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Beginning in 1976, the American Council on Science and Health began clarifying the difference between a health threat and a health scare. A recent write-up reminds the public about this important difference, and pays homage to one of our founders.

Does showering hurt your health? A Cambridge, MA company believes that taking a shower harms your microbiome, so it's developed a new probiotic spray to use in lieu of regular washing. One executive embraces this idea so strongly that he hasn't showered in over a decade.

People who have had chickenpox are at risk for shingles an extremely painful condition that usually appears in older adults. It can be prevented by a vaccine. But now that shot is only recommended for people over the age of 60. Is this a reasonable restriction?

Is it a smart food choice? Or is it just another fad like many weight loss miracle pills, powders and martini diets?

The Eko Core smartphone device, which wirelessly transmits heart information for analysis, has received FDA approval and is now accepting orders.

Credit: Rafael Anderson Gonzales Mendoza

The fight for polio eradication has been making a lot of progress recently but there is unfortunate news this week from the Ukraine: 2 new cases have popped up in the country.

Ever wonder if mom loves the kids or the dog more? Well the federal government was curious too so they wasted your tax money trying to find out.

HIV drugs have performed in ways that are nothing short of miraculous. Of the 673 HIV-negative gay men in San Francisco who participated in a study of the prophylactic efficacy of Gilead's Truvada, all 673 remained uninfected two years later, despite lower condom use by gay men. Amazing. Gilead also came up with the first cure for hepatitis C. Yet, the company is routinely demonized.

The big question about biosimilars is, is similar good enough?

Should the government decide if it s mayonnaise, or should your palate?

Budtender, can I get another? Marijuana bars are all the rage at young weddings.

One year ago CVS decided to stop selling cigarettes at all their stores nationwide. Now they are patting themselves on the back because smoking is down in the past year. Not so fast, groups like ACSH deserve the credit for the plummeting smoking rates.

Organic food has long been a concern for food safety proponents but as its popularity grows, so may the risks.

Gaydar is become part of our lexicon, but what the term is really just insensitive stereotyping. Furthermore, studies have shown that not onyl do people not have "gaydar", but if they think they do it can be weaponized against people.

Homeopathy is the system of using extremely dilute solutions of the disease-causing entity itself to treat the disease.

Methanol sounds scary but fear evaporates quickly when people find that even if you consume nothing but aspartame all day, you will get about half the methanol that's in a banana. Yet charlatans continue to claim artificial sweeteners will give you cancer.

As access to Wi-Fi grows, so it seems are the number of people claiming to be afflicted with EHS, or Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity Syndrome. But the science supporting this suspect condition is weaker than the radiation emitting from your no-threat home router.

As if cancer patients don't have enough to worry about, they often must go through torture in the form of nausea and vomiting. Fortunately, a new drug called Varubi received FDA approval, and it's extremely effective in preventing these dreaded side effects of cancer chemotherapy.

Does high salt consumption cause obesity? A recently published study says so, but sometimes research isn't reliable, or reliably interpreted. After giving this a shake, we've found that the results are fairly hard to swallow.

About 69 million Americans are not as young as they think they are. Using a calculator to measure BMI, blood pressure, age, and smoking habits, the CDC found more than 40 percent of Americans had hearts that were five years or more older than their actual age.
That's kind of.. heartbreaking.

For some, "gluten free" has become a mantra, as well as a trendy diet. But this food subset has always been a necessity those allergic to the gluten protein. However, there's now hope of a bread breakthrough as advances in genetically engineered wheat are moving towards human trials.

We exercise reasonable precaution with new products and technology, right? Sure we do! But the Precautionary Principle, as it's most often invoked, would bring scientific and industrial progress to a grinding halt.

Six years after Washington, D.C. health officials delivered a bleak and morbid update about the city's growing HIV-AIDS population, a new study reveals that its needle-exchange program is saving lives and millions of dollars in healthcare costs.

The world of supplements took another hit this week, as FDA officials announced that they were cracking down on companies selling pure, powered caffeine, the active component in energy drinks. It s actually more dangerous than it sounds.