Gun Violence in America

We <3 International Women’s Day

Everything You Need to Know About the Super Blue Blood Moon Around the Corner

The Unexpected Force Driving Medical Marijuana Legalization in the USA

The Pros and Cons of Marijuana as a Mother

Beat the PMS Version of the Winter Blues With These Tips + Tricks

Impress your Guests with these Delicious + Healthy Holiday Cocktails

Thanksliving Recipes Your Family Will Love

Coolest Pumpkin Recipes – Your New Fall Favorites 

Psychedelics + Mental Health 

Ecotherapy

Periods 1

Periods 2

Recipes

Gun Violence

International Women’s Day 

Mindfulness

Women’s March 

Marijuana

 Autism

Thanksgiving 

Smart Time Mangement

Social Media 

Talking about my menstrual period isn’t something I do often, but as someone who regularly does squats as part of her workout, am fully aware of the importance of quality feminine hygiene products.

And also, in an attempt to avoid going to hell in a proverbial handbasket, would like to be part of the movement for less waste, not more. And there enters the menstrual cup. It may be unconventional. It may take some mental gymnastics to wrap your head around. And it may seem, well, unusual, after a lifetime of cotton liners and tampons… but the cup is here to stay, and this is how my first two encounters with it went…

But maybe I should back up for a second . . . some of you may be asking yourselves, what the heck is a menstrual cup? 

Simply put – a menstrual cup is placed into the vagina during your period to collect menstrual fluid – and can be safely worn up to 12 hours.

A reusable (and thus, eco-friendly) alternative to tampons and pads. Oh, and also an economic alternative – again, due to the reusability (bye-bye spending $150 a year on feminine products!)

And now, onto my inaugural experience… enter the uber-popular DivaCup – a reusable menstrual cup made of health-grade silicone that is manufactured in Canada. It comes in 2 different sizes: Model 1 is for those under 30, who have not had kids; while Model 2 is for those over 30 slash those who have had kids. The difference between the two is pretty nominal, just about 1/8” – but DivaCup highly suggests going with their sizing recommendations to help prevent leakage (nobody wants that…). As a mama, I went with Model 2. And here’s where the adventure really begins. The night that I decided to give this method of blood collecting a try, I looked over the directions (again) for the umpteenth time, wanting to get this right.

The first step: insertion. The mantra? Bend. Fold. Twist.

It took a while to master the U-fold insertion tactic – the DivaCup kept unfolding on me, making me feel like I had two left thumbs. After a number of tries, I persevered, and was able to insert the cup to where I thought it should sit. That was bend and fold down. Now the twist: the trick after getting it in is to twist the cup, to create a suction seal (yay – no leakage). That part proved the most difficult of all – after some wrangling, I got it as good as I could, and hoped for the best. I went about my night, cooking, eating, cleaning, Netflix watching, sleeping.

When I woke up the next morning, I went to the bathroom – anxious to see if I’d succeeded in ‘doing’ the twist – and apparently, I had. No leakage. But here came the next big challenge – honestly the most difficult part of this process for me – removing the cup. I tried to recite the un-mantra: Untwist. Unfold. Unbend. It took a combination of gently pulling, while simultaneously twisting to un-suction the cup. Yay. But then, the descent. Gently pulling on the tulip stem, I succeeded in pulling the cup out, very conscious to keep the cup level, a spill would undo all my hard-fought work.

And then, the DivaCup was out, and I was face to face with my blood for the first time ever.

I stared at the cup, the cup seemed to be staring back. I had no idea what my menstrual blood looked like when not sopped up into some cotton product. I was fascinated. I was horrified. I was  a m a z e d .

And then this vampiric thought jumped into my mind: that looks like a shot glass of blood. Thankfully, I wasn’t bloodthirsty. I spilled the contents of the cup into the sink, and then washed the cup.

Once clean, I repeated the whole process. Bend. Fold. Twist. And so on. The second go had a modicum of experience going for it, but my fingers were still not nimble enough with the new action. It took a little bit to get situated. But I got there. And then off I was – into my day. Walking. Subway. Walking. Sitting. Working out. Eating. Sitting. Walking. Subway. Walking.

There was no changing my tampon at work (yay for 12 hours of cup usage!). Big plus. And there was no leaking (yay again).

But how did it feel, you want to know? Well… for the most part I didn’t feel it. Which is good.

