At nearly 78 years, the average life expectancy for Americans is higher than ever. Unfortunately, the quality of those extra years is not necessarily better. A study just published in Diabetes Care reports that the incidence of diabetes in this country has risen right along with the average life expectancy.
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New research is questioning the benefits of taking supplemental vitamins and minerals, suggesting that, for the general population, such supplements may actually pose more risks than benefits. It's a disconcerting finding since, according to a study just published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, 85 percent of women surveyed reported use of supplements. And the news, no doubt, has implications for consumers, who currently spend $20 billion a year on something that may be doing more harm than good.
Two existing drugs have recently been given FDA approval for new uses: One targets prostate enlargement, and the other is a combination diabetes and statin drug that is projected to prevent a wide range of complications commonly associated with diabetes, including cardiovascular disease (CVD).
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
For twenty years, hepatitis C research mostly followed the HIV cocktail approach, where the gene products of the virus are isolated, and their function determined, thus providing the foundation for a rational drug design or screening-based campaign.
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.
By Mischa Poppof
Meet the most powerful figure in the global organic industrial complex. No, it s not President Obama. It s Miles McEvoy, Obama s Deputy Administrator of the National Organic Program (NOP) at the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
New research shows promise for the use of the heart s own stem cells in treating heart failure. Like other stem cells, cardiac stem cells (CSCs) are self-renewing and multipotent so CSCs can differentiate into all three major cardiac tissue types. Thus, in a new small pilot study, these CSCs were used to treat the damage caused by coronary heart disease.
Intentional drugging is not often talked about, yet the results of a new Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) report reminds all of us especially women of the dangers associated with leaving your drink unattended.
Given all the different advice out there about how to start running and how to most effectively train for fitness, it s hard to know which way is best. However, in an article for The New York Times, Gina Kolata writes that the best advice is probably to just listen to your own body.
New guidelines from the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) make a surprising recommendation: There should be general one-time screening of children ages nine to 11 for high cholesterol.
Parents can cut in half the risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) by making sure their newborns immunizations are on schedule. That s part of the latest recommendation issued yesterday by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) at the organization s national meeting in Boston.
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.
The FDA has just rejected two petitions to ban a long list of antibiotics used in food animal production. The petitions, which date from 1995 and 2005, were filed by a number of consumer and sustainable agriculture advocates who are concerned that the use of these antibiotics in livestock to promote growth and prevent disease contributes to the development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
Nearly one-fourth of patients with obstructive coronary artery disease (CAD) are not being treated with a statin drug, despite the overwhelming evidence of benefit. Further, over one-fifth of such patients are not on any lipid-lowering therapy at all, according to the results of a new study published in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association. Researchers from St.
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:
Parents are often reassured when a trip to the pediatrician results in an antibiotic prescription for their sick child.
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