Is salt really bad for you?
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(CBS) It's been common wisdom for years. Too much sodium leads to high blood pressure which leads to heart disease and possibly death. But a new study out of Belgium might just shake up what we think we know about salt.
Continue »FDA cracks down on STD remedies it calls bogus
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(CBS/AP) Bogus remedies for sexually transmitted diseases show up on the Internet and in some drugstores - and now they've shown up somewhere else:
In the cross-hairs of federal health officials.
Continue »FDA okays new diabetes pill, Tradjenta
AP
(CBS/AP) Got diabetes? You should know that the FDA just approved a new pill for diabetics who can't control their blood sugar with other medicines.
The agency said Monday it approved Tradjenta tablets for type 2 diabetes, the most common form of the disease. It affects up to 95 percent of the 24 million Americans with diabetes.
Continue »Is BMI less important than belly size?
(CBS) Muffin tops and beer guts might be embarrassing, and a new study suggests that they can be deadly to boot. It shows that having a big belly ups the risk of death for patients with heart disease even if body mass index (BMI) falls in the healthy range.
Continue »Salmonella fears spark grape tomato recall
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(CBS) Salmonella fears have sparked the recall of grape tomatoes used in prepared foods sold in 13 states.
The tomatoes - used in salads and other products - were sold by Albertson's, Raley's, Safeway, Savemart, Sam's Club, and Walmart stores in Arizona, California, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, New Mexico, Idaho, Montana, Colorado, South Dakota, Wyoming, Nebraska, and Utah, according to the FDA.
Continue »Georgia's anti-obesity ads: Unfair to fat kids?
Georgia Children's Health Alliance
(CBS/AP) Unfair. That's what some are calling Georgia's new anti-obesity campaign, which features images of overweight boys and girls staring somberly from billboards and online videos.
"Chubby kids may not outlive their parents," reads one of the signs. Reads another, "Big bones didn't make me this way. Big meals did."
The ads won praise for their attention-grabbing tactics. But they also have outraged parents, activists and academics who feel the result is more stigma for an already beleaguered group of children.
Continue »Dave Duerson suicide: Blame brain disease?
Dave Duerson
/ Getty Images(CBS/AP) Dave Duerson, a former NFL player who committed suicide in February, had brain damage related to the hard hits he took over a long career.
"It's indisputable" that Duerson had chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a disorder linked to repeated brain trauma, Dr. Ann McKee of Boston University's Center for Traumatic Encephalopathy said Monday.
Continue »Rick Springfield arrest spotlights DUI problem
Rick Springfield in Los Angeles on May 1, 2011.
/ David Livingston/Getty Images(CBS) Rick Springfield got famous performing his 1981 hit "Jessie's Girl," but the 61-year-old singer reportedly didn't perform so well on a recent sobriety test - and was arrested on suspicion of DUI.
Springfield blew a 0.08 and a 0.10 on a breathalyzer after being pulled over by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department on Saturday night, gossip site TMZ reported.
Continue »Why are men getting face lifts?
Plastic surgery is increasingly common among men, new study shows.
/ istockphoto(CBS) These days, men want to look as beautiful as their fairer counterparts. At least that's the message from a new national survey, which found that more men are choosing to go under the knife. The surgery with the biggest gains? Face lifts.
The results of the survey, conducted by the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS), are surprising. Most Americans are presumably still reeling from the bad economy. But the belt-tightening apparently didn't include men who wanted to really do some belt-tightening. Male liposuction procedures increased 7 percent from 2009.
Continue »Do mammography guidelines put women at risk?
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(CBS) The debate over mammography is heating up again.
A government panel sparked a controversy in late 2009 by issuing guidelines calling for routine mammography breast cancer screenings to start at age 50 for most women rather than age 40, as many doctors had long recommended. But new research seems to suggest that those guidelines are reducing women's odds of having breast cancer detected early, when treatment is more likely to be effective.
Continue »Liposuctioned fat comes back in strange places
CBS
(CBS) - What the surgeon's knife takes, seems like nature gives you right back.
According to new research out of the University of Colorado, liposuction patients who had fat deposits removed from one part of their body were shocked to find new fat deposits appearing elsewhere. In the studied cases, researchers looked at non-obese women who had the fat sucked out of their thighs and lower abdomens.
Should circumcision be banned?
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(CBS) Has the time come to cut out circumcision? Pro-foreskin forces say so, and some in San Francisco say they've collected enough signatures to put a proposal to ban circumcision before voters.
The proposal would make it a misdemeanor to perform circumcision on a male under the age of 18 within the city. Anyone who ignored the ban would face a $1,000 fine and a year in jail.
Continue »Tall guys face blood clot risk: What's the fix?
Deep vein blood clots - known to pose a threat to long-distance airline travelers - are also a problem for tall, fat men, study shows.
/ istockphoto(CBS) Do tall guys get the short end of the stick? When it comes to the risk of developing dangerous blood clots in their deep veins, the answer seems to be yes.
A new study shows that tall, obese men are more than five times more likely than short, normal weight men to develop venous thromboembolism (VTE), a potentially lethal condition marked by blood deep vein blood clots (usually in the legs) and blood clotting in the lungs (pulmonary embolism).
Continue »Autism checklist: 24 questions parents must ask
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(CBS) Children with autism fare better when they get diagnosed early - at least that's what evidence now suggests. But while kids often start showing signs of autism within 12 to 18 months of birth, experts say most who suffer from the potentially devastating neurodevelopmental disorder don't get diagnosed until they are at least four.
But things may be changing - for the better.
PICTURES - Autism: 24 signs your child is at risk
Continue »Can your steering wheel make you sick?
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(CBS) Should germs be added to the list of things motorists need to worry about? New research shows that car steering wheels are teeming with bacteria - up to 700 potentially dangerous germs per square inch.
That's roughly nine times as many germs as you might encounter on a public toilet seat, according to a written statement released in conjunction with the research.
Continue »