Check out the latest t-shirts and hats from JavaFit! Show loyalty to your brand, advertise and look cool at the same time!
If you are already part of my team, you can purchase these in your Virtual Office! If you want to get one of these awesome tees or hats and are not on the team yet, what are you waiting for??? CLICK HERE NOW!
Click on an item to enlarge the photo!
For more information, e-mail Carl at: just4alexis@gmail.com
In less than 24 hours life as I have known it for two years and nine months will cease to exist. I am leaving the hospital that raised me to be the Emergency Physician that I am today to become an even better one at the biggest Emergency Room in the country.
It is not like part of my life had not already gone AWOL (someone else took care of that last month) and it is also not like I did not know. For years I have been planning my exit and I can hardly believe the moment is finally there.
No more driving up and down the highway to get to work and back. No more getting up at 6 am and getting home at 8 because traffic was a disaster. But also no more picking up the phone with just my first name because everyone knows who I am. No more walking around the place like I own it…
I will miss it, all of it, but I would miss a lot more if I did not go. But do not get me wrong: I have rarely been more scared than I am now (or maybe it was that time in Africa when I had altered some dates in my passport and nearly got caught…) yet I know I have to do this.
It is the end of an era, and also the beginning of one.
If I were a (medical specialty)……. my blog would be called…..(blog title)
Original Post : Cooperating In Our Health Care
http://www.healthpress.us/cooperating-in-our-health-care/
Funny thing pain, if you’ve never had a severe pain then the suggestion of taking simple analgesia and resting the affected area all seems quite reasonable. I was reminded of this when I read recently of a doctor’s advice to someone who was suffering from sciatica. Having personally experienced sciatica, it’s a condition I would not recommend to anyone who wishes to walk, sit, laugh, sleep, or to just simply pull up your trousers. It’s a bit like a dentist drilling your teeth without an anaesthetic, but it affects your whole leg. In other words the pain is consuming, exhausting and without respite. Clinical studies do show that in the majority of cases the pain will eventually subside and surgery may not be necessary, but in the meantime the patient has to deal with the pain or deal with the medication required to dull the pain. Remember, pain-killers are not selective to the area affected. They affect the whole of the nervous system and elsewhere so there may be significant side-effects from these medications.
Dealing with severe pain can be a complex issue, but I suggest that you have to treat this sort of pain fairly aggressively as acute severe pain is relatively easier to treat than chronic severe pain. In the early stages of an injury or insult to an area of the body, most of the pathological processes are happening at the site of the injury or insult. Throughout time the brain begins to modulate this pain and so no only do you have the injured area to deal with, but you also have complex neural pathways within the brain to deal with as well. This often means a far more complex management plan and a far more protracted recovery time. Specialists are very skilled at dealing with these issues but they do rely heavily on the stories their patients give them. That means being honest in answering their questions and not being heroic with a grin and bear it grimace! Often the use of a pain scale is helpful with zero being no pain at all and a 10 being the worse pain you have ever experienced.
Another health issue we commonly down play is influenza. Over the years I have frequently heard people say that they would not have the flu vaccine because either they never get the flu or that they had it last week for a couple of days and then it was all over! Influenza is a serious debilitating disease that will usually last from 10 days to two weeks and often leave you flat on your back exhausted. It’s not a happy 10 days either as patients do not have the energy to read a magazine or even watch a DVD. You will literally feel ancient with every movement being a real challenge and that doesn’t include the aching all over or the fevers and sleepless nights. The influenza virus is also extremely contagious and most people are unaware that if you spread it to someone who is more frail than yourself that you may actually be putting their life at risk.
With the ‘flu the big challenge is to vaccinate as many people in the community as possible, including children, those employed and unemployed, the elderly and the infirm, to reduce the chance of an epidemic occurring. Recent research has also showed that vaccinating pregnant women in the last trimester of their pregnancy will help protect their new born infants born during the ‘flu season.
Medicine has evolved over the last 40 years, but the change has been fairly slow with doctors by nature being very cautious and conservative people. But we can’t leave the doctors to take all the initiatives. As patients we need to be good listeners in our approach to health by heeding all the great health messages that keep being given to us about vaccinations, smoking, alcohol, exercise and healthy eating. We also need to be good communicators and tell our doctors how we are feeling with conditions such as pain. If the team treating you doesn’t have the best information then it may be that you will not end up getting the best treatment!
HBF Health Funds, the largest health insurance provider in Western Australia.
Check out these clips of Pliles & Keri Hilson behind the scenes for his new video medicine which will appear on his new album “Goon Affiliated”. I’m not a big fan of Pliles but I am of Keri Hilson and the song is not bad so I cant wait to see this video I hope it delivers. What do y’all think of the pics? 
It’s been a very long time since I started my journey into medical madness. First stop: Menopause. Second stop: an underactive thyroid. Third stop: Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis (an auto immune disease) Fourth stop: Fibromyalgia. I was being treated for my underactive thyroid with Synthroid and more synthroid. Cymbalta was added on top of Prozac, intertwined with various other drugs for various other ailments. Then, a long period of feeling like I had the flu without a temperature, no energy, no strength, every body part and his brother ached, all I wanted to do or was able to do, was pretty much, sleep. I felt and looked like hell.
That was about a year and a half until I was forced to see a specialist in NYC that dealt with joint diseases and auto-immune diseases only. That became the start of more medicine, but more hope. I had to keep a journal of how achy I was (yes) and how tired I was (still yes.) Then came Plaquannel, high doses of Vitamin D and after that, folic acid. After a few more months he added methotrexate and to contradict some of the really bad side effects of methotrexate he added Levocoir or something that sounds like that. That worked and it didn’t work, sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn’t. There was no rhyme or reason as to when it would work and when it would not. In addition, he had me see his colleague ( girlfriend) an OB-GYN, and start bio-identical hormones.
Since I have not reacted most positively to all the drugs listed above, my guru Dr. wants to go to even stronger meds, including injectible ones. That’s right, injectable drugs, in my thigh, given by me, every day. From the diary he asks me to keep from one to ten, one being a mess and ten being (in my words)euphoric or on top of the world, I am at best a five. He is not happy with that number, he wants it to increase to an eight. I will never be a ten, with my auto-immune disease, but I should be higher than a five or sometimes a two. At least that’s what he says. Me? I’m not so sure.
How much though, is too much? How much more medicine to I want to take in my already overly medicated body. Why isn’t a five acceptable? Are these his standards, or mine? I am weary of taking stronger drugs and injecting them daily. For what? A higher quality of life? I have an acceptable quality of life and I am beginning to think that that’s enough for me. The name of the drug he wants to introduce by injection is Enbrel. Since I become hysterical at looking drugs up on Web MD, my husband always reads it first. For him to shake his head and say, “I’m not so sure about this one…..” is tantamount to me shrieking, feeling sick and fainting all at once. My husband is a calm man, I am not considered to be calm when it comes to medicine, illness or personal safety. I admit it. I worry.
Yes, I would like to feel better than I do but at what cost? Doctors often breezily refer to drugs with well known risks as if they were telling you to take a multi-vitamin. I am going to have to seriously think about the next step, although I’m pretty sure I know what I am going or NOT going to do. I don’t want more drugs in an already inundated body. I don’t want to inject a drug that has more negative side effects than it does worth. I’m sick of all of it, sick of feeling poorly, sick of taking drugs and sick of Dr.s and yes, sick of myself.
I can’t tell you what I am DEFINITELY going to do, I need much more information. Why is a five in a range from one to ten such a bad thing? What about the hidden side effects of all these different medicines. And, what about quality of life? Maybe being a ten is not for everyone, or a nine, even an eight. In the meantime, I am going to weigh all the risks and get more facts, but, for the meantime I will stay at five; and just be very grateful for that.
Today we had my husband’s brother and family come over for a Christmas lunch. I was talking to my sister-in-law and found out that my oldest niece, she’s 17, has GERD. My sister-in-law mentioned that they think she’s had it since she was born. When my niece and I started talking and comparing notes she said she wasn’t given any restrictions just medicine but wasn’t eating much because she had pain with certain things. She’s very tiny already so I worry that she’s not getting enough food. I showed her the restrictions that doctor put me on and she wanted to a copy. Also, my husband is going to make me some blocks to lift the head of our bed up and he’s going to make her a set too since she has most of her pain at night.
This went to show me that this condition knows no age. I hope that I’m able to help my niece with information when she needs it.
I’ve been increasingly dizzy, the past few days. My left ear is squishy and has been making its presence felt. Pressure in my head, and fatigue… I haven’t had good sleep hygiene, for the past few weeks, and it’s catching up with me.
I think part of the problem is the impending holiday rush. The prospect of driving through several states to see multiple families, over the course of nearly a week is making me a little nervous, and that’s setting off my schedule and my focus.
I have been doing really well with keeping to my daily exercise, which helps. I just finished my morning workout, in fact, and I feel noticeably better than I did before it. I worked up a sweat and got my heart pumping, which in turn moved the lymph through my system to clear out the grunge. I love lymph. So basic, so essential, so useful. Without it, I’d be in a heap of trouble, and I count my blessings that I don’t have lymph drainag problems, like folks with edema do.
