Entries by Chet Zelasko

Research Must Go On

This is the final installment of my Memo series illustrating why research funding for basic and clinical trials should never stop unless the approach is obviously misdirected. Delaying research due to the dogma of the day is bad; delaying it because someone believes in a refuted dogma is worse. This is not a debate on […]

What Research Delays Can Cost

In 1911, a physician named Peyton Rous discovered that a microbe, found in a tumor in chicken, was able to infect other chickens causing the same cancer. His findings were thought to be ridiculous because cancer wasn’t caused by a microbe—so his research stopped. Those microbes were called viruses in later years. Move forward to […]

Why We Need Basic Research

Imagine what your life would be like if you washed your face and your skin started to blister and bleed. If you tried to answer an email, typing caused your fingers to bleed so much that blood dripped on the keyboard. Welcome to the world of a young man who has recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa, […]

Why Scientific Research Must Never Stop

The current U.S. administration has tried to stop or delay basic and clinical research related to human conditions and diseases, and in the next few Memos, I’m going to illustrate why that’s a serious mistake. When I’ve laid it out, you can decide for yourself whether clinical research is a waste of money or critical […]

Do You Have Sisu?

What is sisu? It’s a Finnish word that has no real translation. My interest began with watching a movie of the same name, and once the movie was over, I spent a considerable amount of time trying to get a sense of what the word could mean. The reason is based on Tuesday’s Memo or […]

Yes, But Not Now

As Paula and I were discussing something we should do the other day, I said, “Yes, but not now.” That wasn’t meaningful in the moment, but a little while later, Paula commented that she knew she should cut back on sugar, but not now. Bam. How many times have you said that? Not something you […]

“Watching” Your Diet and Workouts

While the strategy for eating less I described on Tuesday used no type of tracking, this story is going to be the opposite. I ran into another person who has spent a couple of years focused on getting to a normal body weight. A couple of injuries playing sports set him back a little, but […]

“I’ll Have What She’s Having”

My philosophy of getting to a normal weight and staying there is to find out what works best for you by trial and error. When you find something that works, stick with it. This week, I’m going to relay the conversations I had with two people within 24 hours and how they approached weight reduction. […]

Shield Your Brain!

For everyone who has purchased Protecting Your Brain, the first update will be on the way soon. As I stated in the webinar, when there is something important related to your brain I’ll send up an update, and a recent study is worth a follow up: researchers demonstrated that the microbiome in your mouth is […]

How Can You Safeguard Your Brainpower?

If there’s one thing we all would like, it would be to retain as many of our memories as we can as well as all of the things we’ve learned over our lifetime. We’d also like the ability to learn new things, like how to make a doll house for our granddaughter or how to […]