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Starting this summer, the Dubai Health Authority will sequence the DNA of all three million city residents. The hope is that the information, stored in a database, will result in identifying changes in the genes and proteins that can lead to conquering genetic diseases, 220 of which are prevalent in the United Arab Emirates.

Ensa Cosby died from renal disease, a condition that afflicts a disproportionate number of African Americans.

The 1,500th episode of The Dr. Oz Show recently aired, or in TV parlance it's now "in the can." And after peddling suspect science for nine years, that's basically where this show belongs. Ratings are tanking, his audience is yawning – and we hardly noticed his tired milestone. Our medical advice: Oz = Irrelevance.
 

Did you know that in an emergency you could be enrolled in a clinical trial without your consent? How is this possible and what can you do about it?

Every year, 5.6 million children under the age of 5 die. That's roughly the same size as the entire Atlanta metropolitan area. Imagine a city that size filled only with children aged 4 and younger. Now, imagine that city being wiped off the map. Every year. That's the scope of the problem that global poverty presents.

Stationary bike riding or weight training, to keep muscles vibrant and strong, is important exercise. But it shouldn't be overdone by doing too much, too fast, or the result can be rhabdomyolysis. Rhabdo, for short, can occur when muscle fibers die and enter the bloodstream, which in some cases can produce kidney failure.

Pressured by activists, PepsiCo removed aspartame from its Diet Pepsi products three years ago. Now, it's doing a 180 and bringing it back. Why? It was never a concern, anyway.

Nicholas Kristof, a columnist for The New York Times, continues to fear monger in the face of scientific evidence.

Excess body fat is associated with many ailments — including breathing problems. Recent research has found reducing adiposity, particularly in the deep abdominal area (visceral fat), is associated with improved breathing as well as ameliorating other ills.

A team of scholars at Iowa State Univ. presented research validating what the scientific community has long suspected: Some anti-GMO groups are (1) either sending information to Russian propaganda sites to assist in their efforts to undermine American agricultural dominance or, (2) they're acting as "useful idiots" by promoting concern about America's food supply.

The Health Department in the nation's largest city reports that 867,000 adults and 15,000 adolescents use tobacco products. In this new, citywide media campaign, the goal is to encourage "all New Yorkers to quit smoking, regardless of the number of times they’ve tried to stop."

For roughly 1 in every 10,000 people who are exposed to common viruses, like herpes simplex or the flu, encephalitis develops. This potentially deadly disease, an inflammation of the brain, is caused by the viruses ability to invade the brainstem. But why does this happen to a small subset of otherwise healthy children? 

Quackery can be appealing because it's consistent with the American notion of freedom and individuality and resistance to control and dogma. And a major logical failing of the educated – although it's rarely recognized for what it truly is – is simply prejudice, where everything "natural" is good and everything "artificial" is bad.

While BPA hysteria has been going on for many years, for just as long we've been writing that the chemical is safe. As it turns out, we've been right all along (while, as usual, the Joe Mercolas and NRDCs of the world were not).

In the first of a series for the FOX podcast network, the Council's medical director clarifies misperceptions surrounding infant nutrition. This includes new trends, like importing specific organic formulas from overseas for being so-called "more pure" or "natural."

CDC data shows that for the past few weeks, of sick people who went to the hospital and got tested about 26% of specimens were positive for influenza. Now in Week 7 of 2018, it has dropped to 25%. Finally, we appear to have turned the corner on this awful flu season.

Are those of us who want, expect, or even request opioid medications doing something wrong? Should we see each medical encounter for pain as an opportunity to be part of the solution to the opioid crisis? An academic who wrestles with the ethics of pain management explores this important issue.

There's no shortage of places to look for ways to help stop America's agonizing and ongoing school-shooting epidemic. And a recent study has identified one. It found that in homes where a child has mental health issues, only 1 in 3 gun owners take the recommended safety precautions to prevent unsupervised access when storing their firearms.
 
 

1. In USA Today, Dr. Alex Berezow had some context for the CNN organization about socialism, which has grown increasingly shrill and bizarre as its market share and credibility have declined. 

Your donations at work: We were at the FDA, the National Institutes of Health, as well as Congress. And that's only when we weren't getting hate mail from anti-science activists, who simply can't accept that they're slowly losing ground in popular culture.

Although you might think that living in an urban setting is worse for your lungs, recent data from the CDC point out that there's more Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease in rural areas. Why? Possible reasons include a higher smoking rate as well as more environmental exposures.

A surprisingly low number of women consider sudden, but persistent bloating as a serious condition — one with a serious underlying cause. The news comes from a recent study which showed that women are more likely to make dietary changes if they experience bloating — rather than contact their physician. Persistent bloating is the lesser known symptom of ovarian cancer.

The stated mission of 314 Action, a group that supports scientists in their bids for U.S. congressional seats, is laudable. Among its objectives is a desire to "elect more leaders ... from STEM backgrounds." However, if you're a Republican don't expect much action at all.

I have had the flu for two weeks. Well, to be honest, I never did get the test to confirm that it was, indeed, the flu. But, I am ok self-diagnosing this one based on the high fever, aches, chills, headache, sore throat, and barking cough. Rapid flu test or not, I'm going to call flu on this one. 
Did I get the flu shot? Yes. 
Was it worth it even though I ended up with the flu? Yes. 

Although we're used to hearing about studies in which people are given candidate drugs – which may or may not be safe or effective – this purposeful infection of healthy people with parasites seems to be a different type of experimental paradigm. Is this really ethical, or does it contradict the principle of "do no harm"?