Bisphenol A in humans: evidence of harm?
Can bisphenol A harm your health at exposures far bellow the FDA's official safe limit? Evidence from a number of studies suggests the answer is "yes". But the industry and the FDA - entrenched on the same side against concerned consumers and (independent) scientists... »MORE

q November 2008

FDA "dosing" melamine for infants
How much of melamine can you take and keep on whistling? In the May last year, the FDA said 0.63mg per kg of body weight, per day. This so called tolerable daily intake (TDI) was based on taking 1/100 of the lowest dose causing adverse health effects in a 13-week long rat study... »MORE

Statins, CRP and cardiovascular inflammation
In the aftermath of the controversial JUPITER study, its potential consequences with respect to expanded use of statin drugs for prevention from cardiovascular disease demand clarifying two cardinal points: (1) the role of inflammation in the development of cardiovascular disease, and (2) mechanism of action through which statins in general exert their anti-inflammatory action... »MORE

JUPITER statin study: another BP's snow job?
In case you were wondering why is this medical study named JUPITER (Justification for the Use of Statins in the Prevention: an Intervention Trial Evaluating Rosuvastatin), the reason is probably that it has something in common with Jupiter, the planet. They both revolve around something big... »MORE

q October 2008

Nutrients on the official hold
Any self-respecting nutritionist will admit that Dietary Reference Intakes (DRI) set by the Food and Nutrition Board are generally conservative in their assessment of our nutritional needs. Their antiquated "method" based on average nutrient levels in "healthy" individuals defies logic and the obvious, ignores scientific evidence, and effectively elevates nutritionally inferior Western diet to a level of nutritional standard... »MORE

Ready to meet your DNA in person?
Ever been curious as to how good your genes actually are? That mysterious DNA code hidden deep in your cells that determines what do you look like, how efficient are your basic body functions, and how smart you are?... »MORE

Keep the kids warm, or else...
Cold season is coming, and the FDA just can't decide to ban, or ask manufacturers for a voluntary recall of over-the-counter cough and cold medications for children under 6...» MORE

q September 2008

Who's the psycho?
Suited talk aside, a real-life consensus of practicing medical professionals in the U.S. is that American children need two to three times more psychotropic (affecting brain) drugs than kids in Netherlands or Germany...» MORE

MMR shots and autism
"Study Dispels Link Between Autism and Measles Vaccine" and similar headlines are all over the Net. There is no reason anymore to doubt the safety of MMR (Mumps/Measles/Rubella) vaccine safety. The proof?...» MORE
 

Breastfeeding and vitamin D deficiency
One cannot think of more perfect food than mothers milk for the baby. Yet, it may not be good enough. A fairly well known, but little publicized fact is that breastfeeding can leave your baby vitamin D deficient...» MORE

 

q August 2008

Hot dogs and cancer
We all know that hot dogs are not the most healthful food out there, but cancer? You may have seen a recent TV ad, run by the The Cancer Project group, showing a boy eating hot dog and lamenting of just being diagnosed with colon cancer. Reaction from those that can be considered partial to the industry (The National Hot Dog & Sausage Council) is sort of intriguing... » MORE

More irradiated foods from the FDA
Before the end of this month, irradiated spinach and iceberg lettuce will join the list of irradiated foods allowed by the FDA to be marketed to the general population. Is it good or bad?...» MORE

Diabetes-arsenic link
It's been known that high exposure to arsenic from drinking water contributes to development of diabetes. For years, this fact was overshadowed by the arsenic cancer risk, which prompted new lowered standard for allowable level of arsenic in drinking water in 2001. But the story of arsenic toxicity doesn't seem to be ending yet...» MORE

Run for life
We all have heard that regular running is good for health. If done properly, without overexertion, backed by good nutrition and healthy lifestyle, it should strengthen your body, your spirit and your overall wellbeing. But how much? Is there a measure against which one can say is it - or is not - worth its weight in sweat?...» MORE

q July 2008

Bisphenol A health risk
You may have never heard of bisphenol A before, even if it has caused quite a bit of commotion in the last few years. It belongs to the ever growing army of mainly anonymous xenobiotic chemicals inhabiting your body, and bodies of about every human living in a modern Western society. Where does it come from, and what can it do to your health? More importantly, can it hurt your little one?...» MORE

Cholesterol kids
Most everyone knows what led to the creation of "cholesterol kids" generation: mainly over-consumption of junk food combined with physical inactivity. The question is, are we going to help these kids, or let greedy pharmaceutical companies, assisted by corrupted or incompetent doctors, happily proclaim it is the reality we live in...» MORE

