Scaling often refers to the ability of a system, application, or network to handle an increasing amount of work, users, or data. Scalability in human behavior considers how individual actions aggregate to form group dynamics, social institutions, and even global phenomena. As we continue to urbanize and our cities grow larger, it is increasingly vital to understand not just the use of resources but the creation of waste.
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The magic of comfort food lies in its ability to nourish both body and soul. While few argue that it enriches one’s soul, providing solace and comfort, some believe that improvements can be made in bodily nourishment.
This story begins with a simple question: What is the prevalence of substance use disorders in patients surviving cancers? The “substances” in those use disorders can be causes of cancer and, more often, self-treatments for the stress and pain.
Ambient air quality standards have been established by testing animals and evaluating adverse health effects in populations. To maintain ambient concentrations within those standards, emissions are controlled based on statistical relationships with ambient exposures known as dose-response functions (DRFs).
Every January, we cycle through the usual New Year’s resolutions tied to weight loss, exercise, and drugs, especially nicotine and alcohol. This year is no different; everything old is new again. My resolution is to begin a new January tradition of picking my favorite fad detox, cleanse, or diet and debunking it. This year, we’re tackling Dr. Josh Axe’s Detox Your Liver: A 6-Step Liver Cleanse.
Critical Economic Theory is not a new concept. Like critical race theory (which is seen through a more controversial lens), CET seeks to examine and understand how systemic economics is ingrained in various aspects of society, including law, institutions, and social structures.
Science speaks on behalf of the Radium Girls
Fun Facts 2023
Geometry as art
Data Leakage, Oh My!
Interest in our evolving understanding of the interstitium has led proponents of alternative medicine to take a victory lap. However, the evidence for these modalities (i.e., chiropractic, osteopathic manipulation, and Rolfing’s structural integration) remains unchanged and still unconvincing.
Like many creatives, life experiences influence my work, in this case, my writing. This year, the dominant emotion was stress (and adventure), which leached into my articles and drove some of the focus.
The flawed concept of banning drugs inevitably leads to the appearance of new and worse drugs. Now a class of synthetic opioids called nitazenes, some of which are far more potent than fentanyl, are making their way into the supply of street drugs.
In 2019, I joined ACSH's contributing writers group because I admire the mission, and sought an outlet for some long-held dilemmas concerning the health effects of air pollution. Since then, my interests, along with those of my long-time colleague Sheldon Lipsky, have morphed along three tracks: air pollution, climate change, and original research on COVID-19. Here are a few articles on those topics.
Yours truly, Kris Kringle, has been informed that my fans are truly miffed because they haven’t seen me around lately. Truth be told, I am hiding out from the paparazzi, an occupational hazard of all the great and famous. But because you, my loyal ACSH fans, deserve to know. Truth be told, I am being sued.
For about a year, KinderFarms has been marketing a “non-toxic” pain and fever reliever for kids – except it’s really not non-toxic. What supposedly makes this medicine “safe” is the absence of “chemical preservatives.” Too bad. Had KinderFarms co-founder actress Jessica Biel put preservatives in her product, it might have been safer for us – and for her company’s bottom line.
Most respiratory viral diseases, like influenza, take their greatest toll on the ends of the lifespan, the frail elderly, and the not-quite-as-frail infants and toddlers. But COVID was different and had little impact on the mortality of the very young. A new study sheds some light on why.
This past month, Stanford Medicine posted the following press release headline: “A Stanford Medicine-led trial of identical twins comparing vegan and omnivore diets found that a vegan diet improves overall cardiovascular health.”
Let’s Eat Grandma – more than just an error in punctuation
Take-out pizza
Hospitals as Hotels
Candy Land’s origin story
A recent study from JAMA Internal Medicine documents that in many cases in which a patient has died, the electronic medical record – the baseline truth for Big Healthcare Data – lists them as alive. Does the term "garbage in, garbage out" ring some bells?
Sickle Cell Disease is an awful genetic disease that disproportionally affects black people. It's caused by a single-point mutation in DNA, which results in a modified hemoglobin protein, differing by only one amino acid. While this may sound insignificant, it's anything but. Simple organic chemistry explains why this change profoundly affects those unfortunate enough to inherit the disease, which is characterized by abnormal hemoglobin.
An email from Dr. Kan Shao, a professor at Indiana University School of Public Health, states that EPA’s current version of Benchmark Dose Software modeling is “extremely misleading and not scientifically justified.” It is very unusual for a scientist who has been deeply involved with the EPA in developing risk assessment modeling to openly criticize the EPA. This requires a deeper dive into this issue.
Plug-in electric vehicles (PEV) running solely on electricity are the cornerstone of the effort to reduce vehicular emissions. Prediction of electrical use and environmental benefit base their calculations on vehicle miles traveled (VMT), assuming that the number of miles driven with electrics is the same as those by conventional fossil-fueled vehicles (CV). A new study questions that assumption.
If you need further evidence that politicians don't understand the fentanyl crisis they helped to create, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) has you covered. Meanwhile, we already sell some body fluids in select circumstances; will the day come when we sell body parts to the highest bidder?
Sleazy manufacturing and marketing practices are hardly news when it comes to the dietary supplements industry. But a company called Evig, which makes Balance of Nature supplements, seems to want to take it a step further. Actually, several steps …
A teenager died recently after taking the "One Chip Challenge," eating Paqui's uber-spicy tortilla chip and going as long as possible without eating or drinking anything else. The cause of death remains unclear, but there's an interesting lesson here about the uselessness of "non-GMO" food labels. Meanwhile, actress Jessica Biel sells all-natural Tylenol — which is identical to plain ole' Tylenol. Another case of dubious health marketing? Yep.
The weight loss drugs Wegovy and Ozempic portend a massive impact on the “obesity epidemic.” Users may even be able to get insurance coverage, as the FDA just approved a third drug specifically for weight loss treatment, signaling greater coverage for all drugs in the class. Sounds promising, right? But, alas, there are unintended consequences.
Those buildings we call supermarkets are laid out to encourage us to buy. It is not a coincidence that magazines and candy are displayed at the register, nor the fact that the food you really want is in the back, so you have to transverse the whole store to find it. Are our online purchases, without that physical organization, the same? Short answer: no.
Pagination
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