Search results

Another day, another destructive, politically-motivated attack on e-cigarettes, based on the always-useful protect our children mantra. Smokers trying to quit are tossed under the bus.

Last week, a bill was introduced into Congress that would preempt any efforts by state legislatures to require manufacturers to label the presence of genetically-engineered ingredients in their products.

The latest news on biotechnology including President Obama's clear endorsement, why biotechnology saves lives, plus the chocolate milk experiment that left a sour taste in students' mouths.

Am I going to be an outcast? A friend, who recently moved to an upscale neighborhood in Madison, Wis., called me last week to ask if she would be able to make mommy friends if she continued

For years, if not decades, we ve been hearing that a diet high in fruits and vegetables and low in red meats and fats will prevent various forms of cancer. True? Well, not so much.

Eating disorders are often construed as a woman s issue. Today, however, about 10 to 15 percent of those with eating disorders

New CDC report explores the toll of preventable deaths in our nation. The figures are staggering, but parsing the immediate vs. underlying causes, plus geographic distributions may help reduce the loss.

At ACSH we shout a lot. Sometimes even at each other. But most of the time it takes the form of shoutouts to like-minded writers and websites (and there aren t

According to a recent article in the New England Journal of Medicine, there is both good and bad news about diabetes. The bad news is that the occurrence of diabetes tripled between1990 and 2010 in the United States. We shouldn t be surprised at this, since obesity prevalence a major risk factor for diabetes has also increased. The good news, however, is that the rate of the major complications of diabetes has dropped significantly over that same period of time.

The Vaccine for Children program was established in 1994 in response to the measles outbreak of 1989, when uninsured

Dr. Mark Lorch, who is a senior lecturer in biological chemistry at the UK s University of Hull, seems to be channeling what we at ACSH have been saying for years:

Cancer treatment and cures are the elusive goals of millions of people, including patients, familial caregivers, medical providers, and researchers. Although certain cancers are indeed curable, many of

Gluten-free diets are all the rage now, as we here at ACSH have discussed, but many of the people choosing this diet don t even know what gluten is. Jimmy Kimmel proves this point on a recent episode of his show. Some of the answers will shock you.
In light of Jimmy Kimmel segment, we took the liberty of answering correctly his questions about gluten in this video.

More political claptrap on the threat to our youth of e-cigarettes, from the usual crowd of Democratic senators, only in a more formal arena. And the CDC and FDA seem to disagree, a bit. How did the clown Harkin get to be a public health arbiter?

It s starting to feel a little bit like summer on the East coast now, which means people are clean up their yards and gardens. And that means using chemicals, which according to an op-ed by

One thing that everyone should know by now is that smoking during pregnancy can harm a baby in several ways. For example, smokers babies are typically smaller than they should be, and their lungs may be less well developed than those of babies born to non-smokers. However, despite these well-publicized facts, recent data from the CDC indicate that over 12 percent of pregnant women smoke.

If there is a better example of the law of unintended consequences we have never seen it.
The incredibly successful battle against HIV/AIDS has saved many lives, and will no doubt continue to save many more. Once HAART (highly active antiretroviral therapy) drugs, aka cocktails, became available in 1995, there was a steep drop in the number of AIDS deaths in the US.

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) an organization not exactly known for its acceptance of modern technology has given its OK to a new genetically engineered soybean produced by Monsanto.

Since the 1960s there has been a highly effective and safe drug to reverse the effects of narcotics (mostly heroin) overdoses. Naloxone (Narcan) is found in every emergency room and if it is administered in time it is almost miraculous. A person who has had a overdose even those who are near death (narcotics will stop you from breathing if you take too much) will wake up instantly.

If not well-controlled, diabetes either type 1 or type 2 can result in a number of debilitating complications. Some or these are due to negative effects on small blood vessels or microvasculature throughout the body. Thus, problems with vessels in the eyes (retinopathy), kidneys (nephropathy) and nervous system (neuropathy), can result in blindness, kidney damage, and/or pain and numbness in the legs and feet, respectively.

We at ACSH have written frequently about the misguided change in mindset by the FDA two decades ago that brought most antibiotic research to a dead stop.
No one has been deeper in the FDA trenches than ACSH advisor and infectious disease expert Dr. David Shlaes. He has been blogging, advising, lobbying, begging, and doing just about everything short of pulling his hair out to convince the infectious disease division of the FDA to reverse the disastrous changes in clinical trial policy that caused almost all drug companies to abandon research in this area.

We were rather perturbed to see a piece by Julie Revelant on FoxNews.com this week called 10 Ways to Rid Your Body of Toxic Chemicals.

Concern voiced over the so-called paucity of federal inspections of gas and oil exploration sites. In fact, there are as yet no reports of actual harms, contaminations, or anything to be actually fearful of. Still, anti-frackers will go wild over nothing, as usual.

We at ACSH do not deal with climate-related issues it is beyond our scope. But ACSH friend and founder of the immensely popular blog Science 2.0 site has no such reservations. However, Campbell's take on climate change has nothing to do with whether it is occurring, and, if so, what is causing it. It is about groups that want to eliminate the use of fossil fuels, using climate change as one handy excuse, and the tactics

Pregnant women are inundated with information about what to do and what not to do during pregnancy, what to eat and what not to eat, and often that information varies depending on who