There is no doubt that raising the price of sugary beverages by increasing the tax reduces consumption. A new study once again looks at how price impacts demand. Whether this reduction in consumption has the desired outcome of improving health remains unknown and frankly unstudied.
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Those were the words of Christian Dior, who may have recognized a connection between the volatiles around us and our behavior. As a parent and now grandfather, I must agree with my wife; there is something special about sniffing an infant's head. Is it something they release or that we have applied, like baby shampoo? A new study suggests an evolutionary role for the smell of an infant.
The last month has divided conventional wisdom. If cases continue to decline, the pandemic might be on its way out. If they trend upward, another winter surge might be on its way. Here we look for clues from data [1] through November 15, focusing on vaccination.
There are chemistry teachers all over the U.S. that know this simple truth: chemistry matters in everyday life. Nothing demonstrates this principle more than when you look back at the lead water crisis in Flint, Michigan.
Fear porn, humane “washing” food labels, catching up with Sisyphus, junk food diets - for plants
It is that time of year when we present listicles of our top 5 or 10. Here are our most popular articles based on your page views. On behalf of myself and all of our wonderful writers, thank you for all 400,000 reads.
I immigrated to the U.S. in February 2020, not knowing that going back home would not be easy. Two weeks later, international travel was banned due to an unpredicted outbreak of COVID-19, and I was trapped ...
Can avoiding certain foods reduce your dementia risk? One nutritional psychiatrist seems to think so, but the evidence is much messier than it looks at first glance.
A recent study suggests that vaping may be linked to erectile dysfunction. The results are alarming if they're valid, though there are several critical reasons to doubt their validity.
I’ve written several times about taxes on sugar-sweetened beverages. While the public health goal has always been to reduce obesity, nearly every publication has looked at the effect of taxes and the subsequent higher prices on purchasing those drinks. Today, we finally have some research on how well those taxes reduce our weight; we already know they reduce the weight in our wallets.
While all uses of tobacco are bad for your health, we have maintained that vaping is both a lesser evil and a pathway to cessation. A new study looks at the effects of vaping and smoking on mitochondria, the engines of our lives.
With Thanksgiving dinner safely in the rearview mirror, we still have several more holiday feasts ahead of us. In the age of COVID-19, we also have disruptions in the supply chain – including shelves that have toilet paper, but not some holiday food items. And the rising price of turkey presages rises in the price of beef, fruits, and vegetables.
Reconsidering zoos, the most famous of monkeys, the symbolism of masks and a goldfish drives their aquarium.
The New York Times recently published an excellent story illustrating what causes vaccine hesitancy and how to effectively combat it. Is the media finally learning that forcing shots on people doesn't work?
Way too many people have experienced the discomfort of food-borne illness: nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal cramps, and fever. These illnesses are usually mild, but occasionally they can lead to hospitalization, even death. It may surprise you to know that fresh fruits or vegetables can be the source of these illnesses.
California is poised to empower children as young as 12 to receive COVID vaccines without parental consent. The Golden State is on the wrong path.
Given the proliferation of claims about the health benefits of marijuana – especially following its decriminalization – it should come as no surprise that cannabis-based chemicals are being evaluated as potential COVID therapies. Two of them, CBGA and CBDA, have been found to bind to the infamous viral spikes and inhibit the replication of COVID. Do these drugs have what it takes to make a useful drug? Read on.
Yay! We have another variant. But this time, the scientists who isolated it named it after themselves. Shameless? I say yes.
We know that Omicron is more contagious than Delta. Those 30 mutations on the spike protein alter its activities in ways we are just uncovering. A new study suggests that those nasal swabs may be so last year.
The 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) required large food chains to post the calories along with the prices for their food. According to the Center for Science in the Public Interest [1], this costs food chains roughly $45,000 each to create that information; producing the changes in menus is an additional cost. A new study shows what we got, calorie-wise, for all that fuss and bother.
Even before the time of COVID, urgent care centers (those in the trade call them docs in a box) were the go-to alternative to a long Emergency Department wait or having to see your primary care physician (PCP in the jargon) during your work hours, or in a week or so. I get it; your time is just as valuable as mine. But I wonder if something is lost in patients treating physicians as commodities and physicians treating patients as consumers. A new study looks at how the length of time seeing the same doctor influences your care.
Sometimes a picture or, in what follows, a video is worth so many words. Let’s consider the COVID variants; how could there possibly be so many so quickly. The answer, of course, lies in the work of Darwin.
The media is beginning to run the autopsy on our pandemic responses. (Although to be fair, outlets have been Monday morning quarterbacking from Day 1.) What exactly is the plan for the next pandemic? Of course, the real problem is that in dealing with the future, there's no plan at all.
Kansas, like several other states, is shielding healthcare providers from sanctions for the off-label prescription of Ivermectin and Hydroxychloroquine. That said, its State Senate – and one senator, in particular – is living in “crazy town.” Time for us to take a deeper dive into so-called fly-over country.
Consider that committing a crime is a choice involving tradeoffs; the initial one is whether criminal action will be more lucrative than working. Of course, those lucrative moments are short-term gains, and they come with the risk of being caught and suffering long-term, or latter-term, losses. Can an individual criminal’s preferences – for short-term gains (impatience) and risk adversity (avoiding latter-term losses) – predict crime? A study of young Danish man suggests a link.
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