division of drug maker Teva Pharmaceutical Industries is partnering with an advocacy group focused on asthma in the launch of a new educational website about the condition.

The Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America and Teva Respiratory announced the launch of Get Smart About Asthma, which aims to increase understanding of how inflammation in the airways contributes to the disease's persistence and severity, as well as providing other educational materials.