Author: Van Wilson

  • A New Factor in Pancreatic Cancer?

    Around 60,000 people in the United States will be diagnosed with pancreatic cancer each year. Unfortunately, about 75% of the newly diagnosed will live less than 1 year, leading to around 45,000 deaths per year. Overall, the 5-year survival rate for pancreatic cancer is only 9%. A big reason for this low survival rate is […]

  • The Season of the Prize

    The Nobel Prize season starts today with the 2019 award in Physiology or Medicine. This year’s prize goes to three individuals, two Americans and a Brit, for their work on how the body maintains homeostasis during changes in oxygen levels. Drs. William G. Kaelin Jr. (Harvard University), Peter J. Ratcliffe (Oxford University), and Gregg L. […]

  • Is There Life On Mars?

    The Red Planet has fascinated almost anyone who’s ever scanned the nighttime sky and wondered about the universe beyond our tiny planet. Science fiction has long proposed advanced civilizations on this planet from H. G. Well’s “The War of the Worlds” (1897) through Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Barsoom series (1912-1941) to classic golden age syfy such […]

  • Polio – Another Step Backwards

    Briefly last week there were headlines about a small number of polio cases found in the Philippines, a country declared polio free in 2000. While a few cases in another country may not seem very alarming, these cases starkly reflect a global public health failure. Polio is a very contagious viral infection that is usually […]

  • Obesity – Are Ultraprocessed Foods the Culprit?

    Polls have shown that weight loss is the most common New Year’s resolution. The average weight of Americans has steadily increased over the last several decades with an estimated 71% of us now classified as overweight and nearly 40% of us considered obese. Fad diets and multiple theories abound, often with little or no basis […]

  • The Microbiome – Your Nearest and Dearest Neighbors

    A microbiome can be defined as all the microorganisms, e.g. bacteria and viruses, which occupy a specific niche or ecological location. For humans, our microbiome is the sum total of all the microorganisms that inhabit our bodies. The vast majority of work on the human microbiome has focused on the bacteria that co-inhabit our bodies. […]

  • Hominins and Hominids

    Everyone is interested in their ancestors, some people are just interested much further back than others. A recent paper in Nature describes the characterization of the most complete skull fossil ever found for Australopithecus anamensis.  Anamensis is one of the 5 species of Australopithecus, the genus that is believed to have given rise to Homo […]

  • Can Aging be Reversed?

    Living longer and being healthier into old age are important goals for most people. Certainly the availability of medications for many conditions, such as high blood pressure and diabetes, greatly improves health and longevity. Coupled with an increased awareness of the need for a healthy life style (exercise, nutrition, weight control), medical advances have greatly […]

  • Do I Really Need a Flu Vaccine This Year?

    Do I Really Need a Flu Vaccine This Year? It’s September and flu season will soon be upon us. Each year people ask if they need another flu vaccine. The answer is no – as long as you are willing to be miserably ill for 5-10 days; to spread disease to your family, friends, co-workers, […]

  • Antibiotics vs. Antivirals

    You may know that we don’t use antibiotics on viral infections, but do you know why? The word antibiotic comes from the Greek language and literally means “against life”. Antibiotics are used to treat bacterial infections, since bacteria are living, single-cell organisms. Each bacterial cell is comprised of an envelope structure that forms the outer […]