There are many different medications that work by reducing the amount of acid in the stomach. Some are as histamine-2 (H2)-blockers, and are now available over the counter. This class includes popular brands such as Zantac (ranitidine), o) Axid (nizatidine. These products work by blocking the H2-receptor site and thus reducing the amount of acid produced by the stomach. There is also a strong class of drugs such as Proton pump inhibitors are known. One of these products,Prilosec OTC is available over the counter, while the rest can be supplied on prescription. These products include Nexium (esomeprazole), Prilosec (omeprazole), Aciphex (Rabeprazole), Prevacid (lansoprazole), Protonix (pantoprazole). Proton pump inhibitors work exactly as the name implies, which inhibits proton pumps in the stomach to produce acid. These products are very effective at the level of acid in the stomach and reduce symptoms of GERD, reflux and ulcers.These products are relatively safe that does not require additional blood tests and have less side effects in most people.
But one of the long-term effect of reducing the acidity of the stomach, on a permanent basis is your body is not capable of) the amount of vitamin B 12 (cobalamin, is necessary, and your body to absorb the supply of this essential nutrient depleted. From the B-12 deficiency has been estimated at somewhere between 5-20% of beingPopulation by adding a drug that effectively reduces the body to absorb vitamin B -12 can have a significant impact on a population that are already at high risk. Other things that patients at risk of vitamin B is -12 elderly, alcoholics, patients with dementia, patients who have had bowel resection, and AIDS patients.
An indicator often by doctors to determine vitamin B -12, homocysteine in the bloodLevels.
If you are one of these over the counter or prescriptions products it is important that you be aware of this potential side effect of nutrition that could also affect your health. One way to avoid potential shortages to make sure you take a supplement.
When the time comes, I’ll open that door/ So you can safely walk in and drop to the floor/ It’s disgusting/ what lies on the inside; too many problems and a heart that lies/I’m cold/with nothing to give/ matured with the mentality of a seven year old kid/ love it/ with nothing to offer you should want to know me for the feelings I’ll alter/I’m gunna change you/ on the inside and out/ play with your emotions and make you shout, make you cry/ make you touch base with all that you know, limit you, ’cause I won’t let you go
And when you try to dry your eyes I’ll be there to help tears slide down the cheeks I once called mine and watch you…
Listen/ I put a note on the stairs/ so when you get home/ I won’t be there/ I hit the streets/ I’m not coming back. IF you’re lucky I’ll get stuck in the cracks/swallowed whole/It’s ugly/ the scene in which we live in/ugliest when I’m not givin/love/the love you deserve but rather the driest taste of dirt/ You need to sit there/ on the bench, on the sidelines/ watch as my selfishness begins to climbs high/ and observe/ why I don’t love me/ why I’m considered ugliest of ugly
If you listen to these words I will keep you from the hurt and help you to find yourself…
What is the first thing you do when visiting a Doctor for a checkup? Do you explain to the front desk that you have a cold and would like to see the Doctor? How do they react when you tell them you have a cold? Do they act like they don’t care? You don’t even get to explain that you have a cold because they stick a bunch of papers in your face! Why all the paper work instead of asking you how you are feeling?
Our medical system is the best in the world. Only the Republican Party believes that myth. America and Mississippi has the worst medical system in the world! How could I make that statement? How do you know we have a poor health care system? Because the health care system doesn’t care about patients and only cares about money!
We don’t get to explain that we are sick because we are forced to fill out paperwork about our insurance or lack of insurance. This shows that our medical clinics are more interested in knowing how much money we have and less about how we feel. What should occur when you walk in the door? They should ask you how you are feeling and then assure you that you will be taken care of. Not stick their hands in your pocket searching for your insurance card or what little money you have!
We can debate if paperwork is caused by the clinic or the insurance companies. I don’t like either. Doctors charge to much and the insurance companies are an unnecessary evil in our economy. We shouldn’t even have insurance. Doctors should charge a fair price and not charge us to death. Putting the insurance company out of business and then encouraging competition in the health care system will bring down prices but that is only the first step to solving our health care problems.
America’s health care system is set up to keep you sick. Whey do they want to keep you sick? Because they want to make money off your illness. You ever noticed that our health care system and the corrupt drug companies and food industry are working together to make sure we live an unhealthy lifestyle? You ever noticed how skinny our ancestors were and now the majority of our people are obese? That has everything to do with the ingredients in our food supply. These ingredients are defended by our health care system because they want to keep your business.
Our health care system is not about prevention of illness but treatment of illness in later stages of development. They don’t want you eating healthy and they don’t want you breathing clean air or drinking clean water. You ever noticed how our air is more polluted than ever? You ever notice that our government puts sodium fluoride in our drinking water? You ever notice how or government encourages the intake of more and more sugar and now even high fructose corn syrup? These are all promoted to keep you sick and to keep you coming back to those medical clinics!
America is currently debating a Health Care Reform Bill. It has been passed in the US House Of Representatives and is now being debated by the US Senate. Nobody supports the Obama Health Care Plan because it is a bailout for the medical industrial complex. Yes I said the medical industrial complex. We don’t have a health care system that cares for people. We have a Medical Industrial Complex that wants to keep you unhealthy to keep making money off your illness. President Obama doesn’t want health care reform. He is just protecting the Medical Industrial Complex!
We have two sides on the health care debate. Democrats want a Socialist Health Care System similar to Great Britain. Republicans want to keep a Corporatist Health Care System. They claim to be on opposite sides but they both agree. A socialist health care system will be no different than the current corporate health care system. Both of them will continue to be run by the rich in the medical industrial complex. They are two sides of the same counterfeit coin! We need a return to clean medicine!
We don’t need to waste our time on Corporatism and Socialism. We need to focus on exposing those who run the medical industrial complex. We should fight to eliminate all insurance companies and use competition in the market and common sense price controls from the government to lower the cost of health care. We need to eliminate big business in the health care system and encourage family clinics that will put the patient before the money. We need to encourage competition in medicine and reject the corrupt pharmaceutical industry and support natural medicine. We need to say to hell with treatment and start focusing on prevention. We need to work to clean up our air, food, medicine, and water and have a clean environment that will help to keep us healthy instead of work to keep us sick. We need to contact our elected officials and tell them to stop taking money from medical lobbyists and start think about the common citizen. Tell them to eliminate insurance companies and fight for competition in the marketplace to bring down cost.
