In his latest article, Alex Berezow asks, "Is the US doctor shortage intentional?" Alex presents some compelling points about high healthcare costs and supply and demand dynamics, but it does not address the complete picture. Here’s my take, not as a rebuttal, but to add some missing nuances to the complexities at play.

The shortage is at least partly to blame for the high salaries of America’s physicians, who earn 220% more than the French, 129% more than the British, and 73% more than the Germans.

Imagine being on a ventilator and then getting pumped full of opioids as a bonus. A new study suggests that opioid use during mechanical ventilation might be setting patients up for long-term addiction. However, the study's findings are as flawed as the logic behind them.

The spectrum of information that can be obtained by prenatal testing is wide and rapidly increasing. Many mutations, or "abnormalities," are inconsequential, while others are significant. Genetic counseling combined with noninvasive prenatal screening (NIPS) can be helpful.

Xylitol, a popular sugar substitute, has recently come under scrutiny following a new study linking it to potential cardiovascular complications and increased blood clot formation. The sensationalized findings have sparked debate and concern, however it's crucial to balance the reported risks with the broader context of xylitol's benefits and its role in harm reduction compared to traditional sugar.

There was a famous commercial that asked the question, “Where’s the Beef?” This can be applied to the rolling wave of stories in local media about toxic PFAS contamination of drinking water. In these cases, there is no beef.

Recent research suggested that our lungs contain tiny (micro- and nano-sized) plastic particles, courtesy of our widespread use plastic consumer products. Let's take a deeper look at the study to determine how serious of a health risk we're up against. As always, the media didn't tell you the whole story.

It's one thing for the government and other busybodies to restrict opioid use to minimize addiction, even though this premise is dead wrong. But a similar intrusion has metastasized; doctors are disincentivized from writing scripts for any controlled drug, for example, sleep aids and sedatives. Who suffers? Patients, for example, my dying friend, who just wanted a good night's sleep. And was denied it.

Gone are the days when weather updates were simple forecasts. Now, every hot day is a full-blown crisis. We used to just sweat through heatwaves, but now we’re at risk of death. Yes, it’s hot, but do we need the melodrama?

The fragmented U.S. water infrastructure remains highly vulnerable to cyber-attacks. The EPA, lacking the tools under the Safe Drinking Water Act to proactively attack the problem comprehensively, has shifted to a reactive enforcement approach. However, much more is needed to counter such a fundamental threat to our nation’s infrastructure.