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The FDA is allowing women over-the-counter access to one brand of one form of birth control pill. But the agency should follow the advice of medical experts and let women exercise their right to self-medicate with all hormonal contraceptives.

Mosquito magnet
Undercover journalism
Daily Ice cream reduces heart disease
How Madison Avenue taught us to consume healthcare

While academics explore the bounty and pitfalls that Artificial Intelligence (AI) offers, and Big Tech continues to hype the possible over the actual, the feds seek to make regulations. Corporate healthcare, in all its forms, is fighting back. Should we be techno-optimists, Luddites, or somewhere in between?

Tori Bowie, a 2016 US Olympian, died from complications of childbirth; Serena Williams experienced a pulmonary embolism after delivery that was initially ignored. According to the World in Data, US maternal mortality per 100,000 live births lies “comfortably” less than in Grenada but more than in Latvia or Puerto Rico. Let’s get behind the headlines, and delve deeper into a “preventable” problem.

The World Health Organization’s (WHO) International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) recently concluded that the popular artificial sweetener aspartame, widely used in foods and diet drinks, is “possibly carcinogenic to humans,” an alarming conclusion because aspartame is used in thousands of low-calorie products. However, another WHO organization, the Joint Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA), concluded that it is safe to consume aspartame. Can we make sense of the conflicting conclusions?

According to the common narrative, ultra-processed foods are evil, unhealthy, and unnatural. But a new contrarian study in the Journal of Nutrition demonstrates that a diet containing 91% ultra-processed foods was far healthier than the typical American diet and, get this, well aligned with Dietary Guidelines for Americans. When it comes to shaming and blaming UPFs, the emperor has no clothes.

Although Kansas' effort to prevent drug-impaired driving is admirable, the method the state is using to detect it is flawed. SoToxa, Abbott's hand-held analytical device can rapidly detect and identify common drugs in saliva but gives no information about the amount of drug present. I predict this will cause all kinds of problems

The FDA has finally allowed women to have access to one brand of one form of birth control. it’s time for them to follow the advice of the medical experts, and allow women access to all forms of hormonal contraceptives.

The FDA’s assault on vaping has yielded devastating consequences. Not only have millions of adults been denied legal access to low-risk vaping products they rely on to stay smoke-free, federal regulations are rapidly destroying thousands of jobs and billions of dollars worth of income, depriving ordinary Americans of their livelihoods. 

Roundabouts vs. traffic lights
Françoise Gilot and Jonas Salk
Where will all the gas stations go?
Those dangerous lithium batteries

As the COVID pandemic moves further into our rearview mirrors, questions have been raised about a more prolonged manifestation of COVID, Long COVID. Now, there seems to be a concern about more prolonged symptoms from the COVID vaccines; we can call it Long Vax. What do we know and don’t know?

A new health scare is brewing as reporters speculate about the cancer risk of consuming the sweetener sucralose. Is there any evidence behind the panic? No. A team of scientists recently argued that it's time for oil companies to pay reparations for causing climate change. Let's take a critical look at their claims.

In criminal law, intent is necessary before guilt can be proven. Even civil actions, like intentional torts, pivot on intentionality.  Until now, intention was determined based on circumstantial evidence, with some jury guesswork. But what if it were possible to demonstrate someone’s state of mind objectively? What if there were no hiding behind a baby face or angry denial?

I’m at an age where I see doctors frequently enough that I noticed that the masks are gone. Will a surge in influenza or COVID this fall and winter bring masks back for all, or has COVID given us something other than a one-size-fits-all approach?

Indian activist Vandana Shiva opposes the tools and practices of modern agriculture and science and advocates regressive policies that cause widespread malnourishment, famine, and death to the very people she claims to champion. And she's no friend of the environment, either. She should never be given a podium.

In late 2019 Betelgeuse, a star within the Orion constellation, grew dim, leading to speculation that its life might be at an end and it would become a supernova. The dimming, now felt due to “dust” and stellar activity obscuring our view, has resolved. Not so the concerns over Betelgeuse.

The CDC recently issued guidance related to breastfeeding for "transgender and nonbinary-gendered individuals." It may be the most absurd set of recommendations the agency has ever released.

“…body mass index, BMI, then, is a continuation of white supremacist embodiment norms, racializing fat phobia under the guise of clinical authority.” Quite an opening from an article in the AMA’s new Journal of Ethics. Stripped of its rhetoric, could it be true?

While some extol the psychological benefits of psychedelics and bemoan their unavailability, at least one FDA-approved agent with psychedelic properties, Ketamine, does exist. The problem is that it is being abused- and oversight is wanting.

You might make it through the day without learning about the science of "Meat Sweats." But you'd be missing something special in your otherwise-dreary and pointless life. Don't risk it. Read this idiotic article.

For decades, excessive, unscientific regulation has slowed innovation using molecular genetic engineering. Policymakers must awaken to the realization that regulations based on pseudoscience or nescience are destructive and regressive. Tremendous innovations await, if only we have the wisdom to permit them to be developed.

Currently on appeal before the 11th Circuit is the question of whether a federal Administrative Agency (here, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) has the power to mandate masking on public transportation.

Long COVID remains chimeric, more a litany of symptoms than a clearcut “disease.” Perhaps a clustering of symptoms might reveal the underlying picture. Researchers using lots of data and statistical analysis identify some patterns.

Add the government to the Food-Industrial Complex
Vape Shops
Illegal guns
IARC and the WHO find another ingredient to jettison

Conflict between Japan and China is not new. As the release of contaminated water from Fukushima into the Pacific Ocean has now been approved by the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency, China has issued warnings that this approval is insufficient. ACSH covered the underlying science last year; here is a reprise.