How would you feel about unlicensed pilots flying commercial airliners? Or if we allowed every motorist to determine which side of the street to drive on? Council advisor Dr. David Seres ponders why we allow untested supplements to be used as drugs.
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For smokers who want to quit, nicotine vaping devices are safer alternatives to cigarettes. The use of E-cigarettes has recently been approved, with some common-sense restrictions, in New Zealand.
Beginning around 1940, we began to see infectious diseases that were previously unknown. But where did they come from? You can either read the article or we'll just give you a hint: animals. (And we're talking about some real doozies.)
America's GDP is shifting from small-town America to the cities, and at the same time the opioid overdose epidemic has hit rural states, like Kentucky and West Virginia, especially hard. As a result, from 1999 to 2015 suicides in rural America have increased over 40%, according to the CDC.
A new study by a team of University of Washington researchers focusing on the mating habits of fruit flies reached a somewhat surprising discovery, concluding that "mate choice in fruit flies is rational and adaptive."
Roughly 30-40% of the population has a genetic predisposition to celiac disease. However the amount of people who actually have it is about only 1%. Beyond genetics, what makes this autoimmune disorder affect those in this group? A new study suggests it might be a viral infection – one that often goes unnoticed.
Recently the comedian and late-night TV host told a "terrifying" tale of the discovery and treatment of his newborn son's unexpected congenital heart defect. Let's analyze the timeline of events.
Recently, in a room full of microbiologists, this question was posed: "How many of you believe climate change is the world's #1 threat?" Silence. Not a single person's hand was raised. Were they all rejecting science? No, not at all. They just didn't see it as threatening as antibiotic resistance, pandemic disease or geopolitical instability.
Which nationally-known company acted more reprehensively this week while showing the least sensitivity – United Airlines or Cosmopolitan Magazine? Sure, it could be the Heartless Carrier of the Unfriendly Skies. Or it might be those disingenuous diet hucksters, also known as the new Champs of Click Bait.
The Dutch are famous for windmills, impressive feats of geo-engineering and for being tall and blonde. And at just over 6-feet, Dutch men are widely hailed as the world's tallest. But new data suggests that men from regions within the Balkan country of Bosnia and Herzegovina stand even a cut above.
The official March for Science Twitter account recently criticized the Trump Administration for bombing ISIS, claiming that the gigantic bomb the U.S. dropped on the terrorists is an "example of how science is weaponized against marginalized people." After a justified mocking, delete went the tweet.
Babies are a little safer today as Hyland's homeopathic teething tablets have been recalled by their manufacturer, Standard Homeopathic Company. It's been a long road to get to this point, with pressure for the recall coming primarily from the FDA.
Every scientific paper should be required to answer a simple question before it's published. So prior to considering whether ingesting too many polyunsaturated fats (e.g., fish and foods cooked with vegetable oil) will make women lazy, TV-watching diabetics, an elementary-school query must first be asked: Does that even make sense?
Several years after Obamacare was approved, healthcare costs continue to rise in America. The question of why – and, perhaps more importantly, how much of these costs should be covered by the government – continue to spark intense political debate. New research may shed some light on this issue.
Is there gender discrimination in payments made to physicians? Not by Medicare, Medicaid or insurance companies. So why does Doximity, a social network of physicians, say it exists? It all depends on what you're measuring.
With warm weather, it's necessary to be aware of the usual tick-transmitted suspects, Lyme disease and the West Nile virus. These are nasty enough, but there's a bad boy out there that makes them look like creamed spinach. Meet the Powassan virus. It is pure evil.
Leishmaniasis, transmitted by a sandfly bite, causes 500,000 cases of visceral disease and 1.5 million cases of cutaneous disease – resulting in 50,000 deaths annually. The drugs to treat it are terrible. If the parasite doesn’t kill you, the treatment may make you wish it had.
The IARC monograph program on Evaluation of Carcinogenic Risks must be reformed and brought into the 21st century – or it should be abolished
The weekly report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on the dead and dying is morbidly fascinating. In both men and women, heart disease and cancer are #1 and #2 killers, respectively. However, everything changes after that.
It's very common for people who eat right, watch their weight and don't smoke to ignore a smart sleeping regimen. The proper amount of nightly sleep is essential to ward off illness and maintain overall good health. And sustained lack of sleep is linked to a myriad of significant health problems.
Pancreatic cancer is the most aggressive, least treatable form of the disease, and in a large majority of cases it reduces the victim's life expectancy to a matter of months. German researchers say they've discovered why it's so ravenous, and they've traced the cancer's aggressiveness to a key factor in its earliest growth and composition.
It's one year after Berkeley, CA instituted a tax on sugar-sweetened beverages, and the results are in. Among them: there was no significant drop in caloric intake, even using self-reports and their known limitations. So consumers paid a bit more and saw no benefit.
How does a physician medically disqualify someone from serving on a jury? One potential consideration might include those who have a profound disability or illness. However, the guidelines vary from state to state.
The Trump Administration has convened a panel to address America's opioid epidemic. Its first mission should be to find convincing data to identify the actual cause(s) of the problem. That will be much harder than it sounds, since ideologues are always in plentiful supply.
Metabolomics is an emerging field that studies the "unique chemical fingerprints that specific cellular processes leave behind." In this case, it's applied to what we eat. And coupled with machine learning, this may well give us very personalized diets to improve our health.
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