Healthcare Triage
The Diversity Problem in Medical Education
Racial bias is pervasive in American medicine. Part of that can be attributed to the way we train doctors, and another part stems from WHO gets trained as doctors. The barriers to entering medical school and going on to become medical...
Healthcare Triage
Why Isn't there a Birth Control Pill for Males?
Condoms and vasectomies remain pretty much the extent of birth control options for people who produce sperm, and both have problems. So why is almost all hormonal birth control aimed at those with ovaries? There have been some successes...
Healthcare Triage
How We Process Meat, Memories, and Nutrition Research
A recent news story covered a study about processed foods and how eating those foods relates to cognitive decline. The only problem is, they didn't report on an actual published study. They reported on a pre-publication presentation at a...
Healthcare Triage
A Polio Case in the United States. What Does it Mean?
The surprising approval of the extremely expensive and maybe not that effective drug Aduhelm has been dominating the conversation around Alzheimer's treatments in recent memory. Today, we're getting positive and talking about a very...
Healthcare Triage
Some Good News in Alzheimer's Treatments
The surprising approval of the extremely expensive and maybe not that effective drug Aduhelm has been dominating the conversation around Alzheimer's treatments in recent memory. Today, we're getting positive and talking about a very...
Healthcare Triage
Can Daily Multivitamins Improve Cognition?
A recent study looked at whether taking cocoa as a supplement or taking a multivitamin could improve cognitive function (or at least slow cognitive decline) in older adults. Well, according to the study, the cocoa wasn't doing anything,...
Healthcare Triage
Psilocybin, Depression, and Instagram Medical Advice
Recently, a big Instagram account posted some info about psilocybin mushrooms and depression, and we don't think they represented the limited evidence very accurately. And generally, don't make medical decisions based on Instagram posts.
Healthcare Triage
Does Coffee Increase Lifespan? The Problem with Observational Studies
A 2022 observational study publicized by Harvard Health claimed that drinking coffee could significantly lower your risk of dying. Is that true? Wasn't there a study in recent memory claiming that coffee would give you cancer? Well, it...
Healthcare Triage
Depression and Saint John's Wort
St. John's Wort has been used for centuries as a treatment for a wide variety of ailments. It's often promoted in modern times as a treatment for depression, ADHD, and many others. So, what does the research say? Is St. John's Wort...
Healthcare Triage
Smartphones, Early Puberty, and Bad, Scary Headlines
A recent headline sounded the alarm about a study that found that smartphone use was related to the early onset of puberty in children. This headline was a real triple threat: fear of technology, children under threat, and sexualization...
Healthcare Triage
Is Marijuana Safe During Pregnancy?
Marijuana is the most commonly used recreational drug among pregnant people, and there are a lot of clashing opinions about whether or not it's safe. But what do the data say? Today we dive into the studies about marijuana use during...
Healthcare Triage
Does Cold Weather Cause Colds?
Did your parents ever tell you to put your coat on before going outside so you didn’t catch a cold? I'm sure they meant well, but did all those efforts on their part actually save you some sniffles? Let’s ask the data.
Healthcare Triage
Are Video Games GOOD for Kids?
Many people like to argue about whether video games cause violence, but what about evidence for the positive effects games might have? The research is out there, so what do we think about it?
Healthcare Triage
Beauty Products, Hair Chemicals, and Uterine Cancer
There’s a lot of buzz around beauty products and how the chemicals in them may affect hormones, and thus contribute to the development of certain cancers. How much weight should we give to studies that report these associations?
Healthcare Triage
A Fentanyl Vaccine Shows Promise
Fentanyl is many times more potent than heroin or morphine, and is responsible for a lot of overdose deaths. Recent news reports have covered a potential fentanyl vaccine - how does that work, and how far are we from human trials?
Healthcare Triage
Climate Change Is Already Impacting Our Health
Massive storms, flooding, extreme heat, droughts, air pollution, increased rates of disease, changes to our food and water… global warming, and the changes to climate that come with it, are increasing human health risks. Our physical and...
Healthcare Triage
Reforming Federal Laws that Slow Marijuana Research
Marijuana is classified as a Schedule I drug, making it difficult for researchers to study, and difficult to understand how it may help or harm our health. A recently passed bill is aimed at making marijuana research easier to conduct,...
Healthcare Triage
Fraud and Dysfunction in American Healthcare: The 2022 Shkreli Awards
The 2022 Shkreli Awards have been released! Each year, the Lown Institute passes out awards as a way of reporting on dysfunction in the US health care system. Dysfunction in healthcare is one of our foundational pillars here at...
Healthcare Triage
Climate Change and Health: Heat, Rain, Storms, and Fires
Climate change is causing weather events that are a direct threat to human life. We’re not gonna lie, this is an anxiety-provoking topic, as is much of the conversation surrounding climate change. Increased heat, changing precipitation...
Healthcare Triage
Did Covid-19 Evolve Naturally or Leak from a Lab? The Many Confusing US Intelligence Reports
The Covid lab escape theory! This has been in the background for a while, but it came roaring to the forefront when a prominent news source claimed that the US Department of Energy concluded that Covid was the result of a laboratory leak...
Healthcare Triage
Did All Those Masks Help with Covid or Not?
Headlines recently blared about the new review that looked at how effective masks are at preventing the transmission of flu-like disease. Cochrane reviews are well respected, and the media coverage about the recent review has been hard...
Healthcare Triage
A Vaccine for Breast Cancer?
Cancer prevention is a major goal in health research, and one major milestone was the HPV vaccine, which targets a virus that is responsible for different types of cancer, mainly cervical cancer. Now we’ve got some recent excitement in...
Healthcare Triage
Is ChatGPT Nicer than Your Doctor?
Is the ChatGPT artificial intelligence chatbot more empathetic than your doctor? And does it deliver higher quality information? A recent study suggest that might be the case. At first glance we figured, sure, a chatbot never gets bored...
Healthcare Triage
Climate Change, Particulate Pollution, and Air Quality
We’re back with another episode on climate change and health, and this time we’re looking at some of the indirect health effects, with a focus on how things like air pollution and allergens arise from a warming planet and make us sick,...