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

Study: Cholesterol Combo Better Than Single Pill

Taking a drug that boosts "good" cholesterol and a separate pill that lowers "bad" cholesterol appears to be a more effective weapon against heart disease than taking a single drug, researchers say.

In what they said was the first study to test this dual approach, cardiologists at Walter Reed Army Medical Center gave patients a prescription form of the B vitamin niacin, in addition to a cholesterol-lowering drug called a statin. Niacin is thought to raise amounts of "good" cholesterol in the blood, while statins -- sold under brand names like Liptor and Zocor -- are taken by millions of Americans whose "bad" cholesterol levels are considered too high.

The research involved 149 people who had either suffered a heart attack or had signs of hardening of the arteries, according to an account by the Associated Press. Those who took the niacin/statin combination had fewer heart attacks, deaths, strokes, and other cardiovascular problems than those who took the statin alone, the researchers reported Wednesday at an American Heart Association conference in New Orleans.

The results were also published in Circulation, the heart association's medical journal. The study leaders stressed that their dual approach warranted additional testing.

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Philip Morris Denies Charges of Coverup

The Philip Morris tobacco company secretly acquired a German research facility in the 1970s to study the toxic effects of cigarette smoke, according to published charges leveled by European researchers and denied by the company.

The company went to great lengths to hide its connection to the research facility, according to British and Swiss scientists who published their findings in The Lancet. This would appear to counter tobacco company claims that the dangers of cigarette smoking weren't known at the time, reported London's Guardian newspaper.

Philip Morris issued a statement calling the Lancet claims "highly distorted," according to BBC News Online.

In making the accusations, Prof. Martin McKee of the London School of Hygiene and Tropic Medicine, along with Swiss colleagues Pascal Diethelm and Jean-Charles Rielle, said they examined papers made public after the landmark 1998 tobacco settlement in the United States.

According to the Lancet article, this unpublished information offered strong evidence that the tobacco firm knew at the time that secondhand tobacco smoke was even more harmful than mainstream smoke. Philip Morris has always denied such charges, the Guardian reported.

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FTC Cautions Media About Bogus Diet Ads

Too many ads for bogus weight-loss products are being run in popular newspapers and magazines, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission warned in letters sent this week to nine major media companies.

According to an account in the Washington Post, the FTC recently filed six lawsuits against makers of various pills, powders, topic gels, and patches that promised significant weight loss even if users didn't exercise or watch what they ate.

Calling such claims "about as credible as a note from the tooth fairy," FTC chairman Deborah Platt Majoras said that when ads for these products appear in media that are otherwise trustworthy, they "lend an air of credibility to these outlandish claims."

The agency estimates that Americans spend more than $37 billion a year on weight-loss products, often to the benefit of major media who profit from extensive advertising campaigns.

The Post cited the example of a Chinese green tea supplier, who claimed that dieters could lose up to six pounds weekly if they drank a cup after each meal. The supplier charged $24.95 for a 30-day supply, the newspaper said.

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Illinois Helps New York City Get More Flu Shots

Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich has helped New York City secure 200,000 additional flu shots from overseas, a move that New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said would "allow virtually every high-risk New York City resident who wants a flu shot to be vaccinated."

In the month since British authorities shut down a plant in Liverpool that was to make nearly half of the U.S. supply this season, Blagojevich has spearheaded a state effort to find other sources of flu vaccine.

The vaccine was made by GlaxoSmithKline in Germany and Aventis Pasteur in France, and was ordered from a licensed British wholesaler through a partnership with the state of Illinois, according to a statement from the mayor. They are approved by European authorities, but are treated as investigational drugs in the United States. According to the governor, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is expected to approve the deal

Illinois has located nearly 650,000 doses of flu vaccine from Europe so far. Last week, it helped the state of New Mexico get 150,000 doses.

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Increased Leukemia Risk for Overweight Women

Overweight and obese older women have an increased risk of leukemia, says a University of Minnesota study.

It found that older women who are overweight or obese could be more than twice as likely as normal-weight women to get acute myelogenous leukemia (AML). This is one of the most deadly kinds of leukemia, and accounts for about a third of the 33,000 leukemia cases diagnosed each year in the United States, the Associated Press reported.

This finding adds to growing evidence that carrying extra pounds may increase a person's chances of getting cancer.

The study found that the risk of AML was 90 percent greater in women 55 and older who had a body mass index (BMI) of 25 to 29 -- considered overweight. The risk of AML was as much as 140 percent greater in older women with a BMI of 30 or more -- considered obese.

The findings appear in the November issue of the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention.

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Supreme Court Asked to Quash Assisted-Suicide Law

The White House has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to block Oregon's assisted suicide law.

The Bush administration's appeal was launched Tuesday, but has been expected since May. That's when a lower court ruled that the federal government couldn't punish doctors in Oregon who prescribed lethal doses of federally controlled drugs to people who are terminally ill, the Associated Press reported.

The Oregon law, which was approved by voters and is the only one of its kind in the United States, allows doctors to help terminally patients die more quickly. Since 1998, more than 170 terminally ill patients, most with cancer, have used the law to end their lives.

In trying to fight the Oregon law, the Bush administration has argued that assisted suicide is not a "legitimate medical purpose," the AP reported.

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