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There s been a big rise in diabetes cases, especially in the South and Appalachian states, a disheartening new study reports. It s not much consolation, but at least we can also report that there s a new treatment on the horizon for diabetic retinopathy, one of the most common causes of visual impairment among American adults, and can lead to blindness.

Oh those crazy oxytocin researchers! German researchers have been doping men with the so-called cuddle hormone not to be confused with oxycodone, the addictive painkiller and introducing them to an attractive woman who moves closer and closer to them.

Maybe public health researchers should have to apply for a permit before spouting bad ideas? A professor in Australia has proposed requiring smoking licenses that would force addicted smokers to seek permission from the government and get educated about the dangers of smoking before they could legally buy cigarettes no more than 50 sticks a day.

It s the American Cancer Society-sponsored 37th annual Great American Smokeout today an appropriate day to take a moment to spare a thought for the 44 million Americans in the grip of a deadly addiction, ACSH s Dr. Gilbert Ross writes in the pages of the American Spectator. Over half of all smokers tried to quit last year, and an estimated 443,000 died from cigarette-related illness.

Josh Bloom, New Scientist Magazine 11/12/12
Beta blockers are busted what happens next?

Way back when say, in 2003 we thought we had all the information about risk factors for breast cancer that we needed, or at least that we were going to get. These included: early onset of menstruation, few (or no) full-term pregnancies, strong family history of the disease (especially those with the BRCA mutations), postmenopausal obesity, and advancing age, most prominently.

It s an odd coincidence that s good news for Alzheimer s research. Two groups of researchers using vastly different approaches have independently identified a genetic mutation that increases one s odds of developing the brain disease and perhaps foreshadows how drugs could one day be used to stave it off.

Lyme s disease is usually contracted through the bite of an infected deer tick during a summer stroll through the underbrush. It can last a week or a month, occasionally longer, causing fever, fatigue, arthritis and even neurological problems. It can be treated highly successfully with a combination of antibiotics for 3-6 weeks. Rarely, a second course of treatment is necessary.

This may sound scary, but researchers say it s actually reassuring: Women who suffer migraines are more likely to have brain lesions (hyperintense areas) detectable on an MRI.
The fact that there is no evidence of cognitive loss among these women is good news, says Dr. Linda Porter, pain health science policy adviser in the Office of the Director at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.

An estimated one in every 15 hospital patients receive more than the safe daily dose of the common pain-reliever acetaminophen, according to a new study.

Body mass index (BMI) may provide better accuracy than cholesterol levels when used in a prediction algorithm to estimate cardiovascular disease risk, according to a recent Swiss study.

The nation's rate of premature births is the lowest in a decade. Dropping for the fifth straight year, the preterm birth rate in 2011 was 11.7 percent, giving the U.S. a C, according to the March of Dimes Report Card. The March of Dimes has set a goal of 9.6 percent by 2020.

It s enough to make us crave our favorite In-And-Out burger. All future Mondays in the City of Angels are going to be officially meatless, the Los Angeles City Council has decided by a 12-0 vote, making it the biggest city in the nation to embrace the Meatless Mondays campaign, an initiative associated with John Hopkins University s public health school.

Starving yourself overnight before having your blood taken for a cholesterol test may not be necessary after all. A new study finds there s only a slight difference between fasting and nonfasting cholesterol levels. There was some fluctuation with diet for triglyceride levels and blood sugar, however, but even that was slight.

We re normally fans of New York Times science writer Jane Brody but her latest column on quitting smoking is incorrect and irresponsible. To begin with, she claims that, People ages 18 to 25 now have the nation s highest smoking rate: 40 percent. Um, no.

The long-awaited results of a clinical trial of the world s first potential malaria vaccine among infants are finally in and somewhat disappointing.

Survivors of colon cancer whose diets are heavy in complex sugars and carbohydrate-rich foods are more likely to have a recurrence of the disease than are patients who eat a better balanced diet, according to a new study from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

As public health delegates from around the world begin meeting in Seoul, South Korea, for a meeting to discuss revisions of the World Health Organization s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control treaty, a public policy expert is warning them against a dangerous group-think with regard to tobacco harm reduction.

Last month, in his blog on Medical Progress Today, ACSH s Dr. Josh Bloom expressed his surprise over a provocative new study suggesting that beta-blockers less effective than previously thought or maybe even useless.
He s expanded on those thoughts in a more comprehensive article for New Scientist magazine, entitled Beta blockers are busted what happens next?

Researchers investigating breast cancer are reassessing the effects that alcohol can have on the disease, as ACSH s Dr. Gilbert Ross explains in his latest column for Examiner.com.

The Environmental Working Group is wasting no time in trying to influence policy now that the election is over. The group issued a statement Wednesday saying it look[s] forward to working with the administration to advocate more effective regulation of oil and shale gas drilling and overhauling the federal Toxic Substances Control Act. The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee passed the Safe Chemicals Act earlier this year, but the bill never even made it to the Senate floor, much less to the House.

The cholesterol-lowering drugs called statins can reduce the risk of subsequent cardiovascular events among those who have had one already, and possibly prevent an adverse event from ever occurring. Can they also prevent you from dying of cancer? That s what a number of headlines are suggesting today, based on a poorly conceived study published Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Are you among the majority of people who dread having a colonoscopy? Well then here s some good news for you. A new study suggests having the procedure done just once in a lifetime may be enough for most people.

The nation s smoking cessation programs just aren t working but health officials are stubbornly refusing to admit it.
Statistics released yesterday from the Centers for Disease Control show that 19 percent of U.S. adults smoked in 2011, a rate little changed from the 19.3 percent that did in 2010 and the 20.9 percent who puffed in 2005.

It s been 60 years since the first solid reports of the causal effects of cigarettes and premature death and disease made the news, and almost 50 since the Surgeon General s report made believers out of almost everyone: Cigarettes are killers.