In a reversal of a longstanding trend, childhood obesity rates in the city of New York have finally declined, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. Rates of obesity among children in kindergarten through eighth grade decreased in 2010-2011 as compared with 2006-2007.

Globally, three to four million pregnancies end in stillbirth, which is defined as a fetus that dies during or after the 20th week of gestation. Yet despite the devastating consequences, the causes have long been unclear.

The authors of two recent studies related to stillbirth note that such devastating losses are associated with an increasingly high incidence of preterm labor and premature births.

The results of a survey on substance use among U.S. teenagers were released yesterday.

We were disappointed to learn that the Institute of Medicine (IOM) has taken an unfavorable stance toward modified risk tobacco products (MRTPs), advising the FDA to set high hurdles for the manufacturers of such products before they can market them as less harmful alternatives to cigarettes. The IOM report released yesterday concluded that MRTPs, which include a variety of smokeless tobacco products and clean nicotine del

The good news is that, in many states across the country, fewer teenagers are smoking cigarettes but the bad news is that many of them have begun to smoke flavored cigars instead. While flavored cigarettes were prohibited by the FDA in 2009, flavored cigars, including Black & Mild cigarillos, are exempt from the ban.

As the fight to curb the obesity epidemic wears on, a new meta-analysis finds that child obesity prevention strategies, such as those that emphasize more physical activity, can effectively help kids lose weight, especially among children between the ages of six and 12.

Even though many people claim they pay attention to food nutrition labels, few actually read the fine print. These are the results of a study just published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Research.

A surprising number of women are stopping their breast cancer treatments early, but it s not because they are fully cured. Instead, the side effects are too much for them to bear, reports a recent study presented this week at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.

Aspirin may help reduce the risk of recurrent venous thromboembolism (VTE) following the cessation of anticoagulant therapy, reports a new study. VTE is a potentially life-threatening condition in which larger veins in the pelvis and leg become inflamed, and a clot forms as a consequence. These clots can break off and now called emboli travel up the venous system to the heart, and then out into the lung circulation, where they block pulmonary arteries. This can cause illness ranging from cough and shortness of breath, to sudden death.