All posts tagged: Medicine

Check your medicine cabinets: Nearly 113,000 bottles of Amazon-brand pain relievers recalled

Check your medicine cabinets: Nearly 113,000 bottles of Amazon-brand pain relievers recalled

Published by Daniella Wilson

Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Membership today. Join today Already a member? Log in Over 112,000 bottles of pain relievers sold by Amazon have been voluntarily recalled due to discoloration. The news was shared in an enforcement report from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Various bottles of 500-milligram Extra Strength Acetaminophen caplets sold across the U.S. have been affected. Customer complaints about discolored tablets led to the voluntary recall initiated by Amazon, according to the report. An Amazon spokesperson told The Independent: “Amazon is voluntarily recalling specific lots of Amazon Basic Care Extra Strength Pain Relief acetaminophen 500mg caplets due to reports of tablet discoloration in the affected lots. This is a voluntary recall initiated in coordination with the manufacturer, Aurohealth, and the FDA.” Included in the recall are 90,456 500-count bottles, 14,640 200-count bottles, and 7,836 1000-count bottles, all with various lot numbers and expiration dates between September 30, 2027 and February 29, 2028. Amazon-brand acetaminophen has been recalled (Reuters) No injuries …

Lighten Up: Laughter Is Good Medicine

Lighten Up: Laughter Is Good Medicine

Published by Jenni Sidey

One of the most rewarding, enjoyable, and affordable pleasures in life is laughter. It relaxes our muscles, calms our mind, and is best enjoyed with others. Yet laughter apparently has additional benefits to both mind and body that are particularly relevant as we age. Research explains. Laughter Over the Lifespan Tatsuya Yamakoshi et al. (2025) examined the impact of laughter on stress and focus on middle-aged adults.[i] Studying 25 healthy Japanese-speaking adults aged 40-65, they demonstrated how a short-term laughter-based experiment provided support for the clinically significant, non-invasive benefit of humor. Yamakoshi et al. showed participants a four-minute video clip, either comedic or a control video, followed by a series of physical and cognitive measures. They found that adults who viewed the humorous video experienced increased parasympathetic activity and a reduction in psychological stress levels, measured by both physical and mental measures. They recognize that laughter is helpful to psychosocial and physical health and has been acknowledged as a method of alleviating depression and anxiety. They explain that laughter reduces stress hormones, activates natural killer …

Our Next Revolution in Medicine? The Bioelectronic Frontier

Our Next Revolution in Medicine? The Bioelectronic Frontier

Published by Jenni Sidey

Drugs these days are both life-saving and lethal. A century ago, in this country, there were hardly any approved drugs for any illnesses, and drug abuse was rare. Now we have a drug for every ailment—more than we can count—and our epidemic of drug abuse puts panhandlers on the street corners of every city. Who would dispute that pharmacology has revolutionized the practice of medicine, as well as our culture? Without these marvelous medications, many of us middle-aged and elderly would be miserable or dead. And yet I’m sure that future generations—hopefully the next one—will look back on many of our modern pharmacology treatments as crude, wasteful, risky, and unnecessarily expensive. Every pill we swallow and every IV solution infused works by saturating our whole body to reach one or a few intended target organs. Imagine how outraged we would be if, in order for one farmer to get his cotton fields treated for boll weevils, the whole state of Alabama had to be sprayed with insecticide. The “side effects,” both physical and political, would …

Some Pancreatic Cells Are Just One Genetic Tweak Away From Treating Diabetes

Some Pancreatic Cells Are Just One Genetic Tweak Away From Treating Diabetes

Published by Miika Tikkanen

A human pancreas typically contains about a billion beta cells, the primary producers of insulin. Among people with diabetes, these cells are either missing or dysfunctional, and thus scientists have been looking for ways to replenish their numbers as a possible long-term treatment or even cure for the condition. A team of researchers recently took a step closer to that reality, genetically altering another type of pancreatic cell to produce and release insulin in response to high blood sugar. The researchers engineered ductal cells, which—as some previous studies had found—occasionally transform into beta cells all on their own. This is an unusual phenomenon among cells in adult bodies, which tend to be firmly fixed in their identities, and it hinted to the scientists that these ductal cells would be a good place to start. Scientists previously had no clue what genes were driving this metamorphosis, said Jian Li, a postdoctoral researcher at Harvard Medical School who led the recent study in Science Translational Medicine. The researchers therefore took an approach called a genetic screen, which …

How Much Room Can We Make for Moral Innocence in Medicine?

