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The "portmanteau" - combining two words to make a new one - was not invented by Lewis Carroll in 1871, it had been used half a century earlier when Massachusetts Governor Elbridge Gerry created a serpentine political district and gave rise to the term "gerrymandering", but it certainly took off after being used to such good effect in "Th

There are good drugs and not-so-good drugs. Much of this is determined by the underlying disease or infection. Even in 2015, there are many diseases for which there is no good treatment. Medicine is not fair, and all the research in the world will never change this.

A blog posting on the NYTimes site discusses the Green Revolution in Africa. While gratifying to read about progress being made, some major omissions need to be addressed in this piece, including the lack of Dr. Norman Borlaug s contributions.

Dr. Joe Schwarcz, chemistry professor at McGill University, is well known for his able dissections of quackery of all types. In a recent article in the Montreal Gazette, he takes on and (in our opinion) demolishes the attacks on aspartame.

Genius or Dangerous? We say the latter.
Mothers who are not able to breastfeed are now starting to accept breast milk donations from other mothers or paying for breast milk obtained from online services. These breast milk donations and purchases the method sounds eerily similar to E-bay are unregulated and may actually be very dangerous for the baby.

For decades the Federal government has insisted they want fewer Americans to smoke but recent regulatory missteps have instead led to worries by health professionals that policies designed to create winners and losers in the smoking cessation market instead keep people addicted to tobacco. There has always been a bit

A new study published in JAMA reports that the labels on most edible marijuana products either overstate or understate the amount of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC -- the active component in cannabis) that they contain.

The latest CDC report on waterborne illnesses reveals an unexpected villain: Cryptosporidium is a parasite that seems to have been responsible for about one-half of the 90 outbreaks over the two years 2011-12. Simple precautionary measures will help avert illness.

It is an understatement to say that antibiotic resistance is a major problem facing our healthcare system. Every year 2 million Americans are infected with resistant bacteria, and at least 23,000 people die each year from these infections. Each year MRSA kills about as many people as HIV. Compounding this problem is the fact that companies (factory farms?) are actively contributing to this problem (

ACSH friend, Dr. Robert Popovian, the Senior Director of Healthcare, Science and Economic Advocacy and U.S. Government Relations at Pfizer, is arguably one of the world s premier experts in all aspects of the industry, from early stage discovery to development, as well as innovation, economics, and government policy.

This week, Senate Republicans released a budget proposal that would significantly cut funding for Title X (the federal family planning program) and the Teen Pregnancy Prevention (TPP) program. This comes just a week after the House of Representatives proposed eliminating Title X altogether.

It s summer time and the living s easy. Time to fire up the BBQ, pull the summer clothes down from the attic (hopefully they still fit) and relax around the pool and if we are talking pools, than we also have to talk about chlorine.
Chlorine and pools go hand in hand. Any pool owner will tell you that keeping your chlorine levels (a

A new study of non-solid lung nodules, followed via annual spiral/low-dose CT scans among smokers and ex-smokers, shows that that type of nodule can be safely followed with imaging, avoiding needless surgical interventions. Some lung cancers were found: none caused significant illness.

Since 2006, there has been a slow and steady drumbeat against trans fats in foods. Decades ago, when Natural Resources Defense Council and various other food fallacy groups latched onto saturated fats, we cautioned that the studies were epidemiological correlation, not science, and that the alternative might be worse.

scientists are working on a way to make domestic pigs resistant to African swine fever, a highly contagious ailment that requires slaughtering of infected animals.

Here s a simple question with nothing even close to a simple answer:
Do cancer drugs cost too much?
ACSH s Dr. Josh Bloom, who has written frequently on this subject, including an op-ed the New York Post thinks that al too often they are.
He says, There are obvious cases of recently approved cancer drugs that offer very little benefit in terms of either disease-free progression or extension of life. The annual cost for these drugs is roughly $100,000, but

There is a perception out there that the technology and social media booms of the last decade have been detrimental to public health. In particular hookup apps are being blamed by many for having contributed to the increases in sexually transmitted diseases and infections (STD/STIs). This belief is not entirely unwarranted; earlier this year the state

Yesterday, we noted that the HPV vaccine, one of the few methods we have to actually prevent cancer, was not being utilized as much as it should. Today we read that young adult women have a significantly reduced incidence of HPV-related cervical lesions.

Some 30 to 40 percent of purchased foods are simply discarded by Americans.

Yes, if you have hypertension (HTN, or high blood pressure), your risk of cardiovascular ills heart attack or stroke is increased.

Yet another study shows that the HPV vaccine is safe and effective in generating protection against cancer-causing strains of the virus. Since it's one of the very few vaccines against cancer, protecting against cancer of the cervix and other areas, why isn't it being utilized more often?

It seems like every week, there s another study on the health benefits of chocolate getting major news coverage. There s a reason for this people like to eat chocolate, and they re eager to read coverage of health studies that justify their chocolate habit. They ll click on the article with the catchy,

Medical marijuana is a booming industry in this country. A recent estimate puts industry growth at 74 percent from 2013 to 2014, with over 2.5 billion in sales in 2014 alone. This is incredible when you factor in that just under half the states allow its sale. From coast to

We have to wonder if Environmental Working Group is having a really bad fiscal quarter because their website has become littered with even more anti-science, scary chemical verbiage than usual. It's clear they know what their donors think about actual science and evidence, since now they are going after the U.S. Food & Drug Administration for its "generally recognized as safe" (GRAS) classification, which applies to food additives that can't harm anyone.

You may remember a large study published last year that seemed to find a link between Viagra use and melanoma. The study, from Harvard Medical School Brigham and Women s Hospital, included data on more than 51,000 men aged 40-75, and reported recent use of Viagra (sildenafil) with a near-doubling of the risk of malignant melanoma.