Daily Rounds: Debunked Science; Mental Health Dept. Resignation; Milk Chugging And Prostate Cancer; Trapped In Her Fat

Debunked Science: Studies Take Heat In 2011 : NPR "2011 may go down as the year of the retraction in the scientific world.Among the highly publicized discoveries that got debunked this year: a genetic basis for longevity; a new form of life; an explanation for autism; and a link between a virus and chronic fatigue syndrome.All of these non-discoveries have something in common: They involved findings that both scientists and the public badly wanted to believe." (npr.org)

Department of Mental Health head stepping down - BostonHerald.com (news.bostonherald.com) "Barbara Leadholm announced Thursday that she will be leaving the post on Jan. 31 to join the Boston office of Health Management Associates, Inc., a health care research and consulting firm. Leadholm has served as commissioner of the department since 2007 and is credited with improving access to community-based mental health services in Massachusetts."

Milk intake in teens tied to later prostate cancer | Reuters "Older Icelandic men who remember chugging a lot of milk in their teens are three times as likely to be diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer as more-moderate milk drinkers, researchers have found. That makes them wonder whether the years around puberty, during which the prostate matures, could be a time of heightened vulnerability for the gland." (Reuters)

The Fat Trap - NYTimes.com (nytimes.com) "I wasn’t overweight as a child, but I can’t remember a time when my mother, whose weight probably fluctuated between 150 and 250 pounds, wasn’t either on a diet or, in her words, cheating on her diet. Sometimes we ate healthful, balanced meals; on other days dinner consisted of a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken. As a high-school cross-country runner, I never worried about weight, but in college, when my regular training runs were squeezed out by studying and socializing, the numbers on the scale slowly began to move up. As adults, my three sisters and I all struggle with weight, as do many members of my extended family. My mother died of esophageal cancer six years ago. It was her great regret that in the days before she died, the closest medical school turned down her offer to donate her body because she was obese."