Alzheimer’s disease (AD), also called Alzheimer disease, Senile Dementia of the Alzheimer Type (SDAT) or simply Alzheimer’s, is the most common form of dementia and is currently estimated to afflict more than 5 million Americans. Dementia is defined as a marked degeneration of cognitive ability and memory loss that has persisted for over six months and was not present since birth, that interferes with normal activities of daily living (and is not associated with a loss or alteration of consciousness). AD is an incurable, degenerative and terminal disease that first manifests itself as simple “forgetfulness,” gradually progressing to extensive neurological impairment and ultimately, death. It is most common amongst people over 65 years old, though early-onset Alzheimer’s can occur much earlier.
Thanks in part to medical advances that have resulted in a longer average life expectancy for older Americans, the number of people with AD is expected to skyrocket by as early as 2011, when the first Baby Boomers reach 65. Because of the degenerative nature of the disease, the management of a person with AD is extremely expensive and demanding on caregivers. Thus, in an attempt to stave off an AD Judgment Day, it is estimated that researchers around the world are currently in the process of developing and testing some 90 different pharmaceutical drugs aimed at either curing or curtailing the disease. In the meantime, many doctors are also focusing their efforts on discovering better treatments and effective prevention strategies.
Currently, there is no magic bullet for preventing Alzheimer’s disease, and many studies on the subject have yielded inconsistent results. However, researchers have identified a few factors that may contribute to the development of the disease, such as diet, sleep, stress and poor cardiovascular health. Studies have demonstrated that hypercholesterolemia, hypertension, diabetes and smoking are associated with a higher risk of developing AD. However, cholesterol-lowering drugs, such as statins, have not proven effective in either preventing or slowing down the progress of the disease. Some researchers have found a tenuous link between eating a largely Mediterranean diet, which is largely composed of foods rich in olive oil, fish, fruits and grains, with a lower risk of developing AD. Interestingly, a few small (but well-publicized) studies have also found a correlation between modest consumption of red wine and a reduced risk of AD and cardiovascular disease (which unsurprisingly led to a steep increase in red wine sales following the publication of these results).
Studies have demonstrated that people who frequently engage in intellectual activities, such reading, puzzles, playing board games, playing instruments or even regular socializing, show both delayed onset of Alzheimer’s as well as a reduced severity in the manifestation of the disease. Fascinatingly, people who are bilingual are also statistically less likely to develop Alzheimer’s. Despite some of the promising results of past research studies, physicians are still frustratingly far away from understanding the complex mechanisms of this crippling disease. Until then, you might as well have that second glass of Cabernet…
As today’s entry in The Intellectual Devotional: Modern Culture Edition points out, the style of music known as “funk” came to life on February 1, 1965, when James Brown and his band entered Arthur Smith Studios and recorded “Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag.”
The song is famous for its beats, not its lyrics. Nonetheless, they’re worth a look:
He’s doing the Jerk….
He’s doing the Fly
Don’t play him cheap ’cause you know he ain’t shy
He’s doing the Monkey, the Mashed Potatoes, Jump back Jack, See you later
alligator.
The “He” is “Papa,” and Brown has him on the dance floor making every move of the day. Later on, “He’s doing the twist … just like this.” You’ve heard of “the twist.” But the “Jerk,” the “Monkey,” the “Mashed Potato“?
Below, an introduction to a few novelty dances of the early 60′s:
The Mashed Potato
In 1962, Dee Dee Sharp released “Mashed Potato Time,” commemorating a dance craze. Brown sang about it in 1959 with his hit “(Do the) Mashed Potatoes.” How did it look? A lot like The Twist, the craze everybody still remembers from Chubby Checker’s 1960 hit of the same name.
The Monkey
The heyday of The Monkey was 1963, when Major Lance released “Monkey Time” and The Miracles put out “Mickey’s Monkey.” We haven’t seen it performed, but the Wikipedia description sounds like a series of boxing steps: crouching position, closed fists, jerky moves from one hand to the other.
