The FDA really doesn't want you taking pain meds. How strong is the agency's position on this? Pretty strong – enough to recommend that physicians receive extra education in alternative pain management methods. While that's fine in theory, one of the methods happens to be acupuncture, which is not fine at all.
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Two months after the first gene therapy for cancer was approved by the Food and Drug Administration, there is now another. Known as Yescarta, it will be used to treat adults with a type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, large B-cell lymphoma, who have failed to respond to other treatments.
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.
As the chick readies to hatch, the eggshell's inner surface weakens. How the hardness of eggshells is created by a matrix is fascinating biology. And it may give us insight into a more human problem: the hip fractures of old age.
Our culture is in crisis, ignoring that is malpractice.
When confronted with the truth, a prominent science journalist claimed that facts don't matter in op-eds. Science journalism is dead.
The only honest people are journalists. Such self-serving naïveté appears to be the creed at the website Undark. It's an outlet that claims, apparently with a straight face, to be interested only in "true journalistic coverage of the sciences."
Predictions have it that this year's flu strain is bad. Tragically, a California toddler's recent death reminds us of just how virulent the flu can be. And he won't be alone. There are roughly 100 pediatric deaths a year from the flu. To see just how soon we will be walloped by flu cases, take a look at the graph in this article.
Pregnancy comes with so many symptoms. Some are completely normal; others can be alarming. And some can be both. How can you tell when to call the doc?
Pregnancy means letting go of some of your favorite things — temporarily. As she wraps up her fifth month of pregnancy, here's what ACSH's Ana Dolaskie says she misses most. Hint: It rhymes with "shmeer."
In preparation for motherhood, ACSH's Ana Dolaskie says she's grateful to have her mother by her side. But does mom always know best? Well, most of the time. But sometimes daughter knows best, and perhaps when it matters most.
Perhaps Nick Kristof, the New York Times' non-expert on chemical toxicology, was on vacation. But the paper had a backup - Niraj Chokshi - to replace him. Chokshi is a psychology major who interviewed a member of the United States Public Interest Research Group, a bunch of lawyers, about scary chemicals in school supplies which aren't really scary at all.
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.)
Congress is considering changes to the privacy of our health data, specifically, our medical histories involving drug abuse and rehabilitation. Why are they treated differently? And should we change the rules? Balancing confidentiality with a physician's need to know is not always a simple decision.
One would think that in a world where facts can be easily verified, it shouldn't become so polarized. But a new paper in the European Journal for Philosophy of Science argues that polarization is the natural outcome when groups of people disagree. In fact, the authors document a major example of polarization within the scientific community itself.
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.
It's now apparent that two ideals of Hollywood culture – sexual liberty and feminism – are at odds with each other. Powerful people are still exploiting those they claim to care about.
The Pew Research Center asked scientists and non-scientists their opinions on various scientific topics: GMOs, global warming, pesticide usage, etc. The results are not surprising - there is a big gap between what those two groups think. The question is - why and what can be done to shrink the gap?
The game, Clue Master Detective, requires eight potential weapons. The CDC finds two are the most popular.
Time Magazine's Alice Park wrote a bizarre "letter' in JAMA, which apparently hoped to scare us about a group that found more glyphosate in urine samples than they expected. Her primary source: A guy with a "Ph.D" from an unaccredited institution who writes about yogic flying and ghosts.
Perhaps at some point, dietary supplement fans are going to wonder why they spent so much money on a bunch of stuff which ended up being useless. Regarding omega-3 fatty acid supplements from fish, and whether they have any impact on fatal heart attacks, nonfatal heart attacks, strokes, the results are in. Effectiveness: zilch.
In Part 1, we considered "the spread," which is the difference between the cost of a product or service and the price charged for it. Here it Part 2, we examine the factors and pressures that create this difference.
Here's an example of how a kernel of insight from a study evolves into a news item, which can then become a health concept that people can unwittingly incorporate into their personal exercise routines. And all for no good reason.
The FDA used Tipping Point Analysis to show that an important study of cholesterol-lowering medications is incorrect. So who got it wrong? The FDA or the New England Journal of Medicine, which peer-reviewed the work?
A recent article highlighted the animals responsible for human deaths in the United States. It is time they are exposed for the natural born killers they can be.
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