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The FDA is debating whether tanning beds should be more strictly regulated, since they have been linked to skin cancer.

First of all, we should say that these things can be very dangerous, says Dr. Whelan. They expose you to ultraviolet radiation at intense levels, more intense than being out in the sun for hours. The FDA talks about skin cancer and melanoma, but it also just plain damages your skin. I would like to urge people to be very prudent about use, and, if you asked me, I would say just avoid them altogether.

That said, while we are sure that there are indeed real risks associated with tanning beds, that doesn t necessarily...

Spanish scientists suggest that one third of breast cancer cases are preventable based on diet and exercise habits.

“We have to acknowledge that it is true that being overweight during and after middle age is a risk factor for breast cancer,” says ACSH’s Dr. Elizabeth Whelan. “Still, claiming that one third of cases are preventable by lifestyle choices is probably an overstatement.”

ACSH’s Jeff Stier adds, “It’s definitely good advice to maintain a healthy weight and keep consumption of alcohol moderate, but everyone knows those things. These experts failed to give the full picture, since high-risk women can significantly reduce...

A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that middle-aged women with usual diets who averaged an hour of moderate-intensity exercise per day maintained normal weight (BMI < 25) or gained less than five pounds over a thirteen-year period.

This is pretty discouraging for middle-aged women, says Dr. Whelan. Apparently, exercising twenty or thirty minutes per day is not enough to lose weight, maybe not even maintain it. Many women will find the idea that they need to exercise an hour per day to be unrealistic. I guess the ultimate lesson is that if you want to lose weight, you have to change your eating habits in addition to...

A research team at Princeton University demonstrated that rats with access to high-fructose corn syrup [HFCS] gained significantly more weight than those with access to table sugar, even when their overall caloric intake was the same.

This is contrary to many other studies that show that the metabolism of HFCS is the same as that of sucrose, says Dr. Ross. It isn t even concordant with other animal studies.

There seems to be a campaign to show that HFCS is a major cause of obesity and that obesity will somehow cease to be a problem if we just switch to sugar, says Dr. Whelan. Of course, that s completely false. Even Dr. Marion Nestle...

ACSH Trustee and Hoover Institution Fellow Dr. Henry Miller, a former FDA official, argues on Forbes.com that many dietary supplements are “complex, highly variable, and impure,” and that they should be more closely scrutinized.”

“Most people are simply unaware that supplements have their own law guaranteeing that they do not need to be tested for safety and efficacy,” says Dr. Whelan. “Supplement manufacturers are allowed to make unrealistic claims, and their products can cause harm by interacting with real drugs. Dr. Miller makes the point that it’s time for...

This piece first appeared in the New York Post.

On Friday, the judge in the Ground Zero health-claims case tossed out the recent settlement agreement, citing concerns that the deal wasn't fair to plaintiffs.

Yet the fact remains that there is no credible evidence in the medical literature that exposure to Ground Zero dust can cause any chronic disease or condition. That is, the central claim in the suits has no real scientific basis.

Some claim that only a few days of exposure at the World Trade Center site caused...

The CDC reported yesterday that the rate of Cesarean births reached 32% in 2007, the country s highest rate ever. The New York Times reports, When needed, a Caesarean can save the mother and her child from injury or death, but most experts doubt that one in three women need surgery to give birth.

One reason c-sections births are so high is the fear of litigation, says ACSH s Dr. Gilbert Ross. Obstetricians get sued frequently and often frivolously for bad outcomes like birth defects, which are unrelated to obstetric care. They can reduce not only the risks of complications during birth, but also the risk of being sued for an unrelated problem by doing a c-section. Of...

A study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology suggests that moderate alcohol consumption, defined as one or two glasses of wine a day or the equivalent amounts of beer or other alcoholic beverages, significantly reduces the risk of death from any cause in those who already suffered from circulatory problems such as angina, heart attack, or stroke.

“This is certainly consistent with long-standing literature indicating that older people who drink moderately can lower their risk of heart disease,” says ACSH’s Dr. Elizabeth Whelan. “We have a publication summarizing the benefits of moderate...

A research review published in the journal Pediatrics examined twenty-eight studies involving 3,500 children undergoing treatment for cancer and found that many of them use herbal remedies, vitamins, or other types of alternative therapies.

Many parents are desperate to do everything they can, so they turn to these alternative medicines, says Dr. Whelan. Of course, they should not be used to replace conventional treatment.

Dr. Ross agrees: If children are being given herbal and...

FDA Panics

According to the Associated Press, “[FDA] officials urged pediatricians Monday to temporarily stop using one of two vaccines against a leading cause of diarrhea in babies, after discovering that doses of GlaxoSmithKline’s Rotarix were contaminated with bits of an apparently benign pig virus."

Dr. Paul Offit, ACSH Trustee and co-inventor of the other rotavirus vaccine, RotaTeq, believes there is no reason for alarm. “The PCV1 virus they found is an orphan virus, i.e., it is not associated with disease -- even in pigs,” he explains. “We live in a microbe-rich world, and if they amplify and sequence many other substances -- even breast milk -- some remnants of...