Posts Tagged ‘medicine’


This story is somewhat inspired by documentaries such as Cut Poison Burn and Food Matters and somewhat inspired by the mere idea of looking for alternate solutions to complex problems.  As a technician I once stayed up for days trying to fix a complex Radar system while at sea.  In the end the problem was solved when I talked through the fault with a steward on board, someone with no formal electronics training.  Sometimes problems just need that outside eye to come up with a solutions that would never have arisen on its own.  I hope you enjoy reading it, if you do please share it with someone and leave a comment.  Thank you for your time.

Leave it to the Professionals

“Vitamin C.  Do you know what it does?” Posed the somewhat unkempt man at the Feed your Soul nutrition store.  To say the store wasn’t corporate would be a massive understatement.

“Well, it prevents Scurvy, so that’s good.” Replied Laura Shandler, a 45 year old confirmed bachelorette with no children who had been called kooky so often, she had begun to intentionally embody the term.

“We only know that because Vitamin C deficiencies lead to Scurvy.  Fact is, that is how we know what all vitamins do.  Deprive the body of any nutritional metric and you will start to see it break down.  In the case of Vitamin C you lose enzyme reactions, one such reaction leads to an inability to make new collagen or heal wounds, that’s what leads to the symptoms of what we call Scurvy.”

“Okay…”

“But that doesn’t really answer our question does it?  The AMA would have you believe that process elimination is enough to understand the true nature of something.  Without nutrients we die, without certain specific nutrients, specific bodily functions start to breakdown.  Therefore, we assume the positive benefits of a substance to be the inverse of the negative side-effects produced by its deficiency.  It’s all a bit of a loop really, the piece that we are still missing is what these vitamins do for us, their real purpose.  We can only discover that by taking huge doses of one specific vitamin at a time, scientific method.” (more…)


I wanted to challenge myself to write a 3000+ word short story with absolutely no dialog, purely narrative driven.  Here is the result.  Hope you enjoy, please leave a comment and let me know what you think.

Mental Prototype 

            In the late 20th century, we mapped the human genome it was a fantastic achievement. Who could have guessed what that would lead to? In the early 21st century in-utero genetic testing for defects and genetic diseases was the norm. There was however, a byproduct to this altruistic prevention of crippling disorders, there were other tools available in the human genome; This gave way to the so called “designer babies”.

It started with simple things like choosing your child’s eye colour, but it wasn’t long before someone found the genetic markers for metabolism and started to tweak resting musculature and body fat content. The paradigm shift however came when Dr. Arturo Blain found a way to alter the immune system’s response to wounds, diseases and even the effects of aging. (more…)