Dr. Jerome Groopman

Dr. Jerome Groopman, Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, Chief of Experimental Medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and staff writer for The New Yorker, explains new approaches to Alzheimer’s research for this week’s Please Explain. Three decades of Alzheimer’s research has brought few results in changing the course of the disease, and there have been few developments in drugs to reverse or slow cognitive decline. In his latest article, “Before Night Falls,” in the June 24 issue of The New Yorker, he looks at the potential of new studies.

Dr. Jerome Groopman and Dr. Pamela Hartzband explain how we can cut through the confusion caused by the health-care system, the media, and gaps in our own reasoning to make our own best medical decisions. In Your Medical Mind: How to Decide What Is Right for You Dr. Groopman, a New Yorker writer and an oncologist who guides his patients through life-or-death decisions, and Dr. Hartzband, an endocrinologist and educator at Harvard Medical School, help chart a clear path through the sea of confusion created by doctors' recommendations, dissenting expert opinions, confusing statistics, conflicting media reports, the advice of friends, claims on the Internet, and a steady stream of drug company ads.

Some 80,000 chemicals are on the market and immediately available to Americans; many of these chemicals are manufactured for use in our daily lives, including as food additives. According to a recent report released by President Obama's Cancer Panel, we should at least be "concerned" about the issue of carcinogens in the environment we live in. But what exactly should we worry about, and how can we reduce our exposure?