Recently in Health Category

"'This is the part of the brain involved in knowing that you want something,' she said. 'When people who are not adjusting well are having these sorts of thoughts about the person, they are experiencing this reward pathway being activated. They really are craving in a way that perhaps is not allowing them or helping them adapt to the new reality.'" It's darker than you know in those complicated shadows...A new study finds that unrelenting grief works on the brain differently than the usual kind of post-traumatic depression. "The same brain system is involved in other powerful cravings, such those that afflict drug addicts and alcoholics...It's like they're addicted to the happy memories."

"We appear to be bringing the worst affected parts of the brain functionally back to life." Is Alzheimer's disease about to go the way of polio? A new drug known as rember, according to scientists in England, seems to halt and even roll back the symptoms of Alzheimer's. "We have demonstrated for the first time that it may be possible to arrest progression of the disease by targeting the tangles that are highly correlated with the disease. This is the most significant development in the treatment of the tangles since Alois Alzheimer discovered them in 1907."

"Caffeine is the most widely used stimulant in the world, but few use it to maximal advantage. Get optimally wired with these tips." By way of Follow Me Here and for fellow addicts, Developing Intelligence offers ways to maximize one's caffeine boost. "1) Consume in small, frequent amounts. Between 20-200mg per hour may be an optimal dose for cognitive function."

Yesterday, according to Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama was too liberal. Today, he's not liberal enough. Flailing about desperately for something that will stick on the Illinois Senator, the Clinton camp contrives a patently false abortion mailer questioning Obama's pro-choice commitment. The mailer says "Clinton has a record of fighting 'far-right Republicans' to defend abortion rights, while Obama has been 'unwilling to take a stand on choice.'" And the facts? "During his eight years in the legislature, Obama cast a number of votes on abortion and received a 100 percent rating from the Illinois Planned Parenthood Council for his support of abortion rights, family planning services and health insurance coverage for female contraceptives. He voted against requiring medical care for aborted fetuses who survive, a vote that especially riled abortion opponents."

The peg Clinton is trying to hang her hat on is seven times in the State Legislature when Obama voted "present" rather than "yes" on a given abortion-related bill. As was reported over the summer (i.e, well before this mailer was composed), Obama "did so with the explicit support of the president and CEO of Illinois Planned Parenthood Council. 'We at Planned Parenthood view those as leadership votes,' Pam Sutherland, the president and CEO of the Illinois Planned Parenthood Council, told ABC News. 'We worked with him specifically on his strategy.'"

So, in other words, like yesterday's mandatory minimums fiasco, this is another weaselly, obviously false desperation ploy by Clinton's team. (And one, like the soft-on-drug-related-crimes gambit, seemingly aimed at preemptively marring Senator Obama's general election viability.) Sorry, try again.

"We have to realize that we are already living in a society where we are already self-medicating with caffeine." This one's been languishing in the bookmarks for awhile, but via Drudge and blog-twin FmH, scientists may have discovered a cure for sleep deprivation in Orexin A. "The study, published in the Dec. 26 edition of The Journal of Neuroscience, found orexin A not only restored monkeys' cognitive abilities but made their brains look 'awake' in PET scans. Siegel said that orexin A is unique in that it only had an impact on sleepy monkeys, not alert ones, and that it is 'specific in reversing the effects of sleepiness' without other impacts on the brain." But is it cheaper than my daily Red Bull?

"'This raises a range of big questions about what nature is and what it could be...Evolutionary processes are no longer seen as sacred or inviolable. People in labs are figuring them out so they can improve upon them for different purposes.'" A front-page story in today's WP announces we're on the threshold of completely synthetic life -- as in 2008 -- made from enhanced or even artificial DNA. "Some experts are worried that a few maverick companies are already gaining monopoly control over the core 'operating system' for artificial life and are poised to become the Microsofts of synthetic biology...In the past year, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has been flooded with aggressive synthetic-biology claims."

"Human beings evolved in gravity, and it makes perfect sense that some systems -- especially the immune and skeletal systems -- might not do well without it." A new NASA study finds microbes and viruses may be particularly lethal on long space flights. "Even though astronauts are not now getting sick on their missions, we see very clearly statistically significant and reproducible change in immune functioning after two weeks in space."