Anyway, I’m feeling better, and I have a full day ahead of me. But I’m pacing myself. And I’ve blocked off time this afternoon to sleep. I haven’t had a good afternoon nap in weeks, and it’s taking its toll. If I don’t nap at least once over the weekend, it catches up with me — and that’s what’s been happening.
And now I’m really dizzy, with a lot of stuff to do, and I regret doing chores last Sunday, instead of taking my nap. I had three solid hours to myself, to use as I pleased, and I frittered away the time on futzing around and doing little chores that took longer than I expected.
Ah, well, so it goes. At least I’m aware of my dizziness, so I can accommodate it and work with it. When I’m really, really dizzy, I find that keeping my posture ramrod straight and moving very slowly and deliberately helps tremendously. Also, if I sleep a lot and drink plenty of fluids and avoid sugar, that helps, too. I’ve taken medicine for vertigo, but it didn’t help a bit. Anyway, it turns out the medicine is really just for nausea that results from vertigo, not the vertigo itself — at least that’s what the PCP I had at the time told me. Come to think of it, they could have been wrong. They were a bit of an idiot, by average standards. (And it was a scary six months in my life, when they were my primary doctor.)
But now I’ve got a pretty good PCP, and I trust them a whole lot more than the last several I went to. Trusting your doctor is good. It simplifies a lot of things, in many ways, not least of which is the office visit experience.
But more on that later. Right now, I need to stay focused on my dizziness.
Tracking back over the past week, as it’s gotten steadily worse, I have been looking for what I’ve been doing differently that has contributed to this. The one thing that I’ve been doing regularly, that is very different from before, is that I’ve been eating pieces of chocolate to keep myself going. Not just chocolate, mind you, but those little Dove chocolates with peanut butter in the middle. I thought that the peanut butter would give them more staying power, but what I’ve noticed over the past week is how much sugar is in those little puppies.
Zoinks! Who eats this stuff regularly?! They’re dangerous! Sure, they give me a little pick-me-up when I need it — like driving home late from work when it’s very dark, I’m very tired, and I’m having a hard time seeing. But I’m finding that when I eat one, I crave another one about 10 minutes later — like I spike, and then I crash and am worse off than before, so I need another “little” piece of candy to keep me going… and my system gets totally fried by all the sudden, extreme ups and downs.
Which contributes to my fatigue… and apparently my dizziness.
Not good.
So, while I’m doing my errands today, I’m going to remove the chocolates from my car — just throw them out — drink more water, eat more fruit, and be very, very careful when I’m out and about.
The last thing I need is another accident or fall.
With winter still officially a few days away, a major snowstorm spreading across the southeast and mid-Atlantic areas of the US, and a nor’easter’ blowing in to the New England states, health officials are worried that the public may get too complacent about the threat of the Swine flu. To be sure, the pandemic thus far, has not reached the original levels feared by many public health officials across the globe. Nevertheless, there has been a great deal of illness and almost 12,000 deaths (over 2,000 in the US) worldwide directly attributable to the H1N1 strain of flu. Vaccine production, while still not totally up to par, had made great strides and there appears to be ample vaccine in many parts of the US for all who want to get vaccinated. Indeed, health officials are now urging ALL Americans to get vaccinated in an effort to prevent a third wave of the H1N1 pandemic from breaking out after the holidays. To date, fears about major side effects from the Swine flu vaccine have not been born out. As of November 19, 2009, 65+ million doses of vaccine had been administered in over 16 countries; the vaccine seems safe and effective, producing a strong immune response that should protect against infection. The safety profile of the new H1N1 vaccine is similar to that of the seasonal flu vaccine, and fewer than a dozen cases of Guillain-Barre syndrome have been reported post-vaccination. Only a few of these are suspected to be actually related to the H1N1 vaccination, and only temporary illness has been observed. This is in strong contrast to the 1976 swine flu outbreak, where mass vaccinations in the United States caused over 500 cases of Guillain-Barre syndrome and led to 25 deaths. The current vaccine is manufactured according to protocols in place for production of the current seasonal flu vaccines, which are well tolerated. So it seems clear that the current H1N1 flu vaccine is safe. Experts estimate that this vaccine should confer adequate immunity for up to 12 months or longer. Based on all the current data, coupled with widespread availability of the vaccine, most Americans should strongly consider getting vaccinated, especially with an entire winter season yet to go . . . ben kazie md
H1N1 Influenza (inactivated–flu shot) vaccine side-effects – http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vac-gen/side-effects.htm#h1n1
Response after One Dose of a Monovalent Influenza A (H1N1) 2009 Vaccine — Preliminary Report – http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/abstract/NEJMoa0907413v1
Transcript of virtual press conference with Dr Marie-Paule Kieny, Director, Initiative for Vaccine Research World Health Organization 19 November 2009 – http://www.who.int/mediacentre/vpc_transcript_19_november_09_kieny.pdf
Swine flu ‘debacle’ of 1976 is recalled – http://articles.latimes.com/2009/apr/27/science/sci-swine-history27?pg=2
European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control – http://ecdc.europa.eu/en/healthtopics/Documents/091218_Influenza_AH1N1_Situation_Report_0900hrs.pdf
There are nearly 100 million vaccine doses available, and in 35 states, available now means anyone can get the vaccine, not just those in high-risk groups. About 100 million doses of swine flu vaccine are now available, which is close to the amount of seasonal flu vaccine used in a typical year. Some cities are reporting surpluses and releasing them to doctors’ offices and to pharmacy and supermarket clinics, telling them to vaccinate everyone — not just students and pregnant women, who have until now been the focus of vaccination drives. Health officials’ biggest fear now is that, with the perception that the pandemic is waning, many people will decide that they don’t need to get the vaccine. Top federal health officials urged all Americans – not just those at high risk — to get vaccinated against the H1N1 influenza virus to prevent another wave of illnesses after the holidays. Even though this new flu that scientists call the 2009 H1N1 strain is ebbing, specialists stressed that it’s too soon to say it’s over. There’s plenty of illness going around, and the 1957 flu pandemic ebbed in the fall only to bounce back in January and February.
Assessment and Thanks as Flu Wave Ebbs in U.S. – http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/18/health/18flu.html?_r=1
Swine flu doses will top 100 million on Friday – http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/booster_shots/2009/12/swine-flu-doses-will-top-100-million-tomorrow.html
U.S. Health Officials Urge H1N1 Shots for All Groups – http://online.wsj.com/article/SB126106973839395771.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
Swine flu shots for everyone, U.S. urges after increased supply – http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2009-12-17-h1n1-vaccine_N.htm
The swine flu pandemic may have changed the U.S. approach to handling influenza forever, and for the better, U.S. officials said on Thursday. While they said years of work were needed before vaccine production was up to the desired standard, some experiments such as vaccinating children in schools might work to help control seasonal influenza. But there are still holes in the public health system that will take years to patch, and communication with the public could use a bit more polishing, they acknowledged.
Flu pandemic may change US flu approach forever – http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN1719069220091217
With swine flu cases continuing to mount in many countries, it remains far too early to declare the H1N1 pandemic over, a World Health Organization official said Thursday. While the WHO has documented only about 10,000 deaths from the pandemic worldwide, Fukuda said it is too early to know whether this pandemic will turn out to be the mildest on record. WHO spokesman also noted that the signs of a peak and a decline in the caseload in North America and parts of Europe had occurred “extraordinarily early for influenza,” with several months of the winter left. As a result, the WHO could not rule out the possibility of another wave of illness in late winter or early spring. Senior World Health Organisation official Keiji Fukuda said Thursday that it was too early to declare the swine flu pandemic over, as it continues at “high levels” in parts of Europe and central Asia. Although the A(H1N1) flu virus is peaking and even declining in parts of the northern hemisphere, and is hardly present in the south, Fukuda said there was an unproven possibility that there could be another wave later in the winter. “It really probably remains too early to call the pandemic over,” Fukuda said in a weekly telephone news conference. Fukuda, Special Adviser to the WHO Director-General on Pandemic Influenza, said flu “activity continues at quite high levels in several different countries” notably the Czech Republic, France, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Switzerland. Fukuda also noted that the signs of a peak and a decline in the caseload in North America and parts of Europe had occurred “extraordinarily early for influenza,” with several months of the winter left. As a result, the WHO could not rule out the possibility of another wave of illness in late winter or early spring. “We simply are unable to answer this question right now. We continue to assess, right now we cannot predict whether we will see another upsurge in activity in the earlier parts of 2010,” Fukuda said.
WHO not ready to declare H1N1 pandemic over; U.S. officials urge vaccination – http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/17/AR2009121701309.html
Too early to declare end to swine flu pandemic: WHO – http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hrghfLiMy8EXMPEmcb4SyH08eaQw
Too Soon to Say H1N1 Pandemic Over, WHO’s Fukuda Says – http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=a6DOXn8l1oxM
www.blogsurfer.us
www.bloglines.com www.blogburst.com www.blogcatalog.com www.clusty.com www.reddit.com
www.digg.com www.wikio.com www.propeller.com www.mashable.com www.bing.com www.wellsphere.com
The latest eye implants could help restore vision or provide “supervision” to people who have to wear glasses at middle or old age, according to leading British surgeon Bobby Qureshi.
