Wednesday, December 30, 2009

MEDICAL IMAGING PHYSICS By WILLIAM.R.HENDEE

Book overview This comprehensive publication covers all aspects of image formation in modern medical imaging modalities, from radiography, fluoroscopy, and computed tomography, to magnetic resonance imaging and ultrasound.  It addresses the techniques and instrumentation used in the rapidly changing field of medical imaging.  Now in its fourth edition, this text provides the reader with the tools necessary to be comfortable with the physical principles, equipment, and procedures used in diagnostic imaging, as well as appreciate the capabilities and limitations of the technologies.

Medical Imaging Physics covers all aspects of image formation in modern medical imaging modalities, from radiography, fluoroscopy, and computed tomography, to magnetic resonance imaging and ultrasound.

Medical Imaging Physics addresses the techniques and instrumentation used in the rapidly changing field of medical imaging.

Topics covered include:

* Digital x-ray imaging
* Doppler ultrasound
* Helical CT scanning
* Accumulation and analysis of nuclear data
* Experimental radiobiology
* Radiation protection and safety
* and contains over 200 figures

Medical Imaging Physics provides the reader with the tools necessary to be comfortable with the physical principles, equipment, and procedures used in diagnostic imaging, as well as appreciate the capabilities and limitations of the technologies.

Contents

1. Imaging in Medicine
2. Structure of Matter
3. Radioactive Decay
4. Interactions of Radiation
5. Production of X Rays
6. Radiation Quantity and Quality
7. Interaction of X and y Rays in the Body
8. Radiation Detectors for Quantitative Measurement
9. Accumulation and Analysis of Nuclear Data
10. Computers and Image Networking
11. Probability and Statistics
12. Instrumentation for Nuclear Imaging
13. Radiography
14. Fluoroscopy
15. Computed Tomography
16. Influences of Image Quality
17. Analytic Description of Image Quality
18. Visual Perception
19. Ultrasound Waves
20. Ultrasound Transducers
21. Ultrasound Instrumentation
22. Doppler Effect
23. Fundamentals of Magnetic Resonance
24. Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Spectroscopy
25. Magnetic Resonance Imaging: Instrumentation, Bioeffects, and Site Planning
26. Experimental Radiobiology
27. Human Radiobiology
28. Protection from External Sources of Radiation
29. Protection from Internal Sources of Radiation
30. Future Developments in Medical Imaging

Appendixes:

* Review of Mathematics.
* Fourier Transform.
* Multiples and Prefixes.
* Masses in Atomic Mass Units for Neutral Atoms of Stable Nuclides and a Few Unstable Nuclides

Index

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Monday, December 28, 2009

A Typical ER Visit

Mom, dad and two-year old child. The child is the patient. He has a runny nose, mild cough, congestion, stuffy, cranky and intermittent fever. You know. A cold. I really try not to be impatient with parents. I figure they are doing the best they can and it’s hard taking responsibility for another human being, especially a tiny one. But this too falls into the category of “really?” Do you really think this needs to be seen in an emergency room at 10 pm?

I guess I was even more irritated because about two minutes after meeting this family, I discover they already went to their own doctor a day and a half earlier (almost exactly 36 hours.) Their doctor put the child on an antibiotic already. So they were seen, examined, evaluated and treated. But it has been a whopping 36 hours and omigod! The baby is not fully well and omigod! What should we do!

So let me tell you, from this small encounter, a few things that are wrong with our American health care system.

1. First off, medically speaking, this child did not need antibiotics. No way. No how. Wrong, wrong, wrong. This child had a cold, plain and simple. Colds are viruses. Viruses are not bacteria, so an antibiotic, which is another way of saying anti-bacterial, is utterly ineffective. Another time we will talk about the actual negative implications of taking antibiotics when not necessary. The implications are huge.

2. Their doctor undoubtedly put the patient on antibiotics for one of two reasons. Probably he was hurried, and it is so, so, so much quicker to write a ’script than talk to the patient, especially if the entire family does not speak English. Or he took the path of least resistance. Many if not most patients do not believe a doctor who says that antibiotics (or x-rays, or CT, or MRI or blood tests etc) are not indicated. So we doctors learn it is less painful to not have our knowledge base continually trivialized by patients. (I have been asked at least a thousand times in my career: “How do you know it is a cold?” Or similar.) Not to mention keeping the customer happy, even if it is not good for the customer. We Americans have decided that customer satisfaction is an important variable in health care. And customers want tests and prescriptions.

3. The other reason the doctor may have prescribed antibiotics is that the doctor has already internalized such a risk-averse view of the American healthcare environment, that s/he cannot even think competently anymore in this regard. Many doctors now practice as if the 1% chance of something is the likeliest possibility. As in “there may be a 1% chance this is bacterial, so I should treat it as such.” That’s pretty much how it goes, and it is hard to tease out anymore what the doctor really thinks is going on clinically, from his perception and fears about malpractice and patient satisfaction. The doctor is pretty unaware that these factors have wormed their way into his clinical judgment. Because after all, most doctors know a cold when they see it. Except apparently when they are wearing their own white coat!

4. No ordinary, typical people who have to pay actual money to go see the doctor would normally wasted their own time and money like this. In the rest of their lives, normal people make “normal” decisions, taking into account the time and money factor. But these days the norm is to make abnormally ridiculous decisions, which is to run to the doctor. In fact, if people hesitate to run to the doctor, their friends and family are quick to criticize. “Have you gone to the doctor?” So the over-utilization of really expensive resources, which the ER is, is rampant and “normal.” Literally, only one generation ago people did not act like this. Up until the mid-1980’s people did not do this. But then the law changed, and people have internalized that as the new “normal.” More about that law in another post.

[Via http://theerdoctor.wordpress.com]

The Virtual Visit May Expand Access to Doctors

Last time I posted something about technology that helps (?) nurses so this time I posted something about technology that makes access to physicians easier for the general public.  I think I like this, but I will have to think about it more.  I can see that this could have a practical application for minor illnesses and would save time and money for most people.  I can also see the doctor’s position–that there is no actual relationship with a patient and that they are reluctant to treat without face-to-face interaction.

However, the future is here with us now and we may all have to rethink our biases and our ideas of what health care is and is not.

——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————–

By CLAIRE CAIN MILLER Published: December 20, 2009


SAN FRANCISCO — Americans could soon be able to see a doctor without getting out of bed, in a modern-day version of the house call that takes place over the Web.

Enlarge This Image

Mark Graham for The New York Times

Dr. Christopher Crow conducting a simulated online exam in Plano, Tex.

Enlarge This Image

Mark Graham for The New York Times

A screen shot of that exam, which is not of an actual patient. Dr. Crow says the NowClinic system allows him to pick up on nonverbal cues, similar to an in-person visit.

OptumHealth, a division of UnitedHealth Group, the nation’s largest health insurer, plans to offer NowClinic, a service that connects patients and doctors using video chat, nationwide next year. It is introducing it state by state, starting with Texas, but not without resistance from state medical associations.

OptumHealth believes NowClinic will improve health care by ameliorating some of the stresses on the system today, like wasted time dealing with appointments and insurance claims, a shortage of primary care physicians and limited access to care for many patients.

But some doctors worry that the quality of care that patients receive will suffer if physicians neglect one of the most basic elements of health care: a physical exam.

“This is a pale imitation of a doctor visit,” said David Himmelstein, a primary care doctor and associate professor at Harvard Medical School. “It’s basically saying, ‘We’re going to give up any pretense of examining the patient and most of the nonverbal clues that doctors use.’ ”

Others, including Rashid Bashshur, director of telemedicine at the University of Michigan Health System, say online medicine is a less expensive way of providing routine care.

“The argument that you need the ‘laying on of hands’ to practice medicine is an old and tired argument that simply has no credibility,” he said. “There are two constants in medicine: change and resistance to change.”

Christopher Crow, a family physician in Plano, Tex., who used the system during its test period, said, “NowClinic gives you the ability to have that gut feel if something is wrong, in tone or facial expression or body language, that you have when you walk in the door with a patient.”

Many patients who do not have primary care physicians nearby use the emergency room for routine problems. Wait times for patients needing immediate attention have increased 40 percent, in part because of overcrowding, according to a study by Harvard Medical School and Cambridge Health Alliance.

In Texas, 180 counties do not have enough physicians, 70 percent of patients cannot obtain a same-day visit with their primary care doctor, and 79 percent of emergency room visits are for routine problems, according to OptumHealth.

“We are, through this technology, replenishing the pool of physicians and making them available to patients,” said Roy Schoenberg, chief executive of American Well, which created the system that OptumHealth is using.

For $45, anyone in Texas can use NowClinic, whether or not they are insured, by visiting NowClinic.com. Doctors hold 10-minute appointments and can file prescriptions, except for controlled substances. Eventually they will be able to view patients’ medical histories if they are available.

The introduction of NowClinic will be the first time that online care has been available nationwide, regardless of insurance coverage.

American Well’s service is also available to patients in Hawaii and Minnesota, through Blue Cross Blue Shield, and to some members of the military seeking mental health care, through TriWest Healthcare Alliance.

Some hospitals and technology companies provide similar services on a smaller scale, including Cisco, the networking equipment maker, which uses its videoconferencing technology to remotely connect employees with doctors. It is working with UnitedHealth Group to offer the service more broadly.

The service has encountered resistance in states where it is already available. Texas law requires that before doctors consult with patients or prescribe medicine online or over the phone, they form a relationship through means like a physical examination.

The Texas Medical Board, which regulates doctors in the state, is evaluating its telemedicine policies in light of new technologies. But Mari Robinson, executive director of the board, said that an online or telephone exam was inadequate if doctors and patients had not met in person and was “not allowed under our rules.”