(By the time thrash medal rockers Exodus name-checked The Monkey in their 1989 song “The Toxic Waltz,” it had lost wasn’t quite as popular: “Used to do The Monkey / But now it’s not cool.”)
The Jerk
As 1963 gave way to 1964, The Monkey gave way to The Jerk, made famous by a song of the same name by Don Julian and the Larks. How does it go? Like The Monkey, but the boxer is replaced by a band leader. Strange decade.
Why don’t we know any of these dances from 1962, 63 and 64 today? Because, in 1965, James Brown blew them all straight out of the water. See below:
Diverticulitis manages to be as gross as it sounds scary
The popular hospital drama, House, always begins the same way: a seemingly healthy individual is suddenly stricken with a mysterious and life-threatening ailment, and it is up to crotchety Dr. House and his crackpot team of infection disease residents to diagnose the patient “before it is too late.” Before Dr. House inevitably renders the correct diagnosis (despite the inevitable skepticism of his residents), his team engages in a predictable brain storming diagnostic session, which inevitably involves one of the residents suggesting that the patient suffers from the exotic sounding disease diverticulitis. Of course, diverticulitis is never the correct diagnosis, due in no small part to the fact that the disease is so common (roughly 50 percent of people older than 60 have diverticulosis) and completely unsexy to boot (digestive diseases of the colon never make for good hospital drama).
Diverticulitis develops from diverticulosis, or the formation of pouches (diverticula) on the outside of the colon. Diverticulitis results when one or more of these diverticula become inflamed or infected. This inflammation or infection can cause hard craters of food to get trapped inside the colon, resulting in severe abdominal pain. If left untreated, this condition may cause a perforation in the wall of the intestine, creating serious complications for the patient. Mild diverticulitis usually only requires a person to take antibiotics, rest and subsist on a liquid diet until the colon is healed. However, if the disease is more severe, than a person may require surgery to repair the colon and remove the food craters stuck in the colon. In sum, diverticulitis is as gross as its name sounds scary.
Diverticulitis is most commonly diagnosed in people over the age of 50, but doctors recently began diagnosing the condition in younger patients, most of whom were obese. To investigate this link further, a University of Maryland study found that obese men were 78 percent more likely to develop diverticulitis, and 219 percent more likely to develop diverticular bleeding. Moreover, researchers discovered that a large waistline increased the chances of a man developing diverticulitis or diverticular bleeding by 56 and 96 percent, respectively. In response to these findings, physicians and radiologists have now added diverticulitis to the short list of diseases that may cause acute abdominal pain in young, obese patients who visit the Emergency Room for acute abdominal pain.
The beloved film classic The Wizard of Oz has been steeped in urban legend and lore ever since its 1939 release. One of the most persistent rumors in circulation about Oz holds that the Pink Floyd album, Dark Side of the Moon, was written as a soundtrack to the movie. This juxtaposition is referred to as The Dark Side of the Rainbow, or the Dark Side of Oz. Many observers who have played the film and the album simultaneously claim that there are too many syncronicities between the two for the phenomenon to be a mere coincidence. True believers cite the scene when Dorothy begins to jog when the band sings, “no one told you when to run.” They also believe that the rainbow prism on the Dark Side album cover is a clue from Pink Floyd about the album’s link with the film.
This rumor gained widespread traction in August 1995, when a newspaper in Fort Wayne, Indiana published an article about the uncanny syncronicity between Pink Floyd’s bestselling album and the film. Soon thereafter, a number of websites sprouted on the internet, created by diehard fans who had devoted themselves to comprehensively cataloging the phenomenon. This rumor hit its apex in July 2000, when the Turner Classic Movie channel aired a version of Oz with the Dark Side album as an alternative soundtrack.
Pink Floyd has consistently denied the connection between the film and the album, and reportedly find the entire dustup “amusing.” However, the rumor has continued to thrive despite the band’s protestations, and a Dark Side of the Rainbow viewing has almost become a right of passage for curious college kids looking for a creative way to procrastinate on their school work.
