Orshe

Tobacco, alcohol … and sugar?

A new commentary published in Nature argues that just as the first two substances are regulated in various ways by government authorities, so should be sugar. While acknowledging that food, unlike alcohol and tobacco, is required for survival, the authors say taxes, zoning ordinances and even age limits for purchasing certain sugar-laden products are all appropriate remedies for what they see as a not-so-sweet problem.

For patients diagnosed with cancer and other serious diseases, a second opinion can make the difference between getting the right and the wrong care, today’s Informed Patient column reports.

San Francisco’s move last year to put restrictions on fast-food meal packages that include free toys — and restaurants’ attempts to evade those restrictions — has gotten a lot of attention.

But Santa Clara County, also in California, was the first in the country to implement such an ordinance, and now a study has assessed the early effects of that action.

As our colleagues at the WSJ’s Law Blog report, California Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bunch of new laws into effect over the weekend, including one banning the use of tanning beds by minors.

Previously Golden State teens were able to use commercial tanning beds with a parent’s consent; now they’re out of luck, even if Mom and Dad approve, Reuters reports. (That puts tanning in the same bucket as purchasing cigarettes and getting a tattoo.)

It seems like everyone is freaked out about bedbugs.

Considering the little buggers — while certainly gross — don’t carry disease or pose any serious health threat, maybe people should be more concerned about properly using the insecticides they’re wielding against the insects.

Shares of Dendreon are getting hammered today after the company reported yesterday that sales of Provenge, its $93,000 prostate cancer treatment, won’t meet forecasts despite expanded manufacturing capacity and recent favorable reimbursement decisions.

The company’s CEO, Mitch Gold, says the problem is headwinds from a phenomenon he calls “cost density.”

Salmonella is the chief baddie of the food pathogen world, accounting for 35% of foodborne disease hospitalizations in the U.S. and 28% of related deaths each year.

And now a particularly nasty, antibiotic-resistant type of the bacteria, Salmonella Heidelberg, has infected 77 people, killing one in California, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Ground turkey is being investigated as the source, the CDC says.

High-tech is not necessarily better.

That point was reinforced by a study published yesterday by the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. It found that computer-aided detection technology, intended to help radiologists interpret mammograms, is associated with more false-positive findings but doesn’t help detect more cancers.