April 2011

Prevention as preparation

Submitted by Tim.Byers on Mon, 04/18/2011 - 14:09

Richard Iron Cloud is an Oglala Lakota man I met in Pine Ridge a couple of days ago.  We were there to learn about the Tribe’s public health training needs, and Richard agreed to meet with us.  In our brief conversation he taught me a valuable concept, which I want to share here in this blog.

Richard is a swimmer.  In 2003 he and Armando Black Bear became the first Lakota men to swim from Alcatraz Island to the San Francisco shore.  He has since led others from the Pine Ridge Reservation to accomplish this same feat.  In the training for these swims, he teac

Are our vitamin pills killing us?

Submitted by Tim.Byers on Mon, 04/04/2011 - 08:34

I am sitting in the Orland airport awaiting return to Colorado after taking part in a symposium on vitamin pills at the 102nd annual AACR conference.  I am glad I came even though I am sitting here feeling haunted by questions about nutritional supplement safety.  Mostly, of course, I am glad to have slipped in and out of Orlando without visiting Disney World.  Seeing all the Mickey Mouse stuff on the kids and mothers and all the families with matching sunburns on their shoulders is enough. 

The AACR session on nutritional supplements and cancer was troubling bec