Category Archives: Medicine

It’s my genes- really?

January 4, 2012 Roy A. Ackerman, Ph.D., E.A. 14 Comments

ABCC9. No, I didn’t stutter- and I’m not talking television, either. ABCC9 is a specific gene that may explain my habits to you. It affords its ‘owners’ the ability to sleep for shorter periods than those that lack this genetic marker. By the way, the larger a person’s BMI [body mass index], the less sleep that person generally needs- but that characteristic is also associated with diabetes and heart disease. (Given these facts, it is unclear if these maladies are associated with shorter sleep or larger BMI.)

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Medicine

A little bit of this. A little bit of that. For the little ones (really little).

January 3, 2012 Roy A. Ackerman, Ph.D., E.A. 14 Comments

Kim Trout (Georgetown University) and Lisa Wetzel-Effinger (Villanova) just published (this post was written in November) a paper that may provide a key to reducing childhood obesity. Their article in Current Diabetes Reports suggests that “prenatal flavor learning” is that magic key.

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Brain, Medicine

PTSD treatment via SGB

December 29, 2011 Roy A. Ackerman, Ph.D., E.A. 10 Comments

I reported the other day that by sheer happenstance, we have found that taking blood pressure medicine helps alleviate PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) episodes. The medicine suppresses norepinephrine secretion, which then affords the brain the capability to process the negative experiences. It turns out that effecting a stellate ganglion block (SGB) may have merit as a treatment.

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Medicine

A Technological Advance Regresses?

December 23, 2011 Roy A. Ackerman, Ph.D., E.A. 10 Comments

You know those signs you see in restaurants and airports (among many other places): Automated External Defibrillator? Well, as Paul Harvey used to say, here’s the rest of the story.

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Business Management, Medicine

Armageddon did NOT come!

December 14, 2011 Roy A. Ackerman, Ph.D., E.A. 8 Comments

I a presuming you woke up fine this morning. The world did not end. Well, that’s not the way it was predicted. Had you listened to all the histrionics, you would have expected the world to have ended yesterday. You see, yesterday was another red letter day in the provisions of the Affordable Care Act. You know, what is pejoratively called ObamaCare.

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Medicine

And the wind, it cries Mary…

December 8, 2011 Roy A. Ackerman, Ph.D., E.A. 6 Comments

Disturbing research has been published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. And, it’s not clear to me if this is just true for British youth or not. It seems that those British children with higher IQ’s were more likely to be drug users (amphetamines, marijuana, cocaine, among them.)

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Brain, Medicine

A clarification- Children and Their Parents

December 6, 2011 Roy A. Ackerman, Ph.D., E.A. 2 Comments

I don’t normally post twice in a day. But, having read a few comments and speaking to you- my readers- I feel that I have failed to make the proper points.

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Economy, Medicine

Let’s sue! (Forget baseball, this is the real American past-time.)

November 28, 2011 Roy A. Ackerman, Ph.D., E.A. 5 Comments

I got married in New York some 40 years ago. And, because it was New York, there were

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Brain, Medicine

THIS IS RATED M (REALLY)

November 21, 2011 Roy A. Ackerman, Ph.D., E.A. 6 Comments

Sensory homunculus in the human brain. Composi... — Image via Wikipedia

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Medicine, Technology

Doc- is that all you’re gonna do?

November 9, 2011 Roy A. Ackerman, Ph.D., E.A. 19 Comments

What do Rafeal Soriano (New York Yankees), Brett Favre (Minnesota Vikings), and Matthew Stafford (Detroit Lions) have in common? They all rely (or have relied) on the services of a renowned orthopaedic and sports physician, Dr. James Andrews, from Gulf Breeze Florida. His clinic, The Andrews Institute, founded in concert with Baptist Health Care, works with students and professionals, as well as effects research and provides education to patients and physicians. His newest research is bound to throw sports professionals for a loop- and probably many of us ‘regular’ folks, as well. Continue reading Doc- is that all you’re gonna do? →

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