By way of Dangerous Meta, a cardiologist argues in a new, soon-to-be-published e-book that Abraham Lincoln might be the earliest known case of a rare genetic disorder. "Sotos believes Lincoln had a genetic syndrome called MEN 2B. He thinks the diagnosis not only accounts for Lincoln's great height, which has been the subject of most medical speculation over the years, but also for many of the president's other reported ailments and behaviors."

Ok, this one's a bit creepy. By way of Webgoddess, watch the rotating dancer to ascertain whether you're left-brained or right-brained. I'm pretty right-brained, it seems (which makes sense, since I'm both left-handed and left-footed). But, if I changed tasks while the dancer was on -- say went to click another window or focused on the list at left, she'd sometimes switch direction. Weird...well, I just hope my right-brain knows what my left-brain is doing.

"The government may use its voice and its regulatory authority to show its profound respect for the life within the woman." In keeping with a tendency to move right incrementally, without necessarily overturning any laws (one that may also pose trouble for the McCain-Feingold act in coming weeks), the Roberts Court upholds a ban against partial-birth abortion 5-4, with Justice Anthony Kennedy the swing vote. (He was joined, of course, by Justices Scalia, Thomas, Roberts, and Alito.) Kennedy's reasoning? According to Slate's always-perceptive Dahlia Lithwick, it was fear of the Inconstant Woman: "Today's holding is a strange reworking of Taming of the Shrew, with Kennedy playing an all-knowing Baptista to a nation of fickle Biancas." For her part, Senator Barbara Boxer sadly summed it up as such: "'It confirms that elections have consequences,'...alluding to Bush's re-election and the seven GOP Senate wins in 2004 which set the stage for the appointment of Roberts and Alito."

With that in mind, all the major candidates for 2008 obviously weighed in on the decision in Gonzales v. Carhart, although everyone pretty much followed to party script, even the ostensibly pro-choice Giuliani. [Clinton | Edwards | Giuliani | McCain | Obama | Richardson | Romney] "Wednesday's ruling raises the stakes for the 2008 presidential election, which is almost certain to pit an abortion-rights Democrat against an anti-abortion Republican." Let's not make the same mistake again, y'all.

Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind! Each pray'r accepted, and each wish resign'd. Life imitates art as researchers hone in on drugs that will potentially erase traumatic memories. "'This is all very preliminary,' said Dr. Roger Pitman, a Harvard Medical School psychiatrist. 'We're just getting started. There is some promising preliminary data but no conclusions.'"

"We will make such a chase as shall be accounted a marvel among the Three Kindreds: Elves, Dwarves, and Men." Need a new running goal? How about destroying Isildur's Bane? Web Goddess points the way to Tolkien-based mileage distances for your workout perusal.

How does it feel when your heart grows cold? Statisticians have deemed today "Blue Monday," the most depressing day of the year. Um, if you say so. Clearly, these geniuses have never heard of Valentine's Day.

In a bit of happy news, Sen. Tim Johnson (D-SD), late with an AVM, has his condition upgraded from critical to fair. "The senator's doctors said last week that Johnson was improving but still needed a ventilator at night to help him breathe...His long-term prognosis is unclear. He has been responsive to his family and physicians, following commands, squeezing his wife's hand and understanding speech."

Regarding ballot initiatives, it was a bad night for same-sex marriage and marijuana decriminalization. Still, there's cause for hope around the country in the six state minimum-wage hikes that passed, as well as the repudiation of the stringent abortion law in South Dakota (Justice Kennedy: take note.) Speaking of the Court, its eminent domain decision of last year took a beating in nine states, although California, Idaho, and Washington thankfully repudiated stronger measures that would effectively hobble any kind of federal land regulation.

"While it is the infrequent shark attacks that make the headlines, drowning claims far more lives in Hawaii, where coastlines of sand, coral reef and lava rock create shorebreaks and currents that cause many swimmers to encounter peril entirely unexpected." Hawaii tries to lessen its drowning rate, highest in the nation. Memo to myself: Avoid Sandy Beach.

"'People are increasingly busy,' said Margaret Gibbs, a psychologist at Fairleigh Dickinson University. 'We've become a society where we expect things instantly, and don't spend the time it takes to have real intimacy with another person.'" CNN delves into the broadening landscape of American loneliness, which, according to the NYT, is becoming particularly acute among middle-aged men without college degrees.

