I’m saying no to natto
I like food, and I like foreign food especially. But I must confess (shhh!) that Japanese food is not one of my favorite cuisines. Don’t get me wrong: I eat it and enjoy it. But it’s way down on my … Continue reading →
Category Archives: Health
The Pill turns fifty: are we having fun yet?
According to Gail Collins, tomorrow—Mother’s Day, May 9—could be considered the 50th anniversary of the birth control pill, although there are several days contending for that honor. By the time I was growing up the Pill was already a fact … Continue reading →
Tamoxifen decisions
Is it at all surprising that, given these odds, many women who are judged to have a higher risk of getting breast cancer are refusing to take tamoxifen as a preventative? The only surprising thing is that anyone would find … Continue reading →
Finally: Obamacare unveiled
And it looks pretty much like the Senate version, with a few minor tweaks. See this and this for some interesting analysis. In related news, the White House says that if Republicans try to filibuster health care reform, reconciliation is … Continue reading →
O Canada!
Fifty-nine-year-old Newfoundland Premier Danny Williams needs heart surgery—and he’s going to the US to have it. That’s his prerogative. He’s lucky to have the resources to do so. But it’s an especially glaring example of a fact most of us … Continue reading →
You mean, abstinence-only programs might actually work?
We now have some convincing evidence that abstinence-only sexual education programs for teens, long derided as a counterproductive waste of time, actually work. This is news. This particular study has drawn attention because it is especially well-designed and includes longer … Continue reading →
Lincoln’s asymmetric face: Parry-Romberg syndrome?
Abraham Lincoln was an unusual man in a number of ways, not the least of them his startling and haunting looks. In person, he must have been an imposing but somewhat daunting sight. Impossibly tall and very thin, in his … Continue reading →
Wanting to believe in miracles: the case of Rom Houben
By now you’ve probably all heard the remarkable case of Rom Houben, the young man trapped in a paralyzed body for 23 years, unable to communicate and thought to be in a vegetative state. Recent brain scans indicated much more … Continue reading →
Mammograms: don’t you bother your pretty little heads about them
It’s difficult to understand the new mammogram recommendations that suggest that women who are not in high risk groups because of genetic predispositions to breast cancer only begin screening at fifty, and then only every other year, and that doctors … Continue reading →
Message from a 74-year-old bodybuilder
Seventy-four-year-old Japanese champion bodybuilder Tosaka says “anyone can stay young and healthy if they exercise from time to time.” Sure. The voiceover then goes on to say, without missing a beat, [emphasis mine] “Tosaka spends most of his time working … Continue reading →
Placebo on the increase
Here’s a truly fascinating article on the subject of placebos. Commenter “Donna” brought it to attention in the thread on acupuncture, and it’s relevant to that subject and so much more. I don’t have time to do an in-depth piece … Continue reading →
Acupuncture to the rescue
You may recall that I hurt my knee about two weeks ago. It was progressing, but in the wrong direction—day by day getting worse instead of better. Medicine didn’t offer me much (actually, it didn’t offer me anything), and there … Continue reading →