Tag Archives: World Health Organization

Rapamycin: The “fountain of youth” from Easter Island?

October 27, 2022

Howard Fischer Uppsala, Sweden   Moais at the Rano Raraku volcano quarry. Photo by Rivi, 2006, on Wikimedia. CC BY-SA 3.0. “We know more about the movement of the celestial bodies than about the soil underfoot.” – Leonardo DaVinci   In November 1964, the Canadian naval vessel HMCS Cape Scott left Halifax, Nova Scotia, to […]

Medical tourism

October 8, 2021

Kozlova Liudmyla Mykolaiv, Ukraine   Doctor with stethoscope and globe in his hand. Photo by Jernej Furman. Via Flickr. CC BY 2.0. Medical tourism is a highly profitable industry that offers a range of medical procedures, highly specialized medical services, and tourism opportunities. It combines travel for health and medical services with recreational tourism. While […]

A bad taste in the mouth: over fifty years of doubt about MSG

June 4, 2021

Mariel Tishma Chicago, Illinois, United States   A Chinese Food Storefront in New York, NY. Photo by Jkusachi. June 2019. Via Wikimedia. CC BY-SA 4.0. Monosodium glutamate’s bad reputation started with one letter to the New England Journal of Medicine. From there, the truth was confused by misinformation and prejudice. Dr. Robert Ho Man Kwok […]

Schizophrenia in Nikolai Gogol’s Diary of a Madman and Lu Xun’s A Madman’s Diary

October 22, 2020

Janet Ming Guo Atlanta, Georgia, United States   Photograph of Lu Xun on 8 October 1936, 11 days before his death, attending the Second Woodcarving Exhibition in Baxianqiao, Shanghai. Photograph taken by Sha Fei. Circa 8 October 1936. Public Domain. Wikimedia Commons. Lu Xun’s 狂人日記 (A Madman’s Diary; 1918)1 was inspired by Nikolai Gogol’s Записки […]

Drawing parallels in pandemic art

September 16, 2020

Mariella Scerri Mellieha, Malta Victor Grech Pembroke, Malta   Photo of the crowd at an undetermined 1918 Georgia Tech home football game. Photo by Thomas Carter, Public domain. Via Wikimedia. “Everybody knows that pestilences have a way of recurring in the world; yet somehow we find it hard to believe in ones that crash down […]

Heterozygous advantage: How one deadly disease prevents another

February 24, 2020

Neal Krishna Boston, Massachusetts, United States   An allegory of malaria. Process print after M. Sand. Wellcome Collection. CC BY 4.0. Of all the genetic disorders to which man is known to be a victim, there is no other that presents an assemblage of problems and challenges quite comparable to sickle cell anemia. Because of […]

Female Genital Mutilation: cultural practices, historical moments, and medical issues

October 4, 2019

Alexandros Argyriadis Agathi Argyriadi Limassol, Cyprus   Photo UNICEF / Olivier Asselin. Accessed via MONUSCO on Flickr. CC BY-SA 2.0 Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as any procedure that involves partial or total removal of the external female genitalia, or other injury to the female genital organs for […]

Yellow Fever: Harmful habit or new frontier in identity dysphoria?

May 8, 2019

Oyinade Osisanya Ijebu Ode, Ogun, Nigeria   A young woman with bleached skin. Album cover for “Yellow Fever” by Fela Kuti, 1976. Courtesy: Ghariokwu Lemi In 1976, when Fela Kuti, the late Afrobeat legend, released Yellow Fever, the hit masterpiece in which he passionately decried in his powerful, ringing voice, You dey bleach o, you […]

Falls and art: an evolving story

April 23, 2019

Glenn Arendts Murdoch, Australia   The Blind Leading the Blind, 1568, Pieter Bruegel, Museo di Capodimonte, Naples, via Wellcome Collection. CC BY-NC 4.0. Coming to rest inadvertently on the ground:1 the World Health Organization (WHO) definition of a fall sounds vaguely patronizing, bordering on disinterested. The human act of staying upright is a complex triumph […]

Two hearts beating: the history and benefits of “Kangaroo Care”

April 22, 2019

Nursan Cinar Hamide Zengin Sakarya, Turkey   Mother and her baby during kangaroo care  Two Hearts Beat at the Same Time Photograph: Hamide Zengin The rate of preterm birth is between 5 and 18% worldwide. Prematurity is the most important cause of neonatal mortality and morbidity, especially in developing countries. According to the World Health […]