Unless you are seeing a homeopath, or a naturopath or anything else that ends in "path", you probably believe your treatment is evidence-based. 

That may not be true. Hospitals are not under even more pressure to contain costs, but they may need to look at the staff to find out why expenses are high and results don't always match.  Use of evidence-based practice among chief nurses and their hospitals is relatively low, according to a survey led by Bernadette Melnyk, dean of the College of Nursing at The Ohio State University.

And many of the hospitals in the study reported poor scores on key performance measures, such as falls and pressure ulcers.

Monsanto's signature herbicide glyphosate, first marketed as "Roundup," is now the most popular weed-killer in the history of chemical agriculture in both the U.S. and globally, according to a paper in Environmental Sciences Europe written by economist Dr. Chuck Benbrook, a staunch opponent of conventional agriculture.

Unlike 2,4-D, smart strategies have limited weed resistance and unlike DDT, glyphosate has never had a 'Rachel Carson event' which has kept it in use.

Logging can encourage black rats to invade tropical rainforests by creating habitats they prefer, giving them the chance to displace native mammals.

Logging stresses animals living in tropical rainforests by disrupting and removing some of their habitat, but a new study shows that logging can cause further problems for the forests' inhabitants - by providing the perfect conditions for invasive species.

Black rats are an invasive species across much of the world, having been introduced via shipping by Europeans since the 1600s. Their invasions have caused bird extinctions and brought new diseases that have infected native mammals.

Supposed "junk" DNA, found in between genes, plays a role in suppressing cancer, according to new research by Universities of Bath and Cambridge.

The human genome contains around three metres of DNA, of which only about two per cent contains genes that code for proteins. Since the sequencing of the complete human genome in 2000, scientists have puzzled over the role of the remaining 98 per cent.

In recent years it has become apparent that a lot of this non-coding DNA is actually transcribed into non-coding RNA. However, there is still a debate as to whether non-coding RNA is just "noise" or whether it serves any function in the cell.

Cover your coughs in the Carolinas and don't double dip in Denver, because when your team is in the Super Bowl, health can wait.

A new paper in the American Journal of Health Economics found cities with teams in the Super Bowl see a rise in flu deaths. That's right, deaths. 

Lead author Charles Stoecker of Tulane University School of Public Health along with economists Alan Barreca of Tulane and Nicholas Sanders of Cornell University looked at county-level statistics from 1974-2009. The researchers found having a team in the Super Bowl resulted in an average 18 percent increase in flu deaths among those over 65 years old, a population more vulnerable to serious complications from influenza.

Bottom Line: Men and women in Appalachia continue to have higher cancer incidence rates compared with those in the rest of the United States regardless of race or location. The disparity is attributed in part to high tobacco use, potential differences in socioeconomic status, and patient health care utilization.

Journal in Which the Study was Published: Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research

Author: Reda Wilson, MPH, an epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia