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In his op-ed in Sunday s NYTimes, former anti-GMO activist Mark Lynas explains his conversion to supporting biotechnology as a means of feeding the world s increasing population, many of whom are or are fated to be malnourished without higher crop yields

Health officials from the Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization announced at a meeting last week that rubella, or German measles, has officially been eradicated from the Americas.

In this Kids Edition of Dispatch, we discuss childhood obesity, vaccines, and high blood pressure among teens!

TV viewing, even briefly, found to be associated with weight gain in children. Can TV cause obesity? No. Can sedentary behavior for which TV may well be a surrogate promote obesity? Yes it can, but how much is too much? Let s not mix up cause and effect.

Gabriel Arana, Senior Media Editor at The Huffington Post, writes:

'Out of the frying pan and into the fire' and 'the cure may be worse than the disease' are two colloquialisms for how EPA's worrisome ban-first-study-later policies may be doing more harm than good.
Specifically, the rush away from BPA is not justified by science, though of course companies can drop anything they want in a free market. Even the European Food Safety Authority agrees BPA is harmless, and they once declared that water does not cure thirst and that ugly fruit should not be sold so convincing them to be against the science consensus is quite easy.

Bullying is a common topic in the news these days. While in the past it consisted mainly of physical abuse, the problem has been magnified many times over by the explosion of social media.

We recently wrote about a bill, (SB 277) which is up for approval in the California legislature. The law, if passed would require that children be vaccinated in order to attend school.

US health officials have long warned that too much salt intake as a child can raise lifelong risk of high blood pressure. However, a new study published in JAMA Pediatrics suggests it s actually potassium intake that kids should be aware of.

But now, an immune-based approach that is completely different from the statin mode of action, may be an alternative way to prevent cardiovascular events. Not by inhibiting the production of cholesterol, but by preventing the release of LDL cholesterol the real culprit. This could end up being superior to the mode of action by which statins function.

Americans have an obsession with sports. We flock by the thousands, sometimes hundreds of thousands, to see our favorite team play on their home turf. We cram into living rooms and bars to watch the games when we can t be there in person. We discuss them obsessively with our fellow fans and listen to the talking heads dissect them ad nauseum

Americans trying to lose weight by eating a balanced, low calorie diet often refer to the calorie counts on food packages. But as an article in the New York Times explains, some of these counts could be as much as 25 percent too high.

Shingles, also called herpes zoster, is a reactivation of the dormant chickenpox virus in the body. Often, this reactivation that leads to the disease occurs years or even decades after a chickenpox infection. The first symptoms of shingles are extreme sensitivity or pain in a

The latest in health news: Chipotle, Kraft, 7 PepsiCo ditch GMOs and aspartame in the name of marketing, not public health, and Alex Berezow [from RealClearScience] tells it like it is in his open letter to Dr. Oz- don't miss it!

Today we give a mega-shoutout to Alex Berezow over at RealClearScience for his brilliant letter to Dr.Oz.

Corporate flights from science, Part 2 and 3: Caving to consumer concerns. (For Part 1: see Mac/Cheese). Chipotle rids itself of GMOs, while Pepsi eliminates aspartame from Diet Pepsi for sucralose. Major benefit for...public health? Not.

According to an article in the New York Times, Kraft is responding to a petition begun by our favorite know-nothing, the Food Babe, and replacing synthetic colors and preservatives in its iconic macaroni and cheese products.

CNN's Erin Burnett interviewed ACSH Senior Director of Medicine and Public Health Dr. Gil Ross for her primetime program "Out Front"

In the Chicago Tribune, ACSH Senior Director of Medicine and Public Health Dr. Gilbert RosS discusses the media firestorm that broke out after a team of American Council on Science and Health current and former advisors called on Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons to reconsider having "America's doctor," Mehmet Oz, retain his position on their faculty.

The insanity that is evident from examining the role (or lack thereof) of the FDA in regulating alternative remedies may be finally coming to a head. It s about time.

Malaria, the mosquito-borne parasitic disease, infected an estimated 198 million people in 2013 and killed over 500,000, according to the WHO. The majority of those victims were children under the age of five.

Placing infants in carrying devices such as car seats, baby slings/swings, bouncers, and strollers for naps may put them at risk of death or injury, warns the American Academy of Pediatrics. Sleep-related deaths are the most common cause of death for infants up to one year old.

The latest in health news: The FDA is finally reviewing homeopathic products to decide whether they should go under same approval process as conventional drugs, a new study shows why napping in carseats and strollers could be dangerous for your infant, and Columbia faculty speak out for or against Dr. Oz; we aren't sure.

Excessive alcohol consumption has long been considered a major health problem in our society, especially amongst the young. We here at ACSH have spoken many times before about the detrimental effects it has on the body, including liver, brain and heart, as well as the destructive

The Wrap uses the term "embattled" about Dr. Mehmet Oz ever since current and former members of the American Council on Science and Health spearheaded an effort to get Columbia University to reconsider his faculty status due to his promotion of "miracle" vegetables, homeopathy and more suspect treatment.
It's a fair term, he is embattled, much as the evidence-based science and health community has been embattled trying to undo the damage he does five days a week.