Over the course of the next few days, there were times I was more adept at inserting the cup in the right way, and then there were times when I maybe was not quite as successful. Overall, I’d rate the comfort factor at 9.

I used the DivaCup for two periods – and while I am enamored of the concept, am not sure if I’m completely sold. My second period, I had bad cramps, and I wondered if the DivaCup could have anything to do with it. After several hours, I took a mega hit of ibuprofen, and then took out the DivaCup. Not sure if it was the medicine or what, but after 15 minutes, the cramps subsided. Not the most scientific of methods – but I was happy to feel better.

Here’s the thing – I really liked the DivaCup, and want to deepen our relationship. So I plan to use it again in a week. I think like anything, practice makes perfect. Bend. Fold. Twist. Again!

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by thirdAGE

Environmental impact has always been very important to me – I try to reduce mine as much as possible.

So, this month, I’ve decided to try DivaCup, a reusable menstrual cup that creates zero waste and can be used throughout your cycle. An added plus: you can wear it for much longer than other feminine hygiene products without worrying about toxic shock syndrome or frequent bathroom trips!

The environmental impact?

It’s estimated that women will use 250 to 300 pounds of products, applicators, and wrappers in a lifetime, which does not even include the total impact of producing, shipping, and packaging all those products. While it’s true menstrual cups come with the same production impact, but they can last for at least a year (some say up to 10 years!) which means your impact is substantially lowered.

What’s wrong with traditional feminine hygiene products? The chemicals!

Our human bodies have been developing for hundreds of thousands of years – way before modern medicine or products that try to hide the fact that we’re on our periods. As it turns out, there are very few regulations on what companies can put in their products.

Did you know that added fragrances are incredibly harmful to our reproductive area and yet are prominently used in conventional tampons and pads?

These products can also contain dioxin and chlorine as a result of bleaching, non-organic cotton, BPA – found in plastics and linked to cancer – and rayon, which increases the likelihood of toxic shock syndrome. (Note: you can read a personal account of TSS here.) So yeah, I was happy to make the switch.

Menstrual cups have been recommended to me by a couple friends who swear by them and say they’ve changed their lives – so I’ve decided to finally try it. But, they have also warned me that it might take a couple tries to get it right.

I talked to my OB/GYN, who also recommended it, as wearing tampons can actually make your period last longer by blocking your flow!

The first day of my period, I was running a little late in the morning. I read the directions a couple times to make sure I was inserting the DivaCup correctly, but wasn’t super confident before leaving my house for work. I regretted not practicing while I was walking in, since we have a shared bathroom and I don’t have the security of a private space. Of course, I imagined the worst. It ended up not being an issue at all, though. I did have to refresh the cup in the afternoon, but it was surprisingly easy and clean when done with care and patience.

I do have a slightly heavier than normal flow, which means I’m not one of the lucky ladies who can wear a menstrual cup for a full work day – at least for the first few days. But, even on my heaviest days, I needed to change it less than half the times than I did when I was using tampons or pads. By day 4 of my period, I could wear it the whole day without worrying.

I’ve since used the DivaCup for two additional cycles, and each is easier than the last. While it did take some time to adjust to it, I have every intention of continuing using my DivaCup.

Just think, I’ve already saved close to $30 on tampons, which will be $120/year. Plus, I don’t have to worry if I’ve brought enough tampons for a night out. And best of all, I prevented extra waste – I use about 25 tampons per cycle, meaning I saved 75 tampons in just 3 months!

Pro Tip: I would recommend using a panty liner or other protective barrier in the beginning, until you get accustomed to using a menstrual cup. There is a learning curve in the beginning and it never hurts to be safe!

Remember: Everyone’s bodies are unique! Just because this product worked well for me doesn’t mean it will be right for everyone. There are multiple shapes depending on age and if you’ve given birth. Also, if the DivaCup isn’t the right choice for you, there are a variety of alternatives.

Disclaimer: Neither thirdAGE nor the authors were paid for their endorsement of the product. This article contains their true first-hand accounts of their experiences using the DivaCup product.

FACT: Simply put: schizophrenics do not have multiple personalities. While the term schizophrenia literally means a “split mind” (coined by Dr. Eugen Bleuler, a Swiss psychiatrist), the condition does not really manifest itself in that way. More accurately – schizophrenia is a condition in which the mind becomes confused and disordered. False perceptions and ideas, hearing voices, along with a loss of reality are the hallmarks of schizophrenia. The word “schizophrenia” come from the Greek roots of “schizo” – split – and “phrene” – or mind – to describe fragmented thinking of those with the condition; not that those with schizophrenia have multiple personalities.

