I’m a big fan of those alcohol-based gel hand sanitizers. I’m already a bit of a hypochondriac so I didn’t feel as weird this year when everyone started to use them during the H1N1 pandemic. After all, everyone knows they kill 99.9% of germs.… Read the rest
MMR Vaccine & Autism: Famous Study Now Retracted
Many parents have been concerned about the alleged links between the MMR vaccine and a possible link to autism. As I’ve mentioned before, all medical societies continue to state that there has never been convincing proof of this, and now there is even less.… Read the rest
Dry Skin & Kids: What Can Help?
The following is a first post from a guest contributor, Dr Nathanael Goldman. He is a pediatrician at Beijing’s United Family Hospital and also runs his own website, kidschina.org.
During the winter many more children come to the consultation with skin complaints than during warmer months.… Read the rest
Eating Less Salt Can Save Lots of Lives
How much salt do you eat? Most likely a lot more than you think. My readers should (hopefully!) remember my previous discussions on how a high-salt diet can raise blood pressure; now, a large study, just published in the New England Journal of Medicine, suggests that if everyone in America consumed half a teaspoon less salt per day, there would be between 54,000 and 99,000 fewer heart attacks each year and between 44,000 and 92,000 fewer deaths.… Read the rest
Smokers, Eat Your Spinach! It May Fight Off Cancer
Here’s another fascinating new study which affirms yet again how important those leafy green veggies are. This time the focus was on smokers and their risks for cancers. This study followed a cohort of smokers and collected data on diet, then they analyzed their DNA for changes in 8 genes that are strongly connected to lung and other cancers.… Read the rest
My Top Posts of 2009
I’m still in a new year’s “top 10 list” mood, so I’ve made a list of my top posts from 2009. These are the ones I feel can have the most impact on your lives, and are not necessarily the most popular.… Read the rest