The battle for life in the NICU
As a person who had some trouble with infertility when I was trying to conceive, I found this story very touching.
Continue reading →Category Archives: Health
Will cutting calories make you live longer?
No, but it will seem longer. That’s my attempt at a joke. But maybe it’s not a joke. Maybe it’s true. For many years there’s been an idea—derived initially from animal research—that restricting caloric intake makes a person live longer. … Continue reading →
Do we need to increase the number of psychiatric beds?
For quite a wile, psychiatric hospitalizations have been on the decline. New drugs are responsible for a lot of this; what used to be untreatable is now often controllable. In addition, there is Szaszian PC mental-illness-is-a-myth thinking, which began to … Continue reading →
What studies of altitude sickness on Everest can tell us about saving people in ICUs
The extreme conditions of climbing Mt. Everest, and the risks involved, hardly seem worth it to us regular folks who can’t even imagine voluntarily subjecting oneself to such an ordeal: Just ahead of them, a man from another party was … Continue reading →
Skin color and violence, Down syndrome and “cheerfulness”
Every now and then there’s a side discussion in the comments section where I respond to someone at such great length, and with so much research involved, that I figure it makes sense to turn my comment into a post. … Continue reading →
Have killings among teens increased?
I keep reading online discussions in which people assume that there’s been a big increase in teen killings, both murder and suicide. It’s taken almost as a given, but I rarely if ever see anyone citing statistics to back up … Continue reading →
How do they give mice Alzheimer’s?
When I read the news of a possible breakthrough in Alzheimer’s research, it sounded at least somewhat encouraging. Maybe, maybe someday it could lead to a cure or at least an effective treatment for this dreadful scourge of an illness: … Continue reading →
Humming right along in Windsor, Ontario
In Windsor, Ontario, some people are troubled by a persistent low-level hum, the origins of which no one has been able to detect: Those who hear it have compared it to a fleet of diesel engines idling next to your … Continue reading →
Limping along
The is the sixth day since I sprained my ankle, and I’m limping along. Limping is tiring. It’s also not so great because it leads to other aches and pains. I realized today that when I walk I’ve got more … Continue reading →
Update on my dental surgery
So far, the dental ordeal wasn’t too much of an ordeal. The novocaine has worn off now, and as yet the pain isn’t too bad. But it’ll be a bit funky to eat for a while. Soft foods today—I never … Continue reading →
Tomorrow morning I have dental surgery
Please wish me luck! I’ve had a lot of dental work in my life. I’m a textbook of dental anomalies: several congenitally missing teeth and/or misplaced teeth that required a removable bridge when I was a young teenager, and later … Continue reading →
Root canal reprieve
I spent part of the morning at the office of the endodontist. A few months ago, a tooth in my mouth had decided to give me trouble. It hurt when I chewed on it or pressed on it. It hurt … Continue reading →