First lady, Michelle Obama tells us that drinking more water will improve the health of kids and all Americans.

Really? Here’s what we know. (more…)

If campaigns to promote more healthful eating are ineffective, how else might society address the obesity epidemic?

MailOnline reports that deportation is an option. (more…)

Two recent studies report marked differences in the use of homeopathy.

First, homeopathy in the US. (more…)

Ms. Elaine Hirsh is a reader of this blog and has authored this comment on several issues that should concern people who opt to use CAM options. She is interested in a wide range of topics ranging from education to technology to public policy. She is currently working as a writer for a masters degree website. (more…)

That’s the editorial position of the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

Here’s their reasoning. (more…)

Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago determined the effect of state policies that regulate beverages among adolescents. (more…)

Medical New Today reports that the youngest legal age for using tanning beds has gone up from 14 to 18 years in California now that Governor Jerry Brown signed a new bill into law. (more…)

Researchers at the University of Leeds, in Woodhouse, evaluated written information provided with commonly used herbal products in the UK in advance of a European Union Directive that tightens regulations for some herbal products, including requirements to provide safety information. (more…)

“14 states and the District of Columbia have launched a medical experiment that doesn’t follow any of the rules of science. By approving the use of marijuana as a medicine, they are bypassing the federal government’s elaborate processes for approving medicines.”

It has happened only once before. (more…)

The New York Times reports, “Nearly all herbal dietary supplements tested in a Congressional investigation contained trace amounts of lead and other contaminants, and 16 of the 40 supplements tested contained pesticide residue that exceeded legal limits.

Here are the details of what the Government Accounting Office found. (more…)

In the British Medical Journal, Prof. Patrick Woo from the University of Hong Kong describes what might be “the tip of the iceberg.”

He calls for more rigorous infection control guidelines. The National Certification Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine responds. And success in treating these infections is summarized as part of an update to this original post. (more…)

Glycyrrhizin is a major ingredient of licorice, which is sometimes used in the treatment of various diseases such as chronic hepatitis.

In animals, licorice or glycyrrhizin alters the activity of the CYP3A drug-metabolizing enzyme. Researchers at Central South University, in Hunan, People’s Republic of China looked for an effect in people. (more…)

Here’s the Report of the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee (DGAC) on the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2010. It tells us, “Americans consume excessive amounts of sodium and insufficient amounts of potassium.”

Their latest recommendations follow. (more…)

Deaths and hospitalizations have been reported in young people, according to New York Senator Charles Schumer. (more…)

The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) presented to congress the results of a “secret shopper” investigation, which found that in some stores, salespeople made inappropriate or illegal claims about dietary supplements.

What to do? (more…)

That’s the conclusion by Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian of Harvard Medical School, in Boston. (more…)

Surprisingly, only about 15% of Americans use sugar substitutes.

What might be the public health issues associated with recommending a switch from sugar to artificial sweeteners? (more…)

Obese people spend an additional $1429 a year — or 42% more — on healthcare than their normal-weight counterparts, according to research by RTI international and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (more…)

The English commonly combine CAM with prescription drugs.

Let’s compare these findings by Prof. Ernst and colleagues to CAM use in other countries. (more…)

Wikipedia states, “Claims of homeopathy’s efficacy beyond the placebo effect are unsupported by the collective weight of scientific and clinical evidence.”

But this study from Germany concludes that the evidence doesn’t support this belief. (more…)