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Planned obsolescence
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Are At-Home Diagnostic Tests A 1st Amendment right?
Alaska may have a better way to vote

It probably won’t shock you that there’s a general perception that radiation is unusually dangerous. Even the slightest exposure can cause cancer, congenital disabilities, constipation, skin burns, bad breath, and death (well…most of these, anyhow)… so the public is scared of radiation. So it’s hardly surprising that the discovery of tritium (a radioactive form of hydrogen) in groundwater near the Brookhaven National Laboratory kindled months of media coverage

Last week there was a flurry of stories about the discovery of uranium in a shipment of scrap metal. In a highly speculative story British tabloid, The Sun mentioned that the uranium could be used to make a “dirty bomb.” Just how dangerous was the illicit uranium?

It’s a sad fact that minorities and women are underrepresented in clinical trials. As to why- that’s still a mystery. One thing is probable though; there’s some cultural mismatch between recruiters and the recruited. A recent study proposed a solution: simply pay minorities to participate. Is this valid – or another example of noblesse oblige – and cultural chauvinism?

As a memorial to his beloved dog, a retired home builder began making and giving away dog ramps. My elderly Bedlington terrier was one of the beneficiaries.

Policymakers often talk about protecting patients against the predatory practices of insurers and PBMs. It is about time for state and federal legislators to support such legislations to ensure that ONLY patients benefit from such patient assistance programs and to stop PBM and insurers from profiteering on the backs of patients.

Asthma is a significant disease; among children, the prevalence is between 7 and 11%. The exacerbation of asthma by second-hand tobacco smoke is well documented, but as smoking tobacco has declined, smoking wacky weed has increased. What effect has this second-hand smoke had on “the children?”

ChatGPT is a recently released artificial intelligence chatbot that has soared to international prominence through its ability to conduct conversations and write on various topics using a variety of styles. I asked ChatGPT to respond to two related questions on the issue of global warming.

Nabriva, an antibiotic biotech, recently announced that they were winding down its operations. While this is sad, it may not be so much a market failure problem in this particular case.

Personalized, or precision, medicine applied to cancer treatment has its origins in studies of human genetics and the genetic mutations found in different cancers. A variety of personalized treatments continue to make advances in increasing patients' longevity and quality of life.

“The opioid epidemic” has triggered an extreme governmental reaction. While blaming legitimate manufacturers, curbing pain meds is the government’s go-to approach --  to the horror of those who legitimately need pain relief. Could the government have curtailed the problem from the get-go, and were they just asleep at the helm? Could present measures be a diversionary tactic?

The Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC) recently concluded that gas stoves have polluted our indoor spaces. So polluted that “more than 12% of current childhood asthma cases in the US can be attributed to gas stove use.” Could that be true? Only if you believe in Mathmagic.

Climate change may now be the most cogent global environmental issue of the day. Emissions of greenhouse gases, notably CO2, continue apace, despite angst among environmental groups, and various worldwide governmental goals and pledges. Here I estimate the longitudinal relationships of global mean temperature with population, CO2 emissions, ambient CO2, and gross domestic product (GDP) using 50 years of published annual data.

If you haven’t already given up on your New Year’s resolutions – clean out sock drawer, organize closets, exercise more, there is one resolution if you have a home water filtration system you need to add and make sure to keep – change the filter every few months (or as recommended by the manufacturer). In this article, I will explain why.

Plants can be genetically modified to produce high-value pharmaceuticals, a practice called “biopharming.” Many of these "biopharmed" vaccines and other biologics do not require refrigeration, special handling, or sophisticated medical equipment to distribute them, making them ideal for middle and low-income countries. They are also cheaper to produce than our current methods and can help reduce the increasing costs of biologics. But these products have not yet entered the marketplace in part because of regulatory constraints.

In 2016, the American viewing public was exposed to 663,000 television commercials for pharmaceuticals. That is a significant “ad spend” by Pharma, which we pay for through increased drug pricing. A new study looks at the therapeutic value of the more heavily advertised drugs. The key concept here is “market differentiation.”

Advertising of worthless nostrums to prevent or cure illnesses is common. Often, it consists solely of anecdotes, but sometimes it is bolstered by statistical sleight of hand. Don't be fooled, because your health and your money may be in jeopardy.

Yet another potential Covid treatment has fallen by the wayside. This time it's fluvoxamine, an antidepressant, which showed some promise in minimizing serious disease in small trials. But in a large, randomized trial, it flopped completely. The lesson? You need an antiviral drug to treat a viral infection – not a repurposed drug. These have all failed.

Medicine, like the science that underlies it, is seldom transformed by “Eureka” breakthroughs; rather, it is most often a process of systematically accumulating knowledge and making incremental advances. Radiation treatment for breast cancer is a good example: New data has enabled us to revise and improve old approaches.

Mara Altman wrote in the NYT that people of shorter stature are better for the planet. Mara claims that the natural resources needed to support a shorter person are less than for a taller person, even though the author acknowledges that shorter people live longer (which may negate the benefits of short stature). Since both genetics and environment determine a person’s height, it was not clear whether the author was advocating that: we manipulate the human genome to breed shorter people, we pair couples to include at least one short partner, or we restrict protein intake with a vegan lifestyle to reduce human stature.

Homicides are on the rise, although not equally across the country. And while firearm violence ending in suicide still exceeds homicides, the toll of homicides in metropolitan areas, especially among Black and Hispanic young males, remains elevated. A recent study provides some novel context.

The American Council on Science and Health was founded by well-learned individuals. Our writing staff and Board of Scientific Advisors are equally well educated. This month we added a new team member to our full-time writing staff, Dr. Henry I. Miller, our first Glenn Swogger Distinguished Fellow.

Some doctors are alarmed by the blase attitude toward the Covid drug Paxlovid, quite different from when the drug first became available. What's going on? Some of the waning interest in the drug is because of the widespread use of the term "Paxlovid rebound," implying that there is something wrong with it. More likely, the problem is the term, not the drug.

The SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes COVID-19, is threatening to surge again. In the past few weeks alone, a recent version, XBB.1.5, the most infectious subvariant yet discovered, has quickly spread in the United States. As of the most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control, this variant makes up about three-quarters of all cases in the Northeast and 27.6% nationwide. There is reason to be concerned.

Heavy metals in baby food do not cause autism. Listen in as we discuss the evidence. Dropping an F-bomb now and again might confer an important health benefit, according to recent research. Do we finally have a scientific justification for the use of colorful language?