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07/26/10 The Big Thaw

  • Freezing human eggs is gaining in popularity, but declaring it a success would be premature. Doctors have been freezing sperm for 60 years and embryos (fertilized eggs) for 30. The first pregnancy from a frozen egg occurred in 1986.

My Last Five Columns

06/14/10 High Water Marks

  • There’s no question swimming is good for you. Is it better than running or walking? Not so fast. Is swimming the best exercise for lifelong health? After all, you can swim with just your arms if you have a bum knee, or with just your legs if you have sore arms. You can swim with arthritis. Or a recently replaced hip.

05/17/10 Motion sickness

  • Restless legs syndrome keeps you going (even if you want to stop). The symptoms of restless legs syndrome sound so bizarre — creepy-crawly feelings and an uncontrollable urge to move the legs, especially at bedtime — that until recently, many people who experienced it simply weren’t believed when they described it to others.

04/12/10 Think before you click

  • In a 21st-century twist on medical ethics, Internet search engines and social networking sites test traditional boundaries between patients and doctors. You’ve just started treatment with a new psychiatrist, whom you like very much. Should you “friend’’ her on Facebook? If she says yes, what if she finds those pictures of you dancing drunkenly with the lampshade on your head — after you told her you don’t drink anymore? Or what if you discover pictures of her snuggled up with her husband and two adorable kids, when the reason you went into therapy in the first place was that you’re sad about being single and childless?

03/08/10 Why Cry?

  • Tears appear when we're happy, sad, stressed — and the cause of them is an emotional topic. I cry. At mushy Hallmark commercials when the son finally gets home on Christmas Eve. At weddings, because everybody’s so happy. At funerals, because everybody’s so sad. Even watching the Olympics, when I bond with the skaters who get teary because they’ve finally won.

09/07/09 Keep Pedaling!

  • Whether you do it to lose weight, maintain weight loss, or just have fun, exercise is essential for good health. As a nation, we are obviously getting fatter and fatter. Yet we seem ever more confused about how to lose weight. We’re particularly fuzzy on the question of how big a role exercise plays, or whether we just have to count calories.