After American Well’s service began in Hawaii last year, lawmakers passed legislation that allowed doctors and patients to establish a relationship online, though the Hawaii Medical Association opposed the bill.

“From our perspective, we still are a little bit concerned that a relationship can be established online with no prior relationship,” said April Troutman Donahue, the association’s executive director.

American Well and OptumHealth predict that health care professionals will adapt. “This is new technology, so you have a lot of code written that doesn’t take these medical technologies into account,” said Rob Webb, chief executive of OptumHealth Care Solutions.

Many patients seem ready to embrace the new technology. In a recent study, a Harvard research team at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center found that patients were comfortable with computers playing a central role in their health care and expected that the Web would substitute for face-to-face doctor visits for routine health problems.

You can view the original article here

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Friday, December 25, 2009

Merry Christmas: the same in any language

In any language, Merry Christmas means the same.  The reason for the season is the birth of a child in a manger. For Christians, this marks the day remembered as the birth of the Savior, Jesus, the Son of God.  For us all, let us seek to have a new year filled with love, tempered with common sense and belief in values.  Merry Christmas to all . . . obi jo and jomaxx

In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be enrolled. This was the first enrollment, when Quirinius was governor of Syria. And all went to be enrolled, each to his own city. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be enrolled with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. And while they were there, he time came for her to be delivered. And she gave birth to her first-born son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

- The Bible, Luke John 1:12

聖誕快樂     Vrolijke Kerstmis     Joyeux Noël     Frohe Weihnachten     Χαρούμενα Χριστούγεννα

Feliz Natal     즐거운 성탄     Buon Natale     メリークリスマス     С Рождеством Христовым     Feliz Navidad

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Wednesday, December 23, 2009

NHS Prescription / Homeopathy Remedies for Cold and Flu

昨日、バスから追い出され、雪の中を半時間歩いたせいか、ひきかけの風邪が悪化した。鼻がぐずぐずしてひどい鼻声になり、しょっちゅう鼻をかんでいる。風邪薬を買いに行きがてら、薬局で先日もらった処方箋薬も受け取る(上は以前使用しなかった処方箋)。イギリスでは、処方箋薬は無料。だから特に指定がなければ、価格の安いジェネリック医薬品が処方される。薬代は無料でも、処方箋料(NHS prescription charges)を一回につき£7.20払わなければいけない。なので、成分や薬効が変わらなれば、値段の安い、処方箋の要らない市販薬を勧められることもある。

少し前に街角でもらったフリーペーパー、The Epoch Times(大紀元:法輪功関連の新聞だそうだ。知らなかった!読んだのは英語版)に載っていた、新型インフルエンザに効くというホメオパシー・レメディーをBoots(ブーツ)で買っておいたので、風邪にも効くかなと使ってみた。ホメオパシーが盛んなイギリスでは、ブーツ等の普通の薬局で手に入る。最初に少しの喉の痛みを感じてから、風邪やインフルエンザのひきはじめに効くというAconite(Aconitum napellus:アコナイト、トリカブト/£4.99)を使用。その後数日間は、レメディーのせいか安静にしていたからかどうか分からないけれど、症状は悪化しなかった。風邪がひどくなった今日から、新型の初期流行に最も効果的だったというArsen alb(Arsenicum Album:アーセニカム、砒素/£4.99)が、鼻水を伴う風邪にも効くというので試している。

ホメオパシーは、科学的にその効果が証明されておらず、プラセボ効果以上に効き目はないと言われているのだが、イギリスでは£4000億の市場規模を誇るビジネス。レメディーを売っているブーツ自身、効果はさておき、売れるから取り扱っていると認めている。Mは超科学信奉者なので、ホメオパシーや代替療法は一切信用しない。共に薬剤師である両親も然り。私はというと、プラセボ効果でも何でも、効けばラッキーぐらいに思っている。また他に効果的な治療法や薬がなければ、民間療法でも何でも、すがりたくなる気持ちも分かる。さて、今使っているレメディーの効果はいかに?でも、あんまり効果がない場合に備えて、一応市販の風邪薬も買ってある。

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Probably because I was kicked out from the bus and forced to walk in snow for half an hour yesterday, my cold got worse. My nose is runny and my voice has changed, and I have been blowing my nose  all the time. So I went to a pharmacy to buy a cold medicine, and picked up my prescription drug as well (the prescription above is the unused one I got in the past). In UK, a prescription drug is free, but you pay NHS prescription charges for £7.20 (price from April 2009 to now). and usually a cheap generic medicine is given if you don’t choose others. A pharmacist often recommend to buy over-the-counter drug, if it is cheaper than prescription charge and if the ingredients and effectiveness are more or less the same with the prescription medicine.

I bought two homeopathy remedies from Boots, which supposedly effective for Swine flu, after I read the Epoch Times‘ (free paper founded by practitioners of the Falun Gong – I didn’t now it) article about it. First I had used Aconite (Aconitum napellus) , which can be helpful at the first sign of flu and cold symptoms. My condition had been the status quo for few days – I don’t know because of the effect of Aconite, or because I had been at home kept myself warm. Now my symptoms got worse and I started to take Arsen alb, which is “the most commonly indicated remedy for the H1N1 virus outbreak of early 2009,” as I read that it works for a blocked nose as well.

Homeopathy is not supported by modern scientific research, and it is said that there is little evidence the remedies work other than as a placebo. But homeopathy is £40 million industry in the UK, and Boots admits that they sell homeopathic remedies because “they sell, not because they work“. M believes only science, not homeopathy or alternative medicines – so do my parents who are both pharmacists. I myself don’t mind to try anything as long as it works and safe. I also understand people who find a hope in alternative medicines if there is no other cure. Let’s see if my homeopathic remedy works for me. I bought usual cold medicine as well, in case it doesn’t work at all.

下のビデオは、これを書いている時に偶然見た、グラクソ・スミスクライン社のBeecham(ビーチャム)風邪薬のTVコマーシャル。ちなみに、去年のHSBC銀行の広告でも相撲力士が起用された。肌色を濃くして、目を切れ長に修正した白人がモデルのこの広告が、日本人に対する侮辱的だと在住日本人の間でひんしゅくを買っているとの記事があったが、私個人としては,そんなに目くじらたてる程のことでもないと思うんだけれど。多かれ少なかれ、外国人の描き方にステレオタイプが入るのは仕方ないことだし、Mも日本のバラエティ等で「ガイジン」が面白おかしく取り上げられているのが不愉快だと言っている。文句を言う人は、人の振り見て我が振り直せ、というところですね。

The video below is the TV commercial of Beechams, the GlaxoSmithKline owned cold and flu remedy, that I happened to see on TV while I waswriting this entry. HSBC bank also used Sumo wrestler for their advertising last year. But HSBC was under fire as the campaign uses the image of a western man whose skin tone has been darkened and that make-up has been applied that appears to narrow his eyes, and it has upset Japanese living in UK, according to the Guardian article. Personally I don’t think it is a big deal – a portrayal of a foreigner is more or less based on a stereotype, not only Japanese. M complains that some Japanese TV programs make fun of ‘Gaijin’, foreigners in Japanese. At the end of the day, I think any country does the same, or otherwise it would be very boring if everything is goody-goody.

[Via http://everydaylifestyle.wordpress.com]

Monday, December 21, 2009

The Ear Infections Epidemic - The Truth Every Parent Needs to Know!


Dr. Maj adjusting young Samantha

Dr. Stephanie Maj answers the most pressing question in her pediatric practice: What is the cause of ear infections and what can we do to heal them without drugs or surgery?

Chicago-Ask any parent about ear infections, and you will likely hear one horror story after another. Ear infection or Otitis Media, is the most common reason for visits to the pediatrician’s office. In fact, visits to the pediatrician’s office for ear infections have increased over 150% from 1975 to 1990. It is estimated that over 30 million visits are made every year in an attempt to deal with this problem.

In my practice, we have an effective, safe solution to the problems plaguing parents. What we find is most parents fail to understand what is happening with these infections.

Otitis Media is the general name for several conditions affecting the middle ear. The most common symptoms are earache, a feeling of pressure, and perhaps difficulty hearing due to increased amounts of fluid. Teething often produces similar symptoms, therefore, the child should be carefully observed before jumping to any conclusions.

Historically, the treatment for ear infections has been antibiotics. This method of treatment has come under severe attack over the past several years for many reasons. One of the reasons, the overuse and over prescription of these antibiotics, has led to what is termed “antibiotic resistant bacteria”. These bacteria have “evolved” and changed so that the antibiotics no longer affect them. Because of this phenomenon, stronger and stronger antibiotics are being used, which is leading to more and more resistance. (http://tinyurl.com/yep3y33)

Another reason use of antibiotics has come under fire is because study after study has demonstrated that they are not effective. In other words, they do not work! This is why so many children are on one antibiotic after another, stronger and stronger each time. Sure, many times the infection will go away, but it quickly returns with a vengeance, and so begins the antibiotic roller coaster.

The reasons they continually reoccur is two-fold: First, antibiotics kill off most bacteria in the body including the helpful “good” bacteria our bodies need. This depletes our children’s natural immune system, making them vulnerable to many more infections of varying types.

Secondly, antibiotics merely attempt to treat the symptoms of ear infections, they do not address the actual cause and therefore the infections return.

The real question then is what is the cause of ear infections? The reality is that ear infections themselves are merely a symptom of a greater problem. The vast majority of them are secondary to a cold or another infection, which may be due to a depressed immune system.

The other more physical reason children suffer from ear infections is because of the actual anatomy of the young ear.

In children, the Eustachian tube is nearly horizontal, gradually acquiring a near 45-degree angle. This often slows draining of these tubes and with stagnant fluid, infection may appear.

The obvious question from most parents now is: what can we do? The answer lies in a new level of thinking.

