In the face of a spiraling opioid epidemic, alternatives for addressing chronic pain are essential. Taking a placebo may turn out to be just the prescription we need. Neuroscientists have discovered that a pill with no pharmaceutically active ingredients can reduce responses in the brain’s pain centers, and trigger the release of endorphins, the body’s own chemical pain reliever. Placebos can be effective even when someone knows they are sham therapy. Unwrapping the mix of biology and...

As health care systems change, public agencies and professional organizations are increasingly saying that physicians need not be the sole purveyors of primary care – and indeed, that supply shortages dictate they can not be. A wider use of physician assistants and advanced practice nurses, innovations in care delivery, and new uses for telehealth and electronic communication are all touted as alternatives. But are these adequate substitutes for long-term relationships between pediatricians...

It doesn’t seem to matter how many diet books get published or how much consumer-friendly advice is offered on the talk shows – we still don’t seem to grasp what makes us overweight and what we can do about it. Rather, several myths dominate our thinking and we are perennially asking the same questions. Why is it so difficult to lose weight and keep it off? What’s more important: carbs or calories? What's behind the obesity epidemic and how have some people maintained a healthy weight?...

Skim milk is out, full-fat dairy products are in. Recent research has turned conventional wisdom on its head with the finding that people who consume the highest levels of fat from dairy products have a lower risk of diabetes. Other studies have found that eating high-fat dairy reduces the odds of becoming obese, and may offer protection against cardiovascular disease. All of this is likely to alter food production as farmers and manufacturers race to get more high-fat milk, yogurt, and...

Some three billion people use biomass fuel – typically from wood, crop residues, or animal dung – to cook indoors in open fires and leaky stoves. Inefficient and highly polluting, the emissions from home cooking fires are a major contributor to the 4.3 million deaths that occur annually from household air pollution. In Rwanda, a clean-burning biomass stove offers an alternative that saves lives, while reducing laborious fuel-gathering chores. By using fuel pellets as a source of renewable...

A frustrating pattern is familiar to almost anyone who has ever struggled to lose weight – taking pounds off isn’t all that hard, but over time, they seem to come right back on. The powerful biology of the body, not poor personal resolve, is to blame. The brain is programmed to keep your weight stable and when you aren’t taking in enough calories, it sends insistent chemical signals telling you to eat. No amount of determination can fully override that message. But there are alternatives, and...

Life expectancy at birth for the total US population did not change between 2013 and 2014, according to a recent report from the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics. But that overall finding masks something unexpected: white, non-Hispanic women actually saw their life expectancy decline. While the drop was small (0.1 years), it stands in contrast to most other major demographic groups – life expectancy increased for both Hispanic women and men and for non-Hispanic black men. What...