Every day, millions of people take anti-inflammatory medicines to relieve everything from minor aches and pains, to the occasional headache, to the debilitating symptoms of arthritis.

The most common are known as NSAIDs (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs). Many of us are familiar with the dangers of the prescription versions of these drugs. For instance, researchers believe that Vioxx caused more than 40,000 deaths before it was pulled off the market. Now, new research shows that even the over-the-counter variety – like Advil, Motrin and Aleve – could cause serious risks to your health.

And you don’t have to pop too many of them put yourself in danger. In fact, new research shows that taking anti-inflammatories for just one week could increase your risk of death by 45 percent!

Big Pharma is on the hunt for ways to help you lose weight.

Sounds like a good thing, doesn’t it? Not so fast. The US weight loss market is a cash cow worth more than $60 billion. Of course Big Pharma wants its slice of the pie. And it believes drugs are the answer.

The FDA hasn’t approved a weight loss drug in 13 years. But that could change soon. Three drugs are on the table right now. They’ve all been rejected once already, but they’re being submitted again. An FDA panel is now backing at least one of them, even though the evidence shows they won’t work at all for about 60 percent of people. The other 40 percent might see minimal results at best.

The World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) has just completed a detailed review of more than 7,000 clinical studies covering links between diet and cancer. Its conclusion is rocking the health world with startling bluntness: Processed meats are too dangerous for human consumption. Consumers should stop buying and eating all processed meat products for the rest of their lives.

Processed meats include bacon, sausage, hot dogs, sandwich meat, packaged ham, pepperoni, salami and virtually all red meat used in frozen prepared meals. They are usually manufactured with a carcinogenic ingredient known as sodium nitrite. This is used as a color fixer by meat companies to turn packaged meats a bright red color so they look fresh. Unfortunately, sodium nitrite also results in the formation of cancer-causing nitrosamines in the human body. And this leads to a sharp increase in cancer risk for those who eat them.

A 2005 University of Hawaii study found that processed meats increase the risk of pancreatic cancer by 67 percent. Another study revealed that every 50 grams of processed meat consumed daily increases the risk of colorectal cancer by 50 percent. These are alarming numbers. Note that these cancer risks do not come from eating fresh, non-processed meats. They only appear in people who regularly consume processed meat products containing sodium nitrite.

Getting laser surgery to fix your eyes is the last thing you want to do. We’ve told you plenty of times before about the horror stories that come from it.

You may also remember that we spilled the beans on Lasik eye surgery, when we talked to a former FDA chief about it. And how he told us that the FDA should never have approved it in the first place.

That story fired up at least one Lasik eye surgeon and kicked off a fiery debate between them. (If you didn’t see those articles, you can read both of them here.)

We’ve been telling you for years that drugs can do you more harm than good.

Now a huge study shows this is also true also for people with high blood pressure.

That’s because it shows that commonly used drugs for lowering blood pressure actually raise it.

But we do have some good news for you.

Another study shows that one safe, all-natural remedy effectively lowers blood pressure. And it does it in just three hours.

A new study shows that flu shots don’t work nearly as well as experts think they do.

Researchers now think they only work for about 60 percent of people. That makes them about 30 percent less effective than previously thought.

Newspapers have picked up on this finding and are saying flu shots aren’t effective enough.

You may have heard that the US Department of State (DOS) is taking action on the hazardous mercury that’s all around us. But not much action…

DOS has made its position clear on mercury at a public meeting led by Deputy Special Representative Dr. John Thompson.

He says the DOS will tackle mercury in amalgam fillings…but not anytime soon.

“There is enough evidence about this issue to phase it DOWN,” says Dr. Thompson. But he stresses that…”we don’t mean phase OUT.”

That phase down won’t begin until 2020 at the earliest…and possibly as late as 2030.

If you’re in pain you expect your doctor to give you something that’s going to help–not hurt–you. And while you know that most drugs have side effects…you expect the benefits to outweigh the risks.

Certainly that’s what drug makers will tell you.

“The benefits outweigh the risks…as long as a doctor is consulted,” says drug maker Novartis.

The Agency for Safety and Health has just pulled the popular sleeping drug Noctran off the French market. They’ve linked it to neurological and psychiatric disorders.

Officials say they’ve “reconsidered the risk / benefit of this drug and voted against it.” (i)

But the decision comes 23 years after the drug first went on sale. That’s 23 years of public neurological and psychiatric damage…while agency officials “reconsidered the risk.”

Antidepressants are a “quick fix” for shaking the blues. But do they solve the problem? Apparently not. Plus, if you’re taking these drugs, you’re nearly doubling your risk for a relapse of major depression.

That, of course, is not what the doctors who prescribe the medications say. They tell you drugs like Prozac, Zoloft, and Paxil will give you a brighter outlook and a better life.

But some studies found that the drugs perform no better than a placebo. And now there’s research that shows they can make your condition even worse. You go from depression to drugs to deeper depression… and then stronger drugs.