/oss/taxonomy/term/5921/all en /oss/article/critical-thinking-health-and-nutrition/elixir-life-really <p>Prior to the buoyant accounts of the study with the alluring title “Taurine deficiency as a driver of aging,” it was mostly people who read the list of ingredients on the label of the “energy drink,” Red Bull, who were familiar with the chemical. Why does the beverage contain taurine? That is somewhat of a mystery. The only information provided on Red Bull’s website is that “taurine is an amino acid, naturally occurring in the human body and present in the daily diet.” No argument with that. Well, maybe a little one.</p> Wed, 14 Jun 2023 19:50:23 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 9546 at /oss /oss/article/medical-health-and-nutrition/awash-carcinogens <p>Sir Percival Pott took an interest in the scrota of men. Particularly chimney sweeps. Pott was an eminent surgeon who in 1775 published a seminal paper that for the first time identified an environmental factor as a cancer-causing agent. He had observed an unusually high incidence of scrotal cancer in chimney sweeps and noted that soot was commonly embedded in the lesions. This led Dr. Pott to conclude that exposure to soot was a risk factor for cancer. He was correct! Soot contains a number of chemicals that have been identified as carcinogens.</p> Wed, 12 Apr 2023 16:56:17 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 9476 at /oss /oss/article/health-and-nutrition/non-smokers-lung-cancer-and-hidden-link <p>The link between cigarette smoking and lung cancer is widely acknowledged. But not everyone who smokes gets lung cancer and not everyone who gets lung cancer is a smoker. How does one contract the so-called non-smoker’s lung cancer? The answer, one might say, is blowing in the wind. And that wind may be blowing a gas called radon.     </p> Fri, 31 Dec 2021 19:08:52 +0000 Nancy Liu-Sullivan, PhD 8970 at /oss