Coming Clean on Hair Treatment Products

In the textured hair care market, products labeled "clean beauty" are increasingly popular, the implication being that the phrase indicates the hair treatment for curly, coily and wavy hair is natural and chemical-free.

Well, maybe not.

Like a lot of things, there are significant shortcomings in how products are regulated. There is no standardized federal definition for "clean," leaving that term to the discretion of companies and retailers -- and the confusion of consumers.

A broad analysis of hair treatment products by researchers at the University of California, Santa Barbara, found that they ranged from safe to extremely hazardous, despite their "clean" labeling. For example, products listing fragrance or "parfum" as ingredients legally hid a mixture of undisclosed chemicals, including endocrine disruptors and allergens.

"It shows that 'clean' is often nothing more than a marketing term," said study author Joaquin Madrid Larranaga, a researcher at UC Santa Barbara.

Body of Knowledge

Your odds of living to be 115 years old (or older) are just one in 2 billion. The odds are much "better" that you'll be hit by space junk: one in a 1 billion. Of course, if you live to be 115, your chances of being hit by space junk increase: You've been around a long time and probably don't move as fast.

Get Me That, Stat!

A Politico poll of more than 3,800 people found that three-quarters of those who identified themselves as MAGA supporters also identified as MAHA (Make America Healthy Again) supporters.

While STAT news noted that there are a variety of ideas about where the MAHA movement should go, a majority of followers "see these as core principles: removing ultra-processed foods from people's diets, removing artificial dyes from foods, reducing the impact of forever chemicals, restricting junk food purchases through SNAP, and limiting pesticide use.

"Some of the less popular views among MAHA supporters are interesting, too: 39% say making GLP-1s more affordable is a core principle. Another 35% say restricting abortion access is. Twenty-nine percent say banning cell phones from school is core to MAHA while 28% say banning kids from social media is."

Doc Talk

Hypnagogia: The brief transitional period between sleep and wakefulness

Mania of the Week

Amenomania: A now-disused diagnostic term for persons who have pleasant but persistent delusions, like this feature someday winning a Pulitzer Prize

Best Medicine

What happens if you get scared half to death twice?

Observation

"Life offers many lessons. It is a limited time offer." -- Australian humorist Lennie Lower (1903-1947)

Medical History

This week in 1949, scientists in New York announced that the anti-tuberculosis drug Neomycin had been fully tested on animals. It was first isolated by the American microbiologist Selman Waksman (1888-1973) from a strain of the bacterial species Streptomyces fradiae, which produces it naturally.

It is now used mainly topically (because of renal toxicity) in the treatment of skin and mucous membrane infections, wounds and burns. Waksman received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1952 for his earlier isolation and development of the antibiotic Streptomycin. The term "antibiotic" in the medical context was defined by Waksman, who discovered an impressive number of them.

Ig Nobel Apprised

The Ig Nobel Prizes celebrate achievements that make people laugh, then think. A look at real science that's hard to take seriously and even harder to ignore.

In 1998, the Ig Nobel Prize in economics went to the aptly named American physicist and businessman Richard Seed of Chicago for his efforts to stoke up the world economy by cloning himself and other human beings. Seed wanted to use technology similar to what had produced Dolly the sheep, the first mammal clone from adult cells. However, his loud plans went out like a lamb.

Medical Myths

Once, it was commonly thought that the longer the labor, the more likely the newborn would be male. Mark this down as a semi-myth. Every birth is, in fact, unique, and there are no telltale trends, but statistically, longer-duration labor is more common with boys because they tend to be slightly larger on average than girl newborns, with a greater probability of additional complications.

Nonetheless, studies show that nearly three-quarters of boy births are "normal" deliveries.

Self-Exam

Q: Which of these is true about the outer part of the eye called the cornea?

A) It stays the same size from birth.

B) It gets oxygen straight from the air rather than from blood.

C) It changes color based on your mood.

D) It is completely replaced about once a year.

E) All are true.

A: B.

Epitaphs

"Writer of songs and nonsense." -- American writer Margaret Wise Brown (1910-1952), author of "Goodnight Moon" and more than 100 other children's books. A collection of Brown's unpublished poems and lyrics was posthumously released as "Goodnight Songs" in 2014.

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To find out more about Scott LaFee and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.