Recently, we published an article More Bad News for Single Payer Health System detailing the reasons for a disastrous report from the National Health Service (NHS) about poor quality of care for the sickest patients. Then, news came out from NHS England that the number of people waiting for routine surgery hit more than 4 million.

When those two little red lines pop up on a pregnancy test, it does not take long for most mothers to shift into full ‘operation healthy pregnancy’ mode. The standard list of things to do to shift the odds in your favor of having a healthy baby have not changed much over the decades and it's rare that a new recommendation gets added. However, a new study may do just that - adding take vitamin B3 (also called niacin) to the list. 
It is rare that an entire story gets neatly wrapped up in one paper, but that is the case with this new report in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Vitamin B3 is in the news because of findings that it may prevent birth defects. But B3 (aka niacin) has a number of different names and also is similar in spelling and pronunciation to other molecules. We try to clarify things.

Compared to the U.S. national average, the homicide rate was 54% lower for whites, 14% lower for Hispanics, and 267% higher for blacks. Put another way, the homicide rate among African-Americans is nearly quadruple that of the national average.

There are fully trained doctors amidst the influx of refugees from war-ravaged countries.  Many of them are relegated to menial tasks.  Allowing them to practice medicine in this country is close to impossible but are we wasting what could be a valuable resource?

Although governmental and medical advisories warn the population to "eat less salt" on the theory that this will help deal with hypertension, there are some holdouts who avoid giving such wholesale advice. That includes ACSH, and a Doctor of Pharmacy who says it's sugar, not salt that is the root of all (vascular) evil. And, he says, we should eat more salt. Who to believe?

A recent report generated out of London by the National Health Service (NHS) paints a grim picture about systemic failings in healthcare of the sickest patients. It is not rocket science as to the "why," in fact the reason is rather simple.

Copper isn't just a pretty metal. It plays a part in minting coins (although in ways you wouldn't expect), can substitute for iron in the blood of some creatures, and is responsible for the changing color of the Statue of Liberty. And some artists pee on it. Seriously.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest wants to ban food coloring. Seeing Red, is a slick marketing of ideas blending health studies with some misdirection promoting an agenda to “revoke approval for all food dyes.”

Did you even get sick from eating tuna? If so, you may have assumed that it happened because you ate it rare. But that's probably not the case. A particular food poisoning from tuna (and certain other fish) can occur even when the fish is well-cooked. And it's not only food poisoning. It's also an allergic reaction.