As a chiropractor, my primary objective is to address the root cause of health problems. Treating symptoms, as mentioned earlier, has been proven unsuccessful at best. When dealing with your children and ear infections, my goal is to correct the actual cause, and to allow the body to function at its optimal potential. (http://tinyurl.com/ybqlymw)

There is a direct link between the nerves in the neck (the superior cervical ganglion), the muscles of the Eustachian tubes (tensor veli palatini) and the middle ear.

Let me explain: The middle ear drains any fluid through the Eustachian tubes. These tubes open and close through the action of a muscle and that muscle is controlled by a nerve. This nerve originates in the neck. When this nerve is not functioning normally, the tensor veli palatini muscle may go into spasm, which constricts the Eustachian tube, restricting drainage and causing fluid buildup in the middle ear. This fluid, combined with a stressed immune system, may result in an ear infection.

Ultimately then, this “nerve interference” can cause your children to suffer as they do. My job as a chiropractor is to detect this nerve interference called subluxation, and correct it. A subluxation is a misalignment of a bone in the spine that pinches, stretches or twists a nerve resulting in interference.

By correcting this interference, the child’s body is given the potential to heal and be well. With proper chiropractic care, your child will be able to live a life free from nerve interference, and free from unnecessary medications and antibiotics.

Chiropractic adjustments for children are very gentle and differ tremendously from the adult version. Imagine you are putting a contact in your eye or testing a tomato to see if it is ripe, that is the extent of the pressure used in these treatments. There is no twisting, popping or pulling involved.

Through advances in technology such as Surface EMG and Thermal Scans, a chiropractor can easily detect these subluxations and monitor their correction as well. This enables chiropractors to be accurate and objective, allowing you the best care possible.

A promising study published in the Journal of Clinical Chiropractic Pediatrics now indicates that there is a strong correlation between chiropractic adjustments and the resolution of ear infections. 332 children with chronic ear infections participated in the study. Each child, ranging in age from 27 days to 5 years, was given a series of chiropractic adjustments. The results show that close to 80% of the children in this study experienced NO ear infections within the six-month period following their initial visits. The six-month period included maintenance treatments every four to six weeks.

Correcting the cause through chiropractic has been shown to help over 80% of all children with ear infections.

Treating the symptoms of ear infections with antibiotics has proven to be ineffective. Give your children a fighting chance with chiropractic; it could change your lives!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dr. Stephanie A. Maj has been helping children and adults experience life at their maximum potential through Chiropractic for over 14 years. She is the author of the book, “You Can Be Well” and lectures throughout Chicago on a variety of health issues, and may be contacted at 773.528.8485. Community Chiropractic is located at 1442 W. Belmont, 1E Chicago, IL 60657. Her website is www.communitychiropractic.net.

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Friday, December 18, 2009

Anti-depressants 'up stroke risk'

Aspirin is prescribed for high cholesterol,it also causes intestinal bleeding.
Pain killers cause serious after effects.
Scans increase the risk to cancer.
Diuretics damage kidneys.
Cancer inducing genes identified now;yet we have already cured it.
Caffeine was perceived to be carcinogenic;now it reduces cancer risk also prevents heart disease.
Take any medicine, you have the same ambivalence.
Or take any prognosis-as many number of opinions as that of specialists.
Is Medicine a Science?
Post menopausal women who take anti-depressants face a small – but statistically significant – increased risk of a stroke, research suggests.
The US study was based on 136,293 women aged 50 to 79, who were followed for an average of six years.
Anti-depressant users were 45% more likely to have a stroke than women not taking the drugs.
The data, published in Archives of Internal Medicine, is taken from the Women’s Health Initiative Study.
When overall death rates were examined, those on anti-depressants were found to have a 32% higher risk of death from all causes during the study than non-users.
The researchers stressed that the overall risk of a stroke was relatively small. Even for women on anti-depressants, it was less than one in 200 chance in any given year.

You have to weigh the benefits that you get from these anti-depressants against the small increase in risk that we found in this study
Dr Sylvia Wassertheil-Smoller
Albert Einstein College of Medicine
However, they said that because so many women were taking anti-depressants the effect would be significant across the entire population.
It is not clear whether taking anti-depressants is solely responsible for the increased risk of a stroke.
Depression itself is known to be a risk factor for cardiovascular problems.
The researchers tried to take this into account in their analysis of the data – but could not rule out the possibility that it influenced the final results.
The study found no difference in stroke risk between the two major classes of anti-depressants, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) or tricyclic anti-depressants (TCAs).
However, the SSRIs did appear to convey a higher risk of hemorrhagic stroke caused by a bleed in the brain.
Lead researcher Dr Sylvia Wassertheil-Smoller, of Albert Einstein College of Medicine, stressed that treatment for depression was important, and that women should not stop taking prescribed medication without first consulting their doctor.
She said: “You have to weigh the benefits that you get from these antidepressants against the small increase in risk that we found in this study.”
Known links
The researchers said follow-up studies were needed before any firm conclusions could be drawn.
Dr Jordan Smoller, of Harvard Medical School, who also worked on the study, said: “We need to study this association more to determine exactly what it signifies.”
Joanne Murphy, for The Stroke Association stressed the study showed that overall risk for women taking anti-depressants was relatively small.
She said “We are already aware of links between depression and the risk of stroke and we are currently funding further studies to look into this.
“Everyone can help reduce their risk of stroke by making lifestyle changes, such as reducing their blood pressure, giving up smoking, reducing alcohol intake, improving their diet and getting plenty of exercise.”
Ellen Mason, of the British Heart Foundation, said: “Severe depression can be debilitating and even fatal, so it is important to weigh up any small increase in the risk of stroke with the benefits of treating depression.”
Bridget O’Connell, from the mental health charity Mind, said antidepressants produced a range of side effects that affected people in different ways.
She said: “Many people can experience huge benefits from taking antidepressants and it’s important they work with their GP to identify both the plus points and the drawbacks, and weigh up what treatment is best for them.”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8408783.stm

[Via http://ramanan50.wordpress.com]

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Pengmabuk

Bismillah

O you who have believed, indeed, intoxicants, gambling, [sacrificing on] stone alters [to other than Allah ], and divining arrows are but defilement from the work of Satan, so avoid it that you may be successful.

Al-Ma’idah 5:90

I read a very interesting post on alcohol in iLuvislam.com… Actually I wanted to talk about it to last week, but somehow I forgot about it… -.-’

I’m writing this for my Muslim friends who are drinking… I wish that they are reading this, but I highly doubt it…

Every Friday I’ll have a class on ‘Complex Nutrition in Sportsmen’… The whole course deals about how to ensure that athletes get enough nutrients depending on the type of sports… For example, we’re told about what’s good for endurance sportsman/woman and what’s good for power sports… We are also taught about diet, doping and drinking regimes… Which is very interesting, because I never thought that food and also drinks play a very very important (I knew they are important, but not as important as stressed in the class) role in sports… They even design the diet programs to be used from months before and up to 30 minutes before the competition!

And when talking about drinks, being in Czech Republic, of course they will mention about alcohol somewhere along the course… It’s to be expected, since Czech Republic is one of the countries with the highest alcohol consumption per-capita in the world (1st in terms of beer)… And as expected, the professor mentioned about the merits and demerits of alcohol… The presentation also mentioned that beer is a good thirst quencher… I couldn’t help but chuckle during the class…

Half full or half empty? Regardless, it’s the best thirst quencher…

If you want to know more about how can alcohol be bad to your health, please read the article I mentioned above… I won’t mention them here, as that would be unjust to the writer… Honestly, the article mentioned about Blood Brain Barrier, Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, which I think is impressive…

However the harm that drinkers are causing to their brains and livers are only part of the problem… Ever heard about secondary smokers? For alcohol, there are also secondary drinkers… Who are they? They are the people who died when hit by a drunk driver… They are the people who got to clean up the mess (puke, urine or whatever) in the bus next morning… They are the victims of household violence by people under the influence… They are the newborns born with cravings for alcohol…

With that, let’s all stay sober…

For those who love Google Earth, and want to see the effects of alcohol on the world, download this file (got from New Scientist.com)

[Via http://taknakbagitengok.wordpress.com]

Monday, December 14, 2009

Blood-sucking union

Literally.

At a time of year when blood donations are at their lowest levels and are the most urgently needed, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, SEIU’s sister union and member of Burger’s Change to Win labor coalition, took advantage of the opportunity to go on strike on December 4th against the American Red Cross Blood Services Penn-Jersey Region. Local 929 initiated the strike at midnight just as their contract expired. Hours later, the Red Cross was forced to take legal action when some strikers illegally blocked one blood delivery in particular
“the Red Cross says it had to inform union members that a two-year-old child’s life depended on our blood delivery before they would allow a Red Cross vehicle to exit the yard to get the necessary blood products to the hospital.”

[Via http://jeffreyquick.wordpress.com]

Shaken: Journey into the Mind of a Parkinson’s Patient

See how Deep-brain Stimulation works:

‘Most people know that Parkinson’s disease is a crippling neurodegenerative disorder. But what do Parkinson’s patients actually have to go through day after day? And what do such procedures as deep-brain stimulation (DBS)—currently the most effective surgical treatment for the disease—involve?

‘Shaken: Journey into the Mind of a Parkinson’s Patient answers these questions. The documentary follows Paul Schroder, who was diagnosed with the disease when he was in his 30s and who, after growing increasingly debilitated, decided to undergo DBS. The film is now airing nationally on public television stations and is available on DVD through the Lila Films Web site’ www.lilafilms.com/shakendvd.htm. -Sci Am

[Via http://pochp.wordpress.com]

Friday, December 11, 2009

Update from Las Vegas!