Cholesterol kids (cont'd)
It could be said that results of these several small short-term studies indicate that statins have similar effects on young patients, as they do on adults. But what these effects actually are, and do they support American Academy of Pediatricians' move to hand "solving" the children cholesterol problem over to pharmaceutical companies...» MORE

Is "good" cholesterol good for memory?
  So called "good" cholesterol is cholesterol transported by high-density lipoproteins (HDL, consisting of lipids attached to a protein carrier, hence the name) to the liver, to be disposed of. In a recent study on 3700 British man and woman (Singh-Manoux et al.) the researches established that there is a possible link between low level of "good" cholesterol levels and increased chances of memory decline by the age of 60...» MORE

 

q  June 2008

CAT scan cancer risk
It was January 2001 when Time's article cited the experts saying that parents shouldn't "panic" over then recent news reports of computerized axial tomography (CAT, or CT) putting their children at the increased risk of falling pray to cancer...» MORE

Vitamin D health significance growing
It's been known for quite a while that we need vitamin D to maintain optimum health. What hasn't been known is exactly how much of a difference your vitamin D levels can make. And the more it is researched, the more evidence emerges that it is more important than previously thought...» MORE

Do artificial food colors cause hyperactivity?
It all started back in the mid 1960s, when then little known San Francisco allergist, doctor Ben Feingold, through his practice, became aware of the link between food additives - particularly artificial food coloring agents - and so called hyperkinetic behavior, or hyperactivity, often associated with irritability, and difficulty to concentrate...» MORE
 

q   May 2008

Mandatory vaccinations
Is a mandatory vaccine a good thing? How about 40 - or more - mandatory vaccines? While the mainstream media doesn't pay much attention to it, there is quite a bit of commotion about the proposed new law in New York state (formally, Assembly Bill 10942) which would make all CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) recommended vaccines for schoolchildren, infants and toddlers mandatory...» MORE

Obesity and the brain
Obesity's bad reputation of causing or aggravating diseases has recently been expanded to include a significantly higher risk for developing dementia and Alzheimer's. Obesity and brain? Yes, you read it right. And it seems to be making a lot of sense...» MORE

Medication use at the all-time high
"Who in their right mind would use those TV advertised medications with all those nasty side effects that can hurt you more than what you are taking them for?" asked someone at work one day. Well, looks like great many would. The latest data shows that use of medications in the U.S. is at all-time high: now more than half Americans regularly use prescription drugs...» MORE
 

q April 2008

Smog, health, and politics
Just about a century ago, in 1905, a new word - smog - was coined from "smoky fog", describing the phenomenon characteristic of big cities in Britain, particularly London. Back then, little was known about the relation between smog and health...» MORE

Drug companies, doctors vs. Congress
Are we about to see first cracks in the iron-firm grip of pharmaceutical companies on how the medicine is practiced in this country? A bill has been introduced in US Congress to require drug companies to disclose anything of value - consulting fees, gifts, travel expenses and packages, etc. - that they advance to physicians...» MORE

Smoking genes
Most everyone knows that smoking forms addiction. But it is not equally addictive for all, and the bio-mechanism through which it actually makes you addicted depends on - what else - your genes. It is your genetics that also decide how vulnerable you are to developing lung cancer as a result. Scientist are beginning to tackle the question: just how your genes determine your body's response to nicotine...» MORE
 

q   March 2008

Montelukast sodium side effects
If you find a name like montelucast sodium - a.k.a. Singulair, an asthma and allergy drug manufactured by Merck - slightly esoteric, it is much less of a problem than be left guessing what is it that it can actually do to you...» MORE

Drugs in your drinking water
Is there a connection between prescription drugs, water you drink, and you? You bet. Recent investigation by the Associated Press added more details to what is already known - that unmetabolized drugs, both non-prescription and prescription, flashed down the toilets arrive at waste water management plants and, from there, find their way into your drinking water...» MORE

Trasylol
What is Trasylol? You probably haven't heard of this Bayer's blood clothing drug for most of the 14 years it's been on the market. But, recently, it has become a big story - and not a happy one. Trasylol's deadly side effects seem not to be bothering neither Bayer, nor the FDA...» MORE
 

q February 2008

Diabetes two study
Someone please tell doctors to take it easy with diabetes drugs - and all prescription drugs, period!? If there is one good thing about recent disaster of a diabetes study, expected with great confidence to glorify the efficiency of drugs, it is that it should have reminded all those involved in the business of treating diseases with drugs of these two simple facts...» MORE

