We were very happy to hear that U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth has come to his senses, ruling in favor of government funding of human embryonic stem cell research funding that he had halted just a year ago. This time, Judge Lamberth dismissed the legal challenge to the funding and ruled that the U.S. National Institutes of Health guidelines do not violate federal law.
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Unfortunately, an alarmist report from a group called the Ecology Center may have some parents hesitating before they fasten their child into a car seat. The Center is spreading the word that 60 percent of child car seats contain allegedly dangerous chemicals. Bromine, chlorine, lead, other heavy metals, and allergens topped their list, as did the risk of allergies, birth defects, impaired learning, liver toxicity, and cancer upon exposure.
Diseased lungs. Corpses. Rotting teeth. A man smoking from a tracheotomy hole. These are some of the shocking images featured in the Food and Drug Administration s recently unveiled series of cigarette package warnings. The FDA asserts that these graphic warnings will serve public health by terrifying smokers into quitting. But ACSH s Dr.
A new study reveals that fewer Americans are developing colorectal cancer (CRC). Between 2003 and 2007, the rate of new CRC cases in the U.S. fell by over 13 percent, representing nearly 66,000 fewer cancer cases and 32,000 fewer CRC deaths during this period. CDC director Thomas Frieden told Reuters that half of the decline in CRC cases can be attributed to increased screening, which rose from 52 percent in 2002 to 65 percent in 2010. One thing we know is that screening works, he said.
According to a small study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, massage therapy may be a viable option for those who suffer from lower back pain. Dr. Daniel C.
Women who have just given birth and are older than 34 or have had a Cesarean section are now advised to avoid contraceptives containing estrogen, say new government guidelines. Researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have concluded that birth control pills containing estrogen could increase the risk of a blood clot in some new mothers when taken within six weeks of giving birth.
Adults nostalgic for the monkey bars and tall slides of their childhood may have trouble finding them when they take their own children to a nearby playground. Shorter structures with enclosed platforms, as well as rubber ground covers, are more likely what they ll see. This is because, as John Tierney reports in The New York Times, heightened concerns over child safety have dramatically changed the landscape of the playground.
Dr. Gilbert Ross in The Daily Caller, July 13, 2011
Politics Has Overtaken Science at the EPA
In today s hectic times, moms-to-be and their OBGYN s may not think twice about scheduling an artificially-induced early childbirth for the sake of convenience. But a new study by Utah-based Intermountain Healthcare is cautioning against the practice due to elevated health risks for neonates.
Dr. Elizabeth Whelan in Forbes, July 6, 2011
What's Really Causing Childhood Obesity?
Dr. Whelan in the National Review Online, July 5, 2011
Warnings That Don't Work
Josh Bloom, The New York Post June 24, 2011
America's Vanishing Science Jobs
Too many patients entering hospitals because of a heart attack may be leaving with anemia, a new study finds. The cause, it seems, is not vampires in the ICU, but an excess of blood drawn for laboratory tests.
It seems that clinicians need to learn not to judge the proverbial book solely by its cover. According to a new study published in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association, patients who are leaner than others are less likely to have their hypertension treated.
A new study published in the Journal of Toxicology lays to rest any claims about toxic pesticide residues that the Environmental Working Group (EWG) publicized with their annual Dirty Dozen list. This compilation of tainted fruits and vegetables would have everyone scared to touch the majority of produce in the average grocery store.
Last week we reported on findings from a study that showed soy had no beneficial effects on reducing menopausal symptoms. Research on other nonprescription alternatives such as flaxseed, black cohosh, red clover, and botanicals has also arrived at similarly disappointing conclusions. This is unfortunate, since so many women turn to these supplements out of a misplaced fear that treatment with hormone replacement therapy (HRT) will lead to an increased risk of heart attacks and breast cancer.
Drug shortages, as ACSH s Dr. Bloom explained in a recent op-ed, are a serious and growing problem in the U.S. As he points out, these shortages consist largely of pharmaceutical staples: saline solution, antibiotics, sedatives, epinephrine and morphine supplies found in every emergency room.
While the amount of money that tobacco companies spent on advertising and promotional expenditures fell by 18 percent between 2006 and 2008, nationwide advertising of smokeless tobacco products actually increased by 55 percent during the same time period, according to a new Federal Trade Commission report. In fact, more smokeless tobacco ads may be encouraging smokers to switch from cigarettes to smoke-free alternatives.
The media are suddenly abuzz with the latest on the putative health benefits of one of our favorite foods: a study just published in BMJ reports that chocolate may improve cardiovascular health.
A new study in the journal Menopause shows that the benefits of hormone replacement therapy aren t just hypothetical. Researchers at the University of Southern California found that the nearly 81,000 postmenopausal women who discontinued their hormone replacement therapy were at a much greater risk of a hip fracture due to lowered bone density, as compared to those who continued on the preventive regimen.
Speaking of smokers, ACSH would like to applaud famed actress Catherine Zeta-Jones for her recent efforts to quit smoking by using electronic cigarettes. According to OK magazine, she s been using this method of clean nicotine delivery for three months now. Our only hope is that more smokers are made aware of the potential benefits of using e-cigarettes to quit their habit of deadly cigarettes.
The widespread West Nile virus epidemic could have been easily prevented if more rigorous insecticide spraying had been implemented in the summer of 1999, when the virus was first detected in birds in the NY region, said ACSH's Dr. Gilbert Ross, in yesterday s Dispatch. But ACSH advisor Dr. Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, would like to clarify Dr.
Antioxidants are the panacea that has never quite panned out. Pom Wonderful (the pomegranate juice in the funny bottle), for instance, made its name with claims of its extraordinary antioxidant content. Tell people a product has antioxidants and many are eager to lap it up, eager for the benefits to their immune system, complexion, mental health, heart, joints, and just about everything else.
Nerve cells, or neurons, process and transmit information. Skin cells, by contrast, don t have that capacity. It s quite exciting, then, that researchers from Columbia University have discovered a way to transform skin cells into fully functioning neurons. This method, reported in the journal Cell, is also notable because it avoids the controversial use of embryonic stem cells.
States across the country are experiencing a marked decrease in their anti-smoking program budgets. In Massachusetts, for instance, funding for such initiatives dropped from $50.5 million in 2001 to $4.1 million in 2011 a decrease of more than 90 percent. Where has the rest of the money disappeared to?
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