We don’t need to fix health insurance. We need to eliminate it and save the middle class. We The People should pay less for health care. Doctors and Medical Clinics need to put their ethics first and their pocket books last! Stand for real health care reform and fight to live a healthy life and work to clean up our environment!
What’s to say when you’ve said it all,
Told the story to end the fall,
Each event is it blessed or passing thru
The choice left to me and you.
I’ve said it all, about how to BE,
The question asked most often of me.
Breathe and intend, judgments suspend,
Make it easy, no tale to spin,
No big happening, only breathe and be
Wrote books saying it, totaling three
What would love do at this point in time?
Call upon the connection Divine,
The answer lies inside the heart,
Then you breathe so you feel that part,
And to recharge, reenergize and renew,
Allowing fresh perspective to come into view,
Relaxes and harmonizes all cells as One,
Confers immunity from Life’s humdrum,
Tension and plaguing bacterial surround,
An oasis inside where health is found,
Forget the history, the drama untold,
Simply start breathing let the joy unfold.
Yes, it’s an exercise you’ll continue to do,
If you want the best available you.
Breathe at your pace and fully engage,
Maybe you find the Inner Sage,
The part that you were intended to play,
It could happen, even today.
If fully oxygenated your mindbody would be.
The thing you need for you to see
How to proceed and what to do,
To engage the most loveable you
Become the Inner Work at your pace
Expand fully the loving space.
… and a study has now shown that this is a key reason for some of the health problems faced by those* who are “overweight”. The article discusses a huge range or problems, including:
-Attribution bias, in which doctors assume that the weight is responsible for other problems and thus misdiagnose.
-Doctors refusing to perform procedures which are more difficult due to the weight.
-Lack of equipment properly sized to deal with heavier patients.
-Shaming tactics, like a woman with a torn ligament, whose surgeon refused to operate until she “stopped eating fast food” (which she didn’t actually even eat).
*Sometimes the article is couched in general terms, other times it focuses on women.
Here is something you might want to check out. I was browsing the internet looking for information on the Department Of Human Services. Why am I doing research on the Department Of Human Services? Because I am bored and wanted to find out the best department to eliminate when I become Governor of Mississippi!
I found this very interesting flyer on their website. It is a 10 most wanted list of men who haven’t payed child support. Note that I am single, never been married, and don’t have any children. But I can’t stand the sight of a man being forced to pay child support to a women who doesn’t care enough about family values to stick together. Here is a little quote from the top of this flyer on these “evil” men who don’t pay child support.
“When these noncustodial parents don’t support their children, taxpayers get the bill for their financial and medical support.”
Here is what comes to mind. Why in the hell does it have to be the man or the taxpayers who have take care of children. If a women has custody of the children, then shouldn’t she have the personal responsibility to feed them? It isn’t the place of a man or the government to take care of anyone. The government needs to get the hell out of the child business and do what it does best. Nothing!
Lets contact our elected officials and encourage them to cut another stupid government program. Eliminate the Department of Human Services and cut taxes on the working man. You know they wont oppose communism because of their new world order. I look forward to standing with my friends in the State Legislature and voting to eliminate the DHS and other unconstitutional programs!
The controversy over BPA has again arisen. It appears that the FDA will now reopen investigations of BPA effects and impact on health. Concerns about BPA have been raised since the 1930’s (the first reported synthesis of the substance was in 1905 by Thomas Zincke of the University of Marburg, German). Zincke reported key physical properties of BPA (e.g., molecular composition, melting point, solubility in common solvents) but did not propose any application or use for BPA or the other materials he synthesized. In 1953, Dr. Hermann Schnell of Bayer in Germany and Dr. Dan Fox of General Electric in the United States independently developed manufacturing processes for a new plastic material, polycarbonate, using BPA as the starting material.
BPA has been widely used in plastics and the coatings of metal cans for decades since that time. It has many favorable properties, but over time, it can leach out of the plastic. Studies have shown that BPA can find it’s way into the human body. Numerous studies have indicated little evidence of definitive health risks from BPA. On the other hand, a number of research studies have raised concerns about the effects of BPA on the liver, endocrine system, as well as in the effect of hormones an breast, prostate and other tissues. The use BPA has been banned in Canada in all infant and baby bottles and sippie cups. Many manufacturers in the US have voluntary moved to BPA free plastic products for infants and children. This new FDA attention should be welcome as long as it properly assesses the risks and benefits from the use of BPA in commercial applications. It would wrong to leave a potential harmful product on the market simply because it has been in use for many years. However, it would be equally wrong to pull a very versatile and useful product based on limited data and unfounded fears. Let’s hope the FDA will review all aspects of the BPA issue fairly come to an informed opinion on the correct role of BPA in the food marketing system . . . ben kazie md and obi jo
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is concerned about possible health risks from bisphenol-A (BPA) a widely used component of plastic bottles and food packaging that it declared safe in 2008. The agency said Friday that it had “some concern about the potential effects of BPA on the brain, behavior and prostate gland of fetuses, infants and children,” and would join other federal health agencies in studying the chemical in both animals and humans.
BPA is a chemical building block that is used primarily to make polycarbonate plastic and epoxy resins (these line the inside of most food and beverage cans). Over four decades of extensive safety research on BPA shows that consumer products made with BPA are safe for their intended uses and pose no known risks to human health. Polycarbonate plastic is a lightweight, high-performance plastic that possesses a unique balance of toughness, optical clarity, high heat resistance and excellent electrical resistance. Because of these attributes, polycarbonate is used in a wide variety of common products including digital media (e.g., CDs, DVDs), electrical and electronic equipment, automobiles, sports safety equipment, reusable food and drink containers, and many other products. Epoxy resins have many uses including engineering applications such as electrical laminates for printed circuit boards, composites, paints and adhesives, as well as in a variety of protective coatings. Cured epoxy resins are inert materials used as protective liners in metal cans to maintain the quality of canned foods and beverages, and have achieved wide acceptance for use as protective coatings because of their exceptional combination of toughness, adhesion, formability, and chemical resistance. Polycarbonate looks and feels like glass but is light and difficult to break. The plastics and coatings made with BPA have many attractive properties and, among other things, are particularly good at not absorbing flavors or changing the flavor of items stored in them. Over time, the chemical can leach into the contents of a plastic container, particularly one that is used in a microwave oven or cleaned in a dishwasher.
