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All types of arguments are made to refute: a study; bad measurements; flawed analysis; and the insidious evil intent (or at least bias). A new analysis seeks to describe conflicted interests. (Spoiler alert for those ready to blame Big Pharma, Big Device, and prescribers. They are only the tip of the iceberg.)

'Tis the season. As we turn to the holidays, their spiritual meanings, and the liminal moment as we end another extraordinary pandemic year, we should take stock of our position. We should consider that a bit of DNA, far smaller than we can see, that we could not imagine until 1892 has brought the world to its collective knees. Where exactly do we stand in the grand scheme of life?

Name’s Kluge. KLOO-GEE. Sam Kluge. I work for OSHA: S.Kruge, license 24680. One other thing you should know: I hate Christmas. No surprise they call me Skrugj.
So why do I hate Christmas?

The risk management of raw cookie dough, the psychic and physical energy spent in engaging misery, Don’t look up, and the supply chain, quarterly profits, and too-just-in-time.

As Omicron continues to infect its way across America, let us not forget its viral companion: influenza. How is that working out?

Explaining a paradox of science, let nature bury the excess carbon, Power, and letting go – at least of our notes.

The Michelson Philanthropy Prize in Immunology was awarded on Feb. 24 to Dr. Paul Bastard at the Necker Hospital for Sick Children in Paris. Why should you care? Because his work helps us better understand the biology of why some die from COVID-19, while others are seemingly – and are – immune.

MIT’s first female student and professor, why nutritional studies go awry, a Carl Sagan Moment, and “clandestine” Chinese scientists and our northern neighbor.

Socioeconomic risk factors have gotten much attention as they relate to disparities in health outcomes. Lower income, lower educational attainment, and so-called lifestyle issues – drinking, smoking, eating, and exercise – seem to be fellow travelers. A new mediation analysis seeks to disentangle them and point us toward the real drivers of health disparity.

Polling the population for their opinions and views has a long history. But are we most informed by the opinions categorized by race and gender, or might we learn more by viewing thoughts among like-minded individuals – like birds of a feather? A new study suggests how we consider how we cluster and flock.

Death seems like it would be a pretty discrete data point with little ambiguity. After all, you either are or are not dead. But as it does so often, the meaning of death in health research is more complex than that simple binary choice. A new study of death and dying in Denmark provides food for thought about how best to use that discrete endpoint to better understand the care we provide.

Last week, many in the community of pain patients and their physicians did a victory lap over the decision by the Supreme Court in the case of two pain specialists, Xiulu Ruan, MD, and Shakeel Kahn, MD. Their separate cases were joined, and the opinion of the “Supremes” was misinterpreted in some quarters. They were not found innocent; the Court found that the instructions to the jury were in error and remanded the case back for adjudication. I have been following the case for a long time now, and it continues to gnaw at me in a contrarian way.

Cato Institute's Dr. Jeff Singer (also a member of the ACSH Scientific Advisory Board) is none too pleased with both the CDC and FDA and the way they've handled monkeypox. It seems lessons from COVID-19 have gone unlearned.

One of our readers asked why we only emphasize marijuana’s downside? In the continuing effort to rid the healthcare system of opioids, cannabinoids, the active components in marijuana, have been mentioned with increased frequency. A recent article in the Annals of Internal Medicine looked at the accumulated evidence as researchers performed a meta-analysis and systemic review of the literature. Here is what they found. Spoiler alert: patients with chronic pain will have to “toke on a lot more blunts” before we have less ambiguous data.

The real value of coffee
The public square must be not only civil but open to grace
The hidden life of avocados
The Sound of Movies

For years, we’ve heard that social media is dangerous- especially to kids. The data was sketchy, but the anecdotal reports horrific - the perfect ground for band-aid remedies, poorly thought-out responses, inadequate legislation, and lawyers trolling for personal injury clients. But now, it seems a new threat has been detected: Addiction. Is it real? Other countries seem to think so.

Lead in drinking water became a political and media cause celebre in 2014 when there were reports of child “lead poisoning” in Flint, Michigan, after the notorious and unfortunate water supply blunders. The Flint problem could easily have been avoided with some common sense and legally required water management procedures.

The “hard problem” – nuclear waste
Our bookshelves speak to our inner nature.
A sustainable diet is not a choice of meat or plants; it is meat and plants.

China is 'seeding' clouds to increase rainfall and fight a severe drought. Will it work? A large body of research shows that soda taxes are ineffective, so why do public health experts continue to endorse them? Finally, has climate change increased the number of heart attacks we suffer? No.

Medice, cura te ipsum. Physician, heal thyself. That is just what the CDC is beginning to do based on a recently published in-house structural review. Leave aside the shame and blame game of amnesty. What does the CDC believe it did wrong and could do better?

To what degree does a patient’s belief that treatment will succeed influence care outcome? Can a study of treating appendicitis with antibiotics shed some light on the role of faith in our care?

Making books
A Forest bath’s physiologic effects
Animals in the business zoo
Moynihan was right – It’s time to talk about absent fathers

Steal like an artist, Bob Dylan edition
India, Big Pharma to the World
Has tipping reached a tipping point?
Truffles or the magic of chemistry?

How physicians communicate with their peers and their patients has come under more scrutiny of late. Patient access to “open” notes has raised concern about physicians using hurtful terms. A new paper considers the problem of physicians communicating with their patients unconsciously using jargon that obstructs rather than facilitates understanding.

Lessons from the immune system
The silent Award Season is upon us
How music touches us
For Thom, saving coffee from warming, global warming