Recent breakthroughs in stem-cell have raised the prospect of one day "breeding" humans and growing organs in a lab. How realistic are these scenarios? Netflix just released an embarrassing miniseries about the opioid epidemic. Let's take a closer look at the show's claims.
addiction
It should come as no surprise to anyone trying to get or fill a prescription for a controlled substance that our drug laws are nuts. But you probably don't fully appreciate how nutty they really are. This article just scratches the surface of the nut. But that's still plenty.
The FDA has tried to fight opioid addiction by asking patients to mail their excess prescription pain meds to the agency for disposal. It's an absurd proposal. There's lots of anti-pesticide 'facts' floating around the internet; let's debunk the most popular of these claims.
Most users perceive marijuana as a healthy, natural plant. It's touted as a cure or treatment for pain, anxiety, seizures, and other various ailments. Yet, much of this is false. Dr. Roneet Lev, a board-certified emergency medicine physician and addiction specialist, tells us about what the pot industry prefers to keep to itself.
Marijuana is being decriminalized across the US. Most are celebrating, but there is a real (and sometimes serious) public health threat that tags along. Most of you will be unaware of what you're about to read. Dr. Roneet Lev, the former head of the Scripps Mercy Hospital emergency department and also an addiction specialist shares some eye-opening information in the following interview.
The $21 billion settlement between the attorneys general of several states and pharmaceutical distributors will make the lawyers rich (they get roughly 10 percent of the total) but will do nothing to affect overdose rates. Dr. Jeffrey Singer tells us why.
The satisfaction of handwork; as we reconsider our economy, is there still a place for small, rather than large; a musing on addiction's social component, and can the outliers of the herd teach us about how to return to social mingling.
Representatives Terri Sewell (AL) and David McKinley (WV) are trying to push through a new law, one that would ensure that Medicare patients have equal access to "non-opioid" therapies after surgery. If they succeed, then Medicare recipients will have earned the right to suffer along with the rest of us. Brilliant.
ACSH advisor Dr. Wolfgang Vogel was not pleased about how the 1998 settlement money between the tobacco industry and state governments was spent. Little of the $246 billion actually went to smoking cessation programs. Will we see the same irresponsible use of funds obtained from lawsuits against opioid makers?
Addiction is a complex phenomenon. Genetic, physiological, cultural and socioeconomic factors all appear to play a role. Now, new research in rats shows that heroin addiction activates brain circuits associated with negative emotional learning, which in turn creates persistent unpleasant emotions that a user suppresses with yet more opioids.
Treating addiction first requires that we understand it. As it turns out most people know little about what addiction actually is, and even less about what causes it. An expert breaks down the issue, so we can better understand what we're seeing unfold around the country.
In New Zealand, the Chief Censor adjusted the movie's rating due to "triggering" content. Is this a reasonable health-based decision to protect moviegoers?