Thousands of people, who have developed cataracts or become short sighted with age, have been offered the prospect of 20/20 vision thanks to light-adjustable lenses (LAL).
The lenses, similar to the current lens implants (intraocular lenses- IOL), cost £600 each -with the total cost of the operation and adjustment being anything up to £3000- and are currently used in Germany and the USA.
However, with these lenses, doctors can adjust them after they have been implanted, tailoring the amount of correction to an individual’s needs and potentially eliminating the need for glasses.
They are being offered for the first time in Britain to private patients having operations for cataract or presbyopia (age-related deterioration of sight) at the London Eye Hospital.
The downsides to the implant is that patients have to stay out of bright sunlight or wear UV-protective glasses for two weeks, until they’ve had the adjustments done. Also the cost of the treatment may increase if the patient requires repeat visits to hospital.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=6ad65beb-9246-49aa-95a7-5ec4f1cf00ed)
I hate commercials where people talk to their reflections and shadows…
That just begs for another commercial concerning their mental health…
Which calls for a commercial suggesting one of those new prescription drugs that those creepy smooth talking “doctors” are trying to sell to you…
Which just calls for one of those handy advertisements saying that if you’ve died from this dangerous prescription drug, that you should call them, so they can sue the pants of commercial #3…
Which of course would mean that you’d need a number for those supernatural people who talk to the dead and interpret what they’re trying to say…
Well guess what? They have a commercial for that too.
My name is Dr. Stephanie Maj. I am a chiropractor. How I became a chiropractor is not all that exciting and yet it’s my story and I am going to tell it here. I got injured, had spinal pain and my mom urged me to go to a chiropractor. She also urged me to be a chiropractor. “Chiropractor?” There are none in our family and to my knowledge, no one in my family had ever been adjusted. So I went to Dr. Tony Battaglia in my hometown of Akron, Ohio. I was 23 years of age, working in an environmental lab and was looking for deeper meaning in my life. I went to this office looking for pain relief and received so much more. I was assigned a young doctor, excited and passionate about what he did and how he was going to help lots of people get well. No one talked about helping people at my lab job. Intrigued, I dug deeper. From my earliest memory, I had always wanted to be a doctor. A pediatrician to be exact. Through my undergraduate studies at Ohio University, I was a premed/nutrition major and just assumed my path was to be a medical doctor. After going through the application process, I realized that there was something that didn’t fit about me and traditional medicine. I decided against that career for reasons that were not fully formed in my mind and have since become crystal clear to me. After completing my treatment plan with my chiropractor, I not only healed the sprain in my neck from my car accident, my lifelong headaches went away as well.
After that experience, l decided that I needed to get my life moving in a better direction so off I went to Chicago to chiropractic school. Chiropractic school is a 5 year program, very similar to medical school except when medical students go into the hospitals, chiropractic students study the biomechanics, neurology, and function of the body deeper. I spent my last year and a half of school in clinics, helping the community and firming up my techniques of diagnosis and treatment. School was the most intense experience of my life. It was hard to think of life after school and the direction now of my career. I just wanted to help people, that’s all. I saw that there were so many people to help; this world has never been sicker. I felt for me, working under another doctor for a time was important. I studied under Dr. Peter Feldkamp outside of Columbus, Ohio. Dr. Pete is a good man. I learned many things both clinical and business from him although my biggest lesson was that I could make a living, help lots of people, and do it with integrity and honesty.
I opened Community Chiropractic in Chicago on April 1, 1996, my 30th birthday. I have operated a family-oriented wellness practice in the Chicago area where I specializes in returning people to health, family, pediatric, pregnancy, and wellness care ever since. I am certified in Pediatrics from the International Chiropractic Pediatric Association where I completed over 120 hours of curriculum offered techniques and protocols of care for children and pregnant women. I also earned a Certificate of Proficiency in the Webster Technique, a specific analysis and adjustment used for pregnant mothers. This chiropractic technique helps to correct sacral misalignment, balance pelvic nerves, muscles and ligaments which allow the baby to get into the best possible position for birth.
Community Chiropractic is filled with people in various stages of health. We have sick people on the road to getting well, we have healthy people that utilize chiropractic care as a means of keeping their body functioning optimally. There are young families, athletes and everything in-between. Our hope is that we can be the coaches that lead you on your journey to health and wellness!
I recently returned from the Dominican Republic where I was a part of an orginization called ChiroMission. We help supply much needed health care and funds to the poorest of the poor in that country.
The mission at Community Chiropractic is to check as many people as possible for hidden health problems and to save them from a life of drugs and surgery. We do this in Chicago everyday yet I realized after this trip that the world needs our help as well. I have been hit by a lightning bold and will never be the same.
If you’re like most people, then you’ve probably heard the term "Asberger’s syndrome" bandied about quite a bit in recent years. If you’ve never taken the time to learn what it is exactly, now is the time. By learning about the condition, you can help raise awareness and learn that this condition is far from a completely debilitating one.
The Symptoms Of Asberger’s Syndrome
The symptoms of Asberger’s syndrome fall into a handful of different categories. Look below for a brief description of each of these:
Impaired Social Interaction Abilities - Children and adults who suffer from Asperger’s usually display a range of problems when it comes to normal social interaction. It is usually difficult for them to maintain and develop friendships, and an ability to emphasise or to pick up on normal social cues often appears to be missing. Nonverbal behaviour can be problematic – people with Asberger’s might display glazed over eyes or inappropriate facial
expressions.
Impaired Ability To Use Subtle Communication Skills - People suffering from Asperger’s frequently have trouble with some finer points of communication. Quite often they can take things extremely literally as they cannot discern some of the underlying messages. Conversation skills are therefore stunted – however, speech is by no means actually impaired.
Interests Are Restricted - Consistency and routine are abnormally important to people who have Asberger’s syndrome. They may focus on seemingly random things or ideas with extreme intensity that might even border on obsession.
Managing Asberger’s Syndrome
As much as Asberger’s syndrome might get in the way of normal social communication, it is by no means a condition that restricts people from living mostly normal lives. As more is being learned about Asperger’s, better treatments and solutions are being devised every day. Generally combined with therapy, patients tend to respond extremely well to various forms of prescription medication. Thanks to the customisable medications that can be created by the modern compounding pharmacy, there is a broader range of treatments for people suffering from Asberger’s Syndrome than ever before.
People who suffer from Asberger’s can still lead rich, fulfilling lives. Many actually become experts in their chosen field, turning their intense focus into a beneficial quality. Between therapy, medication and a loving and caring family and friends, individuals with Asberger’s syndrom can excel in life just like anyone else can.
You should have at least a one-month and preferably a 2-month supply of all prescription medications. Recycle/rotate periodically so they stay fresh. Think about heart medications, blood pressure, cholesterol, asthma, insulin and syringes.
Talk to your doctor about having a bottle of broad-spectrum antibiotics such as cephalexin for your first aid kit.
If anyone in your family has severe allergies, then you should always have an epinephrine rapid-injection kit. Be sure to check dates frequently as this can expire and lose effectiveness. Carry this with you on any outings, picnics, and camp-outs, as you will never know when a life-threatening allergic reaction can occur.
Obviously, if anyone is allergic to any of the following medications, then they should not take them. Remember that anyone can be allergic to any medication, at any time, even if they’ve taken them before, even Tylenol or aspirin. These reactions can be mild to severe and rarely life threatening. Watch out for rashes, blisters, hives, itching, swelling of lips, tongue, and difficulty breathing or swallowing. When in doubt, seek professional emergency care.
Again, you will need to personalize this list to add or remove items that will best fit the needs of you and your family.
Over the counter medications
Eye Care
Wound Care
Instruments
Aches/sprains/breaks
Misc
Until next time, be ready
As I write, I sit in my room with the lights off; a cluster headache is making me miserable, but dealing with the glare of my netbook screen while I type is somehow much easier than lying in the dark with the pillow over my face.
While we are on the subject of headaches, I am pondering some of the time-honored cures I was dealt growing up. My grandparents on both sides were very much people of the earth; my father’s family was one of the last families that left Cades Cove in 1955 when the park service took over (Dad was eleven), and my mother’s family was still growing tobacco as I grew up to earn a living. They were the typified poor-but-honest workers, and I couldn’t be prouder to have come from such folk. They lived a much more simple life, but to avoid romanticism, not a much easier one. This meant knowing how to handle yourself without outside help. This includes medicine, and through generations of commonsensical know-how, experience, and doing what it took to survive.
Some of the more colorful medications I endured as a child make my friends laugh, because very few believe me. When my friends would get Robitussin, colorfully attractive childrens’ medications, and other “mainstream” remedies, my maternal grandmother would have a thousand folk cures that somehow worked just as well and oftentimes better.
One of her favorites was tobacco on an insect bite. Grinding a fresh tobacco leaf to rub on it was better, but a bit of spit and snuff would do just as well.
