My oldest daughter is a thumb-sucker. It never really bothered me or my husband, and neither her physician or dentist (surprisingly) have expressed great concern …
Category: Wellness
A math myth exposed
Seems the notion that genetically speaking boys are better than girls in math is a myth. Stanford biologist Robert Sapolsky, PhD, writes in a column …
An insider's view of health care reform
Philip Pizzo, MD, dean of the Stanford School of Medicine, says in a recent Q&A that inaction on health care reform is simply not an …
The NIH's Francis Collins' to do list
Francis Collins has been the director of the NIH for nearly two months. Yet he’s already punched a number of his accomplishments on a twenty …
Making the healthy choice a fun choice
In an experiment to encourage people to take the stairs rather than the escalator, Volkswagen Sweden and ad agency DDB Stockholm transformed subway station stairs …
Smoking bans reduce heart attack rates
Anti-smoking laws passed during the past two decades by more than 70 percent of the country are effective in saving lives, according to a new …
National guidelines for salt intake questioned
The debate on national nutrition policies is heating up as two federal panels begin work on the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans. At the center …
Benefits of dialysis for frail elderly debated
USA Today readers debated the topic of the benefits of dialysis treatment for the frail elderly with kidney failure in response to the story "Risks …
Get out your running shoes, Mom
Between my job here and all the pregnancy/parenting books I've consumed over the past three years, I thought I knew all the pros and cons …
Greider on women in science
I wrote below about the unusual number of women recognized during the 2009 Nobel Prizes. Since then, another woman , Elinor Ostrom, PhD, shared the …
The great IVF debate
Over the weekend, the New York Times ran a piece on the costs of the twin pregnances and births that often result from in-vitro fertilization. …
Girl Power – to the Nobels, and beyond!
Our office has a specific 'crisis plan' to deal with the annual announcements of the Nobel Prizes in Physiology or Medicine (one category), and in …
WIC food vouchers shape up
Big news this week for pregnant women, moms, babies and kids who receive food vouchers from the federal Women, Infants and Children program. For years, …
The increasing power of the placebo
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. …
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, …