BPA’s potential to disrupt the hormonal system, however, has made its use in plastics for food purposes controversial. Some animal studies have found that BPA apparently accelerates puberty and poses a cancer risk, and, while the issue’s focus has been on the safety of children, the chemical has also been tied to an increased risk of heart disease and diabetes in adults. In a draft risk assessment in 2008 the FDA said that at levels found in products on the American market, it appeared to be safe. Suspected of being hazardous to humans since the 1930s, concerns about the use of bisphenol A in consumer products were regularly reported in the news media in 2008 after several governments issued reports questioning its safety, and some retailers have removed products made of it from their shelves. The chemical can leach into food, and a study of more than 2,000 people found that more than 90 percent of them had BPA in their urine. Traces have also been found in breast milk, the blood of pregnant women and umbilical cord blood.
The reuse of syringes has become a global problem that kills over 1.3 million each year. Infection rates spread rapidly in developing countries without proper access to health care. This happens in hospitals, on the streets, and behind closed doors. A simple solution: a low cost syringe that cannot be used twice. Bravo Marc Koska! The K1 syringe is a disposable non-reusable solution in reducing blood borne infections. With the force of NGO SafePoint they are currently targeting India, followed by Africa. ~$1.50 purchases 31 safe syringes = safe injections.
here is no cure for Alzheimer’s, the insidious fatal disease which slowly kills all your brain cells. Already the seventh leading cause of death in the US, it is soon to reach epidemic levels as the boomers becomes senior citizens. There are more than 30 million people with dementia worldwide, but by 2050, this figure will increase to over 100 million. Two sets of findings released in the last few days bring hope that the accelerating research effort will find better ways to treat the disease, delay its onset, or prevent it from developing. Most significantly, a simple and inexpensive eye test could aid detection and diagnosis of Alzheimer’s at an earlier stage than is currently possible and a “cocktail” of commonly available supplements has shown promise in improving memory and fighting Alzheimer’s. Alzheimer’s disease was named after German physician Alois Alzheimer, who first described it in 1906. In the subsequent century, we’ve learned a lot about Alzheimer’s but with the ageing of the global population, it is about to become an epidemic. Currently there are more than 30 million people with dementia worldwide. By 2050, this figure will increase to over 100 million. Alzheimer’s is the most common form of dementia, accounting for 50 to 70 percent of dementia cases. It destroys brain cells, causing memory loss and problems with thinking and behavior severe enough to affect work, lifelong hobbies and social life. Alzheimer’s gets worse over time, and keeps destroying brain cells until there are none left. Accordingly, it is inevitably fatal with a mean life expectancy following diagnosis of approximately seven years. Today it is the seventh-leading cause of death in the United States. The most novel concept to come out of the three sets of research published in the last week is from University College London, where researchers have demonstrated a new technique that enables retinal, and therefore brain cell death, to be directly measured in real time. Few people realize that the retina is a direct, albeit thin, extension of the brain. It is entirely possible that in the future a visit to a high-street optician to check on your eyesight will also be a check on the state of your brain.“The death of nerve cells is the key event in all neurodegenerative disorders – but until now it has not been possible to study cell death in real time”, said Professor Cordeiro, of the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology.“This technique means we should be able to directly observe retinal nerve cell death in patients, which has a number of advantages in terms of effective diagnosis.
This could be critically important since identification of the early stages could lead to successful reversal of the disease progression with treatment. Currently, the biggest obstacle to research into new treatments for neurodegenerative diseases is the lack of a technique where the brain’s response to new treatments can be directly assessed – this technique could potentially help overcome that.” The technique uses fluorescent markers that attach themselves to the relevant cells and indicate the stage of cell death. The retina is then observed using a customised laser ophthalmoscope. Until now, this kind of technique has only been used in cells in the lab, rather than in live animals. This research is therefore the first ever in vivo demonstration of retinal nerve cell death in Alzheimer’s Disease. The method, demonstrated in an animal model, could not only refine diagnosis of neurodegenerative disorders and help track disease progress; it could also aid the assessment and development of new treatments. Although this paper outlines the technique in animal models (rats and mice), Professor Cordeiro’s team are further along with work using the same technique to detect and assess glaucoma, and will be conducting their first patient trials later this year. Professor Cordeiro added, “The equipment used for this research was customised to suit animal models but is essentially the same as is used in hospitals and clinics worldwide. It is also inexpensive and non-invasive, which makes us fairly confident that we can progress quickly to its use in patients. The research was published in the journal Cell Death & Disease. Research published in the journal Alzheimer’s and Dementia shows that a combination of nutrients developed at MIT has shown the potential to improve memory in Alzheimer’s patients by stimulating growth of new brain connections. Richard Wurtman, the Cecil H. Green Distinguished Professor of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, did the basic research that led to the new experimental treatment. In a clinical trial of 225 Alzheimer’s patients, researchers found that a cocktail of three naturally occurring nutrients believed to promote growth of those connections, known as synapses, plus other ingredients (B vitamins, phospholipids and antioxidants), improved verbal memory in patients with mild Alzheimer’s. “If you can increase the number of synapses by enhancing their production, you might to some extent avoid that loss of cognitive ability,” says Wurtman. There is currently no cure for Alzheimer’s disease, though some medications can slow the progression of the disease. In particular, many U.S. patients take cholinesterase inhibitors, which increase levels of acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter important for learning and memory.
