Monthly Archive for August, 2007

Articles & Studies | By August 31, 2007 | By Sudip Ghosh, MD | 4 Comments

The Cigarette Century and Beyond

We needed a truthful account of how cigarettes have become the highest selling addictive drug in the history of the human race, lawfully. Alan Brandt, Harvard Professor of History of Medicine and Science, and author of the recently published “The Cigarette Century - The Rise, Fall, and Deadly Persistence of the Product That Defined America” tells us the extra-ordinary story of the rise of the “modern cigarette” in the 20th century. Dr. Brandt is one of the U.S.’s leading expert witnesses for federal and state tobacco-related lawsuits, after spending nearly twenty years researching on this topic. In the 2004 U.S. vs. Philip Morris trial, Dr. Brandt was cross-examined for nearly two days, and for the first time in U.S. history, tobacco companies were found to have breached Federal statutes on racketeering. Dr. Brandt was quoted 200 times in the verdict, apparently. Read more →

Brain Blogging, Sixteenth Edition | August 31, 2007 | 4 Comments

Welcome to the sixteenth edition of Brain Blogging — a semi-monthly blog carnival that aims to review posts “related to the brain and mind that go beyond the basic sciences into a more human and multidimensional perspective.” Read more → Read More →

A Patient is Not a Consumer | August 29, 2007 | 1 Comment

I’m going out on a limb here but in many respects, a patient is not a consumer. Most of the changes in the medical system are based on the consumer model of healthcare. The problem with the consumer model is that medical service is not like buying a product from Wal-Mart. You can’t return... Read more →

The Kampo boom, traditional Japanese phytotherapy comes of age | August 26, 2007 | 1 Comment

Of the many ancient holistic medical systems that have withstood the test of time, Kampo is one of the more successful ones, particularly in Japan. In a nationwide study of Japanese mainstream medical practitioners performed in October 2000, 72 percent regularly used Kampo medicines. Today, nearly 150... Read more →

Medicare Begins its “Never Pay” Category | August 22, 2007 | 7 Comments

Medicare recently came out with its “Never Pay” guidelines. The presumed motivation is the exponentially rising cost of medical care over the years that payers cannot sustain. The largest payer in the world is the U.S. Government in the form of Medicare payments. In an effort to reduce costs,... Read more →

Brain Blogging, Fifteenth Edition | August 20, 2007 | 4 Comments

Welcome to the fifteenth edition of Brain Blogging — a semi-monthly blog carnival that aims to review posts “related to the brain and mind that go beyond the basic sciences into a more human and multidimensional perspective.” Read more → Read More →

Implications of War in Northern Uganda on Mental Health | August 16, 2007 | 4 Comments

A recent issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) released articles dedicated to the study of conflict, human rights, and international mental health consequences. Some of the most striking papers dealt specifically with the psychological effects of war as well as the implications... Read more →

I Grow My Own in The Brain, Thank You: Endocannabinoids and Marijuana | August 14, 2007 | 9 Comments

A researcher at the University of Buffalo’s Institute of Addictions won a five year, $1.7 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to investigate the role of “endocannabinoids” (the brain’s own marijuana) in combating stress and anxiety, an integral part of modern... Read more →

Brain Blogging, Fourteenth Edition | August 09, 2007 | 2 Comments

Welcome to the fourteenth edition of Brain Blogging — a semi-monthly blog carnival that aims to review posts “related to the brain and mind that go beyond the basic sciences into a more human and multidimensional perspective.” Read more → Read More →

A Drug Treatment for Chronic Pain and Erasing Its Memory | August 06, 2007 | 1 Comment

The reason why chronic pain is chronic appears to be linked to its persistent memory in the prefrontal cortex. A new study by Dr. Vania Apkarian, professor of physiology and anesthesiology at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, shows that treatment with a drug called D-cycloserine,... Read more →

An Alzheimer-Related Gene? | August 03, 2007 | 2 Comments

The genetic basis for Alzheimer’s disease has been a focus of research in recent years, and the gene most studied so far has been the ApoE gene, which codes for apoprotein E, a blood protein concerned with the transport of lipids in blood. Specifically, ApoE is thought to be associated with the... Read more →