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The Health Costs of Fossil Fuel
Imagine if we could save over 8 million lives per year globally through public policy. Many of these preventable deaths are in younger people and fall disproportionately on the poor and disadvantaged. This is the estimate of a recent observational and modelling study on the effects of air pollution (fine particulate and ozone pollution). Of these death, over 5 million could be...
Male and Female Brains are Different
Neuroanatomical research has long established that there are statistical differences at the macroscopic level in male and female brains. There are also functional differences in terms of memory and cognition. However, these differences are largely statistical, and exist in a mosaic of different traits. This means that, if we look at specific features (whether anatomical or functional) there are male-female differences, but...
How To Approach Psychogenic Symptoms
Remember back in 1997, the Pokemon seizure episode? Hundreds of children reported symptoms, including seizures, after watching a specific episode of the Pokemon cartoon that includes a sequence of flashing alternating red and blue lights. The press reported the episode at face value, attributing the reaction to a known phenomenon of photosensitive epilepsy. However, later reviews found that the majority of cases...
Kava and Liver Damage
Kava is an herbal supplement used mainly for its calming psychoactive effects. It is a traditional drink in Oceania that has been used for centuries. It has also been linked to liver toxicity and cases of liver failure and even death. However, the liver toxicity of kava is extremely controversial – this controversy, however, reflects the various narratives that we see surrounding...
UK’s Phased Smoking Ban
UK MPs have just passed the Tobacco and Vapes Bill by a 383 to 67 vote. If the measure becomes law it will ban the sale of tobacco products to anyone born after January 1, 2009. This is not just an age limit – this is a permanent phased ban. If the law passes and stands, anyone born after that date will...
The Ethics of Artificial Brains
We are living in a time of technology advancing so rapidly it is challenging to keep up. This has multiple ramifications, and in the area of biomedical research, there is an important ethical and regulatory dimension. Confronting the ethical considerations of our own technology is nothing new, and fresh debate seems to erupt with every new development – including in-vitro fertilization, transplanting...
What Is Type 3 Diabetes?
I’m always wary of new medical terms that seem to be used and promoted prematurely, when still in the hypothesis phase. It seems like an obvious way to bias any thinking about an alleged phenomenon – just label it as the hypothesis, as if it is already a conclusion. Calling symptoms that may follow a lyme infection “chronic lyme disease” implies something...
Sweetened Drinks and Risk of A-Fib
Yet again the public is being subjected to warnings about the potential health risks of consuming a common food item based upon insufficient evidence. Last month it was oat products, and now it’s sweetened drinks. The study is a prospective cohort study, which means it is observational. The researchers looked at over 200 thousand participants in the UK biobank. At the start...
Measles Outbreaks on the Rise
The world is experiencing increasing outbreaks of a completely preventable disease. What's going wrong?
Don’t Blame the Patient
When patients are diagnosed with cancer, or a terminal illness of any kind, they report that there are a couple of near universal reactions by the people around them. First, everyone has advice for them. Everyone thinks they know what caused their illness and what will cure it. The floodgates of free advice and misinformation open. Everyone also wants them to stay...