While those treatments target the symptoms of Alzheimer’s, Wurtman hopes to attack what he believes is the root cause of the disease: loss of synapses. The three nutrients in his dietary cocktail — uridine, choline and the omega-3 fatty acid DHA (all normally present in breast milk) — are precursors to the fatty molecules that make up brain cell membranes, which form synapses. In animal studies, Wurtman has shown that these nutrients boost the number of dendritic spines (small outcroppings of neural membranes). When those spines contact another neuron, a synapse is formed. Three additional clinical studies in Alzheimer’s patients are now underway, one in the United States and two in Europe. Results are expected to be available between 2011 and 2013. The first clinical study was sponsored by the French company Danone, known in the United States as Dannon; the study was conducted primarily in Europe and was led by Philip Scheltens, director of the Alzheimer Center at Vrije Universiteit Medical Center in Amsterdam. Wurtman and MIT have patented the mixture of nutrients used in the study, and Nutricia Advanced Medical Nutrition, a unit of Danone, holds the exclusive license on the patent. Patients with mild Alzheimer’s drank the cocktail (made in the form of a nutrient drink called Souvenaid, with the collaboration of Danone) or a control beverage daily for 12 weeks. Patients who received the nutrients showed a statistically significant level of improvement compared to control subjects: 40 percent of the treated patients improved performance in a test of verbal memory (memory for words, as opposed to memory of locations or experiences) known as the Wechsler Memory Scale, while 24 percent of patients who received the control drink improved their performance. Among those who received the cocktail, patients with the mildest cases of Alzheimer’s showed the most improvement. The drink appeared to have no effect on patients’ performance in another commonly used evaluation for Alzheimer’s patients, the ADAS-cog test. Wurtman believes that is because ADAS-cog is a more general assessment that tests for orientation and movement/spatial memory as well as cognition. So in subjects with early Alzheimer’s who show principally cognitive changes, more than the 225 subjects in the first study will probably be required to yield significant ADAS-cog changes after Souvenaid. The 500 subjects in the ongoing study in the United States may be sufficient. John Growdon, a neurologist at Massachusetts General Hospital, says that trying to regrow synapses is an innovative strategy and offers a complementary approach to two other lines of attack in treating Alzheimer’s: targeting the amyloid plaques that accumulate in patients’ brains, and minimizing the damage done by toxic metabolites that build up in Alzheimer’s-affected brains. “I don’t think any one approach has a monopoly, and that’s good,” Growdon says. “You need to have a lot of different approaches because no one knows what’s going to work.” Wurtman believes his approach to Alzheimer’s may eventually prove beneficial in treating other diseases. If these nutrients prove to be successful in Alzheimer’s patients, “then you can think about other diseases in which there are too few synapses,” such as Parkinson’s disease, he says. “There are a lot of diseases associated with synapse deficiency.” London writer Herman Goodden captures the fiendish nature of Alzheimer’s disease most eloquently in his article entitled “No place like home for victims of Alzheimer’s.” Writes Goodden, Alzheimer’s “doesn’t relent once it’s taken away 50 or 80 or 90% of your brain function and then lets you get on with what’s left. Sooner or later it will erase not just every memory and thought but also the workings of every last neuron and synapse.
Essential Oils are powerful aides to us. They are part of the foundation of Aromatherapy and I am fully entrenched in researching and experimenting with them on a daily basis! Essential Oils are the aromatic constituents of plants extracted through processes of distillation. Through this process a plant’s medicinal properties are harnessed as well. Good quality Essential Oils will always give off notes of the Earth and a grassy or woody quality, not just the basic scent or flavor you might be used to. They stimulate our senses and reach deeply into our Bodies to invigorate or sooth everything from our nervous systems to our bile flow. Yeah, I wrote bile flow.
So…a lot of people ask me, “Which one’s should I get?” A casual question with an infinite number of answers…
It all depends on what you want to achieve, what do you love to smell?, what are you attracted to?…I have begun my answer so many ways and each person is so different in what they want to achieve in using oils that I had to come up with a simple way to get people started without sounding like a reference book.
So! Here is a simple way to begin a journey into this incredibly rich and textural world.
Begin with 4 oils:
A Flower ~ Always sensual, flower essences stir up our feelings enjoyment, connectedness and any heaviness we feel usually turns into gratitude that our lives are so complex. Consider Rose, Lavender, Jasmine or Calendula.
A Tree ~ These will help you feel rooted and above it all at the same time; incredibly helpful if you are stressed, especially if you are going to be dealing with a lot of people at once such as throwing an event or teaching. Consider Eucalyptus, Fir, Camphor, Cypress or Spruce.
An Herb ~ A category too varied to sum up! However I will venture that they all bring a sense focus and remembering your intentions. Consider Basil, Cilantro, Clary Sage, Fennel, Rosemary, Tarragon or Thyme.
A Citrus ~ Mood brighteners! Who can’t use that? Consider Lemon, Lime, Grapefruit or Tangerine.
My starter set would be:
Lavender
Cypress
Fennel
Tangerine
A standard starting group could be:
Lavender – A gentle mood regulator and anti-inflammatory.
Eucalyptus – Opens up our breathing, allowing for more oxygen in our blood, which creates more energy and allows toxins to release.
Rosemary – A fantastic immune system supporter.
Lemon – Helps stimulate our minds and fights infections.
Each oil contains the lives of many pounds of plants and it is best to hold them a few inches from your nose to be able to inhale with clarity. Try opening a bottle of Peppermint right under your nose and you will see what I mean. Play around with what has always smelled enticing to you and begin to read about the properties of those oils. I will add a post of great books and articles!
Lastly, I am a dedicated Smeller. What does that mean? It means I inhale for love of smell and information. If I take a deep enough breath I can get beyond the high notes and into the low notes and the ping-pong-y pop-up notes. If you have ever ended up with a glob of shampoo on your nose at the store because you were trying to see if you like the smell….You are probably a dedicated Smeller. Wow, that’s as close as I’ll get to Jeff Foxworthy. You know you are a red-neck dedicated Smeller if you have ended up with a slice of American cheese up your nose trying to find anything real in it.
