On the Front Line of the Fluoride Wars
On the far east side of Michigan, the future of fluoride in drinking water — long an ordinary practice for preventing tooth decay — has suddenly provoked passionate debate. Public meetings in St. Clair County, about an hour northeast of Detroit, have filled with people weighing in. One man waved his Fixodent denture cream before the county commissioners, suggesting that his own experience showed what would happen if local communities stopped treatment. “I am an unfluoridated child,” he declared, “with a set of uppers and lowers.” Another man, speaking to the county’s Advisory Board of Health, said that personal responsibility should be factored into the conversation. “I think there are...
FDA recall of blood pressure pills due to cancer-causing contaminant may point to higher safety risks in older generic drugs
Nitrosamines are by-products of many common chemical reactions. FatCamera/iStock via Getty Images Plus ~~~~~ A generic blood pressure drug called prazosin, made by Teva Pharmaceuticals, is being recalled by the Food and Drug Administration because it contains elevated levels of cancer-causing chemicals called nitrosamines. The recall, which Teva announced on Oct. 7, 2025, affects more than 580,000 prazosin capsules. Prazosin is prescribed to around 510,000 patients yearly and is used to treat post-traumatic stress disorder as well as high blood pressure. I am a pharmacologist and pharmacist who has studied nitrosamine contamination of popular blood pressure, diabetes and heartburn drugs,...
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Laser procedure providing solutions for those with epilepsy and brain tumors
Patients suffering from epilepsy that can’t be controlled by medication or with cancerous brain tumors are benefitting from a procedure performed by neurosurgeons at Memorial Neuroscience Institute (locations throughout South Florida). Laser Interstitial Thermal Therapy (LITT) uses heat from laser energy to destroy abnormal cells that cause seizures and form tumors, with the minimally-invasive treatment allowing individuals to go home the next day and resume normal activities within a week. The approach is in stark contrast to what had been the standard of care, a craniotomy where a section of the skull was removed to access the area of the brain where the problematic cells were located....
Postpartum depression: Better remedies, and now a predictive blood test
Scientists are learning more about this leading complication of childbirth. Treatments are improving and doctors can test for biological markers that flag heightened risk. Like many first-time mothers, Lisette Lopez-Rose thought childbirth would usher in a time of joy. Instead, she had panic attacks as she imagined that something bad was going to happen to her baby, and she felt weighed down by a sadness that wouldn’t lift. The San Francisco Bay Area mother knew her extreme emotions weren’t normal, but she was afraid to tell her obstetrician. What if they took her baby away? At about six months postpartum, she discovered an online network of women with similar experiences and ultimately...
