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Austalopithecus afarensis Definitely Climbed Trees
Analysis of the partial skeleton of “Lucy”, the best-known skeleton of Australopithecus afarensis discovered in 1974, revealed that the species was capable of standing and walking upright. Many...
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A Home Test for HIV
The first in-home HIV test kit became available last month in retail stores nationwide. The test kit, called OraQuick, was approved by the FDA in July, but it took until October to ramp up production...
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Curing Mitochondrial-Based Genetic Diseases
As you may know, 37 of our roughly 22,000 genes are located within mitochondria, rather than in the nucleus. Consequently these 37 genes are inherited entirely from the mother, since the female...
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A Call for FDA Regulation of Compounding Pharmacies
As I predicted on this blog on Oct. 9, a recent outbreak of fungal meningitis has led to a renewed call for FDA regulatory authority over the burgeoning drug compounding industry. As you may recall,...
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Oral Contraceptives Over-The-Counter?
A committee of the prestigious American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ACOG) issued a recommendation recently that oral contraceptives be made available over-the-counter (OTC). Currently, oral...
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Repetitive Mild Brain Injury and CTE
The evidence that there is a link between repetitive mild traumatic brain injury and a degenerative brain disease called chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) continues to build. In the most recent...
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Should Healthy People be Screened for HIV Infection?
According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), 25% of people who are infected with HIV do not know they are infected. Apparently these people are causing 80% of all new HIV infections. The...
View ArticleBeing Overweight Is Not a Mortality Risk
In 2009 a study from Canada reported that slightly overweight people actually were at less risk of dying than people of normal weight (see this blog, July 9, 2009). That study generated a lot of...
View ArticleBone Deposition in Adolescent Women Who Smoke
A recent study published in the Journal of Adolescent Health shows that the rate of bone formation in adolescent women is negatively impacted by smoking (men were not studied.) According to the study,...
View ArticlePregnancy and the Flu Vaccine
Is it okay for pregnant women to get a flu shot? The answer is “yes”, according to a study conducted in Norway recently. (The research was conducted in Norway because access to health care in Norway is...
View ArticleThe Human Hand Makes a Good Fist
One of the defining features of humans is that the shape of our hands and fingers allows us to touch the tips of our fingers with our thumbs. As a result, we are able to pick up and manipulate very...
View ArticleWind Turbine Tax Credit is Renewed
Until the very end of 2012, industry experts were predicting that the construction of new wind turbines for generating electricity would decline by as much as 90 percent in 2013. That was because a tax...
View ArticleExercise and the Flu Vaccine
Exercising immediately after receiving a flu vaccine enhances the effectiveness of the vaccine, according to researchers at Iowa State University. In the study, young adults who received the flu...
View ArticleDouble Mastectomies Are On the Rise
Many women who are diagnosed with breast cancer in one breast are opting to have the other breast removed as well. The surgery is called contralateral prophylactic mastectomy, or CPM. According to a...
View ArticleBlood Clots After IVF
Women sometimes develop blood clots in their veins (venous thromboembolism) or pulmonary arteries (pulmonary embolism) during pregnancy. The development of blood clots during normal pregnancy is a...
View ArticleGeorgia’s “Pill Mill” Problem
Some patients suffer from nearly constant intense pain. Pain management is complex enough that it has become a true medical specialty. Years of medical specialty training are required, culminating in...
View ArticleThe NFL and GE Partner in Brain Injury Study
In recent years there has been a sharp increase in the public’s awareness of the potential for traumatic brain injury in certain contact sports. Unfortunately, not much is known yet about acute...
View ArticleBuying Human Milk for Your Baby
Most health experts agree that the best milk for human babies is mother’s milk. Human milk provides the ideal nutritional mix for the infant. It also partially protects babies from colds and...
View ArticleFighting Illegal Steroid Sales
Injectable anabolic steroids are drugs. Yes, they are legal, but only when they are prescribed by a physician. It is standard medical practice for the physician to meet with the patient and make a...
View ArticleAuvi-Q; An Alternative to the EpiPen
Persons with potentially life-threatening allergic reactions to specific allergens (such as bee stings or certain foods) are told to carry an epinephrine auto-injector with them at all times. A...
View ArticleCloning Goes Commercial
The first adult animal to be cloned was Dolly the sheep. At the time (1997) the event was seen as a remarkable technological feat, of importance primarily to research biologists. In the decade that...
View ArticleShould Artificially Sweetened Milk be Labeled as Milk?
What is the “standard of identity” for milk? This may sound like a silly question, but condensed milk, evaporated milk, and milk all have very specific specifications, as defined by the FDA. The FDA...
View ArticleThe Embryoscope for Monitoring IVF Embryos
Fertility clinics have a new tool for monitoring the early development of fertilized eggs into blastocysts/embryos, before a decision has to be made regarding which embryos(s) to implant in the woman....
View ArticleStockpiling Smallpox Vaccine
Smallpox was eradicated completely in 1980. The only known stocks of the virus that causes smallpox are in carefully guarded laboratories in the U.S. and Russia. Nevertheless, the U.S. government is...
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The Benefits of Quitting Smoking
Are you a smoker? Are you one of those who believe that smoking may not be as dangerous as “they” say it is? Well, thirty years ago you’d have had a point. It’s actually taken a long time to collect...
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