About five days ago, my back started tightening in the middle region. A couple of days ago, I was trapped in my bed, unable to move. 【小题1】 So here I was, determined to make an appointment at an Eastern medicine school for my first experience getting acupuncture.

It was a wonderful experience. The room looked no different from a Western medicine examination room. 【小题2】 However, it differed from Western medicine in the way they sought to treat me.

【小题3】 I was asked about things in my entire life, from my sleep patterns to my physical processes, to current life stressors. Then the medical student discussed a plan with the doctor. They came back, asked me to lie on my stomach, and started placing the needles. The needles didn’t hurt. I could barely feel their presence.

After they placed the needles, the doctor asked me how I felt. I told her I couldn’t feel any pain.【小题4】 So they left me in the room with a heat lamp for about twenty minutes. This “baking” time was amazing. It was subtle, but strong. 【小题5】 When the appointment was over, I felt super relaxed, almost drunk. I would highly recommend this treatment option for anybody who thinks they may benefit.

Patients in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease often struggle to remember recently learned information, meaning they forget things like important appointments or where they left their keys. But it seems that these memories are not lost. They are still filed away in the brain somewhere; they just can’t be easily accessed.

Now, researchers at MIT have developed a means of getting back memories in mice suffering from Alzheimer’s. The method relies on a technique that uses light to control genetically modified neurons (转基因神经元). Currently it is too early to be used in human trials as it involves inserting light emitting (发光) equipment into the subjects’ brains, but the same principles still apply, the researchers said.

“The important point is that this is evidence of concept. That is, even if a memory seems to be gone, it is still there. It’s a matter of how to get it back, ” said senior researcher Susumu Tonegawa.

The team took two groups of mice, one genetically engineered to develop Alzheimer’s and one healthy. They then placed them into a room and gave them a mild electric shock. All of the mice showed fear when put back in an hour later. When placed in the room a third time several days later, the Alzheimer’s mice acted normally. They had forgotten the shock.

The researchers were then able to bring back the memory of the shock by activating (激活) the cells in which the memories were stored. Even when the mice were put into an unfamiliar room, they showed fear when the cells associated with the shock were activated.

“Short­term memory seems to be normal. But for long­term memory, these early Alzheimer’s mice seem to be damaged, ” said lead researcher Dheeraj Roy. “Or rather, there is indeed an access problem to the information.”

At the start of nearly every doctor's visit, chances are that you will be asked to get your weight measured for that day's exam record - and you would be hard-pressed to find a person whose physician has not brought up his or her weight at some point, and doctors' recommendations to drop pounds are still extremely common. But many conversations around weight have become a barrier, not a help, in the campaign to make people healthier.

Higher body masses are associated with increased risk for hypertension, diabetes and coronary disease. Many studies have shown that heavier people are at higher risk for these illnesses. But the big picture is not the whole picture. Researchers have identified a smaller group of overweight people considered to be ''metabolically (新陈代谢地) healthy'' - meaning they do not exhibit high blood pressure or other diseases.

Research over the past two decades has shown that health professionals have negative attitudes toward fat people. Some refuse to see these patients at all, as the South Florida Sun Sentinel reported in 2011. Such practices keep people from regular annual exams and prevent the finding of serious underlying conditions. Not only that but doctors' appointments with fat patients are shorter on average, and they routinely use negative words in their medical histories of such people. And research suggests that the stress of being a heavy person may cause metabolic changes that may lead to more poor health outcomes.

To achieve better health outcomes, doctors should focus on behaviors that have proven positive outcomes for health instead of the weight-centric health care practice. And people of all sizes are entitled to evidence-based factors that empower them and keep them healthy. Lifestyle changes, such as eating fruits, vegetables and whole grains, along with increased physical activity, can improve blood pressure, levels and sensitivity - often independently of changes in body weight.