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MYTH 7: CONSUMPTION OF CANNABIS HELPS SCHIZOPHRENICS FEEL BETTER AND REDUCES SYMPTOMS

FACT: One of the main contributing factors to the onset of schizophrenia is substance abuse – and cannabis, in particular can trigger underlying schizophrenia that has not yet manifested. Here’s why: patients with schizophrenia have enhanced levels of endogenous cannabinoids in their blood and cerebrospinal fluid, along with an increased number of cannabinoid receptors in their brains. All this serves to significantly worsens the progression of the disease. But here’s something interesting, CBD, a non-psychoactive component of cannabis, has been found to potentially help symptoms. More research is needed – but some initial studies by the NIH do look promising.

 

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MYTH 8: PEOPLE WITH SCHIZOPHRENIA CAN’T RECOVER

FACT: Around 30% of people with schizophrenia will have a lasting recovery and around 20% will show significant improvement. But around 50% will have a long-term illness, which may involve further episodes of becoming unwell and times of being better.

 

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MYTH 9: IF ONE OF YOUR PARENTS HAVE SCHIZOPHRENIA, YOU ARE BOUND TO GET IT TOO

FACT: Yes. Genes matter. But they are only 10% of the story with respect to schizophrenia. According to schizophrenia.com, if one parent has the condition, the chance of getting schizophrenia is just 10%. There are many other factors that impact the development of schizophrenia, such as: trauma, drug abuse, physical or mental abuse, and other environmental factors.

 

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MYTH 10:  SCHIZOPHRENIA IS CAUSED BY BAD PARENTING

FACT: Ah. Thank goodness this theory has been debunked. In the 1950s, there were a number of psychologists that posited that schizophrenia (and also some other mental health disorders) were caused by bad parenting – specifically “bad mothering.” They coined the term “schizophrenogenic” – causing schizophrenia, and put unwarranted blame on mothers (and families) already struggling to handle the heavy responsibilities of managing a chronic illness. So, to be clear – schizophrenia is a mental illness, with a number of factors contributing to its development: genes, trauma, drug abuse, physical or mental abuse, and more. NOT bad parenting.

The hikers, nature lovers, and health enthusiasts have come from far and wide to experience a few of the many natural hot springs scattered across the American West. By soaking in the 120+ degree waters, they’ll tap into a centuries-old wellness tradition of thermal and mineral baths and experience a list of benefits that is nothing short of, well…magic. (New Mexico’s official slogan is The Land of Enchantment, after all.)

The Jemez hot springs are just one of many ways that people can try out balneology, the practice of healing illness with mineral water.

Balneology has roots in many indigenous cultures and can be traced 5,000 years through history to the Bronze Age, where it was used by the Greeks and Romans throughout Europe, Asia, and Northern Africa. In Germany and Japan, mineral bathing remains a popular choice for the health-conscious, with millions of people visiting thermal/mineral bath spas each year.

But is it just magic?

Ok, fine—not really. There’s a lot of science behind it as well. Soaking in hot water is known to help improve skin conditions, relieve muscle tension, clear the mind, and give the immune system a boost. Researchers are finding that this is likely the result of “passive heating” provided by the bath. Passive heating occurs when the heat source is outside of the body, as opposed to active heating, when the body is generating its own heat (like breaking a sweat at the gym). This allows the body to reap all of the benefits that increased temperature has to offer, without the exertion of having to work for it.

One study on passive heating found that a 30-minute hot bath burned the same number of calories as a 30-minute walk, and that the 30-minute bath was actually more effective at regulating blood sugar levels.

When you add minerals into the mix, the promise for health benefits grows even stronger. Natural salts, calcium, iron, sulfate, and magnesium are among the minerals that can be found throughout natural hot springs and man-made spa pools. Though their exact effects are still being studied, it is well known that these minerals can make skin silky smooth. Some dermatologists believe that this also leads to healthier skin in the long term, as the minerals regulate the bacterial colonies that live on our skin surfaces and trigger acne, eczema, dryness, and other conditions.

