The Last Word On Nothing

Infant mortality in the Arctic has always been a bit of a mystery. Yes, the usual suspects are present — high smoking rates, overcrowding — but the same is true of many communities in the south where far fewer babies die. Nunavut’s infant mortality rate, for example, is four times that of the rest of Canada.

In recent years, a missing factor has emerged in Inuit genetics across the circumpolar world from Siberia and Alaska to Greenland. If a baby is born with two copies of the CPT1A Arctic Variant, his body cannot turn fat into energy when his blood sugar is low. The Arctic variant enzyme carnitine palmitoyltransferase (CPT) — the protein that does the fat-transforming work — only functions about 10% as well. Continue reading →

This week started with a guest post from Jenny Cutraro who on election day took her father and two young daughters to Walden Pond where Thoreau still offers lessons of civil disobedience.

I chimed in on the election by finding similarities between the catastrophic end of the Ice Age and Donald Trump’s electoral victory.

In a respite from election mania, Christie tells the story of how she as a vegetarian suddenly became a ravenous gobbler of buffalo meat.

Cassandra put a cringe in the day with her recounting of the bizarre agony of calcified pebbles forming in your salivary glands.

On her path to becoming a better human being, Rose created a new personality chart where you’ll find yourself in the nuances between optimism and pessimism. She answers the question of where journalists fall on the chart, but leaves us all wondering how Disney villains must score.

 

Image credits:  Eddie on Flickr.

This post originally ran on June 11, 2014. But the tale of one woman’s battle against the dreaded sialolith is so horrifying you’ll no doubt want to read it again.

María Juan’s pain began eight years ago, at lunchtime. She was dining with her parents when suddenly she felt a sharp jab under her tongue. “Like an aguja,” she says — a needle. Each time she tried to swallow, she felt another poke. After the meal ended, the pain subsided. At dinner, however, it returned. And now the right side of her neck was a swollen. A couple of days later, María decided to see a doctor.

The doctor stuck one finger in her mouth and placed another finger on her neck, probing. He could feel something in her salivary gland. Something hard and strange. Something that wasn’t supposed to be there. He tried to pinch it out with his fingers, but it wouldn’t budge. There was nothing to do but wait. María left with some pills to make her salivate, and orders to drink lemon juice — a surefire way to produce spit. Amazingly, the regimen worked. The pain disappeared.  Continue reading →