GUEST POST by David A. Mark Placebos don’t work when you are asleep. Or if you have Alzheimer’s disease. But they do seem to make a difference in research and clinical practice, as I found when preparing a recent article for Nutraceuticals World.

We know what to avoid in our diets: fun foods like ice cream sundaes, chocolate pies and most anything sold at a baseball park. Researchers are now trying a different approach, emphasizing what we should eat.

If you are lucky enough to be a member of USAA like I am and you have a bank account with USAA Federal Savings Bank, then this paradigm shifting app is going to make you say "WOW."

Berlin-based Wooga, a social gaming company, has closed a round of venture funding from Holtzbrinck Ventures. Wooga makes Brain Buddies, a popular Facebook game similar to another game called “Who Has the Biggest Brain?”

Following reports in the Washington Post that standards for classifying foods as organic had been relaxed, the U.S. Agriculture Department is launching an audit of its National Organic Program.

Notice anything different? You should. To celebrate the start of our fifth year, we gave the blog a makeover. Or as they say on the Web, a redesign.

In its reporting, CBS discovered an "F" rating from the same regional Better Business Bureau and a multitude of Web sites that FWM uses, though it is not clear if the faux-TV stations were among them.

The confusion surrounding steroid use in professional baseball has taken another strange turn. The Associated Press and New York Times report that eight of the 104 players who tested positive for steroids in 2003 fall into another category.

The FDA has put supplement companies on notice that violators can expect earlier detection and prosecution. Remarks by commissioner Margaret Hamburg on Aug. 6 strongly suggest that the agency has shifted to a policy of less talk and more action.

Playboy Enterprises likes to put its name and trademark bunny-head logo on products. Get ready for a supplement on which you can nibble the ears. At its second-quarter earnings call on Aug.