Pregnant & Still Smoking: Better Way Needed To Quit
Too many pregnant women in America still smoke, with major consequences for their offspring. A new CDC report illustrates the extent of the problem, but says nothing about how to ameliorate it, such as...
View ArticleUrologists Keep Ordering Prostate Tests, Ignoring Fed’s Advice
In 2012, an official federal panel designated routine PSA testing a Grade D: don't do it. Since then, doctors across the board have cut back on the testing. Not urologists, however: their use of PSAs...
View ArticleWhooping Cough Booster Declines Rapidly Over 4 Years
A new study shows the rapid loss of protection against whooping cough among teens vaccinated with a booster shot. This decline, which takes place over less than four years, helps explain the recent...
View ArticleCalifornia’s Prop 65: Bad For Public Acceptance Of Science, About To Get Worse
California's law was ostensibly crafted to warn the public about potentially toxic substances in products. It has become a tool for predatory lawyers to sue companies for no valid reason — and it's...
View ArticleCDC Tells Women No Alcohol at All, ‘For The Babies’
The CDC has issued a new warning to women of childbearing age: "If you are not using birth control, do not drink. At all." This seems unduly alarmist and hyper-precautionary and is not firmly rooted in...
View ArticleStopping Zika Virus in Its Tracks, by Unleashing DDT
The mosquito-borne Zika virus has been declared a global public health crisis by the World Health Organization, but the agency did not say how to effectively fight it. One way would be to allow...
View ArticleIn Cancer-Causation Case, Science Loses in South Korean Court
A South Korean court ruled that a plant worker's death from ovarian cancer can be causally attributed to her exposure to the "carcinogens" formaldehyde and phenol. However, there is zero evidence that...
View ArticleAntidepressants for Children, Teens Impugned by Study
A look at several studies shows a significant association between several commonly-used antidepressants among children and teens, and increased suicidal thoughts and aggression. Even so, the reporting...
View ArticleE-Cigarettes Cause Hearing Loss? Really? How?
A recent op-ed in the Sacramento Bee, written by an audiology company executive, claims e-cigarettes can cause hearing loss. How that can even be possible is a head-scratching mystery. Of course we...
View ArticleFederal Panel Recommends Screening For Depression
A new advisory report from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommends screening all adults for depression, now to include pregnant women and those who recently gave birth. Drug therapy, talk...
View ArticleWoman’s Heart Attack Differs from a Man’s
A comprehensive study of heart attacks in women by the American Heart Association reveals many important differences between those that afflict men and women: symptoms, risk factors, diagnosis and...
View ArticleNew Uses of Thalidomide Eclipse 20th Century Tragedies
While thalidomide was responsible for tens of thousands of deformed babies in Europe in the late 1950s and early 60s, decades later data is showing the drug to be efficacious against certain chronic...
View ArticleThe Flint Water Crisis Timeline: Plenty Of Blame To Go Around
The lead-poisoned water crisis in Flint MI has been a slow-motion failure of government and public health oversight at multiple levels. Here is a timeline with commentary on how it happened. The "why"...
View ArticleHPV Shown To Be Causal In Oral Cancers
A new study in JAMA Oncology proves that a type of the human papillomavirus (HPV) known to cause cervical and anal cancer also causes cancers of the throat and head and neck. If more young people got...
View ArticleAmerica’s End-Of-Life Care is Mixed Bag, Study Says
A new seven-country study in JAMA evaluates approaches to cancer patient care in the last year of life. The findings were that in the U.S., we do unexpectedly well in several parameters, but rely too...
View ArticleSurprising Whooping Cough Outbreak in Florida
An outbreak of pertussis, otherwise known as whooping cough, in a Florida pre-school affected children who had been vaccinated almost a frequently as those who were not. The reason: our current...
View ArticleAfter Miscarriage, No Need for Long Wait to Try Again
While many couples feel that a delay in trying to conceive again after a miscarriage, a new study shows that there is no need to wait. Indeed, those who tried again within three months had a somewhat...
View ArticleProbe Shows FDA as Laggard in Drug Trial Follow-ups
A scathing report by the General Accountability Office, a federal watchdog organization, exposes serious flaws in the needed data collection by the FDA for fast-tracked drugs. Continue reading → The...
View ArticleScreening Effective for Specific Cancers, Even While Overall Mortality Rises
Screening for cancer may well reduce deaths from the cancer screened for — but still not reduce (or even increase) overall mortality. That's the message in a new BMJ meta-analysis of the harms and...
View ArticleObama’s Cancer ‘Moonshot’: A Shot in the Dark
President Obama declared that the U.S. will mount a new, extraordinary fight against cancer, with the aim of finally "curing it once and for all." Unfortunately, this is an impossible task. Throwing...
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