06/30/2008 (Health, Social commentary)
It’s a pharmaceutical Twilight Zone — you’re not sure what’s there, and what is there may not be a pleasant surprise. This clip from a commercial for Abilify is about as good (or as bad) as it gets. Alternative treatment modalities anyone?
11/18/2007 (Health, Reflections on living)
What does growing older have in store? There is much literature on the subject. In researching through some of it I ran across 60 on Up by Lillian Rubin. It’s the best basic primer I’ve found on aging in this culture, aging as it is without the happy talk hype that characterizes much of what [...]
09/24/2007 (Health, Reflections on living)
Below is a summary of some research on grief that was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. It modifies Elizabeth Kübler-Ross’s famous five-step model of how we cope with loss. I’ve found it useful. The summary is from the The Atlantic magazine.
Researchers have long suspected that grief advances in stages, and [...]
04/09/2007 (Changing times, Health)
Another reason to pay attention to what we put into our bodies. Research shows that some pesticides can play a role as risk factors for Parkinson’s. Slowly and surely the intuition that industrial chemicals contribute meaningfully to the rise of degenerative diseases becomes scientific fact.
Click here for the press release from the The Parkinson’s Institute.
03/26/2007 (Health, Politics, Social commentary)
We’ll be the last wealthy country to provide at least basic health care to its citizens, but the day will come. My guess is 2011 when the next president (if a Democrat) is looking to be re-elected in 2012. What form it will take is unclear, but the push for single payer gets stronger with [...]
11/05/2006 (Health)
The first time I heard these words Dr. Yun Chun Chiang had just finished demonstrating the art of brewing tea during a break in the Dayan (Wild Goose) Qigong class that I was taking from his wife, Professor Hui Lui. Dr. Chiang had learned English in his 40’s, and his idiosyncratic grammar served as a [...]
10/08/2006 (Health, Reflections on living)
We are connected in many ways. Now, Daniel Goleman, the author of Emotional Intelligence, tells us in his new book, Social Intelligence, that we are wired to connect.
Neuroscience has discovered that our brain’s very design makes it sociable, inexorably drawn into an intimate brain-to-brain linkup whenever we engage with another person. That neural bridge lets [...]
08/12/2006 (Health)
Where I used to run for an hour a day, now I walk. Here’s the best book I’ve found on walking as exercise. Not racewalking, but aerobic walking. I’ve looked at / read several over the years. I find this to be the single best book on the single best (so some would say) exercise.
Walking: [...]