A staggering 4 million kids a day line up at their school’s nurse’s office for their daily afternoon doses of Ritalin.

Most of us know by now that antioxidants can help keep the number of free radicals in your body in check.

Doctors and medical journals are starting to get wise (finally!) to the FDA and drug company shenanigans of withholding research results when they come out negative.

Doctors have always labeled celiac disease as a rare food allergy that, while a serious condition for those afflicted, is generally not something the rest of us need to worry about.

We’ve talked about the ins and outs of keeping your medical records private, but this one is a doozy.

The study said that the people who are most likely to practice good prevention precautions against Lyme disease are people who have already suffered from it, or who know someone who has.

Colon cancer is the most common gastrointestinal cancer and the second leading cause of cancer deaths in the United States

What I wish the mainstream would realize — and what I wish I’d known as a teen — is that most skin problems, including acne, are better solved by focusing on what you’re putting inside your body

Omega-3, on the other hand, has an anti-inflammatory effect that counteracts the damage inflicted by omega-6.

I was wondering if you had any suggestions on seizures? My wife had a stroke three years ago and they claim the seizure she had in October was a result of the stroke. She has tried five or six different medications, and she cannot handle any of them. They tell me she cannot drive unless she is on medication, so I am at a loss as to what to do.

Not all that long ago, doctors used to write off patients who came in with multiple vague complaints. At best, they were accused of exaggerating their symptoms; at worst, making up the problem to avoid work or other commitments. The symptoms didn’t fit into any accepted diagnosis: aches and pains all over the body that came and went, a constant feeling of tiredness, and a lack of well-being, with many restless nights of broken sleep. But we know better now. The mysterious syndrome-fibromyalgia-is now widely acknowledged as a real medical condition. In fact, in 1996, the American College of Rheumatology even published a strict set of conditions that doctors can follow to diagnose it.

With medical journals awash in fish oil and disease prevention data, I can’t understand why researchers keep churning out data on aspirin and disease prevention-especially since aspirin’s patents expired in the early 1900s and no single company stands to make any substantial profits from it. Researchers made their latest pro-aspirin splash in the May 26 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, with an article boasting aspirin’s supposed breast cancer preventing ability.

I usually devote this column to nutrition and biochemistry news that might help your grandchildren, but I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to tell you about some new research showing that a completely non-invasive, non-medicinal approach may help boost their development. Although phonics have been out of favor in most public schools for decades, this new evidence shows that it not only significantly improves reading skills but also measurably changes brain function in children.

At the 2003 annual meeting of the American Society of Hypertension, researchers reported that a small amount of alcohol consumption daily improves arterial elasticity, even in individuals with hypertension. Arterial elasticity is an indicator of cardiovascular risk; better elasticity, less risk. A small amount of alcohol intake was defined as no more than one glass of wine or beer, or less than one ounce of hard liquor per day. Wine drinkers had the best outcome, with the best arterial elasticity, and the lowest heartbeat rates. Wine drinkers also had the best cardiac output.

Los Federales finally got around to requiring folate “enrichment” of refined grain products a few years ago. But even so, I still see three to five patients a week who have an outright folate deficiency. Obviously, adding it to packaged foods simply isn’t enough to do the job. But then, a federal “enrichment” program is just like a federal tax refund: They take away a lot, waste most of it, give you back a tiny bit, and you’re supposed to be happy about it.

IN THIS ISSUE: The 5 best reasons to move folate to the top of your health priority list; Teetotaler concedes there’s a reason not to skip happy hour; Non-medicinal approach boosts kids’ brain power- and gives you more time with them; Don’t just swap cancer risks -lower them; Taking the mystery out of fibromyalgia, one herb at a time; Seizure solutions