Dear Dr. Mirkin:

Please explain the recent study showing that calcium pills increase heart attack risk.

Just when you’re looking forward to a calm and restful night of sleep, insomnia hits. You toss and turn, you try different sleeping positions, you get up for a bit and the next thing you know, the alarm is ringing and its time to get up.

The word tinnitus (pronounced ti-NIGHT-us or TIN-i-tus) comes from Latin and means “to tinkle or to ring like a bell,” and is the medical term for the perception of sound when no external sound is present. It is a sensation of a ringing or roaring noise in the ear.

Drinking Water has been undergoing a lot of scrutiny lately. How much should you drink? Should you drink any at all? What benefits does it have…if any? Well, I am here to tell you how I determine what is the proper amount of water to drink.

I recently wrote you about how vitamin E plays a major role in preventing Alzheimer's disease. But vitamin E is hardly a one-trick pony.

If you ever doubted the prescience of George Orwell, investigate the labeling of organic food in the U.S. In his classic novel, 1984, Orwell wrote of a dark world that was manipulated by means of "doublespeak" — a system of carefully crafted lies, distortions, and misstatements that cause enough confusion to keep people in a state of apathy and confusion. That’s exactly what’s going on in the U.S. world of so-called organic food products.

A study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine maintains that back pain sufferers who received acupuncture or simulated acupuncture treatments responded better and experienced less pain than those receiving only conventional treatments.

The idea of armed federal agents storming through small farms and barns, making off with milk cartons and computers, would be quite laughable -- if it weren’t a reality.