Tay-Sachs disease, a devastating congenital error in metabolism of central nervous system fats, is caused by a rare genetic mutation. It usually leads to death by the age of four. Marked by little or no movement or trouble swallowing around age six months, children with Tay-Sachs also exhibit frequent seizures and the loss of hearing and sight.
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As summer draws near, a new survey from the American Academy of Dermatology reports that a striking number of young women tan despite the established health risks. The online survey of over 3,800 white, non-Hispanic females aged 14 to 22 found that 81 percent of these respondents “tanned outdoors frequently or occasionally in the part year,” while 32 percent of them had used a tanning bed in the past year.
The use of mammograms has decreased ever since the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) made a controversial recommendation in 2009 advising women in their 40s to wait until age 50 to get routine mammography screenings, and then only every two years.
Let’s talk fruit — in terms of body shape, that is. Researchers from the Mayo Clinic published a new study in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology suggesting that being “pear-shaped” (carrying more fat in the hips, buttocks and thighs) is associated with a lower risk of adverse cardiovascular events compared to those who are apple-shaped (having excess fat around the midsection).
In March, ACSH challenged the validity of a proposal by New York City’s Mayor Michael Bloomberg to prohibit the purchase of sugar-sweetened beverages with food stamps. The New York Times covered the same topic yesterday in an article titled “Soft Drink Industry Fights Proposed Food Stamp Ban,” which ACSH's Dr. Gilbert Ross points out is a bit misleading.
Remember all those environmental activist reports that cropped up around Earth Day, alleging that prenatal exposure to certain pesticides will decrease your child’s IQ?
As an unscientific follow-up to last week’s interminable “toxic sugar” story is another chemophobic rant from The New York Times. This time it’s about chemicals involved in the hydraulic fracturing (hydrofracking) process used to release natural gas from shale deposits deep underground.
In February, ACSH commended the efforts of North America’s only “safe injection site” — Insite — for successfully reducing the number of new HIV infections in Vancouver, B.C. by 52 percent since 1996. Now a new study published in The Lancet shows that Insite is also contributing another form of harm reduction: decreasing the number of deaths from drug overdoses.
The fact that generic vicodin has topped the list of most commonly prescribed drugs reflects a growing national drug abuse problem. As an administration spokesman pointed out opiate drug overdose has surpassed motor vehicle accidents as the most common cause of injury-related death in 17 states. To combat this worrisome public health trend, President Obama has proposed an “unprecedented” initiative, instituting a government-wide approach to counter prescription drug abuse.
The headline on a recent article screamed “UC flame-retardant study finds risks for kids.” However, the article, written by Marla Cone in SF Gate, makes no such assertion, therefore, whoever wrote the misleading headline needs to be educated. “The study in question did not find any actual risks for kids.
For the second time in as many days, we’d like to give a tip of the hat to ACSH advisor and Boston University School of Public Health Professor Dr. Michael Siegel for his essays on two different smoking-related policies. As we noted in yesterday’s Dispatch, Dr. Siegel’s perspective piece in the New England Journal of Medicine considered the problematic issue of mentholated cigarettes.
According to a new study published in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association, mortality due to hypertension is decreasing, yet it s still greater in people with high blood pressure compared to those without. Study author Dr. Earl S. Ford, medical officer with the U.S.
In a victory for embryonic stem cell (ESC) researchers, a U.S. appeals court has ruled that the Obama administration may continue to federally fund ESC studies using embryos that would otherwise be discarded. The story began in late August when U.S. District Judge Royce Lambeth ruled in favor of two adult stem cell scientists who sued the NIH, arguing that federal funding of ESC research would violate U.S.
A potential ban on menthol cigarettes got some momentum, based upon three studies published in the latest edition of The American Journal of Public Health.
A new study published in The Lancet finds that hydroxyurea, a cancer drug which has been used used to treat sickle cell disease in adults and adolescents since 1995, is also safe and effective for infants. Researchers — part of a team led by Dr. Winifred Wang of St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis — studied 193 infants and toddlers, ages 8 to 19 months, at 14 U.S.
According to an organization called the Environmental Law Foundation (ELF), Dr Soda Co., a refreshment services provider in California, is in violation of the California Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986, otherwise known as Proposition 65.
Just as it's not advisable to purchase your prescription medications online, it's probably not a good idea to find your drug highs there either. Published in the journal Drug Testing and Analysis, Dr.
Another misguided but bombastic effort ostensibly about the fight against childhood obesity comes in the form of a letter to McDonald’s Corp that asks the franchise to stop marketing “junk food” to kids, and, specifically, to retire Ronald McDonald. The letter, signed by “more than 550 health professionals and organizations,” is being run as a full-page ad in six metropolitan newspapers in the U.S.
The number of urban and suburban emergency room shut-downs has increased by 27 percent between 1990 and 2009, according to a new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. And even though you think you may be safe because the ER nearest you is still operating, think again: Closures of nearby ERs will undoubtedly affect your own quality of health care.
Last night, ACSH s Dr. Gilbert Ross and Lana Spivak attended the American Cancer Society s one-year anniversary celebration of Choose You, co-hosted by executive producer and Academy Award-winning actress Hilary Swank (photo below). Dr. Ross and Ms. Spivak caught a preview of Swank s documentary, Choose You, a film that captures the stories of women empowered to choose a healthy lifestyle that includes diet and exercise to help prevent cancer, particularly breast cancer.
We were shocked and disappointed to read that an average 40 percent of pregnancies in our country are unwanted or unexpected. Based on a 2006 state-by-state pregnancy intention survey — the first of its kind ever conducted — out of 86,000 women who gave birth and 9,000 who had an abortion, the study found that the highest rates of unwanted and unplanned pregnancies occurred in the South, Southwest and in states with large urban populations.
In 2007, a large 33.5-million-dollar trial, known as the COURAGE trial, found that percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) offered fewer benefits over drug therapy for the treatment of stable heart disease.
Is there a link between smoking and blindness? If you weren’t aware that there is, it’s probably for lack of a national awareness campaign. Smoking is indeed causally associated with a number of visually impairing eye diseases, including cataracts and age-related macular degeneration, but a recently released international study in the journal Optometry found that most people simply aren’t aware of the risk.
Is your doctor’s necktie transmitting resistant bacteria to your hospitalized loved-one? Quite possibly. The New York Legislature is currently considering a bill that would prohibit all health care professionals from wearing neckties or jewelry, which have long been known to carry bacteria.
Though today’s New York weather may not look it, spring is in the air and summer is fast approaching. For many, this means that it’s time for spring cleaning. However, as is pointed out in a USA Today article, this season is also a time when many people sustain preventable injuries during their cleaning. For instance, the U.S.
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