Big Brains, Big Yawns: Is Yawning Just an Expression of Love?
We all know that we yawn when we feel “tired” and it is said that yawning is contagious. But why do we yawn at all? This was a question that imperiled Andrew Gallup and colleagues who studied 109 creatures across 19 species and concluded that the bigger the brain, the bigger your yawn. Yawn duration is related to both brain size and the number of cortical neurons. In my book, The Genetics of Health, I wrote about the inverse relationship between brain size and gut size i.e. t
The Winston Syndrome: A Clinical Study of a Disease Afflicting New Zealand Political Elections
Politics: The Winston Syndrome and NZ Elections
UPDATE on Dr Sharad Paul’s RxEVOLUTION natural sunscreen:
Research is progressing nicely, although because we are in New Zealand and the regulatory bodies and our research labs are in America, it has taken longer than usual and we expect to launch in early 2018. Meanwhile, The Times of London ran a big piece on sunscreens and it can be read here:
Coffee or me?...
The other day there was a report in the news that said that coffee was very good for you. Equally, other reports suggest that coffee can increase the risk of heart disease. So what is the truth? We know that coffee is the most widely used drug in the world. The main active ingredient in coffee is caffeine. Caffeine is a plant alkaloid that occurs naturally in coffee, tea, guarana, and cola nuts. It's considered the most widely used drug in the world. The good news is that caf
Mapping Moles and Melanomas: Do Melanomas Mostly Arise in Moles?
Mapping Moles and Melanomas: Do Melanomas Mostly Arise in Moles? Moles are not full stops
Nor commas
They may lie
But sometimes they tell the truth
Naevus interruptus ~ From the poem “Moles” (“De Natura Melanoma”: poems by Sharad P. Paul, Middle Island Press 2015) Everywhere we look there is an advertisement for a clinic that wants to “map’ your moles – the theory being that if we took photos of our moles and then compared these photos every few months we would pick moles
An Inconvenient Truth about Skin Cancer (over)Treatments.
Dermatologist
He’s earning his living
Skinning me ~ From the poem “Melanihaiku 1” (“De Natura Melanoma”: poems by Sharad P. Paul, Middle Island Press 2015) Increasingly we see Mohs Surgery being advertised. What is it? Mohs surgery is named after Frederic Mohs, a general surgeon who developed the technique in 1938. The technique involves shaving away layers of cancerous cells and testing until there is no cancer left. The testing is done during the procedure itself (rather
