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Flu season is hitting hard right now, thanks to this new variant called Subclade K—yeah, the one they're dubbing the "Super bug." It's basically taken over as the main strain in the US, spreading super fast with some sneaky mutations that dodge a bit of our usual immunity. It's legit, and this year's flu vaccine isn't providing the best protection against it.

Artificial sweeteners have long been cast as either miracle weight-loss allies or metabolic saboteurs — but the science is far less dramatic and far more nuanced. Non-sugar sweeteners have shaped diets worldwide, even as public confidence has begun to wobble. New data suggests they’re largely safe and may modestly support weight loss when paired with an overall healthier diet, but they’re no magic fix, just tools whose benefits depend entirely on how, and why, we use them.

Much has been written advising laypeople to navigate conflicting medical opinions and identify the golden truth amid the pervasive muck and mire. These questions also vex judges when evidence is presented in litigation seeking damages from allegedly related injuries. Although judges do not decide which of the competing positions is correct, they are, as the evidentiary “gatekeeper,” responsible for determining the soundness of the science presented and barring junk science from the courtroom. Once assessed, all sound evidence from both sides is presented to the jury for deliberation, essentially based on which witness they found most credible. Whether the decision is made by a judge or a jury, specific, albeit different, strategies are used to make these assessments.

I have tea coming out of my ears. Not literally of course. But the ears were the target.

The immune system’s first encounter with a virus or vaccine establishes a “starting template” that shapes its response to new variants, a phenomenon often called immune imprinting. A new study shows that protection isn’t about being vaccinated or infected—it’s about the sequence of those exposures, and how repeated boosters or infections can reshape the response over time.

Josh Axe is expanding his wellness empire, this time to include wellness training. The Health Institute is another money-making ploy pushing vibes, anecdotes, and Axe’s personal beliefs. The Health Institute sells confidence to those looking for a way to break into the wellness world, but as with most things in the Wellness World, The Health Institute" trades in the feeling of authority rather than the substance of it. 

Across four very different stories—Revolutionary-era smallpox, the still-mysterious ignition of the Black Death, a modern measles outbreak shaped by community identity and distrust, and the promise of genetics to build safer drugs—a single theme emerges: disease is never just biology. It is also environment, social structure, politics, and perception.

More than a decade ago, Addyi—marketed as the “female Viagra”—was approved amid political pressure, heavy lobbying, and a lot of hype. The problem then, as now, is simple: the drug barely works and causes enough side effects that many women stop taking it. Yet, in what can only be described as an FDA boner, the agency has expanded the indication to older women.

If Americans traded stocks using the kind of nonpublic information available to Congress, they’d face investigations, fines, and prison time. Yet lawmakers—especially those who rise into leadership—can legally buy and sell shares while shaping the very rules and contracts that move markets. Too often, the vote that’s “best for the American people” competes with what’s best for a member’s portfolio—a tension that recent economic research now helps quantify.

Does motion sickness turn you into a green, spewing mess? For plenty of people, the answer is yes. Current remedies may or may not help. But after 40 years, the first new motion-sickness drug has been approved. Ready to cross the Pacific in a laundry basket? Not so fast.

Fireplaces are cozy until it’s time to shovel out the ashes. Nuclear power has the same problem: abundant, reliable energy paired with a growing pile of difficult-to-discard spent fuel. But a new reactor design aims to “burn” part of that nuclear ash by turning certain spent fuel back into usable energy.

The Tuskegee syphilis study stands as one of the greatest moral failures in American medical history, a reminder of what happens when vulnerable people are treated as expendable in the name of research. The safeguards created in its aftermath were meant to ensure such abuses never happen again—but a new, CDC-funded study in West Africa raises disturbing questions about whether those lessons are being forgotten.

In a strange turn of events, The Lancet—one of the world's oldest medical journals—has taken a line you might expect to hear from Robert F. Kennedy Jr., declaring "ultra-processed" food a driver of chronic disease. Is there any evidence behind this association, or are we just dealing with academic snobs who can't appreciate the benefits of convenient, abundant food?

With highly potent and (sometimes) legal marijuana widely available across the US, emergency rooms are reporting an increase in Cannabis hyperemesis syndrome (CHS), an unpleasant condition characterized by screaming and vomiting—"scromiting" in the vernacular. The condition is yet more evidence that marijuana’s reputation as a low-risk drug is undeserved.

In 18th-century France, science was a men’s club, and women were expected to be ornaments. One aristocrat, the Marquise Émilie du Châtelet, quietly took on Isaac Newton, translating the Principia into French, correcting Newton’s mistakes, adding groundbreaking commentary, and shaping the idea of the conservation of energy. If you only know her as Voltaire’s lover, you’re missing the real story: she was one of the sharpest scientific minds of her age.

Dietary guidelines are never just scientific documents; they are also political and rhetorical ones. The new “Final Dietary Guidelines” read less like a neutral public health manual and more like an urgent manifesto about a food system gone off the rails. In this framing, “whole” becomes synonymous with trustworthy, while “processed” signals suspicion. That tonal shift—arguably as significant as any specific nutrient target—sets the stage for how the guidance will be interpreted, accepted, or resisted.

Alright folks, hot off the presses: the new US Dietary Guidelines for 2025–2030 just dropped, and I’ve got my very first thoughts, a hot take. Let’s raise some real questions.

Health chatbots are not popular because patients believe artificial intelligence is smarter than their doctors. They are popular because chatbots offer something rare: time, attention, and the feeling of being heard. Their success tells us far more about what patients are missing from modern medicine than about the power of AI itself.

Omega-3 supplements based on fish oils may have cardiovascular benefits for some people. But how do you know if you are one of them?

These four pieces sketch a portrait of modern knowledge: abundant, persuasive, and riddled with blind spots. Kale’s “superfood” halo dims when we look closely at what the body actually absorbs, and food’s “dark matter” reminds us that nutritional science is still mapping vast unknowns molecule by molecule. That same uncertainty echoes in Tyler Cowen’s warning to trust literatures over single studies, especially when storytelling blurs the line between insight and embellishment. The promise of Medical AI becomes another version of the same question: can we use better tools to make decisions more accurate and timely without sacrificing the most human parts of care?

After nearly three decades of scientific review, regulatory reversals, and political hesitation, perchlorate is back on the EPA’s agenda—this time by court order. The Agency’s proposed national drinking water standard reflects less a newfound public-health urgency than a legal obligation under the Safe Drinking Water Act. Yet this long-delayed regulation may finally force meaningful action where it matters most: the cleanup of contaminated military sites and surrounding communities.

Surgeons are supposed to have the steadiest hands in the hospital, But is that hard-earned skill, or just professional mythology reinforced by loud confidence? A delightfully tongue-in-cheek study found that while surgeons were fastest and most successful, they were also the most profane.

GLP-1s are basically appetite’s off-switch: suddenly you’re “full” after three bites. Congrats on the smaller meals and better numbers—just don’t act surprised when your nutrient intake also quietly declines. Weight loss is great; losing the nutritional plot along the way not so much.

Had a chance to navigate the cough and cold aisle of your pharmacy? Good luck getting what you're looking for. And even if you do, it may very well not work.

Imagine a world where your pill could actually tell your doctor: “Yes, I’ve been taken.”
That’s no longer science fiction. MIT engineers have created a revolutionary smart pill that reports from inside your stomach the moment it’s swallowed.