Here’s a notion from the natural world: there’s safety in numbers. Birds do it. Bees do it. Even educated fleas do it. But why is mass behavior safer? Apparently because having many eyes allows for earlier threat recognition and herds offer dilution of danger to individuals within it. Even in humans, research has shown that...Continue reading
Tag: men’s health
Can you be allergic to your sperm?
They sat in front of me, notes in hand, having read all they could, and looking somewhat concerned. “We read that vasectomy reversals don’t work because of antibodies that men make to their sperm. Is this true?” Don the Immunology Hat Practically speaking, the world’s first immunologist was the formidable warlord King Mithridates VI of...Continue reading
Are men an endangered species?
How come men don’t live as long as women? Is it because they do things like big wave surfing, base jumping in squirrel suits or highlining between buildings? Maybe we have a testosterone-fueled, Evil Knievel gene within us, right next to the air guitar and channel surfing genes, and are simply destined to break 433 bones, just...Continue reading
I Saved a Man and He Saved Me
I learned something today. Something really important. About how to stick to your guns, how use your gut. About what it really means to be a doctor. And, what’s funny is that I didn’t have to cure a man of cancer to learn this, but simply rid him of pain. A tech engineer, he hailed...Continue reading
The Flipside of Living Forever
Name some issues brand new to this world in the last 100 years. How about nuclear war, environmental pollution and climate change? Medically, we can blame carpal tunnel syndrome on the typewriter or computer keyboard, and “automobile knee” on that awful car commute. Hard to know whether these marks on modern society are preferable to...Continue reading
A Tale of Three Testicles
Its funny what people think about every day. Some decide exactly where to paint the lines in our streets. Others, called Gumbusters, remove gum stuck to park benches. Jelly Doughnut Fillers do precisely that, and Golf Ball Divers find stray golf balls that land underwater. And what would casinos do without certified Dice Inspectors? Better...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
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
Testosterone, Sex and You
How many times have you heard “enough is enough.” After you’ve told too many silly jokes? As a kid insisting on ice cream on a hot summer afternoon? Well, it may also be true for how the male hormone testosterone works on your body. More Is Not More But there’s also a corollary: “more is...Continue reading
Am I Enough?
The case of the month is an actual patient of The Turek Clinic. He hailed from the Middle East. He cut a striking figure, in a Laurence Olivier kind of way. As a young doctor in his final years of training as a heart surgeon, he had issues with his “stuff.” Quite a few. Six...Continue reading