As a lover of Bosnian medical lore, I took note of this!

I admit I'm not a regular reader of the New England Journal of Medicine, but this is a new one on me.

I went with a reporter here on an assignment to the local museum where there is an exhibition of Algerian heritage jewelry, beautiful stuff. Anyway, the setting prompted her to gell me that men can't wear gold jewelry.

And I say sure, I know, the Koran does not allow men to wear gold as a way to boast about personal wealth (although, as my cynical friend Dwayne points out, 24-acre palaces seem to be OK).

But no, she says, there are health reasons too for the ban. Men who wear gold get cancer.

What?

I immediately think of wedding rings and wonder why there aren't more stricken grooms in the world, a lovely thought.

It's OK for women to wear gold, agrees our translator, because their hormones are different. Apparently it is the combination of gold and testosterone that is carcinogenic? I note here that our translator is a Muslim man wearing a gold chain and a ring. However, he also smokes so he plainly has no fear of cancer.

The photographer chimes in at my skeptical guffawing that yes, there's a study that proves the link between gold and cancer in men. It's just come out.

I actually checked gold, men and cancer on the Internet after this conversation. The only links I found were about hopes that nano-pieces of gold might be a good treatment against cancer.

If anyone has heard differently and can show me this is not North African urban legend, please let me know.