News, Policy & Economics

MAHA Dreams, MAGA Realities

By Erik Goldman

Early on in the recent MAHA Report on children’s health, its authors unwittingly reveal a glaring contradiction at the heart of the alliance between Robert Kennedy, Jr’s, Make America Healthy Again movement, and Donald Trump’s Make America Great Again agenda. It’s a contradiction that’s even more troublesome, though less headline-grabbing, than the MAHA committee’s carelessness […]

In Memoriam: Col. Richard Niemtzow, Medical Acupuncture Trailblazer

By Erik Goldman

A few decades ago, acupuncture was not a modality one expected US military healthcare to embrace. For most non-Asian Americans, it was more the stuff of myth than a reality of medical practice. Colonel Richard Charles Niemtzow, MD, PhD, MPH, did much to change that. Over his long and admirable career, he worked tirelessly to […]

As Trump Tariffs Hit, Supplement Costs Will Surge

By Erik Goldman

If dietary supplements are part of your clinical practice, prepare yourself—and your patients—for price shocks in the coming months. As the Trump administration tariffs take effect, supplement prices will surge. Roughly 80% of all raw materials in nutritional, botanical, and natural health products sold in the US come from overseas. China and India are the […]

What the Science Says About Food Additives

By By Charles Schmidt

(This feature was originally published on Undark.org on April 21, 2025) In a video posted to YouTube in September, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. took aim at US health agencies that he said have allowed for the mass poisoning of American children. Standing behind packages of Cheez-Its, Doritos, and Cap’n Crunch cereal displayed on a kitchen […]

Texas Lawmakers Rally Around State Level ‘Mini-MAHA’ Bill

By Janet Gulland, Contributing Writer

The Texas state senate voted unanimously in favor of a health and wellness bill that—if passed by the state’s house—will mandate daily exercise and nutrition education in public schools, require metabolic health training for all medical professionals, and force food makers to label products containing toxic additives banned in other countries. The goals of SB […]

This Time, Five Years Ago…

By Erik Goldman

It was right about this time, five years ago. I woke up one morning with a raunchy cough, a head full of mucus, and an aching body that felt like a sack of potatoes. “This is weird,” I thought. I seldom get sick, and when I do it’s usually in the November-to-December transition when temperatures […]

Back in Office, Trump Swipes at Health Establishments

By Erik Goldman

Beyond the bold promises to “end the chronic disease epidemic and keep our children safe, healthy, and disease free,” and to “reinstate any service members who were unjustly expelled from the military for objecting to the Covid vaccine mandate,” President Donald Trump said little about healthcare in his inauguration speech last week. But during his […]

Interview: What Biden’s Covid Czar Learned From the Pandemic

By By Sara Talpos, Originally published Nov 2024 on Undark

Ashish Jha, the dean of Brown University’s School of Public Health, served as the White House Covid-19 response coordinator from March 2022 to June 2023. On Monday, after delivering the keynote for an infectious disease symposium at the University of Michigan, Jha sat down with Undark to discuss what the country got wrong, and what […]

Trump 2.0: Implications for Holistic Medicine

By Erik Goldman

Healthcare was not a high-priority campaign issue for either candidate in 2024. But Donald Trump’s nomination of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr, to head the Department of Health & Human Services, and Mehmet Oz, MD, to run Medicare and Medicaid, as well as his promises to tame drug costs, eliminate Medicare fraud, and “make America healthy […]

The Leapfrog Effect: New Tech Moves Tests, Treatments Out of the Clinic

By Erik Goldman

For a lot of people these days, medical clinics are no longer the center of the healthcare equation like they were in the past: their smartphones are now the point of focus. An astonishing number of medical tests, treatments, and services have jumped out of the clinic and into peoples’ daily lives via their computers, […]