Dr. Jeffrey Singer of the Cato Institute and a member of the board of scientific advisors at ACSH has written a piece that should deliver a devastating blow to those who maintain the fallacy that prescription opioids are responsible for the so-called "opioid crisis." Although this trend is seen nationwide, nowhere is this more evident than in Massachusetts, where fentanyl is found in the blood of 91% of overdose victims — six times that of drugs like hydrocodone or oxycodone. A must-read.

The anti-GMO movement used to be a cultural juggernaut. But as time goes on, the activist groups that once held so much sway seem increasingly irrelevant.

Neutraceuticals is a portmanteau, the combination of the words "nutrition" and "pharmaceuticals." It refers to “a food containing health-giving additives and having medicinal benefit,” and which seeks to combine the halos of good nutrition and medicine. It seems too good to be true. And as you know, often that promise is more sizzle than steak.

It's spring, and, among other nuisances, poison ivy is sprouting from the ground in its neverending quest to make your life miserable. Much of what you "know" about poison ivy is a myth, but an interesting column in the NY Times takes care of this. Even better, some of the reader's comments are hilarious. Watch me make fun of them!

With a little over a year from the beginning of the pandemic, the shape of what was tried is becoming clearer. When everyone is dying, and nothing you can do makes a difference, you pull out all the stops, and you throw everything you have at the problem. What does it mean, medically, to throw everything you have at the problem? With 2 million deaths attributed to COVID-19 and 85 million confirmed cases, there is certainly enough “clinical material” to begin to see what does and does not work to improve outcomes. 

Another study highlights the overlap between genetic engineering in medicine and agriculture, offering another example of why the anti-GMO movement is losing its cultural relevance.

Drug companies try all kinds of nonsense to keep selling their brand-name drugs, when the same drugs are also sold as over-the-counter store-name generics. Sanofi just started a sleazy marketing campaign trying to do just that. And it's not their first time either.

Some 50 years after Martin Caiden wrote "Cyborg" and Lee Majors played "The Six Million Dollar Man" on TV, real life is converging on the once-imagined. Several companies are producing workable, commercially viable prototypes that confer on the user powers and abilities “far beyond those of conventional mortal men.” The Bionic Human, or what is known as a cyborg, has now joined the human race.

When it rains, when a low-pressure system passes by, and when water soaks the soil, it's not a great day to sample for radon. Those conditions force radon out of pore spaces and into basements.

On the heels of a new survey, public health experts say partisan politics crippled America's pandemic response. At the same time, they want federal agencies like the FDA and CDC to tackle incendiary political issues including racism, gun violence and climate change. Trying to solve these partisan problems won't improve the credibility of the public health establishment.