Pain, like the nervous system itself: “A Name for Their Pain,” Nature, July 14, 2016; Foreman, Nation in Pain, 22–24.

  the word is a corruption of the French demi-craine: “Headache,” American Journal of Medicine, Jan. 2018; “Why Migraines Strike,” Scientific American, Aug. 2008; “A General Feeling of Disorder,” New York Review of Books, April 23, 2015.

  “Donnerwetter, so it has”: Dormandy, Worst of Evils, 483.

  But equally pain is decreased: Nature Neuroscience, April 2008, 314.

  Just having a sympathetic and loving partner: Wolf, Body Quantum, vii.

  In one experiment done by Tracey: Nature Neuroscience, April 2008, 314.

  about 40 percent of adult Americans: Foreman, Nation in Pain, 3.

  Altogether chronic pain affects more people: “The Neuroscience of Pain,” New Yorker, July 2, 2018.

  “deaf and blind to other people”: Daudet, In the Land of Pain, 15.

  “The drugs we have relieve 50 percent”: “Name for Their Pain.”

  Between 1999 and 2014, by one estimate: Chemistry World, July 2017, 28; Economist, Oct. 28, 2017, 41; “Opioid Nation,” New York Review of Books, Dec. 6, 2018.

  opioid fatalities have led to a rise in organ donations: “The Disturbing Reasons Behind the Spike in Organ Donations,” Washington Post, April 17, 2018.

  one doctor got good results: “Feel the Burn,” London Review of Books, Sept. 30, 1999.

  Even so, 59 percent of those tested: “Honest Fakery,” Nature, July 14, 2016.

  Placebos don’t shrink tumors: Marchant, Cure, 22.

  CHAPTER 20: WHEN THINGS GO WRONG: DISEASES

  In the autumn of 1948, people in the small city: “The Post-viral Syndrome: A Review,” Journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners, May 1987; “A Disease Epidemic in Iceland Simulating Poliomyelitis,” American Journal of Epidemiology 2 (1950); “Early Outbreaks of ‘Epidemic Neuromyasthenia,’ ” Postgraduate Medical Journal, Nov. 1978; Annals of Medicine, New Yorker, Nov. 27, 1965.

  in 1970, after several years of quiescence: “Epidemic Neuromyasthenia: A Syndrome or a Disease?,” Journal of the American Medical Association, March 13, 1972.

  West Nile virus surfaced in New York: Crawford, Deadly Companions, 18.

  Two hundred years later, a very similar illness: “Two Spots and a Bubo,” London Review of Books, April 21, 2005.

  Bourbon virus, as it became known: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Emerging Infectious Diseases Journal, May 2015; “Researchers Reveal That Killer ‘Bourbon Virus’ Is of the Rare Thogotovirus Genus,” Science Times, Feb. 22, 2015; “Mysterious Virus That Killed a Farmer in Kansas Is Identified,” New York Times, Dec. 23, 2014.

  “Unless doctors are doing laboratory tests”: “Deadly Heartland Virus Is Much More Common Than Scientists Thought,” National Public Radio, Sept. 16, 2015.

  Within a few days, 34 were dead: “In Philadelphia 30 Years Ago, an Eruption of Illness and Fear,” New York Times, Aug. 1, 2006.

  Legionella is widely distributed in soil: “Coping with Legionella,” Public Health, Nov. 14, 2000.

  Much the same thing happened: “Early Outbreaks of ‘Epidemic Neuromyasthenia.’ ”

  Whether or not a disease becomes epidemic: New Scientist, May 9, 2015, 30–33.

  A successful virus is one: “Ebola Wars,” New Yorker, Oct. 27, 2014.

  the number of viruses in birds and mammals: “The Next Plague Is Coming. Is America Ready?,” Atlantic, July—Aug. 2018.

