Is it time we put ailing Bay on diet? Like an obese patient at risk of a heart attack or stroke, the Chesapeake Bay needs to go on a "pollution diet" to survive, scientists say. [News Source]

Wood for energy: the pros and cons of biomass plants. Would burning wood on a large scale to produce electricity be a boon or a bane? It depends on who you talk to. [News Source]

Wood for energy: The pros and cons of biomass plants. Would burning wood on a large scale to produce electricity be a boon or a bane? It depends on who you talk to. [News Source]

The planet will survive, but will we? Earth's climate has come through many severe changes over thousands of years. But humans have never influenced them as much as today, nor had as much to lose. Second of four parts. [News Source]

Why the Vitamin Business Thrived in Recession (Newsweek) The vitamin business thrived through the recession. Why? [News Source]

Low Vitamin D Levels Explains Most ESRD Risk In African Americans (Medical News Today) Low levels of vitamin D may account for nearly 60 percent of the elevated risk of end-stage renal disease (ESRD) in African Americans, according to a report in the December Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (JASN). "Our study adds to previous evidence linking vitamin D deficiency to the progression of kidney disease and the need for dialysis," comments Michal L. [News Source]

Campaign to Regulate Vitamins as Drugs (Scoop.co.nz) Have TV3 been used to launch a political campaign to regulate vitamins as drugs? [News Source]

Boy with vitamin deficiency overcomes disease (KLTV 7 Tyler) Parents, listen up! Over six-million American children are not getting enough Vitamin D, and this can lead to some pretty serious health problems. [News Source]

Vitamin D supplements show anti-diabetes potential (Nutraingredients.com) This is not the first time that vitamin D has been linked to diabetes. A recent meta-analysis of data from observational studies and clinical trials in adults showed a "relatively consistent association" between low intakes of calcium, vitamin D, or dairy intake and type-2 diabetes ( Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism , Vol. 92, pp. 2017-2029). [News Source]

Low vitamin D levels explains most ESRD risk in African-Americans (EurekAlert!) Low levels of vitamin D may account for nearly 60 percent of the elevated risk of end-stage renal disease in African-Americans, according to a report in the December Journal of the American Society of Nephrology. [News Source]

Low vitamin D tied to heart, stroke deaths (Reuters via Yahoo! News) Low vitamin D levels in the body may be deadly, according to a new study hinting that adults with lower, versus higher, blood levels of vitamin D may be more likely to die from heart disease or stroke. [News Source]

FDA should get out of our gumbo. An FDA decision to impose draconian new rules on oysters could wreck Louisiana's $300 million-a-year industry and restrict the diets of raw oyster lovers -- all in a misguided effort to prevent a serious but rare health threat. [News Source]