In the past 10 years or so, I’ve become more and more of a skeptic. Especially in the last 5 or so years, the American public has become increasingly susceptible to scaremongering and inflated fears about health issues, doomsday nonsense, and other junk science that has no basis in reality. The myth about cell phone radiation causing brain cancer is one example of this. The flat truth is that there had been no proven link between cell phone use and brain cancer. In fact, according to Christopher Wanjek’s column on LiveScience there has been no significant increase in brain cancer that correlates in any way with the increase of cell phone usage. We all know how much cell phone usage has risen in the last 2 decades… if they cause brain cancer, why the hell hasn’t there been a corresponding increase in the disease? Because there’s no connection. That being said, this article on NewScientist is one of many covering research into the effects of cell phone radiation on the brain, and in fact it does affect brain tissue, and there have been some hints that extremely prolonged exposure could cause some degree of tissue damage, but tissue damage is not the same thing as brain cancer. Furthermore, another recent study actually showed that cell phone radiation reversed the effects of Alzheimer’s disease in mice! (And if you look at the bottom of that article, you’ll see that the study wasn’t funded by any cell phone companies…) We might even soon be seeing cell phone radiation used as a treatment for the disease. So, the jury may still be out on whether it causes tissue damage or has therapeutic effects on memory, but with as many studies as have been done on the link between the radiation and brain cancer, it’s pretty obvious that cell phones don’t cause brain cancer. Unfortunately some companies have tried to capitalize on the scaremongering by marketing products that are supposed to “protect” you brain from the radiation. These don’t work, and several have been shut down by the FTC.
Now that I’m off my skeptic soapbox, something actually interesting:
Biologists have discovered a species of sea slug that is the first know organism to be able to produce chlorophyll. This creature actually has aspects of both plants and animals, and thus sounds like something straight out of a sci-fi movie. But it’s real. Scientists have determined that it somehow “borrowed” the plant genes that allow chlorophyll production from the algae that it consumes. Exactly how it did that in it’s evolutionary path is still a mystery. It still can’t produce the actual chloroplasts (the cells that are responsible for the conversion of sunlight into energy) without consuming algae, but it apparently can produce chlorophyll entirely on its own.
And just for kicks: How the main LOST characters would each make a peanut butter & jelly sandwich. (Via Yewknee’d)
Strong earthquake smashed a portion of Haiti, causing extensive damages including the presidential palace, cathedrals, buildings and various communication facilities. Further details are still to be confirmed as per reports of widespread casualties. There were reports that the ground shook for more than a minute, and was followed by three aftershocks measuring 5.9, 5.5 and 5.1 on the moment magnitude scale hit. Image shows the location of the quake.
Besides being a poort nation, Haiti has been recently devasted by a series natural and man made: Four big storms, Tense political standoff, etc. Seventy percent of Haiti’s population lives on less than two dollars per day and half of its 8.5 million people are unemployed.
I thought I already knew the meaning of love until I was told of this unique, yet unparalled love story.
The year was 1992 in the town of Cavite, Philppines. The place is near the sea, so you can immagine that most of the jobs there are either fishing or factory work.
One ordinary day, a certain factory worker got illed and could no longer report for work due to his health condition. He was already bed ridden. Let me call him Freddie (not the real name). He can be compared to a paralitic as he could no longer stand. His illness was hernia. But due to lack of finances and medical attention, it got worse due to complications. He just lies on his bed day by day. Worst, his wife and family abandoned him as they could not bear his condition. Previouly, people around him care to serve him but began to vanish one by one as times go by. He was left alone in a garage like dog. But at least, someone bring him food on a daily basis. I was told that I won’t believe how pittyful his condition was. On the same bed he lays is his waste and urine flow and it accumulated already. His clothes and undergarments were unreplaced in months. Surely, you can’t breath normally if you where there, as told. His condition was too bad and his condition was worst than a shackeled animal.
In that same period of time, my brother visits the location for a Christian mission work on a weekly basis. Freddie’s condition caught the attention of a certain young man in the factory (my apology, I can no longer recall the name of that young man but he attends where my brother serve as his two friends). The two were more known as Marcing and Boy. Marcing was the one who told me the story.
The three did not waste time; they immediately went to Freddie’s place to at least share Jesus. Actually, they were neither Pastors nor a church worker. They were only ordinary attendees then who were burdened of their duty to share Jesus to less fortunate. Upon entering the area where Freddie is, all of them almost vomit but they controlled their stomach in respect to Freddie’s condition. As described, it was the most gruesome scenario they’ve been through as told. Undescribeable, as they said. Before they could start to speak, Freddie uttered curses and the worst bad mouth anyone can say. He was too angry with his family, himself, to the world and to God. But later, he let them share the Bible. Nonetheless, no expression of acceptance whatsoever was seen. Afterwards, they left and each went on to their different homes. No one speak a word till they separated, as per Marcing’s recollection. But the next day, they meet again. Each tells the same heavy burden within their heart that they could not bear. They all agreed that preaching was not enough. Later they just decided to go back.
Freddie was surprised to saw the three young men returned with cleaning tools and alcohol. The three ask his permission to clean him and his place without strings attached. Upon his ok for approcal, one sweep the floor with broom and map. Another fixed the things and cleaned the dust. Marcing decided to fix Freddie and his bed. Marcing said that Freddie’s garments were too dirty and his body emits undescribable bad odor. He undressed Freddie for a while to clean him from head to toes. Marcing could not believe what he saw. Freddie was too thin as if he is already a skeleton. Nonetheless, he controlled himself for Freddie. Marcing also said that Freddie’s whole body was so dirty; he saw the dried human waste under Freddie’s but flowing to his legs with traces of urine. Marcing himself could not believe what he did. Nonetheless, he humbly admits that they are doing it for God. Later he changed Freddie’s clothes and combs his hair. Freddie began to smile as they uttered jokes how handsome Freddie that day. Later they temporarily moved Freddie on a chair to clean and fix his bed. Each of them continued doing what should be done. One replaced the curtain. The other burned the garbage. Marcing washed the dirty plates, glass and utensils. He even called Freddie’s attention while cleaning the stained drinking glass. Freddy uttered, “No, I don’t drink through it but urinate.” To his shock, Marcing said that he almost drop the glass. He thanks God that he did not. Marcing humbly admitted that they could not do it without God, as no one can.
