HEALTH

WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service on Thursday reversed itself in announcing that breast-feeding supplies qualify as a medical expense.

The ruling now allows moms who are breast-feeding to purchase all supplies using a flexible spending account. Those without FSAs can deduct the expenses as part of their itemized medical expenditures, including breast-feeding expenses incurred in 2010.

PORTLAND, Ore. — Aisle7 on Thursday announced the availability of an online decision support engine to provide science-based, self-care product recommendations by way of questionnaires, interactive widgets and proprietary content-targeting technology.

The new Aisle7 online decision support tools include a “Homeopathic Medicine Finder,” which was created in partnership with Boiron, and will be featured across more than 2,000 in-store retail locations and 150 websites served by Aisle7.

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. — Genentech, a subsidiary of Roche, reported that its eye drug helped improve vision in patients suffering from a complication caused by diabetes.

In its phase-3 RISE study, Genentech said diabetic macular edema patients that received monthly Lucentis (ranibizumab injection) achieved an improvement in vision at 24 months, compared with placebo.

NEW YORK — A multicultural study that will appear in the March issue of the Journal of Renal Care underscored the relationship between kidney disease and diabetes, and the need for greater awareness of this link.

In this small study, 23 South Asian diabetes patients and 25 white diabetes patients between the ages of 34 years and 79 years — with an average age of just older than 70 years — were surveyed to note any differences in the experiences, knowledge and attitudes of the two groups.

WASHINGTON — Recent restrictions imposed on flexible spending accounts appear to be the first piece of ObamaCare to be challenged by the new Congress.

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, and Rep. Erik Paulsen, R-Minn., on Thursday respectively introduced The Patients’ Freedom to Choose Act, a bill that would repeal two provisions in the Obama healthcare law that limit a patient’s choice in how to use consumer-directed health savings plans, to the Senate and House of Representatives.

CINCINNATI — Procter & Gamble on Tuesday unveiled its Metamucil presentation, "The Five Things Every American Needs to do to Lower Their Cholesterol."

The presentation is made by Michael Roizen, chairman of the Wellness Institute at Cleveland Clinic and host of an upcoming PBS series, "Younger You."

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Companion legislation, which seeks to change a provision in the healthcare-reform law and permit Americans to use their flexible spending accounts and health savings accounts to buy over-the-counter medications without a prescription, has the support of the National Association of Chain Drug Stores.

SILVER SPRING, Md. — The Food and Drug Administration will propose an amendment to the over-the-counter laxative monograph that sodium phosphate salts are not generally recognized as safe for bowel cleansing.

A request for public comments will be published in Friday’s Federal Register.