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The Center for Medicare Services unveiled its latest consumer tool, a comparison of Hospice care, aptly titled Hospice Compare. Despite it being an expensive regulatory requirement critics say that for the consumer it sheds little light on the subject.

There are three basic facts about death: (1) We all have to die. (2) All young deaths are tragic deaths. (3) Some of us die in ways that are more interesting than others, and those deaths often make their way into case reports. This story involves all three.

The story of the allegedly toxic (and potentially lethal) homeopathic teething products continues. The latest piece of the puzzle is the multiple violations an FDA investigation uncovered at Raritan Pharmaceuticals, one of the company's manufacturing facilities.

Given the political morass consuming all of the oxygen in the room on social media and every news outlet, a pivot to human and gorilla medical commonalities seemed a worthwhile departure.

Mylan - best known for jacking up the price of the EpiPen and misclassifying it to underpay Medicaid rebates - is perpetuating big pharma's stereotype of unscrupulous behavior. This week, they settled in court for a fraction of the money they made through their scheme that bilked both their customers and the government. 

New research, published in Science Translational Medicine, may lead to a new test that takes the guessing game out of diagnosing Lyme disease. Even better, it could distinguish Lyme disease from other tick-borne illnesses that share many of the same symptoms. 

Peanut allergy is among a parent's worst nightmares — a child is at constant risk of life-threatening reactions. But relief is likely on the way. Australian researchers found that their protocol to desensitize allergic children was effective in many for 4 years after treatment had ended.

Increasing number of physicians support a single-payer system. But is it just a panacea to control health care costs?

No U.S. cities are in the top 10. Thankfully, no U.S. cities are in the bottom 10, either.

Netflix has declined to carry the agriculture documentary called "Food Evolution", for reasons they refused to specify. Like all documentaries, it is clearly a passion project so when disappointments like that happen, passions run high as well, and lots of speculation occurs among the fans. Some believe it's a conspiracy against science, that Netflix is politically aligned with the groups who make their money scaring people about food. (1) Others give them a pass and say science documentaries are probably just not a draw for their audience.

Maybe old dogs can't learn new tricks — but old people can. Researchers have demonstrated that older folks can learn new exercises that can help them improve their mobility, and likely their overall health.

The just released toxicology report from Tiger Woods' DUI arrest confirmed the presence of five drugs. Self-medicating and multi-drug use are rampant societal issues addressed in this article.

It's an ethical dilemma. Impossible Burgers sells an entirely plant-based burger that differentiates itself by compounding it in a way that “it bleeds,” so that the red juices we associate with a juicy burger come from a component of soybean’s root. To produce the burger, it's bio-engineered, with the genetic information from the soy plant inserted into yeast.  

Does menstruation really increase the likelihood that a woman will crave chocolate, as is commonly believed? Or is that craving just an excuse to eat a forbidden food? Recent research finds that women from other countries don't seem to have the same peri-menstrual urge — so it's more of an American phenomenon than a biologically-based imperative.

Misinformed people will adjust their views when given correct information. What could be simpler? This study suggests that it is a bit more complicated, information is not always a 'corrective.' 

Lululemon makes it easy to find great yoga pants and tote bags. Sound health advice - not so much. Perhaps Lululemon should stick to what they are good at and leave the science and medicine to the experts. 

To make our society better informed, we have to fight back against the Fear Industry. We can do so by publicly identifying those people who spread misinformation. And then we encourage people to never listen to them again.

When not one country in the world meets the “breastfeeding standards” set forth by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), it might be time to question their value. Are they attainable — more importantly, should they be?

1. On Science Codex, a take on how anti-science groups who are all working together, and even funded by the same groups, such as Organic Consumers Association and its vassal sites like Sourcewatch and US Right To Know, mobilize its bloggers for their clients. In this case they allege that Dr. Geoffrey Kabat, an advisor here who is an epidemiologist at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and Dr.

Orthorexia, or "clean eating" is as much a belief system as it is a dietary prescription. Believers eschew "normal" eating, thinking that only their particular restrictive versions of proper diets will provide optimal health. But the restrictions that such diets adhere to could be unhealthful, to say the least.

Royal jelly contains a molecule that promotes wound healing. But don't rush to the local natural remedy store quite yet.

Recently, we published an article More Bad News for Single Payer Health System detailing the reasons for a disastrous report from the National Health Service (NHS) about poor quality of care for the sickest patients. Then, news came out from NHS England that the number of people waiting for routine surgery hit more than 4 million.

More than one hundred people are dying of opioid overdoses every day in the US, which has formed the basis for new policies and laws that are supposed to address the problem. Yet things continue to get worse. Not only are new policies failing to help, but rather, they are making an already-bad situation worse. Part one: understanding the real killer. 

Compared to the U.S. national average, the homicide rate was 54% lower for whites, 14% lower for Hispanics, and 267% higher for blacks. Put another way, the homicide rate among African-Americans is nearly quadruple that of the national average.

There are fully trained doctors amidst the influx of refugees from war-ravaged countries.  Many of them are relegated to menial tasks.  Allowing them to practice medicine in this country is close to impossible but are we wasting what could be a valuable resource?