To a scientist, sugar is sugar.
To Whole Foods marketing experts, some sugars are superior to others (in the minds of their customers), so if they want to sell people "evaporated cane juice" in a cookie -- crystallized sugar from sugar cane, which is sugar -- well, they can.
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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.
In a way, science achieved a win in the battle over GMO crops in Europe.
However, since it's Europe the result ends up being more of the same for this increasingly anti-science continent.
The EU faces a vote on a proposal to loosen restrictions on growing GE crops and as the vote looms, countries like Ireland are trying to determine whic
The disconnect on the issue of marijuana between the federal government and state governments is causing some unexpected problems for growers. In states where marijuana is legal, l
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.
Earlier this week, we discussed two novel drugs that could potentially revolutionize the treatment and prevention of cardiovascular disease. Both drugs are antibodies, and work by an entirely new mechanism by binding to, and inactivating a protein called PCSK9. PCSK9 plays a part in the regulation of circulating cholesterol (homeostasis).
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.
One tactic promulgated by anti-smoking advocates over the years has been lowering the nicotine content of cigarettes to less-addictive levels. A new study by one such advocate seems to show that method will not help reduce the toll of smoking.
A non-scientist thinks he has discovered that GMOs contain formaldehyde.
On Thursday, the US House of Representatives passed the Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act of 2015 a bill that would ban states from requiring labels for all genetically modified foods. The bill passed by a vote of 275 to 150.
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.
In just a few days, Diet Pepsi will no longer contain the artificial sweetener aspartame. PepsiCo is replacing aspartame in Diet Pepsi, Caffeine Free Diet Pepsi, and Wild
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
Perhaps the Huffington Post which is of questionable value even on a good day simply made a typo. Hard to say.
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.
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