Let’s be Buddhists for the Next Few Weeks!

Are Stem Cells the next Therapeutic Tool for Heart Repair?

Cardiovascular disease remains the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in the United States and Europe. In recent years, the understanding that regenerative processes exist at the level of the myocardium, has placed stem cell research at center stage in cardiology. A stem cell is a cell that has the ability to divide (self replicate) for indefinite periods often throughout the life of the ...

The “Depressive” Attributional Style Is Not That Depressive for Buddhists

Numerous studies have shown that depression-prone people are characterized by a chronic style of attributing failures to internal, stable, and global causes, sometimes labeled as the "depressive attributional style." Much less is known, however, about how social-cultural factors such as religious beliefs might modulate these processes. In the current study, we hypothesized that Buddhism's view ...

Will Alcohol Be the next Tobacco? Will Alcohol Be the next Tobacco?

The Leiden Thrombophilia Study (LETS).

Our study grew from an attempt to solve a controversy. In 1987 protein C antigen level was assessed in a large cohort of healthy blood donors (1). Subjects in this cohort who were heterozygous for protein C deficiency did not suffer from venous thromboembolism. Family studies in four of the protein C deficient individuals showed autosomal inheritance of the defect. These findings seemed in cont...

Disability, Depression and Disc Surgery: Lets be Careful with the Evidence

I read with interest the article by Farzanegan et al. , titled " Effects of lumbar discectomy on disability and depression in patients with chronic low back pain " (1). It was a very well-written article on an important subject, which has remained largely ignored. I would therefore like to congratulate the investigators for highlighting the subject. However, I have a few concerns regarding the ...