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Deaths of despair were first defined by Anne Case and Angus Deaton, two economists, in 2015. These were deaths due to suicide, overdoses, and alcoholic liver diseases disproportionately impacting White males without a college degree. As Vox [1] so vividly described the problem, “In 2017 alone, there were 158,000 deaths of despair in the US: the equivalent of “three fully loaded Boeing 737 MAX jets falling out of the sky every day for a year.” A new study seeks to understand why these deaths increase in the US, but not 16 other high-income, industrialized nations.

Joe "Crazy Joe" Mercola was just targeted by the Times, which called him "The Most Influential Spreader of Coronavirus Misinformation Online." For Mercola this is probably a compliment since his rejection of science and medicine has enabled him to amass a $100 million fortune selling junk online. It was nice to see The Times weighing in – but they're a little late to the party. ACSH has been doing just this for more than a decade. Some examples of our work.

Discussing our mortality is tricky business. Few of us jump into the discussion, even when it’s increasingly important near the end life. So it’s easily understandable why the carbon footprint from the disposal of one’s remains doesn’t always land on most people’s list of worries.

You may have encountered the term "D614G mutation" when reading about the COVID delta variant. What does this mean? Why is it important? Why does it make "delta COVID" more infectious? Keep reading.

The $21 billion settlement between the attorneys general of several states and pharmaceutical distributors will make the lawyers rich (they get roughly 10 percent of the total) but will do nothing to affect overdose rates. Dr. Jeffrey Singer tells us why.

The complications of being hospitalized with COVID-19 may increase your chances of dying, and in many cases leave you more debilitated than before becoming ill. There is more to COVID-19's recovery than those with "long COVID."

This week I took a dive into the rising price of food and the way Subway has run afoul of labeling. Then I read a piece on the tradeoff between taking a risk and an abundance of caution.

This will come as a shock to you; it did for me. As a physician, not everyone followed my advice. In fact, some people sought second opinions choosing other paths and other physicians! Why would that be?!

Susan Goldhaber resurrected this long-forgotten issue, so let’s take another look. Having spent a good portion of my time at Brookhaven National Laboratory working on the National Acid Precipitation Assessment Program (NAPAP), I come with a certain amount of nostalgia. My disclaimer: since this work was on behalf of the Department of Energy, I confess to being more interested in BTUs than aquatic life. 

When the universe formed, there was hydrogen, helium with a light smattering of lithium – every atom in the universe heavier than a lithium atom was created inside a star. Stars like our Sun can produce atoms up to about the mass of iron. Every heavier atom formed in one of the rare stars heavy enough to end their lives in the titanic explosion of a supernova. 

Twenty-six million children and 480,000 buses travel over 6 billion miles every school year. Add to this mix, many children can have asymptomatic COVID-19 and could act as transmitters, creating a possible superspreader event. But at least one study says not so fast.

The picture tells the story. 'Nuff said.

Pregnancy and pediatric "advice" comes from all directions when you're a soon-to-be parent, and most of it is scientifically dubious. In part one, I examined the potentially harmful suggestions my wife and I received from friends and family. This time, I'll cover the less deadly but still ridiculous recommendations.

When you have a baby on the way, everybody has "helpful" advice that isn't all that helpful. Most of it, in fact, is downright useless, and some of it is potentially very harmful. We'll start with the latter and revisit the useless in part two of this series.

Could your parents' social circles increase or decrease your lifespan? Are some really born with a “silver spoon” in their mouths?

New COVID-19 cases (infections) and deaths began a steep decline in January, followed by deaths and case-fatality rates a few weeks later. What are the sources of the variability we identified in our national regions?

If we want people to refuse COVID vaccines, a recent CNN segment featuring political pundit Max Boot illustrates how we can do it.

Biopharmaceutical companies, insurers, pharmacy benefit managers and the government can and must work together to keep each other accountable and embrace value-based or outcomes-based reimbursement. The guiding principle being that “IF” the new innovative medicine delivers the outcomes and value promised to patients and the U.S. economy, the therapy will be rewarded.

New data have been published on drug overdose deaths in 2020. Although you won't find it anywhere obvious, prescription opioid analgesics remain only a minor (and stable) contributor to the record 93,000 people who died from drug overdoses last year.

Scientists and farmers are taking to social media in increasing numbers to fight anti-GMO misinformation. The results so far have been promising.

For a minute, let’s suspend political views about COVID-19 vaccinations, masking, drugs; let’s put aside beliefs about vaccine acceptance, hesitancy, or refusal. Ethical considerations might help address the conflict between the forces that drive current positions: individualism and autonomy on one side versus solidarity and collectivism on the other. An ethical inquiry may promote a more equitable, practical, and effective approach. Let’s tease out the principles and see.

Mike Adams' perennially ridiculous anti-vaccine website Natural News continues to publish bad takes on the COVID vaccines. Welcome to part three of the 'Health Ranger' Chronicles.

Cows to the rescue, truthfulness vs. truth, are pescatarians more ethical than those who eat beef?

The FDA’s controversial approval of Aduhelm, the drug intended to treat Alzheimer’s Disease, has resulted in resignations from their advisory committee and now investigations, both internal and Congressional. The FDA and editors of JAMA Internal Medicine are speaking out before the investigational circus comes to town.

In part one of this series, we looked at some of the hallmarks of sloppy pesticide reporting. We round out our analysis here with a breakdown of three more themes common to this species of junk journalism.