According to a new report released by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Trust for America s Health, obesity rates remain steady in 44 states and the District of Columbia. The report also found that rates of

One of the main themes in medicine over the past year or two has been the value (or lack of same) of screening as a tool to prevent early death.
Accepted medical practices have been challenged, as data become available that are not only counterintuitive, but in some cases almost heresy.
Examples include:
Is routine mammography harmful or helpful?
Should the prostate specific antigen (PSA) test be used at all?
Do annual exams save lives?
We have written about these issues frequently- mammography, the PSA test, annual physicals. The above links give a good summary of our take on each of these issues.

A new study of children s emergency hospitalizations for drug-related exposures finds that almost ten-thousand annual occurrences result from toddlers ingesting their parents meds. This is unacceptable and it s the so-called grown-ups fault.

Vaccination rates in Hollywood s elite schools have dropped drastically low, according to an investigation by The Hollywood Reporter that looked into vaccination rates in Los Angeles County schools. The schools with the lowest rates are clustered in the affluent Westside, where some schools have vaccination rates as low as South Sudan, where only 65 percent of children are vaccinated.

Dr. Gilbert Ross in the New York Post, September 17, 2014.

Fracking news, pro (water contamination not frack-related) and con (junk survey alleging health effects among nearby residents)

Every now and then, someone really gets it.
This past June, it was Alex Berezow, the founding editor of RealClearSciencewhose piece The Lies that Whole Foods Tells blew the doors off of Whole Foods and their less-than-truthful marketing practices.
This time, it is Michael Schulson, whose new piece in The Daily Beast addresses the same topic from a somewhat different angle, and none too gently. It is a must read for anyone who is confused by, or on the fence on the GM food controversy.

Activists are attacking Starbucks because its coffee like everyone else s coffee contains acrylamide. This is not because the company actually adds the chemical to its coffee, nor does anyone else it is formed naturally when the beans are roasted.

As smoking rates fall across the country, the percentage of New Yorkers smoking is actually on the rise, up from 14 percent in 2010 to 16 percent in 2013. Although lower than the national average of 18 percent, the findings

It is with deep and profound sadness that we announce that Dr. Elizabeth M. Whelan, the founder and president of the American Council on Science and Health since its beginnings in 1978, passed away yesterday.