Before they left, tears began to drop on Fredie’s eyes. Marcing calls it, “tears of joy!” No more curses and bad mouth words were heard since they returned. Freddie thanks them and told them that they have done something no religious visitor or any of his family members have done. Because of their action, Freddie accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior although no sermon or preaching has been spoken. No religion was discussed either. As I said earlier, the three young men were only rdinary young people and they were just on their early 20s then.
Minutes passed and they said good bye. Upon leaving the area, it was only then they noticed that there were people watching them all they long. Marcing said that although they differ in status and religion, you will see in the eyes of the people their respect and amazement.
Three days later, their companion Boy had a dream that Freddie died already. It was confirmed so they visited. Marcing remembers that they saw the people who are there especially the wife and family members could not stare at them in shame. They could not believe they were that known and respected. Although no clapping was done, the warm appreciations in the eyes people were obvious. And though no preaching was made, the people believed because “kind action” and “sacrificial demonstration” speaks louder than any religious teaching. Truly, in many cases God is glorified and is made known because someone demonstrates his faith in sincere action, personal testimony and simple act of kindness. This I believed is the best kind of love.
Note: Marcing is now Pastor Marcing Prim. His wife’s name is Carmen they have one son. He moved to another area but still within Cavite Philippines. He is currently pastoring a Church there affiliated to In Christ We Live Family Christian Center, where most of the attendees were poor fisher folks and farmers. If anyone wishes to contact him, you may request of his contact details to my e-mail: denissalvatierra@yahoo.com
Apologies: To all the pundits on ethics of confidentiality. This post might not be acceptable to the people that I have written about. Insistently, I write this. Consider the fact that no bad news is acceptable to the ones who make that news, be it rapists or racists. This story is real. Read it if you want to or chuck it if you don’t care. Stories that must to be told should be told.
Note: I respect confidentiality. I am a doctor, not a journalist or policeman. Therefore there is no need for me to tell the real names. The name I have used is fictitious. Also, the persons in the story are aware of my feelings towards their attitude. I hope to understand them and change their attitude for the better in my future interactions. I continue to treat this family.
Post: Being a Woman, Leper and a Brahmin
Her name is Madhusmitha Panda. She is about 50 years old. She is unmarried. Of course, who would marry her, for she had Leprosy. She had the stigmata of having had leprosy. She walked with a limp. Her toes were shrunk and her foot was deformed.
Her father retired from Government Service and receives a pension. He is about 80 years now. He is hard of hearing, but quite independent. Her mother was in her 70s and she had uncontrolled diabetes. She had no other siblings. She had few cousins, who were all married and well settled economically. The women who were married to her cousins do not take good care of them. So the three live independently in a small house. They have no other social supports.
She was an old patient of our institution. She had received MDT (multidrug therapy) and was cured of Leprosy few years ago. Our nurses have treated her of a foot ulcer a couple of months ago. She used to come on an out patient basis for dressing of the ulcer in her foot.It had healed well.
I saw her few weeks ago with a bad ulcer in her foot. Considering her situations, I felt that it would be difficult for her to come all the way from her home on a regular basis. Remember that travel costs money. I advised her to stay in Leprosy Home, a place where she could get free accommodation, food and ulcer care.Her father was not interested .He said that he would bring her regularly for dressings.
Madhusmitha came daily for dressings. Her father brought her everyday in an auto rickshaw. Over few days we realized that the ulcer is not getting better. At the same time she is developing changes in her sole indicating that there is possibility of new ulcer developing. This was because she was not giving adequate rest to her foot. Being the more able of the three, she had to do all the house hold work. Her dressings were not maintained as they had to be. We pressed them for an admission. It can be assumed that once a patient gets admitted, he/she could get some rest.
We also had asked her father to buy her MCR (Micro Cellular Rubber) footwear from the shoe maker in Leprosy Home. We told him of the costs etc.He wanted to find out, if it was available elsewhere. Even after a while, her foot did not improve. We realized he has not purchased the footwear for her. We felt irritated. He was not even willing to go to the Leprosy Home! We knew we could help her if she were admitted. When we insisted on admission, he blurted out, “How can I leave my daughter? What if someone does something?” . The nurses told me that he did not trust his own daughter. That is why he accompanied her everyday, even into the dressing room.
We had a word with her mother. We thought she could think more rationally. It made sense to admit her daughter to get treatment for free! She asked, “Do good people stay there?” I began to reason with her that most people living there are nice people. They too were suffering like her daughter. I also told her that there will be people to take care of her daughter. As I was explaining this, our nurse told me, “Sir, the meaning of her ‘good people’ is not nice people as you imagine. She refers to people of higher caste. She is a Brahmin. So, she does not want her daughter to live in a Home with lower caste people.”
I was shocked. I thought “What? Mother of a Leprosy patient was discriminating other oppressed people!!!”.Madhusmitha is not suffering with Leprosy problems alone. She was suffering for being a woman. She was suffering for being a Brahmin. Her parents think that they are being helpful and protective but they are the biggest stumbling blocks to her care. They being old cannot care for themselves. They want Madhusmitha to do all the household work. After all, she was born a woman. It is her responsibility to do the household chores. Adequate rest is therefore not possible. On the top of it, they deny her benefits of admission into a Home because of being Brahmins. Sadly again, because of associated stigma they do not want to go to the Home to buy MCR footwear.
I asked her mother, “Mousi, you said you have problems with wives of your nephews. Isn’t it?” She nodded with an expression anticipating sympathy. “Are they not Brahmins like you?” I asked. She agreed though her expression changed. I asked her, “Tell me who is better? The wives of your nephews, who being high caste Brahmins do not care for you or the tribal people and health workers in the Home, who would dress your daughter’s ulcers and take care of her, even in your absence?” There was a pause. She answered in a low tone, “Tribals”.I am glad that she could see the obvious truth.
Frankly, I felt that if that old couple die then Madhusmitha might get a better deal. Till then she would remain a Brahmin woman, who would do all the household chores, limping with ulcerated feet. She should have been born into a Tribe. She would have had a better deal.
