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Barbara Feder Ostrov

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<p>Here’s what we’re reading today:</p> <p><strong>Nutrition:</strong> Another label to remember when you go to the supermarket: “corn sugar” – that’s apparently what <a href="http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/14/a-new-name-for-high-fructose-c… corn syrup makers want to call their product now</a>. Surprisingly, high-fructose corn syrup isn’t as nutritionally evil as it’s been made to be, the New York Times’ Tara Parker-Pope reports.</p>

<p>Here’s what we’re reading today:</p> <p><strong>Outliers:</strong> A cautionary tale for health journalists: GoozNews’ Merrill Goozner details how <a href="http://www.gooznews.com/node/3431">an error of adjustment in the Dartmouth Atlas</a> skewed media coverage of supposedly sky-high leg amputation rates in McAllen, Texas.</p> <p><strong>Mobile Health:</strong> NetworkWorld’s Paul McNamara <a href="http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/66025">takes issue with a new survey</a> showing that 40 percent of us would pay for health care apps or services on our mobile devices.</p>

<p>Here's what we're reading and watching today:</p> <p><strong>Research:</strong> Poor meta-analyses: they’re often bashed for mashing together a bunch of studies that don’t really belong together, leading to suspect conclusions. Current Medicine TV features an Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality researcher talking about how the federal &nbsp;agency <a href="http://www.currentmedicine.tv/2010/biostatistics/roger-chou-md-how-the-… which meta-analyses are good and which are junk</a>. &nbsp;</p>

<p><strong>Foreclosures:</strong> Heart palpitations, insomnia, acid reflux: <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/09/02/MN891F6B62… can make you sick</a>, according to a new report covered by the San Francisco’s Victoria Colliver.</p> <p><strong>Flawed Polls:</strong> Political science professor Terry Jones <a href="http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb6666/is_318_40/ai_n54804366/">e… flaws in media coverage of health care polls</a> in the St. Louis Journalism Review. &nbsp;</p>

<p>Here's what we're reading today:</p> <p><strong>Breast Cancer:</strong> Not fun, but it works: preemptively removing the ovaries or breasts of women who carry either of the two BRCA breast cancer genes can help save the women’s lives even if they’ve already been diagnosed with cancer, according to a new study. The Los Angeles Times’ Thomas H. Maugh <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2010/aug/31/science/la-sci-breast-cancer-20… the story</a>.</p>