ArcaMax

It is entirely possible that I have recently been overdoing it in focusing too much on psychological threats to public health. For example, the many reports of the debilitating effects rampant fear and anger are said to pose to public health and safety that I touched on last week. According to the experts, these emotions, when heightened, ...Read more

In 2023, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, recognizing the significant challenges that loneliness, social isolation and mental health issues pose to college-age Americans in the post-pandemic world, conducted a listening tour of colleges and universities. Following the tour, he wrote an official advisory on the topic, the content of which has ...Read more

Before becoming a journalist and bestselling author, Elisabeth Rosenthal worked as an emergency room physician. As a graduate of Harvard Medical School and a physician, she had to make the same request to patient after patient: "Rate your pain on a scale of zero to 10." In a recent editorial in The Atlantic, she points out that the concept of "...Read more

We are now going through some scary times when it comes to the extremely hot weather blanketing parts of the country. As I mentioned last week, the Environmental Protection Agency says these conditions are increasing in both intensity and frequency. It's of crucial importance that we start to pay closer attention to the sometimes-overlooked side...Read more

It stands to reason that extreme heat in certain circumstances can pose a severe threat to a person's health. From everything I'm reading, this year's vacationers need to take special heed if, for example, Europe is their destination. As The New York Times' Ceylan Yeginsu recently reported, "Last year, large parts of southern Europe experienced ...Read more

The impact the internet and social media have on modern society is clear, troubling and seemingly ever-increasing. The influence that it may have on our brains is now a central topic of investigation.

I try to keep up with the discussion about this online threat and wrote about it in the past. Back in September of last year, for example, I ...Read more

When it comes to entertainment, for me there are few things better than watching a good action-packed movie. One of those things is being in an action movie. It's been a while for me, but I am happy to announce I am back at it, this time alongside sci-fi icon and director/coproducer Derek Ting in the military combat film "Agent Recon," ...Read more

"Cancer"; just reading or saying the word can be immediately disturbing. It is a deadly disease that affects us all in one way or another. CNN reports that an "American Cancer Society report projects that there will be about 2 million new cancer cases in the United States this year, equivalent to more than 5,000 diagnoses each day." As we are ...Read more

As recently reported by The New York Times, a new study shows that "for the first time on record, cannabis has outpaced alcohol as the daily drug of choice for Americans." The study was published in the journal Addiction and was based on analyzed data from the U.S. National Survey on Drug Use and Health. It showed that in 2022, 17.7 million ...Read more

For years a group of researchers have followed the activities of the wild orangutan population in the Gunung Leuser National Park on the island of Sumatra, where the Sumatran orangutan is considered a critically endangered species. One of the subjects of their study is a male orangutan that they have named Rakus, estimated to be around 35 years ...Read more

It was the subject of a Reuters wire story that broke last Tuesday that many may have missed or overlooked. It contained an official statement from Pfizer confirming the death of a toddler due to cardiac arrest after gene therapy treatment for a muscle-wasting disorder trial involving babies and toddlers from the ages of six months to 4 years ...Read more

Let's see. There are the Academy Awards, the Golden Globes, the Grammy Awards, the Country Music Awards, the Screen Actors Guild Awards, even the Film Independent Spirit Awards. There are so many shows that have come to make up what constitute popular entertainment's "awards season." Folks love these shows. We all love that moment of, "And the ...Read more