PADs for Parkinson’s is a unique, great program where dogs are being trained to detect Parkinson’s disease! I have always been interested in how dogs are trained to detect illnesses, whether it’s sniffing out specific cancers or COVID-19. Their sense of smell is insane, and I’d often joke that if Barnaby, my dog, sniffs me […]
This post will focus on the Amish and COVID-19. I was curious about how this small, close community did during the pandemic and reached out to a researcher who has done a lot of studies on the Amish community. Besides the fact that I’ve always been enamored by the Amish families and farms, having grown […]
Human health in space…despite all the excitement, can we really survive and thrive on a different planet? We often think about the technology needed to get us to the Moon, Mars and beyond, but what about our health? Both the moon and Mars are totally different environments than Earth, so what are the anticipated health […]
Daily steps and risk of disease, a new Causes or Cures Podcast on recent scientific research. Many people wonder if there is a magic number of steps we should be taking to lower our risk of disease and/or death. While it seems intuitive that more steps is always better, sometimes you see diminishing returns […]
Dog bowls and health is a podcast for the dog lovers out there! How clean is your dog bowl? What sort of bugs grow on it? What sort of diseases can happen to your dog or even people from a dirty dog bowl? How often should you clean it and how? What about dog food? […]
People often discuss risk factors and cancer…what can we do to lower our risk? What raises our risk? Is one risk more dangerous than another? On a recent Causes or Cures Podcast, I chatted with Dr. Christopher Murray about his recent article published in The Lancet (2022) titled The Global Burden of Cancer Attributable to Risk […]
At-home Ketamine for anxiety and depression…sounds interesting but does it work? There is an explosion of interest in how psychedelics and other kinds of alternatives might be used to treat depression and anxiety, diseases that are notoriously difficult to treat, particularly for the long-term. Further, lots of prescribed medication for anxiety and depression come with […]
Psychedelics for weight loss or weight management? How about for fighting our growing rates of obesity? One researcher studying it thinks it might be possible. There is a renewed interest in how psychedelics might be used to treat and/or prevent various health ailments. It’s getting less and less taboo to talk about the health benefits […]
What is the public health equilibrium? It’s a term I coined to describe the balancing act that is public health, which I’ll describe in this blog. This is my perception, vision, thinking and not anyone I work for or consult for. This blog was inspired by one of my recent tweets: I don’t think the […]
Is there an emerging epidemic of cancer in young people? Some research suggests there is. When you consider the possibility of this along with rising rates of obesity and related chronic issues, it’s quite concerning. Not only will young people’s lives be cut short, in years, quality or both, but trying to pay for healthcare […]
Running with Headlines & Headline Science Troubles: For today’s musings in scicomms…What’s in a headline? And what do we do with headlines? To explain, let me share a Running with Headlines experience that happened: I recently had Dr. Shuji Ogino (Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School) on my Causes or Cures podcast to […]
Celebrate Lost Loved Ones Map: Mapping our way out of the Opioid Epidemic: Hey there. The opioid epidemic is still raging, and people are still dying as a result. Sadly, the COVID-19 pandemic made it worse. The opioid epidemic is the biggest health disinformation campaigns in my lifetime. It was fueled by a cartel…though not […]