Two Linked Thoughts
More props to KevinMD, as he always scours the web for interesting links.
First, we head to Romania, where a surgeon, “under stress,” cut off a man’s penis during surgery. Geez, and you think American surgeons are mean. (What’s worse: doctors unions are complaining about the surgeon being fined!)
Next, to Samoa, where a tree may lead to the discovery of a new antibiotic. Soooo, how many species have we already wiped out that may have had similar natural compounds that could function as antivirals, antifungals, antibiotics, or other treatments? Causing our own extinction we are. (Karma’s a bitch.)
Those two linked thoughts are the same link!
Fixed!
Sweet. I’m glad I was (initially) forced to go to KevinMD’s blog. There are so many great medical blogs that I haven’t subscribed to or read regularly.
Anyone have the cure for laziness?
Ooohhh… prior to med school, I did a degree in ethnobotany/phytochemistry. This meant I got to roam around the jungles of Cambodia collecting medicinal plants and interviewing traditional healers.
Some interesting factoids from my thesis:
Of the world’s 365,000 catalogued plant species, only 0.3% have been investigated in terms of their medicinal properties.
To date, scientific investigation of medicinal plants has yielded over 7,000 pharmaceutical compounds.
You’re right, it’s scary to think how many potential cures for cancer we’ve already bludgeoned into extinction.