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The triclosan commonly found in toothpaste may be able to do a whole lot more than we knew. New research shows that it targets a key enzyme in malaria. And that find could lead to new drugs to combat a disease that kills 500,000 people each year. 

Some parasites "turn down" the host's immune response, and evidence suggests that helminth infection can help patients suffering from allergies, asthma, inflammatory bowel disease, multiple sclerosis, and type 1 diabetes. Now, there is evidence that helminths could help treat obesity.

An eye-opening TV report that aired recently featured a service dog that guards its owner from a severe drop in blood pressure, while preventing the resulting falls that can cause concussions. After learning about this wonderfully-skilled dog, it's hard not to reevaluate one's views on the cynical culture surrounding support dogs and their owners.
 

The FDA's new comprehensive, two-year study tells us what we already knew: BPA, a chemical long-used to make certain types of plastics, poses no human risk. Yet, some members of JAMA, presumably one of the world's most respected medical journals, refuse to accept the science. And if that's not bad enough, the refusal wasn't written by a scientist, but by an English major.
 

Added sugars are the focus of the latest nutrition culture wars, with articles helping us find "hidden" sugars. You know, the ones listed on the ingredients labels. The problem isn't really added sugar — it's over-consumption.

In 2005 an article indicated that medical care was responsible for 50% of bankruptcies. It became a myth that a new study clearly refutes.

At this time there are about a dozen illicit fentanyl analogs on the street. Has an OD victim taken one of those? Or was it just fentanyl? From China or a medical supplier? Chemistry can answer all of these.

Essential oils have been in the news because they allegedly "disrupt" your hormones. They may or may not, but it's a pretty good bet that you don't know what an essential oil is. Here's a mini-lesson.

Hollywood tends to depict all seizures with great drama as generalized convulsions. In the real world of an intensive care unit, they can go unnoticed without overt signs. And if the seizures are protracted, they can cause damage. New technology marries music and the mind, to prompt early detection by the untrained.

In service of their ideological agenda, the "abstinence-only" nicotine religion is perfectly happy to withhold potentially life-saving e-cigarettes from smokers. If a few million smokers have to die along the way, those are casualties they're willing to accept in pursuit of their nicotine-free utopia.

You know you want it. The first genetically modified beer has been developed by researchers at UC Berkley. Let's lift a pint in their honor.

A recent JAMA paper which concluded that opioid drugs are ineffective for long-term pain relief is flawed, perhaps intentionally so. American Council advisor Richard "Red" Lawhern explains.

From the irreproducible world of psychology comes an article trumpeting the increasing power of placebos. How can that be? Not to worry, a practitioner of Chinese Medicine is on the case.

The history of societies and climatic change have much to teach about fragility and resilience. Will we look to our past to envision our future?

When self-driving cars become the norm, our grandchildren will be shocked to learn that humans used to drive cars, and that nearly 40,000 Americans died every year because of them. Self-driving cars are a true revolution in the making. The more we test them now, the sooner the revolution arrives.

Sometimes, even we are surprised by some of the new anti-vaccine ideas that make the rounds. But this one, which was hatched on Twitter, maybe the nuttiest one to date. Thankfully, the pro-science community on this social media site won't let the person who started this imbecilic idea to get away with anything. 

The use of sophisticated econometric techniques does not demonstrate that the introduction of formula to low- and middle-income countries resulted in a higher infant mortality. At best, it demonstrates that how the formula was reconstituted had an effect. And at worst, it is advocacy disguised by mathematical technique.

Shingles develops in one out of every three adults who've previously had chickenpox. Luckily there's not one, but two vaccines, against the painful rash. So why aren't adults getting the shot?

The discovery that wounds in the fetus can heal without scarring has prompted scientists to work on designing new biomaterials. A multi-institutional research group of engineers, chemists and biologists have now found a way to create a material similar to fibrillar fibronectin. And when tested, it's highly effective in wound healing. 

Activists are simply winning the public relations battle when it comes to agriculture. Here's a way to change that.

With the opioid epidemic occupying center stage in media and political arenas, what's gone largely overlooked is that pediatric opioid-related hospitalizations, warranting the highest level of intensive care unit admission, doubled between 2004 and 2015.

It's been clear for years that the CDC was making a huge mistake in gathering data about opioid overdose deaths. Specifically, lumping together prescription drugs with street drugs. All this accomplished was to make the pills look much more dangerous than they really were. The agency finally fessed up. Too little. Too late. Too secretive. 

Recently on vacation abroad I was exposed to a conspiracy tale that went something like this: "I read this thing on Google that says corporations control science." As a result, one thing really stuck out: Americans are a whole lot more scientific than their counterparts in Europe.

Our northern neighbor affirmed that a variety of Golden Rice, which has higher levels of provitamin A, is otherwise no different that varieties of rice that have been genetically modified for thousands of years. Further, it does not pose a greater risk to human health than rice varieties currently available on the Canadian market.

Twenty years ago, an expert panel at the National Institutes of Health lowered the BMI cutoff for being overweight from 27 to 25. But a recent report suggests that for one segment of the population — postmenopausal women – that might not be low enough. Also, to define obesity in this population the cutoff of 30 might be too high.