Our study is the first to conclusively show the link between pregnancy loss and stroke risk.
The effectiveness of a drug may be evaluated based on its potential to shrink tumours – but this doesn’t necessarily equate to improved survival rates.
From shutterstock.com
National drug regulators use evidence from clinical trials to decide whether new cancer drugs will be approved for use. But these studies are often flawed.
Baby boomers who drink and take drugs risk a range of physical and mental problems that younger substance users don’t necessarily face.
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Women are catching up to men in rates of alcohol consumption and this has important implications for how we think about our community response to harmful alcohol use.
Sugar and saturated fat aren’t ‘evil’ and kale and avocado aren’t ‘good’.
The main thrust of the advisory committee’s report is that diets should be focused on whole foods, not specific nutrients.
U.S. Department of Agriculture/Flickr
National dietary guidelines have become an easy target for those looking for a scapegoat for bad diets in rich countries. And a BMJ article about draft US guidelines adds further fuel for the fire.
Women planning a family who abruptly stop using antidepressants may be putting themselves in harm’s way.
Lis Ferla/Flickr
Research published today has found an association between commonly used antidepressants and birth defects. But pregnant women face greater harms from stopping their medication abruptly.
The shortage of donated organs means that for many in need of a life-saving transplant the only thing to do is wait, sometimes so long that the patient becomes too ill to undergo the operation. But much…
Low birth weight is associated with smoking.
Ariel Schalit/AP
Tobacco smoke contains thousands of compounds, many of them toxic and capable of causing injury throughout the body. Because of this high toxicity of tobacco smoke, many diseases have long been causally…
A 20% tax on sugar drinks could change the habits of young Australians, which would benefit future generations.
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A study published in the journal of the British Medical Association, BMJ, today says a tax on sugary drinks could cut the number of obese adults in the United Kingdom by 180,000. Similar Australian projections…
Tobacco use causes more than five million deaths every year across the world.
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Reema Rattan, The Conversation e Isabelle Knight, The Conversation
Editors of journals published by the BMJ Group will no longer consider publishing research that is partly or wholly funded by the tobacco industry, the journals have said in an editorial published this…
There’s support for a causal role of carbohydrate-rich diets in the obesity epidemic but such diets also tend to be rich in calories.
Felix Cohen
An article published recently in the BMJ argues that we have been pursuing the wrong hypothesis on the causes of obesity. Along with substandard science, this wrongheadedness has apparently exacerbated…
Antidepressant prescribing has been increasing in most developed countries since the the late 1980s and early 1990s.
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The British Medical Journal (BMJ) has just published two opposing views on the vexed question of whether antidepressants are being over-prescribed. The issues raised by debate are by no means unique to…
The effectiveness of influenza drug Tamiflu has been called into question.
AAP / Gatean Bally
Public health researchers have stepped up their campaign to access clinical trial data about influenza drug Tamiflu, amid concerns about its effectiveness. Professor Peter Gøtzsche, leader of the Nordic…
Basic statistical literacy is important for communicating and understanding medical risks.
Janet Ramsden
An article published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) today says a US charity “overstates the benefit of mammography and ignores harms altogether.” The charity’s questionable claim is that early detection…