Steve Silberman has written a fascinating article for Wired about the increasing power of the placebo effect and its potential effect on the pharmaceutical industry. …
Category: Wellness
Exercising makes you brawny and brainy
Besides a slimmer waistline, here's another reason to lace up your running shoes, take a bike ride or dive into the pool: aerobic exercise makes …
Facing mortality
Like most people, I have a vision of a "good death" that doesn't include respirators, gurneys, IVs or ICUs. And until reading Newsweek this week, …
Checking in early
Very few people look forward to the day when they'll have to check into a nursing home. So why would a perfectly healthy 38-year-old move …
Debunking a labor myth
Last spring, when Stanford researcher Douglas Owens, MD, mentioned to me an upcoming study on the risks of labor induction, I took an immediate (and …
Death recalls struggle over intern work hours
I don't usually read obituaries but a recent one in the New York Times caught my eye. It was for Sidney Zion, a prosecutor, lawyer …
Testing for Alzheimer's: the psychological risks
I've always thought it would be crushing to know that I carry a gene for some dread disease yet could do nothing to prevent it. …
Science: The musical
Today at Wired Science, Aaron Rowe brings us the Top 10 Scientific Music Videos. The topics range from the human heart to the Large Hadron …
Risk vs. benefit: Roche pulls Accutane
Drug manufacturer Roche announced yesterday (6/09/09) that for financial reasons it will stop marketing Accutane, a medication for treating severe acne. Roche's patent on the …
Yes, you're eating for two, but…
I stopped weighing myself about 8 months into my pregnancy (it just became too depressing after awhile), but there is good reason for mothers-to-be to …
Death in birth
With less than a month to go before my delivery date, maternal deaths are probably the last thing I should be reading about. But a …
Period piece
There's a new book out that brings up a topic I haven't thought about lately: my first period. It's My Little Red Book, edited by …
Helping heal moms' injuries
I've been pregnant twice, and both times (thanks to a pesky autoimmune disease) meant months of extra ultrasounds and screenings and pre- and post-labor appointments …