Author: Lance Garrison

We know from history that it is crucial to warn of the potential for genocide before it occurs, rather than belatedly condemn it after it has taken place. I think we still have that time.

By Delamo Bekele, MBBS, as told to Alexandra BenisekWith psoriatic arthritis, each person’s symptoms and situation are unique. Your rheumatologist will work with you to find a treatment plan that’s tailored to you specifically, rather than a “one-size-fits-all” approach.Before starting treatment for psoriatic arthritis, doctors do a full evaluation of each patient. We look to see if they have joint involvement, spine involvement, nail or skin disease, and more. Once that’s done, we come up with a medication regimen as well as nondrug ways to target your specific symptoms.Usually, we start with nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) or other anti-inflammatory medications.…

This week’s electoral victories for abortion rights offer lessons ahead of next November.

When you have multiple sclerosis (MS), your immune system works against you. Left unchecked, immune cells attack the protective layer that surrounds your nerve fibers. Doctors used to think your immune T cells were the main culprit in this. Immune B cells, which make antibodies, were considered innocent bystanders.That changed as scientists started to realize that the existing MS treatments worked in part by changing what B cells were doing. Would it be possible to treat MS by targeting B cells directly?Doctors already had a way to do it: an antibody-based treatment called rituximab (Rituxan), used to fight a type…

The child of the director and his wife, Eleanor, Ms. Coppola more or less jumped out of the womb and onto the screen, appearing as an infant in the baptism scene at the end of “The Godfather.” She more famously played the role of Mary Corleone in “The Godfather Part III” in 1990, and her acting career essentially ended after that. But by then she was well positioned to occupy the rarefied worlds of alternative film, fashion and music, insulated from snarky criticism and the crassness of commercial demands.I don’t see the presence of these rarefied worlds — either in…

Your retina is the lining that covers the inner wall of the back of your eye. The cells in your retina are sensitive to light. They send signals to your brain so you can see. When you have an inherited retinal dystrophy (IRD), a mutation in your genes changes the way your retina is able to work.While these disorders are considered to be rare, there are many different kinds. “‘Retinal dystrophy’ is a big term that encompasses possibly hundreds of different types of conditions and subcategories of conditions,” says Mandeep Singh, MD, PhD, retinal specialist and co-director of the Wilmer…

The Republican Party has always leaned on culture war issues to win elections, but for the last three years, since Joe Biden won office in 2020, an aggressive and virulent form of culture war demagoguery has been at the center of Republican political strategy.If the results of Tuesday’s elections in Virginia, Kentucky and Ohio tell us anything, however, it’s that this post-Roe form of culture warring is an abject failure, an approach that repels and alienates voters far more than it appeals to or persuades them.To be fair to Republican strategists, there was a moment, in the fall of 2021,…

After Cherie Binns had breakthrough multiple sclerosis symptoms while being treated with an interferon drug, she weighed her options carefully. In the end, her neurologist prescribed rituximab. It’s a type of B-cell therapy, which gets its name because it targets the B cells that cause nerve damage when you have MS.Binns, a 69-year-old nurse who works with MS patients in Wakefield, RI, says she has far fewer side effects than she did with the interferon medication. After a year and half on rituximab, she noticed improvements in her left-sided weakness, thinking problems, fatigue, and hand tremors. All are minimal now. The…

Nov. 9, 2023 – Can green tea lower your risk of colorectal cancer? It depends on who – and what research – you believe. Evidence that links green tea and a lower risk of colorectal cancer goes both ways. Some researchers have found little or no significant risk from drinking the popular tea, while others point to a potential benefit. Now add two more studies – one that found no reduced risk and another that seems to strengthen the link between green tea and a lower risk of colon cancer. Randomized controlled trials – where some people get randomly assigned to drink…

Will they win?If the question is whether Israel will be able to defeat Hamas, the answer is almost certainly yes: Israeli military planners have been war-gaming an invasion of Gaza for decades and, despite the intelligence blunders of Oct. 7, have tools and tactics that can flush Hamas’s fighters out of their maze of tunnels. Nor is the Israeli public likely to be swayed by civilian casualties into supporting any kind of cease-fire in the military campaign until Hamas is defeated and the hostages are returned. Israelis spent 18 years watching Hamas turn to its military advantage every Israeli concession…