“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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Working with our Hands and Acquiring Some Skills I was unemployed for the latter half of this month, as I stopped working in mid-July. I spent the past two weeks reading books, working out, and spending the bulk of my time…
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In James Suzman’s book Affluence without Abundance, he chronicles the history and ultimate decline of the world’s modern hunter gatherers due to western expansion into Africa. Suzman is apt to write this depiction, as he has been spending significant time…
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Key Points: The Women’s Health Initiative was a massive effort to test and assess an array of lifestyle recommendations in women. A major goal was to assess the effect of a low-fat, high fruit and vegetable, and high grain diet…
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In 2013, a scientific report on fat and cancer baffled scientists and physicians. A usual, the nightly news had a field day with the findings. A massive analysis of all available studies assessing weight status and survival revealed that being…
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