A new study published in Tuesday’s Journal of the American Medical Association lends credence to the idea of providing insurance coverage for exercise programs — at least for diabetes patients.
Previously, ACSH has emphasized that older men diagnosed with prostate cancer should not be rushed off to a radical prostatectomy (removal of the prostate and seminal vesicles). But today we learned that for younger men — those under the age of 65 — diagnosed with early prostate cancer, a prostatectomy may be better than watchful waiting (WW) when it comes to both prostate cancer-specific and all-cause (total) mortality.
Remember all those environmental activist reports that cropped up around Earth Day, alleging that prenatal exposure to certain pesticides will decrease your child’s IQ?
Disturbing new research by Dr. William T. Basco, Jr., director of the division of general pediatrics at the Medical University of South Carolina, and colleagues finds that about 4 percent of kids up to the age of three were given an overdose of a narcotic-containing drug.
It’s bad enough when grown-ups use untested and unapproved supplements. But now, new research published in the journal Pediatrics found a surprisingly high rate of herbal supplement use among infants. The 2005 to 2007 study suggests that the prevalence of such use (including herbal teas) in the U.S. was between 3 and 10 percent.
In March, ACSH challenged the validity of a proposal by New York City’s Mayor Michael Bloomberg to prohibit the purchase of sugar-sweetened beverages with food stamps. The New York Times covered the same topic yesterday in an article titled “Soft Drink Industry Fights Proposed Food Stamp Ban,” which ACSH's Dr. Gilbert Ross points out is a bit misleading.
Let’s talk fruit — in terms of body shape, that is. Researchers from the Mayo Clinic published a new study in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology suggesting that being “pear-shaped” (carrying more fat in the hips, buttocks and thighs) is associated with a lower risk of adverse cardiovascular events compared to those who are apple-shaped (having excess fat around the midsection).
Even though the American Heart Association is now advising that people ingest no more than 1,500 milligrams of sodium daily, you don’t have to throw away that saltshaker just yet. A new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association followed nearly 3,700 people for about eight years and tested their urine sodium excretion — an accurate means of estimating sodium ingestion.
An article in today’s Los Angeles Times reports that women who begin to take hormone replacement therapy (HRT) at the onset of menopause (often called peri-menopause), around age 50 or so, and take it for five years or less, run fewer risks than benefits, including relief from hot flashes and pain during sex, as well as reduced bone fractures.
All the common misconceptions about stem cell research have reared their ugly heads in an ongoing dispute in Minnesota that pits businesses against a so-called anti-cloning proposal that we thought had died an ignominious demise when we last skewered it. But no, it’s alive! And it’s even being advanced in the state Legislature as part of an omnibus education bill.
