Reading Time: 3 minutes As an outdoor sports enthusiast, I’ve found using topicals infused with CBD to be very helpful in treating my aching muscles and joint pain following an intense day hiking, cycling, kayaking or fly-fishing. Katie Stem, CEO of Peak Extracts, points to how CBD topicals can help balance one’s mind and body: Since the endocannabinoid system […]
Health
Posted inNews
How bad reporting turned zero deaths into a ‘75% death rate’ for the latest virus
Reading Time: 2 minutes On August 4, Chinese and Singaporean scientists published a paper on a novel Henipavirus now present in humans, and elements of their work are now making the rounds in mainstream and social media in a highly irresponsible manner. Here’s what you need to know about the Langya henipavirus (also known as LayV), which has a […]
Posted inHealth
An old darkness stirs
Reading Time: 4 minutes Thanks to anti-vaccine ideology, diseases long ago vanquished are creeping back—even polio.
Posted inNews
Alzheimer’s, artificial sweeteners, and depression meds: A heavy month for health science literacy
Reading Time: 2 minutes Three major reports this month highlight the fragility of ongoing health sciences research, and challenges for broader scientific literacy. Earlier in July, the World Health Organization recommended against the use of non-sugar sweeteners, in a blow to many conventional weight-loss strategies. On July 20, Joanna Moncrieff and Mark Horowitz shared a research review that undermines […]
Posted inHealth
Researchers to parents of vegetarian kids: Relax
Reading Time: 2 minutes I was a teenage vegan, and as unbearable as you might imagine. There were household bans on meat, impassioned arguments with childhood friends, and very, very extensive background checks on potential restaurant choices. That is not to say I was the sole combatant. Many omnivorous adults tried to pick fights with me, claiming they had […]
Posted inHealth
What does fasting tell us about the state of scientific literacy?
Reading Time: 10 minutes In the last two episodes of Global Humanist Shoptalk, I explored the question of human agency in relation to food. In “The Humanist Chicken Egg”, I reflected on how product choices are shaped by the cultures we inhabit. In “The Humanist Carbon Footprint”, I considered the onus placed on consumers to interpret manipulative labeling. But […]
Posted inHealth
The busiest abortionist
Reading Time: 5 minutes “They took it out in pieces,” she told me. My friend was discussing a pregnancy that she had very much wanted as a married woman in her 20s. It had failed inside her and had to be removed, as she said, in pieces. Otherwise, she would have died of sepsis. She was devastated by this loss. […]
Posted inDrugs
Magic mushroom therapy could be saving lives, but taboo stands in the way
Reading Time: 3 minutes An abundance of ongoing research regarding psychedelics, including psilocybin or ‘magic mushrooms,’ supports their strong potential to assist in altering maladaptive behaviors from cigarette smoking and substance disorders to depression and stress-related disorders such as PTSD. Especially interesting is its potential regarding alcohol and substance abuse. Since mental health treatment for these taboo behaviors has […]
Posted inReproductive rights
Abortion access is a disability justice issue
Reading Time: 3 minutes Pregnancy is dangerous even for mostly healthy, non-disabled people. According to the CDC, 700 women die a year in the U.S. from pregnancy-related complications; our maternal mortality rate is more than double that of similar high-income countries. And there are concerns beyond death. The threat of gestational diabetes among other conditions looms large. Even if […]
Posted inHealth
“When the affected person is asleep, the tumor awakens”
Reading Time: < 1 minute The accidental discovery of a pattern in blood samples taken from cancer patients has determined that metastatic breast cancer spreads most aggressively at night. Hormones that control circadian rhythms appear to affect the rate of metastasis. “When the affected person is asleep, the tumor awakens,” says lead researcher Nicola Aceto, professor of Molecular Oncology at the […]