Though not an endemic problem in the U.S., diarrhea remains a common life-threatening event in third-world countries, killing about 1.4 million children under the age of five every year. But there are preventive measures and treatments that can reduce this number, and a new study by Christa Fischer Walker of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health used a computer program to model how some of these methods can impact diarrhea incidence in 68 target countries.

It’s time to hit the seafood buffet as a new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine confirms what we knew all along: exposure to mercury in fish has no clinically adverse effect on cardiovascular disease. After analyzing data from two U.S. cohorts comprised of over 170,000 participants, researchers selected 3,427 patients who were identified as having new onset of cardiovascular disease.

For those over the age of 50 taking prescription proton pump inhibitors (PPIs), the FDA warns that using these medications for over a year increases the risk of bone fractures. New labels will be issued for drugs like Nexium, Prilosec and Prevacid that include new safety information about the increased risk of bone fractures of the hip, wrist and spine associated with the long-term use of PPIs. Short-term, low-dose use of the drugs, used to treat ulcers, acid reflux or other conditions, is not likely to pose a risk for fracture.

Following a report issued by the Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory Committee (TPSAC) last week claiming that a menthol cigarette ban would be beneficial to public health, journalist Denise Mann revisits the issue in her article for WebMD, “Are Menthol Cigarettes Riskier Than Non-Menthol?” Ms.

In March 23 article for WebMD, Denise Mann quotes ACSH's Dr. Gilbert Ross in his response to the proposed ban on menthol cigarettes:

A new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association will make for some provocative headlines. A group of researchers from Tufts University studied the cardiovascular risks of episodic physical and sexual activity, specifically in a cohort of habitually inactive patients.

When it comes to obtaining a prescription for antidepressants, rural New Mexico is probably the last place you want to be due to the dearth of psychiatrists and primary care physicians in the area. It comes as no surprise then that the state was the first to pass a law enabling psychologists to prescribe drugs after completing rigorous coursework in psychopharmacology and passing a certified exam.

After the widespread implementation of the Tdap (Tetanus, Diphtheria, Pertussis) vaccine among children, the U.S. nearly achieved complete eradication of pertussis, better known as whooping cough. But in the past two decades, the number of cases of this highly contagious bacterial disease has been on the rise, according to a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

On March 7, the Medicare Rights Center in New York won a lawsuit against the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS): a federal judge ruled the Medicare Part D drug coverage program is responsible for covering off-label use of drugs when treatment is medically necessary.

Over the past few years, the biotech agriculture industry has been navigating a perilous road of frivolous, obstructionist litigation as companies and farmers waste time and resources protecting themselves in court against agenda-driven environmental activists. In the latest such lawsuit, Bayer AG CropScience has been ordered by a court in Arkansas to pay $136.8 million to Riceland Foods over the “contamination” of U.S. long grain rice stocks with their genetically modified (GM) strain.