As y'all probably know by now, Dubya -- so eager to exploit and enlargen executive power in other arenas -- vetoed his first bill in five years yesterday, when he decided to capitulate to the sad remnants of his base, set back medical science a few more years, and nip stem cell research in the bud once again. While Dubya said the bill would have forced "American taxpayers...for the first time in our history...to fund the deliberate destruction of human embryos," he made no argument for criminalizing fertility clinics, where similar embryos get tossed away unused every day. "'If that's murder, how come the president allows that to continue?' asked Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa). 'Where is his outrage?' Harkin called the veto 'a shameful display of cruelty, hypocrisy and ignorance.'"

"You have an innovator and a world business leader -- the combination of the two making such a huge personal investment of time and wealth, it does raise the bar and raise the profile of philanthropy.." A tip of the hat to Warren Buffett for his recent decision to turn his considerable assets to philanthropy and help the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation better our world. "The foundation, already the nation's largest with a $30 billion endowment that has largely come from Bill Gates, will hand out more per year than the gross domestic product of nearly 40 countries, including Mongolia, Togo and Zimbabwe."

"This is certainly not the first time that politics has trumped science at the FDA. Another recent example: the agency's decision to block over-the-counter availability for emergency contraceptives in the face of overwhelming evidence that the treatment is safe and effective...From my standpoint as a doctor, the question is this: What do you do when federal agencies become so politicized that their recommendations can't necessarily be trusted?" In Slate, pediatrician Sydney Spiesel begins to doubt the FDA's credibility these days, particularly after their recent and apparently blatantly political decision against medicinal marijuana. "Marijuana as a medicine -- whatever its risk and benefits are eventually determined to be -- may turn out to be much less important than the question of whether we can count on agencies like the FDA to be honest in their dealings."

"'What Democrats want to do is gin up their turnout in the suburbs and divide Republicans, and right now they may do that' said Jennifer E. Duffy, who tracks Senate races for the nonpartisan Cook Political Report. 'This is the first real wedge issue Democrats have had with Republicans.'" According to the NYT, congressional Dems think they may have a winner in November with the stem cell issue. And, also in election news, polls suggest the once-highly vulnerable Abramoff flunky Sen. Conrad Burns (R-MT) may be shedding the taint of Casino Jack, while potentially beatable Sen. Mike DeWine (R-OH) looks to do the same with Donald Rumsfeld.

As you likely heard, the 2006 Pulitzer Prizes were announced yesterday. Special kudos go to the WP team of Susan Schmidt, James Grimaldi, and R. Jeffrey Smith for helping to expose Casino Jack; to the Post's Dana Priest for disclosing Dubya's secret gulags; to the NYT's Nicholas Kristof for his consistently excellent commentary on world issues that merit more US (and GitM) attention; to historians David Oshinsky, Kai Bird, and Martin Sherwin for their recent books on polio and J. Robert Oppenheimer respectively; and to the inimitable Edmund Morgan -- one of my favorite historians -- who won a special citation for his "creative and deeply influential body of work" over the last half-century.

A (belated) follow-up: Last year, I posted here about the efforts by major chemical companies to bury Deceit & Denial, the recent work by public health historians David Rosner and Gerald Markowitz, which found that said companies knowingly obfuscated, downplayed, and generally lied about the fact that some of their products caused cancer. A few weeks ago, the other shoe dropped, when -- relying on the documents unearthed by Rosner & Markowitz -- a Rhode Island jury found lead paint manufacturers guilty of "public nuisance." "The verdict on the issue of liability paves the way for a potential damage award of millions of dollars in cleanup and mitigation costs." And, since then, California has reinstated a class-action case against the lead paint industry, and insurance companies are looking to drop the policies of lead paint manufacturers, since they "didn't disclose the dangers of lead paint when they purchased their policies."

Something wicked this way comes: Bucking to challenge Roe v. Wade in the Roberts court, the pro-life South Dakota legislature pass a bill outlawing abortion (with no exceptions therein for rape, incest, or non-fatal threats to the mother's health), and it seems pro-life Gov. Mike Rounds will sign it. On the bright side, even many pro-lifers doubt the Dakota bill will pass constitutional muster -- "'If you're just reading the law as it stands now, South Dakota's law doesn't really stand any chance under Roe or Casey . I have to agree with those who think it's remote,' said Chuck Donovan, executive vice president of the Family Research Council and a former lobbyist for the National Right to Life Committee." Update: Mississippi follows suit.

