Defibrillators are medical devices that treat irregular heartbeats and can prevent sudden cardiac arrest. The 79,000 Americans who were implanted with the Riata or Riata ST Silicone implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) leads made by St. Jude Medical are left wondering what to do now that the FDA recalled the device in December 2011. This recall was announced a year after the company stopped their sales of the product.
Read More »Preventing Disease & Staying Healthy
We all know that it’s good to exercise, eat fresh fruits and vegetables, and get a good night’s sleep. But it’s hard to change our habits, especially if we don’t have persuasive proof that it will improve our lives and health.
The National Center for Health Research is constantly reviewing new research to determine what we can do that will prevent diseases and keep us healthy.
Excellent research is being conducted to learn exactly what kinds of foods and exercise will help you prevent specific diseases, and what exposures to avoid in your daily life. The results are sometimes confusing because new products to prevent diseases are aggressively advertised, whether they work or not. Sometimes the best strategies are ones that don’t cost anything – but who is going to pay to advertise those?
We cut through the hype. We scrutinize new research, and call the researchers to learn even more. Then we translate it into plain language that you can understand.
To find the information you need, please use our search box to search for exactly what you are looking for or browse through our various topics on the right. →
If you’re looking for information about how to prevent cancer, go to our Cancer Prevention and Treatment web site at www.stopcancerfund.org . If you don’t see what you’re looking for on any health topic, contact us through our online health helpline at info@center4research.org. We’ll try to get the information you need within a few days.
Arsenic and Lead in Our Juice (And You Thought Poisoned Apples Were Only in Fairy-tales!)
Learn how much arsenic has been found in common foods and drinks (too much!)–and what laws are in place to protect your family from this known carcinogen (not many!).
Read More »Immunizing Your Child
An important step in keeping children safe from many childhood diseases is to make sure they are immunized on time. Below is the recommended childhood immunization schedule for January-December 2013. The schedule is approved by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the American Academy of […]
Read More »The Failed Promise of Gene Based Tests for Diagnosing and Treating Cancer
When the Human Genome Project released its first “draft” in 2000, many scientists believed it would revolutionize medical research. President Bill Clinton claimed that genetic diagnosis (the ability to tell who has a disease after looking at the genes) would “revolutionize the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of most, if not all, human diseases.”Although the ability to map the human genome has great promise, a decade later it still hasn’t yielded good methods for diagnosing cancer. Even more disappointing: recent scandals and severe product flaws have cast doubt on gene-based research as a whole.
Read More »Babies’ Eating Habits And Childhood Obesity
Research finds no link between childhood obesity and the timing of the introduction of solid food for breastfed babies. Formula-feeding, however, does not have the same result. Formula-fed babies are much more sensitive to when they first began eating solid food.
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