Compulsion or Addiction? Can you get addicted to internet use? A new Chinese study in PLoS 1 argues that it certainly happens; that it clearly changes brain and behavior; and that the brain changes seen are in many ways similar to what happens with drug addiction and gambling. Kids Who Can’t Stop The adolescents – aged 14 […]
The War on Cancer and the War on Terror – what they have in common (1/3/12)
Who Wins? Historians often view wars as ending with winners and losers. We “won” World War II – and the Germans and Japanese lost. In most human conflicts results are less clear-cut. People don’t tend to think of the “War on Cancer” – started by President Nixon – and the “War on Terror” – begun […]
What you eat changes your genes – quickly (12/28/11)
Food Just Got a Lot More Complicated – Which Is a Good Thing Food changes gene expression – directly. Eat a bowl of rice and you can turn off genes controlling cholesterol synthesis. Right out of the pot. You’ve been eating genetic information – probably all your life. The data come from China, from Lin […]
To win the game you stay in the game – football and flexibility (12/27/11)
Preventing Injury Football can be a brutal, even lethal sport. But you can’t win games if players get injured. Which happens all the time. The results are obvious in high school and college teams – “take out” a key opposing player through injuries and you have a much easier time winning. Yet NFL players know […]
After Iraq and Afghanistan – veterans’ health, PTSD, and sleep apnea (12/5/11)
The Wars Are Not Over US veterans are in trouble. Veterans returning to the work place are finding it difficult to find jobs with their unemployment rate north of 12%, versus the (falsely low) figure of 9% for the country. One reason is many have come back ill. What sort of ailments is the question. […]