  “a catastrophe from which we”: “Stone Soup,” New Yorker, July 28, 2014.

  a shadowy cook and housekeeper: Grove, Tapeworms, Lice, and Prions, 334–35; New Yorker, Jan. 26, 1935; American National Biography, s.v. “Mallon, Mary.”

  The United States has an estimated 5,750 cases each year: CDC figures.

  The death toll in the twentieth century: “The Awful Diseases on the Way,” New York Review of Books, June 9, 2016.

  enough to infect seventeen others: “Bugs Without Borders,” New York Review of Books, Jan. 16, 2003.

  In 2014, someone looking through a storage area: U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “Media Statement on Newly Discovered Smallpox Specimens,” July 8, 2014.

  Inmates were given pickaxes: “Phrenic Crush,” London Review of Books, Oct. 2003.

  she and other inmates were allowed visits: MacDonald, Plague and I, 45.

  Some boroughs of London now have rates: “Killer of the Poor Now Threatens the Wealthy,” Financial Times, March 24, 2014.

  The only treatment, even now: Economist, April 22, 2017, 54.

  Bilharz bandaged the pupae of cercariae worms: Kaplan, What’s Eating You?, ix.

  a protein called huntingtin: Mukherjee, Gene, 280–86.

  At least forty have been linked to type 2 diabetes: Nature, May 17, 2012, S10.

  “Why a temperate climate”: Bainbridge, Beyond the Zonules of Zinn, 77–78.

  Only about two hundred cases of the disorder: Davies, Life Unfolding, 197.

  For 90 percent of rare diseases: MIT Technology Review, Nov.—Dec. 2018, 44.

  “You are most likely going to die”: Lieberman, Story of the Human Body, 351.

  only 36 percent less likely to get flu: “The Ghost of Influenza Past and the Hunt for a Universal Vaccine,” Nature, Aug. 8, 2018.

  CHAPTER 21: WHEN THINGS GO VERY WRONG: CANCER

  Diphtheria, smallpox, and tuberculosis: Bourke, Fear, 298–99.

  “The early history of cancer”: Mukherjee, Emperor of All Maladies, 44–45.

  Half of men over sixty: Welch, Less Medicine, More Health, 71.

  A survey of physicians in America: “What to Tell Cancer Patients,” Journal of the American Medical Association 175, no. 13 (1961).

  Surveys in Britain at about the same time: Smith, Body, 330.

  “That’s why cancers aren’t contagious”: Interview with Dr. Josef Vormoor, Princess Máxima Center, Utrecht, the Netherlands, Jan. 18–19, 2019.

  Between birth and the age of forty: Herold, Stem Cell Wars, 10.

  More than half of cases: Nature, March 24, 2011, S16.

  How exactly weight tips the balance: “The Fat Advantage,” Nature, Sept. 15, 2016; “The Link Between Cancer and Obesity,” Lancet, Oct. 14, 2017.

  The first person to notice a connection: British Journal of Industrial Medicine, Jan. 1957, 68–70; “Percivall Pott, Chimney Sweeps, and Cancer,” Education in Chemistry, March 11, 2006.

  More than eighty thousand chemicals: “Toxicology for the 21st Century,” Nature, July 8, 2009.

  Although no one can say to what extent: “Cancer Prevention,” Nature, March 24, 2011, S22—S23.

  In the face of opposition: Armstrong, Gene That Cracked the Cancer Code, 53, 27–29.

  Altogether, it has been estimated, pathogens: “The Awful Diseases on the Way,” New York Review of Books, June 9, 2016.

  About 10 percent of men: Timmermann, History of Lung Cancer, 6–7.

  There is some evidence that his wife: Baylor University Medical Center Proceedings, Jan. 2012.

  the concept of the radical mastectomy: American National Biography, s.v. “Halsted, William Stewart”; “A Very Wide and Deep Dissection,” New York Review of Books, Sept. 20, 2001; Beckhard and Crane, Cancer, Cocaine, and Courage, 111–12.

