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Over the last few years, it’s become clear that using a patient’s race as a variable in some predictive models – like those involving kidney function – leads to poorer outcomes. Meanwhile, removing that variable leads to improved prediction of patient risk, more prompt treatment, and presumably better outcomes. A new study shows that by taking the race variable “out of the equation” the predictive model fares worse. Should we consider race as a determinant of health?

Discussions of “climate change” or “global warming” tend to focus on increasing temperatures in summer, especially the current run of severe heat waves.  The 85-page summary of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report mentions “winter” only once, the surname of one of the authors, but the adverse health effects of cold winters have long been recognized. Can the health benefits of warmer winters compensate for the damaging effects of hotter summers? 

There's a codeine analog with a strange name: "Thebacon." How does one pronounce this? Is it useful? And are there other obscure chemicals with meat-containing names? And A Dreaded Chemistry Lesson From Hell (TM) for no extra charge.

A study confined to COVID deaths in Florida and Ohio suggests that the Grim Reaper’s “excess” deaths, when stratified by political party, came for Republicans more often than Democrats.

In the last few weeks, there have been two articles on the benefit of supplements, specifically multivitamins and flavonols (extracted from cocoa), on improving memory. The media mentioned the multivitamins; the flavanols garnered no attention. What did the studies report?

Clean air has long been recognized as a requisite for mammalian survival. In fact, the National Library of Medicine lists over 8,000 publications citing this, including the terms “air pollution” and “mortality.” How have U.S. mortality rates and life expectancies changed during recent decades of improving ambient air quality?

Shionogi just purchased Qpex. When I inquired about this, the Qpex folks told me that Shionogi is a company truly committed to the antibiotics space. What I found was truly inspiring! This is a real feel-good story! How often does that happen for antibiotics?

"The United States needs resilient, diverse, and secure supply chains to ensure our economic prosperity and national security.” – Executive Order #14017
“The pandemic and recent supply chain disruptions have revealed the perils of a national food system that depends on capacity concentrated in a few geographic areas and requires many steps to get from farm to fork. In order to be more resilient, the food system of the future needs to be more distributed and local.” – the USDA response.

Technology has helped to double food production in the last 50 years. We have the cheapest, safest, most abundant food supply in history, but the enemies of progress, both foreign and domestic, continue to attack the technologies that have made that possible.

I’ve been visiting doctors lately, and my blood pressure has been recorded many times. Some days it is 140/80; other days, it is 200/110. Why could that be? And what does it tell us about healthcare and BIG DATA?

A new JAMA Open Network paper concludes that Paxlovid is effective in reducing hospitalizations and deaths in high-risk patients who have been vaccinated or have acquired immunity from previous infections. And a look back at how the drug works its "magic."

Evidence suggests that Tylenol isn't an effective pain reliever in many cases, so why do doctors rely on it post-surgery? When it comes to treating and discussing COVID-19, do doctors have the right to speak freely, even when they dissent from accepted medical wisdom?

On May 25, 2023, merely six weeks before the Wuhan Biosafety lab lost its NIH funding amid the controversy of possible lab leaks and connection with COVID-19, the U.S. proudly opened the doors of the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility (NBAF), the 14th biosafety level-4 lab in the nation. It was also the first here capable of handling large animals. What is going on?

The EU is about to ban the sale of body fluids, including breast milk, sperm, blood, and other “substances of human origin” (SoHO). Some argue this will decrease supply. Others claim the regulation protects human dignity. Who’s right? And how do we decide?

Last week, the FDA and CDC presented their recommendations for the newest round of COVID-19 vaccines. As with everything COVID, there are proponents and detractors, or, putting it another way, both knowledgeable experts and disinformation-spreading attention-seekers. The reality is that a group of experts made a judgment based on actual data.  We discuss the evidence here so you can make your own informed decision.

I was always an early riser, but having to be at the hospital by 5 or so AM refined that predisposition. A new study of sleep shows that when we go to bed, how long it takes to fall asleep, and countless other measures of our biological need to sleep are part genetic and part cultural.

As if fentanyl isn't bad enough, a series of opioid receptor agonists called nitazines is making its way into the street drug supply. But is this because the chemicals used to make fentanyl are now more difficult to obtain? It's certainly possible, if not likely. Organic chemists are nothing if not versatile.

The New York Times devoted nearly a full page in the business section to “emissions.” Emissions of what? Presumably, CO2, which was not explicitly mentioned, nor were methane, black carbon, or other greenhouse agents. The U.S. has focused – even obsessed – on CO2, and we act as if the nation was the chief player on the planet. That makes us feel good and even self-satisfied in assuming that our diligence is helping to save the planet. But is it?

You all complain about drug commercials, and with good reason. They are equal parts cloying and annoying. Let's make fun of them, OK?

Are you aware of the concept of the three gates? Most simply, before you speak or – in my case, write – let your words pass through three gates. Is it true? Is it kind? Is it necessary?

The BS that has been put out by the anti-opioid zealots has been more than bad enough. Then Senator Joe Manchin joined the fray, taking it to a new level. Disgusting.

In 2017 I did an extensive search of Cochrane Reviews that addressed the efficacy (lack, really) of Tylenol (acetaminophen) in controlling pain. With few exceptions, it did little or nothing. In the six ensuing years, there have been more published on the efficacy of the drug. And the message is the same.

"[A] censorious report on National Public Radio, citing a poll, accuses Republican voters of being content to 'do nothing' about climate change. In fact, neither party proposes to do anything about climate change. Democrats propose to spend a lot more money doing nothing.” – Holman Jenkins, Wall Street Journal

If alien life does not resemble ET or the Lead Alien in the eponymous movie, how will we recognize them once we meet? Assembly theory may offer a clue.

Two bills – one in Idaho, the other in the U.S. Senate – defy science, logic, and civic responsibility. The first would criminalize the administration of life-saving mRNA vaccines, while the second would ban mask mandates.