OK, America. Time to finally but down that second burger and that extra-large soda. A new CDC report shows that for the first time in 22 years, life expectancy for the average American has dropped. Heart disease, which remains the leading cause of death, is directly linked to nation's ubiquitous overeating epidemic.
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As players adapt to the National Hockey League's updated concussion protocol, several who have taken head blows received on-the-spot medical evaluations. But as to whether the safety guidelines are working as intended, it's worth scrutinizing a recent controversial incident involving the NHL's leading scorer, Connor McDavid.
More vaccinations mean fewer people are getting preventable diseases. But 2016 was a year filled with the fervor of the anti-vaxxer movement. And alarmingly, that dangerous zeal for stopping this effective public health measure, which helps save the lives of children, looks like it is ramping up as we head into 2017.
By now, anyone even slightly versed in health issues understands that cigarette smoking can irretrievably damage the lungs — whether via lung cancer or other disease processes. Even those who've never smoked may develop these conditions. A recent study indicates that never-smoking women are more likely to develop COPD than never-smoking men.
An egg carton might be festooned with various labels about how the hens are treated and what the eggs do, or don't, contain. Some provide some valid information for the consumer, but others fall into the "true but misleading" category. Here's a breakdown of the different types of incredible edibles.
Despite 50,000 emergency visits for carbon monoxide poisoning each year in the U.S., there is no effective way to treat it. That could change, thanks to some very clever work being done at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.
To kick off our "12 Days of Christmas" holiday list, highlighting the top stories that we've debunked this year, we start with ... the perennial nuisance, the National Resources Defense Council. Those folks made our 2016 list because they just love scaring people over nothing. Here are a few examples.
The proliferation of coffee shops and energy drinks clearly shows that caffeine is in high demand. The stimulant is even added to some medicine. However, because only a handful of plants produce it, there has been some interest in creating caffeine synthetically.
'Twas The Night Before Christmas, ACSH-style ...
Perhaps the strangest medical phenomenon discovered in recent years is a link between the lone star tick and an allergy to red meat.
It has long been clear that the fallout from our new, overly-restrictive policies on opioid use would harm the people who truly need these medicines. What was not clear is that I would become one of them. If this scares you, it should. I sure was.
It's surprising, but true. A California man was arrested for driving under the influence ... of caffeine! And given that millions of Americans consume 3+ cups of coffee per day, it's highly likely we're all guilty of driving while caffeinated. But does caffeine really impair our ability to get behind the wheel?
CDC head Tom Frieden recently quit his position. We are much better off without him. Here's a look at his many blunders — be sure to have a comfortable chair.
“At the moment, Careline users who fall at home have to wait for a paramedic to help them. But under the new policy, Careline staff will go to their aid and get the user sitting up and assess the situation before an ambulance is called, in a bid to cut the number of call-outs to falls paramedics receive.”
Smoking is bad. Bad for mom. Bad for the unborn and born baby alike. Now, a new study reinforces its adverse effect on the developing child, with a focus on the damage done to the kidneys.
It's a longstanding myth that suicides increase during the holiday season. Regardless, suicide is a major public health threat impacting all ages, careers, genders, and socioeconomic strata at alarming rates – throughout the calendar year.
The innovations of Dr. Henry Heimlich extended well beyond his famed anti-choking maneuver. The Heimlich Chest Drain Valve gets blood and air out of the chest cavity of soldiers shot there. He also developed the Heimlich MicroTrach, a tiny tube providing certain advantages to delivering oxygen into the trachea, and effectively the lungs.
We applaud the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety for its recent report highlighting the dangers of sleep-deprived driving. However, when one sees how the sleep data was gathered, uncertainty about its accuracy – as well as the study's corresponding conclusions on crash rates – creates some doubt.
Representing a cross between brilliant engineering and maximum product efficiency, in which the smallest particles of a valuable substance are put to extraordinary use, a team of scientists has created electrical wiring from the absolute smallest pieces of diamonds.
How small, you ask?
The researchers used material called "diamondoids" – microscopic dust if you will, called "cages," that contain hydrogen and just 10 carbon atoms.
Wrapped in the same warm bundle of joy with a new baby is a tremendous responsibility. Helping an infant grow to be healthy and free from injury into the teen years is an awesome task. Feeding, vaccination and child-proofing questions take a back seat to increasingly complex issues.The job of keeping your children healthy and safe is further complicated by myths and misconceptions about matters of safety and good health. Should a parent be concerned about lead poisoning? What about pesticides in food or carcinogens in the water supply?
Last week Senator Bill Frist made headlines with his apparent turnabout in favor of federal funding for research using embryonic stem cells (ESC) -- a break with the policy of President Bush. Almost all proponents of ESC (potentially far more flexible and thus conducive someday to far more treatments than adult stem cells) saw this as terrific news, while opponents -- including a full spectrum of religious groups and social conservatives -- characterized Frist as a traitor. But Frist may not have changed enough to keep him from stifling ESC after all.
This piece first appeared on HuffingtonPost.com.
Yesterday, your humble scribe revealed the fallacies in an Environmental Protection Agency s Formaldehyde Toxicity draft document on formaldehyde toxicity for an article posted on ACSH s Health Facts and Fears:
Another British news outlet, the Times Online, has a much saner article about debunking health myths that are propagated by celebrities. For example: "Heather Mills, former model: '[Meat] sits in your colon for forty years and eventually gives you the illness you die of. And that is a fact.' Melita Gordon, gastroenterologist at the University of Liverpool: 'Meat proteins, like all other proteins, are digested by enzymes, and absorbed in the small bowel before they ever reach the colon. Any indigestible matter is...expelled.'"
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