…it could have been worse. Much worse.
Am I saying that because it’s worse elsewhere, we should be grateful for what we have and not moan about its shortcomings?
No!
Because almost everyone in the world can always find someone, somewhere, who is worse off than they are. We should always strive for better, but at the same time I think it’s never a bad thing to realise what a privileged life we lead in developed countries.
I remind myself every day what a privilege it is for me to be here.
3011748 เวชศาสตร์นิวเคลียร์ก้วหน้า 1 Updated Nuclear Medicine I
ความก้าวหน้าและวิทยาการใหม่ ๆ ทางด้านเวชศาสตร์นิวเคลียร์
(Update and advanced technology in nuclear medicine.)
(3011748 จุฬาลงกรณ์มหาวิทยาลัย)
It started when I was little. I had two or three ear infections every year. I also had stomach problems, causing a lot of vomiting and…well, other unpleasant stuff. My parents took me to the doctors who prescribed me the medications that I took.
I grew up in a small town in New Jersey. Granted, the air is not very clean there (hahaha) and neither is the water. But that’s normal for our society, right? When you live within an hour of The Big Apple, you pay for the pollution. But, hey, it’s New York! Broadway, museums, art galleries, great restaurants…it’s worth it!
When I was 11, my family moved to a larger town in Sonoma County, California. Now, LA is infamous for its smog, but the San Francisco area is cleaner, right? Apparently not, because the next year, I was diagnosed with asthma.
And carpul tunnel syndrome. I am the youngest person my doctor has ever treated for that syndrome (yay, big proud record for me!) Sure, it’s common among people who spend a lot of their time on the computer, or writing, both of which I did (plus I played flute and piano, and I cooked). But those people are usually in their 30’s. I was twenty years younger than them. To make matters worse, none of the treatments worked. At 19, I had surgery to relieve the pressure. Luckily, that did work, and, 4 years later, I haven’t had any additional problems with my wrist, except a limited range of motion.
Throughout my teenage years, I still suffered from my stomach problems, and when I was 16, I was sent to a psychologist, who determined it was bulimia. Yes, bulimia! I wasn’t physically inducing the vomiting, but mentally I was. Along with the bulimia came the diagnosis of depression.
Two years of therapy had no impact on my depression or bulimia, so I was prescribed Prozac. Around the same time, I slipped on a wet floor at work (Starbucks) and hurt my back so badly, I needed physical therapy and Vicodin. The physical therapy only helped a little, and I am still dealing with back problems today. Also, the Vicodin use escalated into a dependency, which escalated into an addiction, just short of Dr House. (OK, that’s a bit of an exaggaration…I was only taking three or four pills a day, not three or four an hour.)
When I went off to college, I decided to move to the LA area. My conditions stayed the same. My depression did get pretty bad over the holidays when my boss told I couldn’t go home for Christmas, but the pretty decorations at Disneyland helped with that. 
Anyway, I have now graduated from college, and I now live in Hawaii, where I am studying Organizational Change and Communications (both are Master’s programs.)
And nothing has changed. I still have bulimia, I still have depression, I still have back problems, I still have everything. I have had my blood drawn for tests three times since I moved here in August, and I have missed three weeks of school and one week of work because I was too sick to go (that doesn’t count the other days when I was sick, but was still able to go.)
Three weeks ago, I had a migraine that kept me in bed for five days. I couldn’t watch TV because the light hurt too much. For the last week and a half, I have been sleeping 12-18 hours a day.
My friend, Mondy, who I met in a sustainability class, knows a lot about “clean living”, which basically means she knows how to never get sick. She lent me this amazing book by Kevin Trudeau, “Natural Cures ‘They‘ Don’t Want You To Know About”. Trudeau is not a doctor, and all his conclusions are opinions he’s reached after doing twenty years of research. But if 23 years of prescription medications and doctors haven’t cured me, and have actually made me feel worse, why not try some of those “Natural Cures”?
I decided that I am going to start doing so. I gave up eating meat three weeks ago and I threw away every single prescription and non-prescription drug in my apartment today.
