A catfight of sorts broke out last week over whether industrialization is responsible for cancer being the second leading cause of death in industrialized countries. Two researchers, Rosalie David of the University of Manchester and Michael Zimmermann of Villanova, published an article in the journal Nature Reviews Cancer titled “Cancer: an old disease, a new disease or something in between?” Note the question mark. Continue reading →

I learned a new phrase last week: Blackberry prayer. I was visiting my family in Southern California and my brother and I were talking about new communications technologies, the phenomenon of texting in particular. He described this scene to me. A group of teenage boys—fresh from a soccer game—pile into a parent’s car. The boys immediately break out their electronic devices and, assuming the Blackberry prayer position, began texting each other in the car as well as others not present. In complete silence. Continue reading →

Robert Atkins has been dead seven years, yet the mainstream media and those who opposed him in life are not giving up. Last week, the New York Times reported on research published in the Annals of Internal Medicine. The headline was “Nutrition: Risky Additions to a Low-Carb Diet.” Robert Atkins’s name was in the first sentence. Dean Ornish, a frequent opponent of Robert Atkins in life, keeps the cause alive in his column in the Huffington Post where he serves as its medical editor under the title “Atkins Diet Increases All-Cause Mortality.” Continue reading →

On my first day of school, I was sent home by Miss Augustine, my little town’s perennial first grade teacher who had been on the job for 40 years. I hadn’t misbehaved. I’d coughed. My cough was then and still is deep and noisy, reminiscent of a seal barking. Miss Augustine feared whooping cough. Later, my mother reassured Miss Augustine that it was just me. Continue reading →

I was listening to an interview about the relationship between what people buy and how happy they are. What caught my attention was that the psychologist interviewed, Dr. Elizabeth Dunn at the University of British Columbia, says buying experiences makes us happier than buying stuff. She also discusses a number of other characteristics of how people buy things and how that succeeds or fails to increase their happiness. Continue reading →

An activist resisting the imposition of Smart Meters asked for my help a few days ago. She had been invited by Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) to participate in what it called a customer advisory forum. She attended one and is being invited back for another. Continue reading →

This is the generally accepted story of cancer. A vulnerable cell is exposed to a mutagenic agent—something that causes a change to the cell’s DNA and a mutation in its genetic code. The cell, which until then has been stable with characteristics of the tissue of which it is a part, starts a process of uncontrollable division. The cell regresses to an undifferentiated state so that, looking at the cell in isolation, you would not be able to tell what tissue it came from. Once launched, this process is irreversible. Treatment consists, in essence, of killing this out-of-control cell and its offspring. Continue reading →

A year ago, the American Association for the Advancement of Science launched a companion magazine to it flagship Science. Titled Science Translational Medicine, the new magazine is intended to help connect the vast amount of research being conducted to the practical application of that science—that is, the translation of science into medical practice. Continue reading →

A recent article in Science reviews work in behavioral epigenetics. Epigenetics is the science of how genes are turned off and on. A good deal of attention has been paid to epigenetics in explaining the risks of chronic illness based on the mischief done by environmental stressors such as toxic exposures, malnutrition, and early childhood and prenatal trauma. Behavioral epigenetics hopes to explain these connections. Continue reading →

You’ll have the pleasure of eating a genetically modified Atlantic salmon soon. And it’s likely that you won’t even know it. Continue reading →