Diabetes drugs, side effects
Drugs used in diabetes two treatment, just like all other prescription drugs, have possible adverse side effects. Those used in the ACCORD study were insulin, older diabetes drug Glucophage, as well as new diabetes drugs, Avandia and Actos. Here is the summary of what was known about the risks assocoated with them...» MORE

Hypertension and cholesterol drugs, side effects
In addition to diabetes two medications, ACCORD study participants were given both, hypertension and cholesterol drugs. Those in the intense arm of the study were receiving significantly higher than standard doses - as much as needed to push blood pressure and cholesterol levels down to their normal range. Little is known...» MORE

ACCORD diabetes two study: conclusion
These are only the highlights, but it is already a handful. Who would, in their straight mind throw all these drugs with known and suspected adverse health effects at seriously ill people, sometimes in multiples of their standard doses, and expect it would benefit them...» MORE
 

q January 2008

Smoking meds: The Chantix story
Considering medications to quit smoking? Many are trying to find their way out of the hard-to-brake habit with the help of drugs supposedly fighting nicotine addiction. As usual, benefits - if any - do come with a price tag in the form of side effects...» MORE

Chantix safety
In all, how does it changes the picture of Chantix users' safety - or risks - when all these adverse health effects hidden in its "Full Prescription Information sheet", as published by Pfizer, are included?...» MORE

Chantix efficacy: studies and the real world
The FDA took Chantix' efficacy at face value from the manufacturer trial studies, showing that Chantix significantly improves the chances for nicotine addicts to quit smoking, compared to both, other smoking-cessation therapies ("nicotine replacement therapy" - nicotine patches, gums, etc. - and prescription drug Zyban), and quitting without drug therapy. But how relevant are these figures for the actual user environment?...» MORE
 

q December 2007

Migraine study
Can a migraine study give you migraine? Perhaps, if something about it have you upset, and reduces your brain blood supply; if you are low on magnesium, that could trigger cerebral vascular spasms and - voila! - there you have it: if it looks, walks and talks like migraine headache, it's got to be migraine headache...» MORE

Genes and breast cancer
The most important part of breast cancer research is establishing specific genetic malfunction within the cancer cell making it abnormal. While the inherent genetic flaws account for only about 10% of breast cancers, those resulting from gene mutations - of altered gene expression (epigenetic damage) - during the lifetime are to blame for the remaining 90%. Thus, understanding the link between genes and breast cancer nearly equals understanding of the disease itself...» MORE

Breast cancer studies
Should you be afraid of breast cancer? Maybe not, but there is certainly a reason for concern and, with it, need for quality information. The question is: where do you get it...» MORE
 

q November 2007

Stem cells cure promise
Can you imagine having diseased body or organ tissue simply dissolved, and replaced by a brand new, healthy tissue grown by your own body? This is the stem cells cure promise...» MORE

Imprinted genes
Are you having imprinted genes, and why should you worry? Genetic research is beginning to unravel mysterious inner workings of human genes, and at least partial answers are surfacing. Recently, as reported by Associated Press, Duke University scientists have created the first map of imprinted genes...» MORE

Children medications: danger, danger...
As more detail surfaces about the ongoing FDA focus on over-the-counter children cough medications, there is only more reason for concern. How aware are we of the effects these particular drugs - as well as others - can have on children's health, especially the little ones'...» MORE

Deep vein thrombosis (DVT)
The update on new official guidelines for assessing risk of DVT complications for each patient admitted in UK hospitals is: it isn't working well. According to the parliamentary Thrombosis group, only 1/3 of hospitals do follow the guidelines. The estimate is that in the last 7 months some 11,000 people have died, unnecessarily, as a result...» MORE

q October 2007

Epigenetic therapy
Can what and how your grandma ate make you sick? According to the new kid on the block, epigenetic medicine, it can. Not only diet, but pretty much any significant prolonged exposure to challenging environmental, physiological and psychological factors can cause inheritable epigenetic changes in your basic body functions...» MORE

Chemical body burden
You don't see them, don't smell them, don't feel their touch. Yet they are everywhere around you, and everywhere inside you. Why should you worry about industrial chemicals piling up inside your body, or inside those that you love? Why is it named chemical body burden?...» MORE