Let’s hope this all works…But first, I know I have to deal with the backlash of drug withdrawal. After all, I’ve been on Prozac for 7 years…
Hopefully you’ll stay with me on this journey, and offer me encouragement, and maybe even take some of my advice. After all, who wouldn’t want to learn how to never get sick?
Ali ambicija je ethernal mladine, popolno lepoto, zdravje ali trdna dolgo življenjsko dobo, lahko trdimo, da je medicina, kirurgija in zdravi, v različnih oblikah in z različnimi prednostnimi nalogami, že od nekdaj osrednji, kot disciplina in kot sposobnost, v skrbi vsake civilizacije. Starodavnih kulturah so se prenašajo nas ogromno dediščino tradicionalnega znanja o zeliščih, masaže, mazila in druga naravna sredstva (od katerih so nekatere ohranijo izrednimi možnostmi). Ta sredstva so še vedno priljubljene, pomembne, uporabne in občudovali velike skupine ljudi v številnih državah, z rezultati, ki se včasih zdi zelo pozitivno, tudi s sodobnimi znanstvenimi standardi. Seveda sodobno scientifical pristop k probleme zdravstvenega varstva in wellness se je razvil dramatično in izjemno povečano moč, vpliv, učinkovitost in ugled zdravnikov in bolničarjev v človeški družbi, zaradi njihove sposobnosti, da bi podaljšale življenjsko obdobje, da se odstranijo zla , potolči bolezni in za zdravljenje okužb, omejevanje bolečine in izterjavo vigor.
References: plaster, pharmaceutical, myweight, addiction, dentalplan, tanningbed, madness, insane, nurse, antibiotics, lotions, hairloss, patient, drugrehab, diabetes, prevention, protection, sight, pharmaceutical, medicalinsurance, nursing, healthcareplan, healthplan,
Starost antibiotikov, bolečinam, so lasersko kirurgijo, genetske raziskave in chemiotherapy obljublja čudeže za izboljšanje povprečne kakovosti človeškega življenja: zato, seveda, veliko prestolnicah in veliko vloženih sredstev, ki jih letno zavestno vlade in velike multinacionalke na področju raziskav in razvoja cepiv, terapij in pharmacons. Tudi informativne področjih medicine in zdravstvenega varstva, v sebi, ogromen trg, kjer ljudje želijo vedeti, katere so najboljše prakse, da se počutite bolje in rešitve, ki pomagajo, da živijo dlje, po najnovejših odkritij in najnovejše rešitve. Zaradi pomembnosti teme, ki smo jih povzeti bogato skupino spletnih strani, ki jih http://www.thenew.com in http://www.euroserve.cn (s http://www.esw3.eu dns storitve ), njihov namen je, seveda, ki predstavljajo dragoceno gradivo o plastični operaciji, hormonske terapije, farmacevtske recepte in medicinsko pomoč.
References: dentalinsurance, analcancer, bladder, blood, breastcancer, breastimplants, calculus, cardiac, cervicalcancer, cervix, cystectomy, davincicystectomy, denture, endoscopy, erectiledysfunction, fracture, genitals, genitalwarts, heartattack
President Obama has appointed more Czars Than the Romanov Empire ever had.
Bigot Czar, Mad Scientist Czar, Animal Rights Czar, Communist Czar, along with a host of others.
One appointment that flew under the radar was the picking of an “Or Else” Czar, as in you will do what you are told, or otherwise be prepared to suffer the consequences.
The first name that probably comes to mind is Rahm Emanuel, but you may be surprised to learn that it’s not him.
In addition to his other duties, President Obama has decided that Vice-President Joe Biden should be the administration’s chief legbreaker.
With a line that could have come straight out of an episode of the Sopranos, Biden made it clear that members of Congress pledging loyalty to the President have nothing to fear, while for those opposing him there will be hell to pay.
After last weeks Senate vote on health care reform, here is what Biden had to say:
“Those who voted for reform will be rewarded and those who voted against it will be held accountable.”
To me, that sounds more like the ravings of a ticked-off Mafia godfather than a rational statement from a Vice-President of the United States.
