Lone Candle
Champion of Truth
Government Data Refute the Notion That Overprescribing Caused the ‘Opioid Crisis’
https://reason.com/2024/04/15/government-data-refute-the-notion-that-overprescribing-caused-the-opioid-crisis/
“the PNAS paper didn’t just convert microplastic units to nanoplastic units. The techniques did allow for the detection of a greater amount of plastic in the water, but the implications of that were played up in the media in the most dire way possible. The Washington Post headline referenced “100 to 1000 times more plastics.” The subhead of that article proclaims: “A new study finds that ‘nanoplastics’ are even more common than microplastics in bottled water.” In that article we are told, “People are swallowing hundreds of thousands of microscopic pieces of plastic each time they drink a liter of bottled water, scientists have shown—a revelation that could have profound implications for human health.”
Emphasis on “could.” There are no good studies on what the effects of these particles are. Most of the media outlets that covered the nanoplastic discovery disclose that there’s never been a documented effect on health from the particles, but they still can’t resist framing the discovery with maximum alarm.”
https://reason.com/2024/04/18/a-big-panic-over-tiny-plastics/
The harsh reality of ultra processed food – with Chris Van Tulleken
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QOTBreQaIk
What the evidence really says about social media’s impact on teens’ mental health
https://www.vox.com/24127431/smartphones-young-kids-children-parenting-social-media-teen-mental-health
“Over the last 30 years, nearly every wealthy country in the world has made it much safer for people to have babies. Only one outlier has moved in the opposite direction: the United States, where the rate of people dying in childbirth continues, stubbornly and tragically, to rise. In 2021, 1,205 US women died from birth-related causes, up from 754 in 2019. Many of those deaths — a full 89 percent in one Georgia study — are potentially preventable with the proper care.”
https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/24092448/black-mothers-maternal-mortality-crisis-solutions
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ofb9Yhof1dc
https://www.vox.com/politics/2024/3/12/24098577/robert-hur-testimony-report-biden-memory
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHNR6lCeCFM
“The measles outbreak in Florida shows the further polarization of vaccines, one area that once had overwhelming consensus across political parties and throughout the U.S. The measles vaccine is especially effective in protecting against the virus and, according to the CDC, has led to a 99 percent decrease in the virus compared to the pre-vaccine era.”
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/03/04/florida-measles-ladapo-desantis-00144561
“The false idea that getting an abortion makes women irreparably depressed and anxious, that it causes a deep psychic wound, has for decades been used by anti-abortion activists to support abortion restrictions.
But the argument is entirely based on anecdotes, personal beliefs, and vibes. No good science has demonstrated this link.
That’s not because nobody’s tried to answer the question of what the mental health impacts of abortion are on the women who obtain them. It’s because the answer to that question, over and over again, is: none. In study after study, researchers have consistently shown that getting an abortion does not cause mental health problems.
What does reliably worsen women’s mental health, however, is banning or restricting abortion access.
A wealth of research has shown that when people are forced to carry unwanted pregnancies, it negatively impacts their physical health and finances — and mental health. In a survey conducted before the US Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to abortion, women living in states with more abortion restrictions had higher rates of mental distress. In another study, states enforcing abortion restrictions between 1974 and 2016 had higher suicide rates in women of childbearing age in particular.
But when the court decided to overturn Roe v. Wade in 2022, it wasn’t making a decision grounded in science.
Now we’re more than a year and a half into living with the consequences. And when it comes to women’s mental health, the fallout is following the exact pattern scientists predicted.”
…
“Using data gathered as part of US Census Household Pulse surveys, the researchers looked at respondents’ self-reported anxiety and depression scores from about six months before and six months after the Court overturned the constitutional right to abortion. They compared scores on a scale of zero to 12 among people in states with and without trigger bans, abortion restrictions that went into effect as soon as the Supreme Court issued its ruling.
What they found was, frankly, predictable: Before the Court’s decision, anxiety and depression scores were already higher in trigger states — a population-wide average of 3.5 compared with 3.3 in non-trigger states. After the decision, that difference widened significantly, largely due to changes in the mental health of women 18 to 45, what the authors defined as childbearing age. Among this subgroup, anxiety and depression scores subtly ticked up in those living in trigger states (from 4.62 to 4.76) — and dropped in those living in non-trigger states (from 4.57 to 4.49). There was no similar effect in older women, nor in men.”
https://www.vox.com/24071802/abortion-roe-overturn-trigger-ban-states-mental-health