Things are going very well at the Annual Congress on Anti-Aging Medicine and Regenerative Biomedical Technologies in Las Vegas!  The show has been very active, with many doctors showing interest in our equipment!  Quite a few of our products have been sold already.

As this is the first purely medical trade show that Lypossage has participated in, we were very pleased with the response!  Not only has the booth generated a great deal of interest, but many attendees have heard of Lypossage, and were very excited to see our presence at the show!

Below are some pictures from the show, and there are even more after the jump!

Katie Wiltsie & Charles W. Wiltsie III at the booth in Las Vegas, Nevada

Katie demonstrating our equipment on the Lypossage model

Katie demonstrating Lypossage equipment at the booth in Las Vegas

[Via http://lypossage.wordpress.com]

Desperate dad's Google delivery

Advantage of Technology.Sometimes, most of the information on the same subject are contradictory, for example refer excessive lactation-diet.Under the circumstances it is prudent to call in the Doctor and browsed information must be kept for reference after cross verification.

FRANTIC father Leroy Smith resorted to Google with the request “how to deliver a baby” when his wife went into labour.

When wife Emma suddenly started to give birth at home, he opted to use the internet. Mr Smith called a midwife for advice, but before she arrived Emma, 25, began having powerful contractions.

So the 29-year-old father of three grabbed hold of his BlackBerry, accessed the internet, and sought help from search engine Google for step-by-step instructions.

After following the guidance from internet encyclopedia Wikipedia, Mr Smith helped his wife give birth to daughter Mahalia Merita Angela Smith.

“I was very, very nervous. I never thought I’d actually have to do it. The BlackBerry told me that when I saw the head, I had to support it,” Mr Smith said.

Proud mum-of-four Emma, of Leytonstone, East London, said: “It’s incredible that Leroy delivered our first daughter. The other three are boys.

“And thank God for the BlackBerry, I’m never going to moan at Leroy about being on the phone again.”
http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,26470820-5013016,00.html

[Via http://ramanan50.wordpress.com]

Monday, December 7, 2009

it was a good thing (he knew CPR)

the morning after
december’s first snowfall i
woke up in clear eyes,
borrowed pajamas and with a
chest bruised
from where the
doctors had pumped wild
air back into lips and
lungs that for too
long had tasted only
salt.

[Via http://arspoetica.wordpress.com]

Friday, December 4, 2009

The Scientific American Day in the Life of Your Brain

The Scientific American Day in the Life of Your Brain by Judith Horstman

RC 341 .H67 2009

“A 24-Hour Journal of What’s Happening in Your Brain as You Sleep, Dream, Wake Up, Eat, Work, Play, Fight, Love, Worry, Compete, Hope, Make Important Decisions, Age, and Change”–cover.

“The Scientific American Day in the Life of Your Brain reveals what’s going on in there while you sleep and dream, how your brain makes memories and forms addictions, and why we sometimes make bad decisions. The book also offers intriguing information about your emotional brain and what’s happening when you’re feeling love, lust, fear, and anxiety–and how sex, drugs, and rock and roll tickle the same spots.

Based on the latest scientific information, the book explores your brain’s remarkable ability to change, how your brain can make new neurons even into old age, and why multitasking may be bad for you.

Your brain is uniquely yours–but research is showing that many of its day-to-day cycles are universal. This book gives you a look inside your brain and some insights into why you may feel and act as you do.”–book jacket.

[Via http://scclibrary.wordpress.com]

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Plan for today

1. Get out of bed
2. Jump into the shower
3. Get dressed and all
4. Walk to Asda and buy “niste”
5. Head so over to the library and catch up with Ida and Magda (If Magda has got there by that time)
6. Do some epic sketchbook work
7. Edit essay a bit (This is a maybe, I might concentrate on the sketchbook bit)
8. Take my medicine
9. Meet my boyfriend
10. Eat something and drink something
11. Check Facebook from time to time
12. Go home and go to bed

These things can occur in a random order.

[Via http://dougielee.wordpress.com]

When She Gains a Few Pounds: Walking Through a Minefield in Relationships and Marriage

Cold weather and “the holidays” are here, at least in the Northern Hemisphere, and many of us tend to over-feast and are about to develop that inconvenient layer of winter fat and we’re already wondering how many extra trips to the gym it will take to get rid of it. And it’s not just winter fat, either. Stress, pregnancy, etc., can put a major whammy on women, who are especially troubled in the Southern Hemisphere right now because bikini season is here! What do you do when she gains a few pounds? Inquiring minds want to know, at least if they ever hope enjoy being married again…
The holidays are here, and that means good food and parties. It also means a lot of scrambling around trying to do holiday shopping and eating out for lack of time, not to mention family gatherings, etc. That means that unless your wife is extremely disciplined or has an extremely high metabolism, she’s going to pick up a few pounds, and like it or not, you’re going to have to deal with it.
Sounds like a no-win situation, huh? It’s tricky for sure, but not impossible. Here’s a typical letter about this most common problem, and a very sticky one to say the least. Meet Tia:
Dear David,
I need your help. The past few months I have put on a few extra pounds due to a medication that I have to take for my asthma. Everybody tells me that they don’t notice it and I look good, but to me I feel like the Goodyear blimp and have no desire to be intimate with my husband at all because I’m embarrassed over having curves in places that were flat. The more he tries to tell me I look sexy the more his advances just make me feel pressured, and I hate feeling under pressure this way. It has nothing to do with not loving him or not wanting to enjoy each other the way we always have. We have always been very in touch with each other and being together in the bed was always one of the best parts.
I was hoping you could give me some advice as to how I could bring this up with him. I want him to understand just how awful I feel I look and how it has nothing to do with him at this point.
Thank you,
Tia
Tia, I’m going to make this really easy for you, because it’s such a great question. Just print this and let him read it, because I’m going to tell him and all the other men about this. He won’t know it’s you unless you tell him because I’ve changed the name to protect your privacy.
Get ready guys! Pay close attention, take notes, and make sure you fully understand what you’re about to read. This is some of the most critical information to ever appear in this newsletter and you need to get this down pat and cold, right now, because sooner or later, EVERY woman will experience a bit of weight gain that makes her uncomfortable with her appearance, and consequently, with YOU. There is both medical and emotional/psychological/relationship information and advice here, and I promise you it will be worth your while to spend a couple extra minutes reading it. It may not only help save your marriage, it may help save your or your spouse’s life.
If you’ve read “THE Man’s Guide to Great Relationships and Marriage,” you know about the difference in the male and female brain structure. Aside from making our communications styles and methods grossly different, it also makes women visualize and dramatize to the extreme compared to males.
You also must remember that nearly all of the advertising in the fashion and beauty industries is designed to prey upon a woman’s sense of competitiveness to make her feel insecure about her appearance so she’ll buy their products even if she doesn’t need them. Women are literally bombarded with this crap everywhere they look, and while you or I probably wouldn’t even notice a little weight gain until we had to loosen our belt a notch or sew a button back on our trousers that had popped off, to them a pound or two can be nearly or entirely traumatic, especially if they’ve taken pride in a flat stomach for a long time.
We often respond to this by telling them that they look “fine,” “sexy,” “hot,” etc., and that is precisely the wrong thing to do. Why?
She knows what she sees in the mirror, and thinks that you see what she sees in the mirror. If she thinks she looks fat and you say she looks sexy, all that says to her is that either you’re lying to suck up to her or your standards are really, really low. Don’t go there, even if you really think she looks better with a couple of extra pounds because you like the curves, and whatever you do, DON’T tell her you like the new curves! That can get you killed, because in her ears, that’s, “But honey, I like you better when you’re fat like this.” (Ladies, you are cordially invited to write and tell the men just that – I’ll reprint your letters so the men will know just how serious an issue this is.)
And this is getting to be a more and more pervasive problem, especially in the United States. In the 1980’s some moron at the FDA decided that Americans might get too much iodine in their diet, and told manufacturers to replace the potassium iodide that was added to flour and other things as an anti-caking agent with potassium bromide, which attaches to the same receptors in the thyroid as iodine but does not create thyroid hormones, the chemicals that keep your metabolism up to a healthy level, because they are based on iodine. They also advised against the iodizing of salt. This resulted in slowed metabolism and “brominated thyroid,” a condition wherein the thyroid is inundated with bromine, which renders it dysfunctional or even non-functional.
Concurrently, women started trying to add career aspirations to motherhood and running a household, which added stress. Stress causes the over-production of hydrocortisone, a.k.a., “cortisol,” by the adrenal glands, which causes your body to store fat for hard times (in normal amounts it actually helps you keep weight off because it is what transports the T3 thyroid hormone that regulates your metabolism into the cells where it causes your mitochondria to burn glucose to do whatever each cell is designed to do, the core of the human metabolism).
Then we have another idiot at the FDA who determined that a high-carbohydrate, low-fat or fat-free diet was healthy, overloading all of us with carbohydrates and making us insulin-resistant and consequently further slowing our thyroids (high blood glucose level impedes the conversion of T4, a thyroid hormone that is mostly inert and used to store iodine to T3), making us fatter and often diabetic.
Incidentally, prolonged stress causes fatigue of the adrenal glands, and when this happens, sufficient hydrocortisone to get the T3 hormone into the cells is not produced. This creates many of the symptoms of hypothyroidism, but obviously treating adrenal fatigue with thyroid hormone doesn’t fix the problem; indeed, it makes it worse, because the adrenal glands have to convert the excess T4 hormone into something else (called “reverse T3”) to get it out of the bloodstream, further stressing the adrenal glands. Thank you “modern medicine.”
Yes, I have a bone to pick with these incompetent jerks, and the pharmaceutical companies that are behind them, but my axe-grinding here is to show you why you see so many people around you becoming more and more overweight and to hopefully open your eyes to the facts that 1) it’s likely to happen to you and/or your partner, 2) you’ll have to deal with both the physical and emotional/psychological impact of it, and 3) there are things that you can do to fix it before it gets terribly broken and you and/or your partner end up on medication for the rest of your significantly-shortened life.
Incidentally, if you are even marginally overweight or there is any possibility that you could have a lower-than-normal (98.6° F. or 37.0° C., anything more than 0.2° F. or 0.1° C. is suspect) basal body temperature, slowed metabolism, dry skin, brittle nails, sleep disturbances, the outer third of your eyebrows thinning, thinning hair, dark circles around you eyes, allergies, weight gain, or any type of autoimmune problem, whether or not you are already on thyroid medication, go to http://www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/ and order the author’s very thorough, 100% factually-based book on the thyroid and how it is inadequately and inappropriately all over the world using the wrong lab tests (TSH, total T3 and total T4) and the wrong medication (synthetic T4 hormone, a.k.a., “Synthroid,” Levothyroxin, et al). It is also available at a slight discount at some of the bigger bookstores and online retailers. (I receive no commissions or other consideration for this recommendation. I make it because you need these facts to live a healthy and happy life.)
I stress this because I had to become an expert on this subject for my own health. I have a thyroid deficiency, went through pure hell for several years while being told by several physicians that I was “adequately treated” while remaining 50 pounds overweight in spite of diet and exercise in excess of US Military fitness specifications and having 18 symptoms of hypothyroidism (that have been known and used to diagnose hypothyroidism for over 100 years before the infamous TSH lab test was made popular) remaining after several years of treatment, just because a lab result that reports irrelevant information was in “the normal range,” which some rather sharp doctors have found is preposterous. The StopTheThyroidMadness.com web site also has a link to another site that will help you find a local physician who will properly diagnose and treat this condition.
So getting back to your relationship, what are you supposed to do with regard to your partner?
You’d already know this, too, if you had read “THE Man’s Guide to Great Relationships and Marriage,” because you wouldn’t be making those kinds of advances and doing really stupid things like asking her to have sex with you. You’d be tripping her attraction triggers with alpha male behavior, naughty talk and gestures, and making her have fun and get so hot that she didn’t concern herself with her additional weight because she’d still feel sexy and desirable, and she’d be coming after YOU! (See Jay’s letter for an example, because he’s got it down cold.)
When you know what a woman wants, what makes her tick, how to both listen and talk to her, and how to lead her and have fun with her, she doesn’t feel like a middle-aged housewife that can’t compete with the 20-somethings anymore. She feels like a real queen who rules the world at your side by day and a red hot vixen by night, keeping that naughty little secret for you and you alone because you create it for her. There’s a time and place, not to mention a right way and a wrong way, for everything, and that includes delivering genuine, honest compliments, and giving them because they have been earned, not because you’re trying to get something in return. That’s called “flattery,” and it will get you absolutely nowhere with anyone who is worth getting anywhere with.
That, Gentlemen, is how a real man makes a real woman feel, and that is what you learn when you read “THE Man’s Guide to Great Relationships and Marriage.” So how many more times are you going to have to stick your foot in your mouth and spend the night in the doghouse before you go to http://www.makingherhappy.com/ and download your copy? Go now, and get it done, because there are far better things to do with your feet (and your mouth!).
In the meantime, live well, be well, and have a wonderful day!
David Cunningham

