Bisphenol A (BPA for short) is a common chemical used to harden plastics and make resins used for dental fillings among many other commercial applications. It’s also an endocrine disruptor. In a recently published report, female rats exposed to BPA as pups at levels below EPA standards developed polycystic ovaries as adults. The hormone profiles for these rats were high in estrogen and testosterone and low in progesterone. Continue reading →

A few weeks ago I commented on the Interphone Study, the huge international study of brain tumor risks from cell phone use. The official pronouncement was that there was insufficient evidence to show a risk despite the fact that many of the scientists involved concluded that the evidence was sufficient to show risk. The Wall Street Journal’s Numbers Man, who knows something about statistics, agreed with the dissenters after actually looking at the study’s data. Nevertheless, all of the official agencies responsible for protecting our health took the opportunity to declare, once again, that there is no cause for concern. Continue reading →

We’re social animals. More so than other primates, our biology is highly adapted to live with and learn from other humans. We have innate capacities to cooperate, empathize, and imitate. These are capacities that emerge when we’re children, that we develop in adolescence, and continue to develop as adults. Continue reading →

The results of the World Health Organization’s Interphone study have finally been published. You might not have heard about this study because the mainstream media in the US has ignored it. The study, billed as the largest of its kind, was intended to shed light on the claim that cell phone use increases the risk of brain cancer. Continue reading →

I like nice surprises, don’t you? Last week I got one when the President’s Cancer Panel issued its annual report. Its title is “Reducing Environmental Cancer Risk.” In their cover letter the Panel tells the President that “the true burden of environmentally induced cancer has been grossly underestimated” and strongly urges him to “use the power of your office to remove the carcinogens and other toxins from our food, water, and air.” Continue reading →

I’ve been reading books in the cottage industry of healthcare reform. As we do in our book Too Much Medicine, Not Enough Health, some attribute the healthcare crisis to overdiagnosis and overtreatment. One of these, Worried Sick by MD Nortin Hadler, unpacks the bad science in this unsavory stew. Continue reading →

Simple things affect your health.

A study in Science magazine describes how feeling a lack of control affects decisions you make. Contrary to what you might expect, the study was not about the stress response but about the stories you tell yourself to explain what’s happening to you. Continue reading →

Nature or nurture. Is it our heredity or our personal, social, and physical environments that have the greatest influence on our health? And, for that matter, is it nature or nurture that most affects the person each of us becomes, the person who decides what is a full, rich life? Continue reading →

Every night before turning out the lights, I read something. Usually it’s a short story or a chapter in a novel. Right now, though, I’m working through two non-fiction books: the classic A Natural History of the Senses by Diane Ackerman and the more recent Proust Was a Neuroscientist by Jonah Lehrer. Both humanize the science that describes how we experience of the world. Continue reading →

In science, some answers are obvious. For example, last week two studies reported on the health effects of massage. In one, massage of the hands and feet helped console people who were grieving from the loss of a loved one to cancer. In the other, different types of massage were evaluated for their effect on lower back pain. Continue reading →