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Four common medications are responsible for the majority of adverse drug reactions in older Americans, a study just published in The New England Journal of Medicine has found. Blood thinners and diabetes medications were responsible for 67 percent of emergency hospitalizations in people over the age of 65.

Yesterday, we discussed the alarming trend of clinicians who will allow parents to deviate from recommended childhood vaccination schedules. The week before, we pointed out the importance of TDaP vaccination boosters (against tetanus, diphtheria, and pertussis) for adults as well as children.

The serendipitous result of a clinical trial shows that a drug given to breast cancer patients to maintain their bone density actually increased their survival rate. Seven years after the initial treatment, women who received an intravenous injection of the bone density drug Zometa had a significantly lower risk of death than those who received only the standard of care.

A recent study published in The Lancet finds that taking a statin to lower levels of cholesterol especially the bad type, LDL provides long-term benefits with low levels of risk. Researchers from the Heart Protection Study Collaborative Group in the U.K. randomized over 20,000 patients with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease to receive either 40 mg of simvastatin daily or a placebo over a period of about five years.

In what comes as a surprise to both scientific thought and conventional wisdom, a recent study suggests that, for women ages 40 to 49, a family history of breast cancer makes no difference in their rates of invasive disease.

Pfizer s exclusive right to sell the blockbuster drug Lipitor (atorvastatin) ended yesterday. With the expiration of Pfizer s patent, the door is now open for generics to enter the market. Given that Lipitor earned $13 billion at its peak, and that 3 million Americans currently take the cholesterol-lowering drug, that market is enormous.

Older chemotherapy drugs from the 1980s reduced breast cancer mortality by nearly a quarter. But a new meta-analysis of 123 randomized trials that assessed nearly 100,000 breast cancer patients over a period of 40 years shows that modern chemotherapy regimens decrease mortality by about one-third. This means that these newer drug treatments have added 17 percent of all patients to the ranks of survivors, as compared to the older regimens.

It s National Influenza Vaccination Week. What many people may not realize is that thousands of people die from the flu every year. The thing is, most of these deaths can be prevented with a flu shot. So, if you ve yet to get yours, it s not too late. Do it this week contribute to your community s herd immunity!

A new, large study suggests that receiving regular dental cleanings may be linked to a lower heart attack risk. Researchers have speculated about this unlikely relationship between dental health and heart disease for years, although up until now there have been few strong conclusions.

True to form, the E.U. continues down the path of hyper-caution and decided Monday to ban the use of X-ray body scanners in all European airports in order not to risk jeopardizing citizens health and safety, the European Commission stated.

Some scientists are expressing concern that a widely used variety of genetically modified corn plant, known as Bt corn, has grown vulnerable to the very pests it was designed to resist. Bt corn, which accounts for 65 percent of all U.S. corn acreage, was developed by Monsanto Co. and introduced in 2003. This biotech strain is created by incorporating a gene from a common soil bacterium into the plant so that it produces a toxin to ward off rootworms a pest that is particularly destructive to corn crops.

Need to find the nearest emergency room or medical center? Well, as we just learned, there s an app for that too. The Emergency Medical Center Locator (EMCL) is a free application available to iPhone users that will pinpoint the medical centers nearest to a user s location. Since the difference between life and death could come down to just a few precious minutes, we re inclined to think that the new app is worth downloading.

Because of the fresh start afforded by the new year, it s a good bet that more than a few of the 70 percent of American smokers who would like to quit will give it a go. However, according to a recent CDC study, only one in 10 of those would-be quitters will actually succeed.

Health care providers can serve as a critical link between smokers and the resources and motivation they need to quit. But many opportunities to encourage smokers to kick the habit are missed, reports a new survey, because more than one in 10 smokers do not tell their doctors that they smoke.

In ACSH s recent publication, The Top Ten Unfounded Health Scares of 2011, hydraulic fracturing (better known as fracking) made the list. Alhough our report debunked the various unfounded accusations that this method of natural gas extraction has received, it seems as though The New York Times failed to get the message.

Feeding the World: Why Pesticides are a Critical Part of the Solution
Environmental Toxicologist Featured Speaker at Capitol Hill Briefing

Women with normal bone density at age 65 can safely wait as long as 15 years before having another bone density scan, researchers report in a study just published in The New England Journal of Medicine. The finding runs counter to the common practice of testing bone density in older women every two years, which happens to b

In a reversal of a longstanding trend, childhood obesity rates in the city of New York have finally declined, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. Rates of obesity among children in kindergarten through eighth grade decreased in 2010-2011 as compared with 2006-2007.

Stopping just short of declaring lipstick the kiss of death, an activist group devoted to scaring us about cosmetics is claiming that minuscule levels of lead found in lipsticks may cause lead poisoning.

Is disclosure of conflict of interest always a good thing? A new analysis suggests that the answer is more complex than a simple yes or no. The 2010 health care reform legislation contains a provision requiring drug and medical device manufacturers to publicly report gifts and payments made to physicians and teaching hospitals. Poised to go into effect this year, the provision will subject manufacturers to penalties ranging from $10,000 to $100,000 for each violation.

When many people see a label that says organic, they tend to interpret this as a clear sign that the food is both safer and more nutritious than a conventional product. But an organic label doesn t guarantee safety or greater nutritional value, as the results of a new Dartmouth study emphasize. The study focused on organic brown rice syrup a sweetener found in some foods, including certain infant formulas, cereal and energy bars, and high-energy foods consumed by athletes.

Defensive medicine, the practice of ordering tests and referrals more out of concern for liability than for the benefit of patients health, is an expensive convention. According to a recent survey of orthopedic surgeons, 30 percent of the tests and referrals ordered in this specialty are unnecessary, resulting in an estimated cost of greater than $2 billion in the U.S. each year. The survey was conducted by Vanderbilt University s Dr. A.

Some doctors may soon be forced to give parents of leukemia patients some devastating news that a critical, life-saving leukemia drug is not available. The nation s supply of injectable methotrexate, which is standard treatment for acute lymphoblastic leukemia patients, is dwindling.

While we at ACSH have long been working to promote increased immunization rates, lawmakers in many states are contemplating a move in the opposite direction. Seven states are currently considering bills that would make it easier for parents to have their kids skip important childhood vaccinations.

A plethora of age-related health conditions might, in fact, be a question of declining vision, Laurie Tarkin reports in this week s health and science section of The New York Times. Tarkin looks specifically at groundbreaking research by two ophthalmologists at the University of Kansas School of Medicine, as well as a researcher at Brown University.