Public health advocates regularly promote bans on flavored liquids, or e-liquids, used in e-cigarettes, arguing that they prompt teenagers to take up vaping and ultimately “hook” them on nicotine. While this is a reasonable concern, the evidence shows that banning flavored e-liquids would discourage adult smokers from giving up cigarettes and do little to quell teen vaping, which is low in both the U.S. and U.K.
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Rarely does a week go by without some rather strange stories emerging about science and medicine. This past week was no exception.
From an American Dental Association publication to Yahoo!, ACSH has been all over the media in recent days! Take a look at what we've been up to.
We are holobionts, those who thrive in a saline environment, crafting of at least two species living in close proximity with one another. The other species is our gut microbiome, those microbial communities residing in our bowels and providing us with nutrients and signals. There's no denying their importance. But not as much can be said for probiotics –- the live microorganisms marketed to us with claims to better our health.
For patients taking multiple medications, one extended-release pill increases their compliance in taking the medication, as compared with two immediate-release pills. So if we want to encourage compliance, why are extended-release pills more expensive than what they replace?
Your dog doesn't need to drink orange juice. There are evolutionary and biochemical reasons why humans need to consume vitamin C but dogs -- and many other animals -- do not.
Today, the only thing reliable about the collective media – both American and international – is how unreliable they are. Even on vital issues, like the coronavirus, they succumb to sensationalism and conspiracy theories. Is it any wonder, then, that more people are turning away?
Are toxicologists medical doctors? And what does a person need to know to become a toxicologist? Dr. Michael Dourson, aka America's Toxicologist, and Dr. Bernard Gadagbui explain the field of toxicology.
Historically, microbiologists named new diseases after locations, animals or people. To this day, flu strains are named after the city in which they were first isolated. Obviously, that's because microbiologists are racist. Right?
The job of a pharmacist is as tough as ever, and the term "pharmacist burnout" is now become common. ACSH advisor Dr. Jeff Singer has an intriguing solution: Using vending machines to dispense certain prescription drugs. What do you think? Check this out.
A blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of 0.08% while driving is considered impaired, and it's associated with an increase in motor vehicle accidents. But what about a “quick pop”? You know, being buzzed? How does that figure into the thinking? A new study sifts through the data.
Dr. David Shlaes' primary expertise is in bacterial infections and antibiotics. So it's not surprising that our ACSH advisor is wondering about secondary bacterial infections from coronavirus infections. Will there be antibiotics to combat the infections this time? How about next time?
For epidemiologists, the most important unanswered question about the Wuhan coronavirus, or COVID-19, is the case-fatality rate. But for the general public, the question is much more personal: "Might I – or anyone I love – get sick and die?"
In the world of antibiotics, stewardship means using drugs carefully to preserve what still works. Antibiotic R&D is the path to new antibiotics, which will (by necessity) result in a drug company (gasp!) making money. Some say that the two are mutually exclusive. ACSH advisor Dr. David Shlaes (pictured) argues otherwise.
Here's what's on tap this time: Is a midlife crisis an unavoidable part of being a social animal? ... Is there an underlying science to scaling an idea, device, or pharmaceutical from the lab to the real-world? ... And what can older companies teach us?
Much of the discussion around immigration has to do with the impact on the countries receiving the newcomers. But when speaking of coveted "workers," like physicians for instance, perhaps we should consider the effects on the countries they're leaving.
At first glance, rheumatoid arthritis and coronavirus have little in common. But an underlying pathological mechanism that involves an over-reactive immune response may allow a drug developed to treat arthritis to save the lives of coronavirus victims.
We wrote a little over a month ago about the large number of institutions not reporting study results, as required on ClinicalTrials.gov. Now, Stat reports that a federal court has ruled that those reports must be filed, although the timeframe for compliance remains ambiguous.
"Test here. Test now. Test, baby, test!" has become the conventional wisdom for handling the COVID-19 pandemic. But false positives and false negatives create substantial problems for mass testing.
If or when the economy collapses -- and especially if the virus keeps spreading anyway -- public sentiment will change quickly and drastically. Americans' trust in the medical establishment may be shaken. Like ventilators, the national supply of goodwill isn't unlimited.
A South Korean company named Seoul Semiconductor claims to have developed an ultraviolet light-emitting diode (UV LED) that can kill 99.9% of SARS-CoV-2 in 30 seconds.
Children's Health Defense says governments and corporations are using the coronavirus (SARS-COV-2) to advance a "global immunization agenda." The anti-vaccine group claims that our leaders just needed the right pandemic as a pretext to goad us into getting vaccines. This is a clever story. It's also false.
The United States has failed on so many fronts. There was a lack of intelligence during the early days of the epidemic in China. A lack of preparedness for testing that directly led to our current situation. A national stockpile of supplies exists just for events like COVID-19, but it is woefully undersupplied and, clearly, our plans for re-supply are completely inadequate. Let's review the history of our approach to pandemic preparedness and the current testing debacle.
Different countries may appear to have different death rates, but only because they have applied different sampling and reporting policies to their accounting efforts. It's not necessarily because they are managing the virus any better, or that the virus has infected fewer, or more, people.
It's pretty clear by now that the statistics on COVID-19 are a hot mess. One news report quoted Betsy McCaughey, New York's former lieutenant governor, characterizing nursing homes as "death pits." Is the underlying problem something we should have known, or already measured? Or is this another healthcare disparity that we have chosen to ignore, which COVID-19 subsequently revealed? Let's take a look.
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