The Human Genome Project has been the catalyst for thousands of research studies and exciting discoveries. One study in 2011 found a gene variant in a small group of French Canadians that researchers called a “fountain of youth” gene. This gene is called PCSK9Q152 — the superscript describes it as a variant of the gene PCSK9. In 2011,...
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Peggy Zuckerman has been trying to help others diagnosed with cancer but it’s not easy. “One of the hardest things is when patients get information that is old or might be incorrect. Things look far more grim than they need to be. It is important to get people to the right place quickly before they essentially despair.” When people...
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Last month, I mentioned in the Medivizor newsletter that I had lost a family member. This loved one feared seeking medical attention for a serious condition because of the risk of catching COVID-19 at a hospital or doctor’s office. Now, a dear friend’s parents received notification that they were exposed to the SARS-2 coronavirus by a...
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Katie McCurdy has myasthenia gravis, a rare autoimmune condition that she acquired when she was 13. This conditions affects the muscles of the body, but especially those that control eyes and eyelids, facial expression, swallowing and sometimes breathing. It’s been an ordeal for her, from diagnosis to now when she goes to the doctor and tries to...
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The homey aroma of fresh baked bread, the mouth-watering fragrance of chocolate chip cookies just out of the oven, the loamy scent of autumnal leaves raked into high piles: cells in our noses snatch chemicals in the air which fire neurons in a part of the brain called the olfactory bulb. From the bulb information zips to other areas of the brain. The...
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