Health

Drugs and the Valley

The two-decade conflict in Kashmir, the highest militarised region in the world, is responsible for a spiraling drug problem amongst its populace, psychiatrists maintain. In the Indian-administrated Kashmir, 80 per cent of the drug-using population comprises those who abuse prescription medicines, doctors say. Easy availability of medicines across the counter […]

In Defense of Antidepressants

  IN terms of perception, these are hard times for antidepressants. A number of articles have suggested that the drugs are no more effective than placebos. Last month brought an especially high-profile debunking. In an essay in The New York Review of Books, Marcia Angell, former editor in chief of […]

The Matara Therapeutic Boarding School

A program that offers the warmth and wisdom of Jewish tradition together with the cutting edge of psychological and educational technology at the particular location on this planet that connects all Jews throughout all generations. When a teenager is struggling with emotional or behavioral issues like defiance, depression, or drug […]

The Good Short Life

I HAVE wonderful friends. In this last year, one took me to Istanbul. One gave me a box of hand-crafted chocolates. Fifteen of them held two rousing, pre-posthumous wakes for me. Several wrote large checks. Two sent me a boxed set of all the Bach sacred cantatas. And one, from […]

Why we get tired by noon

Why do we get tired by noon? (Thinkstock photos/Getty Images) There is something about the post lunch hour, when a sense of boredom creeps in and time weighs so heavy that you can almost hear the clock tick. As the sun shines brightest upon the day, we feel an urge […]

Fecal transplant can cure superbug, doctors say

More than 90 per cent of C. difficile patients are cured by fecal transplants, studies suggest A controversial new treatment, which involves the transplantation of human waste, can treat cases of C. difficile infection. But only a handful of physicians in Canada undertake the messy procedure. Clostridium difficile is a superbug that […]

Probiotics Boost Brain Health

LUBBOCK, Texas—New research conducted at the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center reveals neurochemicals delivered directly to the gut via probiotic intestinal microbiota benefit brain health as well as digestive health. The research paper, published in the journal BioEssays, proposes a new field of microbial endocrinology where microbiology meets neuroscience. […]

Non-invasive embryo gene screen

Fertility doctors say they have found a non-invasive way to screen IVF embryos for genetic abnormalities. The current method involves taking cells from the embryo itself, which experts fear may be harmful. Now UK researchers say it is possible to run the same checks on cells surrounding the fertilised egg […]