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Private equity firms are turning health systems into their ATMs, raking in profits while care crumbles and often collapses completely. A cynical playbook of debt-loading, asset-stripping, and dividend-cashing enriches these firms while leaving communities sicker and systems bankrupt.

The federal government continues its crackdown on prescription opioids — a policy that doesn't reduce overdose deaths but denies legitimate patients access to pain medication their doctors have prescribed. Recent data from West Virginia underscores the need to rethink federal drug prohibition, and points us toward a smarter policy.

New research shows your body wants breakfast at sunrise, not sushi at midnight.
You might think that when you eat is just a matter of schedule, but your metabolism has its own, far more opinionated internal clock. A recent twin study suggests that aligning your mealtimes with your circadian rhythm could be the missing ingredient in the quest for healthful eating, better glucose control, and weight management.

You’ve seen the scary headlines: A single hot dog or soda could wreck your health. But don’t let sensational headlines dictate your health: the findings are murky & confusing, while the risk of heart disease and cancer remains low.

President Trump’s reported chronic venous insufficiency sheds light on a common yet complex condition where faulty leg veins cause swelling, discomfort, and even skin discoloration. Here's what’s really going on under the surface — and why that daily aspirin might be making things murkier.

The numbers upend a familiar narrative. While stronger gun laws are linked to fewer firearm deaths overall, the real story lies in the details: suicide rates drop far more sharply than homicides. This research challenges blanket policy approaches and demands a more tailored response to two very different crises.

Will chronic cardio or regular weight-lifting sessions add years to your life? Conventional wisdom says "yes," though emerging research suggests that your exercise habits and your lifespan are more heavily influenced by your genetics than previously thought. Let's untangle the latest knot in the nature vs. nurture debate.

Real change takes a long time, and when it happens, it must be recognized. The FDA and the NIH have announced their move away from animal testing, improving scientific outcomes and marking a victory over bureaucratic entrenchment. Can we really achieve government-wide change to end animal testing?

This week, I read about the sudden demise of the 👍 emoji, which evidently is now the digital equivalent of a sarcastic eye-roll. I explored the essence of the scientific method via an experiment involving bolts, ghosts, and a particle collider. I considered the slippery slope of replacing thoughtful reading with AI summaries, and finally, I wondered why we are so afraid in an age that’s safer than ever?

Organic” has become the golden label of modern food marketing — but when it comes to poultry feed, does it actually deliver better nutrition, healthier chickens, or safer eggs? Or is it just another pricey halo with little scientific glow?

Want a bespoke baby? Check the beauty, brains, or brawn boxes on the embryo order form. Genetic tinkering is no longer science fiction — it’s a market without legal guidelines or societal buy-in. But what happens when we rewrite the human before reading the fine print?

How much more do we have to endure?

Nutritional meta-analyses often promise certainty but deliver a plateful of confusion. A new study flips the script, embracing the messy reality of conflicting data, offering a fresh perspective on the dietary dangers of processed meat, sugary drinks, and trans fats. By focusing not just on what the numbers say, but how confidently we can believe them, the methodology retools risk, at least until human bias connects the data dots.

It turns out that rhyming, bit-of-advice may not just be relationship wisdom. Forget the old stereotype of the alpha male. In some primate societies, it's the females who call the shots, evict rivals, and control who gets to mate. A comprehensive study of nearly all primates reveals that dominance isn't just a matter of muscle, but also a matter of strategy, social support, and sometimes, simply good timing.

Nicotine vaping continues to outperform FDA-approved smoking cessation therapies in well-designed studies, including a new clinical trial conducted in Australia. This growing body of evidence badly undermines regulations that limit adult access to safer nicotine products that could save their lives.

Here’s an interesting take on gut health: a recent study from Loyola University Chicago shows how heavy drinking and serious burns mess up the good bacteria in your gut, causing big health problems. The research, done this year, found that just one day after a burn injury, the helpful bacteria in your gut drop fast, allowing bad bacteria to take over.

In Los Angeles, a second disaster started with the cleanup. Between exploding EV batteries, asbestos dumping, and a bureaucratic tug-of-war over six inches of soil, rebuilding has become its own kind of wildfire — slow, costly, and smoldering with frustration.

Contrary to popular belief, osteoarthritis may not just be the result of wear and tear accrued over the course of a long life. New evidence points to a deeper evolutionary explanation for why our joints ache in old age. Let's take a look.

This week, my reading ranges from moral collapse and sandwich classification to the existential crises of aging politicians and whether silence is truly golden. In a world that shouts its preferences and clings to power like a toddler with a lollipop, is anything sacred anymore?

What if that long-abandoned theory, that “bad air” makes us sick, wasn’t entirely wrong? As head of HHS, RFK Jr.’s crusade against chronic illness often echoes 19th-century pseudoscience, but it’s built on decades of legal wins against real pollutants. Could today's food dyes, toxins, and stressors be the new miasma?

Sec. Kennedy’s latest maneuver seeks to expand vaccine injury lawsuits, echoing a precarious time in U.S. history when litigation nearly shut down vaccine production, creating dangerous shortages. Behind his lofty rhetoric lies a legal strategy that could enrich lawyers, endanger public health, inflame misinformation rhetoric, and possibly benefit the Secretary himself.

We’ve spent decades tweaking food pyramids into plates, slapping labels on packages, and taxing sodas—yet most Americans still flunk the government's own nutrition test. With sweeping changes on the horizon from the MAHA Commission, is the problem what we eat, how we measure it, or something much deeper? Before new dietary rules reshape SNAP and national policy, a new study offers a metric.

Lars and I discussed the role of AI in education and beyond, starting with a nostalgic nod to calculators and slide rules.

In the U.S., the so-called “moral imperative” to work is bumping up against a less romantic reality: wages that lag behind inflation and benefits that, ironically, make not working a more rational choice. Before we lecture people on self-reliance, maybe we should check the math.

Hear what ACSH's Dr. Josh Bloom, Dr. Chuck Dinerstein and Dr. Henry Miller have to say about the falsehoods of thimerosal claims in regards to vaccine safety, and perhaps the unintended consequences of the panel's latest decision to stop recommending flu shots containing the preservative.