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When it comes to muscle, and its memory, could it be that it's just like remembering how to ride a bike?

Treating addiction first requires that we understand it. As it turns out most people know little about what addiction actually is, and even less about what causes it. An expert breaks down the issue, so we can better understand what we're seeing unfold around the country.

Using made up numbers, The Lancet reports that surgery is the third greatest burden of global disease, right after cardiovascular disease and stroke. In order to save lives should surgeons actually "put down the knife"?

With women opting for "free birth" or "unassisted birth" the stakes are only getting higher. Dismissing medical advice is also taking the form of a misguided practice of prolonging delivery well beyond due dates.

The media hits keep coming ... and coming ... and coming. Here's where our dedicated experts appeared in recent days, promoting evidence-based science.

Perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA, is a chemical commonly found in household products. Its purpose is to resist stains, grease, and other assaults. And it's been in the news for several years. In many workplaces and communities, PFOA has become a household name while triggering fears of adverse health effects and expensive, never-ending environmental cleanups. What’s going on? Let's take a look.

The United Kingdom released a five-year and a 20-year plan for combatting antimicrobial resistance. Both are worth a careful read – especially if you're interested in efforts on stewardship and research support. But there's something buried in the five-year version that's less than straightforward. Let's take a look.

As frigid temperatures are sweeping a large portion of the country, government officials from severely impacted regions are issuing "Code Blue" alerts. Use of them is spreading some confusion, so let's clarify what the term actually means.

Vaccine resistance is one of the top 10 threats to global health. New York City is currently experiencing its worst outbreak of measles in decades, sickening scores of children in ultra-Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods. Prominent health organizations and advocacy groups have called on state legislatures to eliminate religious and philosophical exemptions.

In 2017, Amazon bought Whole Foods. Amazon's CEO, Jeff Bezos, built his billion-dollar empire on technology. Therefore, you might expect that Whole Foods would become a little friendlier to biotech. But if you did that, you would be wrong.

Step therapy generally refers to trying one medicine after another, in order to get the best response for your patient. Most insurance companies believe that the lowest cost is the "best" approach. But an often-overlooked issue for both physicians and their patients is stepping down treatments, or eliminating unnecessary meds that are no longer necessary or "align with patient interests."

Telemedicine is a first step towards digitizing the world of medicine, while improving and increasing access to care and reducing out-of-pocket costs.

Question: How do you know when a "study" isn't really a study? Answer: When those who performed it also write up a brochure, hyping its results before actually bothering to publish a scientific paper.

Íris Erlingsdóttir, a journalist and chronic pain patient, has experienced first-hand the war against pain patients, which has been dressed up as a war against opioid addiction. She points out some of the problems with flawed opioid strategies.

In the rush to show the ill effects of Brexit, the British Medical Journal published a piece saying that reduced consumption of fruits and vegetables will be responsible for thousands of UK citizens dying unnecessarily. If it were true -- and it is not -- perhaps mentioning it before the vote would have been helpful.

The price of insulin continues to rise. But before jumping on du jour soundbites, knowing its history may help explain why our first wonder drug is now a chimeric poster child for the best and worse in the pharmaceutical industry.

Despite having yet to save the life of a mouse, an Israeli company is making grandiose pronouncements. However, if you look beyond the hype the medical approach is actually pretty interesting.

It's a new era for winemaking. Long the domain of craftsmen and connoisseurs, scientists worldwide are utilizing new technologies and combining forces to create better vino. In fact, Washington State University has an entire program dedicated to the science of wine.

Did you know when you're in the hospital, the fundraising staff has access to part of your health record unless you opt-out? Our love affair with Big Data is transforming patient privacy into a relic.

The Lancet continues its year-long series on non-communicable diseases, turning now to the pandemic caused by Big Food, climate change, transportation and energy systems. But there's just something not quite right about its proffered solutions, which include the governmental nudges of taxes and banishing Big Food -- and it's cronies -- from policy discussions.

Reader's Digest recently ran an absurdly biased and misleading article about drugs to avoid. If you follow its advice you're going to have one seriously empty medicine cabinet. And a whole lot of discomfort and pain.

Since everything green makes a whole lot of green, it was inevitable that someone would come with a new way to clean, you know ... that thing of yours. Enter: bamboo toilet paper. What better opportunity to come up with an ad slogan contest? There's a prize too! Take your best shot, even though your chance of winning is vanishingly small.

Wouldn’t we all like to have healthy brain function, a sharper mind and clearer thinking? Of course. And a dietary supplement called Prevagen, whose supposed “active” ingredient is a protein that comes from jellyfish, promises to deliver the goods. But does it really work? Let's take a look.

Over 300,000 chest X-rays are unread after 30 days and the answer to the holdup is not more technology. The solution begins by asking why so many X-rays were ordered in the first place.

An ordinary (or worse) study sets out to rehash the same nonsense about how deadly prescription opioids are. In addition, it ends up botching the conclusion to appear that it's contradicting itself. This is seriously strange.