Month: June 2002

Slowly, scientific evidence is piling up showing that mental state has real impact on one’s physical state. A recent study concluded that thoughts can alter the expression of genes, though the causal channel of thoughts effecting hormone levels. This article draws together a number of studies, pointing out that many of the physical effects we see from medication, alcohol, or even environmental influence, may also come from the process of altering gene expression. Which suggests, to me, that we’re on the edge of accepting that health care isn’t as simple a “disease and treatment” formula as is assumed.

Not only have experts reconfirmed that smoking really does cause cancer, using a collection of data from many smoking studies, they’ve found it is even more cancerous than they thought. They also claim to finally have definitive proof that secondhand smoke causes cancer. I know that smokers already know they ought to quit, and I’m sure those irritating “truth” ads just make them want to smoke more out of spite, but if we’re taking a public health approach to medicine, support of quiting smoking is way up there as a positive, even in an analysis of overall cost per person.

As a happy example of the ability to reverse a disturbing trend, over the past decade the number of antibiotics prescriptions for children dropped by 40%, in response, one presumes, to concerns about the increase in antibiotic-resistent bacteria. Antibiotics are wonderful, wonderful drugs which absolutely must be used responsibly. [via Sigma Xi: In The News]