Read the rest of this entry
In the news . . .
Wired writer tries to find out if it’s possible to disappear in the digital world.
England’s proposed new copyright laws are extremely controversial.
Insurance company takes away Canadian woman’s long-term sick leave benefit after Facebook photos indicate she wasn’t suffering from depression.
Sony e-Reader attempts to compete with Amazon’s Kindle and Barnes & Noble’s Nook, but appears to be unavailable for holiday season.
The MPAA aggressively pushes protective legislation.
City of Los Angeles wants $3 million repayment for Michael Jackson memorial.
Barnes & Noble blocks hostile takeover by billionaire Ron Burkle.
During latest off-shore pirate scuffle, soldiers resort to bullets after Long Range Acoustic Device proves ineffective.
TLC seeks Jon Gosselin’s secret, hand-written contract with personal assistant in breach of contract case.
Olympic gold medalist Rashid Ramzi of Bahrain stripped of 1,500 meter title for PED disqualification. Meanwhile, Time.com highlights the top sporting cheats of all time.
FDA approves Pfizer’s updated pneumococcal disease vaccine for children.
The Large Hadron Collider is back online.
American Airlines fires web designer for responding courteously to online complaint.
Sixty-nine-year-old online predator in Wales busted by wife, who posed as minor from computer in next room.
If your teen constantly complains of headaches, it may be more than an excuse to skip school. The onset of migraines can coincide with the start of puberty, and a study reveals that they affect more than 2 million kids in the U.S. “We hope that if we treat adolescents, then these kids won’t have more frequent headaches when they’re adults,’ says Paul winner, D.O., director of the Palm Beach Headache Center in West Palm Beach, Florida. If your teen doesn’t get relief from pain within two hours of taking an over-the-counter medicine, make an appointment with his doctor or a headache specialist (find one at achenet.org). – Bethany Gumper
Starting in November 2009, Kurrajong Natural Medicine Centre will begin running a series of courses covering a range of Natural Therapies.
Courses include ‘the layman’s guide to natural therapies’, which has been a popular course for people who are interested in alternative medicine and it’s range of disciplines, but because they lack information, have not yet sought such treatments.
This course will look at the major natural medicine modalities and discuss:
Not only has this course been of interest to the lay person, but many health professionals have also attended this course with a few to find out more and increase their level of understanding about natural medicine and it’s disciplines.
“We first conceived this course over 10 years ago, because we found that people from all walks of life were increasingly interested in what natural medicine could do for them”, said Susan.
“The aim was not to sell alternative medicine, but rather to provide information that is factual and provides a more complete picture of how an individual could use natural medicine to improve their health. What surprised us initially was the high level of interest expressed by orthodox medical practitioners and nurses”, said Susan Siegenthaler, who as formulated and taught this course now for many years.
Susan is a medical herbalist and Aromatherapist with over 25 years of experience in private practice and teaching. Together with her husband and business partner Danny, a doctor of traditional Chinese medicine, they’ve started their new clinic, Kurrajong Natural Medicine Centre and are now offering this course free to anyone that wishes to find out more about natural medicine.
The course will be held over 4 weeks at: Kurrajong Natural Medicine Centre. For more details please call (02) 5673 0784 or drop in at:
Kurrajong Natural Medicine Centre
Shop 7/1147 Grose Vale Rd.,
Kurrajong Village, NSW 2758
Tragedy and Redemption
CLASSIFICATION MC Mature Catholics
RATING Four of 5 Stars
Distributed by Warner Bros. and Village Roadshow (released on 26 September 2008)
97 minutes
The Film
Nights in Rodanthe is a film adaptation of the novel Nicholas Sparks having the same title. It was filmed in the small seaside village of Rodanthe, the northermost village of the inhabited areas of Hatteras Island as well as Carolina Beach in North Carolina. It is written for the silver screen by Ann Peacock and John Romano, and directed by George Wolfe.
