Tanning Pills, Matlock Hawks Health Reform and Tossing the Viactiv: The ReportingonHealth Daily Briefing

Here's what we're reading today:

Hawking Health Reform:  Actor Andy Griffith, best known for Matlock and The Andy Griffith Show, has been hired by the federal government to pitch seniors on the merits of health reform. A national ad will air on the Weather Channel, Hallmark and other channels older folks like. (Thanks to Gawker for this one).

Med School: So you majored in 18th century French lit and never took the MCAT? That's just fine if you want to apply to the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, which is holding some spots for humanities students interested in becoming doctors. Studies (conducted by one of the school's deans, natch) have shown that "nontraditional" medical students do just fine as doctors compared to their peers who sweated out O-chem and frog dissections.

Oil Spill: The kids are not alright in the Gulf, reports Alice Shabecoff in the New Solutions Journal of environmental and occupational health policy. She examines the potential health risks of the oil spill on the region's children and takes authorities and advocates to task for not doing more to help.

Calcium: If you're tired of sucking down calcium chews or pills every day, new research may bolster your decision to quit. The Los Angeles Times' Thomas H. Maugh II reports that not only do the supplements provide little benefit in preventing osteoporosis; they can increase your risk for a heart attack.

Tanning Pills: Reuters Health reporter Frederik Joelving (@joelving) is having a banner week. First, his reporting forced the New York Post to retract a false story about an alleged wife-killer getting a transplant at a New York hospital. Today, he reports that a journal editor has stripped a research article of language supporting the use of a L'Oreal-Nestle tanning pill from the conclusion of a published study – an action taken after his hard-hitting story on flaws in the company-sponsored research.