Nxxx,2006-02-14,F,001,Bs-C-4C,E1.0
1
C M Y K ID NAME: Nxxx,2006-02-14,F,001,Bs-4C,E1 YELO MAG CYAN BLK 3 7 15 25 50 75 85 93 97 By GINA KOLATA In an early 19th-century best seller, a famous food writer offered a cure for obesity and chronic disease: a low-carbohydrate diet. The notion that what you eat shapes your medical fate has exerted a strong pull throughout history. And its appeal continues to this day, medical historians and researchers say. “It’s one of the great principles — no, more than prin- ciples, canons — of American culture to suggest that what you eat affects your health,” says James Morone, a professor of political science at Brown University. “It’s this idea that you control your own destiny and that it’s never too late to reinvent yourself,” he said. “Vice gets punished and virtue gets rewarded. If you eat or drink or inhale the wrong things you get sick. If not, you get healthy.” That very American canon, he and others say, may in part explain the criticism and disbelief that last week greeted a report that a low-fat diet might not prevent breast cancer, colon cancer or heart disease, after all. The report, from a huge federal study called the Women’s Health Initiative, raises important questions about how much even the most highly motivated people can change their eating habits and whether the rela- tively small changes that they can make really have a substantial effect on health. The study, of nearly 49,000 women who were random- ly assigned to follow a low-fat diet or not, found that the diet did not make a significant difference in develop- ment of the two cancers or heart disease. But there were limitations to the findings: the women assigned to the low-fat diet, despite extensive and expensive coun- seling, never reached their goal of eating 20 percent fat in the first year —only 31 percent of them got their di- etary fat that low. And the study did not examine the ef- Tony Cenicola/ The New York Times Maybe You’re Not What You Eat Yet another study upends what Americans thought they knew about diet and health. But will anyone listen? We seem to have a primal urge to control our destiny by controlling what we put in our mouths. Photographs by Lars Klove for The New York Times DIET DOUBTS Many food manufacturers use perceived health benefits to sell products. A new study calls into question how much benefit people can gain with diet. Continued on Page 6 News Analysis F1 N TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2006 By CORNELIA DEAN In Isaac Asimov’s collection of stories, “I, Robot,” robots rise up against humanity. In the classic sci-fi thriller “Blade Run- ner,” a bounty hunter must exterminate in- telligent androids that are both deadly and very unhappy with their creators. Even in 1920, when the playwright Karel Capek gave English speakers the Czech word “robot” (laborer) in his play “R.U.R.,” the androids at Rossum’s Universal Robots were bent on wiping out the human race. “If popular culture has taught us any- thing,” Daniel H. Wilson says, “it is that someday mankind must face and destroy the growing robot menace.” Luckily, Dr. Wilson is just the guy to help us do it. In his new book, “How to Survive a Robot Uprising,” Dr. Wilson offers detailed — and hilariously deadpan — advice on evading hostile swarms of robot insects (don’t try to fight — “loss of an individual robot is incon- sequential to the swarm”); outsmarting your “smart” house (be suspicious if the house suggests you test the microwave by putting your head in it); escaping un- manned ground vehicles (drive in circles — they’ll have a harder time tracking you); and surviving hand-to-hand combat with a humanoid (smear yourself with mud to dis- guise your distinctive human thermal signa- ture and go for the “eyes” — its cameras). If all else fails, reasoning with a robot may work, Dr. Wilson says, but emotional appeals will fall on deaf sensors. Should you prevail, he offers in a grim ad- dendum: “Have no mercy. Your enemy doesn’t.” But he is no foe of robots, Dr. Wilson said in a telephone interview from Portland, Ore., where he is living while he waits for Paramount to decide whether to make a sci- fi comedy out of the book, which it has op- tioned. A native of Tulsa, Okla., he earned his doc- Continued on Page 4 SCIENTIST AT PLAY Daniel Wilson If Robots Ever Get Too Smart, He’ll Know How to Stop Them ‘GO FOR THE EYES’ A new book offers ad- vice on dealing with a barrage of bots. Cheryl Gerber for The New York Times I Hear Marilyn Singing Cases: A Parkinson drug’s bizarre (but benign) side effect. By Mark Derr Page 5 Personal Health: Exercise Ways to break the habits of this sedentary society. By Jane E. Brody Page 7 When Mothers and Daughters Talk A conversation on conversations, with Deborah Tannen. By Claudia Dreifus Page 2 Model City Reconstructing what happened when New Orleans’s levees failed. By John Schwartz Page 3 As a young man, Abraham Lincoln experienced bouts of despair so pro- found that friends were concerned he might commit suicide. Ulysses S. Grant, the general under Lincoln who later rose to the presiden- cy, often