Flawed, idealized metrics like life expectancy are often used to report success of a nation or its health delivery apparatus. A new study suggests the lion's share of curbing premature death may not reside there.
Policy & Ethics
Christin Velan's Pew Research Center Article, "Rapid Opioid Cutoff Is Risky Too, Feds Warn" takes an honest look at the suffering created by the radical, misguided anti-opioid jihad. It's a shame that Velan also included quotes from Andrew Kolodny, who denies the mess that he and his friends made while claiming that very few patients were "inappropriately tapered." Like herpes infection, Kolodny never goes away.
A company named Recompose in Washington State is betting that you're biggest end-of-life concern is, "How can I minimize my corpse's environmental impact?" It was a good bet. Washington has become the first state to legalize human composting so you can R.I.P. (rot in peace).
A 16-year-old girl uses her social media account to post this question: Should I kill myself? Sixty-nine percent of people who responded said yes. So she did. This isn't the plot of a twisted new movie. This, according to a report coming from Malaysia, actually happened. There are four important points to discuss stemming from this tragedy.
On climate policy, Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez believe there is no middle ground. AOC said, "You're either fighting for our future or you're not," which sounds an awful lot like, "You're either with us or against us." This is wrong and counterproductive.
Pop quiz: What do The New York Times, Jeffrey "the yogic flying instructor" Smith, and the National Resources Defense Council have in common? Answer: They all shamelessly lie about glyphosate to make money. (And you get extra credit if you answered "They are all bad sources of science information.")
Digital health is coming, and many services are already coming to a smartphone near you. As the first guidelines from the World Health Organization indicate, the obstacles aren't technological. They're regulatory.
The disposable cup was meant to be a public health initiative. But over time it has become a societal concern, just like plastic bags.
As banning plastic -- especially bags -- becomes "a thing," biodegradable or cloth bags are taking their place. But how degradable are they?
Different people respond to cannabis in different ways, making a blood THC level difficult to legislate.
How do we decide which species to favor and which to spurn? The law protects dwindling populations of snail darters, but does it apply to nature's creatures that we consider pests, like weeds, or flesh-eating bacteria.
The FDA is supposed to regulate absence claims. But when it comes to GMO absence claims, the FDA has done absolutely nothing. That may be about to change.