The researchers behind a startling finding that cats fed irradiated food developed “severe neurological disease” only reported it as an afterthought. They instead chose to focus on the fact that the cats were able to recover from the disease after their diet returned to normal -- a testament to the healing powers of your body, yes, but completely overlooking what caused the damage in the first place.

After being fed a diet of irradiated foods, the cats developed “mysterious” and “remarkable” severe neurological dysfunction, including movement disorders, vision loss and paralysis.

When they were taken off the irradiated foods, they slowly recovered.

Dear Dr. Mirkin: How do you get enough sunlight for your body to make vitamin D without risking skin cancer?

First of all, please recognize that this document is NOT intended to be a comprehensive or exhaustive analysis of apple cider vinegar. However you can help add to the current understanding of this topic by adding your own comments at the bottom of this page.

I was interested to read yesterday a report regarding a recommendation coming out of the Skin Cancer Foundation in the USA. The Foundation has recommended that adults increase their intake of vitamin D from 400 IU (the recommended daily amount) to 1000 IU.

This is good news, I think, because there’s abundant and continuing to amass evidence that vitamin D insufficiency and deficiency is common. And a deficiency here may well increase the risk of all manner of conditions including cardiovascular disease, bone disease, multiple sclerosis and many different forms of cancer. So, upping our intake of vitamin D could well help to protect against these conditions, and will almost certainly improve general health and wellbeing.

The safety of BPA has been questioned for decades. In fact its toxicity was first discovered in 1930 when it was initially found to mimic estrogen, leading to various cancers. But nonetheless, a decade later its use was ubiquitous in plastics, cans and tins used for foods. Although manufactures knew of its health impacts, they were not required to prove its safety. Until more recently, BPA’s toxicity has been ignored by governmental regulatory organizations, despite mounting evidence for the contrary.

If any industry should know the statistics verifying the deadly impact of smoking, that industry would be the life insurance industry. Insurers know that smokers have double to triple the mortality rate compared to non-smokers -- which is why companies like Prudential won't even grant life insurance to those who smoke, or else they charge smokers exorbitant premiums. And yet, demonstrating an extraordinary degree of cynicism, some of the world's largest life insurance companies invest heavily in tobacco. In fact, insurance company investments in tobacco industry stocks amount to $4.5 billion.

As you may know, I’m not a huge fan of sunscreen lotion. I just don’t think it’s all that necessary. If you’ve had enough Vitamin D skin production for one day, and you’re worried about burning up, using physical barriers – like shirts, hats, umbrellas – to impede the sunlight is better than slathering your skin with powerful chemicals. Still, in the event that the only thing standing between you and a second-degree sunburn is the application of some lotion, have at it. Just be aware that, according to a recent NY Times piece, there is some seriously misleading marketing lingo circulating in regards to SPF counts.

I was actually a little surprised that we hadn’t already done a Definitive Guide to fish oil when it was suggested it to me. We’ve mentioned it enough, and it’s a hot enough topic that I just assumed we’d done a big comprehensive guide to the stuff. But, as my staff so eagerly likes to inform me, I was completely, utterly wrong (enjoy it now, cause it won’t happen again anytime soon!).

Q: I’ve been getting mammograms every year for 10 years—I put up with it because my sister had breast cancer, so I’m supposedly at greater risk. But I’m getting pretty concerned about all that radiation. I’ve been hearing a lot about breast themography lately—should I be getting that done instead?

—B. Cavalli, Cedar Rapids, IA

The sun dispatches its warm glow of yellow light rays everyday, beaming in health, vitality, light and warmth. Yet after hearing all the warnings about its harmful effects, we fend off the sun as it were the enemy and sunblock, sunglasses and wide-brim hats are our weapons. Can brother sun be so dangerous?