Dr. Scott Gottlieb is a medical school professor with bureaucratic know-how and a long, pro-science resume. That makes him an excellent choice to head the Food and Drug Administration. Read the rest at USA Today.
Category Archives: Medicine & Food Science
Why We Are Hoarding Our Opioid Pills
To curb the ongoing tidal wave of opioid addiction and overdose deaths, state and federal governments have put in place policies that restrict doctors’ ability to prescribe opioids such as OxyContin, Vicodin, and Percocet. Although well-meaning, these policies are unleashing several unintended — yet entirely predictable — consequences. Read the rest at Stat News.
Stink Bugs Could Add Cilantro Flavor to Red Wine
There are two kinds of people in the world: Those who eat bugs knowingly and those who eat bugs unknowingly. Oh yes, you eat bugs. Even vegans eat bugs. Read the rest at Live Science.
Cancer Fear-Mongering Has Got to Stop
Imagine what a typical American might do for breakfast: Fry a few slices of bacon, slather Nutella on a piece of toast, and pour a hot cup of coffee while checking e-mail on a smartphone. If we are to believe everything we read in the news, then that rather common daily ritual could cause you to die from cancer. Read the rest at USA Today.
Replace Annual Physicals with Real-Time Biomarker Monitoring
The annual physical exam is under fire. Increasingly, physicians believe that the yearly ritual of having our bodies poked and prodded is completely useless, save for the fraction of patients who have a chronic illness or predisposition to disease. Worse, the annual physical is estimated to cost our healthcare system approximately $8 billion for arguably little benefit. Read the rest at Scientific American.
To Your Health: Is Wine Good for You or Is It Not?
FEW things arouse such warm adulation and sharp denunciation as alcohol. It is beloved by some and despised by others, and its consumption is governed by legal and religious rules. Wine is central to Christian rites but is widely considered by Muslims to be forbidden by the Quran. It is also the subject of debate within the scientific community: some researchers contend that alcohol, particularly wine, has health benefits, but others disagree. Read the rest at The Economist.
Macaque Experiment Shows Vaccine Schedule Not Linked to Autism
This article was originally posted on RealClearScience.
During the most recent Republican presidential debate, frontrunner Donald Trump once again dragged out the still widespread myth that vaccines cause autism. This dangerous fiction was debunked as early as 2002 by the New England Journal of Medicine and has been consistently contradicted by research ever since. As a result, anti-vaxxers changed strategy: Instead of blaming thimerosal for causing autism, they now focus on the vaccine schedule itself, essentially claiming that too many shots in too short of a timespan overwhelms a child’s immune system. Continue reading
Could Antibodies Treat Migraines?
This article was originally posted on RealClearScience.
Migraines are just awful. It is very difficult to express in words to non-sufferers what a migraine is like. However, if you could imagine a vice rhythmically squeezing your brain every second for several hours (or days), that is roughly what a migraine feels like. For some migraine sufferers, such as your humble correspondent, it is even possible to feel your heartbeat in your brain, with each pulse bringing a throbbing pain. Continue reading
Americans Hate Fruits and Vegetables
This article was originally posted on RealClearScience.
Americans think fruits and veggies suck. That, essentially, is the conclusion of a new CDC report which finds that the average American simply does not eat enough of the healthy stuff. And it’s not like the federal dietary recommendations are particularly burdensome; merely 1.5-2 cups of fruit and 2-3 cups of vegetables per day are considered adequate for a healthy diet. Despite this, the vast majority of Americans fall short, preferring instead to lick donuts like Ariana Grande. Continue reading
Your Viral History in a Drop of Blood
This article was originally posted on RealClearScience.
Viruses are pernicious beasts. Some of them can sneakily hide inside the body, long after the initial infection has been cleared. For instance, varicella zoster virus (VZV), a type of herpesvirus that causes chickenpox, survives in an inactive state inside nerve cells for the remainder of a person’s life. Then, for unknown reasons, it can reactivate, causing shingles in old people or even healthy 30-year-olds. Other viruses may play a role in chronic conditions such as asthma or inflammatory bowel disease. Continue reading