Labels: Handling Women’s Insecurities, hormones, How to Please a Woman, How Women Behave, Medicine, Warning Signs, What Women Want

[Via http://makingherhappy.wordpress.com]

Monday, November 30, 2009

Allium Sativum


Allium Sativum
Originally uploaded @ Flickr by fazliana zawawi

Allium Sativum or garlic rich with antioxidants that can enhance our immune system and also the heart. The active component is called allium and it is produced when the garlic is chopped, chewed, or bruised.

Apart from that, garlic is a powerful antibiotic and study also stated that it can reduce blood cholesterol level.

C’mon, let add some garlic into our meals!

[Via http://fazlianaphotography.wordpress.com]

Damn you, pneumonia.

I am taking an expectorant, a cough suppressant, an antibiotic, and an inhaler.

Yet I am still wheezing up a storm.

This cough has lasted over 2 weeks.

This bullshit needs to end.

But at least I spent my Thanksgiving with my grandparents.  My grandfather was a surgeon, my nana is a nurse, and one of my aunts who was there is a doctor.  So within 20 minutes of arriving, there were rummaging through drawers and cabinets looking for medicine to give me and calling the pharmacy for more.  It’s great having relatives who can get you prescription drugs.

[Via http://katiedora7.wordpress.com]

Friday, November 27, 2009

Medicine theme 8. Pomegranate.

The night was terrible.

I suffered, couldn’t sleep.

The torture was incredible.

I had to bite my lips.

Oh yes! My dear sun!

At last, the day has come!

My dream is coming true.

The shop I’m walking to

Is quite near, but this way

Looks very long today.

Phew! I’m in, and now

I see the fruit I thought about

While suffering that night!

Pomegranate, you’ll help me fight,

And I know you’ll help me win.

I only need your skin.

The only remedy I trust.

It always heals one illness fast.

That’s why I shambled here:

You’ll kill this diarrhoea.

[Via http://iverhyck.wordpress.com]

Vaccines - a victim of its on effectiveness

The other day, J. was discussing the recent flu vaccine with his cousin who said that “vaccines are not really necessary now, right? there’s not a lot of these diseases around anyway”.

Sarcastic analogy time!

You know, J. believes that proper sewerage systems are overrated and a waste of money. Look around you now. What is the incidence rate of cholera in Singapore? All these sewer systems can break down, burst open the road and cause road disruptions. They are a waste of taxpayers money. Sewerage systems bad.

End of analogy!

There’s this lack of realisation that the reason we enjoy this relatively pertussis, measles, polio and mumps free environment is a good public health system aided by the compulsory administration of the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella), polio and DPT (diphteria, pertussis, tetanus) vaccines. That vaccines were the reason for the eradication of smallpox. And that in areas in the world where vaccination rates have dropped below herd immunity levels, these diseases (except possibly smallpox) can make a comeback.

Next, there’s this lack of realisation that these diseases can cause serious health problems that outweigh the risks of vaccine reactions. This is thinking that needs to be adjusted.

[Via http://practicality.wordpress.com]

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Stifling anger at work can kill-Reuters.

All emotions have their roots in instincts,specifically Survival instinct.Emotions are natural expressions of the organism to protect itself.Bottling them up will result in physical problems,for instance when in anger or in a fighting mood more adrenalin is released and if it is not released it shall affect health.
Express your feelings and emotions.To avoid unpleasantness in life, express them in a way that is socially acceptable and at the same time give vent to your feelings.This needs training and practice. Channelize emotions, not suppress them.One simple way to give vent to your anger and frustration is to punch a soft pillow till your feeling subsides or jump in private with out clothes.Especially the second one seems to be funny, try it, you shall know.
Story:
SINGAPORE (Reuters Life!) – Men who bottle up their anger at being unfairly treated at work are up to five times more likely to suffer a heart attack, or even die from one, than those who let their frustration show, a Swedish study has found.

The study by the Stress Research Institute of Stockholm University followed 2,755 employed men who had not suffered any heart attacks from 1992 to 2003.

At the end of the study, 47 participants had either suffered an attack, or died from heart disease, and many of those had been found to be “covertly coping” with unfair treatment at work.

“After adjustment for age, socioeconomic factors, risk behaviors, job strain and biological risk factors at baseline, there was a close-response relationship between covert coping and the risk of incident myocardial infarction or cardiac death,” the study’s authors wrote.

Covert coping was listed as “letting thing pass without saying anything” and “going away” despite feelings of being hard done by colleagues or bosses.

Men who often used these coping techniques had a two to fivefold higher risk of developing heart disease than those who were more confrontational at work, the study showed.

The researchers said they could not answer the question of what might be a particularly healthy coping strategy at work, but listed open coping behavior when experiencing unfair treatment or facing a conflict as “protesting directly,” “talking to the person right away,” “yelling at the person right away” or “speaking to the person later when things have calmed down.”

The study was published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.
http://www.reuters.com/article/lifestyleMolt/idUSTRE5AN0J820091124

[Via http://ramanan50.wordpress.com]

Brazilian 'mint' tea is natural painkiller

Hyptis crenata has been prescribed by Brazilian healers for millennia to treat ailments from headaches and stomach pain to fever and flu.

A team from the University of Newcastle found that when the mint was given in a dose similar to that prescribed by traditional Brazilian healers, the medicine was as effective at relieving pain as a synthetic aspirin-style drug.

Lead researcher Graciela Rocha is Brazilian and remembers being given the tea as a cure for every childhood illness. She said “It tastes more like sage, which is another member of the mint family. Not that nice really, but then medicine isn’t supposed to be nice, is it?”

[Via http://teammccallum.wordpress.com]

Monday, November 23, 2009

DoD Defense Medical Research and Development Program Basic Research Grants

Funding Source: Dept. of the Army
Funding Type: Discretionary, Grant/Cooperative Agreement
Total Available: $60 Million
Award Ceiling: N/A
Deadline: 02.17.10
Eligibility: Unrestricted

Description:
This Program Announcement/Funding Opportunity is focused on basic research, defined as research directed towards attaining greater knowledge and understanding of fundamental principles of science and medicine. The DMRDP Basic Research Award is designed to promote new ideas that are still in the early stages of development and have the potential to yield highly impactful data and new avenues of investigation. This mechanism supports conceptually innovative, high-risk/high-reward research that could ultimately lead to critical discoveries or major advancements that will accelerate the delivery of new medical countermeasures and information to protect military personnel from a variety of health threats inherent in the military operational environment, and to effectively diagnose and treat these personnel when they are ill or injured. These awards will also support basic research to enhance the training and education of military personnel and health care providers. Presentation of preliminary data is not required. However, investigators must demonstrate logical reasoning and a sound scientific rationale established through a critical review and analysis of the literature for the proposal to be competitive. Research projects should include a well-formulated, testable hypothesis based on strong scientific rationale. Awards under this announcement will consist solely of assistance agreements. This announcement is intended only for extramural investigators. Other announcements will be released for intramural investigators. An intramural investigator is defined as a Department of Defense (DOD) employee working within a DOD laboratory or medical treatment facility (MTF), or a DOD activity embedded within a civilian medical center. An extramural investigator is defined as all those not included in the definition of intramural investigator.

