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Survey: Half of US doctors use placebo treatments

About half of American doctors in a new survey say they regularly give patients placebo treatments - usually drugs or vitamins that won't really help their condition. And many of these doctors are not honest with their patients about what they are doing, the survey found. That contradicts advice from the American Medical Association, which recommends doctors use treatments with the full knowledge of their patients.

Spirituality Protects Against Depression Better Than Church Attendance

Those who worship a higher power often do so in different ways. Whether they are active in their religious community, or prefer to simply pray or meditate, new research out of Temple University suggests that a person's religiousness - also called religiosity - can offer insight into their risk for depression.

IRIN humanitarian news: Less silence, more science could make anal sex safer

NEW DELHI, 27 February 2008 (PlusNews) - The silence and taboo surrounding anal sex is putting millions of men and women at risk of HIV, delegates attending the fourth international microbicides conference in New Delhi, India, heard this week.

Most Influenza Strains Do Not Match Current Vaccine

As the U.S. flu season soars, the CDC says this year's flu vaccine doesn't match two of the three main types of flu bugs now in circulation.

Male Infertility: Changing Conceptions

When doctors at Shady Grove Fertility Centers told a 34-year-old construction supervisor that he had a low sperm count and that was likely why he and his wife had been unable to conceive, the news came as something of a shock.

Medication Under a Microscope

A series of surprising findings about some of the most widely accepted assumptions in medicine has renewed debate about how aggressively doctors use drugs to prevent and treat some of the nation's leading health problems.

Second Thoughts about Fluoride, reports Scientific American

Fluoride, long believed to be a safe cavity-fighter, may be neither.

Science vs. Pseudoscience: Homeopathy

Ars Technica has an interesting look at pseudoscience as it applies to homeopathy. While most discussions about what science is get derailed by the larger controversies surrounding them, Ars chose a relatively uncontroversial pseudo-science to examine so that they could examine the factors which make homeopathy a psuedo-science: ignoring settled issues in science, misapplication of real science, rejection of scientific standards, claims of suppression, large gaps between the conclusion...

Rush vs. Fox

Why Rush Limbaugh's attack on Michael J. Fox is is a pathetic sideswipe that attempts, and fails, to obscure the real issue: stem-cell research is medicine's next frontier.

Drug firms 'hype up diseases to boost sales'

Drug companies are inventing diseases to sell more of their products, it has been claimed. Scientists have accused major pharmaceutical firms of medicalising problems like high cholesterol or the symptoms of the menopause in a bid to increase profits.

This Essay Breaks the Law

U.S. Will Offer Doctors Free Electronic Records System

It would be even more interesting if they open-sourced it.