Public Health

One way to look at addiction is to consider it a form of learning, a type of learning that is extremely effective in its ability to affect the adolescent brain, report researchers working under an NIH grant. ...

Blog Post - Richard Taite - Feb 19 2015 - 3:52pm

Kidney Patients Start Dialysis Sooner Than Ever

There has been a long-running belief that greedy insurance companies deny patients needed care to maintain profits but in hindsight it seems to have been just the opposite; health care was expensive because of defensive medicine policies needed to ward off ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 19 2015 - 7:12pm

Hookah Smokers Are Breathing In High Quantities Of Heavy Metals

Contrary to claims by proponents, only a minimal amount of heavy metals are removed in the hookah 'filtration' process. On average, only 3% of heavy metals present in tobacco are removed and this would not be enough to protect users from exposure ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 19 2015 - 9:14pm

It's not only what you eat--it's when.

Time is imprinted in our genes. Daily circadian rhythms (circa, about; diem, a day) control the harmonious oscillation in all biological systems. “At the gene level, circadian rhythm is the most conserved cluster of genes in biology. Fruit flies and human ...

Blog Post - Akiva Gross - Feb 19 2015 - 9:18pm

Vivo-Morpholino: To Boost Calorie Burning, Make Your Muscles Less Efficient

Less efficiency sounds bad, in the modern world of optimization, where everyone wants to sell you a 10-minute workout that maximizes your time. But in the ancient world of evolution, you need to turn the tables. Due to the boom-and-bust nature of existenc ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 20 2015 - 10:35am

Silicone On Trial: Bastardization Of Justice

So, is justice really blind? Who knows? But, with the right recipe it can become deaf and dumb rather quickly.Here is the recipe. Mix the following in equal quantities: Junk science and medicine, a misguided and politically-driven regulatory agency, a fla ...

Article - Josh Bloom - Feb 24 2015 - 7:24pm

How Vaccines Changed Our Perceptions Of Disease

Health marketing materials used to promote measles vaccine during the 1960s. CDC The news on the current measles outbreak contains plenty of reminders that measles causes brain damage, pneumonia, hearing loss and death. A few lone voices have spoken up to ...

Article - The Conversation - Feb 22 2015 - 1:01pm

If You Smoke 15 Cigarettes In A Closed Car, You Could Pass Out

A new paper based on a series of theoretical calculations using applied physics says that if you smoke 15 cigarettes in a sealed car in just over an hour, you could lose consciousness. So crack a window. Or don't smoke in a car. Or don't smoke. W ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 23 2015 - 11:57am

Berry Hepatitis A Scare Leads To Calls For Imported Food Accountability

Do you care where the food you buy comes from? amy, CC BY-NC The public reaction to the Hepatitis A scare linked to contaminated frozen berries imported from China continues. ...

Article - The Conversation - Feb 23 2015 - 11:04pm

Going Vegetarian Is Not A Magic Bullet To Stop Climate Change

Can he be the global warming culprit? Link Could our meat-loving Western diets push climate change over the edge? That was the message of a recent report from UK think tank Chatham House that, even if the world moves away from fossil fuels, growth in meat ...

Article - The Conversation - Feb 24 2015 - 1:00pm