A U.S. District Court jury has ordered the forfeiture of over $33 million worth of assets of four people convicted for duping hundreds of customers into buying a herbal dietary supplement that purportedly enlarges the male organ.

Ordered to pay the estimated proceeds from their conspiracy, fraud and money laundering crimes were Steven E. Warshak, 42, president and owner of Berkeley Premium Nutraceuticals and TCI Media Inc.; his mother, Harriet, 75; Paul J. Kellogg, 41, in-house lawyer of Berkeley; and Steven P. Pugh, 38, a warehouse manager of Berkeley

A new study conducted by German gastroenterologists revealed that chewing as many as 14 sticks of gum a day may cause unintended weight loss among people, regardless of sex and age.

In a case study published Saturday in the British Medical Journal, the German doctors disclosed that chewing too much gum containing sorbitol, "a sugar substitute that is also a laxative," may lead to chronic diarrhea leading to "potentially dangerous weight loss

A group of German scientists concluded from their study that excessive chewing of sugar-free gum releases the artificial sweetener sorbitol to the body, resulting in diarrhea strong enough to cause weight loss of an alarming rate.

The scientists of Berlin's Humboldt University found that individuals who ate 16 to 20 sticks of chewing gum artificially sweetened by sorbitol lost a total of 20 percent of their total weight

Scientists have moved a step closer to winning the battle against one of the most common human parasites, Toxoplasma gondii. Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis found that the parasite uses a hormone from the plant world to decide when to grow and when to remain dormant.

Toxoplasma gondii is a parasite found in a variety of places. That includes contaminated kitchen surfaces or utensils that have come in contact with raw meat, drinking contaminated water, dirt in people's yards and the feces of cats that are infected and, more rarely, an infected organ transplant or blood transfusion

The American pharmaceutical industry is seeking to reverse the lopsided trade with China in favor of the world's most populous nation. But it will be hard to go against traditional Chinese medicine, which is even gaining popularity in the United States.

China's middle class alone number 300 million, equal to the entire U.S. population. It is a potential market for western medicine, considering that with the rise in population and acceptance of a western lifestyle in China, there has also been a rise in western diseases like obesity