Advances in technology will continue to affect our lives in myriad ways. Technology Review magazine recently picked ten of the potentially most important ones. Let's see what we have to look forward to.
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Panicked headlines recently warned that the popular artificial sweetener erythritol could increase heart disease risk. The study that generated these claims in no way supports that association. Dietary supplements are a multi-billion-dollar industry; they've also killed people. Do they need more regulatory oversight?
Debunking bad science can be difficult. The misdirection, false assumptions, and biased narratives are often nuanced or built upon a series of citations requiring the debunker to go down the rabbit hole to find the underlying “truth.” Why is it so much harder to counter lies than to tell them?
Gold is a noble element, one so chemically stable that it’s found untarnished in the ground. But under some conditions, it can be converted to gold salts, which were the standard of care for rheumatoid arthritis. However, gold salts – which are quite toxic –have been replaced with a number of superior immunosuppressive drugs over the past two decades. The Golden Age of gold salts is over.
On February 11, Health Canada proposed guidelines for PFAS in drinking water that are 50,000 – 300,000 times higher than our EPA’s Health Advisories. This article will look at this and another significant issue, the EPA’s classification of PFAS as hazardous substances.
An important study examining whether antidepressants were useful for pain was recently published in BMJ. The headlines stated varieties of the same theme: They "may not be effective" or "may have a small benefit." These conclusions are based on data from one table in the paper. Let's take a look at that data.
A few years ago, I consciously decided to forgo eating octopus because it was "too intelligent.” But I continue to eat pork, arguably as intelligent because it is “so tasty.” That led – tongue firmly in cheek – to the taste-to-intelligence ratio test.
"Medical scribes" transcribe information during clinical visits in real time into electronic health records (EHRs) under physician supervision. That frees physicians to focus on the patient.
A recent study looked at excess deaths among physicians during the time of COVID. While there were more deaths than anticipated, physicians fared better than the general population despite being on the front lines. What might that mean?
When we turn on the tap, we all expect clean and safe drinking water. Threats to the cybersecurity of public drinking water systems are critical, but often overlooked, issues facing our country. The EPA is faced with the challenge of how to regulate these emerging threats.
Long COVID remains an enigma wrapped within a conundrum. Many individuals claim the affliction. But without a consensus on its diagnosis, unraveling its underlying physiologic changes, let alone therapeutic approaches, is a random walk. It's a lot a drunk searching for their keys under a streetlamp because the light is better. Two developments this week may well begin the unwrapping.
The Agency's drug approval and enforcement actions are falling through the cracks, while regulators are squandering time and resources on insubstantial trivia.
There's considerable ongoing research to develop analgesic medications that don't have the liabilities of NSAIDs and opioids. Many potential drugs are in various stages of development. Most will fail. This multi-part series will examine drugs in development and their potential utility. First up is VX-458, a Phase III candidate from Vertex.
Cutting the dose of Tylenol in opioids makes the drugs safer. Why? Pharma company Johnson & Johnson is developing a drug that could reduce liver damage caused by Tylenol — which J&J also sells.
A record of bias and incompetence disqualifies the The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) from further roles in creating public policy for treating patients in pain.
Eat to beat it – disease, that is.
I can’t walk and chew gum – multi-tasking
Win-win, low price and high quality
The best of our technology disappears
The USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) recently released its Strategic Plan for 2023-27. Most strategic plans are full of fluff and are meant only to check an administrator’s to-do box and end up sitting in a file drawer, never to see the light of day again. This plan is no exception, lacking a clear vision for a path to take on the nation’s agricultural threats. For this to happen, leadership must be held accountable for the agency’s progress.
Social justice advocates continue to demand that professions like medicine become more "diverse." Critics contend this development could bring unqualified physicians into the profession and jeopardize public health. Should we be worried? The FDA wants to label certain foods in the grocery store "healthy." It's an awful idea.
Time with your doctor is limited. Here are some ways to get the most out of your appointment and make your healthcare expenditure in time and money more cost-effective.
The National Physician Residency Match pairs about-to-graduate medical students and some already graduated, to residency training programs, a necessary step in gaining a medical license. Physicians’ “Match madness” just ended, and self-congratulations and hand-wringing were found throughout the media.
Last week an article in City Journal wrote about a “scoping review” of the physical harms of masks. It is time for a bit of debunking. A note to the tl:dr – the too long, didn't read among us, it takes more words to correct a mistruth than to propagate one.
Cooking – work you can eat, and enjoy
Writing a novel
Being an apprentice
Add a smidge, perhaps even a pinch.
Once a touchy-feely, consciousness-raising New Age experience, it's now an occasion for environmental activists to prophesy apocalypse, dish antitechnology dirt, and allow passion and zeal to trump reality.
In December, a federal judge dismissed 50,000 Zantac cases because the scientific evidence establishing cancer causation didn’t pass legal muster. In March, a California state judge reached the opposite conclusion. What happens next?
Does masking reduce the transmission of SARS-CoV-2? The Cochrane Collaboration tried to analyze the messy evidence and re-ignited an incendiary political debate. What conclusion should we draw from their findings? There's lots of misinformation out there; there's also rampant misinformation about misinformation. Don't be fooled by either of them.
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