The heat and mineral combination might even help our bodies absorb some of the minerals that we otherwise wouldn’t be able to, explaining a large body of non-clinical evidence that suggests mineral baths help to relieve muscle fatigue and speed recovery.

The great part about thermal and mineral baths is that—while spas and remote hot springs are pretty tempting—it’s pretty easy to recreate them in the comfort of your own home if you have a bath tub. Beauty brands like Pursoma offer mineral bath kits to get you started. Or, you can get creative with your own mix of minerals, maybe even adding in a few essential oils for an aromatherapy boost.

Of course, you’ll want to check with your doctor first to make sure you won’t be putting yourself at risk. And please, if you see a hot spring while you’re out hiking, don’t just assume that it’s safe to take a dip. Some hot springs, like those in the Norris Geyser Basin in Yellowstone, National Park, can reach a scalding 459 degrees Fahrenheit…proving that while getting hot feels great, there is definitely such a thing as too hot.

An estimated six million American children have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)—and about 60% of those cases will carry on into adulthood. But have you heard about Nature Deficit Disorder? It has the potential to affect as many if not more children than ADHD, and worse, a larger number of adults…could you have it?

Coined by author and nature lover Richard Louv in 2005, Nature Deficit Disorder is not really a medical condition. It’s more of an all-encompassing term used to describe the phenomenon of modern lifestyles leading people farther and farther from nature—and suffering the consequences.

One of the main causes of Nature Deficit Disorder is excessive technology use.

In other words, we’re spending far too much time lost in our phones, scrolling on our computers, and swiping away at our tablets. Today’s children, dubbed “iGen,” spend an average of six and a half hours per day in front of a screen…that’s up from only three hours a day in 1995.

If you’re thinking phew, I’m glad I’m not a kid anymore—don’t get too comfortable. Adults spend even more time looking at screens. CNN reports that American adults, on average, clock in more than ten hours of screen time each day, with nearly two hours of that time spent on digital media platforms.

By the end of their lives, most adults will have spent about five years on social media.

Technology use is so ubiquitous that many people don’t even realize how much time they actually spend wrapped up in their devices—and how little time they spend in the great outdoors. That time adds up, and both children and adults miss out on the physical and mental relief that nature has to offer.

According to Louv and other Nature Deficit Disorder subscribers, the resulting effect on health can be severe. Heart conditions, diabetes, obesity, near-sightedness, asthma, anxiety, and depression are among the many increasingly common disorders that can be linked to NDD. Even ADHD can be linked to NDD, as studies have found that screen time can increase a child’s risk of developing ADHD, while time spent in nature can decrease a child’s risk.

Other factors like increased urbanization, a lack of green spaces in cities, and limited public transportation to wilderness areas only compound these issues, making it difficult for people to access nature even if they try to.

Many organizations have made it their mission to close this gap with urban youth, offering programs that provide low-cost or free opportunities to engage with nature. The Fresh Air Fund provides low-income children form New York City the opportunity to attend free sleepaway camp in the woods of upstate New York. In Washington, D.C., low-income youth have the change to spend weekends, vacations, and summers in nature with CityKids, a program that provides wilderness enrichment in the form of bicycle rides, hiking trips, and even a summer-long stay at a ranch in Wyoming. But for adults, similar assistance—and time—can be hard to find.

One coping mechanism adapted by adults is a “digital diet.”

The idea behind these quick fixes is that even when you aren’t able to access nature directly, you can still take measures to offset some of the negative side effects of Nature Deficit Disorder by decreasing your technology use. Digital diets aren’t just a new-wave health craze…take it from the tech experts themselves.

Apple, Google, Intel, and Facebook are just a few of the many leading companies that have top-level executives taking regular digital diets, limiting their children’s screen time, and setting other boundaries for technology use.

So while it might hurt to admit that you are a technology “user,” digital diets remind us that taking preventative measures against Nature Deficit Disorder is as simple as stepping back, unplugging, and opening up your senses to the endless other offerings the natural world has to offer.

You started as a seed, your pets, the tree outside your window, the ideas that led to your iPhone, your tablet, and laptop started as seeds. As society races towards a high-tech future, shooting for the moon (and Mars), we’re learning that, despite our progress, there is much we have left to do. Diseases, inequality, and climate change remind us that some of our most pressing problems are still looming—and that the clock is ticking to find a solution.

