[Consumer Reports](http://www.consumerreports.org “Consumer Reports Website”) on 1/18 retracted a negative report on infant car seats that left many parents worried about their babies’ safety — an embarrassing revelation for the magazine.

Consumer Reports said it was withdrawing the report, issued Jan. 4, because some of its test crashes were conducted at speeds higher than it had claimed.

The original report said most of the seats tested “failed disastrously” in crashes at speeds as low as 35 mph. In one test, it said, a dummy child was hurled 30 feet.

But the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said some of the crash tests were conducted under conditions that would represent being struck at more than 70 mph.

Consumer Reports said it would review its study, retest the car seats and publish a new article as soon as possible.

[Read](http://www.newsleader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070119/NEWS01/701190340/1002/rss01 “Read the Story”)(AP via the Staunton Daily News Leader)

Adults living with children tend to eat more fat than grown-ups in kid-free homes, consuming as much additional saturated fat each week as found in an individual-size pizza, a new study suggests.

It may not exactly be the kids’ fault, but household cupboards are more likely to be stocked with high-fat convenience foods like cookies, cheese, peanuts and processed meats when children are around, the researchers said.

Adults living with children ate almost 5 more grams of fat each day, for a total of more than 91 grams, compared to 86.5 grams for adults not living with children, according to the study. That included nearly 2 grams more of saturated fat daily, the kind linked to heart disease, or about 12 grams of saturated fat per week — an amount equal to a 6-inch, personal size pepperoni pizza.

[Read](http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2007/01/10/fatparents_hea.html?category=health&guid=20070110103000&dcitc=w19-502-ak-0000 “Read the Story”) (AP via the Discovery Channel)

Most athletes pay a physical price for their love of the sport, but the ones who engage in endurance sports may be pushing their bodies to the brink of heart failure, according to a new study.

That’s because the physical wear and tear of years of heavy-duty workouts appear to weaken the heart muscle predisposing an athlete to a rare, but potentially deadly, condition called ventricular arrhythmia in which the heart beats erratically.

[Read](http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2007/01/22/exercise_hea.html?category=health&guid=20070122144500&dcitc=w19-502-ak-0000 “Read the Story”) (AP via the Discovery Channel)

Procrastination in society is getting worse and scientists are finally getting around to figuring out how and why. Too many tempting diversions are to blame, but more on that later.

After 10 years of research on a project that was only supposed to take five years, a Canadian industrial psychologist found in a giant study that not only is procrastination on the rise, it makes people poorer, fatter and unhappier.

Psychologist William Knaus, who has written several self-help books on fighting procrastination since 1977’s “Overcoming Procrastination,” said he **found it harder to wean chronic procrastinators from the habit of delaying than to wean alcoholics from booze**. Knaus mentioned one businessman who spent 40 hours of delay time to avoid five minutes of work.

[Read](http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2007/01/12/procrastination_hum.html?category=human&guid=20070112094500&dcitc=w19-502-ak-0000 “Read the Story”) (AP via The Discovery Channel)

According to documents obtained by the National Security Archive at George Washington University, 25 percent of veterans of the “global war on terror” have filed disability compensation and pension benefit claims with the Veterans Benefits Administration.

152,669 veterans filed disability claims after fighting in Iraq or Afghanistan. Of the more than 100,000 claims granted, Veterans Administration records show at least 1,502 veterans have been compensated as 100 percent disabled.

Pentagon studies show that 12 percent of soldiers who have served in Iraq suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder. The group Veterans for America, formerly the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation, estimates 70,000 Iraq war veterans have gone to the VA for mental health care.

New guidelines released by the Pentagon released last month allow commanders to redeploy soldiers suffering from traumatic stress disorders

[Read](http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=36056 “Read the Story”) (Inter Press Service News Agency)

A new study found that men with hypertension reduced their risk of a heart attack by having a drink or two a day.

In the study, moderate alcohol consumption (one or two glasses of beer, wine or shots of liquor) actually reduced the risk of a heart attack, even if they had high blood pressure.

Light drinkers, who consumed less than one drink every two or three days, did not have a lower risk of heart attack than non-drinkers.

The study authors stressed that more than three drinks a day raises blood pressure and the risk of hypertension.

[Read](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6203255.stm “Read the Story”) (BBC)

Having a large number of children is bad for parents health – particular that of mothers, a study suggests. US researchers looked at 21,000 couples living in Utah between 1860 and 1985, who bore a total of 174,000 children. It was found the more children couples had, the worse their health and the more likely they were to die early.

[Read](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6202707.stm “Read the Story”) (BBC)

Having low levels of alcohol in the blood may protect the brain from the effects of a head injury, a study suggests.

The University of Toronto found head injury patients who had drunk low amounts were 24% less likely to die than those who had not had any alcohol.

Heavy drinking increased the risk of death substantially – those with high levels of alcohol in their blood were 73% more likely to die than those with no alcohol.

The researchers said alcohol might one day be used as part of emergency treatment for some head injury patients.

[Read](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6190391.stm “Read the Story”) (BBC)

Adding plenty of olive oil to a diet could help protect against cell damage that can lead to cancer, experts say.

A study of 182 European men found those who had 2 tablespoons of olive oil per day had reduced levels of a substance which indicates cell damage.

[Read](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6195895.stm “Read the Story”) (BBC)

Scientists appear to have found a fingerprint of Alzheimers disease lurking in patients spinal fluid, a step toward a long-awaited test for the memory-robbing disease that today can be diagnosed definitively only at autopsy.

Researchers at New Yorks Weill Cornell Medical College discovered a pattern of 23 proteins floating in spinal fluid that, in very preliminary testing, seems to identify Alzheimers — not perfectly, but with pretty good accuracy.

[Read](http://www.wtopnews.com/index.php?nid=106&sid=1002743 “Read the Story”) (AP via WTOP)

Fridge magnets and decorative jewelry could be a killer if you have a weak heart, experts warn. A strong type of magnet used in many new commercial products can interfere with pacemakers and implanted heart devices with deadly consequences.

Close contact – within about an inch – with a neodymium magnet is enough to destabilize these life-saving heart devices.

[Read](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6160731.stm “Read the Story”) (BBC)

I guess the same people probably should not have subwoofers in their cars.

Doctors once dismissed complaints of “chemobrain,” a common side effect of cancer therapy in which patients experience memory problems or mental fuzziness.

Research now shows that chemotherapy can cause real changes in the brain, ranging from forgetfulness to seizures, vision loss and even dementia. **More than 80% of cancer patients develop memory and concentration problems**, according to a study in June from the University of Rochester Medical Center in New York.

[Read](http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2006-11-29-chemotherapy-brain_x.htm?csp=34 “Read the Story”) (USA Today)

Two months before the end of 2006, Chinas reported number of HIV/AIDS cases already is nearly 30 percent higher than for all of last year, with intravenous drug use as the biggest source of infection. The increase in reported cases indicates that China is doing more testing and more reporting and also that the epidemic continues to grow in many parts of the country.

[Read](http://news.aol.com/health/story/_a/chinese-hiv-cases-jump-nearly-30-percent/n20061122041709990003 “Read the Story”) (AP via AOL)