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Regular physical activity may cut the risk of a type of mental decline known as vascular dementia in older people, according to a new study.

University of California at Los Angeles chancellor Gene Block yesterday announced that the campus will go tobacco-free on April 22, 2013, which is Earth Day.

ACSH sends kudos to the Los Angeles Times editorial board for their common-sense analysis and rejection of two proposed taxes on sodas. They rightfully state that when it comes to so-called sin taxes, tobacco is simple. Food and drink are complicated.

Although the danger from salmonella-contaminated mangoes appears to be over, the Food and Drug Administration has labeled them a high risk fruit. Last summer a total of 143 people in 15 states were sickened by two strains of salmonella, and more than 30 were sick enough to require hospitalization. Both the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and the FDA found that the source of the problem was Mexico.

Adding confusion to the already-confusing world of dietary supplements, a new study published in the British Medical Journal compared the incidence of strokes in people who ate fish with those who took fish oil supplements.

Flu shots can stop you from getting the flu. Can they also stop you from having a heart attack?

The good news resides, for a change, in California. The latest polls there show support for the insidious Proposition 37, which would mandate labels for many foods with genetically modified ingredients, is falling fast. Just 39.1 percent of likely voters support the measure, while 50.5 percent oppose the labeling requirements, the poll by the California Business Roundtable and the Pepperdine University School of Public Policy shows.

We've seen it before reports of reports of near-immediate reductions in heart attacks after smoking bans were enacted indoors. Now a new report in the Archives of Internal Medicine repeats the same errors of statistical analysis in an even more egregious manner.

Last month, the United States Preventive Services Task Force an group of 16 independent experts who are charged with objectively evaluating evidence regarding medical tests and procedures issued its recommendation against screening healthy women of any age for ovarian cancer.

It is very unusual when an old, well-established class of drugs is suddenly shown to be less effective than previous thought. Or even useless. But according to a large study in the October 3 JAMA, this may very well be the case with beta-blockers, a staple of heart and blood pressure treatment since the 1970s. The implications are huge--almost 200 million prescriptions were written for these drugs in the U.S. in 2010 alone.

Last week, we covered a provocative new study on the use of beta blockers a class of drugs long used to treat hypertension, heart failure, angina, and abnormal heart rhythms.

When it comes to perishable food items, consumers often rely on expiration dates to determine when a product will spoil. But does the same rule of thumb hold for labeled expiration dates on medications?

According to the Centers for Disease Control, as of to-date, 105 people have been sickened in the national meningitis outbreak, which was caused by a batch of fungus-tainted steroid shots used to treat back pain. The death toll has climbed to nine, while health officials warn that as many as 13,000 people who received the shots may be at risk.

In 2008, nearly 215,000 men in the U.S. were diagnosed with prostate cancer and 28,000 died from the disease, according to the Centers for Disease Control. That makes it the second most common cause of cancer death in men (after lung cancer), but it is often difficult to accurately determine what if any treatment is the best option.

Last month, ACSH s Dr.

Restricted-calorie diets of various types are known to be effective for accomplishing weight loss. Unfortunately, these results are often not maintained, as participants adherence tends to diminish over time.

Older patients who have suffered a heart attack often don t bother to take medication that could potentially save their lives, a new eyebrow-raising study has found.

There s also more evidence out this week about the dangers of cigarettes. A study of 28,000 men who started college at Harvard University between 1916 and 1950 found that smoking in one s teenage years is associated with a 29 percent increased risk of death, even though they quit later.

An Inhalation Toxicology study found that very few chemicals in very low concentrations were detected.

Providing women with free, long-acting contraception appears to be a good way to cut the U.S. rates of abortion and unintended teen pregnancy, a new study suggests. The nearly 10,000 women at risk for unintended pregnancy in the St.

Although rare, Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a devastating genetic disease that ultimately results in muscle degeneration and death. With no known cure, the approximately 1 in 3,600 boys affected by the disease are treated with steroid drugs and physical therapy in order to improve their quality of life.

Just last month, a series of new articles reported on the exciting findings from the ENCODE project, which is still contributing to our understanding of the human genome 10 years after it was sequenced.

A late-stage study of Pfizer s Prevnar 13 pneumonia vaccine has met the main trial goal, the company announced.

In the past decade, according to a study sponsored by Prevent Blindness America and the National Eye Institute, there has been a nearly 90 percent increase in the incidence of diabetic retinopathy an often progressive condition caused by tiny hemorrhages in the small arteries of the retina. In fact, diabetic retinopathy is the leading cause of blindness among adults in America.

ACSH often reports on junk studies that employ dubious statistical methods including our favorites: GIGO (garbage in, garbage out) and data-dredging in order to produce valid-appearing studies crafted to yield predetermined results. But it seems like some researchers are actually engaging in not just junk science, but conscious fraud.