“Steep fall in death rates among diabetics,” announces the headline in the New York Times.

That seems like great news, doesn’t it? But things are not always as they seem.

The NYT article describes a study published by Doctor Edward W Gregg and hi/… Read full post »

Italian Army sword, Italian Army bayonet, and Ethiopian swords on display at the Ghana Armed Forces Museum, Kumasi

The Gold Coast Regiment had its roots in the Gold Coast Constabulary, organized in 1879 as an internal security force and composed initially of personnel from… Read full post »

"Our tragedies often start before we are born." – Joan Bennett, in character as Elizabeth Collins Stoddard from Dark Shadows

CHAPTER ONE

Over 40 years ago, a no-good punk and would-be grave robber named Willie Loomis pried open a coffin, a hand reached out and grabbed… Read full post »

In a sane society the idea of a blood test for depression might seem absurd, like checking the oil level in your car because you don’t like the destination at which you have arrived. Nevertheless, a recent paper in Translational Psychiatry describes efforts to develop/… Read full post »

Tuesday 13 March 2012: We departed at the ungodly hour of five AM and drove all day long, stopping at Kintampo Falls to take in the scenery.

Wednesday 14 March 2012: Our intrepid guide Issa showed us this track and rai… Read full post »

Noted philosopher and humanitarian Lady Gaga recently appeared at Harvard to kick off her anti-bullying foundation Born This Way, whose website describes its mission: “To foster a more accepting society, where differences are embraced and individuality is celebrated.&/… Read full post »

Did I ever tell you about my one degree of separation from the late Dwight David Eisenhower? That's right, between me and the 34th President of the United States of America there is but one degree of separation -- thanks to my friendship with Old Mrs. Knight.  

&n… Read full post »

After we had finished our would-be whale-watching excursion, I ran two miles along the beach in fourteen minutes and five seconds. Daniel accompanied me on the way out, but he got tuckered out and had to walk back. Then, after a refreshing dip in the Gulf of Guinea to cool… Read full post »

The flying fish constitute the family Exocoetidae, which contains over 50 species. They are gliders rather than true flyers, although a Japanese film crew recorded one specimen taking to the air for forty-five seconds, which is pretty good for a fish. They are found in warm… Read full post »

 PET scan showing distribution of brown fat in a human subject

Here we go again…

Scientists at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have discovered that exercise stimulates the production of a hormone that turns white fat into brown, promoting fat loss/… Read full post »

The turtles constitute the Order Chelonia, which is generally believed to be the sister group of all other living reptiles. The oldest undisputed stem-group turtle, Odonotochelys semitestacea, appears in the fossil record some 220 million years ago.

 The name li… Read full post »

The past year has not been a good one for the manufacturers of psychotropic drugs, and the assault continues. The January 29 edition of the New York Times features an essay by L. Alan Sroufe, Professor Emeritus at the Institute for Child Development of the Univer/… Read full post »

“Ankasa” literally means “don’t talk.” Legend has it that once upon a time, travelers crossing the bridge spanning what is now known as the Ankasa River were admonished to keep quiet, lest they might attract the attention of malevolent dwarves,… Read full post »

 I just found out I'm going to be expected to teach not one but two new courses this semester (sure glad they  didn't wait until the last minute to tell me). Plus I still have a stack of 240 exams to grade. Until I get a handle on all this,… Read full post »

TeenScreen, a program sponsored by the National Center for Mental Health Checkups of Columbia University, offers “free tools and materials to health care, educational and community-based professionals to screen for depression and mental illness in adolescents.” Their website… Read full post »

A series of articles in the Palm Beach Post has revealed that children in the custody of the Florida juvenile justice system are being prescribed massive doses of powerful antipsychotic drugs, often by doctors with questionable records and/or financial conflicts of interest/… Read full post »

For a bizarre real-life tale of medical cruelty, it’s hard to beat the sad sordid story of Luckner Cambronne. He rose from humble beginnings to head the hated Tontons Macoutes, or the secret police of Haiti, becoming second in power only to the hated Papa Doc Duvalier… Read full post »

 

Anatomy of an Epidemic: Magic Bullets, Psychiatric Drugs, and the Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness in America by Robert Whitaker 

The shock waves continue to reverberate from author Robert Whitaker’s explosive work of non-fiction. The book (along with The Emperor’s Ne… Read full post »

Anatomy of an Epidemic: Magic Bullets, Psychiatric Drugs, and the Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness in America by Robert Whitaker

Good Gawd, are they STILL peddling that tired old fable that psych meds are “just like insulin for diabetes?”

In a wo… Read full post »

No doubt many people have dreamed of a treatment that would effortlessly melt the fat away. It’s not here yet, but a paper published this week in Science Translational Medicine describes efforts to develop just that.

Scientists at the University of Texas M.D.… Read full post »

Here’s an article in the New England Journal of Medicine that describes the effects of weight loss on levels of various hormones that affect body weight. The authors expressed the hope that the results would shed light on why people who lose weight typically have so m/… Read full post »

Blood Feud: The Man Who Blew the Whistle On One of the Deadliest Prescription Drugs Ever by Kathleen Sharp

The very first page of this book begins with the prose equivalent of a clean right to the jaw: a graphic account of the bloody death of cancer patient… Read full post »

 Here’s an article in the New York Times about efforts to develop a vaccine against obesity.

Doctor Kim Janda of the Scripps Research Institute has devoted the last twenty-five years to efforts to developing vaccines for substance abuse and overeating. The vaccine agai/… Read full post »

Anatomy of an Epidemic: Magic Bullets, Psychiatric Drugs, and the Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness in America by Robert Whitaker

An epidemic is raging in the United States of America, an epidemic of crippling and sometimes deadly disease. The disease is bipolar disorder,… Read full post »

Anatomy of an Epidemic: Magic Bullets, Psychiatric Drugs, and the Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness in America by Robert Whitaker

Author Robert Whitaker reviews the history of the condition once known as hyperactivity, then as Attention-Deficit Disorder or ADD, and now as Attent… Read full post »