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A survey of general practitioners in the UK and Sweden revealed that a sizable fraction of them wrongly believed that it’s the nicotine in cigarette smoke that harms health. The online survey was undertaken by UK tobacco giant BAT, and they got responses from 100 British and 120 Swedish physicians. (The study itself is not [...]
The post What doctors don’t know about nicotine can hurt…you! appeared first on Health & Science Dispatch.

Did the pharmaceutical industry paint itself into a corner this time? Maybe yes. According to an article that appeared in FiercePharma, one of the premier websites covering the drug industry, the recent, radical change in the strategy of the drug industry—out of traditional disease areas and into oncology—may have backfired. A record 11 oncology drugs [...]
The post Expensive, but modestly useful new cancer drugs: What to do? appeared first on Health & Science Dispatch.

Cross Talk, one of the shows on RT.com, a Russian-based English language quas-propaganda site which says it is the largest news service on YouTube, with a reach of 1 billion viewers (?), did a segment on the over-pharmacating of America. In a live debate, host Peter Lavelle and two participants (with obvious agendas) took a decidedly anti-pharmaceutical position, leaving ACSH s Dr. Josh Bloom as the fall guy.

The European Parliament will be meeting next week in Brussels, and they may be confronted with a populist uprising based on sound science, a most unusual occurrence.

According to a new CDC report, fatalities from overdosing on painkillers are on the rise among women. Compared to 1999, this rate is now five times higher. (It s also three times higher in men).

Clinton Leaf, author of The Truth in Small Doses: Why We re Losing the War on Cancer

We at ACSH are heartened to know that America has gotten a little safer this week.
Self-proclaimed vaccine expert Jenny McCarthy will soon become a co-host on The View, where she will no doubt be sharing her medical acumen with millions of people who will devour every word.

More often than not, significant medical discoveries arise unintentionally. But frequently a clever observation

Grist writer Nathaniel Johnson, who is as close to an impartial journalist as Grist has, still knows that he has to cater to their crowd, and that means anyone who accepts that a pesticide is safe - the EPA, American Council on Science and Health, all of science - must have been paid off.

A healthy lifestyle focused on a balanced diet and exercise may help those with type 2 diabetes keep their cholesterol and blood glucose at bay, but ultimately, it won’t protect them from heart problems, according to a new study. The trial was halted in September after data showed that lifestyle intervention in patients with type [...]
The post Lifestyle changes not enough to tame heart problems in type 2 diabetics appeared first on Health & Science Dispatch.

Because intensive control of blood glucose levels in type 1 diabetes can have negative side effects — such as repeated bouts of low-blood sugar (hypoglycemia) — it is important to evaluate whether such tight control is worth the risk. The Diabetes Control and Complications Trial (DCCT) was a major clinical study conducted over a period [...]
The post Strict glycemic control has long-term benefits in type 1 diabetes appeared first on Health & Science Dispatch.

Yesterday’s Sunday Times column by former chief food critic Frank Bruni discusses, somewhat ruefully, the accelerating trend toward posting calorie counts more or less everywhere food can be purchased. (This “trend” will be accelerated when the Affordable Care Act is fully implemented, maybe next year, requiring chains of 20 or more locales to post the [...]
The post The Times’ Frank Bruni on calorie counts appeared first on Health & Science Dispatch.

Post-traumatic stress disorder may lie heavy on the hearts of military men and women.

It is both informative and inspiring to take note of the 180-degree change in the nature of the global AIDS epidemic from time to time. Today’s news provides a fine opportunity to do just that. Once written off as hopeless, Africa has witnessed some remarkable changes in the management of HIV over the past decade.

A multinational team of stem cell researchers published a groundbreaking report in the recent edition of the journal Nature, describing the production of functioning liver-type tissue deriv

Picture this. A summer day spent at the beach, with not a cigarette smoker in sight. Sounds like an ideal image, right? Depending on where you are, this might become a reality,

Here s a headline meant to spur unnecessary fear, Sudden death during sports more common among men. This headline appeared in Reuters

Finasteride, a drug most often used to reduce enlarged prostates and counter male-pattern baldness, was shown to reduce the risk of prostate cancer.

Since the 1970s, tamoxifen (developed by AstraZeneca) has been shown to prevent breast cancer recurrence secondary prevention in women who were surgically treated for a primary tumor. The drug is an estrogen-receptor modifier,

When looking at the numbers, about 10 percent of visits to primary care doctors are related to back and neck pain. And we spend about $86 billion a year taking care of this kind of pain. But, according to a new study

There s a ray of hope on the horizon about the American obesity epidemic, according to the CDC.

New York s attempted soda ban is back in the news today, but this may be the last we hear of it. A New York appeals court officially ruled yesterday that the ban was unconstitutional. The panel of judges declared that

Last week, 25 children in India died and many others sickened as a result of organophosphate pesticide poisoning which contaminated the children s school lunches.