Rather than look into the future to tackle these issues, a subset of activists, health professionals, and researchers are looking back, way back, to where it all started: seeds. Instead of investing in cutting-edge gadgets to serve their communities, they are doing something else:

planting gardens, and within them, tackling a range of issues including disease, mental illness, and social inequality.

As a result, they’re popularizing a mode of healing that can rival even the most popular medications: garden-based nature therapy. In schools, hospitals, and vacant neighborhood lots across the country, mini-miracles are happening as communities come together, surgical patients heal at faster rates, and chronic illnesses disappear, starting what might just be a seed-based health revolution.

In many ways, a hospital is an unlikely setting for a garden. But, guided by a growing body of evidence supporting the healing properties of gardens, hospitals are making green spaces a central part of their design.

Studies have found that these spaces have the ability to lower stress levels, consequently improving mental health and boosting immune function. This can lead to patients recovering more quickly and feeling less pain in the process.

One groundbreaking study of surgical patients found that those who had simply viewed green spaces outside of their windows as compared to a plain wall were less likely to need pain medication or develop complications. On top of that, patients who viewed the green spaces recovered, on average, a full day faster than those who had not.

And it isn’t just the patients that are benefiting—it’s the whole hospital community.

Hospital workers, many of whom work in high-stress conditions all day long, are finding that the gardens offer valuable space to slow down, collect, and refresh their energy. One study found that hospital gardens can even help lower obesity rates in hospital communities, regardless of whether or not those spaces are producing fruits and vegetables to consume.

Rehabilitation facilities have found success with therapeutic gardens as well.

At Four Circles, a nature-based rehabilitation center in North Carolina, patients are encouraged to spend time in one of four herb and vegetable gardens, where they can stimulate their senses while learning practical gardening skills. Experts there say that this enriches traditional therapy by encouraging patients to take healthy risks while reinforcing the value of hard work.

Even outside of health establishments, gardens can work their healing magic. School and community gardens have been popping up all over the map, often sparked by one or two enthusiastic community members.

These green spaces bring together many generations and cultures, encouraging the exchange of both practical gardening knowledge and life wisdom. Some community gardens blossom into full-on urban agriculture centers like Eagle Street Rooftop Farm, an organization that transformed a sprawling NYC rooftop into green-machines churning out fruits, veggies, and herbs. Such local produce is essential to addressing the pressing shortage of fresh fruits and vegetables available to middle and low income urban residents.

One of the more exciting things about this mini green health revolution is that it’s just getting started. Want to join? Just get out there with your hands, some dirt, a willingness to work, and of course, seeds. You might even find that it catches on in your family and community…because everything starts with a seed, even revolution.

Women with symptoms of bleeding disorders often think they just have low iron when they bruise easily or just dismiss heavy periods as part of life.

Hemophilia is a gender-linked disease, meaning it is transmitted on the X chromosome that comes from the mother. Like color blindness, hemophilia is primarily found in men—not always, but most commonly. Women are carriers of the gene and sometimes have low-key symptoms that aren’t noticed for a long time, because of their gender.

But women can be affected by bleeding disorders (though rarely full-blown hemophilia due how it’s genetically linked). Thanks to today’s connectivity, however, women with bleeding disorders don’t have to feel alone –and can be more easily diagnosed through nationwide networks of caregivers and support networks specially tailored to their needs.

Women with hemophilia or other bleeding disorders typically are treated with different medications than men with the same disease. Every hemophiliac needs to receive clotting factor — the substance their blood is missing that prevents us all from “bleeding out” when we receive an injury.

For women, birth control pills or other hormone therapy can help control menstrual bleeding so that there aren’t monthly crisis events.

Women may not have hemophilia A or B nearly as commonly as men, but they can have any of the rarer types of the disease. Blood has many different clotting factors in it (each given a number, and A and B have different clotting factors); people missing even one clotting factor will have symptoms of bleeding disorders. These deficiencies are all possible in both women and men.

SIGNS AND SYMPTOMS

According to the National Institutes of Health, these are the signs women often report that may signal a bleeding disorder. Without genetic testing, it is impossible to correctly diagnose what specific disorder that may be — hemophilia or another condition.

