Bug-Brain-Waistline Forget the screaming headlines and the infomercials – dieting, weight gain and weight loss are not simple matters. Did the faecal transplant received from a daughter make a Rhode Island woman ravenous, rapidly fattening despite liquid diets, exercise and strict medical supervision? Are the supplements sold everywhere as probiotics the answer to irritable bowel […]
Learning From The Next Ebola (10/20/14)
When the Past Is Prologue Humans don’t see threats until they’re kicking at the door. But that does not mean you can’t put a crisis to good use. Chance rules the world. As Nassim Taleb showed in “The Black Swan” and other books, low probability events can create high impacts. But the threat to the […]
Prevention Versus Cure (4/7/14)
Treatment, or Prevention? In a perfect world, prevention would not prove necessary. There would be cures for everything. In the American media world, this landscape seems to exist – or is promised soon. Suffering from schizophrenia? There’s a pill. High blood pressure? Multiple pills. Together they’ll surely work. Depression? Check. Where “personal will” no […]
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 […]
Infectious cancers – what you can do (5/21/12)
Infectious Cancers and How to Prevent Them People are living longer than they did a hundred years ago. One major reason – far more effective control of infectious disease. In the early part of the last century, TB killed about one in seven people. The great decreases in death were wrought by public health measures […]