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A new study released this past week has once again linked the consumption of processed foods to health complications, giving food safety advocates even more cause for concern. The April 10th publication of the Clinical Epigenetics Journal reported a link between high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) and autism in the United States. According to the study, the rise in autism rates "is not related to mercury exposure from fish, coal-fired power plants, thimerosal, or dental amalgam but instead to the consumption of HFCS.” The study, led by former FDA toxicologist and whistleblower Renee Dufault, found that a deficiency of zinc,...

While most mainstream news media cover presidential campaigns or economic conditions, the feds are going under the radar and your skin -- literally -- with something that could be detrimental to your and your children's health. News just broke about their cover-up, but few, if any, agencies passed along the wire. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1 in 110 children have autism spectrum disorders, which is strikingly more than just two decades ago. (ASDs are a group of developmental disabilities that can cause communication, behavioral and social challenges.) The National Autism Association calls the 644 percent...

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — Chris Barnes, 11, is getting his latest round of vaccinations for measles and tetanus. “It doesn’t really scare me as much as other people, it’s just a shot,” he said. Without regular immunizations, Chris would be turned away at his pediatrician’s office. Dr. Wayne Yankus refuses to see patients unless they follow the government recommended immunization schedule.

A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advisory panel recommended Tuesday routine vaccination of boys ages 11 and 12 with Gardasil, which protects against infection from human papilloma virus. The panel unanimously approved the plan, with 13 votes in favor and one abstention. The panel also advised that vaccinations with Gardasil begin in boys as young as 9 years old. The recommendation, from the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, elevates the urgency placed on immunization against HPV, one of the most common sexually-transmitted diseases and a major cause of cervical cancer. Previously, doctors were free to use the vaccine in...

Some California schools are turning away middle and high school students who have not received a required whooping cough vaccine while others are defying a law passed last year after a historic spike in cases of the potentially fatal disease. The law approved last September initially required all students entering grades seven through 12 to get vaccinated by the start of the 2011-2012 school year. Lawmakers passed a 30-day extension this summer as districts worried many students wouldn't meet the deadline.

Reporting from Costa Mesa— Michele Bachmann, struggling to regain her footing in the GOP presidential contest, Friday assailed rival Rick Perry, saying he abused his power as governor of Texas and rewarded political donors in a manner similar to President Obama. (snip) She compared it to the federal controversy unfolding around Solyndra, a solar equipment maker that received a $535-million federal loan guarantee and which went bankrupt last month. Republicans have suggested that the guarantee was pushed by the White House to reward a major campaign donor with ties to Solyndra's biggest shareholder, a charge the Obama administration denies. Bachmann...

Michele Bachmann is on the defensive about comments she made earlier this week suggesting that a vaccine against a virus linked to cervical cancer poses a danger to young girls. "During the debate, I didn't make any statements that would indicate that I'm a doctor, I'm a scientist or that I'm making any conclusions about the drug one way or another," the GOP presidential hopeful told reporters here who questioned her about the story she told suggesting that the vaccine had caused mental retardation. Asked whether she would apologize for comments that outraged medical experts say will discourage parents from...

Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann's story about a woman who claimed that her daughter suffered "mental retardation" after receiving a vaccine against HPV could fetch the woman's family thousands of dollars. But the family can only collect if Bachmann or the unnamed woman can prove the story is true. Two bioethics professors have offered to pay more than $10,000 for medical records that prove the anecdote Bachmann told after Monday night's Republican presidential debate is true, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports: Steven Miles, a U of M bioethics professor, said that he'll give $1,000 if the medical records of the woman...

Phil Tetlock and Barbara Mellers were in a race against time to save their 15-year-old daughter, Jenny. As I reported last summer, Jenny developed a degenerative muscle disease nearly two years ago, soon after being vaccinated against the cervical-cancer-causing HPV. She became nearly completely paralyzed, though her mind was perfectly intact and she could still enjoy her pet parakeet, Hannah Montana, and Twilight. I've been E-mailing Phil regularly over the past year, and up until our last E-mail, one week ago, he had been holding out hope that they would be able to find a cure for his daughter—or to...

Palin even went as far as to lend her voice to the charge leveled by Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) during the debate against Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R): That he allowed a law to go though requiring HPV vaccinations for adolescent girls because of a $5,000 campaign donation and his relationship with his former chief of staff, who went on to lobby for a pharmaceutical company. "I knew there was something to it," Palin said of learning while she was Alaska's governor that her Texas counterpart had given the go-ahead to the vaccine. "Now we're finding that now, yea, something...

Earlier today, I noted that Michele Bachmann finally scored points on Rick Perry by hitting him on his ties to Merck and linking that to the Gardasil mandate Perry imposed through executive order in Texas. This is a fair point on Perry’s record, even given his apology for pursuing the mandate through EO instead of through the legislature, and it’s not surprising that Bachmann was the candidate to first take advantage of the opening. (Mitt Romney passed a mandate on health insurance for all citizens of Massachusetts, which pretty much puts this issue out of reach for him.) However, Bachmann...

I saw the GOP debate and the Greta interview with Palin and Bachman. I am absolutely against Perry's mandate of the Gardasil vaccine. On policy grounds. Period. But, to see the two ladies pile on with corruption charges against Perry was truly disgusting. If they have any proof that Perry mandated the vaccine to profit Merck, I am the first one who wants it. And, if proof emerges that he did so, I will be the first one to revoke my support for him. It happens in the industry all the time. Acquaintances get you an audience. So, in this...