The Preview
The Story
The film opens with the young girl Adrienne Taylor-Willis (Diane Lane) running on the beach towards her father who carried and spun her around. She wakes up from this dream into a life of a divorced mother, and hurries her two children Amanda (Mae Whitman) and Danny in time for their father Jack (Christopher Meloni) to drop by and pick them up for a vacation. Jack wants to go back with Adrienne and stay with him in Orlando, btu Adrienne wants it discussed when the kids come back.
Meanwhile, Dr. Paul Flanner (Richard Gere) prepares his last things and leaves the family house he sold after he and his wife divorced. He drives off to a barge on his way to Rodanthe in North Carolina where he had booked at a bed and breakfast inn by the sea.
Adrienne unloads her things on Jean’s ben as Jean (Viola Davis) is leaving for an extended trip, and Adrienne will be taking Jean’s place in managing the inn.
When Paul arrived, he finds Adrienne at the porch. She shows him the reserved Blue Room. At 7:30, she serves the supper but Paul transfers to the kitchen where she is preparing the salad because he prefers not to eat alone. So they dine together and get to know each other.
That night Paul recals the night he performed his last surgery for the day, and had to get off his son, Dr. Mark Flanner (James Franco). He also remembers the day her wife Jen left him after the divorce. That night, the patient he operated on died.
The following day, Paul went to visit Robert Torrelson (Scott Glenn), the husband of his patient who died on his table, only to find the recalcitrant son Charlie (Pablo Schreiber) who refused to allow him to see Robert.
In the town’s grocery store, Adrienne heard about the operation that killed Mrs. Torrelson, and knew that the surgeon was Paul. Back in the inn, Paul tells her that Mrs. Torrelson had a non-life threatening cyst on her face but still died on his operating table.
After dinner, Adrienne shows Paul her artworks at the attic. She also shows him a safe box she made from a drift wood. After a call from Jack, which left her fuming, Adrienne and Paul entertained themselves with a throwing session onto the garbage of Jean’s unhealthy pantry supplies.
The following morning, Robert and Charlie arrive to see Paul. He wants to know what happened during the operation. Paul tells him that she reacted to the anesthesis, which happens only one out of 50,000 cases. Robert insists his loss of his wife of 43 years when Paul tries to defend himself from blame.
Just after Robert and his son left, the storm came and fast. Adrienne and Paul need to do their best to keep the rainstorm from getting in as the light turn off. The place is in total darkness except for a flashlight in Adrienne’s hand. Just came in time to save Adrienne from a falling shelf. Alone in the dark, they made love.
Early the following day, Adrienne took the beach, feeling remorseful for not being with Danny, who had an asthma attack the previous night and is in a hospital. Paul decides to see Robert in his place. Adrienne comes with him. It is here that Paul appreciates the depth of Robert’s loss.
That night, a crab crack celebration is held at the wharf area to celebrate the passing storm. The singing, eating and dancing that the townspeople join progress into the night as a band of retired musicians and an old vocalist took country music into the air.
When the children arrive home, Adrienne makes it clear that she and Jack will not be going back together to Amanda’s tearful protest. Things go back to normal as Adrienne continutes to do her job as a mother of two and Paul his work in the hospital. Meanwhile Adrienne and Paul continue to write letters.
The day Paul misses his scheduled flight to visit her Adrienne wonders why he is not on the plane. The day after, Mark arrives bringing with him Paul’s things, or what’s left of it. He tells her of the change that Mark saw in Paul. And that Paul got consumed into the flood of mud when Paul tried to get some more supplies to take with them.Mark thanks Adrienne for giving him back to his father.
Inside Paul’s things, Adrienne finds an unsent letter from Paul telling her that he wants them to be together for life. The pain strikes her deep and she cannot seem to get over it.
Adrienne is deep in sorrow when Amanda and Danny come back from another vacation with Jack. Adrienne tells Amanda what really happened between her and their father. Adrienne told Amanda about Paul.
Amanda visits the inn to stay with Jean for awhile as she recalls all the beautiful things she shared with Paul there.
