A young football player is running the ball downfield when he gets blindsided by two tacklers. They upend the player, who haplessly inverts in the air and lands on his neck. In an instant, his whole body goes limp, and the player has difficulty breathing. Paramedics are rushed to the field, and the player is speedily taken to the hospital, where a CT scan delivers the unthinkable news: complete spinal cord injury.

The player is stabilized medically, and a team of neurosurgeons are brought onto the case. They attach electrodes to the boy’s head, and begin mapping brain activity as they have him imagine using his limbs to carry out a series of specific tasks. Read more →

Adolf Hitler was a monster. The revolution he spawned changed the world landscape forever. But have you ever wondered how he did it? How did Hitler convince 70 million rational people to engage in horrible atrocities and wage war against the world? Although his agenda was decidedly negative, Hitler was a master of the science of coercion. Through the use of his speeches and propaganda, he was able to bend the will of ordinary people into submission and create an obedient army ready to carry out his orders, no matter how absurd they might be. Hitler’s formula for coercion of a group of people was very simple. Read more →

Last month I underwent the bone marrow harvest which I had discussed in the previous two Gift of Life articles (Part 1 and Part 2). In the time preceding the harvest, I met with the doctors at Long Island Jewish Medical Center to have the preliminary screening tests, which were rigorous. Testing included a huge gamut of bloodwork for everything ranging from anemia to HIV, as well as an EKG, chest x-ray, and routine physical examination. The National Marrow Donor Program and entire medical team were fantastic every step of the way, and everything was anticipated and accounted for before I got there. Many of the technicians and various other support staff whom I encountered were excited to learn that I was a bone marrow donor. Most of them were also on the registry, and stated that they hoped they would be called some day to donate as well. Read more →

Nobody questions the fact that healthcare is a confusing profession. Doctors and nurses seem to speak in foreign tongues; medicines have names and ingredients that are not even pronounceable; more and more news comes out every day about diseases and conditions that seem to contradict each other. If doctors must devote 12 years of higher education just to get a basic understanding of how the body works, how does a patient hope to know what’s wrong with them? Read more →

The American population is obsessed with germs. Although relatively few people are unfortunate enough to suffer from OCD, a more pervasive subclinical paranoia persists in our psyche which manifests as our culture of cleanliness. During daytime television it is almost impossible to go through an entire commercial break without seeing an ad for cleaning products such as soaps, air sanitizers, detergents, or other various cleaning paraphernalia. Additionally, more and more of these products are emerging with some form of antimicrobial, antibacterial, or bacteriostatic chemical included to “stay tough on germs.” One such example is the chemical triclosan, although there are several others with similar issues. Read more →

In my previous post, The Gift of Life, I detailed the events surrounding my ongoing process of becoming a bone marrow donor. For this entry, I wanted to spend some time discussing the specifics of the process, in hopes of demystifying the concept of bone marrow donation and perhaps inspiring others to join the National Marrow Donation Program and potentially give their own gift of life.

In order to join, as I mentioned previously, all that is needed is a blood sample using the same techniques as you would for routine bloodwork. The vials are collected and analyzed, and your 6-marker screening information becomes accessible in the national database. Read more →