Browsing: Health/Medicine

A Brief History On November 5, 2017, with President Donald J. Trump under fire from seemingly all sides (sometimes including us!), we take this opportunity to congratulate him on setting a fine example to the youth of America by neither smoking nor drinking alcohol.  Nor does he use illegal drugs.  Our previous President, Barack Obama, was criticized for being a smoker, a terrible example for impressionable youngsters that could conceivably chose to smoke with the excuse that, “Hey, the President does!” Digging Deeper Yes, Barack Hussein Obama smoked, although he tried to keep it out of public view and promised…

A Brief History On October 15, 2017, people all across the world celebrate Global Handwashing Day, a day to encourage sanitary hand washing behavior in an effort to cut respiratory (notably pneumonia) and diarrheal diseases.  Getting people to wash their hands as prescribed can save an estimate half million lives of children per year, and of course, reducing the amount of people with diarrhea by 30+% is darn near worth the effort alone! Digging Deeper Global Handwashing Day was started in 2008 by a consortium of producers of soap products and medical associations.  The Public Private Partnership for Handwashing initiated…

A Brief History On October 1, 1985, the United States began celebrating National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, founded by The American Cancer Society and Imperial Chemical Industries (later to become AstraZeneca).  In honor of this extremely important focus on one of the worst killers of women, today we will list 10 women famous for their breasts, with a definite nod to the other, more important qualities these women possess.  Previously on October 1st we ran an article called A Timeline of Breasts, listing many incidents in history where a woman’s breasts took center stage. Digging Deeper 1. Jayne Mansfield, actress. The…

A Brief History On September 11, 2012, the ascending aorta in the author’s chest exploded, a burst aneurism followed by a massive aorta dissection, spelling almost certain death. Incredibly, the surgeons, surgical nurses and assistants at the Cleveland Clinic performed emergency open heart and aorta surgery and saved my life, a fantastic feat with nearly no chance of success.  It is unlikely any other hospital on Earth could have provided the treatment to save my life that day, with the finest cardiac and vascular surgeons and surgical teams operating at the same time! Digging Deeper The Cleveland Clinic is perhaps…

A Brief History On July 13, 100 BC, the world welcomed baby Gaius Julius Caesar into the world, the man the month of July is named after that would become dictator of Rome (but not Emperor; that came after him).  Contrary to popular belief, Julius was not delivered by Caesarian Section.  Legend has it that it was one of Julius’s ancestors that has that distinction, with the family name “Caesar” stemming from the Latin meaning for C-Section.  Here we list 10 instances of medical conditions or procedures named after someone. Digging Deeper 1. Caesarian Section, unknown Caesar. The procedure by which…