The title of Lorraine Hansberry’s 1959 play, A Raisin in the Sun, was inspired by Langston’s Hughes’ famous poem, “A Dream Deferred,” which uses the image of a raisin in the sun to explore what happens to people when their hopes and dreams are thwarted.
What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore–
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over–
like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?
The plot of Raisin is loosely based on her own family’s legal battle against racially segregated housing laws in the Southside if Chicago during her childhood. The huge success of the 1959 production of the play is credited with changing the public perception of African-American theater. Raisin was the first play produced on Broadway that was written by an African-American woman, as well as the first play with a black director (Lloyd Richards) on Broadway.
At the end of opening night, neither Hansberry nor Richards expected that Raisin would have a successful run; it had already received mostly lukewarm reviews by a screening audience the night before. Moreover, until Raisin, it was thought that blacks simply weren’t interested in theater and that there was no “crossover” white audience interested in watching a play starring an African-American cast. However, Raisin shocked everyone and became an overnight commercial and critical hit, scoring Hansberry the award for Best Play of the Year from the New York Drama Critics, the first black playwright and only the fifth woman to claim this honor.
The moment is was published in 1922, T. S. Eliot’s 433-line poem “The Waste Land” was greeted as a masterpiece, a perfect distillation of “the horror, the horror” that mankind had just witnessed in The Great War. But where did this poem come from? Eliot was well-known enough at the time (he’d already published “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” in 1917) but this was still more than anybody expected. How did he write it? What role did the editor play? These sorts of questions are always asked about great works of literature, but seldom are they answered. Eliot’s poem is an exception.
Those “annotations” were the part everybody wanted to see. Pound, the elder poet, was an early admirer booster of Eliot, as he was of James Joyce, Robert Frost, William Carlos Williams, Classical Chinese Poetry, Japanese “Noh” Drama, (and, well, Mussolini). Before publishing “The Waste Land,” however, Pound took his pencil to it, crossing out entire lines and stanzas.
In February 2009, the yogurt producer Dannon announced that it would stop using milk from cows that had been injected with Recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone, also known as r-BGH. This decision was made in an effort to maintain its competitive edge against rival brand Yoplait, which had made the same pledge earlier in the month, and also in response to vigorous lobbying from anti r-BGH activists. Moreover, the company felt strong pressure to halt the use of r-BGH milk after more than 200 hospitals across the country announced that they would only serve r-BGH-free products to their patients, staff and visitors. The r-BGH-free initiative has gained traction in recent years, spurred by animal rights and health care activists concerned with the health risks posed to injected cows and the people consuming their milk.
Bovine somatotropin (abbreviated bST and BST) is a genetically engineered replica of a naturally occurring hormone produced by the pituitary gland in cows. In the early 1990s, Monsanto Company (a multinational agricultural biotechnology corporation), discovered how to successfully synthesize this hormone in bulk by utilizing recombinant DNA technology (it was marketed to dairy famers under the name “POSILAC” beginning in 1994). The use of r-BGH on dairy cows was approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 1993, and has been widely used by dairy farmers since 1994 (it increases milk production in cows by as much as 10-15%).
Proponents of the anti-r-BGH movement cite statistics that strongly demonstrate that cows injected with the hormone suffer increased lameness, udder infections, digestive disorders, foot and leg ailments, persistent sores, lacerations and serious reproductive problems. It has even been likened to “crack” for cows, as it kicks their systems into overdrive, weakening their immune system and leaving them vulnerable to infection. However, with respect to r-BGH’s risk to human health, studies have been largely inconclusive, and the findings contradictory. While the FDA concedes that r-BGH poses a host of health risks to injected cows, it has consistently maintained that human health is unaffected by the hormone. They claim that despite the fears to the contrary, studies have convincingly demonstrated that r-BGH is biologically inactive when consumed by humans. Interestingly, despite the FDA’s stated position, the hormone has been banned in Canada, the European Union, Australia and Japan, based on its potential risk of harm in humans.
