Men who have had sex with another man on any occasion since 1977 are currently prohibited from donating blood in the U.S. The ban was instated in 1983 as a response to the higher prevalence of HIV/AIDS among men who have sex with men (MSM) in order to prevent contaminating blood supplies with HIV. However, scientific advances have made the ban seem antiquated and in need of revision. In yesterday s Los Angeles Times, Dr. James P.
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The number of children visiting the emergency room (ER) with a sports-related concussion has jumped by nearly 60 percent over the last decade, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports. Whether this is because kids are getting hurt more often or because parents are have become more vigilant about seeking treatment for their children is not clear, but the report underscores the importance of having a child evaluated following a head injury.
Yesterday we wrote about the potential ill effects of taking supplements, and today we continue in the same vein, as a new study has linked the use of vitamin E pills to prostate cancer. According to the results of this study led by a doctor at the Cleveland Clinic, for every 1,000 men who took the vitamin, there were 11 additional cases of prostate cancer, compared to men taking a placebo.
October is Breast Cancer Awareness month, a time for various breast cancer organizations and health professionals to remind women of routine mammography guidelines and to make sure that those who need it are screened. Yet instead of educating women, one particular group called Breast Cancer Action following their usual pattern has decided to needlessly scare them by alleging that a perfume produced by the Susan G.
Current FDA conflict of interest rules for advisory panels on drugs and medical devices are stifling innovation and preventing promising new treatments from getting to market, says Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN). That s exactly why she, in collaboration with Senator Richard Burr (R-NC) and Senator Michael Bennet (D-CO), is proposing to reverse 2007 legislation that barred experts with financial ties to pharmaceutical companies from serving on an advisory panel without a waiver.
In other tobacco-related news, four U.S. senators have sent a letter to the Major League Baseball players union, asking them to agree to a ban on chewing tobacco during baseball s World Series, which begins tonight with Texas visiting St. Louis.
The use of the common pain reliever acetaminophen (Tylenol) may be linked to increases in asthma symptoms, according to a new review published in the journal Pediatrics. Although acetaminophen is generally known as one of the safest drugs on the market, this finding may cause some parents and patients, particularly those who are susceptible to breathing disorders, to reevaluate the benefits and risks of this medication.
Banning soda in schools is an increasingly common response to the high rate of obesity among kids. However, one of the first studies to specifically examine the impact of these bans on what students consume finds that they fall flat.
I've seen some odd things in my career, but a November 7 report in Drug Industry Daily may be one of the craziest. Maybe "Looney Tunes" crazy.
The article reports on discussions being held between the FDA and representatives of PhRMA concerning the development and launching of badly needed new antibiotics to combat bacterial pneumonia.
ACSH applauds a new initiative in the city of Owensboro, Kentucky, that aims to save lives by promoting the use of smokeless tobacco as a less risky alternative to smoking.
More than two-thirds of American smokers want to quit, but only a fraction actually do, underscoring a need for more services, messages, and access to medications to help them kick the habit, writes Betsy McKay of The Wall Street Journal. McKay s brief article recaps this week s report by the Centers for Disease
In a letter published in Michigan s Midland Daily News, ACSH s Dr. Gilbert Ross chastises Susan Dusseau, executive director of Cancer Services of Midland, for citing misleading information on the alleged adverse health effects of smokeless tobacco. In her recent article, entitled Smokeless tobacco the new norm?, Dusseau condemned the use of such products and inaccurately stated that they target teens, when, in fact, they do not as Dr. Ross is quick to point out:
Rewind to 1991, when a National Cancer Institute study concluded that there was no danger in living near nuclear power plants. Now twenty years later, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is planning a follow-up study and has asked the National Academy of Sciences to begin another investigation into whether living near nuclear facilities is associated with a higher risk of cancer.
Perhaps the most important point of Shawn Lawrence Otto s Fool Me Twice: Fighting the Assault on Science in America is that the voting public can, in fact, take up arms against politicians who would sway their constituents with sheerly rhetorical claims about public policy decisions that should be based instead on the relevant science.
Last week, hundreds of news stories reported an irresistibly alarming study in the journal Injury Prevention which claimed that drinking non-diet soda was associated with increased violence among the 1,800 teens attending Boston s public high schools.
Who showed that story was more statistical illiteracy that journalists ignored in the interests of selling advertising? The American Council on Science and Health.
In an excellent refutation of junk science, the Competitive Enterprise Institute s Angela Logomasini has torn down, point by point, claims made in a recent report from the Oregon Environmental Council. The pseudoscientific report, entitled,What s in My Makeup Bag, claims that cosmetics are chock full of toxic chemicals. Taking on each claim one by one, Logomasini explains why the arguments behind it are scientifically baseless, generated by ideology and chemophobia, and designed to incite consumer fear about harmless products.
After an FDA advisory panel unanimously voted in June to revoke the approval of the drug Avastin as a treatment for advanced breast cancer, FDA commissioner Dr. Margaret A. Hamburg announced last week that the agency will support the committee s recommendation and rescind approval.
Yet another previously unknown anti-chemical environmental group has issued a scare screed alleging that hidden toxic chemicals in various household cleaning products may be poisoning us without our knowledge.
Taking herbal supplements, we ve often observed, is rarely a great idea. Not only do they lack the efficacy of FDA-approved medications, but they re unregulated and can actually be dangerous. Patients suffering from chronic kidney disease, for instance, are particularly susceptible to a host of adverse effects from many approved pharmaceuticals. This is even more of a danger with herbal supplements, whose exact ingredients and dosages are often unknown.
Flying in the face of the USDA s extremely stringent recommendations for population-wide sodium consumption, a recent study reports that low sodium consumption may actually increase a person s cardiovascular risk.
A new report published by the American Council on Science and Health (ACSH) counters claims by an environmental activist group that chemical exposures have led to numerous disease clusters throughout the country.
We thought the arsenic in apple juice scare had ended up in the unfounded scares graveyard, but headlines in today s news took us by surprise. In a revival of this juice scare, Consumer Reports has announced that about 10 percent of the samples of apple and grape juice that they tested had levels of arsenic exceeding federal standards for drinking water.
Americans are not only heavier than they were two decades ago, but their perceptions of their ideal weight have ballooned as well. In fact, the most recent Gallup poll reports that, on average, adults perceptions of what their ideal weight should be are now about 10 pounds heavier than they were in 1990.
The chickenpox vaccine doesn t protect only the inoculated child; it also protects infants who are too young to be vaccinated but for whom the disease is especially dangerous. This protection conferred on non-immunized people by a high rate of vaccination in the area is called herd immunity (or community immunity).
Environmental chemicals might or might not pose a significant risk to women s breast health, depending on which of two bizarrely conflicting USA Today articles you believe. Both articles assess the same Institute of Medicine (IOM) report on the causes of breast cancer, yet arrive at wildly different conclusions. The IOM is a group of independent experts who advise under the auspices of the National Academy of Sciences; this report was commissioned by the Susan G. Komen for the Cure breast cancer foundation.
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