Month: May 2014

Stoicism has gotten a bad rap. People think of the Stoics as emotionless beings — as grim, wooden individuals whose goal in life was to stand mutely and take whatever life could throw at them. As we saw in my previous post, though, this perception is quite mistaken. When we read about the Stoics or read their works, what we encounter are individuals who can best be described as cheerful. They were very good at finding life's sources of delight and savoring them to the fullest. They had friends and spouses. They were loved and in turn requited the love

By Ryan Vlastelica NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. stocks rose on Monday, with a rally in high-growth names among Internet and biotech shares giving the Nasdaq a gain of almost 1 percent. Equities have been pressured recently, with the S&P 500 coming off its first two-week decline since January as investors have become concerned about the economy's growth prospects. "The listlessness in the market shows the struggle investors are having right now: Valuations are full but not stretched, and there's a lack of decisive evidence that the economy will kick into higher growth and justify these valuations," said Mark Luschini, chief investment strategist at Janney Montgomery Scott in Philadelphia.

By Bridgett Novak NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Highly-trained dogs are able to detect prostate cancer in urine with 98 percent accuracy, according to a study presented May 18 at the annual meeting of the American Urological Association in Orlando. “This study gives us a standardized method of diagnosis that is reproducible, low cost and non-invasive,” said lead author Dr. Gianluigi Taverna, chief of the prostatic diseases unit at the Humanitas Research Hospital in Milan, Italy. “Using dogs to recognize prostate cancer might help reduce the number of unnecessary biopsies and better pinpoint patients at high risk for the disease,” he told Reuters Health in an email. Researchers in Italy enrolled 902 participants and divided them into two main groups: 362 men with prostate cancer, ranging from very-low risk tumors to metastatic disease, and a control group made up of 540 men and women in generally good health or affected by other types of cancer or non-tumor related diseases.

Osteosarcoma is a very malignant process. It spreads fast and can have severe consequences. While the management of osteosarcoma is improving, this cancer — if not caught in time — often requires radical intervention to save the child's life.

A recent New York Times headline about sustainability asked this question: "What Does Tomorrow Owe Today?" The article continued in a more provocative devil's advocate tone to ask "What have future generations done for us?" It's an age-old ethical question: Do we take care of the Earth for future inhabitants because it's the right thing to do? It's also an economical debate: Do we spend the hard-earned dollars in our own pocket trying to make Earth "better" — whatever that means — for future generations? And if we do, is this a worthwhile investment? And like I always do, I

By Genevra Pittman NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Giving people with asthma and low vitamin D levels extra doses of the vitamin doesn’t do much to help their lungs, a new study suggests. Previous research had linked low vitamin D levels to more asthma-related problems, like weaker lungs and more asthma exacerbations. But it wasn’t clear if vitamin deficiencies were causing those problems, or if giving patients extra vitamin D was the answer. Lead author Dr. Mario Castro from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri, said as many as two-thirds of his asthma patients are lacking in vitamin D. “Our thought was that vitamin D would potentially make .

Creative taps never permanently dry up; they just get rusty from disuse. The secret to opening the flow is simply to do something.

By Genevra Pittman NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – A Massachusetts program that put full-time registered nurses in schools more than paid for itself by averting medical costs and lost work for parents and teachers, according to a new study. Many school districts have cut or reduced the hours of school nurses in recent years, and nationwide less than half of public schools have a full-time nurse, the authors of the report note. To assess the Massachusetts program, the researchers compared money spent putting full-time nurses in schools with money the program saved by reducing doctors’ visits and keeping parents at work and teachers in front of the classroom. For the 22 types of procedures school nurses performed during the study, from testing blood sugar to administering physical therapy, the researchers calculated how much it would cost to go to a clinic or hospital for the same care.