Category: Your Health Matters

(2 stars)
This “important medical alert” presents no evidence or sources. It mentions liver transplants four times, perhaps inaccurately and unfairly generating anxiety in parents of overweight and obese kids.

(2 stars)
An alarmist piece focusing on the number of children needing liver transplants for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.  But is this a true concern for most people, only for some and if so, for whom?

(4 stars)
A major flaw of the story was that it did not provide a critical appraisal of the evidence behind the BOD POD device. Do we really know that it is worthwhile to measure our body fat percentage?

(2 stars)
The results have not been replicated.  It was done in mice in a laboratory model of induced diabetes. This was not emphasized enough – yet references to cures and holy grails were included.

(5 stars)
One of the best stories written yet about the complicated topic of the place for the HPV vaccine in health care. Thank goodness there still is room in daily papers for a 4,100-word piece like this.
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(1 star)
This way-too-brief story fails on almost every count.  How the drug compares to other medicines, its side effects, costs,  and long-term outcomes in terms of benefits and harms are not addressed.

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Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
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Source: Food and Drug Administration
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Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
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(5 stars)
This story could have touted a novel and untested cosmetic procedure, but instead the reporting is appropriately cautious and balanced. Excellent job listing the potential harms.

But landmark report also says mass media anti-tobacco campaigns work, too.
Source: HealthDay

Inattentiveness contacting others can lead to injuries, death while walking or driving.
Source: HealthDay