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In December, we wrote about the FDA approval of Gardasil 9, which prevents approximately 90 percent of cervical,

It s been a splendid week for those who are averse to evidence-based medicine. This week alone, we wrote about a Nevada Assemblywoman Michele Fiore, who thinks that cancer is caused by a fungus, and can be cured by baking soda.

Proponents of organic agriculture and of raw milk have frequently charged that the nation s conventionally produced milk supply is widely contaminated with illegal drug residues. But a new report from the FDA shows that this simply isn t true.

Evidence supporting a link possibly causal between statins and diabetes has been accumulating for a while now. But never before has any study shown such an increased risk: 46 percent?! Of concern, but we would advise waiting for more confirmation.

Infectious diseases have been the focus of many news stories in the past year.
Sometimes, the news is good, such as a cure for hepatitis C. Sometimes it is very bad

Tabitha Powledge, in the blog section of the Public Library of Science pay-to-publish article website, claims to be an award-winning journalist. She needs an award-winning fact checker.

Coffee seems to be a steaming hot topic in health news these days. Last week we wrote about a study that associated high levels (six cups) of daily coffee intake with reduced risk for multiple sclerosis. And this week, according to a new South Korean study, moderate coffee consumption was associated with a decreased risk of high coronary artery calcium (CAC). Calcium in the walls of the coronary arteries can be an early sign of coronary heart disease.

The prevalence of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) seems to have increased significantly over the last thirty years, resulting in much speculation about the causes of this disorder. Everything from pollution to vaccines to labor induction/augmentation has been blamed,

We have been discussing narcotic abuse lately. It is a huge and growing problem in the US, and there is no apparent solution at this time.
But, in at least one case, there is a solution. And it should involve time in jail. Not for the drug abusers/addicts, but for doctors and other officials of sports teams, especially on the college level.

Last year we wrote about the Food and Drug Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency altering their recommendations on fish consumption and telling women who are pregnant or breast-feeding young children to eat at least two servings (about six to eight ounces) of low-mercury seafood each week. And now, the Dietary

FDA pulls rug out from under low-T therapy: testosterone prescriptions can no longer be given for vague symptoms more consistent with aging than with actual illness.

Dr. Josh Bloom on Science 2.0, March 3, 2015
I never know what I'm going to find on the editorial pages of the New York Times. Sometimes I agree with them, and sometimes I don't. But, they usually, at the very least, make sense.

An op-ed by family medicine practitioner Victoria Dooley, MD, in today s New York Times discusses the problems engendered when people who say they are allergic to certain antibiotics actually aren t and why this is a deadly problem.

An actual Nevada lawmaker has developed her own unique theory of cancer causation: she believes cancer is a fungus and can be flushed away with salt water and baking soda. Let s hope this idea stays in Vegas, or better yet, disappears without a trace.

As we have noted recently, vaccines and vaccine exemptions are hot topics in the news both pro and con. Parents who don t have their kids vaccinated because of unfounded concerns about neurological damage not only put their own children at risk, but also others in the community.

Last week, ACSH s Dr. Gilbert Ross spoke at a rally organized by New Yorkers for Smarter Smoking Alternatives (NYSSA), a coalition of local retailers,

Today s New York Times editorial board addresses narcotic abuse in a piece called Painkiller Abuses and Ignorance. We wonder whose ignorance are the editors trying to discuss they seem to have enough to go around.

Each year, about three million women in the United States will have an suspicious or abnormal pap test, according to the CDC. Following the abnormal results, women often undergo diagnostic testing a colposcopy or biopsy and if precancerous lesions are

The CDC recommends that children be vaccinated for 14 diseases before the age of 6. In total, 29 shots should be given, and sometimes several shots are given at once. The CDC states, The recommended immunization schedule is

Our story (yesterday) on basing the choice of cancer drugs on the particular gene mutation in a tumor (gene sequencing), instead of the tumor type,

A new study, released this week and slated to be presented at the American Academy of Neurology meetings in April, found a link between coffee consumption a lot of it and a reduced incidence of multiple sclerosis. It s a pretty slim thread, however.

It is fairly standard practice for companies to try to give their customers what they want, even if it makes no sense. Perhaps the most notable recent example was Johnson and Johnson,

When chemotherapy was first used in the 1940s, all of the drugs worked the same way by killing cells. The concept behind this was that, since cancer cells grow faster than non-cancerous cells, they would be selectively killed by the drug, leaving normal cells more or less unharmed.

Obesity (defined as a BMI of 30 or more), especially extreme obesity, is known to decrease the likelihood that a woman can become pregnant. In addition, when obese women do become pregnant, they are more likely to develop gestational diabetes, and have an increased risk of large babies, early delivery, and stillbirths, and their infants are at increased risk of congenital malformations.

Technological progress, our very standard of living, depends upon the scientific method. We know very well that the heart and soul of science is accurate and verifiable research findings. Research findings can be properly verified only if the underlying data and