Another I remember was a mustard-paste compress she once put on my chest when I had a terrible cough. I know that there was flour involved, mustard, possibly pepper, and what I still think was vinegar. This was all stuffed into a hastily-sewn handkerchief, and pushed against my chest. I hated it, because for three days I stank of mustard and vinegar; I can’t complain beyond the smell, though, because it worked wonders.
For stuffy heads there was a special tea- ginger, mustard, black and red peppers, anything that was spicy- all brewed into a devil’s drink that one shotgunned not only for the temperature but because it was undoubtedly one of the most evil concoctions ever conceived. But it worked.
Headaches were cured by chewing on mint (which grew plentiful outside the back door), or by holding the webbing between your thumb and forefinger WITH the forefinger and thumb of the opposite hand.
Vinegar once again reared its head when I had a sunburn, and I ended up smelling like a bean salad when she was finished. For fever blisters, one used Camphor (I still find tiny green bottles labelled “Camphor Phenique” in places), or vanilla. Ice worked too, if you caught it early enough.
I could write on and on for days about the things I saw used or was the “victim” of as a child. They worked, mostly, with no ill effects. The only one that to this day terrifies me is castor oil to relieve constipation; the medicine worked a little too well, if you want to know. I encountered a similar method of knowledge when I first visited Germany last year; a painful blemish on my neck was healed with a teabag heated very warm, and my cough was banished with a combination of liquorice-flavored liquor and something very, very bitter. My boyfriend hurt his wrist, and was subjected to having it wrapped tightly by his mother- but not before she pulled out a battered plastic tub filled with dry, pale-brown clay. She broke a few pieces off, wet them in the sink, and liberally applied the mud to his wrist before wrapping it and sending him on his way. My grandmother died this past October at 85; my boyfriend’s mother is 62, the same age as my mom. People with this kind of knowledge are growing rarer and rarer as time progresses, and it saddens me to think that such valuable knowledge is being lost in the face of conformism to technology and what the men in white coats say.
What are some home-cures you know of that actually work? Most of my knowledge (limited though it is) is of Appalachian remedies; I don’t know much about what other regions, countries or cultures have come up with.
…extra points if anyone knows how to get rid of a very, very stubborn headache!
Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor loves brains! Her amazement and wonder at the intricate workings of the human brain come through on every page of this very personal record of the massive stroke that almost took her life 13 years ago today. And to top it off, she doesn’t seem to regret a single aspect of that debilitating injury.
Dr. Taylor spends much of the first part of the book talking about the anatomy of the brain, emphasizing the differences in the functions of the right and left hemispheres. Her stroke caused loss of function in much of the left side, leaving her to experience almost unfettered the blissful, euphoric Nirvana that is the realm of our right brain. She lost her ability to communicate, her memories, language, concentration, motor skills and so much more; on the other hand, she gained an insight into the sense of oneness with the world, compassion, and well-being that is accessible to all of us if we can still the noise of the world and listen to our right brain.
Dr. Taylor’s story has invaluable insights for those caring for a stroke victim or who have suffered a stroke, but is also a calling to find that inner peace, to rejoice in the miracle of life and to choose to live the moment–and, oh yes, when it’s over, donate your brain to science so others may benefit!
–cary
The NYTimes reports today that a compromise on the health care bill may swap a public option for expanded Medicare, while noting in another piece that states have drastically cut their anti-smoking programs. These programs are actually fully funded out of a combination of settlement funds from the tobacco companies and direct taxes on cigarette sales.
Expanding Medicare is problematic for physicians, and in particular primary care physicians that are the bedrock of our system. Since Medicare under-reimburses these providers it seems likely that were a significant number of people to enroll, that some primary care physicians would drop out of the system. This would then increase the burden on other providers still accepting Medicare patients as well as emergency rooms. Minus payment reform (which also seems unlikely), its possible that this will have a paradoxical effect on primary care and prevention, while leaving tertiary and sub-specialty care unfettered.
Likewise, shifting money away from smoking cessation and prevention and to acute needs (such as acute health care) may seem prudent in the short term, but in the long term simply means more health care costs from cardiovascular, cancer and pulmonary disease.
An interesting report written by Meredith Wadman published in Nature News on December 7 covers how the US National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) is shifting gears from trying to find cures for major diseases to funding work on alleviating symptoms. As quoted in the report, Josephine Briggs, the Director of NCCAM, wants the Center to focus on fundamental research on natural products prior to investing heavily in clinical trials.
In most Western societies, “Complementary and Alternative Medicine” (CAM) is a blanket phrase used to describe therapeutic practices that fall outside the purvey of standard, conventional medicine. These practices include treatments such as Ayurveda, acupuncture, chiropractic procedures, meditation, yoga, naturopathy, homeopathy, massage, and diet-based approaches. Many scientists and physicians oppose the use of CAM because there are often bold claims for many complementary and alternative medical approaches that have yet to be substantiated through the systematic collection and analysis of data. Others approaches have already been dispelled. However, it is important to keep in mind that this has not deterred the public from availing of these medical practices. In December 2008, the NCCAM and the National Center for Health Statistics released data that showed that approximately 4 in 10 Americans use some form of CAM.
Which is why I think that Briggs’ statement is all the more significant. Briggs is signaling that she is serious about bringing scientific rigor to the analysis of complementary approaches to medicine.
I know there are naysayers who think that putting CAM to scientific scrutiny gives it undue credence. I disagree. We must realize that just because an approach is not currently used by traditional medical practitioners does not mean that it cannot and should not be examined by the scientific method. My hope is, for example, that overzealous (but often well-meaning) practitioners of CAM will stop touting particular herbs as cures for cancer when the proper studies have not yet been performed to determine the safety and efficacy of the constituent compounds. Instead, I would like to see the chemical compounds in these herbs systematically examined for their bioactive properties.
The fact of the matter is that there is an astonishing diversity of natural products on our planet. And despite significant advances in synthetic chemistry, a review published in 2007 in Journal of Natural Products found that natural products and their derivatives formed the bulk of leads for drug discovery. In other words, regardless of our views on complementary and alternative approaches to medicine, natural products and their ilk already play a major role in conventional medicine.
Comment:
I don’t know how far it’s true. Of course, both sides are trying to protect themselves. The lesson learnt is that basic human right is a fundamental issue that has to be guarded all the time otherwise it will be used as a platform for people who want to project themselves as champion of the human right. I feel that this activist is over zealously exagerating her cause. On the other hand, I believe that people who have been entrusted to safeguard the wellbeing of mentally ill patients i.e.the psychiatrists have to be on their toes all the time. We shouldn’t forget our duty and responsibility to patients in particular and humanities in general. Patients have to be treated with dignity and respect. Patients have to be seen as human being when getting treatment and the doctor must ensure that he/she abides to good medical practice and the standards of competence, care, and conduct expected in all aspects of his/her professional work.
pregnancy homeopathic
Chinese herbs accept been acclimated pregnancy homeopathic for hundreds of years to cure infertility in men and women and date aback to A.D. A Chinese infertility anesthetic is generally a complicated admixture of about fifteen altered ingredients. Studies Pregnancy Remedy in China accept assured that of couples who accept undergone such analysis accept Pregnancy Homeopathic become pregnant. This makes it far added able than western infertility drugs or IVF.
However demography these medicines such be congenital in a advantageous affairs accepted also. I awful acclaim a accurate adviser on the accountable which explains absolutely what to take area Cure For Infertility you Cure For Infertility can get it from and how to best advice the medication by convalescent your lifestyle.
Chinese Infertility Anesthetic – Are the herbs safe
Traditionally such herbs are acclimated as a aliment supplement as against to a drug. This is why there has been annihilation begin in Pregnancy Remedy the way of ’side effects’. However this does not beggarly that bodies should over absorb the Chinese Cure For Infertility infertility anesthetic they purchase.
Rarely are bodies allergic to any of the herbs used about if addition suffers from environmental abhorrence syndrome they may see some acknowledgment to the medicines an should be careful.
Chinese Infertility Anesthetic – How do they work
The Chinese accept that infertility generally is due Pregnancy Cures to one of three Pregnancy Homeopathic capital factors a absence affection which disrupts the hormonal system a stagnancy Pregnancy Cures affection preventing the sex organs from activity accurately or a calefaction affection which causes the afflicted organs to action abnormally.
In the aboriginal case herbs are targeted to accomplish the alarmist and kidneys convalescent to advance adjustment of the pregnancy homeopathic ovulation aeon and added anatomy functions.
In the additional case herbs are directed to advance and adapt claret breeze through anatomy and tissue. The calefaction affection is usually account by deepening and Chinese infertility anesthetic is distinctively created to abate this.
I charge accent how important it is to use
The differences between rural and urban China are stark. Beijing, Shanghai, and other major cities are filled with new buildings, best illustrated by those built for the Olympics, whereas rural China has as many as 300 million people living on under a dollar a day, more than any other country. Indeed, China can be described as three countries: a low income country in the West, a middle income country in the middle, and a developed country in the East.
