Vitamin D-deficient kids may benefit from supplementation, according to the results of a new study published in the journalPediatrics. The new report found that such children had fewer colds during the winter.

Clostridium difficile, commonly known as C. diff, is a potentially deadly infection of the colon, most often affecting hospital patients. But many now question whether hospitals are doing everything they can to prevent the infection from occurring.

Good news: U.S. cases of chickenpox have fallen by nearly 80 percent between 2000 and 2010, the CDC reports. And much of that decline can be attributed to vaccination.

A recent study published in Current Biology finds that researchers are now able to use magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to determine a person s age with about 92 percent accuracy at least if they re between the ages of 3 and 20. But aside from simply being a neat trick, the technology can be used to detect abnormal brain development within that age range a key period of brain development.

Scientific investigation relies on the publication of peer-reviewed studies to communicate advances in research, including medical research. Over the course of the last decade, however, several important paradigms have been found baseless.

We still have a long way to go when it comes to curtailing tobacco use worldwide, new research just published in The Lancet confirms. According to the latest estimates, nearly half of adult men in developing countries use tobacco products, while women increasingly take up smoking at younger ages, and the quit rate in most countries is far too low.

The sodium debate has reared its head again. The question of whether the average American diet has too much, too little, or just the right amount of saltiness surfaces time and again in both the scientific literature and the press. This time, it s the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention itself that s published a new study. And according to their researchers survey of over 12,000 U.S.

West Nile virus has reached a state of emergency in Dallas County, Texas this summer. Thus far, the area has seen 200 cases of human infection and 10 deaths from the mosquito-borne virus now endemic to the U.S. And while the infection rate is the worst in Texas, the CDC reports 693 cases of West Nile virus nationwide. No other state besides Louisiana, however, reported more than one death from the disease.

This week marked what would have been the 100th birthday of famed chef Julia Child. And while we at ACSH join just about everyone else in fondly remembering Child for her exuberant preparation of hallmark dishes such as coq au vin and boeuf bourguignon, we also remember her support for ACSH. As ACSH s Dr. Elizabeth Whelan remembers in this opinion piece for the Telegraph in 2009, Julia Child was a friend who reached out to the organization.

We were more than a bit dismayed to learn that health care and consumer product giant Johnson & Johnson (J&J) plans on removing a number of allegedly toxic chemicals from its line of consumer products. J&J, which also owns popular skin care brands such as Neutrogena, Aveeno, and Clean & Clear, has pledged to remove certain chemicals from its baby products by the end of 2013 and reformulate all adult products by the end of 2015.