Patient A walks into your clinic shortly after getting his cholesterol and complete blood count labs drawn. They labs are flawless – perfect across the board. Even better, the nurse weighs him prior to the visit and he is smack…
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In 1979 the MIT Blackjack Team was started by a group of students that had systematically trained to increase their odds at the blackjack table just enough to turn the odds of winning from the house to their favor. The…
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We recently discussed the importance of hunger for life, and how it relates to our health. The direction of our society may be opposing one that, in the past, stimulated our hunger for life. Yet, the wakeup call that we…
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“We need to get her to eat.” This was the common remark verbalized by Mrs. Jones’ family members during her weekly visits to check in and make sure she was tolerating her chemoradiation. In fact, this was an all too…
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“Quantity has a quality of its own.” -Often attributed to Napoleon, likely incorrectly On September 26, 1991, eight individuals set foot into Biosphere 2, an enclosed self-contained simulated living environment built in rural Oracle, Arizona. Located not far from a…
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In 1986, James Curse published a masterpiece. His book, Finite and Infinite Games, proclaimed that: “There are at least two kinds of games. One could be called finite, the other infinite. A finite game is played for the purpose of…
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We used to try to avoid doctors. Now we turn to them for our health. Enter healthcare consumerism. This recipe for disaster is one of the latest in consumerism trends, or the false belief that we can simply purchase or…
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“Fare bella figura” and “arete.” The former is an Italian saying, while the latter Greek, but both of these traditional axioms may provide some insight into the importance of how we view ourselves in society and our health. Fare bella…
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Making It Local At some point over the past several years I got lazy. In residency, which was the second busiest time in my life, most of my food was acquired from local markets, local farmers, and the amazing Reading…
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The son of an English merchant and, himself a surgeon, James Lind must have wondered how he ended up being tossed around on the HMS Salisbury just off the coast of France. After entering his medical apprenticeship in 1731, Lind…
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