The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced Wednesday that it will require many cuts of raw meat and poultry to feature detailed nutritional information, including calorie and fat content. The new labels will appear …
Policy & Industry
The Food Safety Bill Finally Passes, But It’s Just the First Step
Well, it only took three votes in the House of Representatives and two votes in the Senate, plus a little back and forth over basic constitutionality, but the landmark Food Safety and Modernization Act is now poised to become …
FDA Recommends Withdrawing Avastin’s Approval for Breast Cancer
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is recommending that the approval of Avastin for the treatment of breast cancer be revoked.
Study: A Second Exam for Brain Death is Unnecessary — and Reduces Organ Donations
Deciding to remove a loved one from life support is a heart-wrenching decision. But for families of eligible organ donors, their decision has an even wider impact — there are 108,725 people currently waiting for organs for …
FDA Warns Consumers to Stop Taking Sexual Enhancement Pills
If the name weren’t enough to put you off the stuff, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has a health-related reason to stop taking Man Up Now: the sexual enhancement herbal supplement contains a variation of the active …
IKEA Pencils: The Latest in Surgical Technology
IKEA-hacking — the practice of modifying and re-purposing merchandise from the Swedish housewares giant — is practically a tradition at this point, with a blogging community that verges on a subculture. But who knew that …
The Top 10 Medical Breakthroughs of 2010
What do HIV drugs, CPR and Botox have in common? They’re all featured in TIME’s Top 10 Medical Breakthroughs of 2010, written by Healthland’s own Alice Park.
Dirty Money? Traces of BPA Found on Currency
To the long list of household items and other common objects contaminated with bisphenol A (BPA) — an endocrine disruptor linked to infertility, genital abnormalities, cancer and more — add something unexpected: money.
Digital Diagnosis 2010: The Most Popular Health Stories of the Year
We’ve all done it — searched medical conditions and symptoms online, hoping to self-diagnose what those mysterious red bumps are, and wishing against all odds that our search offers good news (“Please, please tell me these …
FDA Panel Recommends Weight Loss Surgery for Less Obese Patients
A Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory panel voted 8 to 2 on Friday in favor of a request from Allergan — the maker of the Lap-Band silicone ring used in gastric-banding surgery — to expand the eligible patient …
Health Care Under the Golden Arches: Cheap But Faulty
There’s a central maxim to health insurance pricing: If it seems too good to be true, it is.
Senate Passes Bill to Overhaul Food Safety
There isn’t much Congress agrees on these days, but one area that has enjoyed uncommon bipartisan support is food safety. On Tuesday, the Senate passed new legislation by a vote of 73 to 25 that would greatly increase the Food …
Physical Risk vs. Perceived Risk: Explaining the TSA Backlash
Radiation, invasion of privacy, skepticism over utility, plain old unfairness — informed by complacency about the risk of terrorism, the reasons for the public’s outcry against the Transportation Security Administration’s (TSA) …