Insights and Updates

A study by the Alcohol and Tobacco Research Group at University College London shows that smoking one cigarette shortens life by an average of 20 minutes. To be precise, each cigarette shortens a man's life by an average of 17 minutes and a woman's by…

On December 29, 2024, former US President Jimmy Carter died at the age of 100. Carter was a celebrated cancer survivor: he was diagnosed with malignant melanoma in 2015. Melanoma is a very fast-growing malignancy with a poor prognosis. But after treatment with a PD-1…

Ancient Chinese medical writings, when discussing disease, mostly echoed received opinion; few offered independent views. Many texts were simply plagiarized from earlier authors, and the resulting errors multiplied endlessly, misleading later learners of medicine. But occasionally some authors are wonderfully candid, honestly recording what they…

One morning I saw a video of a young entrepreneur — who studied AI in Cambridge and now runs an AI startup — holding forth on AI's impact on humanity. He believes jobs like lawyers, doctors and office white-collar workers may all be replaced by…

Last night a great wind blew across Beijing all night, sweeping the smog away completely. This morning Beijing is sunny, with excellent air quality. At seven o'clock I got up again, resuming normal work and study. My physical strength has fully returned, my spirits are…

Over the past three days I have run a high fever, three days on end. At first I felt odd and did not pay much attention; then I took my temperature — good heavens, 39°C. My brain felt as if it had stalled; thinking and…

Since experiencing what AI doctors can do, I have felt a great weight lifted. A water-front pavilion gets the moonlight first; I may be among the first people in China to see what AI doctors can do. I must admit I am quite a lazy…

Over the past week, a friend invited me to take part in closed beta testing of AI medicine. He invited me so eagerly because I know something about both medicine and IT, and he very much wanted me involved in the AI healthcare enterprise. My…

The Chinese Materia Medica Dictionary (Zhongyao Da Cidian) records an empirical formula for diaphragmatic spasm (hiccups). Its composition is: Cimicifugae Rhizoma (shengma), Bupleuri Radix (chaihu), and Aurantii Fructus (zhike), equal parts, ground together into a fine powder. Take 4 g each time, washed down with…

Jiangxi Journal of Traditional Chinese Medicine (2004, 5, 49) once published an empirical formula for treating schistosomal ascites. Its base formula is as follows: Codonopsis Radix (dangshen) 10 g, Poria (fuling) 10 g, stir-fried Atractylodis Macrocephalae Rhizoma (chaobaizhu) 10 g, Coicis Semen (yiyiren) 10 g,…