The CDC just released "Provisional Drug Overdose Death Counts," which seems to imply that opioid overdose deaths are falling for the first time. Some will doubtlessly take credit for ending the opioid crisis. But they shouldn't.

Binge watching as an African American is detrimental to your health. (But the same can be said for every racial group.) Is there something unique about their physiology that puts them at greater risk? Or is this just a chance to publish what we already know, cloaked in a legitimate concern about disparities in research and outcomes?

“An extra burger meal a day eats the brain away," is the sort of arresting headline you’d expect from a tabloid. But it actually comes directly from a recent university press release, relating to a review of the evidence around diet and dementia published in Frontiers in Neuroendocrinology. Nutritionist Angela Dowden assures us that a burger will not eat your brain.

"Words can be powerful," a phrase often heard when words are hurtful or convey a misunderstood meaning. A transcultural study shows that language is indeed powerful. And is not virtually, but truly, an evolutionary force.

We must be doing something right. We have received so much media attention in the past several days, that it's hard to keep track. Here's where we've appeared.

Scientists from two universities and the National Institutes of Health are developing a vaccine to defeat norovirus' defense mechanism: mutation. By targeting a "conserved region" -- the part of the viral capsid that does not mutate -- they have discovered an antibody that may cover most strains that circulate now, as well as those that might circulate in the future.

Patient portals are meant to improve a user's "health journey" but the results are mixed. More physician appointments, fewer emergency department visits ... but no information on improving health.

Older people often take many supplements, including ones purported to help with brain health. A recent study says the supplements do not work.

Predictably, Big Pharma is resisting the call to include pricing information to their advertisements. A lawsuit and the testimony of the expert make a good case ... for not running the ads at all.

Nine American tourists have died this year under mysterious circumstances in this Carribean nation. Should Americans still visit it? Well, yes. As it turns out, going there is safer than driving ... or visiting Mexico. We crunched the numbers.