The Differences Between Food and Medicine Can foods be drugs and drugs foods? A popular definition of food might include these elements: Nourishment Taste Fuel Energy Materials Appetite Similarly, a popular definition of drug might include issues of: Medical Treatment Decreasing Symptoms Changing Risk Factors of Illness These different arenas sound pretty separable – yet […]
Paralyzed but happy? The strange implications of Locked In Syndrome (4/27/11)
The Pursuit of Happiness Enshrined in our history is the universal opportunity for “the pursuit of happiness.” Yet how can you be happy when your brain is fully aware, your body is paralyzed and the only way to communicate is to blink your eyes? Locked in syndrome has all the accouterments of nightmare, much of […]
Can we evolve to sleep less? (4/11/11)
Can You Really Evolve to Sleep Less? Perhaps – if you’re like a cavefish. Research done at NYU by Professor Richard Borowsky and company, reported last week in Current Biology, looks at a Mexican species of fish that has evolved to live in caves. The cavefish version of Astyanax Mexicanus are also blind. When brought […]
It’s the middle of the night and you can’t sleep – what you can do (3/28/11)
Waking At Night Perhaps it’s the effect of a crashed economy, soaring gas prices, upheaval in the Middle East, blown up nuclear reactor buildings or the Charles Sheen saga, but people are waking up a lot these days – in the middle of the night. Frequently they can’t fall back to sleep. There […]
These mistakes can last longer than you – your Electronic Health Record
It Couldn’t Happen – But It Did If in the future you inexplicably don’t get a job or insurance you thought you had, consider this story: “Mrs. Smith. This is the health department. You have gonorrhea. You need to come in and see us quickly.” The shocked Mrs. Smith is the 67 year old wife […]
