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An internal study of operating room procedures at Massachusetts General Hospital, one of the nation's most preeminent healthcare institutions, determined that some mistake or adverse event occurred in nearly half of all surgeries performed during an eight-month period.

Atrial Fibrillation, or A-Fib, is a heart disease affecting millions of Americans. But researchers are looking to treat this condition with botox, one of the world's most potent and lethal toxins. A recent study examines whether the facial-treatment drug can also suppress heart arrhythmia.

A recent study shows that in poorer countries with limited resources, simple and cost-effective methods of illness prevention, like the isolation of infected patients, can make bigger impacts in curtailing epidemics versus vaccine development.

A cure for baldness is desperately craved, and has long been chased by researchers. Current treatment options, measured by their effectiveness, run from pseudo-science to imperfect science. But a drug that's already approved for rheumatoid arthritis is showing great promise for treating the Battle of the Bald.

Ubiquitous technology has frequently been blamed for preventing Americans from getting a good night s sleep. However, researchers studying isolated tribes in far-flung parts of the world found they, like those of us in the modern world, sleep roughly the same amount of time.

A CDC report card shows that doctors are prescribing antibiotics for flu patients at an alarmingly high rate, a trend that contributes to the spread of antibiotic resistance. However, physicians shouldn't shoulder all the blame, as pushy patients need to be held accountable, too.

Poor oral health is tied to "poor living conditions, low education, and lack of traditions, according to Heather Hansman at Smithsonian.com.

To raise awareness about preparing for the next pandemic before it arrives, the American Council on Science and Health and National Geographic are teaming up to get policy makers mobilized.

A new study suggests restricting teen access to e-cigarettes leads to a relative increase in youth smoking.

A new study purports to link some pesticides with obesity. Really? This sloppy study, based on both dietary and pesticide exposure while utilizing statistical manipulations and ad-hoc, exposure-intensity criteria, should be relegated to the junkpile of anti-pesticide zealotry.

The U.S. isn t the only country with folks providing scatterbrained theories about what people should or shouldn t eat, and why. We have our Vani Hari (aka the Food Babe), and now it turns out that Britain has its own group of loopy ladies who are also out to lunch.

We usually think about young people as those who frequently go too far with alcohol. While that's true, we often overlook other demographics. A new study points out that 20 percent of senior citizens, those over the age of 65, are also hitting the sauce way too hard.

A long-standing controversy with oral hypoglycemic drugs is that, while they lower blood glucose levels, there is little or no evidence that they add years to a patient's life. So, lower glucose levels in type 2 patients have, in effect, been little more than a controversial marker of disease. Until now.

The real issue is that our culture has gotten intellectually lazy. All someone has to do is ask about funding and a giant swath of people will dismiss the work. It is not just the anti-GMO and anti-vaccine contingent, everyone does it...

A new study published in JAMA, focusing on a survey of 2,500 ninth graders, suggests that e-cigarettes might be a gateway to traditional tobacco smoking. But a closer look shows how the study falls short.

The ads are all over TV men suffering from low T or low testosterone can boost their levels and improve a variety of macho attributes by using one of several types of testosterone supplements. But according to the FDA, this may not be such a great idea.

You d have to be living under a rock to miss the news that antibiotic resistance is a major public health problem that threatens to set us back to square one in terms of treating bacterial infections. Many practices have been implicated as part of the problem, but there's something new for that list: travel.

At New American, journalist Raven Clabough notes that the pharmaceutical companies behind the lucrative gum and patch nicotine replacement tools used for smoking cessation have been lobbying heavily against competitors such as e-cigarettes.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has proposed new rules on e-cigarettes, including reviewing new e-cigarette products before they are sold and outlawing sales of the vapor devices to minors, because they have not been properly studied, leaving consumers unaware of potential health effects that could be related to their usage.

If you want to have a decent estimate of calories you just burned, you can go to any fitness website and look at a table for that kind of activity - or you can spend $70 on a Misfit Shine and get an error rate of over 30 percent.

Every new diet promises amazing results better sleep, weight loss, and overall rejuvenation. But as with most diet fads, even after an initial weight loss, the pounds creep back up. Gluten-free and paleo diets are no exception to this. In fact, unless you have a gluten sensitivity, you are losing valuable nutrients by jumping on the bandwagon.
Watch more Friday Fad Day segments here.

Ductal Carcinoma In Situ (or DCIS) is a cancer we have spoken a lot about here at the American Council on Science and Health, particularly in recent weekPink Breast Cancer Ribbons in regards to Food Network star Sandra Lee.

Congress has decided to boost funding for the National Institutes of Health by $9.3 billion over five years, and that is welcome news to researchers. But there are two ways we could have prevented life sciences researchers from feeling like they were being disrespected by the current White House administration.

Jerry Seinfeld has a very funny bit about what happens when couples that have broken up try to get back together again. Partly paraphrasing: "Do you ever take milk out of the refrigerator, sniff it and it's starting to smell sour? So you put it back and think 'Hmm. Maybe this will smell better tomorrow?'"

E-cigarettes are a method to inhale nicotine-laced vapor, with the idea being that, much as with nicotine gums or patches, people trying to quit smoking will gradually reduce the nicotine that makes them crave cigarettes.

A bizarre, rambling diatribe against genetically modified organisms (GMOs) has been published in the New England Journal of Medicine.