What on earth is going on over at the FDA?
Recently, they have been facing some very difficult issues regarding narcotic pain medications. In particular, as pointed out by ACSH s Dr. Josh Bloom in his December 2nd op-ed in The New York Post, they just enacted a rule change that, ostensibly in the interest of combating drug abuse, will make it much more difficult for patients with legitimate need for drugs to control moderate-to-severe pain to get the medicines they need a seriously flawed idea.
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Well, we can all rest a little uneasier today: thanks to a new EPA appointee, there will be a sudden and profound uptick in the environmental agency s integrity when evaluating research and formulating scientific policies. Not.
Now, another, recently-discovered mutant gene seems to be associated with a 38 percent increased risk of having a heart attack, in men at least. And the gene was found in about one-eighth of those men tested, making this quite an interesting and potentially highly important risk factor.
The bad news is that any way you cut it, rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a disabling systemic disease that can flare unpredictably. It is an autoimmune disease, meaning that the
Dr. Josh Bloom in TV interview about the unadulterated junk science behind a phony scare about premature infant deaths near a nuclear power plant in Huntsville, AL. The scare worked, but the data sure don t. Read more
Bees, honeybees in particular, are crucial for our agricultural production. Pollination is basically a function of honeybees, and many fruits, vegetables and legumes are dependent upon these insects doing their job.
Dr. Gilbert Ross op-ed in Forbes.com, January 23, 2014.
Whatever became of urban sophistication, especially on matters scientific and technological? We lifelong city folk cultivated a nasty habit of looking down on the denizens of the flyover regions as hayseeds, believing the sun revolved around the earth ¦[Read more.]
In recent years a surprising amount of the orthodoxy of modern medicine has been challenged, and this has resulted in some counterintuitive, even surprising findings.
For example, the PSA test for detecting prostate cancer is so flawed that some healthcare professionals are in favor of doing away with it entirely. The primary reason: too many false positives, leading to unnecessary (and very invasive) procedures, with very few lives actually saved.
Between 2003 and 2010, the annual number of high chair-related injuries rose by over 22 percent, according to a study in the journal Clinical Pediatrics
The New York Times bemoans the fate of smokers in America. Reminding us that tomorrow marks the 50th anniversary of the first Surgeon General s report on smoking, the editors wish there were more that could be done for the 44 million smokers. They do not mention what that might be.
Although the 2004 documentary by Morgan Spurlock blamed his 30-day Mickey-D diet for a decline in health and increased weight, we have shown that it s possible to eat at McDonald s for 30 days and actually improve health for both men and women. Now that conclusion has been further substantiated by Mr. John Cisna of Akeny, Iowa.
The anti-vaccine crowd perhaps a little discouraged after the complete and thorough debunking of any link between vaccination and autism will probably scream bloody murder. Except, (as always) it will be about nothing. Or in this case, almost nothing.
In a new study just published in the New England Journal of Medicine, Dr. S.A. Cunningham of Emory University and colleagues reported that later incidence (new cases) of obesity is greater for children who are overweight as early as kindergarten.
A large population study suggests men should tread carefully when it comes to testosterone treatments as the therapies have been linked to an increased risk of cardiac problems. But questions remain whether the drug or behavior change is to blame.
In yesterday s New York Times, former ACSH trustee and FDA researcher Drs. Henry Miller, currently at the Hoover Institution, and Jayson Lusk of Oklahoma State University, discuss the various reasons why
The Super Bowl telecast is a fitting venue to truthfully inform smokers about low-risk e-cigarettes. Not only TV ads, but enticing them toward less-harmful behavior using less-informative but more attractive methods out on Super Bowl Avenue may help reduce smoking s toll.
In her Personal Health column in the New York Times, Jane Brody tackles perhaps the greatest problem facing public health professionals today how to get smokers to quit, or prevent non-smokers from ever starting.
Another attempt at requiring labeling of genetically modified foods has been defeated, this time in New Hampshire. The bill, which would have required all foods that contain products of genetic engineering
Glaucoma is a leading cause of blindness around the world; it is characterized by increased pressure within the eye. There are actually several types of glaucoma, and the type called open-angle glaucoma (OAG) is the most common.
Dr. Shoa L. Clarke admits he was a vocal opponent of GMOs back when he was a young proto-scientist and activist. But once he began to study genetics, he learned the facts about bioengineering and
According to Dr. Mark Grabowsky, of the Office of the (UN) Secretary General s Special Envoy, referring to the dramatic reduction in contagious diseases over the past century, The elimination of the diseases from the Americas is a triumph of public health. And how do we explain that triumph? It s
ACSH s Dr. Josh Bloom was invited to be a regular contributor to the very popular website called Science 2.0. Their site traffic is about 1 million visits per month, and together with our new recent media exposure three quotes in USA Today we believe that the ACSH message will soon be heard by many more people.
More than 90 percent of the United States population has received the measles vaccination. Because of our effective vaccination programs, measles is no longer endemic in the US and has not been for over a decade.
Mouse study purports to demonstrate dangers of...what? Third-hand smoke? How low can peer-reviewed science go before it falls into the depths of space and time? This low.
Pagination
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