  He lost most of his jaw and parts of his skull: Jorgensen, Strange Glow, 94.

  In 1920, four million radium watches: Ibid., 87–88.

  “he was so badly disfigured”: Ibid., 123.

  Mrs. Lawrence’s cancer went into remission: Goodman, McElligott, and Marks, Useful Bodies, 81–82.

  It was subsequently discovered: American National Biography, s.v. “Lawrence, John Hundale.”

  From this, it was realized: Armstrong, Gene That Cracked the Cancer Code, 53, 253–54; Nature, Jan. 12, 2017, 154.

  The breakthrough moment was in 1968: “Childhood Leukemia Was Practically Untreatable Until Don Pinkel and St. Jude Hospital Found a Cure,” Smithsonian, July 2016.

  A significant fraction of childhood cancer deaths: Nature, March 30, 2017, 608–9.

  2.4 million fewer people have died: “We’re Making Real Progress Against Cancer. But You May Not Know It if You’re Poor,” Vox, Feb. 2, 2018.

  no more than 2 to 3 percent of cancer research money: Nature, March 24, 2011, S4.

  CHAPTER 22: MEDICINE GOOD AND BAD

  whatever he learned about soil fertility: “The White Plague,” New York Review of Books, May 26, 1994.

  Selman Waksman was awarded the Nobel Prize: Literary Review, Oct. 2012, 47–48; Guardian, Nov. 2, 2002.

  By one reckoning, life expectancy on Earth: Economist, April 29, 2017, 53.

  “At some point between 1900 and 1912”: Nature, March 24, 2011, 446.

  a British epidemiologist named Thomas McKeown: Wootton, Bad Medicine, 270–71.

  McKeown’s thesis attracted a good deal: American Journal of Public Health, May 2002, 725–29; “White Plague”; Le Fanu, Rise and Fall of Modern Medicine, 314–15.

  males in the East End of Glasgow: “Between Victoria and Vauxhall,” London Review of Books, June 1, 2017.

  For every 400 middle-aged Americans: Economist, March 25, 2017, 76.

  Among rich countries, America is at or near: “Why America Is Losing the Health Race,” New Yorker, June 11, 2014.

  Even sufferers of cystic fibrosis: “Stunning Gap: Canadians with Cystic Fibrosis Outlive Americans by a Decade,” Stat, March 13, 2017.

  One-fifth of all the money: “The US Spends More on Health Care Than Any Other Country,” Washington Post, Dec. 27, 2016.

  “Even wealthy Americans are not isolated”: “Why America Is Losing the Health Race.”

  A U.S. teenager is twice as likely to be killed: “American Kids Are 70% More Likely to Die Before Adulthood Than Kids in Other Rich Countries,” Vox, Jan. 8, 2018.

  A helmeted rider is 70 percent: Insurance Institute for Highway Safety figures.

  An angiogram, a survey by The New York Times found: “The $2.7 Trillion Medical Bill,” New York Times, June 1, 2013.

  One commonly accepted yardstick: “Health Spending,” OECD Data, data.oecd.org.

  when 160 gynecologists were asked: Jorgensen, Strange Glow, 298.

  “most doctors take money or gifts”: “Drug Companies and Doctors: A Story of Corruption,” New York Review of Books, Jan. 15, 2009.

  “they just had better blood-pressure numbers”: “When Evidence Says No but Doctors Say Yes,” Atlantic, Feb. 22, 2017.

  But when the same drugs were tried on humans: “Frustrated Alzheimer’s Researchers Seek Better Lab Mice,” Nature, Nov. 21, 2018.

  So for most people there is: “Aspirin to Prevent a First Heart Attack or Stroke,” NNT, Jan. 8, 2015, www.thennt.com.

  low-dose aspirin actually is not effective: National Institute for Health Research press release, July 16, 2018.

  CHAPTER 23: THE END

  more people globally died: Nature, Feb. 2, 2012, 27.