[Via http://grants.gspconsulting.com]

Baby Talk and Other Things

It’s nice to be around other ladies that are pregnant and due within a month or two of me. I love getting to chat with them and share stories without feeling like I’m getting advice. Not that I have anything against advice, exactly. Anyway, my friends are just so good at being able to chat about pregnancy and the life of being a mother to a toddler to where it is enjoyable. And one of the best parts being that they don’t project pregnancy symptoms onto themselves. Just one example, many women know that your belly can get itchy during pregnancy, but just because you’ve heard women talk about it or you’ve read it in a book doesn’t mean that you have to convince yourself that you are experiencing it too. There’s actually a lot I could list here, but I’ll stick with one.

I generally do not share much about Spencer’s birth story with other people. I don’t care to bring attention to myself like that.  Besides when I say I had HELLP people want information on it since pretty much no one has heard of it and doesn’t it sound so dramatic to say “It’s when your liver swells to the point it could rupture and your blood pressure shoots up so high you’re at a huge risk for a stroke and your blood vessels constrict so tight that your blood cells are shredded like playdough in a spaghetti maker and your platelets drop so low that you could bleed to death easily.”  Yeah, I thought that sounded dramatic too. Not my style.

Anyway, there’s another girl in my ward that had HELLP with her son, though it was not so severe and presented no complications for her other than being induced a week early. Thank goodness for her! She has been caught in the same situation Kevin and I were in, how will it affect the growth of their family? Is it worth risking again? She’s pretty interested in how things are going with the doctors and everything. I’m hoping things go well (duh, of course) so that she can have some peace of mind.

I also was speaking with another friend, her daughter is SO adorable, who is on zofran. She only needed it during her first trimester with Millie and is hoping it’s the same way this time. So far I have had to continue taking the pills, wishing I didn’t have to.

Speaking of zofran, I skipped a couple of doses the other day. BIG mistake! First, I got a headache. Not just like any old headache. This was a migraine type headache. Now, I know how to handle these things, I’ve had doctors trying to shove pills down my throat for migraines since I was 12. But this was one of the worst I’ve had, I think. And because I’d skipped my medicine I was nauseated so I couldn’t say it was from my head or from pregnancy. Because of it though, my gag reflex was so awful and every time I’d gag (for no apparent reason other than swallowing) it would feel like my head was going to split open. Once I got home, after Kevin convinced me to eat some toast before bed, I just wanted to go to sleep so I could sleep through the pain and not deal with it. Haha, yeah right! My head hurt so badly it actually woke me up twice that night. I’ve had some killer migraines, ones that have caused me to throw up before, but I’ve never had one wake me up because it hurt so badly. Reading up on the medication, there were several complaints about “zofran hangovers.” So now, when I go to the doctor next week I will have to ask her how to tell the difference between a zofran hangover and a HELLP/Pre-eclampsia headache. I don’t think I need to worry this early in my pregnancy but we’re trying not to take chances this time.

Also, when I understood that this medicine would be playing with the serotonin in my brain I was concerned about my mental health. Low serotonin levels produce insomnia, depression, food cravings, increased sensitivity to pain, aggressive behavior, and poor body-temperature regulations. It’s hard to say if I have experienced any of that or not. Pregnancy seems to do all those things, except the depression, I’m not really a depressed kind of person. The increased sensitivity to pain might explain why the headache hurt so badly. Better get off this stuff before I have this baby! My thermostat has pretty much always been broken, so I don’t know. Anyway, I haven’t had the blues like I was first concerned about so that’s good news.

Oh, and if you want to know about food cravings, I’ve only craved things I am not supposed to eat and so I haven’t. Sushi is the biggest craving so far, really. What I wouldn’t give for a table covered in dragon rolls, caterpillar rolls, mexican rolls, crunch rolls, and a great dollop of wasabi next to a pile of pickled ginger. Oh man, I miss my sushi! I can have veggie sushi, but I don’t know if I’d have the self control to just get veggie sushi so I’ve just stayed away. The second craving being corn dogs. A delicious corn dog dipped in ketchup and mustard. But, I’m trying to listen to the doctors orders and stay away from them. Sad. Otherwise it’s fried shrimp with cocktail sauce. My friend was going to take me to Red Lobster for their all-you-can-eat-any-way-you-like-it-shrimp, but we never made it down for it. Oh well, I don’t think I could eat my money’s worth anyway so it’s probably for the best.

[Via http://babyinthemaking.wordpress.com]

Friday, November 20, 2009

Move your phantom limbs Mentally!-Fox News.

Indian philosophy recognizes mind as an organ like other organs, but ranked Superior.Sri Krishna declares in the Bhagavad Gita-”I am Mind among organs”
Activity of the brain is mind;activity of the mind is intellect and Chitta is on a higher plane.
By controlling and channelizing Chitta any thing is possible(incidentally, nothing is Super natural according to Indian Philosophy,everything is Natural).
Yoga is built around this concept.We are what we think;we think because of what we eat.
Story:
“Phantom” pain is like a ghost in the body — but it’s anything but imaginary. People who have had an arm or leg amputated can often still feel sensations of the missing limb, even though it’s no longer there. These sensations can be painful, and scientists are always looking for new ways to help relieve this phantom pain for amputees. Treatment often involves using mirrors to visually trick the person’s brain. The thinking is that, if a person can “see” his own body in a new way, his brain may stop sending pain messages.

In a new study, a team of neuroscientists have made another surprising discovery about amputees: They can be taught to mentally move their missing limbs in ways that are impossible in the real, physical world. It’s impossible for a person to bend his wrist down and then twist his hand around in a full circle.

Seven people who had had their arms amputated above the elbow participated in the experiment. After extensive mental training, four of the seven were able to feel the sensation of this impossible act, and describe it in detail.

“It is very surprising that anybody — amputees or not — can learn impossible movements just by thinking about it,” Henrik Ehrsson of the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, told Science News. Ehrsson is a neuroscientist, which is a scientist who studies the brain and nervous system.

Although the study itself is interesting, it may be able to help people with other kinds of mental disorders. A person with anorexia nervosa, for example, loses her appetite and/or stops eating, sometimes with fatal results. People with anorexia are usually believed to have a distorted self-image and often see themselves in an extremely negative way. But people suffering from this condition may benefit from this new research, Lorimer Moseley of the Prince of Wales Medical Research Institute in Randwick, Australia, told to Science News. Just as amputees imagined their phantom limbs could move in impossible ways, a person with anorexia may be able to change self-image by concentrating on a change to the body.

V.S. Ramachandran is a neuroscientist and the director of the Center for Brain and Cognition at the University of California, San Diego. In his research, Ramachandran has shown that phantom pain can be reduced with the help of a mirror. The mirror is placed so that when the amputee looks in the mirror, it looks like he has both hands. As he looks at the reflection, he clenches and unclenches his one hand while—and it appears as though both hands and are clenching and unclenching. At the same time, he mentally clenches and unclenches his phantom hand. When he sees both hands unclenching, he feels pain lessen.

Ramachandran says his mirror therapy, as well as the new research, show that much is left to learn about how the brain perceives the body. “Body image turns out to be extraordinarily plastic,” Ramachandran told Science News. “We think of ourselves as stable people with a stable body image — but we can inhabit a body that cannot exist in the physical world.”

http://sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/49687/title/FOR_KIDS_New_twists_for_phantom_limbs

What I found out about the differences in Bipolar and Borderline Personality Disorder

Today I had a appointment with an intake counselor here in Durham. When she started talking about Bipolar and Borderline Personality Disorder, I had to stop her before she got to far ahead of me. You see my memory fucking sucks and if I’m getting a lot of technical information, I won’t retain it. So I had to slow her down, tell her I needed the information in child language, and take notes. 

When I asked her about the difference in the two, she informed me there were only three real differences.

1) Bipolar is a chemical in-balance of the brain, Borderline Personality Disorder is something you learn as you grow up, basically a life’s lesson taught by your family, friends, and yourself as you grow up.

2)  Borderline Personality Disorder is primarily about relationships and how you perceive them, including how you feel about yourself. One minute your hot or on, the next minute your cold or off. 

3) There is no medical treatment for Borderline Personality Disorder as their is with Bipolar, just learning to relive your life.

So according to the Licensed Clinical Counselor I spoke with today, those are the only 3 real differences between the 2. Well thank you very much for someone finally explaining it to me. My next step is an intensive 90 days of therapy. First 30 days I will go to 3 different counseling sessions a week, the next 30 days I will go to 2, then the last 30 days I will go once a week. Each week will be a mix of group therapy and individual therapy. Should I decide I want to go to just one or the other therapy I will be dropped from the program as both therapies are connected with the other. The therapy sessions are called, Triumph. What the hell it stands for, I have no clue. LOL. 

I concerned about this, because the Counselor didn’t talk about sending me to Psych Counseling. She thinks the Triumph program will help me with my Bipolar in it’s own way. My concern is that the Borderline Personality Disorder will take over, leaving the Bipolar mistreated besides by the medications they will be putting me on December 10th. So I’m at a confusion point with my disease and my lifestyle traits. LOL. I think that is how I will refer to Borderline Personality Disorder from here on out, lifestyle traits, since thats all it really is.

