Soul Searching

Thomas Jefferson was the nation’s third president, our first ambassador to France, an inventor and master gardener. He may also have been America’s first wine connoisseur — something historians are learning more about as they renovate Jefferson’s wine cellar.

It’s been hot in central Virginia this summer, but historians at Monticello have kept cool in the [...]

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By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL
KASTELI, Greece — Dr. Michalis Stagourakis has seen a transformation of his pediatric practice here over the past three years. The usual sniffles and stomachaches of childhood are now interspersed with far more serious conditions: diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol. A changing diet, he says, has produced an epidemic of obesity and [...]

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By ANAHAD O’CONNOR
THE FACTS
By now the cardiovascular benefits of a daily glass of wine are well known. But many teetotalers wonder whether they can reap the same rewards from wine’s unfermented sibling, or are they simply left out altogether.
Grape juice may not provide much buzz, but you can still toast to good health when it [...]

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By DENISE GRADY
Three weeks of radiation treatment work just as well as the usual course of five weeks or more for women with early-stage breast cancers, Canadian researchers have reported, after monitoring a large group of patients for 12 years.

The results, presented Monday at a conference in Boston, provide some of the strongest evidence yet [...]

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Being a vegetarian may actually be bad for your brain, according to a study published in the Sept. 9 issue of Neurology, The Sun reported.
The study said those on a meat-free diet are six times more likely to suffer brain shrinkage as the most vitamin B12 is found in meats, liver, fish and milk.

According to [...]

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Drinking coffee may increase heart attack risk in people whose gene make them slow caffeine metabolizers, showed a study in Costa Rica to be published in Wednesday’s Journal of American Medical Association.

Among slow-metabolizers, drinking two or more cups of coffee daily could increase the risk of a nonfatal heart attack by at least 36 percent, [...]

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Studies Show Children of Alcoholics Suffer Lifelong Effects but Can Bounce Back
By SUSAN DONALDSON JAMES
“What is your emergency?” asked the 911 operator. The little boy replied, “My mom is making me blow air into her interlock.”
The Albuquerque, N.M., youngster was asked to help his mother break the law and blow into her ignition interlock device [...]

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Dieters Who Keep Track of What They Eat Lose Weight Twice as Fast
By KENDALL KRAUSE, M.D.
Dieters may be able to take solace in the fact that one of the most powerful weight-loss tools available may be as close as a pen and paper.

In a recent study by the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research, participants [...]

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By BENEDICT CAREY
Scientists have for the first time recorded individual brain cells in the act of summoning a spontaneous memory, revealing not only where a remembered experience is registered but also, in part, how the brain is able to recreate it.

The recordings, taken from the brains of epilepsy patients being prepared for surgery, demonstrate that [...]

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A genetic link controlling both appetite and fertility has been found by US researchers.
A gene, TORC1, appears to act as a “master switch”, switching off food intake and allowing pregnancy.

The gene probably offered an evolutionary advantage, by stopping women getting pregnant in times when food was scarce, the researchers said.
Mice lacking the gene were unable [...]

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