Health Check

Members of Congress love pizza as much as any of us. So, when the United States Department of Agriculture threatened to take it off public school lunch menus, they did what many of us would have done in their position — they officially declared it a vegetable. Earlier this year, the USDA proposed new standards that would’ve limited both sodium and potatoes for school lunch lines — moves some conse

Researchers discovered that countries with the highest numbers of women using oral contraceptives also have the highest rates of death from prostate cancer. What does this mean? They think estrogen from the urine of women who take birth control pills could be to blame.

A new study of 8,000 kids published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health finds those who had high IQs were more likely to use certain illicit drugs as they aged. Smarter girls in particular may tend to experiment with marijuana, cocaine, and other illicit drugs later on.

A multi-year study of more than 100,000 people by researchers in Taiwan found dental cleanings can be associated with a lower risk of heart attacks and strokes.

A study of almost 50,000 women over a 14-year period found older women who exercised more and spent less time watching television were the least likely to be diagnosed with depression.

In a country with a soaring childhood obesity rate, doctors on an expert panel appointed by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute and endorsed by the American Academy of Pediatrics announced Friday that children should be tested for high cholesterol as early as age 9.

Frightening new data from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) reveals that in 2009, more than 14,000 people visited hospital emergency room for intentional drug poisoning. Peter J. Delany, PhD, the director of SAMHSA’s Center for Behavioral Health Statistics and Quality in Rockville, Maryland defines intentional poisoning as an attempt “to harm someone by deliber

A new study published in the November issue of the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs may have found a potential link between older adults, financial woes, and alcohol and tobacco usage.