"The water expert said he told company officials at the base that they would have to notify the military. 'They told me it was none of my concern and to keep my mouth shut,' he said." Ah, the perks of a no-bid contract. As e-mail records prove, those patriots at Halliburton, Dick Cheney's favorite corporate cronies, have been knowingly exposing some soldiers to contaminated water, despite being warned by their own employees about the danger. "Another former Halliburton employee who worked at the base, Ken May of Louisville, said there were numerous instances of diarrhea and stomach cramps."

"What can be made of this opportunity to advance the goals of bringing about the eventual overruling of Roe v. Wade and, in the meantime, of mitigating its effects?" He may be on the political back-burner until next month; nevertheless, Sam Alito's nomination grows increasingly troubling, with word of another rabidly pro-life paper trail in his past which, like his conflicts of interest, he has heretofore failed to disclose.

"Who knew? We all knew: the trainers who looked the other way as they were treating a whole new class of injuries; the players who saw teammates inject themselves but kept the clubhouse code of silence; the journalists who 'buried the lead' and told jokes among themselves about the newly muscled; the GMs who wittingly acquired players on steroids; and, yes, owners and players, who openly applauded the home run boom and moved at glacial speed to address the problem that fueled the explosion." ESPN Magazine surveys the ascent of baseball's Steroid Era.

Bucking the Dubya trend, Bill Frist comes out for expanded federal stem cell research. Evidently, Catkiller's 2008 gurus decided he should hype his M.D. and/or tack moderate -- which is probably a mistake...the GOP moderates will likely stick with McCain, while the fundies may now look to Sam Brownback or some other winger freakshow as their primary hopeful. But, hey, the right thing is the right thing, even if it's for the wrong reasons.

According to this article, scientists recently brought several dogs back from the dead. And, yet, they were somehow changed...

Some love is just a lie of the heart. But most of the time, it just means your oxytocin levels are out of whack...

On the Sunday shows, Republican Senators Arlen Specter and Sam Brownback go toe-to-toe on stem cells. "Brownback questioned 'what it does to the culture of life' when government approves performing research on the embryos, which he considers 'young human life.' Specter shot back, asking what it does 'to the culture of life when you let people die because there are medical research tools which could keep them alive?'" For what it's worth, Specter believes the Senate has the votes to override a Bush veto, even as Boss DeLay erroneously invokes various world religions to keep the House in line.

"It's the teenagers who work at the fast food places, and immigrant labourers who come across the border, working in the packing plants, and an executive. It's kind of from different perspectives. It's the different sides of the fast food industry." Richard Linklater discusses his next project, Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation, which may star Maria Full of Grace actress Catalina Sandino Moreno. Sounds a bit like Traffic.

With the nuclear detente and Priscilla Owen now on her way to a judgeship, congressional attention turns to stem cell research. With the right-wing fundies already on the warpath over the loss of GOP nukes, how will they respond in the unlikely event of Dubya's threatened veto getting overridden?

Oh, a sarcasm detector. That's a really useful invention.

In the face of growing bipartisan support (and withering hopes for Social Security privatization) in Congress, Dubya declares he will veto a bill easing stem cell restrictions. In five years, Dubya has never used the veto before...but of course he's always ready to answer the bell when the right-wing fundies come-a-knockin'.

"If the andro that helped McGwire hit 70 home runs in 1998 was an unnatural, game-altering enhancement, what about his high-powered contact lenses? 'Natural' vision is 20/20. McGwire's custom-designed lenses improved his vision to 20/10, which means he could see at a distance of 20 feet what a person with normal, healthy vision could see at 10 feet. Think what a difference that makes in hitting a fastball. Imagine how many games those lenses altered." Drop the juice for a sec -- Slate's Will Saletan wonders aloud if optical enhancements also constitute cheating in baseball, football, and golf.

What?!? Barry Bonds and Jason Giambi used steroids?! Man, I've been thinking all this time that they both just subscribed to a rigorous neck-thickening regimen. (Next thing you'll be telling me there's no WMDs in Iraq.) Well, I guess odds were that at least a few members of the medicated 44% in America would play baseball.

"Sun is shinin' in the sky, there ain't a cloud in sight..." Life imitates art as scientists attempt to achieve "therapeutic forgetting", a.k.a. the focused erasure of memories. Right now, though, they haven't got much past dulling the edge off old remembrances. "Our experiences and our memories in a lot of ways define us and define who we are," notes Stanford ethicist David Magnus about the field, "[a]nd so that's a scary step to go down. We should be very careful about going down a path that could lead to a serious alteration of the core essence of our identities." Can you hear me? I don't want this anymore, I want to call it off!

