I never cease to be amazed by what's out there.  You can spend all day every day checking out "alternati

I didn't think it was too newsworthy that a Harvard prof stepped down from academic medicine to give lectures full time for industry.

I did think it interesting that Daniel Carlat, a psychiatrist and prominent blogger, called up the Harvard prof's foundation and tried to interview his wife (she hung up on him).

If that's not chutzpah, I don't know what is.

Way to go, Dr. Dan. The muckrakers of the 1920s and '30s would be proud of you.

"Pear-shaped figure better for metabolism" headline not backed up by the data Though it makes for a good headline and snickering comparisons to Jennifer Lopez abound there isn't much new science here. Researchers from Harvard injected fat around the hips or abdomen of mice and measured metabolic effects. That's it everyone. This doesn't automatically validate the concept that bigger bottoms are healthier in people.

Caffeine is the most frequently consumed drug today in the world. It is found in coffee tea chocolate and some other medications as well. There has been an opinion that consumption of coffee in large amounts may increase the risk of developing breast cancer. In the United States breast cancer is diagnosed in nearly 200 000 women yearly. With such a high instance researchers are evaluating ways in which to lessen the risk of developing breast cancer and ways in which individuals can alter their lifestyle choices to reduce their risks.

Doctors are less likely to treat black women with radiation after surgical removal of early stage breast cancer than they are white women researchers stated which adds to evidence of racial disparity in cancer treatment in the US. 37 305 women 65 and older who were part of the study had undergone a procedure called a lumpectomy in which doctors removed just the tumor and spared the breast a procedure which is far less radical than the surgical removal of the entire breast a mastectomy.

From Harvard Medical School comes the news that the costly advertising of new prescription drugs targeted at the consumer may not have any effect on sales of expensive drugs. Pharmaceutical companies spent about $4.2 billion in direct-to-consumer ads in 2005 yet researchers now report the effect of all that spending may be minimal. A research team set up an experiment using French-speaking Quebec residents as their "control" group.