Is your cell phone a death machine?

The studies are starting to add up, and they all point in the same direction: Cell phones emit harmful radiation that can cause cancer and infertility. And we still have no idea what these things will do to all the kids now growing up with one practically implanted in their ears.

To stay on top of all the latest nutrition news requires lots of reading, but also lots of sorting through the marketing hype of the latest super food or breakthrough study. 

I subscribe to many magazines, newsletters, web sites, and blogs to keep up with the latest and greatest so I can pass that information on to my clients.  I read what the people I agree with say and I read what the people I don’t agree with say – my form of spying! 

Dear Pharmacist,

My neighbor swears by apple cider vinegar and every time I complain about my health, she rants about the vinegar.  I haven’t tried it, but I have to say she looks fairly healthy and never gets sick.  Do you think there’s something to it? 

--P.B.,  Lodi, California

Sixty-seven percent of 101 patients diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) were found to be infected with a retrovirus called XMRV (Science, published online October 8, 2009).

One hundred percent of those with CFS who subsequently developed lymphomas or leukemias were infected with the XMRV virus. If further studies confirm this finding, doctors will soon have a test to diagnose this horrible condition and possibly a vaccine to prevent it.

Q: For about three weeks I've been following a high-protein, low-carb diet. The good news: I've lost 10 pounds! The bad news: My breath is atrocious! What's going on, and how can I freshen up?

The content of this article is not based on any wonderful scientific study but rather is written from a common sense point of view and personal experience.

What has prompted me to write it is the recent death of my sister who at 64 years of age was 2 years older than me.

Bisphenol A was first synthesized in 1905 and since the 1930’s there have been health concerns over BPA and animal consumption.  BPA, due to its estrogenic activity in the body, was expected by the pharmaceutical industry to be used as an estrogen replacement medication in humans. 

If you want to beat the swine flu this year, you don’t need help from a flu shot – just a little help from the devil.

Devil’s dung, that is...

The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) has just released a report listing the 10 foods most likely to make you sick — or so the report claims. Leafy greens (a frequent source of salmonella, E. coli, and norovirus) take position number one, a fact that the media has latched onto by sporting headlines such as "Ten Healthy Foods Can Make You Sick." While the sentiment does have a certain intrigue, it’s misguided on several accounts...

Just because conventional wisdom seems to get almost everything wrong when it comes to effective fitness, proper human nutrition, and preventing degenerative diseases, it doesn’t necessarily follow that all official recommendations and prescriptions are faulty. Cigarettes are bad for your health, for example, and drinking and driving actually do not mix.

Those are two obvious examples of conventional wisdom getting it right, and there are definitely a few others, but today, I’m mostly interested in the popular concept of good posture.