I still cannot understand how they could discriminate against persons from tribal background when they themselves get discriminated for having leprosy. I wonder how they try to hide the identity of having had leprosy, but flaunt the identity of high caste origin.
WASHINGTON (SR) – President Barack Obama struck back at the mounting criticism that his administration’s secrecy violates his promise on at least eight separate occasions to televise all important legislative hearings.
“I promised the American people that my administration would be absolutely transparent, and it has been,” the President told reporters Thursday. “Transparent means to see through or be invisible, and our extensive coverage of every House and Senate hearing dealing with health care reform has been just that: totally invisible,” he said.
When asked by reporters when and where the coverage had been broadcast, the President said that “literally thousands of hours of coverage” had been, and is still being, broadcast on “a special invisible network” operated by MSNBC.
A spokesperson for MSNBC confirmed the network had been broadcasting both the House and Senate hearings on healthcare reform, but that the unprecedented transparency rendered them invisible to all but space aliens.
My comments: I have to say, this restores my faith in Barry’s honesty. Let’s have a margarita and hope space aliens abduct us and fill us in on the high points of this healthcare thing…
Read More Satire and Humorous Comments at Scooter’s Report
Well, it’s the beginning of a new year – a time when we take a closer look at ourselves try to figure out what we can do to make this year better than the last. But it’s also a time when many people are hit with seasonal affective disorder as we begin the decent from our holiday high.
It’s no surprise that antidepressants are among the most prescribed drugs in the United States. In fact, as we reported back in August, the number of Americans taking antidepressants has doubled in only a decade. Many Americans feel we are over-medicated, and according to a new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, there may be some truth to that sentiment.
It was a small study – but an important one – because what it showed was that common antidepressants may not be as effective for mild to moderate depression, and that these patients could benefit from alternative treatments like psychotherapy, counseling, talk therapy, etc. without the risks associated with these medications.
Interestingly enough, another new study out of the Archives of General Psychiatry found that about 60 percent of the time, psychiatrists are prescribing more than one drug at a time to their patients. Many mental disorders go hand-in-hand, so often patients can be afflicted with two or more, and may need a combination of drugs to help them cope with their symptoms. So there is evidence that for some patients, a combination of psychotropic drugs can be very beneficial, but it brings us back to the fact that the way we monitor those patients is key.
Internists and primary care physicians often prescribe these medications for their patients, but it’s vital that the patient receive therapy from a professional to evaluate progress and observe any negative side effects, because many of these drugs have serious risks. This is especially important for the adolescent population, because children are being put on these medications more and more.
But patients are not the only ones who need to be monitored — we have to be careful that the agenda to treat mental illness does not become big business driven by the pharmaceutical companies so that we don’t become a society dependent on pills!
Speaking as someone who has done it, I can say with some degree of authority that quitting smoking completely sucks. You’re on edge all the time, you snack constantly, you have nothing to do in the morning before you use the bathroom, and perhaps most galling, you have to work through an entire day without a series of ten minute breaks. Like a Normal.
This is why no one ever quit smoking because they wanted to. Instead, the main reason people quit smoking is Fear of Chronic Disease. Which is a perfectly reasonable fear, mind you, and thus a perfectly rational reason to quit smoking.
Unless quitting smoking also makes you significantly more susceptible to a DIFFERENT chronic disease.
As it turns out, this is exactly the case. According to a Johns Hopkins study recently released in The Annals of Internal Medicine, breaking the habit can raise a person’s chances of developing Type II Diabetes by up to a staggering 70%. The heightened risk is tied to the aforementioned snacking and weight gain often associated with giving up smoking.
The researchers point out that this weight loss, and the diabetes risk tied to it, can be tempered by seeking help from a doctor while quitting. But at this point, we have to ask ourselves – do we really want to live in a world where everyone is short-tempered, on a diet and under the constant supervision of a doctor?
I think we call all agree that this is a scenario in which the living would envy the dead.
Ring, ring. ” Hi, this is Kaiser Permanente, the largest managed care organization in the United States and we’re conducting a study. We were just wondering if those anti-depressant medications, antibiotics, and or cardiovascular medications you might have taken while you were pregnant gave your child birth defects or caused any perinatal problems?”
A new research program called the Medication Exposure in Pregnancy Risk Evaluation Program (MEPREP) will fund research to study the effects of prescription medications used during pregnancy. The program is a collaboration among the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and researchers at the HMO Research Network Center for Education and Research in Therapeutics (CERT), Kaiser Permanente’s multiple research centers and Vanderbilt University.
Collectively, the 11 participating sites have health care information for about 1 million births over the past seven years (2001-2007). Many of the mothers associated with these births likely used medication during their pregnancies and now, with the program in place, the FDA and participating researchers have a systematic and timely way of retrieving information from this network. http://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsroom/PressAnnouncements/ucm195934.htm
Did any pregnant mom systematically give permission to have their data used in this study? Was there “informed consent,” that prescription data could be used in future studies? We realize this is probably just an aggregate of data from various clinics, but everyone of those patients has a name and now are being used by a group of researchers to evaluate perscriptions drugs taken while pregnant. “In 2007, Kaiser it completed the four-year implementation of the Kaiser Permanenteprescriptions HealthConnect technology system, which standardizes technology across all locations.” http://www.wetfeet.com/Employers/Kaiser-Permanente.aspx What perfect timing!
Will the study look at race, age, and socio-economic factors as well? How much do you think they know about these women? About the children?
Smoking, drinking, and drug abuse are on the list as no no’s, but why is it the FDA now only taking action? Reading the small print on most medications, including the H1N1 Swine Flu vaccines patient inserts, “product may not be safe for use during pregnancy, benefits outweighing risks, etc.”
Why is it that the FDA is procuring this study as opposed to the pharmaceutical manufacturers themselves? Oh, that’s right- many are already released from any liability from injury -as is the case with the H1N1 vaccines. We have doubts that the outcome of this study will gain as much information as the government’s coordinated data effort which failed to reveal potential terrorists based on the events of 9-11, and as recently as on Christmas Day.
