Question: I haven't heard much about the health impact of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. What are the dangers of visiting or living in the area or working on the clean-up? I did hear that almost all the workers on the Exxon Valdez clean-up in 1989 are now dead. True?

Answer: At this writing, the gushing well is apparently no longer flowing, but I wish we knew more about how the oil spill will ultimately affect the health of people who live in the area and those who are working on the clean-up. Unfortunately, we know very little about the long-term effects of contact with crude oil.

I also heard the rumor that most of the clean-up workers on the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill were now dead, but I doubt it's true. Kerry Kennedy, president of the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights, made that claim during an appearance on CNN. I haven't been able to track down the source of her statement, and I can find no scientific studies documenting the long-term physical health effects on human beings of that oil spill in Alaska. However, a 1993 study on the mental health impact of the Exxon Valdez spill showed increased rates of anxiety disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder among area residents. Read the rest of this entry »

Whether they're miracle cures or just plain strange, the alternative health industry is rapidly growing. Some patients swear by their naturopaths and holistic treatments, sometimes condemning conventional medicine. From fish that are purported to aid skin ailments to rocks said to be infused with healing powers, we have the low-down on some of the more unusual, emerging alternative health treatments promising big benefits – for a price, of course.

Read more on SFGate.com

Dear EarthTalk: Should I fear radiation exposure associated with medical scans such as CT scans, mammograms and the like?
– Shelly Johansen, Fairbanks, AK

The short answer is…maybe. Critics of the health care industry postulate that our society's quickness to test for disease may in fact be causing more of it, especially in the case of medical scans. To wit, the radiation dose from a typical CT scan (short for computed tomography and commonly known as a "cat scan") is 600 times more powerful than the average chest x-ray.

Critics of the health care industry
postulate that our society's quickness
to test for disease may in fact be
causing more of it, especially in the
case of medical scans. The radiation
dose from a typical CT scan is 600
times more powerful than the average
chest x-ray.
Photo credit: Getty Images

A 2007 study by Dr. Amy Berrington de González of the National Cancer Institute projected that the 72 million CT scans conducted yearly in the U.S. (not including scans conducted after a cancer diagnosis or performed at the end of life) will likely cause some 29,000 cancers resulting in 15,000 deaths two to three decades later. Scans of the abdomen, pelvis, chest and head were deemed most likely to cause cancer, and patients aged 35 to 54 were more likely to develop cancer as a result of CT scans than other age group.

Another study found that, among Americans who received CT scans, upwards of 20 percent had a false positive after one scan and 33 percent after two, meaning that such patients were getting huge doses of radiation without cause. And about seven percent of those patients underwent unnecessary invasive medical procedures following their misleading scans. CT scans are much more common today than in earlier decades, exacerbating the potential damage from false positives and excessive radiation exposure.

"Physicians and their patients cannot be complacent about the hazards of radiation or we risk creating a public-health time bomb," says Dr. Rita Redberg, a cardiologist at University of California-San Francisco. "To avoid unnecessarily increasing cancer incidence in future years, every clinician must carefully assess the expected benefits of each CT scan and fully inform his or her patients of the known risks of radiation." Read the rest of this entry »

More than 30 million Americans practice some sort of yoga in an ever-expanding industry generating an estimated $6 billion in the United States alone.

But in the birthplace of yoga, an Indian government agency is fighting what it calls "yoga theft" after several U.S. companies said they wanted to copyright or patent their versions. Yoga is a part of humanity's shared knowledge, the agency says, and any business claiming the postures as its own is violating the very spirit of the ancient practice.

Read more on WashingtonPost.com

Labels on bottled tea beverages are typically plastered with declarations of their rich antioxidant content. But a new study suggests, if you're looking for high doses of healthful antioxidants, you might be better off brewing your tea at home.

Many of the popular beverages included in the study contain fewer antioxidants than a single cup of home-brewed green or black tea, the researchers say. Some store-bought teas contain such small amounts that consumers would have to drink 20 bottles to get the antioxidants, also called polyphenols, present in one cup of tea.

