Why are there so many scary stories about common foods and products causing cancer? An excellent blog-essay explains quite a lot about how science (or science-y) journalism works. It may confuse or scare you, but not as much as the so-called research does.
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When it comes to which foods are healthy and which foods are not, everyone has an opinion and whether you re right or wrong there s probably science to back you up. This makes it difficult for you, the consumer, to make the right choices.
The 2009 law which gave the FDA oversight over tobacco products the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act (FSPTCA, the TCA) is one of the worst laws ever enacted. In the guise of reining in the health risks of tobacco products, promulgated to a great extent by the fraudulent, deceptive manipulations of the Big Tobacco companies last century, the law instead does close to nothing of the sort while erecting substantial obstacle
The field of personalized medicine continues to explode. We have discussed the nascent approach of tailoring cancer treatments to specific gene mutations rather than the type of cancer. Although results have been mixed, many researchers believe that this is the future of cancer therapy, replacing the traditional scattershot approach.
Since 2006, there has been a slow and steady drumbeat against trans fats in foods. Decades ago, when Natural Resources Defense Council and various other food fallacy groups latched onto saturated fats, we cautioned that the studies were epidemiological correlation, not science, and that the alternative might be worse.
Everyone wants transparency about their food, at least on surveys, but few people actually read the labels.
Most people believe that paid Conflict of Interest King Andrew Wakefield launched the anti-vaccination movement with his infamous Lancet article which described a purported relationship between vaccines and autism. However, the anti-vaccination movement is almost as old as vaccines themselves.
The Lancet, the same journal that brought the world Andrew Wakefield's vaccine-autism link, may have done the same thing for the people who think bees are dying. They have published a paper that makes some bold statements on the relatio
It is an understatement to say that antibiotic resistance is a major problem facing our healthcare system. Every year 2 million Americans are infected with resistant bacteria, and at least 23,000 people die each year from these infections. Each year MRSA kills about as many people as HIV. Compounding this problem is the fact that companies (factory farms?) are actively contributing to this problem (
The latest CDC report on waterborne illnesses reveals an unexpected villain: Cryptosporidium is a parasite that seems to have been responsible for about one-half of the 90 outbreaks over the two years 2011-12. Simple precautionary measures will help avert illness.
Few industries evoke an emotional response greater than the pharmaceutical industry. This cannot be surprising, since drug companies are typically viewed by the public as either providing miraculous life-altering therapies, or greedy instruments of Satan. There is little middle ground.
So, it is rather surprising that a new law, called the 21st Century Cures Act, has been overwhelmingly approved by the House, 344-77 on July 10th.
The new law, also known as H.R. 6, gives more latitude to the FDA in tailoring its safety and efficacy requirements for the approval of breakthrough medicines. Such drugs (as well as breakthrough medical devices) that are given this designation will no
A new study published in JAMA reports that the labels on most edible marijuana products either overstate or understate the amount of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC -- the active component in cannabis) that they contain.
Genius or Dangerous? We say the latter.
Mothers who are not able to breastfeed are now starting to accept breast milk donations from other mothers or paying for breast milk obtained from online services. These breast milk donations and purchases the method sounds eerily similar to E-bay are unregulated and may actually be very dangerous for the baby.
In an op-ed in the NYTimes, a cardiologist bemoans the unintended consequences of state-mandated report cards designed to evaluate care by individual practitioners. He shows how these reports, created to enhance transparency, do the opposite and harm patients and doctors.
We ve been avidly following the progress of California s vaccine law, and we are pleased to note that it is slated to take effect in 2016.
One medical topic that is now widely debated is breast cancer screening especially when should women begin being screened, and how effective screening is in decreasing deaths from the disease.
It has been 13 years since the publication of the Women s Health Initiative (WHI) studies in 2002 that examined the role of menopausal hormone replacement therapy (HRT) in the prevention of cardiovascular disease. It can be argued that never before or since has a medical study generated such controversy by the media and scientific community.
What s a person to do, when on the one hand it s clear that many Americans are being under-treated for a dangerous condition, while on the other, too many of us are getting way too much care. The lesson: especially when it comes to our health, too much is as bad as too little.
ACSH friend John Stossel, writing for Reason.org, calls out the EPA for its much-too-cozy relationship with activist groups espousing environmental causes. But the NGOs goals are ideological, not scientific. Perhaps the best example: NRDC and its revolving-door with the federal environmental agency.
With Pepsi capitalizing on public confusion about the difference between a "good" and "bad" sweetener in order to gain some market share by selling competing versions of their diet soda, it's important that consumers have a trusted resource that can separate fact from fallacy. The American Council on Science and Health has once again stepped in to be a trusted guide. Is sugar for you? Do diet drinks cause obesity?
It has been well established that bariatric surgery is perhaps the most effective means of reducing both body weight and comorbid conditions associated with obesity.
To people in science, organic coffee always seemed a little silly, because you don't eat coffee beans any more than you eat the shell of a pineapple, and by the time you do get to the consumable part, whether or not the toxic pesticide on the plant was an organic one or a synthetic one has ceased to be relevant.
U.S. Preventive Services Task Force is in the process of updating their recommendations for depression screening, now urging family physicians to regularly screen patients for depression. While the recommendation is for all
In the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, a writer named Leon Stafford demonstrates why Americans don't trust corporate health and science journalism and prefer to get it from experts like the American Council on Science and Health.
When I was 17 years old I had every place kicker s nightmare: ingrown toenails. Worse was that I ignored the problem for too long and had to have them professionally removed. My pediatrician referred me to a local podiatrist and I left school early one day to get my toes clipped.
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