Bryan Adams says men need sex 27 times a month!
The link between prostate cancer and sexual activity. In ‘My doc says men need sex 27 times a month, but who gets that?’, the famous Canadian rocker—known for lyrics such as “I want to be your underwear”—alludes to the link between a man’s sexual health and prostate cancer. In 1853, J. Adams, a surgeon at […]
Can ants be trained to detect melanoma?
Insects may help in the non-invasive diagnosis of cancers. A few years ago, there was a report about using dogs to sniff out skin cancer. A few patients had reported that their pet pooch had been obsessively sniffing or staring at lumps that turned out to be basal cell cancers or melanomas. The reason cancers […]
Coffee and Skin Cancer
COFFEE: WHAT’S SKIN CANCER GOT TO DO WITH OUR FAVOURITE DRINK? Your coffee habit may determine your skin cancer risk. I have often been quoted as saying, “One cannot have bad skin and good health.” Skin merely reflects what lies beneath. What we eat and drink impacts how our skin looks and feels, but what […]
Happy Pills and Superbugs
Do anti-depressants contribute to superinfections? If one was to consider the marketing billboard of medications, the impact on medical history can be felt in different ways. Some pills literally become pop stars of pills, with global name recognition and hordes of groupies. Towering and life-saving older legends like penicillin originated from a humble mould that […]
Why We March
From chimps to champs, the savage power of synchronicity Science often beats to the tune of evolutionary history. Humans share a common ancestor with apes such as chimpanzees and bonobos. Evolutionary biology always finds a way to finagle itself into modern biological processes, including thinking. This isn’t fantasy but fidelity—cellular experiences that becomes more than […]
The Dermatology of Chocolates
Getting under the skin of Whittaker’s, Lindt, and confectionary A few years ago, I developed the concept of “biodynamic excisional skin tension lines” (BEST lines) essentially to understand skin tension, and to figure out the best way to excise skin cancer and obtain the best results. These BEST lines are now considered the “first major […]
Why do rockstars have long hair?
The answer may give you goosebumps. Brian May (Queen), Robert Plant (Led Zeppelin), Joe Elloitt (Def Leppard) are rockstars famous for their long locks. Contemporary country musicians like Keith Urban sport extended manes, and departed legends of music, Michael Jackson and Kurt Cobain, also had hair down to their shoulders. How many bald men that […]
An orange a day may make your doctor go away.
As a skin cancer expert, and someone with an interest in evolutionary biology, I am often asked to operate on animals or treat skin diseases on amazing creatures. The picture to the left shows me examining a lemur (it had a tumour on its tail). Lemurs—precursors of modern primates—can produce their own vitamin C. In […]
How effective are the medicines we take?
Understanding drug responses is key for both doctors and patients I have often been quoted as saying, “One cannot have bad skin and good health.” Skin merely reflects what lies beneath. I was born in England, and my parents went to India to work in medical mission hospitals, and I studied medicine (and later surgery) […]
Why buying a Swiss Chalet might be a bad idea!
Looking back in time brings back mixed feelings: Should we have bought that house? Sold the piano nobody played? What about the lives of our great-great grandparents devoid of modern luxuries? We can treasure moments in time, balance the baggage of our past against our dreams for the future, but we cannot escape time itself. […]