Study Says Organic Not Better Than Regular Food
A review of more than 150 studies has found there is no significant health benefit from eating organic food. In the new report, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, British researchers said that nutrient levels in organic foods were the same as in foods grown conventionally. Proponents of organic food say that potential contamination by pesticides used in conventionally farmed food should factor into the decision on whether to eat organically.
Need help deciding on your cow's-milk options? Here's details of each kind—from organic to lactose-free—all of which contain about the same amount of vitamins and calcium. And check out some easy-to-grow veggies.
Pregnant Women Will Be Included in H1N1 Flu Vaccine Trials
A panel of experts convened by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended this week that the new swine flu vaccine be provided first to pregnant women, adults with compromised immune systems, and others, like children and healthcare workers, who are at higher risk of becoming infected.
The trouble is that many pregnant women are extremely cautious about getting any shots or medicines because of the potentially harmful effects these agents could have on a developing fetus. Many experts agree that the swine flu, or H1N1, vaccine should be tested in pregnant women before it's licensed for use during pregnancy. The National Institutes of Health is set to begin testing the vaccine in pregnant women in the next month or two, U.S. News's Deborah Kotz reports.
Studies suggest that fewer than 15 percent of expectant moms currently get the seasonal flu vaccine. More pregnant women may be willing to get the swine flu vaccine—and their doctors may push harder for them to have it—given the latest data showing that pregnant women infected with H1N1 are more likely to develop severe complications, Kotz explained in an earlier report. Find out whether pregnant women should line up for the H1N1 vaccine when it becomes available in the fall.
Why and How to Put Together a Family Medical History
The information a detailed family medical history offers might change your own medical care or provide a needed incentive to make better lifestyle choices, U.S. News's Katherine Hobson reports. Your family history might even be the best predictor of risk for your own health, according to one expert. Hobson offers eight tips to help you compile and use a family medical history. Among them: recording the age at which medical conditions arose. "Early" means different things for different diseases. But, generally, the younger a person is when a disease rears its head, the more likely it is to have a genetic component, Hobson writes. Also, the age at death and the ailment that caused it are the obvious things to record for each of your deceased relatives. But that information may not be as important as information about earlier diseases or conditions. Make sure you ask about any chronic or previous problems, Hobson writes.
Learn how to compare your DNA with that of friends online, trace family history, or size up health risks. Plus, read about two researchers who are decoding genomes to personalize treatments for cancers.
—Megan Johnson
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