Latest Articles

COVID & Doctor Suicide: Converging Epidemics

By Kristen Schepker

Doctors die by suicide at an alarmingly high rate. It’s a painful reality that is far too often ignored––or worse, intentionally concealed.
Treating patients in the midst of a global pandemic has become yet another factor contributing to physician distress and suicide in recent months. The stories of medical professionals lost to suicide amid the Covid-19 outbreak are shining new light on some long-standing and dangerous shortcomings in our systems of medical education and practice.

ICE Has Chilling Effect on Minnesota’s Medical Clinics

By Erik Goldman

Hundreds of Minnesota physicians are speaking out about the detrimental impact the recent Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) actions have had on the state’s medical clinics. “We are bearing witness to what fear can do to the health of a community,” writes internist Bernard E. Trappey, MD, on behalf of Minnesota Physicians Voices, in a […]

Makary “Seals” the Deal on FDA’s New Look

By Erik Goldman

After 120 years, the Food and Drug Administration finally has an official seal. FDA’s Commissioner Marty Makary, MD, MPH, revealed the agency’s new visual signifier in a press release on January 28th, noting that the aim of the design is to “help the public better understand who we are and the many functions we fulfull.” […]

Pharma Pushes Back on State PFAS Regulations

By Claudia López Lloreda

In January 2025, Minnesota’s law regulating PFAS, a class of synthetic chemicals used to make products resistant to heat, grease, oil, and water, came into effect. The statute, one of the strongest of its kind in the United States, banned the chemicals across 11 categories, from cookware to textile furnishings. Beginning in July 2026, the […]

Can Endocrine-Disrupting Chemicals Affect Gender Identity?

By Charles Schmidt

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was running for the Democratic party’s presidential nomination when he sat for an interview with Jordan B. Peterson, a controversial Canadian psychologist, during his eponymous podcast. About an hour into the conversation, which published in June 2023, Kennedy pivoted from answering a question about climate change to bringing up a very […]

The Ever-Shrinking Eldercare Workforce

By Cynthia Lien, MD

Javier Erazo remembers lying beside his 93-year-old mother, her small frame helpless as she fell into the late stages of Alzheimer’s disease. He was exhausted from struggling daily to piece together a rotation of paid workers and family caregivers as his mother’s illness spiraled in unexpected ways. “She became more challenging, more confused,” he recalled. […]

As Guidelines Shift, a Curious Debate Over Seed Oils Persists

By Claudia López Lloreda

Before beginning his tenure as secretary of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. posted an old picture of his father, Bobby Kennedy, and another man at a drive-in fast food restaurant on the social media platform X. RFK Jr. took the family photograph as an opportunity to rail […]

The Food Pyramid’s MAHA Makeover

By Janet Gulland, Contributing Writer

If the new Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA) 2025-2030 report  has taught us anything so far, it’s that people love to argue about food as much as they love to argue about politics. And given that the Guidelines–jointly issued on January 7, by the Department of Health & Human Services and the Department of Agriculture—is […]

Required Reading on GLPs: Ashley Koff’s “Your Best Shot”

By Robert Bonakdar, MD, Contributing Writer

GLP-1–based therapies, including glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (e.g., semaglutide), dual incretin agonists (e.g. tirzepatide), and forthcoming GLP-1–modulating drugs like retatrutide, have rapidly reshaped the clinical management of obesity, type 2 diabetes, and cardiometabolic disease. In less than a decade, these drugs have moved from the weight management and endocrinology niches to much wider use in […]

Is Male Infertility Contributing to Falling Birth Rates?

By Joshua Cohen

(This article was originally published on Dec. 3, 2025 on Undark.) For decades, U.S. marriage rates have been on the decline while the average age at which Americans have children has risen. Alongside this, birth rates have dropped — a phenomenon the Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has called a “national […]

For Depression, Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Shouldn’t Just Be a Last Resort

By Michael C. Marone

(This article was originally pubished on Dec. 11, 2025, on Undark) For decades, the treatment of clinical depression has followed the same outdated flow chart: Try one antidepressant, then another, then a combination, then maybe just one more. Finally, when all pharmaceutical attempts fail, consider other approaches. This protocol, called step therapy, has come under […]