News, Policy & Economics

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 […]

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, […]

In Memoriam: Gladys T. McGarey, MD (Nov 30, 1920 – Sept 28, 2024)

By Erik Goldman

The cosmologists tell us we are made of ‘star-stuff,’ that the elements and energies of which we are comprised have their origins in the sun. For most of us, that’s theoretical. But some people seem to embody this truth. Their very presence emanates a certain shine that illuminates and invigorates everyone and everything around them. […]

How the FDA Could Shape the Future of Psychedelics Research

By Joshua Cohen

(Originally published by www.undark.org, Aug 5, 2024) In August, the US Food and Drug Administration decided not to approve the psychedelic drug MDMA (midomafetamine) for use in patients with post-traumatic stress disorder in conjunction with psychological intervention. The move signals the FDA’s desire to put the brakes on the psychedelics research, which has rapidly  moved […]

In Memoriam: Norman Shealy, MD

By Erik Goldman

“To me, everything is energy.” That’s the sort of statement one would expect from a shaman, or perhaps a theoretical physicist, not from a neurosurgeon. But Norman Shealy was not a typical neurosurgeon. Over a clinical and research career spanning nearly 70 years, Dr. Shealy challenged and expanded the boundaries of neuroscience in ways that […]

A “RIGID” Stance Against Research Fraud

By Erik Goldman

Researchers at Monash University in Australia are calling on the global medical community to adopt their new six-step approach to detect and eliminate fraudulent studies before they are incorporated into metanalyses, clinical guidelines, and “best practices.” The RIGID (Research Integrity in Guidelines and evIDence) system is positioned as an international framework for addressing the massive […]

South Park’s Scathing Critique of US Healthcare

By Erik Goldman, Editor

The End of Obesity, a new episode of the viciously satirical cartoon series, South Park, is a merciless excoriation of American healthcare, one that has some physicians commenting that the show is more documentary than parody. Currently running exclusively on Paramount Plus, this latest installment of the long-running show centers on the rotund Eric Cartman, […]