Traveling to a high altitude destination and prone to getting sick? A recent study found that ibuprofen may help prevent symptoms of altitude sickness, which can include headaches, dizziness, insomnia, nausea, and vomiting.
Search results
We ve recently reported on the troubling rise in the incidence of cavities among children, which may largely be avoided by ensuring that kids teeth are exposed to the proper amount of fluoride. One easy way to accomplish this is to make sure kids are drinking tap water, which has been fluoridated for decades in many areas of the country, for just this purpose.
Losing weight is an extremely difficult task. But a new study provides some good news for individuals struggling to lose excess weight but trying to reduce their cardiovascular risk: Keeping fit, even in the absence of losing weight, still benefits cardiovascular health.
Here is yet another example of the media vastly mischaracterizing the results of a scientific study: While the data show no relationship between levels of BPA (bisphenol-A) and heart disease, a new report is actually being spun in the news under headlines that suggest the opposite, such as BPA chemical may be tied to heart disease.
Jennifer Sass can't face off against the American Council on Science and Health, or any expert, when it comes to science, so she has taken to her blog yet again to say anyone who supports science must be a paid shill, this time from the pesticide manufacturer Syngenta.
Could obesity impact a man s fertility? To explore this possibility, a new meta-analysis, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine included nearly 10,000 men to determine whether obesity had any adverse affect on sperm count.
Up until the early 1980s, a diagnosis of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) the most common form of childhood leukemia was considered a death sentence. Now a new study finds that five-year survival rates for kids with ALL rose to 90 percent in the period 2000 to 2005.
ACSH would like to give a special thanks to Gerald Baron, author of CrisisBlogger, for his latest blog entry alerting readers to our publication Scared to Death. As Baron points out, [ACSH s] focus seems to be combating junk science and situations where politics and public opinion intervenes [sic] in good policy making relating to science and health.
The Center for Science in the Public Interest s (CSPI) renewed war against a caramel coloring ingredient in sodas, known as 4-methylimidazole (4-MI), is making headlines again, unfortunately. (Although we do appreciate that at least Reuters had the good sense to emphasize the FDA s refutation of CSPI s latest claims.)To refresh your memory: Last year, CSPI petitioned the FDA to declare 4-MI a carcinogen and ban it from sodas.
The dangers of unregulated supplements have attracted renewed attention following the recent deaths of two U.S. soldiers who were reportedly taking an amphetamine-like substance that is marketed as a dietary supplement. Yet as ACSH s Dr. Gilbert Ross and Medpage Today editor Dr.
According to a paper in yesterday's Journal of Clinical Oncology, the 5 year survival rate of children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (the most common form) has continued its upward trajectory, and now stands at 90 percent--fairly amazing considering that it was almost always fatal as recently as the 1960s.
Women who have a history of endometriosis may be at risk of certain types of ovarian cancer, suggests a new study in The Lancet Oncology. Endometriosis occurs when cells from the lining of the uterus grow in other parts of the body a relatively common condition that occurs in about 10 percent of women during their childbearing years. It can lead to pain, difficulties conceiving, and irregular bleeding.
Two bills proposing a ban on the use of bisphenol A (BPA) in food packaging were introduced in France last year by the French Socialist party at the National Assembly. Slated to be approved by the end of this month, following an examination by the French senate, the bills would require that manufacturers operating in France alter their packaging at a high cost.
Over half a million middle school students and three million high school students smoke, announced U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Regina Benjamin while presenting the office s first report on youth smoking since 1994. Nine in 10 smokers pick up the habit before their 18th birthday, thus prompting Dr. Benjamin to declare youth smoking an epidemic that requires a renewed effort to prevent teens from smoking.
Josh Bloom, Medical Progress Today 3/20/12
The Land of the Free, and the Home of the Neurotic
On the topic of unnecessary screenings, a recent personal vignette in the Archives of Internal Medicine explores the issue of overuse of PSA testing for prostate cancer from a deeply personal perspective. Dr. Charles Bennett, an oncologist who specializes in prostate cancer, tells the story of his own experience with PSA testing, as well as his regrets about this screening and the consequences that followed.
When it comes to dispensing inaccurate information about the Plan B One-Step morning after pill, many pharmacies are guilty as charged. In a rather disconcerting new study published in the journal Pediatrics, researchers from the Boston Medical Center at the Boston University School of Medicine conducted an undercover survey in which they called over 940 pharmacies in five U.S. cities, posing as either 17-year-old girls or as physicians assisting these girls.
Since 1994, new and expecting parents have been told to put their babies Back to Sleep. This pithy public health campaign, which emphasized that the safest way to put babies to bed is on their backs, has helped reduce the incidence of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) by over 50 percent in 10 years. But now this salutary decline in mortality rate has plateaued, according to Dr. Henry Krous, director of Pathology Research at Rady Children s Hospital in San Diego and author of a recent study on SIDS.
A pharmacologist's research has linked kidney failure and cancer to an ancient and still inexplicably popular herbal supplement, Aristolochia, commonly sold as birthwort. And while Dr.
Paging all doctors: A new set of guidelines, devised by a team of nine specialists plucked from eight separate medical specialty boards, recommends that physicians less frequently perform certain common procedures and prescribe some expensive medicines less often; it also advises patients to question the necessity of some of the tests they are offered.
Here s another instance where the headlines may be true, but the impact on most women will be next to nothing. Study finds some early breast cancer overdiagnosed, reads a recent AP headline. It refers to a new study from Norway that estimates that 15 to 25 percent of breast cancers detected by mammograms would not have caused any problems during a woman s lifetime if left alone.
Should patients be able to choose which form of colorectal cancer screening they receive? Researchers who have published a new study in the Archives of Internal Medicine suggest that they should: According to their study, providing patients with a choice between testing options increases the likelihood that they will follow through with screening.
As part of a legal settlement with the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), the FDA must decide by tomorrow whether it will ban the widely used chemical bisphenol A (BPA). The agency s decision will determine if the chemical used to make polycarbonate plastic can remain in food packaging.
People who drink diet sodas may think that skipping the extra calories from regular sodas gives them leeway to eat some extra dessert or a big steak dinner. Not so, says a new study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. People who drink diet sodas but eat a less healthful overall diet are more likely to develop metabolic syndrome, researchers find.
A surprising number of women overestimate the effectiveness of widely-used forms of contraception, according to a new study from the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
Pagination
ACSH relies on donors like you. If you enjoy our work, please contribute.
Make your tax-deductible gift today!