People living in the big cities have access to the latest medical technology, whereas those living in the countryside are served by a “village doctor” (many of them once the famous barefoot doctors) with limited training. So far most health research has been conducted in large hospitals in the cities, but a new programme—the China Rural Health Initiative—plans to build a platform for research in rural areas Last week in Beijing I heard the plans for the initiative.
The China Rural Health Initiative is the flagship programme of the China International Center for Chronic Disease Prevention, which is based at the George Institute China, with Peking University Health Science Center its lead domestic partner. There are also five partners from five of the provinces closest to Beijing, which together have about 190 million inhabitants, and six international partners, including the George Institute in Sydney, Duke University, and Imperial College.
One of the first studies to be conducted will be a cluster randomised trial of training the village doctors and providing community health education to prevent heart disease and stroke. People in Northern China use huge amounts of salt and consequently have high levels of hypertension and stroke. Many people have a daily consumption of 12 g or even more (when WHO recommends no more than 5 g and many think it should be 2.5 g), and poorer people use more salt.
The village doctors will receive training in a simple, low cost, evidence based package for high risk patients that includes regular blood pressure tests, free medication, and salt reduction and potentially substitution. The doctors will also be given a health education kit and incentivised to practice prevention. The primary outcome measure of the trial will be the proportion of high risk people treated with at least one drug, and secondary outcomes will be blood pressure and the control rate of hypertension.
There is also a provisional plan to at the same time conduct a trial of community based education on reducing salt consumption. Twenty five townships with between 18 000 and 26 000 inhabitants would receive both interventions (training of village doctors and community education), 25 neither, and 25 each one or the other. The hope is that this will lead to a package that could introduced across rural China.
A third possible study if funding can be found will be a randomised trial of salt substitution with high risk individuals. Families with high risk individuals would be randomised to receive free salt substitute (containing 65% salt, 25% potassium chloride, which lowers blood pressure, and 10% magnesium sulphate) or to the control group. A pilot study has already shown that salt substitution can lower blood pressure by 5 mg Hg (about the same as one drug), but the proposed trial would look for a reduction in stroke, heart attack, and death. Because of the known reduction in blood pressure there is every reason to expect a reduction in events and deaths, but the investigators judge that such a trial would lead to a change in policy in China and beyond.
It’s possible to do a trial like this in rural China because most salt is added by people when cooking, whereas people in Chinese cities and the developed world receive most of their salt through processed foods.
A fourth possible study, again dependent on funding, would try to validate a method of verbal autopsy. Physical autopsy is not possible in most developing countries, and the data for the global burden of disease are based on doubtful evidence. The study would compare the diagnosis reached in those who die in hospital (the best “gold standard” available) with a verbal autopsy, a series of questions, used with carers one to three months after death. This would be done for the top 20 to 40 causes of death, and if the verbal autopsy proves reliable then a later study would quantify the cause of death across communities.
The great attraction of establishing a reliable platform for research is that other studies can be conducted without the difficulties and cost of developing a platform, and already there is interest in studying biomarkers, interventions to prevent progression of chronic kidney disease (which is known to be common in rural China), and telemonitoring to speed treatment of patients with heart attacks. Remarkably, another possible study is a randomised trial of conservative versus surgical treatment of hip fracture; this might be possible in rural China because it seems that many patients are treated conservatively.
No doubt many other studies will be proposed, and the hope must be that the result is not simply lots of publications but real improvements for the vulnerable, poor people in rural China.
Our’s was an arranged marriage.
My mother and her mother are chums. They went to school together and remained in contact afterwards too. So they decided our alliance.
I was interested only in medicine. Now I am practicing in a small clinic, attached to the factory, manufacturing automobile parts, run by my mother who wanted to make a car, combining the luxury of a modern car and the sturdy quality of a jeep, suitable for our country roads. What she brought as dowry, she invested in the factory. Now she was short of working capital. My mother- in- law is very rich and mother thought of my marriage as a way out of the crisis.
Father is a professor, living in a world of books, spending his time in the library room at home. He did not have any money and so remained aloof. However, he told me to see the girl before marriage.
I casually drove to their home without telling any body. I was received by a maid and told to wait. It was a bare room, with nothing except a few chairs and a round table. The house is quite big, though.
In about five minutes, a young looking lady appeared, smiling and gesticulating, indicating to me to sit down. She was exceedingly charming, though not so beautiful, being short and coffee coloured. She sat very close to me and looked intently into my eyes. I felt uncomfortable. Afterwards, she commented: you are really handsome.
Presently the girl came, limping slightly. She was more lovely, but a little gloomy, I thought.
So your mother needs some money. Any idea how much?
?
Oh! Your mom is right; you are still a kid. Do you like this girl?
I looked at her. She was smiling, least bothered about my answer. Do you like me? I asked her.
It was the mother who answered: who will not like this boy, a real prince charming!
The maid brought biscuits and coffee.
After that I returned home.
Mother and father were sitting together. It was father who broke the silence. Do you really like the girl? I am told she limps.
Yes, I have no objection. If her one leg is shorter, it is not her fault.
After our marriage, Sharada, my mother- in- law assumed charge of the management of the factory, employing about 1000 workers. I was busy from 8 am, as people not belonging to our factory also came to me, for want of any facility near by. It was my principle not to take money; whatever they wanted to give, they can drop in the box kept outside. I tried my best to understand the condition that caused the symptoms; curing the symptoms is the easy way.
Some patients needed further observation, but we had no beds. When I mentioned it to Sha (she insists that I address her by name), she promptly agreed to build a hospital of her own and the work started immediately to do the preliminaries. She would linger on, even after office hours, to see the progress of construction works, and then, sit in my room, watching me at work. Occasionally, she would offer suggestions which surprised me.
Do you know about diseases?
Before joining this office, I was working as a philanthropist; we have a hospital. In my spare time, I read medical literature, including ayurvedic and yoga methods.
Then, why didn’t you go for medicine like me?
My father was a capitalist. He wanted me to for MBA. He died early, of heart attack, leaving me with more money than I can ever spend.
Sometimes we talked about love and the attitude towards sex.
Did you ever love any one?
I was too busy in my studies. If I get anything less than 100%, I felt unhappy. There were many girls in my batch; they were interested in getting a degree, some how. They were uninteresting.
Before joining college?
Once a girl came with a friend of Ma. She was very talkative and spent a lot of time with me. I think I liked her. I wonder where she is now!
This profession killed the lover in you.
So it became a routine. We would return home together, she driving the car, as she was quite an expert, and reach home by nine in the evening. She was now staying with us.
Some three years passed; we had no issues. No one in my family bothered, but my friends started questioning my masculinity!
The gynaechologist, a lady, after examining both of us, looked at me searchingly and said, with a naughty smile: Doctor, you must spend more time with her, especially in the night!
She was always reading detective novels. She was not exactly cold, occasionally she was quite warm; but gave me the impression that she was happy without sex. So I asked her, while driving back home.
Tell me frankly. Do you enjoy sex?
Of course.
But I always find you sleeping.
She changed the subject. Do you know my mother?
Why, we always come home together.
She has a dozen close friends, mostly men.
She told me she is a philanthropist.
A fig leaf to cover her other activities. She is getting several letters. She won’t show even to me, her daughter.
A person is entitled for some privacy.
The topic ended with her stoic silence.
That night, all my efforts to undress her failed.
She curled into a coil, like a centipede, when poked with a stick.
The next day I tried to find out from her mother. Sha told me that she is not her daughter.
One morning they found a new born baby at their home, when she opened the door for the day’s newspaper. It was wrapped in clean cloth, but was alive. She took her in and gave her some milk. With the help of a nurse, they took her to their Calcutta house. They told every one it was their baby.
When they returned home, after this long period, every one thought the same. They were issueless even after seven years. Now she is happy this girl is in loving hands.
The launching of the rural car and the inauguration of the hospital were to coincide. All except me, were busy. I was immersed in setting in perfect order, the in patients’ ward.
There will be sufficient number of closed circuit Video cameras, to observe each and every patient, his personal data, and hearing him continuously, when required. I appointed two assistant surgeons to help me, so that routine cases are not referred to me.
Ma and Sha were every where, with two mobile phones, one for us and one for the public. I had nothing.
The day of the inauguration was a nightmare for me. I never like such things. At the proper moment I showed my face, thanked every body, including the Chief Ministr, and returned to the hospital, which had started functioning a few days earlier.
One day, they had all gone to attend a marriage. I didn’t go. I was relaxing in my room at home, with lights off, when suddenly Sha came and sat by my side, her one hand encircling me from behind. The other hand was busy undressing me and we both fell on the bed entwined like the figures in Khajuraho temple. We forgot the world and enjoyed like Adam and Eve.
Suddenly we heard some sound and when we opened our eyes, there was light in the room. Someone had come through the open door. I saw Sha rushing out, after hurriedly putting on my shirt. I followed her, into a room locked from inside. She was shouting, with no response from inside. We broke open the door and saw my wife lying in a pool of blood.
I wanted to go in and see if she was still alive. But Sha blocked me saying:
I shall bring her to the hospital immediately. You rush there ahead of us. To all questions, say you don’t know anything. You were in the hospital, I shall manage this.
I complied. I heard her calling the police.
