Tag: Spring 2019
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Revisiting the history of kuru
Tanzila SaiyedChernivtsi, Ukraine An eleven year old girl named Kigea had gradually become unsteady on her feet. She had pain in her arms, joints, and legs, and would cry and scream. She had fits of uncontrollable laughter and shaking. She belonged to the tribe of Fore (pronounced as FOR-AY) of the village called Waisa in…
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Understanding and combatting ageism in healthcare
Dane WanniarachigeDublin, Ireland As I waited for the tram on a windy day in Dublin, I noticed an older man wearing a flat cap shuffling unhurriedly towards the busy platform with a noticeable parkinsonian gait. The tram slowed to a halt and as soon as the doors opened, a gust of wind blew the gentleman’s…
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John Calvin: his rule in Geneva and his many illnesses
At the age of twenty-three the great French religious reformer abandoned his Catholic faith, becoming in time the founder of one of the most important branches of Protestantism. During his life he wrote numerous tracts on various aspects of religion, notably emphasizing predestination and the supremacy of the Trinity, and advocating a simpler and more…
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Lorenzo Costa: A painting for services rendered?
Giovanni Battista Fiera was born in Mantua in 1465. He studied at the University of Pavia, from where he graduated in 1485 with a degree in medicine, but extended his interests to poetry, philosophy, and theology. Moving to Rome after graduation, he published there in 1490 one of the first books on dietetics, La Coena…
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Medical doctors in the army of India
Dhastagir SheriffChennai, Tamil Nadu, India “The patriot’s blood is the seed of Freedom’s tree.”– Thomas Campbell India, like many other countries, has doctors serving in the army as well as tertiary care hospitals that provide medical services to the armed forces personnel. It also trains students to become physicians and surgeons to serve as commissioned…
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Pharmaceutical marketing in America
Adil MenonAli MchaourabCleveland, Ohio, United States Within the past few decades, there has been a great change in how the pharmaceutical industry markets its products in the United States. Prices of medical drugs have skyrocketed as regulations have been eased by lawmakers. Granting more control to pharmaceutical companies has allowed the industry to bypass healthcare…
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Can the neuroaesthetics response unleash a path to psychosis?
C. Ann ConnCovington, Louisiana, United States How does the brain perceive beauty and what is the biology of transcendent artistic appreciation? Is this epiphanic reaction hijacked during delusional thinking and psychosis? Perhaps the emerging field of neuroaesthetics can offer clues. After I witnessed the transformation and fall of my two sons, Austin and Colin, into…
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How we love
Linda ClarkeGuelph, Ontario, Canada The communities of health care and medicine are richly storied. For almost three decades, I have invited people in those communities to tell me their stories and they have been generous in their telling. A story told can be image-laden and many of those images become part of my own story.…
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Quinine and the cinchona plant: Gain or bane for Africa?
Lom NingBamenda, Republic of Cameroon “The gin and tonic has saved more Englishmen’s lives and minds than all doctors in the Empire.”1 This statement by Winston Churchill referred to the bitter-tasting substance in tonic water, quinine. This antimalarial alkaloid did save lives, but also propelled the economy and prestige of the British Empire as it…
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Fat by choice: A quest for meaning
Amer ToutonjiCharleston, South Carolina, USA An early bird, Brian wakes up no later than 5:30 am to get on with the first meal of the day: twelve eggs and ten sausages, or their equivalent. Most recently weighing in at 530 pounds, Bryan, or Bull, as he likes to be called, is constantly outgrowing his clothes…