avoided social occasions and retreated into alcohol. All told, almost half of American presidents from 1789 to 1974 had, suf- fered from a mental illness at some point in life, according to a recent analy- sis of biographical sources by psychia- trists at Duke University Medical Cen- ter. And more than half of those presi- dents, the study found, struggled with their symptoms — most often depres- sion — while in office. “What is hopeful about this is that it is evidence that people can suffer from de- pression or other mental problems and still function at a presidential level, if not at their best,” said Dr. Jonathan Da- vidson, who, along with Dr. Kathryn Connor and Dr. Marvin Swartz, cata- loged symptoms from presidential pa- pers and biographies, and identified those disabling enough to qualify as dis- orders. They reported their findings in the current issue of The Journal of Ner- vous and Mental Disease. The authors acknowledge the hazards and uncertainties of diagnosing from such a distance. But the lifetime rate of mental illness they found in these 37 pres- idents is identical to that found in some surveys of the American population. In some cases, they included problems not usually thought of as mental dis- orders: William Howard Taft, the 27th president, for example, suffered from difficulty breathing while asleep — most likely because of a disorder known as sleep apnea — and often dozed off during important meetings. In most cases the disorders recall the men: the indefatigable Theodore Roosevelt and Lyndon B. Johnson showed symptoms of the manic energy that characterizes bipolar disorder; Richard Nixon drank heavily through the Watergate period; and Calvin Cool- idge plunged into a pit of depression af- ter his teenage son died of an infection. The report also serves as a caution against judging troubled souls too early. “To contemporaries well acquainted with Madison, Hayes, Grant and Wil- son,” the authors write, “it must have appeared that, as young men, these indi- viduals were doing very little with their lives.” BENEDICT CAREY Theodore Roosevelt Association, via Associated Press; Mathew Brady, 1864 MEN OF DESPAIR? Presidents Theodore Roosevelt, Ulys- ses S. Grant and Calvin Coolidge all showed signs of mental illness. FINDINGS West Wing Blues: It’s Lonely at the Top
-
Upload
jodi-miller -
Category
Documents
-
view
41 -
download
1
Transcript of Nxxx,2006-02-14,F,001,Bs-C-4C,E1.0
C M Y KID NAME: Nxxx,2006-02-14,F,001,Bs-4C,E1 YELO MAG CYAN BLK 3 7 15 25 50 75 85 93 97
By GINA KOLATA
In an early 19th-century best seller, a famous foodwriter offered a cure for obesity and chronic disease: alow-carbohydrate diet.
The notion that what you eat shapesyour medical fate has exerted a strongpull throughout history. And its appealcontinues to this day, medical historiansand researchers say.
“It’s one of the great principles — no, more than prin-ciples, canons — of American culture to suggest thatwhat you eat affects your health,” says James Morone,a professor of political science at Brown University.
“It’s this idea that you control your own destiny andthat it’s never too late to reinvent yourself,” he said.
“Vice gets punished and virtue gets rewarded. If youeat or drink or inhale the wrong things you get sick. Ifnot, you get healthy.”
That very American canon, he and others say, may inpart explain the criticism and disbelief that last weekgreeted a report that a low-fat diet might not preventbreast cancer, colon cancer or heart disease, after all.
The report, from a huge federal study called theWomen’s Health Initiative, raises important questionsabout how much even the most highly motivated people
can change their eating habits and whether the rela-tively small changes that they can make really have asubstantial effect on health.
The study, of nearly 49,000 women who were random-ly assigned to follow a low-fat diet or not, found that thediet did not make a significant difference in develop-ment of the two cancers or heart disease. But therewere limitations to the findings: the women assigned tothe low-fat diet, despite extensive and expensive coun-seling, never reached their goal of eating 20 percent fatin the first year —only 31 percent of them got their di-etary fat that low. And the study did not examine the ef-
Tony Cenicola/The New York Times
Maybe You’re NotWhat You Eat
Yet another study upends what
Americans thought they knew
about diet and health. But will
anyone listen? We seem to
have a primal urge to
control our destiny by
controlling what we
put in our mouths.
Photographs by Lars Klove for The New York Times
DIET DOUBTS Many food manufacturers useperceived health benefits to sell products. Anew study calls into question how muchbenefit people can gain with diet.Continued on Page 6
NewsAnalysis
F1N
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2006
By CORNELIA DEAN
In Isaac Asimov’s collection of stories, “I,Robot,” robots rise up against humanity.
In the classic sci-fi thriller “Blade Run-ner,” a bounty hunter must exterminate in-telligent androids that are both deadly andvery unhappy with their creators.
