American Council on Science and Health

07/26/2025

Medicare turns 60.

On July 30, Medicare will mark its 60th birthday. Like many 60-year-olds, it's in the throes of a midlife crisis. But unlike a harmless convertible purchase or spontaneous trip to P

07/25/2025

Could free markets improve healthcare?

On Wall Street, it is good advice to “buy low and sell high,” making money off the difference. Many hospital chains have developed their own version of this trade, except their swap relies

07/25/2025

Did USAID Really Save 90 Million Lives?

A Lancet study’s inflated numbers are being used to push a partisan narrative, not inform public policy.

07/25/2025

Why are most bird flu cases mild?

A new paper adds weight to an argument about why most U.S. bird flu cases have so far been mild.

07/25/2025

Can we afford health care?

The loudest debates over healthcare today center on Medicaid expansion or cuts. A quieter crisis, however, afflicts individuals squeezed between poverty and subsistence, earning too much to qualify for aid and too little to afford commercial insurance. A recent New Jersey case highlights the financi...

07/25/2025

Coke, Sugar, and High-Fructose Corn Syrup

From media coverage, you'd think that high fructose corn syrup is a liquid death sentence. Meanwhile, no matter what is wrong with you, just have some honey and everything will be just peachy. What you probably don't know is that these two products are virtually identical. Here's why.

07/25/2025

Oldie, but a goodie from our video archives.

Yup. Posting about coffee again.

We recently told you that coffee is good for you; there are plenty of benefits to drinking a cup of joe on a daily basis. So you may wonder why some are see...

07/24/2025

Who’s Your Regulatory Daddy?

What happens when the engine of policy isn’t Congress but a state with an economy larger than most countries? In the absence of sweeping federal reform, states like California have become de facto food czars, and a bad model for affordable housing and urban planning. Flashpoints in the growing tug...

07/24/2025

Will small nuclear reactors ever be built?

Nuclear experts say 74 SMR designs are under active development worldwide. Proponents see the tech as the key to nuclear energy’s future.

07/24/2025

Are the upper courts using sound science to rein in junk lawsuits?

https://www.acsh.org/news/2025/07/24/newsflash-delawares-daubert-redo-relieves-legal-indigestion-49635

07/24/2025

What’s the chemical difference between high fructose corn syrup and cane sugar? Turns out, not much. But experts love to point fingers for two reasons:

1. HFCS has slightly more fructose than cane sugar.
2. Faster absorption of HFCS may stress the liver.

But, the evidence on the latter is shaky, at best. And consider this: honey has a fructose to glucose ratio of 1.2 compared with 1.3 for HFCS. HFCS is pegged a poison, and honey gets a halo.

Full story: https://tinyurl.com/svz59ssx

07/24/2025

How will punishing doctors and people in pain solve the opioid crisis?

The federal government continues its crack down on prescription opioids—a policy that doesn't reduce overdose deaths but denies legitimate patients access to pain medication their doctors have prescribed. Recent data from West Virginia underscores the need to rethink federal drug prohibition and p...