I did shock the counselor as I recounted my life. She told me she has been bad, but never that much bad shit happening in one persons live and that person still being alive. She then said the one thing that drives me fucking nuts “you seem like a very strong girl”. Do they not see it’s all a big fake piece of existence? The hiding in a corner from the world? Help me damn it! I’m a little girl stuck inside a big girl’s body! 

Some new developments in myself that I’m coming across. 1) I’m seeing hallucinations, 2) The self mutilating has increased 3) I’m hearing voices and things that aren’t there. Woo Hoo someone call me a funny farm wagon. LOL. Thats actually what I almost told the counselor today. 

Lord help me, surely I’m not getting that bad after being so long without my medication or counseling.

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

nip/tuck

Agamben wrote of the doctor who, terminally ill with leukemia, turns his body into a laboratory. This marks a certain extreme point in the production of the biopolitical body.  But what are we to make of the plastic surgeon who operates on the mere surface of the body, and even their own body.  Can we speak of a threshold beyond the threshold: of a space of pure surface, in which the involuted topology of the biopolitical body has been folded out again into a contact, essential and irreducible, with the values (metaphysical, spectacular, even ideological) that have always concealed its presence. Of course: the surface is just a surface.  But doesn’t this surface already come from beyond the deepest depths?

The beauty of appearance resists the formation of the biopolitical body.  The cosmetic surface of the body, as limit and boundary, is the zone of a coming-into-appearance that always transcends the structure of sovereign domination.  Hannah Arendt, in the Human Condition, saw this clearly: the fateful turn of metaphysics was from the idea of beauty to the idea of the good.  We cannot exactly follow her in a move that threatens to aestheticize politics, but there is this grain of truth.  The superfluity of beauty resists the gesture by which power enforces itself through the production of depths. It is the anti-metaphysical moment of metaphysics: the surface of metaphysics that betrays its inner truth. There can be no return to the polis: but perhaps we can recognize in the everyday a residual space of appearance.

The plastic surgeon wants to operate on himself. This is impossible for every other surgeon.  But for the plastic surgeon it is almost possible. The next best thing is to get a friend to do it: surgery, the most violent of interventions, becomes the gift of friendship.

A strange exchange.  Politicians becoming doctors, doctors becoming politicians — this is the terrible story of the 20th century.  But now doctors become friends…

The greatness of the modern television drama is this: the perfect fusion of kitsch sentimentality and macabre, Baroque, sophistication.  If there were only aesthetic daring, the relentless exposure of nasty truth, it would be much more insipid, predictable, easy.  The plastic surgeon  — like the vampire, like the undertaker — is a a metaphor for this uncanny conjunction.  The corpus, invoked in the first gestures of political modernity, becomes the beautiful corpse.

Is the camp the paradigm of biopolitical modernity? Or is it not, rather, Miami: the city overwhelmed with floods of every kind — of refugees, of drugs, of crime, and every sort of “contamination.”  The city exposed: the city as the exposure and porosity of national boundaries.  But also of savage beauty…

Monday, November 16, 2009

"Too many OB/GYNs aren't able to practice their love with women all across this country."-George Bush

George W. Bush via last.fm

OMG! (to steal a phrase from those much younger than I), LOL.  In fact, I can’t stop laughing.  I have been looking at one of the areas of tort reform that is hotly contested in Michigan, and I came across this marvelous quote from George Bush, acting as President back in 2004:

“Too many OB/GYNs aren’t able to practice their love with women all across this country.”–George Bush

Are you laughing too??  I am still laughing.  I think it’s particularly accurate considering some of the things I have heard about the manner in which OB/GYN’s “practice” medicine, instituting their opinions and “care” when women are in their most vulnerable and passive positions and physical states.  God, it doesn’t get really any better than that.   I had been looking at articles about how medical malpractice lawsuits would influence tort reform, and I came across that quote that had to be shared.

Where was I?  Oh yeah, talking about medical malpractice reform, but here is a good quote too:

In 2003, the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies issued a devastating report detailing the scope and gravity of the safety of the U.S. health care system. Two studies showed that “at least 44,000 people, and perhaps as many as 98,000 people, die in hospitals each year as a result of medical errors that could have been prevented.” As the New York Times’ David Leonhardt found in September 2009, “After reviewing thousands of patient records, medical researchers have estimated that only 2 to 3 percent of cases of medical negligence lead to a malpractice claim.” And as Tom Baker, director of the Insurance Law Center at the University of Connecticut School of Law and author of The Malpractice Myth, noted in August, the rate of claims is going down:

“We have approximately the same number of claims today as in the late 1980s. Think about that. The cost of health care has doubled since then. The number of medical encounters between doctors and patients has gone up — and research shows a more or less constant rate of errors per hospitalizations. That means we have a declining rate of lawsuits relative to numbers of injuries.”

So, while health care costs more, causes the same injuries and people go to the doctor more, lawsuits have gone down because of tort reforms designed to protect doctors at the expense of patient rights.   That’s what I really wanted to get out when I found the quote about doctors and their loves.  I guess I will just have to put this in another post. I am laughing to hard at George Bush.

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  • Saul Segan: Tort Reform — Another Dangerous Scapegoat (huffingtonpost.com)

Life's Issues

Just because my eyes dont tear, doesn’t mean my heart doesn’t cry & just because I come off strong doesn’t mean there’s nothing wrong 

Today, I had to go see my ex-husband to beg him to go get my medications for me. Not a happy sight since we are divorced for his abusive behavior. But they are my heart medications so it was either go with out them or ask someone and I feel I’ve panhandled Larry and my Grandma enough to last them a year, if not more.

I want to self-mutilate so bad right now, but I know I have to fight the urge. After all, thats the whole reason why I’m at my mom’s house. I have been bad about it pone too many times and fear as often as the urge is coming on that one day I might just take it too far and slice through a major artery. How can one person have so much to live for and so little left for life? I ask myself this all the time and never can seem to find an answer.

My mouth and body are in manic mode, my head is in depressed mode, driving my mom nuts right now. LOL. Kinda like it since it means I’m up doing things even if I’m in a fog doing them. Today I worked on 2 wreaths to try to sell on ebay, made fudge mini cakes, peppermint fudge mini cakes, washed Tiger (my truck), cleaned moms house and did her laundry, put away her groceries, and made 4 shoe boxes full of christmas stuff for her church to give to this organization that donates them to children. All in All her church made a 100 boxes, I made a whole 4 of them. I’m proud of myself for getting up and doing things, but like I said I’ve been in a fog doing it.

I have been walking, but it doesnt work with me like the gym did. This time last year I was doing 7 days a week, 2 hours a day. I so wish I could get back into that. I was losing weight and my mind wasn’t as bad as it is this year. I was actually proud of myself. Another thing that has me down is no money. I want to add things to my blog and in order to do so, i have to buy the domain and set it up. Can’t do much without money and I’m seeing that. But at the same time, I can’t work, my mind is too fucked up right now to do anything like working. Plus my cuts don’t look good in my line of work where your dealing with the public so most employers won’t hire me anyway. 

I fucking hate that I don’t know where I am anymore. I’m so tired, I’m waiting for sleep to come even though I won’t sleep. The last time I had a decent nights sleep was in Georgia a few weeks ago. I wish I had had more time to visit my dear friend longer……

Friday, November 13, 2009

Hypocrisy, I love you so

Turns out the Republican National Committee’s Insurance plan covers abortion!

The memo said the RNC received a phone call from a reporter on Wednesday asking whether the RNC’s health care policy, through Cigna, covered elective abortions for employees. On Thursday, Politico.com published a report citing two sales agents for Cigna who said the RNC’s policy covered elective abortion.

The Cigna employees said the RNC didn’t choose to opt out of abortion coverage when given the opportunity, Politico.com reported.

Of course, now the RNC is rapidly changing their coverage plan. Sucks to be a female RNC employee today. But then, it probably always does, in one way or another. (Thanks, Jender-Mom!)

Dementia drug use 'killing many'-BBC.

Anti depressants,mood elevators and sleeping tablets also affect the Brain,Heart and kidney.
Beware.
Story:
Needless use of anti-psychotic drugs is widespread in dementia care and contributes to the death of many patients, an official review suggests.

About 180,000 patients a year are given the drugs in care homes, hospitals and their own homes to manage aggression.

But the expert review – commissioned by ministers – said the treatment was unnecessary in nearly 150,000 cases and was linked to 1,800 deaths.

The government in England has agreed to take steps to reduce use of the drugs.

These include:

Improving access to other types of therapy, such as counselling
Better monitoring of prescribing practices
Guidance for families explaining what they can do if they are worried about drug use
Specialist training in dementia for health and social care staff
Appointment of a new national director for dementia to oversee the measures
The review – and the government pledge to take action – comes after long-running concerns about the use of anti-psychotic drugs.

Over the past 30 years, the NHS has increasingly turned to the treatment, which was originally aimed at people with schizophrenia, as it has struggled to cope with the rise in people with dementia.

‘Different mindset’

There are currently 700,000 people in the UK with the condition, but this is expected to rise to one million in the next 10 years because of the ageing population.

The review, led by King’s College London expert Professor Sube Banerjee, accepted that for some people anti-psychotic drugs would be necessary.

But it said they should be used only for a maximum of three months and when the person represented a risk to themselves or others.

Professor Banerjee estimated that of the 180,000 people given the drugs each year, only 36,000 benefited.

He said health and social care services needed to develop a “different mindset”.

