In its first update in 26 years, the National Institute on Aging and the Alzheimer’s Association proposes new diagnostic criteria for earlier detection of all three stages of Alzheimer’s disease — pre-clinical, mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s dementia — based on genetic risk factors and biomarkers.
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For postmenopausal women diagnosed with estrogen-receptor positive breast cancer, the American Society of Clinical Oncology now recommends the use of aromatase inhibitors hormone-based breast cancer drugs immediately following surgery or after two to three years of the drug tamoxifen.
A promising new vaginal microbicidal gel could be used to sharply reduce HIV infection among women, according to a study released yesterday at the XVIII International AIDS conference in Vienna by a South African AIDS research center. The gel contains tenofovir, an antiretroviral medication, that when applied 12 hours before and after unprotected sex, reduced the risk of HIV transmission in women by 39 percent and by up to 54 percent if the gel was used regularly.
ACSH's Jeff Stier heads to Gaithersburg, Md., to attend the FDA’s Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory Committee (TPSAC) meeting on the potential ban of menthol from cigarettes. Stay tuned for his updates from the two-day conference on Thursday and Friday.
After hearing mixed evidence that Avandia may increase patient's risk of heart attack, an FDA advisory panel voted yesterday to keep the diabetes drug on the market but with new warning labels.
In his response to the Center for Science in the Public Interest s (CSPI) threat to sue if they do not remove toys from their Happy Meals, McDonald s CEO Jeff Skinner castigates CSPI for their inflammatory rhetoric and believes they owe Americans an apology:
Cancer incidence rates and the number of deaths due to cancer continue to decline in the United States, according to the Cancer Statistics 2010 report issued by the American Cancer Society (ACS). The incidence of cancer has decreased by 1.3 percent per year from 2000 to 2006 in men and 0.5 percent per year from 1998 to 2006 in women, while cancer death rates have dropped 21 percent since 1991 among men and 12 percent since 1992 among women.
A group of specialists from England and Ireland were able to elicit a reaction from ACSH's Dr. Gilbert Ross that ACSH staffers attempt on a daily basis: unbridled laugher. Apparently, all it takes is the publication of an article recommending the transplantation of obese children from their homes into foster care because of assumed parental negligence.
The same advisory panel assessing Avandia will also evaluate the safety and efficacy of one of three new weight loss drugs this week. Given the difficulties in developing a drug that can safely induce substantial weight loss and a 35 percent U.S. adult obesity rate, there is high demand for a new weight loss option.
Conventionally grown produce is losing its nutrients, and it s only getting worse, according to an article published in Prevention Magazine and posted on MSNBC.com. According to Donald Davis, PhD, senior research consultant for the Bio-Communications Research Institute, selective breeding and synthetic fertilizers are to blame since they diminish a plant s ability to absorb nutrients.
A study published in Nature Medicine shows promise for a new vaccine delivery system involving patches that contain dissolvable microneedles. The researchers who developed the patch tested its ability to immunize mice with an influenza vaccine and found that it might provide a better immune response over traditional needle injection. They hope one day to make the patch available so patients – especially those who are afraid of needles – can self-administer vaccines at home.
It looks like Dr. Dustin Ballard, a Marin County Independent columnist and emergency physician at Kaiser Permanente San Rafael, has also caught wind of the scare season. In fact, while addressing excessive fears over minor head bumps following the death of actress Natasha Richardson, he references ACSH as “an advocacy group dedicated to providing sound health information to consumers.” ACSH would like to offer a seat at the table to Dr.
Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass) isn t happy with BP s use of surface oil dispersants in the Gulf of Mexico in order to ameliorate the adverse effects of the oil spill. In a letter to Thad W. Allen, the retired Coast Guard admiral in charge of the cleanup operations, Markey alleged the dispersants have caused a toxic stew of chemicals, oil and gas, with impacts that are not well understood.
Respectful Insolence's pseudonymous pro-science blogger Orac this morning rightfully laments the appearance of an acupuncture case study in the ostensibly evidence-based New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM).
As the New York City Health Department updates its new addition to last year s Pouring on the Pounds campaign with posters and advertisements that graphically display the amount of sugar that goes into a king-sized soda new research indicates that New Yorkers are already curbing their liquid sugar cravings.
Denise Grady reports in today’s New York Times that girls today are increasingly likely to develop breasts as young as age 7 or 8. While obesity is thought to play a major role in early-onset puberty, Grady reports that some researchers suspect environmental chemicals with estrogen-like properties are a factor. “That idea is unproved,” Grady adds.
The FDA issued a warning to Novartis Pharmaceuticals for its use of Facebook Share to promote its new leukemia drug, Tasigna, arguing that:
According to U.S. researchers, there are an estimated 11,300 throat cancer cases attributable to human papilloma virus (HPV) annually, although the government does not formally track the incidence rate since the connection between HPV and throat cancer was only made in the past few years. The rate is expected to rise since people have more sexual partners now than in decades past.
ACSH staffers welcome an article in the online journal, Medscape, reporting on the Natural Resources Defense Council’s (NRDC) suit against the FDA asking for a “writ of mandamus,” or court order requiring the agency to respond to NRDC’s 2008 petition to ban the use of BPA in commercial products.
In addition to calling the NRDC lawsuit “bizarre,” ACSH's Dr. Gilbert Ross was further quoted in the article:
A House subcommittee will be holding hearings this week on a bill to "reform" the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976, the federal law regulating chemicals, and ACSH staffers worry that the new measure goes too far.
Some of the 10,500 Ground Zero rescue and recovery workers who received a $712.5 million settlement to cover health care costs are still bitter. The money will be allocated according to not only severity of illness, but also possibility of being able to prove a causal relationship between exposure and disease — so plaintiffs with asthma will receive greater compensation than those with cancer, because it would have been easier to prove a causal link between at least worsened asthma and exposure at Ground Zero.
Grocery retailers across the country are jumping aboard the nutritional bandwagon and offering customers greater advice on their dietary choices, The Wall Street Journal reports. Using a scoring system developed by NuVal LLC, owned by Griffin Hospital in Derby, Conn., foods get a score between 1 (low in nutrition) and 100 (really healthy) based on calorie content and the presence of more than 30 nutrients including proteins, fat and carbohydrates.
Perhaps the L.A. Times was inspired by our June 29 Dispatch detailing the false belief that all-natural means safe when they decided to cover the new Consumer Reports assessment of several dietary supplements thought to pose substantial health risks.
As the obesity epidemic becomes a global health care crisis, German economists and parliament members have tried to come up with a solution: let’s hold fat people financially responsible for the extra pounds they’re packing, they say.
One person not onboard with the proposed plan, however, is Walter Willett, professor of nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health, who says that along with lifestyle, genetics and urban environments also contribute to obesity.
The New York State Legislature successfully upheld its reputation as a scientifically misinformed governmental body when Gov. David Patterson officially signed into law a ban against BPA in children’s products over the weekend.
“We can no longer call them the ‘do-nothing Legislature’ because they finally did do something, even though it was counterproductive,” points out Dr. Ross.
If we had enough space, we’d offer all of the members of the Legislature a seat in the ACSH soundproof chamber.
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