If you have heart disease, a study out yesterday in the Archives of Internal Medicine might make you think twice about taking fish-oil pills to prevent a second heart attack. But the American Heart Association is sticking to its longstanding recommendations—and so are we.

About 10 percent of the U.S. population has nutritional deficiencies--mostly for vitamins B6, D, and iron--according to a report released Monday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

A diet lacking in an omega-3 fatty acid, predominantly found in fish, may cause the brain to age faster and lose some of its memory and thinking abilities, according to the results of a study released today by the journal Neurology.

There's insufficient evidence to support the use of Pycnogenol, a dietary supplement extracted from French pine bark, to treat certain chronic disorders, according to a review published Wednesday in The Cochrane Library.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and Rexall, Inc., of Deerfield Beach, Fla., have issued a recall alert for one lot of the company's calcium supplements. The bottles of Rexall Calcium 1200 mg plus 1000IU Vitamin D3 actually contain tablets of triple strength glucosamine chondroitin, which are derived from crustacean shells and may be harmful to consumers with shellfish allergies.

The Department of Defense has ordered on-base stores to temporarily halt the sale of products containing the stimulant dimethylamylamine (DMAA), found in some workout-enhancement and weight loss supplements, which has been linked to reports of death in two service members, a U.S. Army official confirmed yesterday.

Taking vitamin D with calcium supplements reduces fracture risk, especially for institutionalized seniors, but whether the sunshine vitamin prevents cancer is uncertain, according to a systematic review of the medical research published earlier this week in Annals of Internal Medicine.

The Food and Drug Administration is advising consumers to steer clear of the weight-loss product known as human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG), because the diet drug has not been approved by the FDA, and the companies selling them make unsupported claims.

The Food and Drug Administration called on U.S. Marshals to seize dietary supplements by a Wisconsin maker for allegedly false claims made about their safety and effectiveness in treating diseases, the FDA announced yesterday.

The Federal Trade Commission and Connecticut state authorities have shut down an online marketer of acai berries and "colon cleanse" products for deceptive marketing practices that bilked consumers nationwide of an estimated $25 million.

High oral doses of milk thistle, a botanical supplement used extensively by patients with chronic liver disease, is no more effective than placebo against chronic hepatitis C, according to preliminary findings of a clinical trial presented at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD) in San Francisco earlier this month.

As daylight savings time came to an end this weekend, so did our extra daily dose of vitamin D from sunlight. But just because most of the U.S. won’t be singing “Here comes the sun” during the winter months ahead, that doesn’t mean we need to say goodbye to vitamin D. And despite widespread worries about vitamin D deficiency in this country, most of us don’t need to be concerned, according to a recent report by the Institute of Medicine.

The Federal Trade Commission announced it has settled its two year old case against two companies which hyped weight-loss products based on "hoodia," a substance derived from the Hoodia gordonii cactus of southern Africa.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is warning consumers not to use 20 weight-loss supplements found to contain the drug sibutramine.

Taking folic acid supplements from four weeks before conception to eight weeks afterward may substantially reduce the risk of a rare but severe delay in language development in offspring at age 3, according to a study of women in Norway, where everyday foods are not routinely fortified with folic acid, published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association.