God may have created man in his image, but it seems we return the favour. Believers subconsciously endow God with their own beliefs on controversial issues.
“Intuiting God’s beliefs on important issues may not produce an independent guide, but may instead serve as an echo chamber to validate and justify one’s own beliefs,” writes a team led by Nicholas Epley of the University of Chicago in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The researchers started by asking volunteers who said they believe in God to give their own views on controversial topics, such as abortion and the death penalty. They also asked what the volunteers thought were the views of God, average Americans and public figures such as Bill Gates. Volunteers’ own beliefs corresponded most strongly with those they attributed to God.
From this article.
In the course of reading up on RNA and genetic engineering, I happened across an article that proves SARS was potentially the result of an engineered virus. This abstract from the Journal of Virology, entitled “Strategy for Systematic Assembly of Large RNA and DNA Genomes: Transmissable Gastroenteritis Virus Model” or the TGEV (a common intestinal swine virus) shows how the researchers made a synthetic infectious and transmissable virus and published their success in the spring of 2000. “Full-length infectious constructs of TGEV will permit the precise genetic modification of the coronavirus genome” –the virus identified in SARS and the ‘common cold’. http://jvi.asm.org/cgi/content/abstract/74/22/10600 More on the subject of SARS as the forerunning event for pandemic management is in an article here called “Quarantine”. I found this abstract on a tangent, searching for material to pad out a review of a Nature magazine article that struck me as a classic bit of scientific spin. Here’s a link to that piece, called “A New Code For Life”, http://www.nature.com/embor/journal/v5/n4/full/7400131 and I’ll be back to share some thoughts about it and see if I can update the state of the research… Btw, Nature’s piece treats bioengineering as if it’s breakthrough technology in this decade and mentions only two ‘lifeforms’ developed by its (then 2004) publication. If you read the piece, know that “minimal genome” experiments were very successful in the 1970s and I’ll be continuing this post…..
I’m in rather (quite?) a dissociative state now from yesterday/last night but I really want to write about this now. Let’s see what I can do. Apologies in advance for messiness, errors and severe “out-of-sens-ed-ness.”
Yesterday, it was my mother’s birthday. She’s nuts. Totally crazy. So am I but at least I am dx’d and being treated. She is not. She is in tremendous denial. Nonetheless, I needed to call her. I was extremely anxious as talking to her is immensely painful. She rambles on non-stop, all about herself…ugh. The Asperger’s was really kicking in as I was totally stimmy. I was going to my friend J.’s for dinner so at an appropriate stop via transit, time for Valium.
Our conversation was decidedly atypical. It was relatively brief, all about me, my mental and physical health and even more. A few years ago, she would not even acknowledge these things–again, complete denial. After this phone call, I was tremendously relieved, despite its surprising nature. I was quite happy.
Now, regarding some of the “even more,” I need to give you some background information. A while ago, I was thinking about my great uncle (my mother’s uncle.) He was always considered “odd.” So much of an understatement there. He would have been “medically dx’d” as “retarded.” I had brief memories of him as a child but now, since my own dx. of Asperger’s, a massive sledgehammer has hit me over the head: He’s Autistic! Even after a few, simple questions to my mother, suspicions confirmed.
I had suggested to go for a visit to see them. Them, meaning his older sister, as well. She has devoted her entire life to taking care of him because he can not function on his own. I had made this suggestion prior to having my tonic-clonic seizure in September. After that happened, my health became such a nightmare, that plan needed to be put on hold.
So, during the telephone conversation last night, I tossed it onto the table again. Of course, not a problem. However, there is some urgency to the matter. They are old. I need to see him in action, this example of a possible genetic link? This is awesome! Although, this was not my trigger as I had suggested it before.
After J. and I had dinner, something was wrong. I began to feel my anxiety rise again. I couldn’t figure out why. Yes, the telephone call was atypical but I was happy about it. And in thinking, recent conversations? My mother has been more caring about my life of late with all that has gone on–getting laid off, health going down the toilet etc… I fought off taking another Valium. I can fend off this anxiety…yes, I can.
On the way home, I gave in. I pulled out my bottle of pills, stared at them for a bit and just popped another Valium. Then, I began to dissociate. When my thinking started to become a little less fuzzy, my brain virtually screamed at me: “OMFG!!! WHAT DID YOU JUST DO?!?!”
What did I do?
I didn’t think at all about the time I proposed for the visit. I “thought” it would be nice if we did it some time around Christmas as they are all alone and on their own. Fuck me. Christmas has always been kind of triggery for me as my mother made it so disastrous. Now, I’m tossing more family members into the mix that may bring back flashbacks, I have no idea… All I do know is that I’ve now created a field full of landmines for myself. And I’ll be walking across it wearing a blindfold.
I’ve got some time to try and prepare myself, but I’m not sure how exactly to do that, not knowing what the hell I’ll be getting myself into. I might be able to figure something out, though, as I’m surely not thinking clearly at all now. Even if I’m still reeling from all of this tomorrow, I think I should call Merlin #2. I can get in before I make the visit, no doubt? He wants me to start seeing a therapist anyway, but no. This requires immediate intervention.
I could be as dissociative to appear in a coma, yet still realize that?
While a-wandering aimlessly through Primrose Hill yesterday, I came across the Museum of Everything. This is a pretty lofty claim for any museum to make, particularly one that small. The Museum is, in fact, an exhibition of Outsider Art.
Outsider Art is another of those very broad terms. It theoretically means art produced by someone outside of the mainstream art world. However, a few of the artists on display at the Museum (notably Alfred Wallis) are fairly respectable these days, so I suppose an easier definition would be “art by weirdoes.” No doubt someone will tell me off for that definition, but it’s the simplest one I can think of. Outsider artists are often untrained, naive and primitivist in style. The Outsider Art movement started in the 1920s when the psychiatrist Dr Walter Morgenthaler began studying the art produced by mental patients in his care. The concept was enthusiastically embraced by world of anti-establishment art and, over the years, has broadened in scope to the point where I have trouble summing it up in less than a hundred words.
The artworks on display, as you might imagine, were fascinating. Some were childlike, some obsessive, some bizarro and disturbing. Each artist’s work was displayed with a plaque giving some critical perspective, often serving primarily to show how very much cleverer the critic is than you, the plebeian viewer.
One exhibit they had was easy to overlook – a single painting, only about the size of a postcard, hung on the corridor wall. It depicted what appeared to be a cat in abstract pattern form. This was a work by Louis Wain. The critical perspective was by Nick Cave and simply said, “Louis Wain. My all-time favourite artist.” Thanks, Nick.
Louis Wain is a favourite artist of mine. I’ve never really thought of him as an outsider artist, as he enjoyed a great deal of commercial success in the Edwardian era. However, he’s now probably as famous for his mental illness as he is for his actual work, so I suppose it’s a justifiable label.
I first became aware of Wain’s work when I played him on stage a few years back (see Further Reading for a review, below). His thing, as an artist, was cats.
His most successful works depicted anthropomorphised cats, such as the ones on the left. In the Edwardian era, these were hugely popular, and there was even a series of Louis Wain annuals. It’s even commonly suggested (not least by Wain himself) that the popularity of cats as a household pet is in part due to these cartoons.
He was born in Clerkenwell in 1860 and was a sickly child with a cleft lip. He wasn’t sent to school until the age of ten, and was never what you’d call a good pupil, preferring to play truant and go off exploring nature. He trained as an artist and became a teacher and commercial illustrator. In 1883 he caused something of a scandal by marrying Emily Richardson, his former governess. The concept of a younger man marrying an older woman being considered bizarre and perverted at the time (whereas the other way round is, of course, absolutely in line with the natural order of things). Sadly, Emily died three years later from cancer. To entertain her during her long illness, Louis bought a black and white cat named Peter whom he taught to perform tricks. His pictures of Peter gave him his first major commercial success, and things took off from there.
His cartoon cats were, as he saw it, a means of getting closer to human nature. He would satirise current human trends by depicting its practitioners in feline form and even produced cat-caricatures of prominent figures of the day. He also produced semi-realistic portraits of cats (although they almost always had cartoonishly large eyes) and, famously, abstract “pattern cats.”
Unfortunately, as is so often the case, the popularity of his cats proved to be a fad, and by the end of the First World War his work had ceased to be popular. What made things worse was the fact that while he was stylistically versatile, he only really had the one subject. He never quite got the hang of art that didn’t involve cats. An inability to adapt, coupled with his appalling business sense, resulted in his being reduced to poverty. Many of his sketches from this period were actually done in lieu of payment for goods and services.
And at this point I suppose we should get on to the reason he’s classed as an Outsider. From an early age, Wain was seen as something of an oddball. His speech tended to be disjointed and often zipping off on strange tangents. A drink he rather enjoyed was Bovril and soda. He developed strange beliefs about the properties of electricity and its effects on people. Worse, as time went on, he became increasingly delusional and violent towards his sisters (with whom he lived following Emily’s death) and in 1924 was institutionalised at the Springfield Hospital in Tooting.
