You’ve heard of gene therapy right? What ever happened to it? Born back in the 1990’s, the same decade that Viagra was introduced to the world, gene therapy has not fared nearly as well as the little blue pill. Why not? First of all, gene therapy, in which DNA is put into cells to treat disease,...Continue reading
Category: Family
MicroTESE vs. FNA Mapping: Medieval or Modern?
Put two experts in a room and give each of them the same problem to solve. What you’ll find is that they typically use similar “knowledge structures” and “heuristic strategies” (i.e. organized and principled thinking) and then proceed to break the problem into smaller, more digestible ones to solve it. But, despite similar cognitive approaches, the solutions...Continue reading
Fact, Theory and Truth in Science
I am giving a talk to a large gathering of Kaiser docs from Southern California this week on whether a relationship exists between male infertility and the later development of cancer. We have published some of the most convincing data to date to suggest that they are linked. But is it really, absolutely true? What is...Continue reading
Best Foods For Brain Health
Green leafy vegetables Green leafy vegetables are rich in folate. Low folate levels have been linked to depression. Good sources of folate include lettuce, spinach, kale, asparagus, broccoli, Brussel sprouts, celery, and cabbage. Other good sources of folate include beets, pinto beans, black beans, navy beans, papaya, strawberries, and bell peppers. Whole grains Eating whole...Continue reading
7 Tips for New (and Not-So-New) Dads About Kids’ Health
Just a few months ago, my brother welcomed his newborn son to the world. Imagine the differences between his experience and the experience my own father had when we were born. Case in point: When my mom was delivering me in the hospital, my dad had no idea how to help during labor. Flustered and...Continue reading
Pro Football Player By Day And Health Advocate By Night
As a professional football player, Dominique Easley (defensive tackle for New England Patriots) is used to being in pain. But his sister, Destinee, wasn’t. When she was 11, she developed fibromyalgia, a condition that affects more than 12 million Americans. It causes muscle or skeletal pain throughout the body, as well as exhaustion, problems with...Continue reading
Ghost Mothers and Ghost Lovers
Editor’s note: This post is part 3 in a 3 part series on the Mother-Son dynamic. Click here for the other posts in the series. The child who finds out, all too abruptly and too soon, that he cannot count on his mother’s strength to be there for him . . . feels he has only...
Beards: Kiss of Death or Secret of Success?
Some biologists speculate that by sporting a beard, a man is advertising that his immune system is so healthy that he can carry around colonies of germs with no ill effects. A heavily bristled face gives women their scratchy, sexy fix but may offer some reassurance that the hair they’re nuzzling is still relatively sanitary–or...Continue reading
Are Urologists Losing It?
Let me get this straight. Twenty-five years ago, Urologists popularized a blood test for the early detection of a silent but very common and deadly cancer. With this tool in hand, called the PSA test, hundreds of millions of men have been screened worldwide since, changing the face of this cancer on the planet as...Continue reading
Prostate Cancer Detection and Diagnosis: Where Are We Now?
Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer in American men after skin cancer. In 2015 alone, there will be an estimated 220,800 new cases of prostate cancer, with a new case occurring every 2.4 minutes.[1] Prostate cancer can be a serious disease, but a majority of men diagnosed don’t actually die from prostate cancer,...