The Lancet has gone on an ideological bender against alcohol consumption and refuses to publish data that challenges their shaky assertions.
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Summer is upon us. While you're firing up your grills, rest assured that our staff will remain diligent, so that you don't need to worry about IARC telling you that a single hot dog will give you cancer. Here are the media hits we've had in recent days.
While some argue that a continued decline in the birth rate will merit a failed replacement rate for the overall population, it's time to take a pause and appreciate the nuances in these observed trends.
Like educators who "teach for the test," hospitals and health systems are able to quickly learn and adapt to new rules, especially those that come with financial rewards and penalties.
Today the Hamptons, the summer community on the East End of New York's Long Island, conjure up a beautiful-people, trendy vibe. But its past contains a dark genetic nightmare.
It's no walk in the park to be born, for mom or baby. A new study hopes to shed light on just how stressful an average, uneventful delivery is on the fetal head and brain.
To this question, James Mattis once famously answered, "Nothing. I keep other people awake at night." But not everybody is as courageously confident as this General. So what are the top health and safety concerns on the minds of security officials? Let's take a look.
While random gun violence in a hospital makes headlines, there are more pervasive forms of violence against caregivers that don't make the news. Perhaps they should. Let's take a look.
The Amazon tycoon has big plans for space. He envisions a future in which a "trillion" (yes, a trillion!) people live in giant, rotating spaceships like that one from the movie 'Passengers." There are some scientific problems with his argument. Let's take a look.
“Would you like to come up and see my etchings?” may very well be the oldest of all bad pick-up lines. And believe it or not, Its origins can be traced back to the early use of hydrofluoric acid that was used to etch designs on glass.
Nudges are a no-cost way of influencing peoples' decisions, and policymakers love 'em. Some nudges work better than others. Is it an appeal to our intellect, our feelings, or where a product sits on the supermarket shelf that most effectively alters our food choices? Let's find out.
Given the uncertainty and risk of wrong interpretation, should you have your telomeres measured? Maybe, if the results motivate healthy lifestyle changes. For now, a surer bet for healthy aging would be to spend the money on exercise programs and nutritious foods instead.
We all make mistakes, but errors by physicians can lead to significant harm to patients. Can we learn from our mistakes? A new study looks for common threads in one area: misdiagnosis.
Get this: 5G activists say that wireless technology causes cancer; cardiovascular disease; DNA damage; learning and memory deficits; impaired sperm function and quality; miscarriage; neurological damage; obesity; diabetes; as well as autism; attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD); and asthma in children. That's a pretty scary list. A nuclear bomb can't even do all that.
Controversy abounds in prostate cancer. It can involve who and when to screen, and which treatment is the best. A recent study looks at what's been less controversial: the adjunctive use of androgen deprivation therapy. It appears to increase the risk of dementia.
A recent scare headline from CNN proclaimed that "a small glass of juice or soda a day is linked to increased risk of cancer, study finds." Ooh! That's really bad. Or it is? So many dietary studies turn out to be nonsense; they are the product of flawed observational studies. How about this one? Angela Dowden lets us know.
Just what we don't need: Another anti-opioid (pro-pain) zealot spreading the false gospel. But we have one anyhow and his name is Jerome Adams, M.D, the U.S. Surgeon General. Adams cites a 2015 paper -- from an emergency department in Tehran, Iran as evidence! -- that IV Tylenol works as well as morphine. Too bad the paper doesn't say that. Or anything else either.
Curing cancer is a misleading term. Cancer is far too complex to be treated as a single disease. Doing so would be akin to coming up with a pill that cures all viral infections -- something that's all but impossible. In his second of a multi-part series on the issues and obstacles facing cancer researchers, our new Senior Fellow Dr. Chris Gerry discusses the multiple challenges that must be overcome, and a new paradigm for treating the disease at the genetic level.
The development of new antibiotics is as much about money as it is about science. ACSH advisor Dr. David Shlaes writes about biotechs, IPOs, disappointed investors, market cap, and CEO egos.
A new study shows physicians "over-prescribing" the length of treatment for pneumonia. We seem to restart therapy at discharge.
The Trump Administration recently issued two executive orders relating to biomedical science. The first involved the regulation of biotechnology products; the second involved transparency in healthcare costs. We believe both are a step in the right direction.
Scientists from two universities and the National Institutes of Health are developing a vaccine to defeat norovirus' defense mechanism: mutation. By targeting a "conserved region" -- the part of the viral capsid that does not mutate -- they have discovered an antibody that may cover most strains that circulate now, as well as those that might circulate in the future.
In the never-ending campaign to demonize any drug that could possibly be abused, a physicians group at the University of Pennsylvania claims that music is a viable alternative to Versed (a benzodiazepine) in calming patients before outpatient surgery. But it is not. All you have to do is read the paper and this becomes obvious. Better orthodoxy, worse medicine.
The problem of high drug prices is multifaceted and complex. Referring to the pharmaceutical industry employing "crooks" might be good for some cheap applause, but it's demoralizing to the thousands of scientists who work in it. Senator Sanders should apologize.
Here's what's in store this time: A bit of beautiful writing (really a meditation) on working with your hands. A possible explanation for why some objects become tainted, i.e. wrapped in the shadows of its origins, like "blood diamonds." Wealth work in the gig economy. And finally, another rapidly diminishing resource: sand.
Pagination
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