Are those little guys under threat? A new study claims that there has been a significant and continuous 32.2 percent decrease in sperm counts among French men in the last 17 years. Researchers led by Dr. Joelle Le Moal from the Institut de Veille Sanitaire published their findings in the journal Human Reproduction.

For most women who have been treated for breast cancer, taking tamoxifen (an estrogen blocker in breast tissue) can cut their odds of recurrence but for how long to take the drug to maximize benefit, has not been clear. Now a new study shows 10 years of tamoxifen treatment is better than five, lowering the risk of recurrence by a quarter and the risk of dying by 29 percent.

Get ready to hear more about electronic cigarettes except about how they can possibly help people quit smoking. Some e-cig manufacturers are gearing up for an expensive ad campaign, the New York Times reports. Scottsdale, Ariz.-based NJoy Inc. is spending $12 to $14 million to promote its NJoy King, while Lorillard s BlueCigs has hired actor Stephen Dorff to promote their product.

Is the goal of eradicating breast cancer by 2020 unrealistic and overly ambitious? We were inclined to agree with a Nature editorial that said so, but one of our readers says no. Dr.

A federal appeals court in New York ruled this week that off-label drug promotion and marketing is free speech protected by the First Amendment. If the ruling stands, pharmaceutical companies will be able to legally market drugs for off-label conditions that they have studied but have not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration. This has the potential to change the face of marketing of prescription drugs in America, and may affect everything from patient care to TV advertising.

It has long been said that salt contributes to high blood pressure and thus, the government s dietary guidelines recommend that the general population consume less than 2,300 milligrams of sodium per day (about a teaspoon of table salt). This relationship, while unequivocally accepted by almost all of the public health and cardiology authorities, is again being questioned; it may be the case that these recommendations are not warranted for everyone.

Josh Bloom, Medical Progress Today "Off Label Advice for Doctors- The Appeals Court is Dead On"
Off-label drugs-- those used for indications other than what the drug was originally approved for-- have been used for many years. Most of us have probably benefited from this practice, but despite this, it has been illegal for a pharmaceutical sales rep to even mention a possible off-label use of any drug to doctors.

The U.S. flu season is off to the earliest start in a decade, reports the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. With higher-than-normal reports of flu coming in from Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee and Texas, this flu season could be a bad one.

No matter how many scientists explain that there is no real evidence suggesting that pesticides are harmful when used appropriately, they continue to be the subject of a number of health scares the most recent linking pesticides to food allergies.

The American College of Physicians Clinical Guidelines Committee has released a new evidence-based clinical policy paper revising the guidelines for upper endoscopy use in most patients. During the procedure, known as EGD among clinicians for esophago-gastro-duodenoscopy, a tiny flexible camera called an endoscope is inserted down the patient s throat so the physician can visualize the upper GI tract: esophagus, stomach and duodenum.