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We are reaching the height of flu season, and the percentage of healthcare workers who have gotten the flu vaccination remains unacceptably low. The goal of public health authorities is to

Dr. Shoa L. Clarke admits he was a vocal opponent of GMOs back when he was a young proto-scientist and activist. But once he began to study genetics, he learned the facts about bioengineering and

So now they re trying to pin the blame for Alzheimer s disease on DDT! Really? This is an excellent example of the wrong way to do a scientific study. It doesn t even pass the smell test.

The very good news is that antibiotic research by drug companies is slowly starting up again after a long sabbatical. But almost without exception, the complete story of how we got here is not told.

In her Personal Health column in the New York Times, Jane Brody tackles perhaps the greatest problem facing public health professionals today how to get smokers to quit, or prevent non-smokers from ever starting.

A Wall Street Journal Op-ed by a member of the EU Parliament decries the direction being taken by science there: it s back to the dark ages as fear trumps evidence.

Like Mayor Bloomberg before him, de Blasio advocates positions that reflect his stance on health related issues, but are not science-based.

Last week, we covered the defeat of a bill in New Hampshire that would have required the labeling of genetically modified foods. The bill was recommended for defeat by the Environment and

Glaucoma is a leading cause of blindness around the world; it is characterized by increased pressure within the eye. There are actually several types of glaucoma, and the type called open-angle glaucoma (OAG) is the most common.

Alzheimer s disease (AD), perhaps the most important condition without any satisfactory treatment, is likely to remain this way. Given the extraordinary toll it takes on individuals and their families, this is especially tragic.
But this serves as a difficult, but accurate lesson regarding medical research: There are diseases which, no matter how much time and money you spend on research, that you come up with nothing. This is perhaps the best example of such a disease.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) affects about one out of every fifty school children. However, according to the new Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders Fifth Edition (DSM-5)

A new retrospective study shows a significant association between reduced rate of knee- and hip- replacement revision and treatment with hormone replacement therapy (HRT). A good candidate theory for prospective trial to confirm, or refute.

Another attempt at requiring labeling of genetically modified foods has been defeated, this time in New Hampshire. The bill, which would have required all foods that contain products of genetic engineering

In the Really Good Timing department, our story on January 21st reported that Johnson and Johnson was removing traces of the formaldehyde preservative from its baby shampoo for absolutely no scientific or health-based reason.
At that time, ACSH s Dr. Josh Bloom noted, In the end it doesn t really matter, because chemical Y will eventually be replaced by chemical Z, and the scientific extortion process will start again.
Almost as if on cue, chemical Z hit the news today. The Chemical Z du jour is called 4-methylimidazole (4-MeI), and is part of the caramel coloring that give sodas (especially colas) their color.

A new Perspective article in the New England Journal of Medicine almost allows for the likely benefits of electronic cigarettes as part of a harm reduction approach to reducing the deadly toll of smoking. At last some science-based progress!

The way that some folks push all-natural foods, you d reasonably assume they contain no chemicals but boy would you be wrong!

Expectant mothers will soon be able to know quite a bit more about the unborn child they re carrying maybe more than they need to know. New gene tests that go far beyond traditional chromosomal evaluation in looking for genetic abnormalities are on the horizon. Genetic microarray analysis promises to detect everything from autism to club foot, according to a report in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Are those little guys under threat? A new study claims that there has been a significant and continuous 32.2 percent decrease in sperm counts among French men in the last 17 years. Researchers led by Dr. Joelle Le Moal from the Institut de Veille Sanitaire published their findings in the journal Human Reproduction.

For most women who have been treated for breast cancer, taking tamoxifen (an estrogen blocker in breast tissue) can cut their odds of recurrence but for how long to take the drug to maximize benefit, has not been clear. Now a new study shows 10 years of tamoxifen treatment is better than five, lowering the risk of recurrence by a quarter and the risk of dying by 29 percent.

Get ready to hear more about electronic cigarettes except about how they can possibly help people quit smoking. Some e-cig manufacturers are gearing up for an expensive ad campaign, the New York Times reports. Scottsdale, Ariz.-based NJoy Inc. is spending $12 to $14 million to promote its NJoy King, while Lorillard s BlueCigs has hired actor Stephen Dorff to promote their product.

Is the goal of eradicating breast cancer by 2020 unrealistic and overly ambitious? We were inclined to agree with a Nature editorial that said so, but one of our readers says no. Dr.

A federal appeals court in New York ruled this week that off-label drug promotion and marketing is free speech protected by the First Amendment. If the ruling stands, pharmaceutical companies will be able to legally market drugs for off-label conditions that they have studied but have not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration. This has the potential to change the face of marketing of prescription drugs in America, and may affect everything from patient care to TV advertising.

It has long been said that salt contributes to high blood pressure and thus, the government s dietary guidelines recommend that the general population consume less than 2,300 milligrams of sodium per day (about a teaspoon of table salt). This relationship, while unequivocally accepted by almost all of the public health and cardiology authorities, is again being questioned; it may be the case that these recommendations are not warranted for everyone.

Josh Bloom, Medical Progress Today "Off Label Advice for Doctors- The Appeals Court is Dead On"
Off-label drugs-- those used for indications other than what the drug was originally approved for-- have been used for many years. Most of us have probably benefited from this practice, but despite this, it has been illegal for a pharmaceutical sales rep to even mention a possible off-label use of any drug to doctors.

Teen pregnancy is a hot topic in the media and pop culture these days, as attested to by movies including "Juno" to "Teen Mom 2" to "16 and Pregnant." Events of recent weeks may indicate this concern is finally cracking the shell around our public health leaders as well better late than never.