Search results

Medicaid is the program that politicians love to fight over. Still, millions of Americans can’t afford to lose Medicaid, which acts as the safety net that keeps low-income families, seniors, and people with disabilities from falling through the cracks. With federal spending under the microscope, Medicaid is again on the chopping block. So, what’s really at stake? Let’s cut through the noise and get to the facts before lawmakers start playing Operation with your healthcare.

For 35 years, the FDA has placed onerous restrictions on the only drug it has ever approved for treatment-resistant schizophrenia, and the only one it recognizes as reducing the risk of suicide. This has made it very difficult for doctors and patients to take advantage of the medicine. But that’s about to change.

The discovery of silent H5N1 infections in unexpected populations, the emergence of new variants, and its potential to evolve into a human-to-human transmissible virus necessitates immediate and comprehensive public health responses.

Lost in the conversation about measles and vitamin A is the mind-boggling irony of RFK Jr.’s position on using the vitamin. He promotes it as a measles treatment — where it is useless — while condemning millions of children to blindness and death by opposing GM foods like Golden Rice, a clear solution to vitamin A deficiency in poorer countries. It’s almost impossible to be more wrong than this.

PubMed is a critical resource for biomedical research, housing over 37 million citations from MEDLINE and other sources, and serving as a cornerstone for researchers, physicians, and the public. However, concerns are growing over its future due to potential policy shifts that could restrict access, halt updates, or compromise its indexing system, potentially undermining scientific integrity and accessibility.

After being essentially replaced by fentanyl during the darkest days of the Covid pandemic, heroin is re-emerging as an option for consumers of blackmarket drugs. Could this have something to do with the recent downturn in drug overdose fatalities?

Organic agriculture is wasteful of land and water, and its products are prone to microbial contamination. It offers no advantages except to the grifters in its supply chain.

RFK Jr. prioritizes debunked vaccine conspiracies over real public health threats, ignoring rising outbreaks of measles, influenza, and pertussis. His rejection of scientific consensus endangers public health, undermining efforts to combat vaccine-preventable diseases.

The aggressive prosecution and regulatory scrutiny of pain doctors have driven physicians out of pain management, leaving patients abandoned and desperate. This chilling effect has led to tragic consequences, including patient suicides, as untreated pain sufferers have nowhere to turn.

Eight years ago, not too long after war was declared against opioid medications and the people who legitimately need them, I ran headfirst into the problem myself. Yep, I needed (and sought) drugs but couldn't get them. Sound familiar?

At the start of every year, millions vow to get fit, save money, or finally learn French, armed with the dubious belief that 21 days of sheer willpower will transform them into gym rats, financial wizards, or fluent Parisians. Spoiler alert: That’s not how habits work; if it were we’d all be running marathons now and speaking five languages.

The digital revolution has radically shifted how we consume information. Reading lengthy think pieces and books has given way to limitless hours of doom scrolling and streaming. The widespread access to content enabled by internet access has many upsides, but are we really wired for our new tech-saturated environment? Let's take a closer look.

Last month, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. launched a new wave of hysteria by announcing that Tylenol could be linked to autism. The result was a predictable partisan squabble with both sides lining up behind their preferred studies and experts. Let's put aside the partisanship and try to make sense of the competing scientific claims.

Being a coward, I avoided the shingles vaccine for far too long. Finally, I gave in and got it along with my annual flu shot, ending up with two sore arms rather than one. I could either complain about it, write a blues song, or both.

Artificial intelligence is reshaping medicine, promising sharper diagnostics and more efficient workflows. However, what is lost when machines mediate human judgment? From hospital wards to holographic theaters, where visitors now “speak” with Holocaust survivors through AI projections, the technology reveals both its extraordinary reach and its uneasy power.

From grade-school “remedial” teaching to the Nobel stage, molecular biologist Carol W. Greider turned obstacles into fuel for discovery. Her groundbreaking discovery of a crucial enzyme, telomerase, reshaped our understanding of aging, cancer, and cellular immortality. Greider’s story is a rebuke to the cult of “perfection” and a reminder that brilliance often hides behind what the system calls “deficiency.”

Bluetoothing” (also called flashblooding) involves injecting someone else’s drug-laced blood to try to get high. It's a near-perfect way to spread HIV, and it won’t deliver a high. Here’s why.

Every hospital shelf and pharmacy counter depends on an invisible global current, the pharmaceutical supply chain. Yet this lifeline for critical medicines is a dangerously thin, fragile network shaped as much by economics and geopolitics as by science, leaving both patients and national security vulnerable when that current falters.

A recent BMJ paper claiming health benefits of apple cider vinegar was retracted — hardly shocking given the long history of hype over evidence. While it’s clear ACV doesn’t do much good, the real question is whether it can actually cause harm. Let’s break down what the science (and a little chemistry) says.

Apple cider vinegar, one of the darlings of the nutrition world (including Dr. Oz), went from "probably useless" to "entirely useless" once a key study in BMJ was retracted. Of course, our colleagues at McGill's Office and Science and Society knew this long ago.

Is fiber the gut’s guardian angel or an over-hyped plant pulp we can happily skip? While carnivore enthusiasts swear their bellies have never been calmer since abandoning fruits, veggies, and grains, #fibermaxxing devotees are tossing chia seeds on everything. Before you trade your oatmeal for rib-eye (or vice-versa), where do the facts really fall on this crunchy controversy?

California has once again stepped to the front of the regulatory line—this time in the school cafeteria. While Washington dithers over what exactly counts as an “ultra-processed food” (UPF), California’s Assembly Bill 1264 delivers the nation’s first legal definition for school meal programs, blending nutrition science, food chemistry, and public health into one sweeping mandate. Can law meaningfully define “junk food”? And what happens when one state decides it can?

It's that time of year again. Fall, when the leaves turn color and the Yankees turn into spectators. At least one of these is enjoyable. A lesson on the chemistry of colorful leaf pigments shows that, unlike the Yankees, Mother Nature goes out with a bang, not a whimper.

Do you know how gelatin (jello) is made? Do you know what gelatin was used as before it was food?
Watch our latest fun science facts video to find out!

Western modernization has triggered an “internal climate crisis” in the human gut. An ecological upheaval marked by biodiversity loss, disrupted food webs, and chronic inflammatory “weather,” driven by antibiotics, sanitation, diet, and lifestyle. Reversing course requires ecosystem-level restoration rather than reductionist fixes.