Ode to a dreamer of dreams — Dear Dr. Sacks, Like the late Carl Sagan, you had a gentle way of magnifying everything into brilliant resolution and reminding us of our place in the universe. Through your writing, you bring into focus which things matter. …

Unraveling the link between glucose metabolism and brain health — A recent longitudinal study examined how glucose levels in early adulthood impact the risk of developing Alzheimer’s later in life. Data from nearly 5000 participants (35–50 years old) over the course of 38 years were analyzed to determine correlations between metabolic markers and Alzheimer’s disease. Individuals with higher blood glucose…

A conversation with journalist Ryan Prior — A couple months ago, I sat down to talk with journalist and author Ryan Prior about his book The Long Haul. We discussed long COVID, chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis (CFS/ME), patient advocacy, and precision medicine. Here are a few highlights from our interview: Nita Jain: In your book, you discuss…

So much of your story is painfully relatable. Interestingly, individuals of Asian heritage who immigrate to America end up exhibiting the same risk of chronic diseases as the general American population upon settling down in the United States, suggesting that chronic diseases may largely be environmentally driven. Indeed, most gut microbial diversity is lost within a few months. Managing multiple co-morbidities really is a full-time job with no days off. Coming to terms with loss of autonomy is an especially painful pill to swallow. Thank you for sharing your story so vulnerably.

This reminds me of the biological concept of functional redundancy. For example, different microbes in the same functional guild can perform the same function, i.e. produce a given metabolite like butyrate. Some research groups like George Church's lab at Harvard have looked into DNA for information storage because of the built-in redundancy. In fact, your DNA is so tightly wound around histones that if you were to unravel it completely, from end to end, it would stretch to the moon and back 1500 times!

Brilliantly written piece and a timely reminder that none of us have a monopoly on pain, suffering, or insecurity. Looks can be incredibly deceiving, and we can never presume to know what someone else is feeling. Thank you for this empathetic perspective.

Competition is heating up, as major players compete in the podcasting space — Major changes are underway for the burgeoning podcast industry. With growth projected to reach $4 billion by 2024, most everyone is scrambling to acquire a piece of the pie with major tech giants keen to capture significant portions of the market share. …

Why gender parity matters for society — In the social sciences, one question continues to confound: Are women naturally more nurturing or are these roles simply the result of social conditioning? Any discussion revolving around a given gender’s “natural” propensity towards certain roles is guaranteed to quickly get heated. In sickness and in health Caregiving dynamics are perhaps no better on display…