Health Briefs

* On rainy days in Jakarta, a canny street merchant like Emi can sell two dozen sachets of herbal cold cure Tolak Angin to office workers and labourers sniffling by her roadside stall. “Herbal medicine is good for the body because it’s natural,” says Emi, who goes by only one name. Laced with ginger, cloves and mint leaves, the traditional remedy Emi sells for 25 cents apiece is also good for business. The company that makes Tolak Angin went public this week and is worth around $850 million.

* People who donated sperm and eggs before 1998 in one Australian state were able to remain anonymous, but potential new laws could have changed that. A recent study found those donors were split on the idea of possible contact from their donor children. Victoria, Australia introduced legislation to ban anonymous sperm and egg donation in 1998.

* Children who are teased while playing sports tend to have a worse quality of life than their non-teased peers, a new study suggests. Some of them may also become less active over time. “Teasing not only influences psychological functioning but may reduce physical activity and lead to poorer physical, social and emotional functioning for children,” Chad D Jensen said. He led the study at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah.

* CVS Caremark Corporation said that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services lifted sanctions it had imposed earlier this year on a CVS Medicare drug plan aimed at seniors, allowing the company to resume enrolling members in 2014. As of January 1, CVS Caremark, a pharmacy benefits manager and drugstore operator, will be able to resume marketing of its SilverScript Medicare Part D plan.

* France’s Carmat said it had carried out its first implant of an artificial heart that can beat for up to five years, adding that the operation had gone smoothly. The implant operation was performed at the Georges Pompidou European Hospital in Paris, the biomedical firm said in a statement. It said that the male patient was awake and talking and he was being monitored in the intensive care unit.

* Shrugging off chronic knee pain as an inevitable part of aging puts men in their 70s at risk for accelerated muscle loss, falls and generally reduced quality of life, a new study suggests. “This study confirms the findings of many studies indicating that chronic knee pain will seriously impact quality of life in older people,” lead author Marlene Franzen said.