Search results

Twice a year, when I visit my in-laws in Poland, I get to dabble in the soft science of linguistics in my futile attempt to learn the Polish language. Few people outside my immediate family can understand me because what I think of as “speaking” others perceive as caveman-like grunts with a Yankee accent.

There sure are a lot of toxicology "experts" out there on the web, and they really don't like anything that is sweet (except maybe when they sell it). We recently wrote about sucralose (Splenda), which is trashed by these "Internut" know-nothings despite the fact that its safety profile is about as good as you'll ever see. But, these I-nuts are even more verbal about aspartame -- and the more verbal they are, the more they get it wrong.

Injuries are part and parcel of soccer. Sure enough, they do not seem to be decreasing, even though most top-level teams have embedded sports medicine into their operations. But if teams applied the same approach to the act of kicking a ball, as it does to overall skill development, rates of injury could decline significantly.

As people tend to get older, decisions about topics such as health and retirement can be a bit more challenging. The difficult decisions we make later in life are often important and can impact our lives substantially, meaning there may be fewer opportunities to recover from any bad decisions we make.

1. An unknown environmental group got a gaggle of activists together and tried to get us banned in Google as a spam site. Google is terrific about responding, of course, but they are also good about checking on those things to see, so we were back up and running soon enough.
They also paid someone to do a Distributed Denial of Service (DD0S) attack, which knocked off our site for a little bit. We are still tracking the location of the attack but our server company kicked into gear to stop them.

Vitamin D is one of a list of nutrients thought to be valuable in preventing, or treating, a long list of conditions. But according to researchers from the University of Alberta, for most conditions linked to vitamin D the evidence is weak, if not completely non-existent.

Attorney Bill Marler has collected $600 million suing and settling foodborne-illness cases. Right now, he's zeroing in on Chipotle over its E. coli and norovirus outbreaks. If your company does not want to be sued for poisoning customers, don't sell these six things.

The American Council on Science and Health is pleased to announce that the Board of Trustees appointed eight new members to our renowned Board of Scientific Advisors yesterday afternoon.

Researchers at Notre Dame University have been able to engineer a switch on immune T cell receptors, enhancing their capacity to recognize foreign proteins on cancer cells, which allows for precision targeting and killing.

Can calorie labeling really help people eat less? And if so, what type of label works best? A new study indicates that labels do help — and it may not make much difference for many people what type of label is presented.

The International Agency for Research on Cancer says it doesn't know if coffee causes cancer, which is a switch from 1991 when the agency, an arm of the World Health Organization, said it did. That's bad news for those who want to trust IARC's recommendations, because its reasons to reverse course on coffee are no more valid than its reason to have declared it possibly carcinogenic to humans in the first place.

It'd be hard, if not impossible, to avoid eating genetically modified foods. By one means or another virtually all our crops grains, fruits and vegetables have been modified in this fashion. If you don't believe it, take a look at the earlier versions of some of our current foods.

The renewed campaign against Type-2 diabetes is in full force with the launch of a website that seeks to identify Americans who might become diabetic. But in a medical environment often plagued by over-diagnosis and over-prescription, is this new tool -- which could potentially impact more than 80 million people -- really necessary?

The development of antibiotics and other antimicrobial therapies is arguably the greatest achievement of modern medicine. However, overuse and misuse of antimicrobial therapy predictably leads to resistance in microorganisms.

In an effort to stop tax evaders, the federal government is cracking down on sales of illegal cigarettes. Yet contrary to popular opinion, the cigarette black market may actually benefit public health, especially in impoverished communities. That's hard to believe, you say? Here's how it could.

While politicians want compound pharmacies to put together approved drugs, the EPA didn't want two approved pesticides used together. A US Appeals Court asked why, and didn't like their answer.

The U.S. is facing drug shortages with increasing frequency. From intravenous fluids to chemotherapeutic agents for life-saving treatments, doctors, hospitals and healthcare personnel are increasingly burdened with the ethical dilemma of rationing drugs. Here's a closer look at this vexing situation.

While many Americans are scrambling to make last-minute changes to their 2016 healthcare plans by Sunday's deadline, others are considering dropping their coverage altogether, especially millennials -- young adults, who tend to be relatively healthy. Many may opt to pay a penalty instead of buying insurance they won't use.

Natural foods aren't fit to eat, says science and technology historian Rachel Laudan. The move to eat only organic and natural flies in the face of advances that make foods better, not worse.

A look at several studies shows a significant association between several commonly-used antidepressants among children and teens, and increased suicidal thoughts and aggression. Even so, the reporting of such effects is sadly lacking in many areas, since they are usually under-reported.

Nitrogen triiodide is exceedingly cool stuff. The purple solid is very easy to make, but you better keep it wet. Once dry, it's a powerful contact explosive which could theoretically be useful for practical jokes. I know, because I survived after someone played one on me.

Although viruses are not alive, they have evolved into a perfect replication machine. And they do so without having to exert themselves at all. The infected host cell does all the work because the virus tricks it into doing so. Reproduction without life; pretty fascinating.

The Zika virus is getting a lot of media attention so the Centers for Disease Control has issued an update.

Caffeine junkies, we know the struggle is real. The risks versus benefits of coffee have been debated for some time, and the latest findings point to good news: Caffeine does not make our hearts flutter, despite popular belief.

By 2029, the 65-year-and-older demographic will make up roughly 20 percent of Americans. Yet while elderly population expands and figuratively speeds ahead in a Corvette, the number of health care providers for seniors lags far behind, a group crawling along at a turtle's pace. What's behind this "geriatrician" shortage?