How Much Room Can We Make for Moral Innocence in Medicine?

Published by Jenni Sidey

We like innocent patients. You know, the ones who take care of their health and suffer from bad luck, not bad judgment. This type of sympathy shapes how people receive care, even if they have the same injury or illness as someone else. Consider, for example, the different levels of public sympathy between people with Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes. Media narratives often portray people with Type 1 diabetes blameless because of their genetics or an autoimmune disorder, while people with Type 2 diabetes made bad choices about diet or not exercising. It shouldn’t be too surprising, then, that people with Type 2 diabetes often experience less care or concern from healthcare providers. This reality sits uncomfortably with another commitment to moral equality, roughly the idea that every patient deserves respect and the same level of care. I started working on moral innocence in healthcare to figure out how we bridge this gap: how do we get people to care about “not innocent” patients? But the more I developed my answer in “Medicine and …

The Power of Empathy in Medicine and Self-Care

The Power of Empathy in Medicine and Self-Care

Published by Jenni Sidey

In the last month, I’ve been absorbed in Meghan O’Rourke’s insightful book, The Invisible Kingdom: Reimagining Chronic Illness. It examines the often dark and misconstrued world of long-term health conditions, specifically intangible illnesses that manage to slip under the diagnostic radar for many years. But she addresses all medical conditions that typically take a huge toll on our psychological well-being. The author clarifies the maddening reality faced by millions: existing with often incapacitating physical symptoms, while average blood work, routine scans, and conventional diagnostic testing continuously come back completely normal or at unalarming levels that don’t raise a medical eyebrow. It is a prevailing work that speaks directly to the experience of being trapped in the limbo of unseen illness, where the body clearly conveys that something is wrong; yet the outdated medical system lacks the tools—sometimes even the desire—to recognize it. Among the many fascinating concepts introduced is the “Care Effect.” This refers to studies that measure medical outcomes based directly on the degree of warmth, consideration, sincere care, and human compassion a doctor …

Medicine Needs to Get Serious About AI

Medicine Needs to Get Serious About AI

Published by Daniella Wilson

For as long as ChatGPT has existed, Americans have been asking it, “Could that funny little spot on my toe be cancer?” And as AI has advanced over the past few years, doctors have begun to use specialized models to ask much the same questions in clinics. In the face of these developments, professional medical societies have presented a unified front: Doctors must always have the final say in clinical care. We disagree. As the medical societies allow, physicians’ enhancing their work with AI tools may be a perfectly good way to deliver medicine. (One of us—Khosla—has in fact invested in a primary-care start-up, co-founded by his son, in which doctors supervise AI assistants.) But for Americans to get the best health care possible, we need to be willing to experiment with models that put AI in control. This notion has caused a stir in the medical community. When we published a commentary in the Journal of the American Medical Association last month arguing that AI-only care could soon become superior to care provided by …

Geriatric Medicine Experts Wish You’d Do These 8 Things More Often

Geriatric Medicine Experts Wish You’d Do These 8 Things More Often

Published by Sam Flores

“Longevity” is the buzzword of the moment on social media. Everyone wants to live longer and healthier. And while some factors aren’t in your control, many habits will greatly impact your longevity and quality of life as you age. “It really is a lifetime of health that makes you have healthy ageing and good longevity and good healthspan,” said Dr Elizabeth Eckstrom, a professor of medicine in the division of general internal medicine and geriatrics at Oregon Health and Science University School of Medicine. Even aspects of your early life, such as your childhood education, can affect how you age, according to Dr David Nace, a geriatrician at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. That said, “no matter what age you are, you can start now and still have huge benefits from doing things – don’t let anyone think it’s too late to start with lifestyle changes,” Eckstrom noted. Below, geriatric medicine experts share the habits they wish folks would commit to throughout their lives, whether they’re 22 or 92. 1. Prioritise exercise Physical activity is paramount …