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Results of a recent prospective study of food intake in 18 countries —including North and South America, Europe, and Asia — reports that an increased intake of fruits, vegetables and legumes is associated with a lower risk of death. But the same study was analyzed to see what effect different dietary nutrients might have and found that it's carbs, not fat that seem to be dietary villains.

An ongoing FDA investigation into allegedly harmful homeopathic teething products revealed (surprise!) a heap of significant violations found at a second facility. Not only that, but the company's sheer sketchiness – like preventing investigators from taking photos – is enough to make you question what it's hiding.  

Bundled payment for health care is being presented as a fix to rising costs. What makes up the bundle of services provided, and can they really save us money? A new study in JAMA Surgery sheds some light.

E-cigarettes are "effective in helping people quit smoking" and "95% safer than smoking."* Additionally, there are "no health risks to bystanders."
What evil, conniving, greedy, Big Tobacco-loving, propaganda-spewing group of shills says that? The UK's National Health Service (NHS).

As ACSH's Ana Dolaskie approaches the final weeks of pregnancy, she is making sure all her vaccinations are up-to-date. This includes the TDAP vaccine (Tetanus-Diphtheria-Pertussis) and influenza shot. And she also wants to makes sure dads, partners, and others who are spending time with baby understand why getting vaccinated is key in protecting a newborn baby against potentially life-threatening illnesses, like pertussis (whooping cough).
 

If you're middle-aged and you usually walk slowly, consider this as you stroll: a new, large study found that those who felt they were "slow walkers" were nearly twice as likely to die from a heart-related cause as compared to those who said they walk briskly. It's an association, not a cause-and-effect finding. But it's worth a discussion with your doctor.

Rapid, accurate detection of a tuberculosis infection still remains a healthcare challenge. Developing an assay that's able to definitively diagnose TB, and one that's cheap, should be high on our priority list. Especially, as we annually see increases in TB's prevalence.

GMOs were a worry 40 years ago? Yes, though today GMO insulin is regarded as a gigantic success story for public health in this century, in 1977 the same political forces and activists still aligned against science now, were present then. Just the names have changed.

Endorphins, those opiate-type neurotransmitters, are involved in sensations such as "runner's high" — as well as other situations where pleasurable feelings are thought to increase the likelihood that an activity will be repeated. Since eating also increases endorphins, it's been suggested that they might also be responsible for overeating. But a recent study fails to uphold that hypothesis.

The King County Health Department, which serves mostly the city of Seattle and its suburbs, has recently earned a reputation for being driven by politics rather than by evidence-based medicine or common sense.

As the highest quality of care continues not to be the emphasis in the health care debate — let alone be on par with discussions around access – Canadian health systems remain in the spotlight. This time multiple hospitals in southern Ontario shut their doors to the sickest of babies. 

Did you hear the one about the autonomous car being involved in an accident – and having to choose between saving the driver or the pedestrians? What's a car to do? Sacrifice the one for the many, or them for you?
 

The hypothesis that lipids – those nasty cholesterols – are responsible for cardiovascular disease has been the king of the theoretical mountain. But a new study suggests that lipids do not tell the entire tale.  

Many people talk about increasing STEM programming for young people, especially in underrepresented populations. But few of us actually walk the walk. Well, the same cannot be said for The Society for Science & the Public. Recently it lent its support to five organizations through their STEM Action Grants Program.

The Food and Drug Administration has just approved a reformulation of amantadine for the treatment of Parkinson's Disease. It's a significant step forward.

Researchers describe wild cattle on Amsterdam Island in the southern Indian Ocean, ones that lost about 25% of their body size in just over 100 years.

A new study states that kids who live near farms which use sulfur – a chemical and a pesticide – have more asthma. And it doesn't matter if the sulfur is used in a conventional or organic farm setting. Can this be true?

It's not a new idea that one relatively easy way to eliminate calories is to refrain from adding sugar, whenever possible, to foods and drinks we consume. And trimming it from coffee consumption is an obvious place to start. 
But once that choice is made, the next issue is: What's the best way to adapt to a reduced-sugar or sugar-free cup, to ensure that the change will become permanent? Eliminating the sweetener over time, or cutting it out "cold turkey" in one fell swoop?

1. A Herpes vaccine is a lot more tricky than it may seem, given the number of people who have it, and have had it for thousands of years. A film crew for a documentary tentatively titled "Patient Zero" visited the office to interview medicinal chemistry expert Dr. Josh Bloom, due to his series of articles on three competing vaccines jockeying to solve this problem.

Who hasn’t chuckled at a TV prescription drug ad, during its litany of wide-ranging potential side effects? Anal leakage and the oft-repeated erections lasting more than four hours? With direct-to-consumer marketing, product overstatements of health benefits with simultaneous minimization of possible harms have become the norm. Now, the FDA wants to change that.

Gwyneth Paltrow's lifestyle company, goop, may think that the products it sells are helpful, but others disagree. The controversy has evolved into a formal complaint filed against goop. It's a move that starts the legal ball rolling down the firm's vaginal egg-lined path.

Tularemia is caused by the bacterium Francisella tularensis. Because it naturally infects rabbits and rodents, there isn't much we can do to eradicate it. Roughly 125 Americans are diagnosed with tularemia annually.

Cinnamon is a staple in your pantry, but should it have a place in your medicine cabinet? Experts say, hardly. In fact, too much of a good thing can be harmful. 

There's good and bad cholesterol. And if we want to avoid certain types of heart and circulatory problems, we want to lower the bad, LDL and raise the good. But how high is enough? And is it possible to get the good, HDL too high? If the results of a recent study are confirmed, yes, having HDL that's too high won't help your heart.

Inequality is increasingly a buzzword, and we've never heard it applied to activity. Nonetheless, this study from the journal Nature uses iPhones to demonstrate our differing amounts of activity. And for a bonus, we find a new use for a familiar political phrase.