Sloppy Headlines on Parkinson's Disease

Here's a catchy headline that's guaranteed to get your attention: "Smoking and Caffeine May Protect Against Parkinson's Disease."It was written by the good folks at the Duke University press office. But it does a disservice to anyone who has Parkinson's disease, or cares for or loves someone with the neuro-degenerative condition.To make matters worse, it gave journalists permission to use

Vitamins Reduce Cancer Risk--Relatively Speaking

A new study shows that women who take multivitamins and folic acid during pregnancy reduce the chance that their baby will develop some childhood cancers by almost 50%. Your first question on reading this should be "50% of what?"In other words, you want to know what the absolute risk of developing pediatric cancer is. Then you can figure out whether a 50% reduction (the so-called relative risk)

Women and Heart Disease

You've got to understand risk if you want to stay healthy. Why do women fear breast cancer more than heart disease? As a group, women have a 4% chance of dying from breast cancer vs. a 38% chance of dying from heart disease. But because women are less likely than men to develop heart disease in their 40s, they (and their doctors) often assume they don't need to worry too much about cardiac