Blowing out candles on a birthday cake. Blah! You'd think this wretched ritual would have disappeared long ago, especially once Covid made its appearance. But people are still doing it. Furthermore, the science to determine whether this practice can make you sick is faulty. Have a strong stomach.
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As long as we don't run out of chemicals, we will never run out of chemical scares. Most are unfounded, especially the current one – that the use of methylene chloride to decaffeinate coffee will somehow harm you. The numbers say otherwise. There is nothing to worry about here.
On January 11, the CPSC issued a statement of concern about emissions from gas stoves while stating that it had no plans to ban them. Here are the comments I have submitted to the Commission during its public comment period. It’s time for the larger issue of indoor air pollution to get its due.
Critical Economic Theory is not a new concept. Like critical race theory (which is seen through a more controversial lens), CET seeks to examine and understand how systemic economics is ingrained in various aspects of society, including law, institutions, and social structures.
The media reports that colchicine, a very old drug, has now been discovered to reduce the risk of recurrent heart disease and has a new FDA indication. Of course, the “discovery” has taken 10 years, and the data for the FDA approval is from 2020. Just how helpful will colchicine be to you and me?
In case you haven’t noticed, the coronavirus is still with us. The First Lady has COVID-19, and cases and hospitalizations are rising. Some people where I live are wearing masks, and one of them has Long Covid. The virus is likely in our sanitary sewer systems, and we are responsible for putting it there.
You may want to procure an air sickness bag before you read this. What's worse: A cigarette company portraying smoking as sexy (and it's not the least bit subtle) or a 1970 ad proudly proclaiming, "You've come a long way, baby" (as if the women's rights movement somehow empowered women by giving them their own brand of cigarettes)?
COVID-19 vaccination significantly lowers the risks of severe neonatal morbidity, neonatal death, and admission to the neonatal intensive care unit in infants during the first month after birth. Protection continues for six months after birth.
The COVID-19 pandemic has virtually – but not entirely – disappeared from public concerns. Nevertheless, new variants are being examined, as are new vaccines intended to counter them.
Now that prospective parents have the option to genetically design their kids (at least to a point), what does this mean to society in terms of other responsibilities involved in child-making?
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that "the liberty secured by the Constitution of the United States to every person within its jurisdiction does not import an absolute right in each person to be, at all times and in all circumstances, wholly freed from restraint. There are manifold restraints to which every person is necessarily subject for the common good." Mask and vaccine mandates, therefore, are, under some circumstances, constitutional.
Last week an article in City Journal wrote about a “scoping review” of the physical harms of masks. It is time for a bit of debunking. A note to the tl:dr – the too long, didn't read among us, it takes more words to correct a mistruth than to propagate one.
The 2016 and 2022 CDC opioid prescribing guidelines were based on the assertion that doctor over-prescribing to patients has been a major cause of opioid use disorder and overdose-related deaths. Published
data from the CDC and other sources reveals that this assertion was incorrect – and the CDC knew it was incorrect when it published its guidelines.
Once a touchy-feely, consciousness-raising New Age experience, it's now an occasion for environmental activists to prophesy apocalypse, dish antitechnology dirt, and allow passion and zeal to trump reality.
The chemistry of global warming (GW) driven by heat-trapping air pollutants is measured and reported. Various mathematical models have been used to project future global scenarios. Since natural sources of greenhouse agents are largely beyond our control, here we focus on anthropogenic sources mainly involving combustion – typically byproducts, rather than end products. I use statistical methods to estimate the situation in 2050.
Every January, we cycle through the usual New Year’s resolutions tied to weight loss, exercise, and drugs, especially nicotine and alcohol. This year is no different; everything old is new again. My resolution is to begin a new January tradition of picking my favorite fad detox, cleanse, or diet and debunking it. This year, we’re tackling Dr. Josh Axe’s Detox Your Liver: A 6-Step Liver Cleanse.
For many complex medical devices such as endoscopes, sterilizing with ethylene oxide is the only method that does the job without damaging the device during the process. Approximately 50% of all sterile medical devices in the U.S. make use of ethylene oxide. The EPA’s ethylene oxide risk assessment demonstrates what happens when faulty data and bad modeling is used as the basis of regulatory policy.
The National Physician Residency Match pairs about-to-graduate medical students and some already graduated, to residency training programs, a necessary step in gaining a medical license. Physicians’ “Match madness” just ended, and self-congratulations and hand-wringing were found throughout the media.
I still remember the thrill I felt when I made my first scientific discovery – feeling that the late nights and hard work had all been worth it. I remember, too, the feeling that, at that moment, I knew something that nobody else – anywhere – knew or had ever known. It was a heady feeling. And then I wanted to tell everyone!
Lloyd Austin returned to the hospital for complications following his prostate surgery for cancer. African Americans have the highest incidence of prostate cancer in the world. For many, it doesn't have the relatively indolent course that's commonly described as the most common cancer in men (excluding skin cancers).
A recent study looked at excess deaths among physicians during the time of COVID. While there were more deaths than anticipated, physicians fared better than the general population despite being on the front lines. What might that mean?
Fast fashion refers to quickly designed clothing, easily produced from low-cost (cheap) materials and offered in trendy stores. Zara might be considered a fast fashion’s model. But what becomes of those no longer desirable clothes when the trend changes and the fashion shifts?
This story begins with a simple question: What is the prevalence of substance use disorders in patients surviving cancers? The “substances” in those use disorders can be causes of cancer and, more often, self-treatments for the stress and pain.
What is our most important organ? Every time there was a new lecturer in medical school, they began by pointing out why their organ of interest was the most important. After all:
Deaths of despair, death from alcoholism, drug overdoses, and suicides have become a consistent explanation for the increasing mortality in middle-aged White males. A new viewpoint calls our attention to the deaths of despair among Native Americans.
Pagination
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