How do you ensure that the FDA advisory panels crucial to the drug approval process have the right members?
ACSH advisor Dr. David Shlaes, the former head of infectious disease research at Wyeth, addresses these issues especially as they relate to antibiotic panels in his recent thought-provoking entry entitled Conflict of Interest vs. Competent Advice.

Hospital-acquired infections are a major public health concern the risk of getting an infection while in the hospital is roughly 1 in 20. They are also an especially substantial burden because they are often difficult to treat due to their antibiotic resistance (therefore being dubbed superbugs). Just a few of these bacteria include MRSA, VRE, and CRE, which the CDC refers to as nightmare bacteria.

Gov. Nixon s e-cigarette veto: harming smokers, not protecting kids
Gilbert Ross, M.D
The American Council on Science and Health

Benzodiazepines are drugs that are commonly prescribed to combat anxiety, or as sedatives and muscle relaxants. They include Xanax, Librium, Valium, and Halcion, and several others. We ve known the up-and-downsides of such drugs for many years, as well as their addictive tendencies. But a new study provides concern that we might need to add another risk to that list.

New large study shows that the common arrhythmia, atrial fibrillation (AF), long known to result from heart ailments, may also cause heart attacks.

School is back in session for children across the country and with the beginning of the school year comes a respiratory illness that has affected children in ten states and sent hundreds to the hospital. The most likely

A new advisory from a Federal panel finds strong evidence that low-dose aspirin reduces the risk of preeclampsia in women at risk of this worrisome pregnancy-related condition. Of course, this recommendation should be individualized for patients.

Scientists have now unraveled and published the genome of a variety of coffee plant called Coffee canephora, which comprises about 30 percent of the world s coffee production.

Lung cancer is the leading cancer killer in both American men and women, causing more deaths than colon, breast, and pancreatic cancers combined. According to the American Lung Association, almost 160,000 Americans are expected to die from lung cancer in 2014.

Our regular readers will not be surprised about any of this, or the fact that we are again writing about it.
Despite subtly worded labels that suggest that dietary supplements are both safe and health-promoting, they are neither they are untested drugs, which are allowed to make quasi-claims thanks to the abomination that is disingenuously called the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 (DSHEA).