Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg can now add reducing the salt content of foods to the long list of regulations he s espoused during his time in office, including reducing trans fats and imposing a ban on large sized sodas. His efforts to regulate salt began in 2010, when under his direction, 30 companies committed to reducing salt content in their products by 25 percent over a period of five years in an effort to lower consumers blood pressure and reduce incidence of heart attack and stroke.

A know-nothing from The New York Times believes that the pharmaceutical industry is intentionally hiding data from clinical trials. ACSH s Dr. Josh Bloom and The Manhattan Institute s Dr. Paul Howard disagree. They don t buy claims that the pharmaceutical industry is burying data that would expose its products as expensive frauds.
Writing in Medical Progress Today Spotlight, they rebut a recent op-ed by Ben Goldacre:

In a recent New York Times article, reporter Denise Grady sheds light on a report stating that too little of the money spent on breast cancer research goes toward finding environmental causes of the disease and ways to prevent it.

The U.S. birth rate has hit a historic low, the Centers for Disease Control says. There were 12.7 babies born per 1,000 people in 2011, down from 13.0 live births in 2011. Back in 1950, the rate was 24.1.
Overall there were 1 percent fewer children born in the U.S. in 2011 than in 2010.

Paul Howard and Josh Bloom, Medical Progress Today Spotlight Feature "Is Big Pharma Hiding Data?"

Researchers have reported the first U.S. cases of whooping cough caused by a bacterium that appears to be resistant to the vaccine.

Here s some good news for those promoting the use of e-cigarettes as a form of tobacco harm reduction. According to a survey conducted in 6,000 current and former smokers in the United States, Canada, Australia and Great Britain, e-cigarettes devices which provide nicotine in a benign vapor, geared towards helping addicted smokers quit are viewed as a safer alternative to traditional cigarettes by 80 percent of those surveyed. The survey found though, that only 3 percent of respondents currently used e-cigarettes.

People who eat a southern diet, heavy on deep-fried foods and sugary drinks like sweet tea and soda, are more likely to suffer a stroke, according to a new study. This study began in 2002 when researchers began to administer food surveys to more than 20,000 people in the contiguous 48 states, sorting respondents into five different diet styles.

Breast-feeding is on the rise across America according to a report released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The proportion of mothers breast-feeding their infants jumped from 70.3 percent to 74.6 percent from 2000 to 2008 and the proportion of mothers who continued to breast-feed after 6 months jumped from 34.5 percent to 44.4 percent.

With the American Cancer Society advising all women over age 40 to get a yearly mammogram and the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommending that women between the ages of 50 and 74 get a mammogram only once every two years, it is difficult for women to decide which advice is correct, leading to unnecessary confusion on a highly emotional matter.