Well, to no one's surprise, I think John Kerry won again. But, while I'd like to say that the Senator knocked this final debate in Tempe, Arizona out of the park, frankly, he didn't. In the early going, I thought he seemed tired and slightly discombobulated, and, at times when a concise rebuttal could have scored some serious points, Kerry's answers often seemed more wordy and circuitous than necessary. On the other hand, I thought this was Dubya's best performance - he was still smirking and guffawing too much, still distorting the facts, still running from his record, and still demonizing his opponent like the best of 'em, but at least he seemed in full possession of his faculties this time around (perhaps the wire was working tonight.) I did think that Kerry warmed up in the middle third, but he lost focus again during the final questions (Native American blessings? Idears?) That being said, given the relative lack of drama tonight and the playoff baseball on FOX, I highly doubt this final debate will end up altering the current campaign dynamic much.

So there you have it, folks. Barring an October Surprise in the next three weeks, it now all comes down to the ground game, and -- given what we've been hearing regarding voter registration, given the white-hot contempt towards Dubya held by Dems and the ambivalence with which fiscal conservatives and many veterans view this administration, and given the usual tendency of undecideds to break towards the challenger -- turnout is a factor which John Kerry should win handily (barring Diebold shenanigans.) It ain't over yet, to be sure, but right now I'd say that, despite tonight's missed opportunities, John Kerry and John Edwards have put themselves in a solid position to win with their cumulative debate performance. The election is too close to call, definitely, but at this point I feel pretty confident our nation will make the right decision on Nov 2.

Robert Earle sings the praises of pick-up hoops in the Washington Post (although, to be honest, his doesn't sound like the funnest crowd, what with all the foul-calling shenanigans on display.) The outdoor summer hoops are just getting started over in these parts, although I'm still nursing an ankle sprain from the spring season.

Jack Beatty of the Atlantic Monthly surveys the effects of a Great Depression on Calvin Coolidge.

A new German study finds sleep is essential for creativity. Hmm, well that explains a lot over in these parts.

"From gratefully accepting a basic level of assistance back in the early decades of Social Security, America's elderly have come to expect everything their durable little hearts desire." Steve Chapman of Slate examines the growing problem of the "greedy grandparents". As I said after passage of the GOP Medicare bill, it's ridiculous that we're even considering a prescription drug benefit for the nation's wealthiest generation, when so many Americans don't even have basic health insurance yet. And, as Chapman notes, with the retirement of the Boomers, things are going to get worse before they get better.

In a boon for President Bush's reelection chances, the GOP succeed in remaking Medicare. (At least the Dems can content themselves with defeating the energy bill.) To be honest, I haven't been following this bill as closely as I should...I always get a bit annoyed when both parties prostrate themselves before the AARP, far and away the richest (and most likely to vote) portion of the electorate. In fact, the US spends 12 times more on its oldest, wealthiest citizens than it does on its children, even though kids are three times more likely to live below the poverty line. Hence, budget and deficit-busting prescription drug giveaways in the midst of child poverty...great investment.)

All that being said, Medicare is one of the foundations of the American social safety net, just as AFDC was until 1996, and as such this act is a biggie. Mickey Kaus of Slate seems to think the bill is actually good for Dems, while Urban Institute experts believe the back door to privatization is in fact only "window dressing." But still, most Senators I trust came down against it (including John McCain, who railed against the giveaways to drug-makers in the bill.) And, while I still find it absurd that we're giving prescription drug benefits to a select portion of the electorate before finding a way to insure every citizen, even paying lip service to the idea of privatizing Medicare does not seem a step in the right direction towards universal health care.

Finally, if this bill is so innocuous, why are the GOP so gung-ho for it? I hope it's because they believe they wrested the Medicare issue away from the Democrats rather than due to any real movement towards privatization in the bill. Still, I fret. I mean, would you trust a prescription filled out by a cat-slaughterer?

An Albany congressman proposes a "fat tax" on junk food, video games, and TV commercials to combat NY's growing obesity rate. Thinking outside the box, I suppose, but where would this end? There are very few items in American life these days that don't contribute to obesity, so it seems a bit harsh to pin the blame on Grand Theft Auto.

The mystery of the red wine headache, via Follow Me Here. I'm definitely suffer from 'em, which is why most of my drinking is confined to beer, whiskey, and other potables time-tested by my Gaelic forbears.