The initial diagnosis was that he was a “neuropath,” although he was later rediagnosed as having schizophrenia. A theory gaining increasing popularity is that he actually had Asberger’s Syndrome, which at the time wasn’t understood. This would certainly fit with his erratic behaviour, as well as his obsessive cat-painting. A popular but stupid theory has it that the progression of Wain’s mental illness can be traced in the abstraction of his work. That is to say, the abstract cats illustrate the way he actually saw the world at that point. As theories go, this is up there with “Hey, The Magic Roundabout is a bit weird, they must have been on drugs, amirite?” Detractors of the theory, including Yr. Humble Chronicler, make the following points.
Fortunately for Wain, while he may no longer have been popular commercially, the public retained a great deal of affection for him. In 1925, when he was found on the pauper ward at Springfield, an appeal was launched to assist him with such names attached as H. G. Wells and Stanley Baldwin, the then Prime Minister. He was moved to the rather more pleasant Bethlem Royal Hospital in Lambeth (now the Imperial War Museum) and then to the more countrified Napsbury Hospital in Hertfordshire. He died in 1939.
He is buried in Kensal Green Cemetery, and his grave is, it must be said, in a somewhat dilapidated condition.
Further Reading
http://www.museumofeverything.com/ - The Museum of Everything
http://www.yat.org.uk/productions/index.php3?sid=93 - This is what happened when I played Louis Wain.
http://www.lilitu.com/catland/gallery.shtml - A Wain gallery.
http://www.chrisbeetles.com/gallery/artist.php?art=3077 - Another Wain gallery
http://www.cerebromente.org.br/gallery/gall_leonardo/fig1-a.htm - The theory about Wain’s progressive abstraction.
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=8212267 - Wain’s grave
Is this not questioning the fundamentals of vaccine?
Story:
The notion of exposing young children to infections in a bid to protect them from later allergies is wrong, latest research suggests.
The decades-old “hygiene hypothesis” holds that early exposure to microbes somehow challenges the immune system and strengthens it against allergies.
Studies have shown children exposed to bugs by older siblings or attending nursery cut their future allergy risk.
But new work published by the American Thoracic Society casts doubt on this.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8241774.stm
The Alternative Medicine Hospital in Goiania, Brazil provides treatments in the areas of homeopathy, acupuncture, phytotherapy, nutrition, etc. They offer workshops, group therapy and treatments with medical doctors, psychologists, dietitians, nurses, speech language pathologists, physiotherapists, and social workers.
To go to their website, please click at the image above (unfortunately, there is no English version, just Portuguese).
Eye ball implants will enable researchers to see the world through the eyes of drug users.
The National Reporter
Scientists at MIT’s nanotechnology labs have developed a new type of vision enhancing implant that can be mounted onto the eyeballs of volunteers.
Once in place, the implants pick up the brainwaves of the test subject while under the influence of mind altering drugs such as LSD and are able to transmit the actual hallucinogenic images they are seeing back to a monitor.
“This is a major breakthrough in the field of psychiatric medicine.” Doctor Fred Reeves told The National Reporter.
“This device will allow us to see exactly what people under the influence of drugs see. This will help us to understand how certain drugs effect the mind.”
The National Reporter was on hand during the first field test of the new device to see how it worked.
The first subject was fitted with his broadcasting unit and then given a dose of LSD, he was then equiped with an inconspicuous antenna that was mounted on top of the head like a hat.
When the LSD began to take effect, the subject was led away from the test vehicle and set free to walk around the town as the excited scientists watched every thing he was seeing through the monitor.
After awhile the images started to become fuzzy with small flashes of colored light skittering around objects, then things began to stretch out of shape as if time and space itself was being torn apart.
The scientists watched closely as the subject walked up to a police officer and stared at him for a few minutes.
The subject found the traffic officer very interesting for some reason.
When we looked at the monitor we could see what he found so interesting about the policeman.
In the drug abusers mind, the police officer had become a green clay like creature and the automobiles behind him had somehow morphed into a little troll bridge like one would see in a children’s fantasy film.
The police officer appeared to be a green creature made out of clay
An aide who was following the subject to make sure he didn’t get into any trouble, came forward and nudged him away from the police officer and guided him down the street a short distance.
When he began crossing over to sidewalk cafe that was bustling with people, he stopped dead in his tracks and stared wide-eyed at a pair of small people.
For the next few minutes the subject and the tiny couple were locked in a staring contest.
They of course had no idea that he was high on drugs, they thought he was being rude.
The tiny couple and the test subject were frozen in their tracks staring each other down.
Back at the lab’s video monitor we could see exactly what our subject was seeing in his drugged up stupor and it was truly amazing.
To him, the dwarf couple appeared to be some sort of alien creatures and they were making strange sounds, like birds peeping and chirping.
Everything in the background, people, cars and objects seemed to be moving in slow motion and an odd sound like a deep oscillating hum was echoing from the distance.
The dwarf couple appeared to be small alien type beings squirming and making peeping sounds.
After a few minutes, the dwarf couple gave the test subject a dirty look and walked off.
He started to follow them but he was intercepted by the aid and brought back to the lab.
The scientists figured he had too much LSD and that he might get himself into trouble.
The subject was sedated and placed on a cot with his arms and legs strapped down for safety reasons while the scientists sat at the monitors reviewing the recordings of his LSD adventure.
“This is going to be a major breakthrough in the study of drug induced psychosis.” Doctor Freely said. “Instead of guessing what is wrong with a patient and taking great risk to calm them down when they are in this condition, emergency room personal will be able to see what is going on in the minds of their patients and it will be much easier for them to treat them.”
The National Reporter - It’s also very amusing to see the bizarre things that they are seeing.
“Yes, it is.” Doctor Freely said.
I wish all my readers and pharma-industry colleagues a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday!
TODAY’S NEWS
Cephalon, Ception, and CINQUIL: the stats don’t reach significance, but at least all the names are similar – “We are pleased to see a positive biological effect of CINQUIL,” said Steve Tullman, Chief Executive Officer at Ception Therapeutics. “Conducting clinical studies in a new disease area is always challenging. We will continue to review the data from this study and from our ongoing open-label study to find the best path forward for CINQUIL for the treatment of eosinophilic esophagitis.”…more
Might a few companies (such as Endo or King) be targets to go private? WSJ reports.
Can pharma sales reps be turned into better value creators? A question we’re all thinking about…
Duh.
Oops. Abbott’s Meridia weight-loss drug associated with higher rate of cardiovascular events – Meridia is a weight-loss drug approved in 1997. As part of its post-approval commitments, Abbott has been conducting a large study of 10,000 patients to determine whether treatment with Meridia could reduce the number of heart-related adverse events compared to a placebo. In mid-November, however, Abbott reported to regulatory agencies that treatment with Meridia was associated with an 11.4% rate of cardiovascular events compared to 10% for patients treated with placebo…more
RECOMMENDED
HR – leadership, compliance, diversity, and more. The Impactiviti network of providers has solutions, not only for pharma sales training, but for a whole range of corporate and HR training (inside and outside of life sciences). Contact us (stevew at impactiviti dot com, or phone at 973-947-7429) for recommendations.
PLUS
An update on Pfizer’s Social Media initiatives. Encouraging!
JUST FOR FUN
———-
Subscribe to the Impactiviti blog via e-mail (which will bring you Impactiviti Daily – a brief of the day’s top pharma news)
Sign up for the Impactiviti Connection twice-monthly e-newsletter (see sample)
Connect with Steve Woodruff
You Need It To Live, But Too Much Will Kill You
Seldom in history has a product worn the horns of the Devil and the wings of an angel at the same time. Loved and respected because it provides the energy we need to work, to play, even to breathe, sugar is so important to our diet our bodies take several things we eat and convert them into sugars.
However, eat too much sugar and your body will blimp up and your organs will slowly but surely break down. Never has “moderate consumption” been so important.
But what’s “moderate”? How can we tell what’s too much?
Let’s look at an example.
In our example you will eat 16 teaspoons of refined sugar all in one short sitting. Don’t worry, it will be in liquid form. Sound outrageous? That’s how much sugar is in a 20 ounce bottle of cola. In every bottle.
In general, if you look at the ingredient list of products before you buy them and see some that end in the letters “…ose” you have various different kinds of sugars. Sugars come with other name endings, but “…ose” tends to be the most common ending in packaged foods we eat. Most of them are complex sugars our bodies break down into simple ones so they can be used to burn as energy.
Sugars, along with starch, are the basic carbohydrates. Inside your gut they all become sugars, ultimately simple sugars. What your body can’t use it will expel through your colon or convert to fat for storage.
Because our bodies can only convert a limited amount of sugar into fat at one time, if you are going to eat too much sugar, eat it in a binge. Most of it you will enjoy in your mouth and you will get rid of it in the toilet the next day. Eat a little too much sugar on a regular basis and your body will store it in special cells in your body known as fat cells.
The average American consumes 61 pounds of refined sugar each year. About 25 pounds of that would be in the form of candy. That’s just sucrose, though, and the number doesn’t include amounts of any other sugars we consume.
Sugar may cause your skin to wrinkle. Called glycation, blood sugar in the skin binds to collagen so the skin loses its elasticity. Cut out excess sugar consumption and your skin may retain its elasticity. No good or easy or cheap method exists today to help skin regain its elasticity.