Depression and work
Can your workplace give you depression? A Forbes.com article goes over a number of ways that office people can get seek while working, from exposure to physical discomfort to poor air quality. Another unhealthy "ingredient", constant stress, also can cause depression. Of course, it is not only office workers that can be exposed to it, and it is not limited only to a working environment...» MORE

q September 2007

Pneumococcal vaccine
Those reading health articles this month may have noticed media lamenting over a developing crack in the efficacy of pneumococcal vaccine Prevnar (Wyeth), for children under the age of 2. It turned out that its limited action - it only protects from 7 most common, out of over 90 strains of pneumococcus bacteria - opens up room for more virulent strains, such as the antibiotic-resistant superbug named A19, to flourish...» MORE

Hyperactivity, attention deficit and food additives
If we were fruit flies, many of us would die from hyperactivity caused by consuming yellow food dye. Luckily, we're not that small, but it doesn't mean we can't be adversely affected... » MORE

Health and exercise
How are health and exercise related? Are seemingly better short term results necessarily also better long-term? An interesting small Danish study, reported by Associated Press/AP Online, may be a good example... » MORE

Kids meds
How protected are children from hard marketing of variety of kids' drugs? Apparently, not well. It is not surprising in today's drug-abducted medicine. The recent FDA move to curb the marketing of cold medicines for children provokes some thoughts on children and drugs... » MORE

q August 2007

Alternatives to statins
The fact that cholesterol imbalance (particularly high "bad", and low "good" cholesterol) is only a part of the problem - actually, part of body's attempt to remedy oxidative/inflammatory damage to the cells and tissues - implies that alternative (and better) treatments for primary and secondary cardiovascular disease prevention are available... » MORE

Cholesterol effects
In order to remedy the cholesterol plaque problem, we have to start with what is causing it. It is not cholesterol itself - a waxy, non-sticky substance, which normally won't deposit on blood vessel walls, be it "good" (HDL) or "bad" (LDL). What makes things change is... » MORE

Statins side effects
The benefit of statin-reduced cholesterol production - less of arterial build-up and insomuch lower risk of cardiovascular complications - is accompanied by some major drawbacks. One is that the main cause of all evil, inflammation-causing free radicals, toxic and pathogen inflicted damage to your blood vessels (and other tissues) is left out... » MORE

Statins effects: benefits
For the specific benefits of statin drugs, we need to turn to the only source we have: clinical trials and statistical studies. According to one large statistical study on the effects of statin drugs (Vrecer et al., International Journal of Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics, 12/2003), which used data from 16 statin studies... » MORE
 

q July 2007

Statins: benefits, dangers and alternatives
First came high-cholesterol paranoia. Hard marketing of cholesterol-lowering drugs - statins being the head runner for the past two decades - followed. As a part of it, statins side effects are routinely downplayed, while alternatives are downgraded or ignored... » MORE

Exhaust smoke kills, doesn't it?
It sure does, and it's no news: fine particulates alone, produced mainly by vehicle exhaust emission, kill 20,000 Americans each year (EPA). And that is only about 1/5 of total deaths attributable to main air pollutants - nitrogen dioxide, coarse particulate matter (PM10), fine particulate matter (PM2.5), carbon monoxide, ozone and sulphur dioxide - combined (Stieb et al. 2002) ... » MORE

Benefits of organic foods
Is organic food healthier than conventionally grown foods? Significantly lower pesticide residue, combined with higher average nutritional value, seem to make the answer easy. What are the most recent news? ... » MORE

Is your exercise healthy?
How healthy is exercise in the polluted air? New York Times article by Gretchen Reynolds gives you a reason to take this question seriously. Recent studies seem to be positively linking the outdoor air pollutants - in particular "fine particulates" (soot) - not only to respiratory system ailments, but also to increased risk of heart attack... » MORE

q June 2007

Causes of back pain
When you have bad back, one thing you want to know is how to make pain go away. And that is much easier to accomplish if you know what is causing it. But what is it that causes back pain? You've been told it is caused by degenerating disc, or bone, or both; this may be precipitated by an old or fresh injury, spinal misalignment or nutritional/metabolic deficiency, or imbalance... » MORE

Why did little Becky die?
There is something especially mysterious and frightening about epilepsy; even more so about the Sudden Unexpected Death in Epilepsy (SUDEP). Disturbed brain circuitry throw you into an epileptic seizure, when any control over your body is lost; occasionally, it can even take your life... » MORE

