Weston Medical News

Myth: Over-the-counter (OTC) antihistamine pills fight allergy symptoms just as well as prescription medicines. Fact: OTC antihistamine pills help control some allergy symptoms, such as sneezing and watery eyes—but they cannot fight the inflammation that triggers your symptoms in the first place. In addition, OTC antihistamines can make you drowsy and give you dry mouth. [...]

Myth: Eating locally-grown honey will fight allergy symptoms. Fact: Honey is delicious, but a clinical trial found that it didn’t work any better than a placebo against allergies. What’s more is that local honey has not been processed—such as those often produced by boutique growers and sold at farmers’ markets—and is more likely than commercial [...]

A 20-year study from Sweden suggests that screening for prostate cancer does not substantially reduce the risk of death from the disease. On the other hand, a good many men might receive false-positive results and overtreatment, adding an element of risk to widescale screening,

Reducing cancer patients’ stress may benefit their health, a new study finds. Researchers investigated whether chronic stress associated with cancer diagnosis accelerated shortening of telomeres. These structures on the ends of chromosomes protect the chromosome from deteriorating, breaking apart or joining with other chromosomes, which can lead to mutations.

A new drug has been approved to treat late-stage melanoma, the most deadly form of skin cancer. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration cleared Bristol-Myers Squibb’s injectable drug Yervoy on Friday, based on a study of 676 end-stage melanoma patients. Those who took Yervoy lived an average of 10 months–four months longer than those given [...]

While the majority of morbidly obese patients who undergo gastric banding say they are generally satisfied years later, almost 40 percent are saddled with major complications, while about half have to have their bands removed, a small, new Belgian study reveals.

For certain women at increased risk of breast cancer, tamoxifen can protect against the disease for a decade after treatment ends, save lives and reduce medical costs, new research suggests. For years, women considered at increased risk of breast cancer have taken tamoxifen as a preventive measure. But previous cost-effectiveness research has only accounted for [...]

Scientists have implicated 13 new gene regions in the onset of heart vessel plaque build-up, a condition that often leads to fatal heart attacks. These new discoveries will allow scientists worldwide to eventually better understand the root causes of coronary atherosclerosis, possibly leading to important new drug therapies that may profoundly reduce the risk of [...]