It's no secret that yet another nasty COVID variant has emerged; omicron is spreading even faster than delta and there will be consequences. And other variants will surely emerge. Where? Impossible to say, but its name will be pi. Should this happen in the US, we might get stuck with a catchy, but unwanted name.

We need the industry to respond to AMR the way it responded to Covid. For that, we need a government intervention to fix the broken antibiotics market - the Pasteur Act.

Decades ago, I became a fan of the ACSH long before becoming an occasional contributor. I was motivated by one clear point of reasoning. I found it next to impossible to locate a reliable source of health-related issues I had an interest in, as well as being able to recommend that source to students enrolled in my college course for continuing education purposes.

Here’s the conundrum. Seafood contains omega-3 fatty acids, which are good for you. But seafood also contains mercury, which is not (think the Mad Hatter). So given the tradeoff, should you have that tasty swordfish steak? Will it improve your health, or undermine it? A new study answers the first of the two questions, and perhaps the second.

A recent study quantifies some of the previously undocumented benefits of the Green Revolution. The results are nothing short of stunning.

Mothers and newborns form special bonds from the moment of initial skin contact, if not from all the life kicking about within them in the last few months of pregnancy. Those bonds also form through eye contact and smell. A new study looks at “maternal chemosignals” in the bonding process.

Chickens and other poultry are colorful and delightful additions to any backyard. Their antics are amusing; they readily interact with their human caretakers and lay edible ovals called eggs. But backyard poultry flocks, raised lovingly by urban and suburban hobbyists, have been recently cited as the cause of several pathogenic outbreaks by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).

I was driving to my favorite bagel shop when I noticed a bright green plant nestled in the bare branches of a tall tree.  It piqued my curiosity, so my husband asked one of his bagel buddies, knowledgeable about a myriad of topics, what the plant is. “Why, mistletoe, of course,” was his response. “Didn’t you know that mistletoe is a parasitic plant that is always attached to its host tree?”

The same mRNA technology that gave us effective COVID-19 vaccines could yield a new generation of highly protective seasonal flu shots. When will we see these upgraded influenza vaccines? Perhaps sooner than you think.

The saying that you can buy pretty much everything online these days is truer than you might think. Check out this craziness.