Photo: afiler

What is it about diet soda that seems so naughty? Maybe it’s because enjoying something without any calories leads people to feel like they’re going to have to pay one way or another-if not with their waistline now, then with ambiguous bad health later (a tumor? osteoporosis?). Maybe it’s because it takes an already unnatural beverage-there’s no such thing as a soda tree-and fills it with even more foreign substances. Either way, people often have a complex, love-hate relationship with diet soda, especially when you throw some caffeine into the mix.

But it’s not good to fear your food. And while as adults we can eat whatever we want, it’s also nice to know what it is we’re eating. With that in mind, we set out to find the truth behind the biggest diet-soda myths.

The Benefits of Aging Besides a bigger bank account, better insurance, and crazy dinner specials if you go before 6, the elderly have another added perk: immunity to the "swine flu" (sorry: H1N1) virus. Researchers found that one third of people over sixty have antibodies that protect them from H1N1, which they hope will aid in developing a vaccine. (Washington Post)

...And The Drawbacks "Dowager's Hump" may predict early death in elderly women. Can we address what a horrible term "dowager's hump" is? I think it might be my second-least favorite, behind "incompetent cervix." Even though DH is not the official term for the slumped shoulders that can hit elderly (that's hyperkyphosis), the fact that it's still being used is shocking to me, even if it's just to give people a point of reference. It's like writing  "Patients with Downs Syndrome, often referred to as  'retards'..."  It's old fashioned, offensive, and demeaning: who wants to go to the doctors for care, only to be called a dowager, inadvertently or otherwise? (Newswise)

 What Will It Take To Fix Healthcare? A national healthcare plan used to be just a theoretical concept, but as the country moves closer to it becoming a reality, the discussion has moved from hypothetical debate to specific detail. So what are the keys to making healthcare happen? According to the Nation, there has to be a public plan to rein in costs, fix uncompetitive markets, and create a more cost-effective way to practice medicine. Easy, right?  (The Nation)

Bottle Shock If you're drinking from bottles made with bisphenol A, you could also be drinking some dangerous chemicals.  Last week, Chicago banned baby bottles made with the BPA, which is used in many hard plastic bottles and linked to increased risk of developmental problems in animals. Now, a Harvard study shows that BPA used in bottles does in fact leech into the water at a high rate, as evidenced by the high levels of BPA in the urine of those who drank from such bottles. (Boston)

The morning links are coming up in a second, but I wanted to give this it's own post:

The nation's second face transplant recipient went public yesterday.  James Maki, the first American man to receive the procedure, was disfigured four years ago in an electrical accident. The boston.com article about the transplant features a gallery with some pretty shocking photos—the accident left Maki without any nose to speak of, just a hole on his face.  It appears that the surgeons at Brigham and Women's Hospital replaced the bottom half of Maki's face with the new donor face.

The donor's wife, Susan Whitman, spoke out at the press conference, saying she was pleased to help someone else and encouraging people to consider becoming organ donors. The Globe ran a separate article—with an accompanying photo—about the donor, Joseph Helgot. (Here's another photo running with his obituary.)

When talking about face transplants, people are always curious whether the recipient "switched faces" with the donor: would the families of the donor feel like they 're seeing the ghost of their deceased loved one?  (I was going to say "looking into the eyes" when it occurred to me that I don't know if eyes are ever a part of face transplants; I'm checking into it and will post as soon as i know**). Obviously there are differences in the bone structure and head shape, but often doctors must recreate a lot of the structure under the skin of the face—do they create one that better matches the contours of the donor face? Maki said he was please that doctors were able to make him look something like he used to, but how much of Helgot is in his face now, as well?

Also: consider becoming an organ donor. It's an incredibly noble and selfless thing to do.

** Update: Eileen Sheil, the head of communications at the Cleveland Clinic confirmed that in face transplant surgeries the eyes, in fact, are not used. She also noted that the mannerisms and muscle movements—the animation that makes up much of the face's character—are still that of the living recipient.