Spring is near. In New York City, yellow, white, and purple crocuses have raised their cup-shaped flowers above the ground for all to see. In California, western buttercups, ground pink, and bush lupine have begun to bloom. Humans, too, are awakening to the glory of a new Spring.For most species, Winter

We're all familiar with the highway driving experience of being behind a person who is continually braking for no apparent reason. This is especially problematic if you're in the left-hand lane. You're zipping along at the posted speed limit and suddenly the brake lights of the car in front go on. You

In the language of statistics, health is a continuous variable. A person's health can be expressed as an infinity of values ranging from abundant well-being to terminal states approaching death. If health were a discrete quantity you could assign a number to it. You could say that someone had 95% health

Whether we rent or own our home, all of us pay some form of monthly living expenses. Even if we have paid down a mortgage and own our home outright, we still pay monthly utility bills in order to keep our homes functional and livable. We also pay property taxes as part of our participation in various

In "Out of the Past", one of the greatest film noir ever made, Robert Mitchum's past inevitably catches up with him and dire consequences ensue for all involved. Are we, in terms of health and disease, also in danger of having our past - that is, our genetic inheritance - track us down and interfere

Not too long ago, the Eighth Joint National Committee (originally commissioned by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute) released a new set of evidence-based guidelines for evaluation and treatment of hypertension (high blood pressure). The guidelines committee, comprised of 17 academics, spent

Being an informed patient is an empowering concept.1 In the modern healthcare marketplace, the doctor-patient relationship has become a two-way street. It's no longer a situation in which the doctor tells the patient what to do. Today, patients can be full partners in managing their care and well-being.2