I was in Hamburg and Vienna recently, delivering the main keynote address at the German Dermatological Surgical Society’s annual meeting, followed by an AI (artificial intelligence) in dermatology conference. The European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology had twenty two thousand doctors attending! It was humbling to see my scientific contributions to skin tension lines acknowledged […]
I say this to reassure many patients who ask me about bringing their children for skin cancer checks. In general, we lose our beauty, or develop cancers, after our reproductive peak. Evolution is all about survival of the species. This is why cancer is extremely rare in the very young. Life is an endurance […]
The taking of various supplements—derived from plant or animal—is as old as mankind itself. The ancient Greeks had cures for everything. Earwax, taken from the sufferer of the ailment—but for more efficacy, some texts suggested that the earwax must be extracted from the ear of a freshly executed person! —and applied to treat human bites, […]
In measuring environmental impacts on health, we sometimes can confuse morality and science. About ten years ago, Jessica Wolpaw Reyes, an Associate Professor in the Department of Economics, Amherst College, MA, wrote an article about the effects of lead exposure on population health. Higher amounts of lead in the water supply unfolded a series of […]
Cats have been pets or living around humans for around 10,000 to 12,000 years ago. This first began in the fertile crescent, a moon-shaped grouping of countries that include the Levant, Mesopotamia, and Ancient Egypt. In modern geography, this includes countries like Lebanon, Turkey, Israel and Iraq. As nomadic humans left Africa, their turning to […]
Photo by Sam Kimber on Unsplash No city is perhaps prouder of its taxis than London—alright, New York’s yellow cabs may disagree—with its black automobiles for hire. Still officially called The Hackney Carriage, these were horse-drawn since the 17th century and became petrol-powered in 1903. Never mind that in the spirit of globalisation, it is […]
Five centuries before Christ, Greece was in its elements. Athens, emboldened after defeating the Persians, was particularly prosperous. With economic comfort, art and literature flourished. But so did philosophy. It was the era of Greek thinkers whose ideas shaped Western civilizations. Patients who have been to my consulting room often comment on my degree certificates—apart […]
Do anti-depressants contribute to superinfections? If one was to consider the marketing billboard of medications, the impact on medical history can be felt in different ways. Some pills literally become pop stars of pills, with global name recognition and hordes of groupies. Towering and life-saving older legends like penicillin originated from a humble mould that […]
From chimps to champs, the savage power of synchronicity Science often beats to the tune of evolutionary history. Humans share a common ancestor with apes such as chimpanzees and bonobos. Evolutionary biology always finds a way to finagle itself into modern biological processes, including thinking. This isn’t fantasy but fidelity—cellular experiences that becomes more than […]
The answer may give you goosebumps. Brian May (Queen), Robert Plant (Led Zeppelin), Joe Elloitt (Def Leppard) are rockstars famous for their long locks. Contemporary country musicians like Keith Urban sport extended manes, and departed legends of music, Michael Jackson and Kurt Cobain, also had hair down to their shoulders. How many bald men that […]