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In general, the dietary supplement industry has the scruples of a three-card monte game. One of the most popular products is melatonin, which is used as a sleep aid because it's natural (wrong) and not a drug (also wrong). Let's take a look at some supplement sleight of hand.

Activist groups like to use children's health as a bargaining chip in debates about pesticide safety. I'm a dad, and I call shenanigans on this disingenuous scare tactic.

Cannabis hyperemesis syndrome
The scent of a woman
Chaos is present everywhere, in physical and biological worlds.
The meat paradox

This summer, there have been more shark sightings, attacks, and public awareness than the summer of “Jaws” in 1975. Systemic infections by fungus are relatively rare in humans (athlete’s foot is a fungal skin infection); one theory holds that our core temperature of 98.6 is a bit too low for most fungal infections to thrive. [1] What do these two seemingly disparate facts have in common – the role of rising temperatures and humans’ biological niche? According to a new study, our rising temperatures may bring us more intense weather and more intense pathogens.

Everybody wants to protect our planet, but environmentalism long ago morphed into a radical progressive movement. Where did it go wrong? As the COVID pandemic gradually recedes, what do we know about ivermectin?

Comedian Bill Maher is in trouble after attacking the fat-acceptance movement on his show last week. Not only was the segment hilarious, but it highlighted an important fact many people would rather not discuss: social-justice activists are rewriting science to protect their ideological commitments.

Lead in drinking water became a political and media cause celebre in 2014 when there were reports of child “lead poisoning” in Flint, Michigan, after the notorious and unfortunate water supply blunders. The Flint problem could easily have been avoided with some common sense and legally required water management procedures.

It seems that for some, Monkeypox is a derogatory term. I’m unsure whether this has to do with the use of the word "monkey," its association with Africa, or some other ill-defined reason. To be fair, naming diseases is important, especially in a time of social media; we all want to be worrying and arguing about the same problem. Not to worry, the World Health Organization has issued some best practices.

In our somewhat academic household, “solving differential equations” was a euphemism for tackling a challenging intellectual problem with an uncertain outcome.  Pinning down the health effects of air pollution exposure is one such problem.

The robots are coming, the robots are coming. Robotic automation of manufacturing lines has been with us for some time. A new study looks at the benefits to our physical health and, for an important group, detriments to mental health.

It has always been known that biological females and males have different body compositions.  For example, men typically are larger, have more muscle, and weigh more than women in humans, a trend seen across almost all mammals.  That difference can potentially influence body hydration, organ blood flow, and organ function, which can affect many drugs' metabolism.  

Recent demands by gender activists include insisting that American medicine conforms to an individual’s contrived identity, including during emergency room and hospital admissions.  People who identify as transgender (or gender nonconforming) may use a veritable cornucopia of different terms to describe themselves. [1] Forcing the public to use "preferred genders" is confusing and complicated enough socially, but more crucially:  it is a significant problem clinically. 

A critically important paper in the journal Frontiers in Pain Medicine concludes that while the rationale for reducing opioid prescriptions to minimize overdose deaths was sound between 2006-2010, during the ensuing decade the opposite was true. Reducing opioid prescriptions during this time dramatically increased deaths and hospitalizations. In other words, what worked 15 years ago is an unmitigated disaster at this time.

We are social creatures, taking our cues as we grow up from those surrounding us – it does take a village to raise a child. But our use of social cues, mimicking the behavior and thoughts of our “village,” does not end with adolescence; it follows us into adulthood. A new study looks at the influence of others on our behavior.

That phrase was a family motto of sorts. On the one hand, it expressed our drive to move forward; on the other, it spoke to our overconfidence in our opinions. Scientists have a term for those following the family motto, the Dunning-Kruger effect – when limited knowledge or competence is coupled with overestimating those qualities. A new study looks across a range of scientific ideas looking for those who are often wrong but never in doubt.

The nightly news often brings a surfeit of environmental disasters: forest fires, floods, tornados, drought, iceberg melting. What have we done to deserve them? Here I draw on various sources of climate change data to provide some understanding of what may lie ahead.

“Humans are taking colossal risks with the future of civilization and everything that lives on Earth.” So begins a report in Nature attempting to quantify Safe and Just Earth boundaries. The findings “are meant as a transparent proposal for further debate and refinement by scholars and wider society.” I took them at their word; let’s consider and then debate their proposals.

One of the (many) overhyped "miracle cures" we're seeing constantly is apple cider vinegar. Sure sounds nice, right? Of the dozens of health claims about the stuff perhaps the claim that it treats heartburn and acid reflux makes the least sense since vinegar is acidic enough to dissolve steel wool. What's the deal?

The virus leads to approximately 60,000-120,000 hospitalizations and 6,000-10,000 deaths yearly in people over 65 in the U.S. It also threatens young children and pediatric vaccine approvals are expected soon.

A recent prospective study of post-surgical patients confirms what many other studies have already shown: prescribing opioids to control pain carries a very low risk of addiction or misuse.

The Agency's drug approval and enforcement actions are falling through the cracks, while regulators are squandering time and resources on insubstantial trivia.

Congestion pricing
Visually literacy requires us to go slow
A fork in the fertilizer path
African American English

Nitrates – widely used preservatives – are found in a variety of foods. Are they good or bad? After all, they can form nitrosamines, recognized carcinogens. A new study uses the metaphor of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde to separate science truth from science fiction. Here’s what I learned.

The fluoride issue has moved from conspiracy theories of the 1940s and 50s – claiming it was a communist plot or a government mind-control trick – to today’s science-based debate. The outcome of a court case involving fluoridation could have serious ramifications for EPA rules in the years to come. 

Do condescending "food experts" make you feel like a war criminal for eating a so-called "unhealthy snack?" If so, there's a pretty good chance they're pontificating about something like a Twinkie. Or maybe a Pop-Tart. Is a Pop-Tart a food? A lab creation? Or a death sentence? All the yummy answers are here!