Companies left and right are banning plastic straws because ocean critters are important - with no evidence getting rid of plastic straws is really helping marine critters at all. While I shake my head at that, I am not surprised. The free market has spoken, companies respond to what consumers think they want.
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A new trial to assess the benefits and safety of stem cell transplantation for treatment-resistant Crohn’s disease has started. The researchers will use stem cells to “reboot” the immune system so that it is more responsive to existing drugs used to treat the disease.
Crohn’s disease is a long-term condition that results in inflammation of the lining of the digestive system. It affects as many as two people per 1,000 and is becoming more common.
Diets – along with dietary advice – are everywhere. Medical nutrition therapy slows the progression of failing kidneys. So why is it prescribed so infrequently?
Marijuana, the 1930's gateway drug to hell, has become both an accepted sin and the source of a very lucrative new sin tax. Irrespective of how you may view the change, we know little about pot's long-term health effects or what individual states are doing with all this new revenue. That said, our dysfunctional Congress is proposing a reasonable means of informing this debate.
In the same way one "seasons" a cast iron frying pan, scientists have found a way to create a slippery coating, which can improve food safety while reducing bacterial contamination.
Europeans, who overwhelmingly claim to accept the science consensus on climate change, deny a far stronger consensus on biotechnology and believe GMOs are a crime against nature because a gene has been precisely modified by scientists.
Monitors that continuously measure glucose levels have been recently approved for clinical use by the FDA. They are making patients' lives better, and they may provide us with a new way to better understand the dysregulation of glucose metabolism.
After two decades of very tough research, Big Bad Pharma finally came up with a cure for hepatitis C – a viral liver infection that causes cirrhosis and liver cancer. So, are liver cancer rates dropping? No. That's because young Americans are drinking so much that they are destroying their livers.
More American drivers are dying in drug-related car crashes than they are from collisions involving just alcohol.
Given that Andrew Zimmern, host of Bizarre Foods on the Travel Channel, has crisscrossed the world and then some, eating some of the craziest things you can imagine for more than a decade, the main question is: Has he ever gotten terribly ill? "No, I’ve had no 'digestive issues,' he said while laughing. "And I keep waiting for it to happen!"
Ethologists, videographers and economists have all studied the behavior of surgeons in the operating room. Their revelations will not surprise surgeons, and they do not require the trappings of p-values and statistics.
There is finally a workable plan to address the frightening (and growing) problem of antibiotic resistance. It's called REVAMP, or re-valuing antimicrobial products. ACSH advisor Dr. David Shlaes explains.
Dogs get poisoned, not “just stoned” from marijuana exposure. And the rates are increasing, with the dedicated veterinary services Pet Poison Helpline experiencing a 448% increase in calls over the past six years.
Ambien has become fodder for late-night TV comedians and attention-seeking magazines. Sure, some mighty strange sleep behaviors have been reported. But in watching the news you might get the impression that there's an army of Ambien Zombies on the march. Nope, no such army. And for most, there's nothing to lose sleep over.
It's July 4th and the fireworks roll out. So do the morons. Here's what can happen when they meet.
Who doesn't love the idea of quick and easy weight loss? Imagine being able to eat nothing but ice cream, and still losing 10 pounds. It sounds a little too good to be true, and that's because it is. Weight loss is a $66 billion dollar industry, and one of the most advertised, according to U.S. Weight Loss & Diet Control Market.
Forty solid years after the Consumer Product Safety Commission implemented regulations for getting rid of lead-based paint, the US is still on the lead-based paint merry-go-round. Last week, I attended a Congressional hearing entitled “Oversight of the Federal Government’s Approach to Lead-Based Paint and Mold Remediation in Public and Subsidized Housing”, which hoped to figure out how the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) can finally be rid of the pesky threat of lead-based paint in federal housing.
Also known as dichloromethane, DCM is a colorless liquid with a mild, sweet odor which evaporates easily but does not readily burn. It has a variety of uses, and it is used in the manufacture of photographic film. DCM is made from methane gas or wood alcohol, and it does not occur naturally in the environment.
Can you catch herpes from double dippers? Unlikely, but it's hard to tell because what passes for science in reporting this story clearly flunks science.
What explains such rapid rises in prices? For one thing, the role played by patents and FDA approvals in drug discovery and sales. There's currently a backlog of roughly 4,000 generic drugs awaiting the agency's approval. Both are factors in how rare and common drugs, such as EpiPens, can shoot up in price so dramatically.
Take one article that shows sitting may be bad for you, although it is not clinically or statistically significant; multiply by very large numbers, and you have the beginning of a health meme. Spoiler alert, sitting is not the new cancer.
First fallacy: the mere existence of an opioid pill is why there is a crisis. Finding solutions requires proper identification of a problem. The time is now for the public narrative to follow suit.
To halt a perceived gateway to smoking, San Francisco recently banned all flavored tobacco products. The science is complex, which is why there's so much room for each side to claim harm, or no harm.
Lovers of escargot, you have company. But they eat a bit differently than you do; they suck snails out of their shells using their special jaw. However, these slithery creatures may not be around too much longer, as they're on the verge of extinction.
Drug co-payments are meant to share costs. But for many drugs, they cover not just the entire cost but a "little something" for pharmacy benefits managers, who structure the deals.
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