In a recent op-ed for InvestorPlace, journalist Jonathan Berr outlines the various reasons why taxes on soda, high-fat foods, and candy which have already been proposed by several states won t solve the obesity epidemic. These taxes, he writes, try to reduce a complicated issue like obesity to a simple exercise of picking good foods and avoiding bad foods. ACSH s Dr.
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Consuming alcohol in moderate amounts, it seems, is something of a double-edged sword. As for its benefits, numerous studies have indicated that drinking one to two servings of alcohol a day reduces a person s risk for cardiovascular disease. However, a new study from Harvard Medical School shows that even a few drinks a week can increase a woman s risk of breast cancer.
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 want a truly frustrating job in public health, try getting people to stop smoking. Even when researchers combine counseling and encouragement with nicotine patches and gum, few smokers quit. Recently, though, experimenters in Italy had more success by doing less. A team led by Riccardo Polosa of the University of Catania recruited 40 hard-core smokers ones who had turned down a free spot in a smoking-cessation program and simply gave them a gadget already available in stores for $50.
This past spring, we discussed the dangerously cracked logic of a weight-loss fad centered on the hormone human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG). Dieters were duped into believing that shots of this hormone would allow them to lose 26 pounds in 26 days. However, what they actually lost was as much as $1,000 per shot, as well as money they shelled out over the Internet for lozenges and sprays containing homeopathic forms of the hormone.
The results of a new nationwide survey reveal conditions that aren t favorable to improving the health of overweight children. This report, published in The Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, found that more than half of the country s states and districts didn t require regular physical education classes in their elementary schools.
Activists at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) are patting themselves on the back now that the FDA has agreed to respond to their petition demanding a ruling on bisphenol A s (BPA) health risks or lack thereof.
In other nonsense news, a study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition finds that people who eat a lot of unfermented soy products, such as tofu or soy milk, have a 23 percent lower risk of lung cancer than those who eat the least amount. The results were obtained after researchers from the Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine pooled findings from 11 observational studies.
A study just presented at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases has found that, despite its popularity, milk thistle extract provides no benefit for hepatitis C patients. A randomized trial from the University of North Carolina found that milk thistle (also known as the botanical compound silymarin) was no better than a placebo at improving liver function.
Continuing the long but not so honorable tradition of slinging anti-chemical accusations against safe consumer products, the Breast Cancer Fund, a group that targets environmental factors they claim are related to breast cancer, has reported that a variety of canned Thanksgiving foods contain concerning levels of bisphenol-A (BPA).
After 300,000 job losses in the pharmaceutical industry in the past decade, some Novartis employees in Switzerland finally took a stand, writes ACSH s Dr. Josh Bloom in his latest blog post for Medical Progress Today. Read his Occupy Route de l Eztraz entry here.
It s not widely known, but acetaminophen (Tylenol and others) is a significant cause of liver damage when the recommended dosage is exceeded. And just because you re spreading your dosage of acetaminophen over the course of a day doesn t mean you re not at risk for an overdose. In fact, you may be at greater risk of a serious or even fatal overdose than someone who swallows the same amount all at once.
We re always eager to hear the results of smoking cessation trials, hoping for some rare good news on this subject. But the latest trial of nicotine therapy has us baffled. In this nationwide randomized clinical trial just reported in the Archives of Internal Medicine, researchers studied the effect of nicotine lozenges on smokers who were in a practice quit attempt trial. The smokers were not committed to quitting and were not advised to do so.
A new study from the Harvard School of Public Health reports that eating canned soup significantly raises the concentration of the chemical bisphenol-A (BPA) in urine. BPA has been under constant attack from environmental groups alleging that despite its five-decade long history of widespread, safe use it is an endocrine disruptor.
A research team led by ACSH advisor Dr. Geoffrey Kabat, of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, has found that high blood sugar in post-menopausal women is associated with a roughly two-fold increased risk of colorectal cancer. While diabetes has already been linked with colorectal cancer, it hasn t been established whether that association is the result of circulating insulin or glucose.
In a small but concerning study, researchers report that doctors may not always make MRI recommendations with their patient s best interests in mind. According to the study, presented at the Radiological Society of North America meeting in Chicago, doctors who own an MRI scanner may be more likely to recommend an unnecessary back scan than if they had no financial interest in the procedure.
Dr. Elizabeth Whelan in Research Media Ltd., November 15, 2011
Research Media Ltd. Interview with Dr. Elizabeth Whelan
In a two-part series for his blog, Tobacco Analysis, ACSH advisor Dr. Michael Siegel, a professor in the Department of Community Health Sciences at the Boston University School of Public Health, details the most serious barrier yet to tobacco harm reduction. Dr.
Protecting IV drug users from dangerous diseases by allowing them access to clean needles is a cost effective and sound public health policy that we should not abandon, writes ACSH friend Dr. Art Caplan, director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania, in a piece for MSNBC. Nevertheless, Congressional Republicans have proposed to curtail or abandon funding for clean needle exchange programs. Dr.
HER-2 positive breast cancer, accounting for approximately 25 to 30 percent of breast cancer patients, is considered to be a more aggressive form of cancer, often associated with poorer outcomes. Advances in treatment, however which include the monoclonal antibody Herceptin (trastuzumab) in conjunction with chemotherapy have allowed for better outcomes in women diagnosed with this variant of the disease when it is localized and can be surgically removed.
Though some women may use pregnancy as an excuse to indulge a little, some health experts caution that obese pregnant women should be more mindful of their eating habits and perhaps actually strive to lose some extra pounds.
In an unprecedented move, Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has overruled a decision by the FDA to allow emergency contraception the morning-after pill to be sold over-the-counter to teenagers under 17.
In an article for Science Careers, a supplement to the journal Science, reporter Elisabeth Pain interviewed ACSH s Dr. Josh Bloom about his take on the crises in the pharmaceutical sector. Jobs are being lost, pipelines are drying up, and revenue is decreasing for a multitude of reasons, explains Dr. Bloom, not least of which is outsourcing.
Medical researchers in England and the U.S. have just reported their successful treatment of six hemophilia-B patients using gene therapy a major breakthrough in the treatment of the disease. Hemophilia-B, the second most common type of hemophilia, is a type of hereditary bleeding disorder that affects only males due to its linkage to the X-chromosome.
Estrogen therapy may reduce the hot flashes that so often wake menopausal women during the night but the quality of their sleep won t necessarily improve, says a new study in Obstetrics and Gynecology. In this study, investigators looked at the effects of synthetic estrogens on a group of 1
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