The Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and the Treasury have invited public comments through a Request for Information (RFI) under the Wellstone - Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008. Many professional biofeedback/neurofeedback organizations, such as ISNR, AAPB, and BCIA, have urged their members to take immediate action. ...

I obtained a copy of a recent Position Statement from Blue Cross/Blue Shield that pertains to biofeedback and neurofeedback from a professional online neurofeedback user group. Unfortunately, Blue Cross/Blue Shield still considers neurofeedback "Investigational and Not Medically Necessary" for all conditions. It appears that Blue Cross/Blue Shield failed to include vital studies, some reviewed on this websi ...

Researchers* claim to have finally ruled out that the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine contributes to the development of Autism in children with secondary gastrointestinal (GI) problems. Hornig et al. detail how a study in 1998 found GI abnormalities in children with Autism combined with parental reports of child behavioral problems following the MMR vaccine led to public fears that this vaccine mi ...

Researchers* assessed the 10 year (1995 to 2005) meat related eating habits of approximately 500,000 persons, aged 50-71, who lived in the United states, including consumption of red meat, white meat, and processed meat. Check the end of this report for a summary of the various types of meats included in this investigation and for a link to a free full-text PDF file of the original study. ...

A recent meta-analysis* revealed that smokers who use a pharmacotherapy to aid in smoking cessation were twice as likely, on average, to maintain complete abstinence from cigarettes. Researchers analyzed 70 randomized controlled trials comprising 32,908 participants. Seven approved pharmacotherapies at 6 and 12 months of use were evaluated, including gum, inhaler, nasal spray, patch, and tablet nicotine the ...

The British Medical Association recently (2009) released a comprehensive, evidenced-based guide to infant and childhood health and nutrition, called "Early Life Nutrition and Lifelong Health." This is a timely e-book in light of the epidemic of life style diseases that now afflict our youngest citizens. These concerns and trends have been detailed in the previous post, Obesity - #1 Childhood Health Concern ...

The research arm of the University of Oxford* reports that even moderate levels of obesity can significantly reduce one's life span. In the largest ever study of the effects of obesity on mortality, researchers analyzed 57 studies that tracked approximately 900,000 participants for an average of 10-15 years. The results will appear in a future volume of The Lancet. Body mass index, or BMI, was used to asses ...

The Environmental Working Group (EWG) recently published* the results of their investigation into the varying levels of pesticide contamination of 47 domestically available fruits and vegetables. The EWG analyzed approximately 87,000 pesticide tests conducted from 2000-2007 by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The complete study results and a nice "Shopper ...

This review covers an open access article* that investigates prevalence rates of adult non-medical (illicit) methamphetamine use. Check the end of this post for a link to download a free PD of the original journal article. This is truly a sad topic because chronic methamphetamine use can lead to not only major physical health problems, but also to psychosis, suicide, violent behavior, sexual promiscuity, an ...

A freely available PDF article entitled, Helping Doctors and Patients Make Sense of Health Statistics, may be a great resource for those confused or intimidated by common health-related statistical terms. For example, try to define survival rate, positive predictive value, sensitivity, and specificity. Check the article* to see if your definitions are accurate. You might be surprised. The authors report tha ...