Approximately 2,000 medical studies were conducted in the year 2000–and there’s still no cure for cancer. But who’s complaining? The news out of medical science this year was often encouraging. Then again it was often worrisome, frequently baffling, or sometimes all of the above.
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The graph below shows a year’s worth of highs and lows from the world of medicine. If it proves anything, it proves that the one factor common to practically all illness is this: if you have it, or there’s a possibility of getting it, somebody, somewhere, is studying it.
7/25: Life expectancy rises to 76.7 years, a record.
12/5: Experimental pill for leukemia (Glivec) causes remission in more than 90 percent of patients.
7/10: Alzheimer’s increasing: epidemic feared.
12/5: Gonorrhea rate rises 9 percent between 1997 and 1999, Chicago among “worst-rate” cities.
6/13: Study shows children are more creative when parents aren’t around.
