Campaigners settled Moms Against Mercury v. Von Eschenbach, and the FDA agreed to classify mercury amalgam by July 28, 2009 and to rewrite its website, dropping claims that no science questions amalgam's safety. An editor's note urges asking a dentist for a less toxic filling.
Since 2007
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The Archive
More than 14,000 stories on food, diet and health, newest first.
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Letter to Editor
Comment on reports on John McCain's health
A reader's letter faulting the site's coverage of John McCain's medical records for not reporting that no physicians were allowed to see them and that the candidate was not given available tests for short-term memory loss or incipient Alzheimer's.
Letter to Editor
Mediterranean Foods Alliance (MFA) and Med Mark
A letter from the nonprofit Oldways thanking the site for covering the Mediterranean diet and describing its programs, including the Mediterranean Foods Alliance, the Med Mark symbol now on more than 150 products, and a 15th anniversary conference in Cambridge in November 2008.
Chemical
Food allergies: What you need to know
A primer on food allergy with prevalence figures: 1.9 to 3.2 percent for cow's milk and 2.6 percent for egg in young children, 2.3 percent for seafood overall. It counts roughly 30,000 US episodes of food-induced anaphylaxis a year and 100 to 200 deaths.
Disease
Lower glucose does not mean better for diabetics
The ACCORD trial pushed 10,251 type 2 diabetes patients to a glycated hemoglobin of 6.4% or a standard 7.5% and followed them a mean 3.5 years. Nonfatal cardiovascular events were slightly fewer with intensive treatment, but 257 of those patients died against 203 on standard therapy.
Vitamins
Low vitamin D linked to high risk of leg artery disease
In a national survey of 4,839 US adults, 8.1% of those with the lowest vitamin D levels had peripheral artery disease versus 3.7% of those with the highest. The study was not a trial, so it cannot show that low vitamin D causes PAD or that supplements would help.
Environment
Nanotubes are as deadly as asbestos
Carbon nanotubes, 10,000 times thinner than a human hair, promise lighter and stronger plastics and tiny electronics. A quoted Wikipedia passage describes their cylindrical sp2-bonded structure, extraordinary strength, unusual electrical properties and efficient heat conduction.
Chemical
Chlorinated tap water may cause birth defects
Among data on nearly 40,000 Taiwanese infants, women exposed during pregnancy to trihalomethanes above 20 µg/L in tap water faced a 50 to 100 percent higher risk of three birth defects — holes in the heart, cleft palate and anencephalus. The mechanism is still unknown.
Vitamins
Vitamin D may reduce risk of type 1 diabetes
A study in Diabetologia found people living at or near the equator, where sunshine is abundant, had lower rates of type 1 diabetes. Lead author Cedric Garland suggests childhood cases may be preventable with a modest 1,000 IU a day of vitamin D3 in children.
Opinion
Vitamin C is about to be made illegal In Canada!
An appeal claiming Canada's Bill C-51 would hand control of supplements to drug companies, requiring a doctor's prescription for vitamins and removing 70 percent of products from the market, and urging readers to act before it becomes law.
Miscellaneous
Boy dies of "dry drowning"
No account exists of exactly how the boy died. His mother told NBC News he swam, said later at home that he felt sleepy, and was found with a strange white spongy material on his face; he died at hospital. A pediatrician named three warning signs parents should act on.
Drug
Cervical procedure raises risk of preterm birth
Maria Kyrgiou's team pooled 27 studies and found LEEP raised the odds of preterm delivery by 70 percent and of a low-birth-weight infant by 82 percent, and tripled the risk of premature membrane rupture. Cold knife conization raised risks further; laser ablation did not.
Drug
Regranex linked to higher cancer death risk
The FDA now says Regranex users developed new cancers at the same rate as non-users, while cautioning the study was too short to settle the question. Johnson & Johnson added a boxed warning, and FDA advises using the diabetic foot ulcer gel only when benefits outweigh risks.
Food
Raw milk pros: Review of the peer-reviewed literature
A review of the literature: European studies find raw milk products in childhood have a protective effect for asthma, hay fever and eczema, but no author recommends raw milk for that, given pathogens such as EHEC and Salmonella. No paper supports a raw milk-autism link or raw milk as a probiotic.
Chemical
Food additives linked to ADHD
A 2007 Lancet study by Jim Stevenson's Southampton team gave 153 three-year-olds and 144 eight- and nine-year-olds drinks containing sodium benzoate plus artificial dyes, and suggests those mixtures may worsen hyperactive behavior in young children.
Cancer
Sucrose, fructose linked to high risk of pancreatic cancer
Among 162,000 people in a Hawaii-Los Angeles cohort followed eight years, the highest fructose intake came with 35 percent greater odds of pancreatic cancer, and among overweight and obese participants the highest sucrose intake with 46 percent. Glycemic load showed no link.
Drug
Anti-Inflammation Drugs May Raise Cancer Risk
The FDA has received about 30 cancer reports over a decade from patients on TNF blockers, nearly half of them lymphomas. Because these drugs are often taken with other immune-suppressing medicines, the agency says it is hard to tell which one drives the risk.
Autoimmune Diseases
Drinking alcohol may lower rheumatoid arthritis risk
In two Scandinavian studies covering more than 2,750 people, those in the highest quartile of alcohol intake were up to 50 percent less likely to have rheumatoid arthritis than the lightest drinkers, with the strongest effect among smokers carrying genetic risk. The link is only an association.
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