Cell 2 Soul: The Humane Health Care Blog

Lester Breslow, Who Linked Healthy Habits to Logevity

Dies at 97  NY Times, April 15, 2012.

This post was inspired by, and is dedicated to, Dileep G. Bal, M.D., Kauai District Health Officer, State of Hawaii and previous Chief of the Cancer Control Branch in the Department of Health Services in the State of California.  Mahalo!

Lester Breslow

The work Dr. Breslow will be most remembered for is the Alameda County California study that [is purported to have] rocked the public health world, because it proved with numbers that behavior indisputably affects longevity. Its seven recommendations are: do not smoke; drink in moderation; sleep seven to eight hours; exercise at least moderately; eat regular meals; maintain a moderate weight; eat breakfast.  Full "Lester Breslow Obituary."

 Strangely, this is very similar to what William Osler espoused in the 19th century: "‘the desire to take medicine is perhaps the greatest feature which distinguishes man from animals... Of one thing I [am certain] that that a little more exercise, a little less food, and a little less tobacco and alcohol, may possibly meet the indications of the case."

Of course, our grandmothers told us the same thing.  Yet, it took men of of science many years to corroborate their proscriptions.

For more information see this article about The Alameda 7.

Al Ross, Cartoonist and Centenarian

Al Ross, whose droll cartoons featuring married couples, bar habitués, anthropomorphic animals, philosophizing prisoners, art and publishing world denizens, anachronistic mythological figures and loyal Mets fans appeared in The New Yorker for more than 60 years, died on Thursday in the Bronx. He was 100.

Link to Full Obit

Howard's End

Howard Spiro passed away recently.  He was a force in the medical humanities.  A generous, humorous, somewhat Falstaffian, character.  Loved to tell a good story, the companonship of friends and colleagues.  Mory's was his stage.  He tacked against the academic wind at Yale, but was respected nonetheless.

Brian Maurer's personal Tribute to Howard is worth reading.

More formal Yale Announcement.

For those within drivng distance, a memorial service has been planned for Saturday, March 24, at 11 a.m. at The Unitarian Society of New Haven, 700 Hartford Tpke, Hamden, Conn.

From too much love of living,

         From hope and fear set free,

We thank with brief thanksgiving

         Whatever gods may be

That no life lives for ever;

That dead men rise up never;

That even the weariest river

         Winds somewhere safe to sea.

Haitian Drummer, Obit

Frisner Augustin, a Haitian vodou master drummer whose deep knowledge of traditional rhythms and leadership of the Brooklyn-based Troupe Makandal made him a major force in preserving and popularizing his Afro-Haitian heritage, died on Feb. 28 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. He was 63. NY Times Obit.

Eve Arnold - Photographer Extraordinare

Eve Arnold who fell in love with photography after a boyfriend gave her a camera and came to be regarded as a grande dame of postwar photojournalism for her bold, revealing images of subjects as diverse as Marilyn Monroe and migratory potato pickers, died on Wednesday, January 4, 2012 in London. She was 99.

Born, Eve Cohen in Philadelphia on April 21, 1912, she was one of nine children of immigrants from Ukraine. Her father was a rabbi. At 28, she abandoned ambitions of becoming a doctor to move to New York because “That’s where the boys are,” she said.

NY Times Obit    NY Times Multi-Media

At a brothel in Havana, circa 1954