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The state of Oklahoma is smelling blood in the water -- and it's going after blood money. State Attorney General Mike Hunter has a very big "blood donor" in his sights: Johnson & Johnson. The expert witness for the state is (of course) Andrew Kolodny. Is Kolodny qualified? These 8 questions should be posed to him.

Good public health is our passion at ACSH. We want to promote it while simultaneously preserving individual liberty. That's been the goal since our founding in 1978. On rare occasions, however, a heavy-handed approach may be necessary. We believe that's the case for vaccines -- which should be mandatory -- because the right of anti-vaxxers to be sick ends where the public's right to health begins.

What forces attracted us to dogs? What makes them cute and cuddly -- while their cousins, the wolves, are portrayed as villainous?

Can a Livestock Revolution -- like Norman Borlaug's Green Revolution -- bring technological improvements to increase meat production in an environmentally responsible way? The Breakthrough Institute's whitepaper votes in the affirmative.

This is what the CDC is proposing because binge drinkers tend to abuse opioids. But that makes no sense. It would be like adding a special tax to automobiles because some people drive them at 100 mph.

The FDA has issued an advisory to physicians following two deaths from fecal microbiota transplants. Not a transplant you are familiar with? Read on.

Too many journalists are experts in nothing and behave like partisans and activists. That's how a journalist can go on social media and celebrate that her poor reporting caused a company to lose hundreds of millions in market capitalization.

The truth is that sugar is just sugar. Neither good nor bad, but simply another dietary component that can be consumed in moderation without guilt or worry. 

For decades, our health care system has been tied to a fee-for-service model. This payment approach creates an incentive for providers to require patients to undergo additional tests that may not be necessary. We cannot afford to continue going down this road. Pfizer's Dr. Robert Popovian discusses an alternative — a return to a capitated payment model.

Harvard's Chris Gerry, Ph.D. has previously written about Zolgensma, the world's most expensive drug, and some of the economics behinds its price. Is Zolgensma, the only treatment for spinal muscular atrophy, too expensive, a bargain, or somewhere in between? As Oscar Wilde once said, “the truth is rarely pure and never simple.”

A new study suggests that teaching hospitals -- our centers of academic medical excellence -- are no more expensive to patients than your local community hospital. While we may quibble about the numbers, one thing is clear: the cost of hospitalization is only a little more transparent than the cost of medications. Do we see a pattern?

It's been a good month for us at ACSH. Cox Media correctly defined us in a story about glyphosate in cereal. And a media fact-checking group decided that we deserved a 'High' rating for a "clean fact check record." And the month's not even half over.

Summer is just about here. But we're not going on vacation. There's far too much junk science out there for us to take a break. Here's where we were cited in recent days.

We use all our senses while eating. We notice the taste, the crunchy feel, the snap, and the crackle and pop. As it turns out, whether we stand or sit may affect our perception of foods taste and are subsequent consumption.

For those of us distracted by our phones, there's a new app to help us focus. Should we be surprised? No. A proof of concept study has the details.

To this question, James Mattis once famously answered, "Nothing. I keep other people awake at night." But not everybody is as courageously confident as this General. So what are the top health and safety concerns on the minds of security officials? Let's take a look.

Facebook says it jettisoned this screwball for violating its policies, citing the spread of misleading or inaccurate information. But this doesn't fly. Because Adams, who runs the psychotic Natural News website, has been spewing medical and scientific nonsense for many years. The ban wasn't about inaccurate info; Adams just made a crazier-than-usual claim that happened to be more offensive than usual. As for Facebook, it took this get-tough step to save face.

The New York Times ran an Op-Ed about the wellness industry that asked, "Why are so many smart women falling for its harmful, pseudoscientific claims?" Gee, maybe it's because they also read about the benefits of witchcraft in the very same newspaper?

The benefit? You might just be getting better at the game you’re practicing.

Does prediabetes lead inevitably to diabetes? Not for most people. It may be a better reflection of an intersection than a foregone path.

This concoction is a brew made by smooshing fresh coffee in a blender with grass-fed, unsalted butter and oil. It was invented by Silicon Valley entrepreneur Dave Asprey, who created the recipe after feeling energized from drinking tea with yak butter (seriously) while meditating in Nepal. Is Bulletproof just a bunch of bull? Angela Dowden, an award-winning nutrition and health writer, isn't terribly impressed.

The FDA recently issued a statement warning of the risk of miscarriage in pregnant women who take the supplement containing vinpocetine. Vinpocetine is a member of the indole alkaloid family - a huge class of (mostly toxic) chemicals made by plants as a defense mechanism. Why is vinpocetine a dietary supplement? That's a good question with a bad answer.

While the federal courts weigh whether CVS-Aetna's merger is anti-competitive, in terms of drug pricing, they are seemingly ignoring CVS's new HealthHubs. A product of the data synergy of a pharmacy and health insurer, those hubs will disrupt healthcare in ways that will shift profits to themselves and costs to society at large. Just they way Big Tobacco or Big Oil did.

In his second article of a series, Harvard's Dr. Chris Gerry expands the discussion of his first piece, "The Science of Zolgensma, The World’s Most Expensive Medicine" and considers whether Zolgensma merits a price tag of $2.125 million. A look at some of the ethics and complexities of drug pricing.

Recently, the FDA met to discuss CBD, the non-psychoactive component of marijuana. It made us realize that we'd never really considered the definition of a drug. Any process involving lawyers hinges on the meaning of words, so what actually does the FDA regulate?