News, Policy & Economics

Your COVID Communications Could be Illegal: How to Avoid FDA & FTC Trouble When Marketing Your Practice

By Erik Goldman

Since COVID erupted, the FTC and FDA have issued hundreds of warning letters to practitioners requiring them to delete online posts about immune system support or potential COVID treatments Many practitioners who got warnings were completely unaware they’d done anything wrong Some practitioners have had their merchant services accounts suspended; others have received threats of […]

CDC “C’s the Light,” Reluctantly

By Erik Goldman

The Centers for Disease Control has finally, but reluctantly, acknowledged that “certain vitamins & minerals may have effects on how the immune system works to fight off infections and inflammation.”

Words of Warning: Fed Reprimands Clinicians on COVID Communications

By Erik Goldman

Any public health crisis creates a ripe situation for marketers promising quick cures and phony protections. With COVID-19, the huckstering began almost immediately. So did federal regulatory actions.  By the second week of March, the FDA had issued cease-and-desist warning letters to seven companies for selling COVID-19 remedies, including teas, essential oils, tinctures, and colloidal […]

IFM: We Must Expand Access to Functional Medicine in Vulnerable Communities

By Amy R. Mack, CEO, Institute for Functional Medicine

In medicine, racial and economic differences determine both the quality and the type of health care an individual receives, and this is unacceptable. The disparities in health outcomes between whites and people of color are exceedingly stark. This is true across the field—from conventional medicine to Functional Medicine and beyond. At The Institute for Functional […]

How Insurers Profit From the Pandemic: A Conversation with Wendell Potter

By Erik Goldman

The COVID pandemic has wrought unprecedented economic strife worldwide. Despite the public hardship, one sector profits handsomely from the pandemic: health insurance. Healthcare plans are poised to make record profits this year. They continue to collect premiums, but their coverage of COVID care is spotty at best, and with so many clinics closed and non-COVID […]

Profiting from Pandemic: How Insurers Turned COVID into a Goldmine

By Erik Goldman

For health insurers, the COVID pandemic has been a goldmine. At least so far. Across the nation, ordinary people and small businesses struggle with both the disease itself and the fiscal consequences of prolonged economic shutdown. Healthcare plans, on the other hand, are poised to make record profits this year. According to a mid-April NASDAQ […]

Pure and Simple: We Need Clean Water

By Kristen Schepker, Assistant Editor

Frequent handwashing is essential for mitigating the COVID epidemic. But for millions who lack consistent access to clean water, this basic public health measure isn’t as simple as it sounds.

What is 5G – And Does it Threaten Human Health?

By Kristen Schepker, Assistant Editor

The tech world is buzzing about 5G. Wireless companies promise that the soon-to-arrive ultramodern mobile networkwill transform our digital lives. But some medical professionals and researchers believe the new technology poses serious health and environmental risks. What, exactly is 5G, and what risks does it present to human health?