Vitamin D and cancer
Is your low vitamin D level you are not aware of increasing your risk of developing cancer? Even if vitamin D cancer preventing ability is steadily indicated over decades, in a number of (mostly animal) studies, as well as from statistical data, the answer still sounds much like: "Yes, but..." ... » MORE

Vaccines and autism
A lot has been written about the link between early childhood vaccines and autism, but the controversy is still alive. What could be a decisive moment in tipping the balance to one or the other side is taking place in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims (USCFC) ... » MORE

q May 2007

Sudden cardiac death
Can the death toll from sudden heart attack be reduced? According to a recent study, it strikes a young athlete in the US once in every three days, on average, and that is underestimate. In all age groups, it affects over 400,000 people each year ... » MORE

Blood pressure numbers
At the mention of blood pressure numbers, most people think of the official standards for healthy blood pressure - 115 to 125 systolic by 70 to 80 diastolic, with 145/90 being the cut off between pre-hypertension and hypertension. But there is another kind of blood pressure numbers, much more alive and disturbing ... » MORE

More side effects from osteoporosis drugs?
The results of two fairly large recent studies published in The New England Journal of Medicine (05/03/2007) indicate yet another possible side effect of so called "bone-building" medications, most often used for osteoporosis prevention ... » MORE

q April 2007

Death may come from your legs
The British government is publishing official guide which specifies how to check every hospital patient for deep vain thrombosis (DVT) risk. It is estimated that it causes some 25,000 deaths a year in UK hospitals alone (BBC) ... » MORE

Ovarian cancer and HRT
A recent UK study on nearly 1 million postmenopausal women has found that hormone replacement therapy (HRT), increases risk of ovarian cancer by 20%; an estimated 1,000 woman developed ovarian cancer between 1991 to 2005 and died, as a result of HRT ... » MORE

Asthma difficult to medicate
Recent statistics show that only one in five asthmatic children in the U.S. has their symptoms under "good control". On the other hand, children on the Mediterranean island Crete barely need any asthma related medical assistance. What makes the difference? ... » MORE

q March 2007

FDA pulls Parkinson's drug from US market
Pergolide, Parkinson's disease drug is withdrawn from the market, after being linked to potentially fatal heart valve damage (New York Times) ... » MORE

Longer term effect of sedatives
The usual phrase is that little is known about long-term side-effects of tranquilizers. It doesn't quite fit the data. Results of a recent 5-year investigation into their use on dementia patients in UK nursing homes (BBC) are just another stark reminder: anything that can affect neural function, has also the potential of damaging it ... » MORE

Why new "good cholesterol" drugs don't work?
They tried it all to curb heart disease with a cholesterol pill. First by lowering so called "bad cholesterol" with statin drugs (Lipitor, Zokor, and others), which are not working as expected. Then they tried by raising so called "good cholesterol" instead. Results? ... » MORE

Beef chemicals and infertility
A recent study at the University of Rochester Medical Center in New York concluded that mothers eating lots of beef while expecting risk compromising fertility of their sons (CNN, BBC) ... » MORE

To aspirin or not to aspirin
A 24-year Nurses' Health Study by the researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, turned in statistical results showing that low-to-moderate aspirin users had cancer deaths lower by 12% and cardiovascular by 38%, and a total of 25% lower death rate from any cause (CNN, BBC) ... » MORE

Alzheimer's on the rise
A recent Times Magazine article on the subject of 10% rise in Alzheimer's disease sufferers in the U.S. in as little as 5 years (source: Alzheimer's Association), ends by putting hope in new drugs to slow down this alarming trend. Reportedly, as many as nine drugs are in late-stage clinical trials ... » MORE

Poor eating habits of Americans don't change
Is having three portion of vegetables and two portions of fruit a day too much to ask for a better health? According to the 2005 federal survey of 300,000 adults from all US states, it is. Consumption rate of fruit and vegetables hasn't change since 1994: only 27% of adults consume the recommended minimum of vegetables, and 33% of fruit (Times) ... » MORE

q February 2007

Evidence-based medicine
It may be hard to believe, but the idea of evidence-based medical practice (also, "scientific medicine") - in a sense of relying on the actual performance data - has been soundly formulated as little as 35 years ago ... » MORE

Health study results misleading?
In his Time Magazine health article (February 2007), Michael D. Lemonik argues that the usual manner in which results of health studies are presented doesn't convey the whole truth ... » MORE

q January 2007

Psychological stress and health
A well researched, informative article about psychological stress by Christine Gorman in Time Magazine brings some important facts of its biological mechanism and effects on health. Among the main points are ... » MORE