Live Long (But Only If You Prosper)

J&J Woes: After recalls more than 100 million bottles of Tylenol and other popular medicines made by Johnson & Johnson, the feds inspect another J &J plant that makes over-the-counter heartburn meds, the Washington Post reports. Found: "quality control problems, chaotic recordkeeping and complaints by consumers that medicines were either ineffective or contained pills from different products in the same retail package." Lost: Johnson and Johnson's credibility?

Massachusetts: Health policy bloggers are wonk-warring over the success or failure of Massachusetts' health reforms, which have been a model for national health reform. Kaiser Health News has a great synthesis of the conversation.

Drug Testing: This sounds like a movie thriller: "Western drug companies are facing criminal charges in Germany after it was alleged they paid millions of pounds to get doctors in communist East Germany to test experimental new medicines on patients." But it's from a story that's appearing in the Austrian Times and Australia's News.com about newly-released documents detailing the activities of Western pharmaceuticals company Ciba Geigy (now folded into Novartis).  

Ecstasy Redux: NursingTimes fact-checks a recent (and small) study showing that the club drug Ecstasy can help relieve the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. (Hat tip to Wired writer Steve Silberman.)

Life Expectancy: The Telegraph reports that the poorest people in Britain are twice as likely to die before the age of 65 than the richest. And they have nationalized healthcare there, too! (If you're interested in health and life expectancy disparities, check out our tips from two journalists who've reported extensively on the topic.)