Is Maleness Overrated? Pity the mice. On countless occasions, mice without any say in the matter stand in for humans. And what we do to them can be perverse or bizarre – just so we can understand us a bit better. Or not. So now male mice have been “conceived” in the laboratory who only […]
Statins and the New Numbers Racket (12/9/13)
The Old Numbers Racket One way to keep a population unhealthy is to endlessly worry them about getting sick. For the last few decades, purveyors of cholesterol as the core of heart disease have created a medical industrial complex that has been hard to suppress. Now that complex is changing its spots again with new […]
How Drugs Change You Through Time (11/19/13)
Steroids Can a single dose change your body the rest of your life? My patient wasn’t thinking about that. He just wanted to have big muscles. Really big. He had been caught red handed with syringes in his back pack. His parents wanted to know what they were – and why. Nothing much, he told […]
Make It (Money) While You Fake It (11/11/13)
Herbal or Verbal? We’ve said it before but it’s more true than we knew – herbal medicines often don’t contain what they claim. New research looking at “DNA barcoding” found widespread fraud in herbal medicines. How Do We Know? Researchers at the University of Guelph in Ontario did a blind DNA test on 44 herbal […]
Losing Nature (10/31/13)
At the Grocery The process is magical. Perfect red-cheeked apples line up in stylish rows beneath transparent domes.. Next to them lie delightfully bright yellow mangos. Each perfect form is unique, demonstrating their shy markings of orange, brick red and lavender whose beauty declares their nutritious freshness. You inspect each through the transparent plastic, looking […]
