Is Intermezzo the Right Kind of Sleep Music?

It's not every day the FDA approves a new drug -- especially a new sleeping pill. Intermezzo is a term that refers to a separate piece that plays in between acts -- especially for a musical performance like opera. And...

The One-Two Punch

"Beer and valium, that's how I sleep. Works every time -- the perfect night's sleep." So said an actor friend of mine, who often had trouble "coming down" after a play and used this cocktail three or four times a week.

Yet often alcohol plus sleeping pills...

Welcome to the human ecosystem.

You're an ecosystem -- a complicated one. Your cell phone is just one component of it -- and an inescapable part of your biology.

Fortunately, it's one you can help control.

A recent U.K. survey from 12 separate districts found bacteria...

Health and Terror

How do you recognize an agricultural inspector who saves California from an infestation of citrus canker?

Give him a job sorting travelers' dirty laundry.

Welcome to the wacky, dysfunctional world of the "war on terrorism" -- American division -- post 9/11 -- where inaction...

Chronic fatigue syndrome wrecks people's lives. It does so physicially, socially and economically. Appearing "normal" yet not being able to think or work causes enormous hardship compounded by many doctors who think the illness does not really exist -- a position health and disability insurance companies are more...

Quick decisions. Sometimes you have to think fast and well. You have no choice but to make the right choice, now. You need to become both relaxed and concentrated -- fast.

Many jobs require acute decision making, whether it's air traffic control, piloting a plane, performing surgery, even calming an...

The human body possesses fantastic regenerative power. We replace most of ourselves inside three to four weeks, updating and upgrading as we go, refashioning information into new bodies, bone and brain.

But that is not why Americans go to their doctors. When people feel ill or even fearful of...

Volatility. The times are out of joint, with nearly certain uncertainty stalking people's thoughts. People tell me of sleeplessness unprecedented since 9/11, of aimless worry keeping up those who have slept well throughout their lives.

Is their concern hurricanes, floods, global climate change? The nation's three wars, or its...

Death Is Not The End

Have you heard this TV ad? Considering a malpractice suit beyond the grave? It's a contrast with the drug advertisments whose promises of vanquished suffering end with fast talking announcers spitting out potential "side effects" including death, followed by the ever present legal catch: "Ask...

Nearly 22 minutes of lost life for every hour of TV watched -- that's the measurement being quoted from a widely-reported Australian study of TV. Based on 11,000 adults, the study estimates that Australian males, averaging two hours of TV watching a day, will see their lifespan decrease...

Depression is one version of hell on earth, and Americans have a lot of it. A recent international study of 18 countries found America near the top, with 19.2 percent of the population having experienced depression -- only France, at 21 percent, ranked higher. With our tottering health...

Lots of us are scared of dementia -- really scared. You spend your life doing "all the right things" -- you floss twice a day, run five miles daily till your knees give out, eat kale and force yourself to meditate, and you still see a future where your kids...

The saying "so many ways to die" is true -- and they're available on the internet in the form of legal drugs. One of these drugs, Phenazepam, is usually made in Russia and is available legally, without prescription, throughout much of the world. This drug is not on the list...

Are Relaxation Drinks Cause for Anxiety?
When drugs are marketed as foods, people can get hurt. That's what the FDA concluded about Lazy Cakes, a melatonin-laced brownie sold as "adults only" but marketed to kids and teens. Michael Roosevelt of the FDA sent a warning letter...

The Snore Patrol Lies Outside Your Door

Snoring is not normal. Markedly interrupting sleep, it's associated with increased heart attack and stroke risk. Prolonged snoring eventually leads to sleep apnea -- "stopped breathing" episodes that can put the individual's life at risk.

And snoring is often loud. It...

Getting the Edge
What's the difference between the best athletes in the world and the next best? Fame, glory, fortune -- and inches, millimeters and milliseconds. With so many superb athletes so closely matched, anything providing an edge changes also-rans to champions.

Which is why we have endless doping...

Why Do We Have Relaxation Drinks?

Americans are pretty wired up these days, and getting enough sleep is tough. Close to 40% complain of insomnia making them too tired to fully function, perhaps 5-10% of the population is presently suffering significant depression, and many millions...

Whatever Happened to Pedestrian Rights?

According to the New York Times, European cities are becoming inimical to drivers and amicable to pedestrians, as they attempt to control pollution, decrease heat trapping emissions and improve public health.

The United States remains intensely car friendly --...

Lazy Cakes, a brownie filled with now 7.8 mg of melatonin, unknown amounts of valerian root and other "herbal" drugs, was recently banned by the Arkansas Department of Health. It also facing a ban in Fall River and New Bedford, Massachusetts. When I wrote...

Moving Less at Work

It's front-page news -- the missing link to explain why we're so fat. In a recent New York Times article, Tara Parker-Pope reports on a new study led by Timothy Church that "a sizable portion of the national weight gain can...