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Veterans are leading the way in healing – again

Columns

By any honest measure, veterans have long been unintended pioneers in the advancement of medicine. The unique realities of war and military service have forced innovation that later benefits civilians for generations. Modern triage systems emerged from battlefields where medical personnel had to decide, in seconds, who could be saved. Medevac transportation by helicopter increased survival rates in conflicts like Vietnam and later became a staple of civilian emergency medicine. Advances in trauma surgery, prosthetics, rehabilitation medicine and even treatments for post-traumatic ...

Good fences, better boundaries

Columns

Dear Annie: I have a neighbor whom I used to enjoy very much. We would chat at the mailbox, exchange holiday cookies and occasionally sit on each other’s porch for a friendly visit. She was the kind of neighbor everyone hopes to have close by. Lately, though, things have changed. She now drops by without calling, often at the worst possible times. More than once, I have opened the door in my exercise clothes, with dinner half-cooked and papers spread all over the kitchen table, only to find her smiling and ready to settle in for a long visit. If I say I am busy, she laughs it off and ...

Dear Annie: Being needed isn’t the same as being seen

Columns

Dear Annie: I am wondering if I am the only one who feels this way, though I suspect I am not. From the outside, my life looks full. I have family, friends, responsibilities and a calendar that rarely seems empty. Yet somehow, I often feel lonely right in the middle of it all. I spend so much time taking care of other people, showing up, remembering birthdays, checking in and being the dependable one, but very rarely does anyone ask how I am really doing. If I disappeared for a week, I honestly wonder who would notice beyond needing something from me. It is a strange kind of sadness ...

Explaining birdshot chorioretinopathy and its treatments

Columns

DEAR DR. ROACH: My niece was diagnosed with birdshot chorioretinopathy. Can you please explain what this is, which treatments are involved, and what the typical prognoses are? — P.Z. ANSWER: Birdshot chorioretinopathy is an inflammatory condition of the choroid and retina (the very back of the eye). The average age of diagnosis is 53. This disease is an autoimmune disease that is strongly associated with genetics. Nearly everyone with this disease has the same human lymphocyte antigen group (HLA-A29), even though only 7% of people have this antigen present in their T cells (one of ...

Artemis II reminds us to hold our heads high, look to the stars

Our View

There are few things that we can be as proud of as Americans as winning the space race and putting the first men on the moon. At our best, we have a fixation on the horizon — a burning need to explore, to see what lies beyond. It’s an urge that is deeply ingrained in our culture — we are the product of explorers, from sea to shining sea. Of course, the exploitation that followed that exploration every step of the way is something that tends to trouble modern sensibilities. But that doesn’t change the cultural impact of that initial tug: that errant thought, “what’s over ...

Yes, boldly go

Columns

So much for journalistic objectivity. The BBC science editor covering the launch of Artemis II couldn’t contain her enthusiasm when the first plumes of smoke spread out from the launch pad. “Oh, my goodness! Oh, my goodness!” she exclaimed, clapping like a schoolgirl. As the rocket lifted off, she got visibly emotional: “It’s not just what you see and you hear as the rocket lifts off. You can feel the force of it through your body. This is the most powerful rocket that NASA has ever built!” Rebecca Morelle can be forgiven for falling in love with the subject of her ...