There’s nothing new about the kind of sugar we eat. When Alexander the Great invaded India over 2000 years ago he was shocked at how the people managed to create “honey” without bees.
Sugar cane is a plant of hot climate countries. That’s why people who live in the tropics have had it sweet for so long. Andreas Marggraf discovered, in 1747, that the sugar in sugar beets was the same as that in sugar cane. Sugar beets can be grown in much colder climates than sugar cane.
The first sugar beet factory opened in 1802. Over half of the 8.4 metric tonnes of sugar used in the USA this year–no, seriously, make that 8.4 million metric tonnes–will come from sugar beets. Sugar beets are a form of beet with white sweet roots. Only the root is used to make refined sugar.
Getting back to soft drinks, the kinds with artificial sweeteners may contribute to obesity rather than prevent it. A study at Purdue University using rats had one group consuming soft drinks with artificial sweeteners and another with sugar-sweetened drinks.
The group that drank the artificial sweeteners consumed more calories from other foods than the sugar group. The study did not consider the controversial belief that long term consumption of the artificial sweetener aspartame might cause major diseases. Rats don’t live long enough.
Like many popular discoveries artificial sweeteners aspartame and saccharin were found by accident. Lab researchers working on projects having nothing to do with sweetening mixed some test compounds and decided to taste them.
Ask yourself what kind of researcher eats his own experiment.
The artificial sweetener Splenda came about in an even stranger way. The scientists were looking for a new insecticide. [I'll just wait here while you process that thought. Prepare yourself for the next part so we don't have to pause again.]
A lab assistant had been asked to “test” the compound, but he thought he had been told to “taste” the compound. Remember, they had been looking for an insecticide. [Good thing you prepared yourself for that.]
Table sugar certainly isn’t the sweetest taste around. A compound called lugduname is actually 200,000 times sweeter. [Do you wonder where the lab assistant is today that tasted that stuff?]
Sugars are compounds of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. The simplest (simple sugars) are most commonly known as glucose, fructose and galactose. Table sugar (a complex sugar) consists of one glucose molecule and one fructose molecule fused together. Other complex sugars dance with different partners.
We don’t want to avoid sugars totally because they are carbohydrates, by far the most common organic molecules in all living things. [Unless you consider minerals to be "living," which is a whole different discussion.]
An eight-atom sugar called glycolaldehyde has the ability to react with a three-carbon sugar to form ribose, a major component of RNA (ribonucleic acid), which does the real work in living things while DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) takes all the credit.
Who cares? Glycolaldehyde has been found in an interstellar gas cloud near the centre of the Milky Way. [Stay with me here.] Glycolaldehyde may therefore be a precursor of life on our planet. If it’s in space, it might have been here.
That same gas cloud, by the way, contains ethylene glycol, which most of us think of as antifreeze. Which is sweet, but lethal, as many animals have learned when they licked up antifreeze leaks.
These are complex sugars. In deep space. We must at least hypothesize that they were synthesized in space. We haven’t yet guessed how that could happen.
Sugar can be used as more than a fuel for your body. Burn table sugar (sucrose) with some corn syrup and a bit of saltpeter and you have a popular amateur rocket fuel.
It’s also sometimes prescribed by doctors. Yup, you pay a dispensing fee to buy a product called “Obecalp,” a sugar pill made to FDA specifications. It may be prescribed for mild problems with a variety of symptoms but no clear therapy. [Spell the product name backwards.]
Not only is the “placebo effect” surprisingly real according to recent studies, the sugar itself may actually help clear up symptoms. Glucosamine works as an immunosuppressant (drug that lowers the body’s normal immune　response) in mice.
Immune system suppression is a mixed blessing because while it can go crazy sometimes, such as with allergies, it also protects us from viruses and bad bacteria. The sugar alcohol xylitol can be used to prevent ear infections in children.
You better have a dose of Obecalp and think about this.
Bill Allin is the author of Turning It Around: Causes and Cures for Today’s Epidemic Social Problems, a guidebook for teachers, parents and grandparents who want to grow children who are healthy in all developmental streams, not just intellectually and physically. It’s a great gift.
Learn more at http://billallin.com
[Primary resource: Discover, October 2009]
By Anna Edney and Dan Friedman
The Senate voted 60-39 along party lines Saturday night to take up sweeping healthcare overhaul legislation, a victory that belies the tough haul ahead to assuage lingering Democratic concerns that threaten final passage.
Four moderate Democrats – Sens. Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas, Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, Ben Nelson of Nebraska and Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut – have made clear they will help Republicans thwart final passage if Majority Leader Reid does not change the opt-out public plan in his $848 billion bill. Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, did not vote.
“I’ve already alerted the leader, and I’m promising my colleagues, that I’m prepared to vote against moving to the next stage of consideration as long as a government-run public option is included,” Lincoln said Saturday afternoon.
Lincoln, preceded by Landrieu by about two hours, was the last Democratic holdout to reveal she would vote for cloture on the motion to proceed, giving Reid the 60th vote he needed to move forward on the bill.
Senators will now scatter to their home states for Thanksgiving break and return Monday, Nov. 30, to begin debate on amendments. President Obama wants the Senate to pass the bill before Christmas. Saturday night’s cloture vote, which doubled as a motion to proceed to the bill, allowed Reid to bring up his proposal as a substitute amendment.
Immediately after the vote, Reid suggested the version of a public option in his bill could be altered.
Asked in a post-vote press conference how he can line up 60 votes for his bill in the face of the moderates’ opposition to its proposed national public option with a state opt-out, Reid appeared to open the door to a less-robust alternative being developed by Sen. Thomas Carper, D-Del., Landrieu and others.
Reid said the group, which also includes Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., hopes “to find a public option that is acceptable to all the Democrats.” Asked if he had requested the alternative, Reid said, “No, it is my understanding that Senator Landrieu said today that she is working with Senator Schumer and Carper.”
Carper’s alternative would require a public option be established the same day exchanges created in the plan take effect, but only in states that do not meet a yet-to-be determined affordability standard for coverage. It would begin under HHS direction but eventually have a nonprofit, presidentially appointed board, Carper has said.
But such an option would face opposition from liberals who could defect, public option backers said. “Four members of the Senate aren’t gonna tell the other 55 what to do on these issues,” said Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio. “I expect this bill to pass with a public option.” Brown said he would not draw “lines in the sand” but said other liberals might. “We’ve compromised four times already,” he said.
Sen. John (Jay) Rockefeller, D-W.Va., another backer of a public option, downplayed Reid’s statement, saying, “Harry has always said that. And he has always meant it.”
Landrieu insisted that any public option resemble a trigger approach championed by Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine. Landrieu wants the version to be a “free-standing, premium-support, competitive community option,” rather than the national, government-run plan in the bill.
Lincoln said private insurers can be held accountable without the public option.
“We can still force private insurance plans that participate in the exchanges to provide standard benefit packages that are easy to compare and more fairly priced,” she said. “We will be bringing millions of new customers to the exchanges so insurers would be motivated to lower their prices and be competitive.”
Lieberman previously said he would not support final passage of the bill if it includes a public option, and Nelson has expressed similar concerns.
Nelson also has said he has concerns the legislation permits federal funding of abortions. The Senate overhaul proposal does not allow federal funds to be used for abortion except in extreme cases and tasks HHS with deciding if and how the public option might cover abortions.
Senate Republicans presented a unified front in what aides described as a coordinated attack on Reid’s bill in the past two days of floor debate and in media appearances, blasting the bill’s size, cost and outcomes. In an effort directed by Senate Minority Leader McConnell and assisted by Senate Republican Conference Chairman Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, leadership aides arranged for about 15 GOP senators to appear on their local television and radio stations, while all but seven GOP senators spoke on the floor Friday and today, GOP aides said.
“There has really been a team effort on making that happen,” said a Republican leadership aide. “That doesn’t always happen.”
McConnell said a vote in favor of this bill “is a vote in favor of tax burden of the American people in the middle of double-digit unemployment” raising “health insurance premiums on people who were told they should expect their health insurance costs to go down” and of continuing “the out-of-control spending binge Congress has been on all year.”
Reid said the vote was only a vote to debate the overhaul, not in support of anything.
“Let us negotiate. Let us deliberate. Let us debate,” Reid said. “Our country needs this debate.”
Republicans also lamented the party-line vote. The vote represents “the first time in half a century that a historic piece of legislation … was enacted on party lines,” said Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, whose vote Democrats still hope to win. “That would be a sad commentary on the political process.”
Snowe said it is one thing to debate these public option alternatives and “another thing whether or not they’re prepared to incorporate bipartisan proposals.”
The vote came before a packed gallery, with senators sitting quietly in their seats, even though the outcome was effectively determined. Breaking the somber mood during the vote, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., laughing, in a voice audible in the press gallery, joked “What’s going to happen?”
TonyfromOz adds …..
Watch as the Pork starts to get loaded onto this to win key votes. This is going to be the biggest bacon bonanza in history.
Read more timely articles at Congress Daily and the National Journal
