Science is Cool: Hair Loss Cure Could be on the Horizon

This is pretty cool news. I don't suffer from hair loss, and at the age of 47 I may be out of the woods. But, as a man, I surely have pondered it, worried about it, wondered about it. I know that I have both a flat spot on the crown of my head and a red birthmark on my scalp. that can't be pretty if all the hair goes away.

Still, if it all fell out, I guess I'd just deal with it. Most likely, I'd pull a Ron Howard, and just become a baseball cap aficionado. Other guys have gone a number of different routes to hide the problem, and there is quite an industry out there to help them. I've got to wonder if this story freaks out The Hair Club for Men, for instance.

[Excerpt]

Researchers Report Progress With Growing Hair

 

There's new hope for anyone who's bald or balding: Researchers report they're getting closer to the goal of cloning hair cells and coaxing them to grow hair once they're replanted in the scalp. "We've been able to overcome the first block," said study co-author Angela Christiano, a professor of dermatology and genetics & development at the Center for Human Genetics at Columbia University's College of Physicians & Surgeons in New York City. . .

Read more at: Everyday Health

Michigan Bill Would Allow Refusal of Medical Treatment for Religious Reasons

Image from source, Addicting Info

I know that atheists, agnostics and other non-religious people get a bad rap for knocking religion, and sometimes making a spectacle of themselves. This is because it is so rare that they do it. Religious people have a hard time conceiving of a life without religion. So much so, that they will insist that atheism is itself a religion, despite it's very definition meaning "without religion." Many, if not most religious people see much of life through a religious lens. They think that people can't be moral without God (or at least, their idea of God). They think that among every religion that exists or has existed, theirs is the correct one. And though they'll find other religions to be false and frankly kind of weird, they see no weirdness in their own wacky religion (and they're all wacky from outside them, sports fans).

But you know what, that's cool. As an atheist, I really don't care if you believe in talking snakes, a somehow populated Land of Nod, that all of the animals on earth arrived in pairs in the Middle East in time for the great flood, or that a virgin got pregnant by a disembodied deity. But you can't make the rules for others who don't share (or even do share) your faith. You can't write laws based on your beliefs, when those laws affect the general public. If you are a doctor or a pharmacist or other healthcare provider, you don't get to withhold treatment to people based on your faith. If you're treating a patient, it's not about you!

This should be clear, but suddenly there is a mass confusion around "religious freedom" in this country. Suddenly a pharmacy is a church? An insurance company is a church? You've got florists, bakers, photographers and inns refusing to serve gay couples, because it violates their faith. . .what? How? Do they interview all of their customers to make sure their lives match up with the business owner's beliefs? It's bonkers. I've actually seen the argument made by The National Organization for Marriage (NOM)--an arm of the Catholic Church--that same-sex marriage violates religious freedom! Whose? How? You don't get the freedom to not be offended. If your religion bans pork, you don't get to outlaw it for others. It's long past time for religious people--particularly the very loud, very bitchy version--to stop pretending that they're persecuted in this country. And to stop trying to make us live by their rules.

[Excerpt]

Religious Beliefs Would Kill Patients’ Rights In New Michigan Bill

In December, the Republican dominated Michigan Senate slammed through a bill that would have allowed medical professionals to deny care to patients for religious reasons. The bill wound up going nowhere in the House and died after the legislative session ended. But now, a similar bill is once again making it’s way to the Senate floor for a vote. . .

Read more at: Addicting Info

Why Can't I Blow My Nose?

Image from Anatomy-
Resources.com

A little while ago, I posted a piece on my life-long ability to sneeze with nearly 100% frequency when going out into the sun. It's called a photic sneeze, and the post attracted quite a few readers and reader comments.  This got me to thinking.  I mean, I was able to find out about the photic sneeze on Wikipedia. But I have another seemingly from birth abnormality, and I can't seem to find out anything about it. Maybe a reader might know about this.

I can't blow my nose. Well, not like a normal person, anyway. If I'm in a steamy shower, I can blow my nose fairly normally. But if I'm not in the shower, anything beyond the gentlest outward pressure "pops" my ears. When I was a child, this would cause much consternation from my mother, who just thought I didn't like to or didn't know how to blow my nose. She'd be rootin' around in my nose with a Q-Tip, trying to unclog my unblown nose. Then she'd hold a tissue to my face, and tell me to blow. . .BLOW! She'd get angry. One time, to please her, I blew, really hard. . .and blew out my eardrums. Literally. Blood and everything.


Luckily, I healed up, and my hearing seems to be unaffected as an adult. But I still can't blow my nose. And a modified version of mom's Q-Tip procedure is necessary (that, or a good honkin' in the shower). On top of this indignity, I'm rather klutzy, something I've always guessed had something to do with my messed up ears, and sense of balance. Also, in times of changing pressure (such as on an airplane), the pressure can at times become almost unbearable. And the negative affect on my hearing while flying seems to be more pronounced and longer-lasting than it does for other people.


So, let's add this up. I am a photic sneezer. I can't blow my nose. I was born with a lazy eye, so despite corrective surgery, I don't have normal stereoscopic vision (can't see 3D movies or stills). And, oh yeah, I'm gay. That's a boatload of atypical inborn traits, wouldn't you say? It's a good thing I've got a friend doing some ancestry research on my family. I'm beginning to suspect that Mom and Dad were related!

Octuplets?

Image from ParentsOvernight

I have this image of a lawn sprinkler, squirting out babies. Eight babies in under 10 minutes? That's like a magic trick. Or like the eggs from that lady's mouth in Airplane! I'm glad they're all OK, but there's something a little freaky about this. . .

[Excerpt]

Birth of octuplets rattles fertility experts

Even as the birth of octuplets at Kaiser Permanente Bellflower Medical Center drew attention and applause from around the country, questions arose Tuesday about whether the mother's doctors did enough to prevent such a risky pregnancy.

The chances that the eight babies born Monday were conceived naturally are infinitesimal, infertility specialists and doctors in maternal-fetal medicine say. Today's reproductive experts have the tools and the know-how to avoid such high-risk pregnancies -- and often try desperately to do so. . .

Read more at: Los Angeles Times