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Yes, if you have hypertension (HTN, or high blood pressure), your risk of cardiovascular ills heart attack or stroke is increased.

Yet another study shows that the HPV vaccine is safe and effective in generating protection against cancer-causing strains of the virus. Since it's one of the very few vaccines against cancer, protecting against cancer of the cervix and other areas, why isn't it being utilized more often?

It seems like every week, there s another study on the health benefits of chocolate getting major news coverage. There s a reason for this people like to eat chocolate, and they re eager to read coverage of health studies that justify their chocolate habit. They ll click on the article with the catchy,

Medical marijuana is a booming industry in this country. A recent estimate puts industry growth at 74 percent from 2013 to 2014, with over 2.5 billion in sales in 2014 alone. This is incredible when you factor in that just under half the states allow its sale. From coast to

We have to wonder if Environmental Working Group is having a really bad fiscal quarter because their website has become littered with even more anti-science, scary chemical verbiage than usual. It's clear they know what their donors think about actual science and evidence, since now they are going after the U.S. Food & Drug Administration for its "generally recognized as safe" (GRAS) classification, which applies to food additives that can't harm anyone.

You may remember a large study published last year that seemed to find a link between Viagra use and melanoma. The study, from Harvard Medical School Brigham and Women s Hospital, included data on more than 51,000 men aged 40-75, and reported recent use of Viagra (sildenafil) with a near-doubling of the risk of malignant melanoma.

A new series of articles by the NYTimes Gina Kolata focuses on improvements in dealing with emergency cardiac events, and indeed the progress has been remarkable. But that s not the solution to reducing the toll of our nation s leading killer: coronary disease.

It s been an issue for as long as scientists sought to quantify what people do and don t eat. How does one get the data? According to Dr. Edward Archer of the University of Alabama, Birmingham and colleagues, the current data have been based on inaccurate methodologies that make most of these

ACSH medical director Dr. Gilbert Ross and ACSH friend, the Hoover Institution s Dr. Henry Miller, have taken to Forbes.com to discuss the current state of Alzheimer s disease (AD) in our country. The article imparts a thorough discussion on the state of diagnostics, treatment and research of a disease whose prevalence is on the rise in America. The writers point out that in comparison with higher profile diseases (such as heart dis

The 2009 law which gave the FDA oversight over tobacco products the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act (FSPTCA, the TCA) is one of the worst laws ever enacted. In the guise of reining in the health risks of tobacco products, promulgated to a great extent by the fraudulent, deceptive manipulations of the Big Tobacco companies last century, the law instead does close to nothing of the sort while erecting substantial obstacle

Last year a Senate committee dragged Dr. Mehmet Oz over the coals for his promotion of dubious supplements on his TV show. Earlier this year Eric T. Schneiderman, the NY State attorney general, accused several stores of selling mislabeled and adulterated herbal supplements. After that, 14 state attorneys general asked Congress to further investigate the supplement industry.

Pope Francis can claim many firsts; he is the first non-European Pope since 741 AD, the first from the Americas and the first from the Southern Hemisphere. Given his nuanced positions on science issues like climate change and agriculture, some might also consider him the first scientific Pope. That isn't correct, but he may be the most scientific in history.
Francis is not scientific due to credentialism, he does not have any advanced degree in chemistry. Instead, he is scientific by behavior.

A New York Post op-ed calls out songwriter and activist Neil Young for his misguided beliefs about sound agricultural practices, specifically his loud-mouthed (but widely heard) ignorance about GMO technology and its potential for saving lives threatened by malnutrition and nutritional deficiencies.

A family in rural Pennsylvania bore the sad fruits of believing in products that could not possibly help when illness struck. We hope this tragedy can be a lesson for others possibly vulnerable to the siren call of phony health remedies: this time it s homeopathy.
Eighteen-month old toddler Ho

Everyone wants transparency about their food, at least on surveys, but few people actually read the labels.

Despite the old adage about what pots call kettles, we would be remiss in our duties if we did not point out the arrogance of the title in a new piece about sunscreen in Time: This Is the Only Sunscreen Article You Need to Read.
ACSH s Dr. Josh Bloom says, When I start calling others arrogant, it is not unfair to wonder if I have clinched first place in the Hypocrite of the Year award. But in this case, it s not as bad as it seems. If Time is making such a grandiose claim, one would hope that the information

We have to give a shout-out to freelance science writer Kavin Senapathy for her interview on dnaindia.com. Senapathy eloquently conveys the facts on genetically modified food for the article: Organic vs GM: finding the grain of truth.

ACSH friend and Fox News host John Stossel has penned a commentary bemoaning the current status of scientific discourse in America. We here at ACSH agree, sadly, with the main thrusts of his cri de coeur: fixed beliefs based on ideology are the opposite of science.

Jessica Alba has a billion dollar baby supply enterprise called The Honest Company, and it is based on the idea that the products people use should be safe and non-toxic (surprisingly, many companies don't!). Sounds nice, who could argue with that?
ACSH friend Julie Gunlock, that s who.
Gunlock, of the Independent Women s Forum and the Culture of Alarmism, has a fascinating opinion piece in today s New York Post that pulled back the curtain on Alba s enterprise and her assessment: Alba s product is not baby supplies; it s fear.

The field of personalized medicine continues to explode. We have discussed the nascent approach of tailoring cancer treatments to specific gene mutations rather than the type of cancer. Although results have been mixed, many researchers believe that this is the future of cancer therapy, replacing the traditional scattershot approach.

Acute appendicitis has been the most common surgical emergency causing ER visits since records have been kept. It has been crucial to rapidly differentiate acute AP pain from pain unrelated to an acute, possibly emergency condition. Until now, that is: antibiotics and observation may be an option.

When it comes to which foods are healthy and which foods are not, everyone has an opinion and whether you re right or wrong there s probably science to back you up. This makes it difficult for you, the consumer, to make the right choices.

We ve written recently on America s lackadaisical use of sunscreen as well as the increasing rates of skin cancer, including deadly melanoma, reported by the CDC. Clearly, more must be done to educate the public on the importance of skin protection, and when and how often sunscreen should be applied to avoid skin damage. New technology in the form of smartphone apps and wearable

If there is a better example of what happens when junk science meets reality, good luck finding it. Look no further than today s New York Times article about how a misguided attempt to solve a non-problem turned into a real problem.

We have to give a shout-out to Levi Gadye over at io9.com for his informative article You Can Thank Genetic Engineering For Your Delicious Cheese. Unbeknown to most, GMOs are used to make about 80 to 90 percent of cheese