What if a simple test could detect cancer in its earliest stages—and reveal exactly which treatment would have the best chance of curing you? Welcome to the age of personalized medicine.

“...Francis and other allergy-anxious parents see signs that, one day soon, more kids will join the ranks of Noah: able to eat, play, and walk through the school cafeteria without the cloud of their disease hanging over them. The research in recent years has exploded. Never in the history of the field has so much progress been made toward understanding the causes of food allergies, and developing treatments.”

 

“...The real question is, How often do you want to have sex? And just as important: How often does he want to? "The optimal frequency is whatever agreement a couple comes to," says John Gagnon, Ph.D., professor emeritus of sociology at Stony Brook University in New York.”

“The problem is, many of the natural products on the shelf are long on lore and short on science...Many of these products have not been tested in children. Others have been tested but failed to show effectiveness, or failed to do so consistently. Sometimes there is evidence that a natural remedy may work in adults, but pediatricians caution against simply lowering the dosage for a child.”

Chronic inflammation—a slow, silent disturbance that never shuts off. You can't feel it. You can't be tested for it. Yet it has become a medical hot topic: More and more research shows that chronic inflammation is involved in heavy-hitting illnesses.

...Human beings now stay awake long past the time our genes are programmed to power down. "Bright light beyond sunset is a very unnatural thing," says Steven Lockley, PhD, a neuroscientist at Brigham and Women's Hospital. Lockley and other experts—from psychologists to cell biologists—worry that our electrified night lives are contributing to many major afflictions.

“...The NuvaRing case is being closely watched by physicians and the pharm industry. If the litigants persuade a jury that Merck undersold the device's risk for blood clots — a big if, to be sure — it could have far-reaching consequences for several contraceptives on the market...”

“No one can say exactly why, in an era of plentiful information and less stigma about using birth control, young American women keep getting pregnant when they say they don’t want to. Public health experts find it difficult to discuss the issue without appearing to condemn single moms and unmarried couples —

many of whom, of course, go on to live happy, fulfilling lives, married or not. “It’s confusing to talk about it,” says Shanti Kulkarni, Ph.D., assistant professor in the department of social work at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. “It’s easier to coalesce around this idea that it’s not good for teenagers to get pregnant. It’s not as clear what pregnancy means for the life of a woman in her 20s.”

“Americans' sodium intake rose 55 percent between the early 1970s and 2000 and shows no sign of falling. The vast majority of that sodium -- close to 80 percent -- is hidden inside processed and restaurant foods. You don't notice it, you may not even taste it, but it can undermine your health...”

“Experts estimate that hundreds of thousands of embryos have accumulated in fertility clinics throughout the country, some awaiting transfer but many literally frozen in time as parents ask themselves questions few among us ever consider with such immediacy: When does life begin? What does "life" mean, anyway? Couples have held on to embryos for five years or more, waiting on an epiphany that never comes. Nadya Suleman, the now-famous mother of octuplets, told NBC News that she had all eight of her embryos implanted because she couldn't bear to dispose of any of them...”

“It's 10:30 on a Friday night, and Amanda*, a magazine editor in New York City, is the last one in the office. Again. Not that she's complaining. Fact is, the 30-year-old has ridden successive waves of promotions in her brief career, largely because she possesses a blend of talent, smarts, and stamina that's hard to come by. But she has something else in her get-ahead arsenal: a secret stash of little blue-and-white pills...”

 

 

“...If there's a nutrient it's easy to overdose on, it's folic acid. The vitamin is all around us, slipped into the cereal we eat for breakfast, the bread we eat for lunch, the energy bars we snack on, and the supplements that over one-third of us take regularly. Women are supposed to get 400 mcg a day, the amount that protects fetuses. Some cereals, though, contain more or have a serving size that makes it easy to pour a double dose.”