Hilary makes an emotional connection...

In addition to her performance in the NH democratic primary debate, Hilary's tearful moment on ABC displayed an emotional side. When it comes to health care policy, Hilary's main position seems to be that she is the most experienced candidate to set agenda for reform and to implement it starting from day one.

"Culture Can Change our Genes" --- What about Politics?

In an answer to what empirical evidence changed his mind, Nicholas Christakis at Harvard Medical School, wrote a penetrating essay arguing that human genes may be much more influenced by culture that most social scientists would admit. However, there is almost no systematic attempt in the social sciences to think about the question of how the human body (its physical makeup, health status and ultimately genetic expression) is shaped by the everyday political processes. If most culture and social interaction involves politics of power, to what extent could politics also govern human physical well-being, the makeup of our bodies, the physical survival of entire communities, and consequently human evolution in the long-run? You can read Christakis's essay here; its entitled, controversially, Culture Can Change our Genes. More than anything else, it poses some fascinating questions that could guide research in decades to come:

There may be genetic variants that favor survival in cities, that favor saving for retirement, that favor consumption of alcohol, or that favor a preference for complicated social networks. There may be genetic variants (based on altruistic genes that are a part of our hominid heritage) that favor living in a democratic society, others that favor living among computers, still others that favor certain kinds of visual perception (maybe we are all more myopic as a result of Medieval lens grinders). Modern cultural forms may favor some traits over others. Maybe even the more complex world we live in nowadays really is making us smarter.

Why John Edwards May Win on Health Issues

If you listen to speeches of top finishers in Iowa, both Democrat and GOP, there is little doubt that John Edwards was the only candidate to make universal health care coverage the central message of his presidential campaign. While most point to Obama and Huckabee as inspiring speech-givers, John Edwards' speech was clearly equally, if not more, inspired and passionate one on the night of the Caucuses.

Bush White House against expansion of Medicaid

In a yet another turn that continues its strategy of opposing the expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program, the White House took measures to prevents states from expanding their Medicaid coverage to higher-income brackets. While most of the Democratic presidential candidates agree that universal health coverage in the US is attainable and necessary, the GOP and (more importantly for currently uninsured and those who cannot afford medical bills), the White House still thinks the federal government must stall and prevent any moves towards such as system. The New York Time's Robert Pear reports on the story in U.S. Curtailing Bids to Expand Medicaid Rolls:
The Bush administration is imposing restrictions on the ability of states to expand eligibility for Medicaid, in an effort to prevent them from offering coverage to families of modest incomes who, the administration argues, may have access to private health insurance.

An amazing story behind this year's Nobel Prize

Behind this year's Nobel Prize in Medicine is a remarkable story of Mario R. Capecchi, who was born in Italy, survived the fascist regime to immigrate to the US, studied political science before moving to MIT and Harvard, and worked with the man who discovered the double helical structure of the DNA, James Watson. For academics, perhaps the most interesting part of Capecchi's story is that he left his faculty position at Harvard for the University of Utah, reportedly because of disagreements and infighting at Harvard and the atmosphere in Utah that allowed for more long-term projects instead of demanding immediate results. The article about Capecchi and the other two Nobel Prize winners in Medicine for 2007 is available from The New York Times. Here is an excerpt:

When young Mario was not yet 4, the Gestapo came to their home in Tyrol, in the Italian Alps, to take his mother to the Dachau concentration camp — an event he said he remembered vividly.

Because she knew her time of freedom was limited, she had sold all her possessions and given the proceeds to an Italian farming family, with whom Mario lived for about a year. When the money ran out, the family sent him on his way. He said he wandered south, moving from town to town as his cover was exposed. He wandered, usually alone, but sometimes in small gangs, begging and stealing, sleeping in the streets, occasionally in an orphanage.

Aging Gay in the USA

While it is not surprizing that older gay and lesbian Americans face prejudice and discrimination, it is only recently that the issue has been brought nation-wide attention as a number of social justice organizations have tried to educate the public and fight discrimination. An article in The New York Times by Jane Gross reports on the issue:

Elderly gay people like Ms. Donadello, living in nursing homes or assisted-living centers or receiving home care, increasingly report that they have been disrespected, shunned or mistreated in ways that range from hurtful to deadly, even leading some to commit suicide.

Some have seen their partners and friends insulted or isolated. Others live in fear of the day when they are dependent on strangers for the most personal care. That dread alone can be damaging, physically and emotionally, say geriatric doctors, psychiatrists and social workers.

The Health and Happiness of Nations

David Blanchflower and Andrew Oswald, two researchers at NBER, found that happiness of nations, regardless of the number of physicians or a particular choice of survey used, is associated with lower levels of hypertension. The study adds yet another interesting, yet surely to be controversial, argument for continuing to expand the field of behavioral economics to better understand economic and consequently political individual behavior. Their article is available on the NBER site, and here is the abstract:

A modern statistical literature argues that countries such as Denmark are particularly happy while nations like East Germany are not. Are such claims credible? The paper explores this by building on two ideas. The first is that psychological well-being and high blood-pressure are thought by clinicians to be inversely correlated. The second is that blood-pressure problems can be reported more objectively than mental well-being. Using data on 16 countries, the paper finds that happier nations report lower levels of hypertension. The paper's results are consistent with, and seem to offer a step towards the validation of, cross-national estimates of well-being.