The Rock Star Drug Steve Tyler of Aeorosmith took it to sooth an aching foot. He fell off the stage. One Calgary man claimed it made him take a bottle of vodka out of the fridge, down it and drive directly into other cars – all while he was asleep! My patients have woken with […]
Give Us A Child Till She’s Seven (3/5/13)
What the Jesuits Taught Some claim the maxim comes from St. Ignatius Loyola himself. Yet the idea proclaimed by the Jesuits was old – give us a child till he’s seven and we’ll have him for life. It works. Many years ago a young son of my ancestors was kidnapped during a Russian pogrom. His […]
Time Rules Weight (2/11/13)
The Weight on America Americans are obsessed with weight. We read about it, think about it, twitter about it. We even pay billions to lose it. As I’ve argued before, weight is not the enemy. An impoverished, narrow view of health is the real culprit. Medicine looks to “fix” the “homeostatic” human machine rather than […]
Crazy About Drugs (2/4/13)
A Problem of Law Item: An Egyptian rights lawyer is sentenced to 5 years in jail and 300 lashes of the whip for bringing anti-anxiety drugs (xanax – alprazolam) into Saudi Arabia. The judge notes the perpetrator’s “good morals” in explaining his “lenient” verdict (anti-anxiety drugs are banned in Saudi Arabia.) Item: Florida regulators led […]
Novel Uses of Alcohol (1/16/13)
Many Uses I’ve seen people “treat” themselves with alcohol for many stated reasons. They include: 1. Getting blitzed to “forget everything” (causes have includes faltering love affairs, financial crashes, dying plants, poor calculus grades and “no reason except I want to.”) 2. Fight off radiation sickness (recommended by a Russian virologist – who was still […]