The first randomized trial of colonoscopy screening is out and, well, it's a complicated picture. The data showed that inviting people to get a colonoscopy didn't reduce colon cancer deaths, but it did reduce cancer incidence by 18%.

That's sort of disappointing news for advocates who believed screening would effectively render colon cancer extinct. Current guidelines recommend that adults 50 to 75 years of age get a colonoscopy every 10 years or more frequently, if indicated.

Body of Knowledge

The density (amount of mass contained in a volume of material) of human tooth enamel is 181 pounds per cubic foot. That compares to 128.6 for a cow femur and 78.7 for spider silk.

Counts

4: Percentage both the number and rate of deaths by suicide rose in 2021 in the U.S.

Source: CDC National Center for Health Statistics

Stories for the Waiting Room

Abraham Lincoln reportedly was prescribed mercury pills for a time to treat chronic melancholy or depression. They didn't help. A 2001 study, published in Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, reports Lincoln became even gloomier and morose, given to outbursts of anger or inappropriate laughter. His neurological symptoms, concluded researchers, were characteristic of mercury poisoning.

Lincoln stopped taking the pills a few months after being inaugurated as president in 1861, going on to exhibit extraordinary maturity, calm and steadiness during one of the nation's most trying times.

Doc Talk

Acetabulum: As the song goes, this is where the hipbone connects to the leg bone. Or more precisely, it's the curved, bowl-shaped depression in the outer part of the hipbone into which the ball-shaped portion at the top of the thighbone fits to form the hip joint.

Phobia of the Week

Molysmophobia: fear of dirt or contamination

Food for Thought

Room temperature coffee usually tastes terrible, for good reason. Some taste receptors on the tongue and in the mouth are most sensitive to food molecules at or just above room temperature. Hot coffee that is bitter can taste better because bitter-detecting taste buds aren't as sensitive when coffee is hot. Odors influence flavor as well. Bitter hot coffee may taste delicious because of its pleasant aroma while room temperature coffee just doesn't smell as appetizing.

Best Medicine

If you steal someone's heart, do you get cardiac arrested?

Observation

"I've lost six pounds on the way to the Super Bowl. Mind you, that's like throwing a deck chair off the Queen Mary." — Former NFL head coach Bill Parcells (1941-). Parcells coached 19 seasons with four teams and won two Super Bowl titles with the New York Giants. He was nicknamed "The Big Tuna."

Medical History

This week in 1998, American researchers announced they had cloned calves that might produce medicinal milk. James Robl and Steven Stice were the first to clone cows from fetal cells in which human genes were spliced into cattle DNA. Creating two identical, genetically engineered calves was considered a step toward mass production of human drugs in animals, with the idea being that cows could become drug factories producing milk that would contain human proteins important for treating human diseases.

Such work continues but has not yet reached the point of human clinical trials or marketed therapeutics.

Self-exam

Q: An eyeball that is longer than typical from front to back causes what condition?

a) Hypermetropia

b) Glaucoma

c) Double vision

d) Myopia

A: d) myopia. Myopia is a visual abnormality in which the resting eye focuses the image of a distant object at a point in front of the retina, resulting in a blurred image. Myopic eyes are usually longer than normal from front to back.

Last Words

"I want to go when I want to go. It is tasteless to prolong life artificially. I have done my share; it is time to go. I will do it elegantly." — German American physicist Albert Einstein (1879-1955). These are close to Einstein's last words, but not his last. This was his reply when asked if he wanted to undergo surgery to repair a burst blood vessel near his heart. He declined, and died the next day at University Medical Center of Princeton at Plainsboro. An attending nurse reported hearing him utter a few dying words, but they were in German, a language she did not speak.

To find out more about Scott LaFee and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

Photo credit: StockSnap at Pixabay