• A period longer than 7 days
• Period clots larger than a quarter
• Heavy period bleeding when you have to change a pad or tampon more than once an hour on the heaviest day
• Low iron levels
• A family history of a bleeding disorder
• Heavy bleeding from dental surgery
• Nosebleeds that require medical attention
• History of muscle or joint bleeding
• Bleeding from a small wound that lasts more than 15 minutes

Heavy periods can signal other problems, not just bleeding disorders. No matter what, they are a symptom that should be checked out by a doctor—who may not be familiar with bleeding issues. That’s why you should be especially sure to mention any family history.

VICTORY FOR WOMEN

The National Hemophilia Foundation has a targeted initiative for women with bleeding disorders, Victory for Women. The goal is to educate doctors and patients about these conditions — in particular hemophilia A and B or von Willebrand disease (another clotting disorder). Without proper diagnosis, women and girls are at serious risk of death. Worldwide, bleeding issues are something rarely talked about. Even in the United States, too many medical professionals don’t take women and girls seriously when they complain about gynecological issues. So V4W, as this initiative is known, is trying to change the situation.

NOT ALONE

A recent collection of patient stories in the New York Times, as well as the Victory for Women’s website, are opportunities for women to see that others are living full lives despite their bleeding disorders. There are more than 50 hematology (blood) centers around the country, most with support groups. It isn’t just women who have bleeding disorders — many are parents to children with hemophilia, learning to given injections and manage risk.

Normally, it bleeds (and hurts). You apply some pressure and your body gets to work: proteins in your blood come together and begin to clot so that the flow of blood stops. For the 20,000 Americans with hemophilia, their blood is lacking this clotting factor. So injuries everyone else deals with as a matter of course can become life threatening because the flow of blood cannot stop.

Hemophilia is a gender-linked disease, meaning it is transmitted on the X chromosome that comes from the mother. Like color blindness, hemophilia is primarily found in men—not always, but most commonly. Women are carriers of the gene and sometimes have low-key symptoms that aren’t noticed for a long time, because of their gender.

One-third of hemophiliacs get the disease spontaneously, without any family history.

There are different types of hemophilia, depending on which clotting factor your blood is missing. The most common is Hemophilia A, which impacts four times more people than Hemophilia B. The other types are all much rarer. There are other bleeding disorders that are often studied and treated together with hemophilia, though they aren’t actually the same disorder. Von Willebrand disease, for example, affects women, causing serious problems during menstruation and childbirth.

LIVING WITH HEMOPHILIA

The old fashioned treatment for hemophilia was giving patients extra doses of clotting factor derived from other humans. You might remember Ryan White, a child who contracted HIV/AIDS in the 1980s. He was a hemophiliac and was infected during a blood transfusion in 1984. Today, while our blood supply is safe, lab-created clotting factor is the primary source of treatment. The National Hemophilia Foundation says that 75% of patients use these “recombinant factor products.”

If you aren’t a little kid riding your bike and crashing, why is hemophilia such a danger?

It isn’t just cuts and bleeding out that can cause injury. Internal bleeding can go unnoticed until your organs face serious damage. Bruises are brutal, and joints face extra wear.

For those with hemophilia A (which is most sufferers), 60% are severe cases with less than 1% of the necessary clotting factor in their blood. They can have spontaneous bleeding episodes, so they have to take precautions with extra medications before even dental work.

Luckily, it’s not necessary now to wait until a crisis hits. Preventive treatment is growing more and more common—and effective. 

That means routine infusions to keep up the level of clotting factor in your blood so that you can avoid dangerous bleeding situations. For kids especially, this can make it possible to live a fairly typical, active life.

Recently published research followed boys for ten years, getting weekly treatment that changed according to their needs. With good monitoring, they were able to mostly avoid serious joint problems, and 70% kept breakthrough bleeding under control. As this is the group most prone to bleeding events, and the primary disease audience, advancements in treatment are making a difference in quality of life.

FUTURE RESEARCH

Because hemophilia is a clearly identified genetic disease, scientists have been working to cure or disrupt it for the last several decades.

The National Hemophilia Foundation has an entire page dedicated to science news, full of updates on clinical trials of promising treatments.

Right now, the most interesting is a gene therapy from the biotech company BioMarin where a virus is injected. There are caveats: you can only do it once—and does not work for all. It has worked to ‘cure’ patients for a time, though two of twelve lost the benefits recently, as reported in the New York Times – which is a huge step towards a more profound treatment.

While progress is still to be made, it’s heartening that an illness once thought of as deadly can now be managed and controlled.