The New York Times yesterday published an editorial on the current measles outbreak in Britain, pointing to the fact that this outbreak is mainly due to children not receiving the MMR (mumps, measles rubella) vaccine. Many parents have chosen not to vaccinate their children based on the “ill-founded fears among parents that a widely used [...]
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In an effort to encourage communication between smokers and their doctors regarding quitting, the CDC has launched a new campaign called “Talk With Your Doctor.” In partnership with the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Physicians, and the American Congress of Obstetricians and [...]
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A new study in today’s New England Journal of Medicine lends further support to several recent evaluations of the utility of low-dose, spiral CT scans of the chest to detect lung cancer earlier in heavy smokers. The new report lends perspective and detail to the groundbreaking report which appeared in that same journal in August [...]
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For years ACSH has been pointing out the limits of animal testing in predicting human disease risk. So we were pleased to see an article in the recent issue of Harvard Magazine –”Mice Aren’t Men,” reporting on a study which asked if the bodies of mice react to disease and trauma in the same way [...]
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Martin Poole/GETTY IMAGES

Even though a study conducted by Sally Wenzel, MD, and co-workers at the University of Pittsburgh had only 104 participants, the results seen during a clinical trial of a novel treatment for asthma are so impressive that they are still well worth noting. The study evaluated the effectiveness of an experimental antibody drug called dupilumab, [...]
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“Suicide contagion” refers to the idea that if an individual is exposed to suicide, he or she may be influenced to think about, attempt or even commit suicide. This is thought to be especially true of young adolescents. A study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal supports this idea, finding that students ages 12 [...]
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Keep your eyes and computers peeled for a special ACSH Dispatch release at 5PM today on a new lung cancer screening study, complete with an ACSH video featuring our own expert, Dr. Gilbert Ross, as well as Dr. Cliff P. Connery, chief of thoracic surgery at the Beth Israel Medical Center and Continuum Cancer Centers [...]
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Ketamine (street name Special K) has been used in a variety of ways— legal and illegal, in both animals and humans. Its primary use is general anesthesia and sedation of animals. As a recreational drug it is known for its hallucinogenic properties, although it never attained the popularity of other street drugs like LSD, cocaine [...]
The post Special K—More than OK for depression sufferers appeared first on Health & Science Dispatch.

University of Chicago researchers presented preliminary research demonstrating that Qsymia, a diet drug that is a combination of phentermine and topiramate, can successfully reduce both body weight and blood pressure. Obese or overweight individuals who used the drug over 56 weeks lost more than ten percent of their body weight, and those participants also saw [...]
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