Brain or Liver

New research suggests that in up to 10% of cases where a patient is diagnosed with dementia, the problem is actually undetected liver disease, which can cause similar neurological symptoms, such as cognitive impairment and changes in mood and motor skills.

The condition is called hepatic encephalopathy, a complication of cirrhosis. There are treatments, but there's bad news, too (in two parts). First, cirrhosis is hard to diagnose before irreversible harm has been done. Second, rates of liver disease in the U.S., including cirrhosis, are rising.

Body of Knowledge

Pretty much everybody has a pair of auricles or pinnae, which is plural for pinna. These are the visible portions of the outer ear, those crinkled half-moons of cartilage covered with skin that help collect sound waves and channel them into the ear canal -- and sometimes serve as useful handles for redirecting misguided children. Not that we've ever heard of such a thing!

Doc Talk

Clinic unit -- a somewhat derogatory reference to a patient's weight. One clinic unit equals 200 pounds.

Mania of the Week

Tulipomania -- an obsession and metaphor for economic bubbles, referencing the tulip crisis of 1637 in Holland when the flowers were a blossoming market that suddenly collapsed

Never Say 'Diet'

The Major League Eating record for French cut green beans is 2.71 pounds in six minutes, held by Crazy Legs Conti. French cut green beans are haricots verts sliced horizontally, producing thinner strands of beans if not thinner bodies of people who eat them by the pound.

Best Medicine

So, you drive across town to a gym to walk on a treadmill?

Hypochondriac's Guide

Blue rubber bleb nevus syndrome sounds fun, or at least odd. The condition itself is very much less so, involving venous malformations in which the person ends up with extremely painful, constantly bleeding lesions all over the inside and outside of the body.

Observation

"Dad always thought laughter was the best medicine, which I guess was why several of us died of tuberculosis." -- American humorist Jack Handey (1949-)

Medical History

This week in 1894, the first bottles of Coca-Cola were sold, concocted by John Pemberton, an Atlanta pharmacist who mixed a combination of lime, cinnamon, coca leaves and the seeds of a Brazilian shrub to make the famous beverage. Carbonated water was introduced later. Pemberton originally intended the beverage to be a nerve and brain tonic and a medical elixir.

Perishable Publications

Many, if not most, published research papers have titles that defy comprehension. They use specialized jargon, complex words and opaque phrases like "nonlinear dynamics." Sometimes they don't, and yet they're still hard to figure out. Here's an actual title of actual published research study: "When is a bologna sandwich better than sex? A defense

of small-n case study evaluations."

The paper, published in the Journal of Experimental Criminology, is actually about the value of limited sample sizes (small-n cases) in studying crime prevention. The title refers to a joke: Why is a bologna sandwich better than sex? Nothing is better than sex, but a bologna sandwich is better than nothing.

Ig Nobel Apprised

The Ig Nobel Prizes celebrate achievements that make people laugh, then think. A look at real science that's hard to take seriously, and even harder to ignore.

In 1999, the Ig Nobel Prize in chemistry went to Takeshi Makino, president of the Safety Detective Agency in Osaka, Japan, for his involvement with S-Check, an infidelity detection spray that wives can apply to their husbands' underwear, though the latter may claim it's all baloney.

Self-Exam

Q: What is the vermillion border?

A: It is the normally sharp demarcation between the lip and adjacent skin. The lips' notably more red appearance is the result of a change in epidermis from highly keratinized external skin to less keratinized. Also, lip skin is thinner, making blood vessels more apparent. Keratins are protein in epithelial cells lining the inside and outside surfaces of the body. In different amounts and forms, they create everything from skin and lips to hair and nails.

Last Words

"If I convert, it is because it is better that a believer dies than an atheist does." -- British-American author and steadfast curmudgeon Christopher Hitchens (1949-2011)

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To find out more about Scott LaFee and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.