The sci-fi world of Gattaca promised parents the option of selecting genetically bespoke children. Now you can buy a menu of tests prophesing your kids’ health risks – even before the embryo is implanted. Soon, we can expect tests for brains, brawn, and beauty. How do we even make that decision?
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The guilt trip of buying local – are farmers' markets the carbon saviors they claim to be?
Diversity is key, even in cheese.
Air Canada blames its chatbot, now deemed a 'separate legal entity,' for misinformation in court.
Forget the quaint image of London's smog; Melbourne’s 'thunderstorm asthma' brings unexpected respiratory dramas.
The EPA recently announced stronger standards for fine particulate matter, described as reducing pollution by airborne "soot." However, an examination of its supporting documentation reveals a lack of focus on particulate composition, neglect of actual exposures – as well as no mention of any health effects of soot. Here we explore the implications of these shortcomings.
Marketing executives at General Mills insisted that if their personal Twitter feeds were evidence, people were in a panic about GMOs. Then they discovered the awful truth.
This study shows that the crisis in overdose deaths is, unfortunately, not new. It goes back nearly 40 years. Three graphs reveal a tapestry over time of drugs, demographics and geography. It's not simply a new problem due to prescription drugs.
With a growing number of teenage pitchers having surgery because of elbow-joint overuse, the former Major Leaguer can no longer observe this trend without wincing. And he has an urgent message for parents whose kids concentrate on playing one sport nearly year-round. Spare your still-developing teen a lifetime of pain and discomfort: Stop focusing on a single sport.
Some chemicals are nasty. Some are plain evil. Then, there's methyl fluorosulfonate, aka "Magic Methyl." It's so bad that you have to be out of your mind to use it. Unless you want to dissolve a chicken breast.
Superhyped: superfoods. The concept is ridiculous, yet wealthy Americans are buying into it -- big time. Depending on how you define them, superfoods either don't exist at all ... or we're surrounded by them. One ACSH advisor, the Director of Medical Nutrition at Columbia University Medical Center, weighs in.
Probiotics are one of the recent darlings of the supplement world. But do they do anything? A small human study says yes. But what they do isn't good.
In seeking to nail down an exact day when chemophobia – an irrational fear of harmless trace chemicals – came into existence, one must consider a singular government act that occurred on Sept. 6, 1958.
You're athletic. You run regularly. You swim, cycle or lift weights to keep your muscles strong. And you watch what you eat for the purposes of remaining lean – and so that you can remain athletic. So you have all the bases covered, right? Well, almost, because a new study says "you still can’t outrun your risk factors” for cardiovascular disease, making doctor's visits essential.
A recently-released study touting how preoperative oral treatment can lower the risk of suffering postoperative pneumonia appears to have bitten off more than it can chew.
For those looking for another way to sculpt their bodies, there's a new, high-tech device that has great promise. But to use it, you'll need to get naked in front of a full-length mirror-scanner-computer that sends all your measurement data to the Cloud. Is this amazing – or is the idea so intrusive that, in the name of getting in better shape, this has really gone too far?
Just when you think it's reached its peak, WebDumB comes through once again. The folks there have taken a look at places where germs lurk. Unfortunately, their "wisdom" is nowhere to be seen.
The pain relief counter in your pharmacy can be a confusing place ... enough so to give you a headache. But actually, it can all be very simple. There are four over-the-counter painkillers, some of which can be taken together and some of which can't. Here's the scoop, presented in a way that's easy to swallow.
Obstetrical Violence refers to the coerced treatment of a mother during childbirth, without an informed, voluntary consent. But the coercion is by the State, not a physician. And the words will inflict unnecessary violence on the doctor-patient relationship.
Aging at home rather than in a nursing home can be more satisfying for individuals and their family and may reduce the cost of care. But what to do when Mom and Dad are not at the top of their game? Passive monitoring will play an increasingly larger role.
GM crop adoption has been facilitated in developing countries through the development of biosafety frameworks, allowing for thorough risk assessments to be completed. Significant benefits from these crops have come in the domain of socio-economics.
Probability and odds play a large role in explaining the results of medical studies. Yet, they are not the same, and knowing how to understand odds will make it easier to separate the signal from the noise.
There are signs that the devastating opioid crisis we're experiencing here is spreading to other nations – including the United Kingdom. Germany had the closest rates to those in the U.S., while in the U.K. doses per million people, per day, more than tripled.
With drastic shifts taking place in the medical profession, those weighing whether to enter it have had to grapple with two major issues: immense student debt and choice of career specialty. While NYU hopes that waiving tuition for its medical students will encourage them to join the thinning ranks of family-focused medicine, our veteran medical expert is skeptical.
Diabetes is not one monolithic disease. A new study shows that age of onset, and duration, can make a big difference in the presence and effect of diabetes' frequent companion: cardiovascular disease.
Another study, this time with female patients experiencing heart attacks, suggests female physicians have better survival outcomes than their male peers. What does this mean for pay inequity?
Those who oppose vaccinations represent a form of tyranny, which occurs when a vocal minority overrides a complacent majority. Therefore, logic dictates that it's time to be less complacent.
Trial lawyers are cheering that the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in California ordered EPA to finalize its proposed ban on chlorpyrifos but the science is even less settled than the court case is. If you are not familiar with American law, the 9th is the most overturned appeals court by the Supreme Court of the United States, because their rulings are often overtly political, and therefore not grounded in evidence.
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