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A new study in the journal Menopause suggests that too many women are being unnecessarily screened for osteoporosis.

When it comes to pills, newer is not always better, though according to a recent study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, the majority of Americans still think so.

In a survey of 1,000 adults in California, 43 percent expressed some reservations about talking to their primary care physician about depression symptoms. Those were the results of a recent study led by Dr. Robert Bell at the University of California, Davis, and published in the Annals of Family Medicine.

As we ve reported several times, estrogen replacement therapy either with or without progesterone is currently the most effective means of treating menopausal symptoms. Now, a study just published in the journal Menopause has found that a skin patch that delivers the hormone has even fewer risks than the already quite safe standard method of delivery, pills. The general term for such hormone supplementation is hormone replacement therapy, or HRT.

The battle of the statins has resulted in a draw, as the data from the two-year SATURN study of over 1,300 patients are in. Scientists found that AstraZeneca s Crestor (rosuvastatin) and Pfizer s Lipitor (atorvastatin) actually have comparable effects when it comes to lowering the volume of fatty deposits in the arteries of patients with coronary disease a conclusion that surprised both cardiologists and AstraZeneca.
Simply stated, says ACSH s Dr. Ruth Kava, this is good news. Now people have the choice of taking either drug without sacrificing any of the benefits.

Large-scale outbreaks of foodborne illness have recently focused attention on the ability of the U.S. food safety system to protect the public health, writes Michael R. Taylor, the Deputy Commissioner for Foods at the FDA. In an article appearing in the latest issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, Taylor outlines both the issues that have moved the agency to action and the components of the new Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA).

That the prevalence of obesity is rising in the U.S. is no secret. However, few people may realize that, among the other obesity-related diseases more commonly cited, such excess body weight puts them at risk for gout. In fact, the number of Americans with this very painful form of arthritis is on the rise: Between 1988 and 1994, just 1 percent of Americans had been diagnosed with gout; in 2008 that number was estimated at 4 percent, according to government health surveys.

We've previously questioned some of the studies that have been accepted for publication in the journal Pediatrics, and now Dr. Sara B. DeMauro of the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia has done the same in her study which appears in that very journal.

Those who suffer from the condition called chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are often subject to acute episodes that include a worsening cough, wheezing, and difficulty breathing.

A recent UK study has compared the results of following standard weight loss guidelines to those achieved by the commercial weight loss program Weight Watchers and found that people were much more likely to drop kilos or pounds, in our country in the latter program. In fact, participants in the study lost twice as much weight on the commercial program, reports the UK Medical Research Council in The Lancet.

About 40 percent of cigarettes in New Jersey are smuggled into the state, according to a recent state Treasury Department report. And the figure hardly seems surprising, given that New Jersey levels a $2.70 tax on each pack of cigarettes sold. The high tax has created not only a significant black market for cigarettes in the state, but has also resulted in smokers purchasing their cigarettes out of state either via the Internet or by driving across state lines.

Grist is a reliable minor league version of Mother Jones - no amount of exaggeration is worth leaving out and no amount of imaginative 'you agree all pesticides are killing Gaia or you are an industry shill' narrative goes un-exercised.

We ve often discussed the safety and benefits of the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine. We ve stressed how effective it is in preventing cervical cancer, as well as anal and oral cancer and genital warts in both men and women.

Classified as the silent killer, hypertension is the underlying cause of many adverse health outcomes, including heart attacks, strokes, and kidney disease. Though many people are aware of the dangers associated with high blood pressure, few may know that even a slightly raised blood pressure, known as prehypertension (systolic pressure of 120 to 139 mm Hg, or a diastolic pressure of 80 to 89 mm Hg), also puts people at an increased risk of stroke.

At this year s annual meeting of the American Society for Radiation Oncology, Dr. Rahul Tendulkar of the Cleveland Clinic presented important data on the efficacy of radiation therapy following a mastectomy in breast cancer patients with only a few (one to three) positive lymph nodes. Previous studies on using radiation post-mastectomy on women who had four or more positive nodes yielded positive results, yet research on whether the treatment would be effective in women with fewer positive nodes was absent until now.

In yesterday s Dispatch, we noted how a disconcerting number of U.S. cities are opting out of fluoridated drinking water. We mentioned that this public health practice reduces the incidence of tooth decay by 25 percent nationwide. Well, it turns out that we actually understated the importance of water fluoridation for dental health. Dr. Chic Schissel, a dentist and friend of ACSH, wrote in to polish up our statistics:

The illicit tobacco trade is running rampant, say some members of Congress, and they re introducing the aptly named Smuggled Tobacco Prevention (STOP) Act as a solution to this black market business. Cosponsored by an additional 118 members of the House of Representatives, the STOP Act hopes to recoup at least $5 billion in lost tobacco tax revenues while also keeping contraband cigarettes off the market. In order to accomplish this, all tobacco products manufactured in or imported to the U.S.

About four million Americans admitted to operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of alcohol at least once in 2010, according to a study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. For a paper published in the journal Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, a team of researchers compiled data on drinking and driving behaviors from a national telephone survey.

If the New York City Department of Education were graded on its provision of proper physical education for city students, it would receive a big fat F.

Screening healthy men for prostate cancer with a PSA blood test does more harm than good, a major government health panel has decided. The United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), whose recommendations are usually followed by most medical groups and insurers, will next week release its draft recommendation stating that healthy men over 50 should no longer receive the test.

Household vinegar. Liquified carbon dioxide. Rural clinics. In Thailand, a successful procedure to screen for and treat cervical cancer demonstrates that innovative medicine need not always be at the cutting edge of technology.

It s been shown previously that infants born prematurely suffer an increased risk of adverse health effects, but does this effect continue into adulthood? The answer seems to be yes but with a few qualifications.

To the dismay of ACSH and others devoted to public health, childhood vaccination rates fell significantly in 2009, and the latest National Public Radio-Thomson Reuters Health Poll indicates that unfounded fear is the major source of this decline.

A new report published in The Lancet by researchers in London reveals promising news for epileptics: About half of epilepsy patients are able to remain entirely free of seizures for at least 10 years following brain surgery for the disorder.

If you re someone who relies on an over-the-counter inhaler to cope with asthma, you should be sure that you have a doctor s prescription for an albuterol inhaler by the end of this year. The FDA has been phasing out epinephrine inhalers over the past three years, and they will be completely banned by the start of 2012.