Return of the Vanquished

Via Instapundit comes a story about the return of a once-vanquished nutritional disease, rickets, due to people not watching their children’s nutrition because they assumed that breast feeding would supply all the nutrients needed. This fits a similar pattern in which health concerns that disappeared in most of the West by the 1960s have begun to reemerge. 

In all these cases, the cause is an exaggerated concern for an unrelated health matter that generates unintended side effects. 

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Stupidity Kills

The headline reads….

NYC issues warning after aphrodisiac kills man

Why in the world would anyone need to be warned that taking the product was a bad idea? Or that they would think that sucking down something made from toad venom will get you in the mood for a romantic romp? The very last thing I would do to get all hot and bothered is to ingest something with the word “Venom” in the list of ingredients.

I think we’ll have to chalk this one up to evolution in action.

(Cross posted at Hell in a Handbasket.)

Vitamins – A Bleg

For those who don’t know what a ‘bleg’ is, I will give you a quick definition. It is a verb (to bleg) that means using one’s blog to ask for assistance. Many times it is for money. In my particular case it is for information on vitamins in general, and a multi vitamin in particular. We seem to have a lot of scientists, a few doctors and a lot of all around smart people here, so I say why not use the resource.

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