Given that insurers use backdoor access to your data (and the law has been unable to keep up, to prevent it), you may want to pay cash before you purchase your next bag of chips or condoms. And you ought to think twice when completing forms seeking demographic data on your race, or when you make a formal name change.
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Sen. Warren, who has taken flak for claiming Native American ancestry, just released the results of a genetic test that definitively proves ... well, nothing. The U.S. Senator from Massachusetts might be 1/32nd Native American. Or 1/1024th. Nobody really knows.
The results of a new study are encouraging for those who wish to continue driving, but have been ambivalent about having the procedure. Older drivers who underwent cataract surgery lowered their crash risk by 61 percent.
Genetic manipulation can be a force for good, but some voices raise concerns. Not about the unintended consequences, but about their possible, darker uses, as weapons.
Among the latest fads are specialty salts, which are sold as if they are magic potions – by those who are always selling magic potions. Sea salt is one of them. In reality, this product should be called "Throw Sea Salt and Money Over Your Shoulder."
Clinical guidelines are increasingly influential but they're written by experts in the field. Are guidelines a faithful compilation of evidence, or instead, just biased, perhaps self-serving, self-regulation? Dr. John Ioannidis, one of medicine's important voices, weighs in.
Could it be that where we go to medical school makes us better, or worse, physicians? Or rather, is the old joke true? "Q: What do you call the student graduating at the bottom of their medical school class? A: Doctor."
It turns out that Type 2 diabetes is not one monolithic disease. There are at least five identified genetic dispositions affecting our metabolism in different ways. Precision medicine may be more difficult than we are led to believe.
The famous vodka company cashes in on the anti-science movement, announcing that it was renouncing GMO corn in its famous "No. 21 vodka." What's wrong with GMO corn? Nothing. In fact, it's a net positive for the environment.
A paper in the journal Science examines the implications of the genetic search that found a serial killer last April. A bit of genetics, a few basic demographics and you can identify that needle in the haystack. What can we do?
Ethanol is bad science and bad economics, and combined that makes it bad energy policy.
The organic industry is built upon a gigantic lie. It's the notion that "natural" farming methods are safer and healthier while "unnatural" methods are dangerous. It should surprise no one, therefore, that such a deceptive industry would attract its fair share of hucksters.
Contrary to wide-eyed speculation and fearmongering, coffee is not going extinct. Coffee bean production is up, and prices are down.
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.
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.
Caravaggio famously painted various biblical scenes, such as the beheadings of John the Baptist, Holofernes and Goliath. Though the artist did not meet such a violent demise in the early 17th century, he may have suffered an unpleasant one: Sepsis due to Staphylococcus aureus.
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.
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.
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.
The chemophobia-for-profit crowd has a very good trick up their sleeve and they play it constantly because it works. Let's use this trick against them and show why a very scary chemical may not be scary at all.
The FDA just announced that it is no longer allowing seven chemicals to be used as artificial flavors in foods because of cancer concerns. Sounds reasonable, no? NO- it's not. The agency is allowing the same seven chemicals to be used as long as they are derived from natural sources, not synthetic - something that an Organic 101 student knows is a meaningless distinction because there is no difference. Let's give them an F in chemistry.
Scientists don't like to be definitive the way activists are, which is why science loses many culture wars. But we will state it plainly: Roundup cannot cause cancer. It only acts in plants.
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.
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.
Surgeons are frequently the first to prescribe opioids to patients. Of course, surgery usually hurts. After a year of government agencies and legislators practicing "medicine," it's time to hear from the actual physicians. They have practical solutions we can use today.
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