The stimulus package, officially the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, includes $8.2 billion in “extramural” NIH funding to help stimulate the U.S. economy by supporting scientific research. Kaiser Permanente has won more than $54 million in federal stimulus funding to conduct research on many public and clinical health areas, including $25 million for genetic research in Northern California. http://sanfrancisco.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/stories/2009/10/12/daily1.html
Taking a conspiracy twist-
Financially influenced by Rockefeller’s leading petrochemical– pharmaceutical institutions, history shows these powerful “population planners” consistently working to manage global eugenics—the science of racial hygiene and “ethnic cleansing.” Desperately seeking ways to control “excess populations,” how do you suppose they might magically disappear half of us now targeted for elimination?
Before your imagination runs wild considering my view of “Vaccine Magic,” consider Kaiser’s history with the Rockefeller family cooperatively pioneering “managed care” in America along with the Kaiser Institute for Eugenics, Anthropology, and Human Heredity in pre-Nazi Germany. In essence, these contemporary powers spearheaded Hitler’s racial hygiene program, its genetic experiments for unnatural selection, and propaganda methods in advancing their “master race.” http://www.awakentothetruth.com/vaccine_magic_conspiracy.htm
“The Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Anthropology, Human Heredity, and Eugenics was founded in 1927. The Rockefeller Foundation supported both the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Psychiatry and the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Anthropology, Human Heredity and Eugenics. The Rockefeller Foundation partially funded the actual building of the Institute and helped keep the Institute afloat during the Depression. In its early years, and during the Nazi era, it was strongly associated with theories of Nazi eugenics and racial hygiene advocated by its leading theorists Fritz Lenz and Eugen Fischer, and by its director Otmar von Verschuer. Under Fischer, the sterilisation of so-called Rhineland Bastards was undertaken. During World War II, the Institute regularly received human body parts, including eyes and skulls, from Dr. Josef Mengele at Auschwitz to use in studies intended to prove Nazi racial theories and justify race-related social polices. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaiser_Wilhelm_Institute_of_Anthropology,_Human_Heredity,_and_Eugenics
George Halvorson, the chief executive of one of the nation’s most respected health care systems, Kaiser Permanente, says he is hopeful that all the sausage-making in Washington will succeed in squeezing out a law….” lawmakers should support efforts to reward improvements in care for a handful of chronic conditions like asthma and heart failure, which affect millions of people and are some of the highest contributors to the nation’s health care bill. Tracking the care of those patients would be a good start, he said. “You don’t have to fix a lot of things.” http://prescriptions.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/22/kaiser-permanentes-chief-optimistic-about-health-overhaul-effort/
A handful of chronic conditions, eh? Is being pregnant considered chronic. Maybe for the Digger’s family! Oh wait, how do drug companies make money if a patient doesn’t take them? Could the underlying reason for this study really be linked back to The Kaiser Institute for Eugenics, Anthropology, and Human Heredity?
Could there be a link to other well known institutions? In 1904, the Carnegie Institution established a laboratory complex at Cold Spring Harbor on Long Island that stockpiled millions of index cards on ordinary Americans, as researchers carefully plotted the removal of families, bloodlines and whole peoples. Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/11/09/ING9C2QSKB1.DTL#ixzz0bfTKdKOR
Elluminati’s blog takes the conspiracy farther in thinking that Kaiser has a connection to the three pillars of masonic ritual. Pointing out the 3 pillars (sizes) of the Doctors, and the 3 dots of the Kaiser Permanente logo. http://elluminati.blogspot.com/2009/01/kaiser-permanente-and-3-pillars-of.html
Heck, you can fold a $20 dollar bill to show the world trade center towers too, so you never know what symbology can get you if you try.
https://www.kaiserpermanente.org/ is Kaiser’s homepage.
http://www.certs.hhs.gov/ is the HMO Research Network Center for Education and Research in Therapeutics (CERT) and offers it’s data base of patients for sale. via http://info.ahrq.gov/cgi-bin/ahrq.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=90&p_created=1151339260&p_sid=GsErx9Rj&p_accessibility=0&p_redirect=&p_srch=1&p_lva=&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPTEmcF9zb3J0X2J5PSZwX2dyaWRzb3J0PSZwX3Jvd19jbnQ9MSwxJnBfcHJvZHM9JnBfY2F0cz0wJnBfcHY9JnBfY3Y9JnBfcGFnZT0xJnBfc2VhcmNoX3RleHQ9ZmluYW5jaW5n&p_li=&p_topview=1
HCUPnet is part of the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). HCUPnet generates statistics using data from HCUP’s Nationwide Inpatient Sample (NIS), the Kids’ Inpatient Database (KID), and the State Inpatient Databases (SID). These databases and HCUPnet would not be possible without the statewide data collection projects that provide data to HCUP. You can purchase many HCUP databases to do more detailed analysis not possible through HCUPnet. For more information on purchasing HCUP data go to the HCUP Central Distributor Web site at http://www.hcup-us.ahrq.gov/tech_assist/centdist.jsp
From Vanderbilt, VUMC is known for its highly-acclaimed teaching hospital and its groundbreaking efforts in electronic medical records. Its 1,800 physicians see more than 1.2 million patients each year and its hospitals admit more than 65,000 patients via wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanderbilt_University_Medical_Center, VUMC’s home page can be found at http://www.mc.vanderbilt.edu/
You didn’t think your or your children’s patient data was really confidential did you? Have a baby, pay the bills, they collect the money and the data, get tax dollars to subsidize the data, and they can still sell your data.
Might as well just get an RFID chip now and get it over with.
Open wide, say ahhh and check out these posts on the A/H1N1 Swine Flu from Ahrcanum, where the conspiracy spreads as fast as the virus itself. Subscribe for free in the top right margin.
I have finished the web re-design! In fact I re-designed it so thoroughly that I am posting this from there RIGHT NOW. (If you are reading this from kristinmh.com that will make *no* sense, but don’t worry, it doesn’t really matter.)
Anyway, here is the latest episode of Complaining with Kay:
Complaining with Kay, Episode 40
In this episode, I tell you more than you ever wanted to know about my weird neck scar, and talk about how much I would pay for healthcare if I lived in the US. (WAAAYYYY more than I pay in taxes to the Canadian government.)