2003 April

Your water bottle might have the word "pure" on the label, but how pure is pure?

If you have osteoporosis and your doctor writes a prescription for Fosamax (or any of a class of intravenous drugs called bisphosphonates), you might be doing yourself a big favor if you just say no.

And not only that: fruit is bad for you. Fruit, it turns out, can give you Parkinson’s disease! And you can file all of the statements above under the heading of “don’t believe everything you read.”

I recently sent you an e-Alert about the new medical privacy regulation ("Orwell Redux" 4/14/03) and received a number of e-mails in response to one particular detail. An HSI member named Carlos sent a question that, in so many words, represents the others.

“Neuropathy” – short for “peripheral neuropathy” – a condition characterized by a numbness or painful tingling in the feet, legs, hands and arms.