Even in 1920, when the playwright KarelCapek gave English speakers the Czechword “robot” (laborer) in his play “R.U.R.,”the androids at Rossum’s Universal Robotswere bent on wiping out the human race.
“If popular culture has taught us any-thing,” Daniel H. Wilson says, “it is thatsomeday mankind must face and destroythe growing robot menace.” Luckily, Dr.Wilson is just the guy to help us do it.
In his new book, “How to Survive a RobotUprising,” Dr. Wilson offers detailed — andhilariously deadpan — advice on evadinghostile swarms of robot insects (don’t try tofight — “loss of an individual robot is incon-sequential to the swarm”); outsmartingyour “smart” house (be suspicious if thehouse suggests you test the microwave byputting your head in it); escaping un-manned ground vehicles (drive in circles —they’ll have a harder time tracking you);and surviving hand-to-hand combat with ahumanoid (smear yourself with mud to dis-guise your distinctive human thermal signa-ture and go for the “eyes” — its cameras).
If all else fails, reasoning with a robotmay work, Dr. Wilson says, but emotionalappeals will fall on deaf sensors.
Should you prevail, he offers in a grim ad-dendum: “Have no mercy. Your enemydoesn’t.”
But he is no foe of robots, Dr. Wilson saidin a telephone interview from Portland,Ore., where he is living while he waits forParamount to decide whether to make a sci-fi comedy out of the book, which it has op-tioned.
A native of Tulsa, Okla., he earned his doc-Continued on Page 4
S C I E N T I S T A T P L A Y
Daniel Wilson
If Robots Ever Get Too Smart,
He’ll Know How to Stop Them
‘GO FOR THE EYES’ A new book offers ad-vice on dealing with a barrage of bots.
Cheryl Gerber for The New York Times
I Hear Marilyn SingingCases: A Parkinson drug’s bizarre
(but benign) side effect.
By Mark Derr Page 5
Personal Health: ExerciseWays to break the habits of this
sedentary society.
By Jane E. Brody Page 7
When Mothers and Daughters TalkA conversation on conversations,
with Deborah Tannen.
By Claudia Dreifus Page 2
Model CityReconstructing what happened when
New Orleans’s levees failed.
By John Schwartz Page 3
As a young man, Abraham Lincolnexperienced bouts of despair so pro-found that friends were concerned hemight commit suicide.
Ulysses S. Grant, the general underLincoln who later rose to the presiden-cy, often avoided social occasions andretreated into alcohol.
All told, almost half of Americanpresidents from 1789 to 1974 had, suf-fered from a mental illness at somepoint in life, according to a recent analy-sis of biographical sources by psychia-trists at Duke University Medical Cen-ter. And more than half of those presi-dents, the study found, struggled withtheir symptoms — most often depres-sion — while in office.
“What is hopeful about this is that it isevidence that people can suffer from de-pression or other mental problems andstill function at a presidential level, ifnot at their best,” said Dr. Jonathan Da-vidson, who, along with Dr. KathrynConnor and Dr. Marvin Swartz, cata-loged symptoms from presidential pa-pers and biographies, and identifiedthose disabling enough to qualify as dis-orders. They reported their findings inthe current issue of The Journal of Ner-vous and Mental Disease.
The authors acknowledge the hazardsand uncertainties of diagnosing fromsuch a distance. But the lifetime rate ofmental illness they found in these 37 pres-idents is identical to that found in somesurveys of the American population.
In some cases, they included problemsnot usually thought of as mental dis-orders: William Howard Taft, the 27thpresident, for example, suffered fromdifficulty breathing while asleep —most likely because of a disorder knownas sleep apnea — and often dozed offduring important meetings.
In most cases the disorders recall themen: the indefatigable TheodoreRoosevelt and Lyndon B. Johnsonshowed symptoms of the manic energythat characterizes bipolar disorder;Richard Nixon drank heavily throughthe Watergate period; and Calvin Cool-idge plunged into a pit of depression af-ter his teenage son died of an infection.
The report also serves as a cautionagainst judging troubled souls too early.“To contemporaries well acquaintedwith Madison, Hayes, Grant and Wil-son,” the authors write, “it must haveappeared that, as young men, these indi-viduals were doing very little with theirlives.” BENEDICT CAREY
Theodore Roosevelt Association, via Associated Press; Mathew Brady, 1864
MEN OF DESPAIR? PresidentsTheodore Roosevelt, Ulys-ses S. Grant and CalvinCoolidge all showed signsof mental illness.
F I N D I N G S
West Wing Blues: It’s Lonely at the Top
