The People's Pharmacy

Working from home during the pandemic has wrought havoc with a lot of healthy eating habits. It’s harder to shop safely, and minimizing time in the grocery store may mean people have stocked up on shelf-stable highly processed foods. What’s more, lots of us have been responding to stress by eating sweet or salty treats […]

SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus responsible for COVID-19, has infected many millions of people both in the United States and around the world. The death toll is horrifying, with more than a quarter of a million people in the US alone. With infections soaring as we head into winter, the news that a couple of vaccines against […]

The SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus behind COVID-19 is changing. This should not be a surprise, since microbes evolve by nature. What implications might this have for the infection in future months? We speak with an evolutionary biologist to see how his perspective can illuminate the pandemic. How Do Microbes Evolve? SARS-CoV-2 is a coronavirus that evolved initially […]

One of the striking things about the COVID-19 pandemic is how differently people respond. Some people contract the virus but never really have symptoms, while others land in the hospital struggling for breath. More than a million people around the world have died from the infection, with about a quarter of those in the US. […]

The conventional view of the digestive system was that it took care of digestion and wasn’t involved very much with the rest of the body’s systems. Now, though, science has shown that the gut and the millions of microbes that live in it have a profound impact on other aspects of our body, from immune […]

Far too many Americans have died of COVID-19 during 2020, but heart disease is still the number one killer.  Moreover, people with heart disease are more vulnerable to complications from the coronavirus. What should they do to protect their hearts? How People Can Protect Their Hearts: There are a few things that everyone can and […]

Two out three people with Alzheimer disease are women. Why are they at higher risk for this devastating condition than men? Even more important, how can they reduce their risk for dementia? Many of the usual explanations for this imbalance don’t stand up well to scrutiny. Too many of them have been accepted without much […]

Experts estimate that 30 million people worldwide have had COVID-19. More than a million have died, and approximately 20 million have recovered. However, while health professionals usually think of this as an acute illness, recovery may be far slower than anticipated. The CDC has found that 35% of adults who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 still […]

Very likely you have heard of children who are allergic to peanuts. Sometimes the tiniest whiff of peanut dust can trigger a frightening reaction. Food allergies have been increasing dramatically among American children. In fact, one in 13 is vulnerable to a serious or life-threatening consequence if they accidentally consume the wrong food. The rate […]

Until December of 2019, doctors had no experience with pandemic that has now killed hundreds of thousands of people around the world. As the infection raced from country to country, they tried a lot of different treatments that seemed promising. But in many places, the onslaught of serious cases was so extreme that scientists couldn’t […]