  “Nearly a third of Americans who die”: Economist, April 29, 2017, 11.

  In 1940, that probability was reached: “Special Report on Aging,” Economist, July 8, 2017.

  if we found a cure for all cancers tomorrow: Economist, Aug. 13, 2016, 14.

  Of nothing is that more true: Hayflick interview, Nautilus, Nov. 24, 2016.

  “For every year of added life”: Lieberman, Story of the Human Body, 242.

  In the United States, the elderly constitute: Davis, Beautiful Cure, 139.

  Zhores Medvedev, a Russian biogerontologist: “Rethinking Modern Theories of Ageing and Their Classification,” Anthropological Review 80, no. 3 (2017).

  He discovered that cultured human stem cells: “The Disparity Between Human Cell Senescence In Vitro and Lifelong Replication In Vivo,” Nature Biotechnology, July 1, 2002.

  A study by geneticists at the University of Utah: University of Utah Genetic Science Learning Center report, “Are Telomeres the Key to Aging and Cancer?”

  “If all aging was due to telomeres”: “You May Have More Control over Aging Than You Think…,” Stat, Jan. 3, 2017.

  Most of us would almost certainly: Harman obituary, New York Times, Nov. 28, 2014.

  “It is a massive racket”: “Myths That Will Not Die,” Nature, Dec. 17, 2015; “No Truth to the Fountain of Youth,” Scientific American, Dec. 29, 2008.

  “antioxidant supplementation did not lower”: “The Free Radical Theory of Aging Revisited,” Antioxidants and Redox Signaling 19, no. 8 (2013).

  After the age of forty, the volume of blood: Nuland, How We Die, 53.

  At least two species of whales: Naked Scientists, podcast, Feb. 7, 2017.

  Two principal theories have been advanced: Bainbridge, Middle Age, 208–11.

  It is a myth, incidentally, that menopause: Ibid., 199.

  A study by the Albert Einstein College of Medicine: Scientific American, Sept. 2016, 58.

  only about one person in ten thousand: “The Patient Talks Back,” New York Review of Books, Oct. 23, 2008.

  The Gerontology Research Group: “Keeping Track of the Oldest People in the World,” Smithsonian, July 8, 2014.

  Costa Ricans have only about one-fifth: Marchant, Cure, 206–11.

  she might have been suffering: Literary Review, Aug. 2016, 35.

  about 30 percent of elderly people: “Tau Protein—Not Amyloid—May Be Key Driver of Alzheimer’s Symptoms,” Science, May 11, 2016.

  Virtuous living doesn’t eliminate: “Our Amazingly Plastic Brains,” Wall Street Journal, Feb. 6, 2015.

  In Britain, dementias cost the National Health Service: Inside Science, BBC Radio 4, Dec. 1, 2016.

  Alzheimer’s drugs have a 99.6 percent failure rate: Chemistry World, Aug. 2014, 8.

  Every day, around the world 160,000 people die: World Health Organization statistics.

  A separate study found evidence: Journal of Palliative Medicine 17, no. 3 (2014).

  Most dying people lose any desire: “What It Feels Like to Die,” Atlantic, Sept. 9, 2016.

  Agonal breathing, in which the sufferer: “The Agony of Agonal Respiration: Is the Last Gasp Necessary?,” Journal of Medical Ethics, June 2002.

  cancer sufferers receiving palliative care: Economist, April 29, 2017, 55.

  “One review found that”: Hatch, Snowball in a Blizzard, 7.

  “A man’s corpse looks as though”: Nuland, How We Die, 122.

  Some organs function longer than others: “Rotting Reactions,” Chemistry World, Sept. 2016.

  decomposition in a sealed coffin: “What’s Your Dust Worth?,” London Review of Books, April 14, 2011.

  The average grave is visited: Literary Review, May 2013, 43.

  A century ago, only about one person in a hundred: “What’s Your Dust Worth?”

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