The film ends with Adrienne, while walking on the beach to ease up her sorrow on Paul’s death, as she found an unlikely sight on the beach–a herd of running stallions free and carefree to be what they are. She, accompanied by Jean, Amanda and Danny, bade goodbye to the memory of Paul at the wharf as the wind blew her face.
The Review
Nights in Rodanthe is a tragic romantic story of two divorcees who discovered love after living together for nights in Rodanthe. It deals with the issues of time among married couples, caeer demands, breaking up, and moving on with life. There is so much pain in the story. But there is also redemption and positive change that came out from that pain.
Divorce. The film proposes that divorce may be necessary and must be pursued when couples can no longer live as they have drifted apart through the years or one spouse abandoned the other for another. It tries to show that finding the right person to love after a divorce can happen. While the proposal is believable as presented in the movie, it remains to question how hard teh couples worked for their marriage, and if there is still something that forgiveness can do to help renew a difficult union. While abandonment may justify unforgiveness and divorce, Catholic morals decry divorce as a solution to marital difficulties, maintaining that everything is possible for couples who sincerely want to work for it through God’s grace. Since most marital problems are caused by lack of effective communication, viewers are invited to decide whether the grounds for separation in this movie are valid and justifiable.
Career. The film also correctly emphasized the dangers of so much commitment to professional work, leaving no time to one’s family. The film understands this, and attempts to emphasize the problems created when couples happen to choose wrong priorities in their married life. A physician who loves his work so much so as to leave him no time for his wife and child. That love becomes ironic in view of his decision to get married in the first place. The imbalance broke Paul’s family, estranging himself from his wife and his only son. The film however provided redemption form this family failure through the medical mission that both father and son have mutual interest and through which they rediscovered their relationship.
Professional failure. One of the sources of pain in this film is Paul’s professional failure that costs a wife’s life in a medical procedure he performed hundreds of times over and successfully. The pain of loss was overwhelming to the patient’s family, but eventually became a chance for Paul to learn compassion and for the surviving family to forgive… ironically through open and honest communication.
Children moving on. The film also explores the confusion and pain suffered by children of divorced parents, their hope of their parents’ eventual reconciliation that may never come. But redemption too came when the children understood that their parents may not be able to live together anymore because of past mistakes that broke the relatioinship for good.
The Verdict
Nights at Rodanthe is a move of pain and redemption, which Catholics may find very rich with lessons on married life and love. While it presented divorce in its positive picture, it is honest in portraying the pain of loss, of broken relationships, and the need to repair and heal the wounds left, and eventually achieve redemption. Despite its good parts, it is a typical Hollywood movie in handling sex.
The film can be educational to mature Catholics, but not recommended to teh young and less mature in their faith. It represents a two-sided blade for married couples as the positive outcomes of the story can be of the story can be educational as well as a source of temptations in justifying the easier course of separation, annulment or divorce in handling a troubled marriage.
Reviewed by Zosimo Literatus
An acupuncturist, a Reiki teacher, and two artists who work with chi and creativity and chi gung will present their healing arts on Saturday, Nov. 21 from 2-4 p.m. at Berkeley Public Central Library in downtown Berkeley. This is the second author panel in the free series Get Well! Alternative Practitioners Talk With You About Healing, sponsored by North Atlantic Books and Berkeley Public Library.
Moderator for the Nov. symposium is Lindy Hough, Co-Founder and Publisher of North Atlantic Books in Berkeley.
The panelists:
- Kaleo and Elise Ching, Chi and Chi Gung;
Authors of Chi and Creativity: Vital Energy and Your Inner Artist
- Don Beckett, Reiki healer;
Author of Reiki–The True Story: An Exploration of Usui Reiki
- Robert Johns, Acupuncturist;
Author of The Art of Acupuncture Techniques
Authors will describe their practices and theoretical framework and read from their books. Audience questions will be followed by a book signing.
Kaleo and Elise Ching live and practice in El Cerrito, Robert Johns practices in Berkeley, and Reiki teacher Don Beckett is from Mesa, Arizona.