Read more on LiveScience.com

Question: I've been reading about the use of 35% food grade hydrogen peroxide as an additive to maintaining healthy living. Is this something you would recommend?

Answer: Definitely not. Hydrogen peroxide has long been promoted as a treatment for various diseases, including some types of cancer, asthma, emphysema, AIDS, arthritis, heart and vascular diseases, multiple sclerosis, and Alzheimer's disease. The flawed rationale for its use is that the chemically active oxygen provided by hydrogen peroxide boosts the body's ability to destroy cells that cause disease. However, this is not true.

The idea that oxygen might destroy cancer cells goes back at least to the 1930s when Otto Warburg, M.D., a Nobel Prize winner, discovered that compared to normal cells, cancer cells have a low rate of respiration (i.e. oxygen-based metabolism) and seem to thrive in low-oxygen environments. He proposed that higher levels of oxygen should be toxic to cancer cells and might kill them. Unfortunately, Dr. Warburg was wrong. Oxygen doesn't slow cancer growth – in fact, tumors grow rapidly in tissues well supplied with oxygenated blood. According to the American Cancer Society, attempts to treat cancer patients by injecting hydrogen peroxide directly into solid tumors or into the blood system have generally been ineffective.

Diluted hydrogen peroxide has legitimate medical uses – to cleanse wounds, for example. But taking it by mouth, as some proponents suggest, or injecting it into veins can be dangerous. Food grade hydrogen peroxide is more than 10 times stronger than the solution approved for use on the skin. The higher strength solution is approved by the FDA to clean food surfaces and for use in certain phases of commercial food production. However, the FDA also requires that any peroxide added to food must be broken down into oxygen and water before the product reaches consumers. Drinking food grade hydrogen peroxide can cause vomiting, severe burns of the throat and stomach, and even death. What's more, it can burn your skin, and if it gets into your eyes, can damage the corneas, causing loss of vision.

Diluted hydrogen peroxide administered intravenously as some promoters recommend, is particularly dangerous. It can cause gas embolism, a condition that can lead to permanent lung damage, embolic stroke, and, sometimes, death.

Andrew Weil, M.D.

published 7/22/10

Acupuncture has been — how shall we say? — one of the less ridiculed techniques of alternative medicine, at least in recent years. A body of evidence shows that it does indeed relieve pain, for many conditions. But a study released today suggests that acupuncture probably only works because patients believe that it will — and it's the belief, not the procedure, that makes the difference.

Read more on Time.com

Also read: Acupuncture, Real or Fake, Eases Pain

In the United States, more patients are turning to alternative and complementary medicine as part of their health care.

Researchers at the National Institutes of Health say that nearly 40 percent of adults have used some type therapy that isn't taught in medical schools. But more than 40 U.S. universities, including Stanford, UCLA, Duke and The George Washington University have integrative medicine centers.

Jean Ayers is not a regular patient. She is studying to be a physician assistant at George Washington University, which includes taking an elective course in integrative medicine. Participating in treatments is strongly encouraged.

Researchers at the National Institutes of Health say that nearly 40 percent of adults have used some type therapy that isn't taught in medical schools. But more than 40 U.S. universities, including Stanford, UCLA, Duke and The George Washington University have integrative medicine centers.

Jean Ayers is not a regular patient. She is studying to be a physician assistant at George Washington University, which includes taking an elective course in integrative medicine. Participating in treatments is strongly encouraged.

Read the rest of this entry »

The ancient Chinese practice of tai chi may be effective as a therapy for fibromyalgia, according to a study published on Thursday in The New England Journal of Medicine.

A clinical trial at Tufts Medical Center found that after 12 weeks of tai chi, patients with fibromyalgia, a chronic pain condition, did significantly better in measurements of pain, fatigue, physical functioning, sleeplessness and depression than a comparable group given stretching exercises and wellness education. Tai chi patients were also more likely to sustain improvement three months later.

Read more on NYTimes.com