Allan Trueman’s father “became a totally different person”
He believes if the steps the government has agreed to are followed, anti-psychotic drug use could be reduced by two-thirds within three years.

Care services minister Phil Hope agreed action was needed.

“We know there are situations where anti-psychotic drug use is necessary – we’re not calling for a ban, but we do want to see a significant reduction in use.”

Neil Hunt, chief executive of the Alzheimer’s Society, said the long-awaited review was a welcome recognition of the scale of the problem.

He added: “This goes beyond quality of care. It is a fundamental rights issue.

“Our members tell us of enormous worry and distress over what is happening to their loved ones.”

The Royal College of GPs – in most cases the drugs are prescribed by family doctors – admitted the situation was “unacceptable”.

President Dr Steve Field said: “People deserve much better.”

While the review was commissioned by the government in England, ministers elsewhere in the UK have agreed to study the recommendations.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8356423.stm

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

To Know About Vitamin C

There have always been debates over the use of vitamin C in skin care products. It has always been in debate as some have the opinion that it is helpful while some says that it is harmful. Though different people have different experience and opinions about them yet the known facts of Vitamin C is a good one. It is an oxidant hence it have certain beneficial effects such as reversing the free radicals damage that is generally caused due to sun exposure. It is also the main component of collagen that provides the


The potential use of Vitamin C have shown to enhance the youthful appearance of the skin and is also found to prevent and even seen to resist reversing of existing damage and anti aging. Products containing pure form of vitamin C are generally acidic in nature that leads to the product having an exfoliating effect. This can be beneficial to someone when it is used properly. Not only these but it is also been found that Vitamin C is useful in repairing that is caused due to the use of overly harsh soaps and lotions.

There are negative sides of this Vitamin. It is generally an unstable compound in and of itself and if it is exposed to nature then gets oxidized and loses all the benefits that it contains. If someone uses a product containing oxidized Vitamin C then instead of repairing for the condition that it is being used for, it generally worsens the case. Thus to prevent all these risks of damage a newer form of it is used known as vitamin c derivative that is cheaper and more stable without any side effects.

Antibiotic overuse threatens modern medicine: experts-Reuters

Despite repeated warnings people still pop up anti-biotics at the drop of a hat.
Doctors who prescribe them immediately as soon as the patients come to them(this is a fact, at least in India),drug shops which issue them with out prescriptions and sales promotion by way of heavy advertising by Pharma companies are also equally responsible.
Story:
LONDON (Reuters) – Overuse of antibiotics in Europe is building widespread resistance and threatening to halt vital medical treatments such as hip replacements, intensive care for premature babies and cancer therapies, health experts say.

Dominique Monnet of the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control’s (ECDC) scientific advice unit said the “whole span of modern medicine” is under threat because bugs are become resistant to antibiotics, rendering the drugs useless.
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE5A927820091110?feedType=nl&feedName=ushealth1100

Monday, November 9, 2009

Pray for Pay

A recent post at one of my favorite blogs, Bad Astronomy, linked me to another very good blog post at NeuroLogica, which went into detail about something a little bit disturbing: a provision being slipped into the Senate’s health reform bill by wingnut Senator Orrin Hatch, and co-sponsored by Senator John Kerry. What is this addition, you may ask?

It would prohibit insurers from discriminating against “religious and spiritual health care”, including prayer healing. (linky linky)

Yes, as if the Senate hadn’t done enough to totally mess up the drive for health care reform, we now have this steaming pile that would require insurance companies (some of which, as I understand it, would be subsidized by our tax dollars) to pay people to pray for you. The links I’ve posted above go into a better detail about what “prayer therapy” really is, and who the people behind it are, and I urge you to click them and learn more. However, I just thought I would share one point that really struck me.

Why would you pay someone to pray for you?

Last time I checked, it didn’t cost anything to say a prayer. As a materialist I believe that it’s all a bunch of baloney anyway, but even if I was a believer, it simply doesn’t make much sense to me that you and your family can pray your little hearts out, but God only responds to professional Prayerists. To be fair, I understand that the Christian Science prayer therapists who do this sort of thing charge a ridiculously low amount; about what it would cost to cover their gas & meals. However, the whole idea that God only listens to a small group of individuals who will gladly pray on your behalf for a nominal fee, or that you need to hire some sort of special trainer or coach to help you pray the correct way, is troubling to me. Even more troubling is the prospect that this could create a prayer industry, flush with professional prayer therapists who go around “speaking to God” on your behalf, charging off huge sums of money to your insurance company (which can’t legally deny their claim), and making a fortune while driving up insurance premiums for the rest of us.

Now, this is disregarding several other facts, such as: prayer therapy doesn’t work (and can even be dangerous), my tax dollars shouldn’t be spent financing your church, and it’s offensive and stupid for the government to elevate superstition to the level of science. But I imagine that even those who have religious faith would be a little suspicious of anyone asking them to pay for prayers.

Hopefully this gets weeded out.

Another Drug_Stupid...

  1. 70 percent of doctors treating Medicare patients flunked an
    exam on their knowledge of prescribing for older adults.
  2. The majority of physicians who were asked to take the exam
    refused, often giving as their reason that they had a “lack of
    interest in the subject.”
  3. 48 percent of patients taking three or more drugs were given
    drugs with one or more harmful interactions with other drugs.
  4. Every minute, two people are hospitalized for adverse drug
    reactions (1,500,000 a year) and there is a death every five
    minutes and 15 seconds (100,000 a year).
  5.  Every three-and one-quarter minutes, someone suffers drug-induced or drug-worsened memory loss (163,000 a year).

It is Reversible if you know which drug was the cause!

Help! Help…and Help!

Friday, November 6, 2009

Lieberman shill & a whore!

Senator Joe “Aetna” Lieberman doesn’t have a view.  He just does what he is told by those who own him.  He’s the biggest whore (no offense to actual sex workers) for insurance companies, to date he has received over 2.5 million dollars to continuously block a public health option.

Joe and his wife are major shills for the health insurance cabal. There is no need for debate, as far as they are concerned. They have made a huge pile of money from their health insurance buddies.

His wife works for insurance lobbying firms…think there’s a conflict of interest?   ..Apparently Republicans & spineless Democrats don’t see one. Meanwhile 45,000 uninsured Americans die annually.

mobilizeforhealthcare.org

Emergency House Call--Give Them Hell Michelle Bachmann, Mark Levin, John Voight--Kill The Bill--Vote Them Out!

  Thomas Jefferson’s Prophetic Wisdom

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) At House Call On Washington Health Care Press Conference 11-5-09

  Mark Levin Speech to HOUSE CALL 11 05 09

Jon Voight Speech to HOUSE CALL 11 05 09

The Meaning of Independence Day

An Inspirational Video

Background Articles and Videos Bachmann “House Call” Delivers Viral Response To A Sick Govt. Share:

by Edmund Jenks | November 5, 2009″…Michele Bachmann’s message for conservatives traveling to Washington to attend her Capitol Hill “House Call” event today is simple: “Go into the Capitol and find members of Congress,” she told activists Wednesday night. “Don’t bring your pitchforks, bring your video cameras. And get them on record saying how they’re going to vote and why. And tell them, ‘Take your hands off my health care!’ “

Bachmann (R-Minn.) gave the marching orders on a conference call of top activists, many of whom planned to board buses in New Jersey and North Carolina this morning to attend the event that the congresswoman thought up last week. “Nothing is more influential than an eyeball-to-eyeball meeting between a freedom-loving constituent and a member of Congress,” she explained. “Nothing scares a member of Congress more than freedom-loving Americans.” …”

http://www.nowpublic.com/world/bachmann-house-call-delivers-viral-response-sick-govt

Battling Pelosicare; Update: Thousands descend on D.C., “You work for us!” By Michelle Malkin  •  

“…Hey, Nancy, look out the window. You can see health care protesters from your House.

House Republicans are holding a 12-hour live online telecast today starting at 1pm Eastern to expose the perils and pitfalls of Pelosicare — and to spotlight the GOP alternative.

You can tune in here. Spread the word.

***

Reminder: Rep. Michele Bachmann, Mark Levin, and Jon Voight will join other House Republicans and grass-roots activists from across the country on the Capitol steps at noon today to protest the Democrats’ government health care takeover plans. Be there in spirit for Operation Housecall by melting the phones today.

***

The CBO has scored the GOP health care reform alternative:

House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) issued the following statement after the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) confirmed in a letter tonight that the Republican health care plan will lower health care premiums by up to 10 percent and reduce the deficit by $68 billion over 10 years without imposing tax increases on families and small businesses:

“When it comes to reforming health care, controlling skyrocketing costs is the American peoples’ top priority. Now CBO has confirmed that the Republican plan will lower health care costs for American families, and that’s good news for everyone struggling in today’s economy. The choice now could not be clearer: Speaker Pelosi’s plan raises costs. Our plan lowers them.

“Not only does the GOP plan lower health care costs, but it also increases access to quality care – including for those with pre-existing conditions – at a price our country can afford. The cost of the Speaker’s bill, now at $1.3 trillion and counting, is a debt that will be paid for by our kids and our grandkids. The American people deserve a better solution, and Republicans’ smart, fiscally-responsible plans give them exactly what they want.”

NOTE: In a letter delivered tonight, CBO estimated that the GOP health care plan would reduce average private health insurance premiums per enrollee in the United States relative to what they would be under current law. Specifically:

• For the small group market (generally businesses with 2 to 50 employees), the GOP plan would reduce premiums in 2016 for example by up to 10 percent.
• For the individual market, the GOP plan would reduce premiums in 2016 by up to eight percent.
• For the large group market, the GOP plan would reduce premiums in 2016 by up to three percent.

Now is the time to disabuse Nancy Pelosi of the delusional notion that she “won” election night. …”

http://michellemalkin.com/

 

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