“We’re interested in helping people understand how these modalities work and how effective they are. Hearing how our authors, who are also practitioners, treat different diseases helps people see whether a given modality might be helpful with their own troublesome conditions or something a loved one is struggling with.” Most people who don’t use alternative medicine find it hard to distinguish how these different systems work. “The goal of the November panel is to have the audience come away with a clearer idea of how chi energy works in Reiki, acupuncture, chi gung and creative work,” Hough said.
“The Berkeley Public Library is excited to be working in partnership with North Atlantic Books to better serve the interest in mind/body/spirit their readers are seeking,” said Douglas Smith, Deputy Director of the Library. “We’re pleased to be expanding our programming, outreach, and collections in these important directions.”
ALL ABOUT CHI
Get Well! Alternative Practitioners Answer Your Questions About Healing series
Saturday, November 21, 2009
2pm-4pm
Berkeley Public Central Library
3rd Floor Community Meeting Room
2090 Kittredge Street
Berkeley, CA 94704
Wheelchair accessible. To request a sign language interpreter, real-time captioning, materials in large print or Braille, or other accommodations for this event, please call (510) 981-6107 (voice) or (510) 548-1240 (TTY); at least five working days will ensure availability. Please refrain from wearing scented products to public programs.
Gifted Hands by Ben Carson was very inspiring to me. While the writing is not superb, the material is fantastic! Carson’s testimony is really a wonderful example of seeing what God wants of you and trusting Him to get it for you.
Carson grew from poverty to one of the most skilled pediatric neurosurgeons in the world. His strong-willed and faith-filled mother taught him he could be whatever he wanted and to not accept anything less than his best. She, along with teachers and his wife, Candy, saw the potential of what God could make in Ben Carson.
He also chronicles some of his amazing surgeries, telling his readers of the strong parents and sick children who came to him seeking a miracle. Often times they found it in the God-gifted hands of Dr. Carson. Other times, the circumstances were just too dire and the complications too intense to save the patients. Dr. Carson gives a heartfelt look into the life of a doctor who feels every triumph and every loss.
My Bookshelf Rating: B+
1. MILF cleared of abduction charges by Irish priest – Okay, get you minds out of the gutter. Of course I’m talking about the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). In the Philippines, Irish Fr. Michael Sinnott was held hostage for 31 days and after being freed, said that his abductors were the original lumad of Mindanao who lost their homeland and everything else when the merchants came in, but not the MILF. In fact, the MILF Central Committee are credited for effecting his release.
2. Nanotechnology kicks cancer’s ass -
Led by Elena Rozhkova, scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory and the University of Chicago’s Brain Tumor Center have developed the first nanoparticles that seek out and destroy glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) brain cancer cells without damaging nearby healthy cells.
Nanomedicine, an offshoot of nanotechnology, refers to highly specific medical intervention at the molecular scale for curing disease or repairing damaged tissues, such as bone, muscle, nerve, or brain cells. Nanoparticles – anywhere from 100 to 2500 nanometers in size – are at the same scale as the biological molecules and structures inside living cells. Cancer detection using nanoparticles shows great promise as a therapy for certain types of cancer. And the U.S. National Institute of Health (NIH) is taking nanoparticles very seriously. The NIH has established a national network of eight Nanomedicine Development Centers, which serve as the intellectual and technological core of the NIH Nanomedicine Roadmap Initiative.
3. South Carolina rules religious license plates unconstitutional - The smoking gun of the case seems to this:
When State Sen. Yance McGill was asked by the Associated Press in May 2009 whether he would support a Wiccan tag, he said, “Well, that’s not what I consider to be a religion.”
When asked about a Buddhist tag, he said “I’d have to look at the individual situation. But I’m telling you, I firmly believe in this [Christian] tag.”
Rep. Bill Sandifer also backed the “Christian” plate, but emphatically asserted that he would never do the same for a plate featuring Islamic symbols and language.
“Absolutely and positively no,” he said.
And, let’s not forget, [ed: Lt. Gov] Bauer himself also said no to the same question.
“I would not [support a tag for Islam] because that is not the group I support,” he said.
Oops. Thanks guys.
4. