►March 4, 2004 - Doubts about the bedside jug of water - Times Online, UK

►March 3, 2004 - Groups Urging No Antibiotics for Earaches - AP via The Herald-Sun - "Parents of cranky children with ear infections be warned: Antibiotics may no longer be what the doctor orders. Two leading medical groups are expected to recommend this spring that doctors stop treating most ear infections in children with antibiotics, federal health officials said Tuesday...The move contradicts years of pediatric practice and is expected to disappoint weary parents of whimpering, infected toddlers...About half of all antibiotics prescribed to preschool children are for treating ear infections. Health officials believe if they can reduce child antibiotic use for such infections, they can stop the rise of antibiotic-resistant germs created by overuse of the drugs...'It will mark a dramatic change in appropriate antibiotic use,' said Dr. Richard Besser, acting chief of the meningitis and special pathogens branch of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention." 

►March 4, 2004 - Abandoned HRT study in US is no cause for alarm, local experts say - www.smh.com.au - "Adverse health outcomes might have shut down a major study of hormone replacement therapy this week but Australian experts say the good news relating to the treatment outweighs the bad."

►March 3, 2004 - Estrogen Study Stopped Early Because of Slight Stroke Risk (requires registration or subscription) - The New York Times - "A large federal study of estrogen therapy in postmenopausal women has been stopped a year ahead of schedule because the estrogen increased the risk of stroke and offered no protection against heart disease, the government announced yesterday...The study included only women taking estrogen alone, not those who take combined hormones. An earlier study, halted abruptly in 2002 after the researchers found an increased risk of breast cancer, involved only women taking the combined hormones estrogen and progestin...But health officials also noted that the increased risk was small, estimated at about eight extra strokes per year for every 10,000 women taking estrogen."

Comment:  Contrast this situation with what is happening re: vaccine-associated adverse reactions. Why, given the far greater number of vaccine-associated deaths and injuries, hasn't vaccination been halted?  There have been over 125,000, probably representing between 1 and 12 million, adverse vaccine-associated reactions.  When it comes to vaccinations, enough never seems to be enough.  For more on this go to Scandals: Infant Vaccine Deaths - But Who's Counting? (No news is NOT good news.),  Scandals: Vaccine-related infant deaths - When is enough, enough?, and Scandals: Avoidance Of Vaccine Truth But Not Consequences -  Are We "Knee Deep in the Big Muddy"?

►March 2, 2004 - Researchers Halt Hormone Therapy Trial - Reuters - "The National Institutes of Health said on Tuesday it had stopped a trial of women taking estrogen replacement therapy after finding the pills not only failed to improve their health but also may have slightly raised the risk of strokes...It was the second broad trial of hormone replacement therapy to have been halted in two years."

►February 27, 2004 - HRT risks 'were known years ago' - Women could have been told about the risks of taking hormone replacement therapy years ago. - BBC

►February 27, 2004 - Jury still out on safety of male hormones - New York Times via The Houston Chronicle - "Given the shocking recent discovery of potentially serious ill effects of hormone replacement for women, it is hardly surprising that many experts are warning against assuming that supplemental testosterone is safe and effective for men experiencing the normal effects of aging."

►February 28, 2004 - "Drink plenty of fluids": a systematic review of evidence for this recommendation in acute respiratory infections - journal article (BMJ) - "Doctors often recommend drinking extra fluids to patients with respiratory infections. Theoretical benefits for this advice are replacing insensible fluid losses from fever and respiratory tract evaporation, correcting dehydration from reduced intake, and reducing the viscosity of mucus.^{1 2} To many this advice is self evident and justified on the basis that even if the benefit is uncertain, or at best small, at least it is harmless.^..However, there are theoretical reasons for increased fluid intake to cause harm."

►February 24, 2004 - Heard the latest on HRT? (requires registration or subscription) - BioMedNet

►February 26, 2004 - Age-Old Advice on Fluids for Colds Disputed - No proof that fluid intake helps, study says - HealthDay Reporter