The Anticancer Revolution

Cancer is the second-leading cause of death in the United States. 33 percent of women and 50 percent of men can expect to develop cancer. Although most cancer strike when we’re older, some are affecting people at younger ages. The medical establishment responds to this uptick of cancers in the young by calling for earlier …

The Looming Brain Health Crisis

Thanks to advances in medicine and better living standards, our life expectancy has been rising over the last two centuries. But the increase in lifespan may not be additional years of high-quality health. As we age, our body deteriorates, causing many age-related conditions such as hearing loss, blindness, arthritis, respiratory problems, and cancer. The greater …

How Type 2 Diabetes Became an Epidemic

Diabetes has been around for thousands of years. The ancient Egyptian medical text, Ebers Papyrus, first described the condition of “passing too much urine” around 1550 BC. In 250 BC, the Greek physician Apollonius of Memphis called the condition diabetes, which meant excessive urination. For centuries, the classic diagnostic test for diabetes was to taste …

Time and Space

The continuous rotation of the earth establishes a 24-hour predictable oscillation of our environment. All life on earth — animals, plants, bacteria, and fungi — follow this daily rhythm. This daily rhythm affects our body’s systems because 10–15 percent of our genes vary their activity by day and night to optimize the body’s use of …

The Anthropocene

Scientists divide the history of our planet into epochs. The current epoch is the Holocene which began 11,700 years ago after the last glacial period. Some scientists call the last 70,000 years the Anthropocene epoch: the epoch of humanity. For during these millennia Homo sapiens became the single most important agent of change in the …

The Tree of Knowledge

Although Sapiens had populated East Africa since 150,000 years ago, it was only 70,000 years ago that they started driving the other human species to extinction. From 70,000 years ago to 30,000 years ago, Sapiens invented boats, oil lamps, bows, arrows, and needles (for sewing). The Stadel lion-man is an art dated from this era, …

Nice to Meet You Neanderthal

When archeologists discovered Neanderthal fossils in the mid-19th century, they believed the Neanderthals were our human ancestors who lived in Eurasia during 250,000 to 40,000 years ago. They believed the Neanderthals were a species without language or significant intelligence. But recent discoveries have challenged that notion. Genetic analysis shows the Neanderthals were a distinct evolutionary …

The Hunt for the Aging Off-Button

For decades, researchers have known several regions around the globe where people live much longer than expected. They have circled these areas in blue marker. These “blue zones” now include Okinawa (Japan), Sardinia (Italy), Ikaria (Greece), Nicoya (Costa Rica), and Loma Linda (United States). People in these communities live 10 years longer than people in …

The War Between Plants and Animals

Every living thing strives to survive and passes on its genes to future generations. Some plants. such as fruit trees, enclose their seeds in a hard coating so they can survive a trip through the predator’s digestive systems, or large enough not to be swallowed, and simply left behind. These plants rely on animals to …

Understanding Memory Loss: From Mild Cognitive Impairment to Dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease

The first sign of memory loss is the gradual drop in mental sharpness in a state called subjective cognitive impairment (SCI) when you forget important information regularly. You lose your keys, forget about meetings and deadlines at work, and forget names. When you have trouble finding your way around familiar environments, you have reached the …