A study released in last week's Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) makes several important criticisms of medical care for elderly Americans with hypertension (high blood pressure).
An August 2, 2005 article by Michael Hill quotes ACSH's Dr. Ruth Kava among experts wondering what craze will succeed the low-carb mania started by the now-bankrupt Atkins company:
Ruth Kava, director of nutrition for the American Council on Science and Health, figures it might be something like a high-protein diet.
It might be nice if all scientific debates were conducted quietly, with no media attention to them at all. Instead, we get varying levels of media attention, each bringing a different degree of distortion to the underlying facts (as a random grab-bag of odd science and health stories from 2005 remind us) but occasionally offering enlightenment:
This article appeared August 1, 2005 on the Heartland Institute's Heartland.org, and an earlier version appeared on NationalReview.com:
Cholesterol-lowering drugs, circumcision, and growth hormones seem like unlikely heroes in the fight against HIV/AIDS, but three new studies (1) suggest that they may be just that.
Alarmism is harmful at any dose. Just as political mudslinging can unfairly sully reputations, sensational news about health dangers can rattle public confidence -- whether or not the sensational report turns out to be true.
A report in the July 28 New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) provides no support for the efficacy of echinacea, one of the most popular herbal products, in preventing or alleviating the symptoms of the common cold. Millions of Americans use supplemental echinacea, which is made from any one of several species of the purple coneflower, for just those purposes. But should they rely on it?
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has announced his support of the state's pending bills to limit the sale of soda and "junk food" in public schools. He claims this will help in the fight against childhood obesity and says that obesity-related health problems may be costing the state billions of dollars each year, with the number of overweight children still increasing.
A July 27, 2005 article on India's FinancialExpress.com noted the ACSH position on pesticides:
The pesticide industry has challenged the findings of the Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) relating to health hazards of pesticide use in Punjab.
A July 25, 2005 article by David Hogberg in the American Spectator noted the views of ACSH's Dr. Gilbert Ross on the recent effort by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) and Reuters' Maggie Fox to spread fear about chemicals in umbilical cord blood:
