BUSHORO, Uganda — Lying on a church pew with his arm over his head, 6-year-old Gordon Andindagaye whimpered a bit — in fear, not pain — as Dr. William A. Cherniak slowly swept a small ultrasound scanner up and down his chest. Dr. Cherniak and Rodgers Ssekawoko Muhumuza, the Ugandan clinical officer he was training,…
The kidneys remove waste products and excess fluid from the bloodstream. These two organs sit on either side of the body just below the rib cage. The kidneys rest against the back muscles, which can make it difficult to tell the difference between kidney pain and back pain. When trying to determine whether the pain…
While I consider nearly every meal I make an opportunity for recipe development, sometimes the food I cook for myself at home when nobody is watching is, well, not very impressive. It can feel too simple, too beige or too boring to ever see the light of day. I lovingly refer to those dishes as…
As an Aquarius, David Birnbaum is naturally skeptical of astrology. But as an investor, he has zero doubts about the business potential of the $2.1 billion “mystical services market.” It’s an area that he has been trying, unsuccessfully, to invest in for nearly two decades. Mr. Birnbaum researched lots of astrology start-ups in the Web…
YUCCA VALLEY, Calif. — The first time I drove east from Los Angeles to Flamingo Heights, I came to a stop behind a truck with a fairly blunt sticker on its sliding rear window: “Go Back to L.A.” It was a reminder that this rural town, just north of Joshua Tree National Park, has an…
Good bacteria are imperative for gut health. New research finds that another type of gut microbe could be endangering the beneficial bacteria population. New research finds a microbe that may diminish beneficial gut bacteria. Trillions of microbes are present in the gut. The majority are bacteria. However, other types — including viruses and single cell…
On an overcast June day, I parked my car under a live oak outside a weathered-looking church on St. Helena Island, S. C. I’d interrupted our family vacation for an outing to some of the cultural sites on this island where the Gullah Geechee culture has endured since the days of slavery. My nephews and…
People rarely follow a doctor’s orders to the letter. We often seek treatments that meet our preferences, and adapt them to our personal routines and responsibilities. This isn’t necessarily a problem. A treatment you don’t (or can’t) follow won’t help you, so the odds are better if you pick one you can. In addition, not…
Just as lightning can strike the same target more than once in a given storm, hip fractures can and do happen again to the same person. Yet, more often than not, people who fracture a hip do not get follow-up treatment that could prevent another fracture. Studies have shown that after a hip fracture is…
IMAGE: The new versus current models showing how liver cells respond to RNA viruses. view more Credit: Daisuke Yamane, D.V.M., Ph.D., Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Medical Science Chapel Hill, NC – Liver cells have an innate resistance to RNA viral infections like hepatitis A, dengue and Zika thanks to a protein called IRF1, according to researchers…