Make Better GMOs - Or Else!
In the great debate over genetically modified organisms - GMOs - few institutional nods have been sought so keenly as that of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.A “no” from the influential organization’s food policy committee would strike a blow at Big Gene’s attempt to cow the regulatory system and institutionalize today’s GMO-oriented commodity farming. A “yes” by the committee would speed Monsanto’s progress and stymie attempts to limit GMO foods.
Bittman’s Lament...And The Fake Sugar War
Sugar is irresistible to humans, and apparently to writers. There was no better example than this week’s vaygeshray over Mark Bittman’s column in the New York Times. Bittman, the paper’s former food columnist who rose to fame with his fast and easy recipes for modern life, got caught up in one of the biggest food battles on the planet: the sugar wars. Is sucrose good? Bad? Toxic? Addictive? Causal of illness?
Flexocrats: The Donut Is Not The Problem, It's Us
And the obesity wars drone on: it’s the sugar, it’s the fat, it’s the paucity of playgrounds, it’s the prevalence of too-thin models and TV and gaming and chips and texting. It’s the lack of parental discipline and self-restraint.But wait: what if we accepted that “the environment”--the catch-all phrase for the above--just can’t be changed, or at least not fast enough to make a difference? And what if we just accepted that people will, by and large, continue to do as their genetic backgrounds direct them: eat as much as they can, and move as little as they must?
Is Science Too Technology-Dependent? Are 'Artifactual' Findings Up?
Excuse my use of the personal pronoun in this short article, but I am writing to get input as much as I am to simply observe a phenomenon.I am increasingly drawn to the connection between bench science and the companies that provide them with their tools - from commercial assays, probes, and imaging chambers to engineered animals and so-called "experiment in a box" products.As a journalist I am drawn to the subject for many reasons: it is an industry that is almost completely uncovered and one that supports, via advertisements and sponsorships, a growing number of science magazines and science venues. And there seem to be a growing number of 'artifactual' findings due to reliance on them.
The Secret History Of Pain Killers
Looking at the latest statistics, it’s hard to miss one compelling trend: The over-prescription of painkillers is slowly but surely eclipsing the problem of illegal drugs. There are, of course, the usual culprits in this disturbing trend - from HMOs and their dependence on pills to keep patients out of doctors’ offices to our culture of quick-fixes and slick marketing by drug companies.But the history of opioids’ medico-socio evolution also tells us the opioid has older sources as well.
Where Are All The iTaxes
If we had a prize for Most Celebrated Business Hero in America, it would have to be Steve Jobs, the late founder of Apple.The agile doge of Silicon Valley had a “death stare” you couldn’t escape.He had a up-from-orphan back story you couldn’t resist.And he had the vision of ten of his fellow technology executives.That’s why--we’re told--Apple was so good at making the things we love. All things “I”, that is--from iPads and iPhones, to iPods and iTunes.Lately, it also seems that Jobs and the company he left behind were also awfully good at all things Me.
The Trouble With Food Deserts
Close to supermarkets or not, fat poor kids are different than fat rich kidsOver the past decade, the American obesity epidemic has provoked a wide range of possible solutions, from soda-pop bans in elementary schools to salad bars in high school cafeterias. Some cities have begun retooling their recreation infrastructure, making playgrounds and public sports fields safer and more accessible. The jury is still out on such measures, but there remain two fundamental truths. One: Obesity, especially childhood obesity, is real and getting worse. Two: Obesity eludes simple, popular fixes.
The City And The Little Boy's Lungs
One evening last spring, Peter nearly stopped breathing.He was riding in the car with his mother, April, who was taking the 11-year-old boy back from a visit to the ER for one of his chronic asthma attacks. He seemed to be getting better — and then his throat began to constrict. He began to wheeze loudly. He rolled his head back to get more air."That was wrong. 'He should be better than this by now,' I remember thinking. I knew something was wrong then," April recalls. "They had given him some meds and the usual advice, but it was not working."
Is HDL Really So “Good”?
In 2006, the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer released a state of the art clinical study of a new drug designed to treat high cholesterol, torcetrapid. The results were puzzling. The compound lowered low density lipoprotein, aka LDL or “bad” cholesterol. It also substantially pushed up high density lipoprotein, or HDL, the “good cholesterol.” By all accrued medical wisdom, torcetrapid should have lowered the rate of cardiovascular events—heart attacks, strokes, and, ultimately deaths.But it did not. Instead, it increased both—by 61 percent. Worse: more heart patients died than those in a control group. What had happened? Why hadn’t the “good” cholesterol improved their odds of living longer?
A Good Year For The 'A' Word: Fido Report, 2010
Anthropomorphizing, the process, as Twain might say, of “underestimating the animal by assigning to him human traits,” has had a good year. The reasons range from the continuing dominance of the Obama dog, Bo, on Fox News (Bo: “Socialist or simple anarcho syndiclist?”), to the rise of kitty cat “jammers” for tabby sleepover night. Not kidding. On the sleepover thing.
Public Health: Will Los Angeles Go The Way Of Paris?
Will Los Angeles go the way of Paris? The City of Angels can learn a lot about public health from the capital of croissants.Not long ago, I came across a book about the trials and tribulations of a giant city. This city was reeling from a seemingly endless migration of rural peoples from its south. Its traditional family structure was strained - papa and mama both had to work. Most of them had to live in housing close to sources of polluted air. Infectious disease was rampant but largely untreated. Most had known hunger in their lifetimes. Their mothers likely experienced some kind of trauma while pregnant, thus predisposing their children to chronic disease.
Medicating The Mega-Cities
Is there a pill that might inoculate us from smog?Is there a gene we can target that would make us resistant to resurgent infectious diseases?And is there a way to use genetic data to insulate new immigrants from some of the metabolic challenges of living in a new land of plenty?Welcome to the slowly emerging world of environmental medicine and its inevitable outgrowth, environmental pharmaceuticals: compounds specifically suited for mitigating the physiological challenges of mega-city life in the 21st century.The inchoate drive for such pills — disparate, proceeding in entrepreneurial fits and starts — is fueled by twin facts:
