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Join host Cameron English, Dr. Chuck Dinerstein and Dr. Josh Bloom as they break down these stories on Episode 60 of the Science Dispatch podcast:

Since 2020, we have been able to buy Advil Dual Action, OTC pills that contain a fixed dose of acetaminophen (Tylenol) and ibuprofen (Advil). Who benefits from combining two medicines into one pill? Is it patients – or GSK that makes the product? I maintain it's the latter.

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During times of stress, I often find myself reaching for comfort foods — a tempting Oreo, some chips, a homemade cookie, and occasionally a bowl of chicken soup. However, therein lies a problem, particularly for those advocating for more nutritious comfort options. Many of these go-to foods, chosen in response to day-to-day stressors, are rich in palate pleasers, fat, sugar, and a bit of saltcontributing to our expanding waistlines and a growing  mismatch with our metabolism.

New research published in Psychosomatic Medicine asks whether our comfort foods might shift to more nutritious choices, say fruit, which offers its own delights when we are appropriately “retrained.”

“This intervention is the first...

The UK has a long history with alcohol, as the phrase gin mill might attest. And while I would most commonly associate the UK with beer and picking up a pint, as it turns out, white wine is “the favorite tipple.” Researchers take it as a given, as does the WHO,

“that no level of alcohol consumption is currently considered safe for health with even light and moderate consumption contributing to the development of many cancers…”

Other research suggests that mild to moderate alcohol consumption is healthful. They point out that increasing the price of alcoholic drinks and market...

 

 

I’ve written so much about food labeling. As it turns out, the term “plant-based” is so 2023!

“A 2023 study co-authored by Árvai suggested that people are less likely to go for foods described as “plant-based” (or “vegan”) compared with those called “healthy” or “sustainable.” One reason may be negative associations with plant-based meat alternatives, which are seen as “artificial” because of their ultra-processed nature, co-author Patrycja Sleboda, an assistant professor of psychology at Baruch College, City University of New York, told me.

Shoppers just want to know what’s in their food...

Because climate-change deniers are no longer able to say, with a straight face, that the climate isn’t changing, they resort to a host of irrelevancies. First, it was that the phenomenon was natural, the climate has always changed. This may be true, but it is also irrelevant since climate change has wreaked enormous environmental damage, and we need to worry about future trends. Claiming this is a natural phenomenon to justify their “do nothing” response is sheer lunacy. Imagine if a (natural) meteor was hurtling towards Earth - shortly to cause its oblivion. Can you just imagine these hide-your-head-in-the-sand birds saying, “Well, it’s a natural event, so why do anything?” The relevancy of the response, however, goes to what we should do about the situation, not to deny...

The Advisory Committee responsible for drafting and proposing this new rule noted that the change reflects the broad consensus developed over the last five years of meetings that Rule 702 has been improvidently applied in many cases. The new emphasis on limiting expert testimony to its scientific basis and methodology will alter mass tort cases that rely on scientific evidence and testimony, such as the billion-dollar tort settlements reached by Johnson & Johnson during the onslaught of litigation surrounding its talc-based baby powder.

Talc Litigation

One must hope that a stronger application of ‘Rule 702,’ combined with the findings of a newly published systematic review, will reframe the assessment of experts and evidence in future talc litigation...

The study, deeply grounded in genetic mapping, builds from our understanding of the genetic underpinning of MS into gene-environmental interactions both now and in the Bronze Age. The Bronze Age was named for the cultural transition from flint to bronze tools around 2,000 BC to 700 BC. From the point of view of the researchers:

“The late Neolithic and Bronze Age were a time of massively increased prevalence of infectious diseases in human populations, owing to increased population density as well as contact with, and consumption of, domesticated animals and their products.”

For the TL: DR [1] amongst us, the bottom line is that MS, like sickle cell disease (SCD), has its origins in protecting...

Our conversation starts with Britain's King Charles and his past antagonism toward molecular genetic engineering. I emphasize the importance of avoiding such uninformed comments in the future, especially considering the shift towards sustainability in the 21st century.

We discuss the term "sustainable intensification," about which I am skeptical. John references Professor Jules Pretty's definition of sustainable intensification, highlighting its incorporation of principles like cultivating less land and reducing water and energy usage for increased food production – characteristics that align with the benefits of genetic engineering. However, I point out that Pretty doesn't acknowledge genetic engineering in his definition.

I note that the term intentionally excludes...

Once a trusted institution that disseminated science-based guidance to pediatricians and parents, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has devolved into an activist group that parrots agitprop from NGOs like Greenpeace.

Early this month, the AAP published a clinical report titled Use of Genetically Modified Organism (GMO)-Containing Food Products in Children. Nearly every claim in the document is speculation, a half-truth, or just an outright lie. It wrongly implies that biotech crops and the pesticides used with...

Ask anyone, whether it's a librarian, vegetarian, Hungarian, or a dromedarian (yes, I made that up), or anyone else, where the first successful method of preventing norovirus (aka "stomach flu") infections might come from, and exactly none of them will answer: Llamas. (The few that guessed this were immediately locked up.)

But there is an unusual immune component found in llama blood, a mini-antibody called a nanobody, that seems to be effective in neutralizing GII.4 HuNoV, the norovirus strain that is responsible for most outbreaks of the infection. Although there is plenty of vaccine research encompassing multiple strategies, there are no...