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It’s official! Word just came in from Punxsutawney Phil as his 2017 prediction scroll—translated from Groundhogese— proclaims:

Critics of e-cigarettes claim these products don't necessarily reduce a user's exposure to the carcinogenic or toxic chemicals found in cigarette smoke. However, new research shows that the product can, in fact, deliver benefits to "vapers" that are not available to smokers of tobacco.

New data shows that more than eight in ten Americans "support requiring all healthy schoolchildren to be vaccinated for measles, mumps and rubella." In addition, an overwhelming number of adults – 88 percent – "believe that the benefits of these inoculations outweigh the risks."

Wouldn't it be nice to stroll along your favorite beach and not see the litter of plastic trash all around. In fact, there is a place where you can stroll and not see plastic at all – since the trash consists of millions of seaside gems. All you have to do is go to Siberia. 

The FDA confirmed the presence of of the poisonous substance, belladonna, in the homeopathic teething remedies linked to the deaths of 10 infants. More importantly, its analysis detected amounts that were inconsistent between samples, meaning some of the levels were much higher than what the product's label indicated. 

Scientific research is not cheap. But what is the process that academic scientists go through in order to receive funding for their work? This article – the first of a two-part series – describes this stressful and highly competitive procedure. 

The FDA is warning us that some natural remedies contain poison. Meanwhile, partisan rhetoric poisons the body politic. Discover the antidote to this partisan venom. 

A new, disturbing report, based on data collected from the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics, shows an increase in the death rates for young Americans over a 15-year period. This has been driven substantially by a shocking increase in the mortality of white women aged 25 to 35.

While a march to support science sounds like a good idea, given the agenda our Alex Berezow has decided to skip it. He had misgivings that the event, now scheduled for April 22 in Washington, DC, would be hijacked by the kind of political partisanship it should instead be concerned about – and that has indeed come true.

If you have high cholesterol, you may be taking some medications called statins, which are the most effective medicines for lowering "bad" cholesterol. But some people are turning to over-the-counter alternatives like red yeast rice, a nutritional supplement with cholesterol-lowering action. However, they come with safety concerns.

A study can be fair and balanced. But often once it's in the hands of the media, it's repackaged to capture eyeballs. It is not fake news – it's just misleading, designed to attract attention rather than to educate. 

Biopharmaceutical drugs are revolutionizing medicine, but at a cost. Almost without exception, they're more expensive than small-molecule drugs, but they also are playing an increasing role in patient care. Pfizer's Dr. Robert Popovian informs us about the need to consider the value of these drugs – not just their price.  

If someone's lifestyle was represented by the totality of the products advertised during the Super Bowl, the composite picture would be of a sedentary individual with an unhealthy diet, who consumes excessive alcohol and drives everywhere. Do people really live that way? Probably not, but the ads reveal something interesting. 

There has been a great deal of hyperbole and confusion about the recent and future direction of science and health in America, both in the applied and basic research sense, but for the public it's hard to separate what is a legitimate worry versus what has been manufactured due to lingering animosity over a contentious 2016 campaign season.
As usual, the loudest political activists have hijacked the discourse.

Two psychologists are the subject of Michael Lewis’s latest book, The Undoing Project. Their collaboration was the nursery that has given us the field of behavioral economics, and the story of an intellectual marriage.

The relative size of the human male's penis and testes can be reduced to our species' mating strategies, and can provide some surprising insights into early human culture.

Will a new dietary supplement turn you into a porn star? The company that markets Red Fortera wants you to think just that – and backs it up with "clinical data." Good luck finding it. You will come up short. 

As a busy working parent, I admit that I sometimes (ok, frequently) grab a granola bar as a substitute for lunch... and breakfast.
I am not saying that it is the healthiest choice. But, in today's world of running from work to school to the gym to everything else - sometimes there is no time to sit down and prepare a well balanced meal - or any meal at all. 
This is exactly the space that Soylent, a full time meal replacement product, is trying to fill. 

The controversy over GMOs lives on, despite the scientific community's best efforts to quell the scaremongering. In order to gather the public's concerns, the FDA is requesting comments on the topic of genome editing, in the production of plants that would be eaten by both humans and animals.

With parents' safety concerns growing about their own kids playing football, over the last few years the drumbeat for change has gotten increasingly louder. As a result, USA Football, the nation's governing body of youth football, will begin to fundamentally alter how the game is played and taught.

It seems that every other package in the supermarket touts the "naturalness" of the product inside — implying that that makes the contents either more nutritious or safer, or both. But a recent case in India of children dying after eating lychee nuts underscores the truth — that natural isn't always either safer or better.

Sometimes general assignment reporters are asked to cover complex science and health stories, which produces an entirely predictable product: Articles that are nothing more than rehashed press releases, topped with click-bait headlines based on misunderstandings of the original research. And here are some other ways it happens. 
 

Multiple myeloma is a type of blood cancer. B-cells, immune cells that play a crucial role in adaptive immunity, differentiate into plasma cells that secrete the antibodies we need to fight infections and other foreign invaders.

With a recent hospital outbreak of scabies, is there a better time to clarify some misperceptions about them – and other things that go itch in the night? Nope, so take a look.

A team of University of Pennsylvania researchers recently found that those "who are more mindful are more receptive to health messaging," in order to physically improve themselves, "and more likely to be motivated to change."