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Organic food has become the fastest-growing sector of the U.S. food industry, with sales that increase by double digits annually. That's a lot of kale flying off the shelves. Buying it makes us feel like we're helping ourselves and the planet. But here's the truth: There are no health benefits from eating organic food. And it is likely worse for the environment.

Microbiome cloud story 4:12

Although there have been more than two thousand studies documenting that GMOs do not pose an unusual threat to human health, questions about the safety of genetically modified foods remain in the minds of many consumers.

Researchers from the World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) looked at more than 1,000 epidemiological studies and found that "excess body fatness" is also linked to the risk of developing gastric, liver, gallbladder, pancreatic, ovarian, thyroid, blood (multiple myeloma) and brain (meningioma) cancers.

In this interrupted case study, students shadow an endocrinologist as she tries to determine what is wrong with Angela Barber. Angela is a middle-aged woman presenting with symptoms suggestive of a thyroid issue. Students are given background information, patient history, and results from thyroid-specific blood tests. The exercise emphasizes the hypothalamic-pituitary-thyroid axis and particularly highlights the role of negative feedback. Students will use results from serum thyrotropin and thyroid hormone level tests, as well as patient symptoms, to come up with a diagnosis. In preparation for the diagnosis, students are asked to compare the endocrine profiles of patients with Graves' disease, Hashimoto's disease, iodine deficiency (primary hypothyroidism), and various tumors. The case was developed for college-level biology majors in a physiology course, but also has been used successfully for pre-nursing students in a non-majors anatomy and physiology course. Thus, this activity would be suitable for majors in physiology or pre-medical students, as well as allied health majors.

Water is essentially everywhere in our world, and the average human is composed of between 55 and 60% water. So what role does water play in our bodies, and how much do we actually need to drink to stay healthy? Mia Nacamulli details the health benefits of hydration.

This interrupted case study was inspired by and uses data from one of the largest commercial restaurant associated outbreaks of norovirus reported in the literature. It applies basic principles of epidemiology and outbreak investigation to a shellfish-linked norovirus outbreak at a Michelin star restaurant in the UK in 2009. The details of the case are taken directly from the report that was produced by the health protection agency and publications that followed. Students take on the role of an infection control team (ICT) that is responsible for identifying the extent and source of the outbreak. They are taken through different stages of the outbreak investigation and at each stage asked what their team would do in response to given pieces of information. Specifically, students uncover the scope and source of the outbreak using descriptive and basic analytical epidemiology methods. The case is suitable for first or second year introductory courses in microbiology, epidemiology, or other infectious disease related topics.

In the largest study of its kind, a research team has meshed extensive genome data on more than 50,000 people with their electronic health records and identified potential new disease-causing genes. The data further suggest that about one in 250 people may harbor a gene variant that puts them at risk for heart attacks and strokes, yet aren't receiving adequate treatment.

In this interrupted case study students analyze the complexities surrounding identification and confirmation of cancer clusters. The case challenges students to consider the evidence from two different perspectives; a local family physician representing the community, and a cluster investigation officer who has worked on several cancer cluster investigations. This case was inspired by the discussion about a possible cancer cluster in Clyde, Ohio, where around 20 cases of childhood cancer since 2001 fueled public concern, leading to an investigation by the Ohio department of health in 2006. This case was designed for introductory courses in biology and environmental sciences, taken by both science majors and non-science majors. In addition to introductory college classes, this case could also be used in advanced high school biology classes.

GlaxoSmithKline has developed what looks like a cure for a rare and deadly disease, and it's going to cost $665,000 for a single dose. That sky-high price tag-more than twice the average price of a house-is likely to stir what's already a long-simmering debate in health care: How much should curative therapies cost, and how should society pay for them?

A deadly disease known as African sleeping sickness has puzzled doctors for decades. It would disappear from villages without a trace, only to re-emerge weeks or months later with no known cause. Frustrated health officials wondered how sleeping sickness could persist when not a single villager or animal-the disease's only carriers-tested positive for the insect-borne parasite that causes it. Now, scientists may have an answer at last: They've discovered the disease was hiding in plain sight this whole time, living in and even transmitting via human skin.

ROME (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - If drug-resistant infections in people and animals are allowed to spread unchecked, some 28 million people will fall into poverty by 2050, and a century of progress in health will be reversed, the World Bank said on Monday. By 2050, annual global GDP would fall by at least 1.1 percent, although the loss could be as much as 3.8 percent - the equivalent of the 2008 financial crisis - the Bank said in a report released ahead of a high-level meeting on the issue at the United Nations in New York this week.

The Ebola epidemic that tore through West Africa in 2014 claimed 11,310 lives, far more than any previous outbreak. A combination of factors contributed to its savagery, among them a mobile population, crumbling public health systems, official neglect and hazardous burial practices. But new research suggests another impetus: The virus may have evolved a new weapon against its human hosts. In studies published on Thursday in the journal Cell, two teams of scientists report that a genetic mutation may have made Ebola more deadly by improving the virus's ability to enter human cells.

Some tiny clusters of brain cells grown in a lab dish are making big news at this week's Society for Neuroscience meeting in San Diego. Known as "minibrains," these rudimentary networks of cells are small enough to fit on the head of a pin, but already are providing researchers with insights into everything from early brain development to Down syndrome, Alzheimer's and Zika.

The threat of antibiotic resistance has become so dire that the United Nations General Assembly is holding a meeting to discuss it this month in New York City. Although WHO has been sounding the alarm on antibiotic resistance for years, this month's high-level U.N. meeting represents only the fourth time in the international body's history that its General Assembly-a global deliberative body that primarily grapples with issues like war and economics-has held a meeting to tackle a health topic.

She says people became much more willing to talk about their genetic predispositions and seek out testing for conditions like Alzheimer's disease and cystic fibrosis. The number of patients seeking genetic counseling and testing has increased dramatically, according to a 2014 study that looked at how Jolie's announcement affected interest in testing. But the number of genetic counselors, the people who help both doctors and patients make sense of these tests, hasn't expanded enough to keep up with that demand. There are just 4,000 certified genetic counselors in the country today. That's one for every 80,000 Americans.

Known officially as the Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male, the 40-year experiment run by Public Health Service officials followed 600 rural black men in Alabama with syphilis over the course of their lives, refusing to tell patients their diagnosis, refusing to treat them for the debilitating disease, and actively denying some of them treatment.

It's peak cold and flu season, and mucus is making many of our lives miserable. But despite being a little icky, phlegm gets a bad rap. This germ-fighting goo contains cells and chemical compounds that help us power through a cold. You can also think of mucus as a traffic light for your health - what turns up in our used tissues can be a useful clue about the inner workings of our immune systems.

One of these days, there could well be a simple blood test that can help diagnose and track cancers. We aren't there yet, but a burst of research in this area shows we are getting a lot closer.

Youth based website focused on healthy choices and long term health.