HOLY F**KING SH*T, WE ARE IN BIG TROUBLE!!! The Spleen Returns!

Well. Since the last time I wrote here, I was pulled away to San Francisco on an intellectual and spiritual journey that actually came in the form of a paying job. How often does that happen? I am inclined to say "never", but it just did, and while I was up there, writing narration for a science documentary I was feeling such a magic combination of grace and kismet, I'm doing my best to avoid the normal cynicism.

It occurred to me recently that I have always focused on the spots of resistance. Maybe it's growing up in Wisconsin and too many long, dark winters. Maybe it's just an ornery inbred nature. And for that reason I have avoided saying the obvious.

We live in a world that is increasingly poisonous. We have assented to this. Partially because of a naive belief that someone (the government, God,  your mother) is looking out for you. Partially because we are too busy to check on the state of the world, the state of nature.  And also because we figured that whatever industry fucked up, medicine will make right.

To be clear, I think Western medical practices work for trauma. And indeed, anyone who has ever gone to a hospital after a serious accident and walked away from it can attest that in that arena, the human race has truly accomplished something.

But for almost everything else - the kind of chronic health problems that define this particular time in history - they have been worse than useless. They continually fail to accurately calculate and consider the physical toll of living in an increasingly polluted environment. Instead, they continue to natter on about a genetic "cure" for cancer, when the President's Cancer Panel says that only a minute percentage of cancers (less than 10 percent) are genetic, and the rest are environmentally caused.

We know almost nothing about the toxicity and long term effects of the chemical bath we live in. The testing simply has not been done. Industry hasn't wanted it, and the government hasn't overruled them.

Therefore I am going to own up to a goal of this blog. It's defensive medicine. I am trying to connect you to resources that will help you maintain your health in a time of great unknowns.

I am going to try to blog better, more consistently. And I am now going to invite anyone who reads this to write in with questions, puzzling anomalies, and health emergencies. I will not be able to answer everything, but I WILL find you someone who can.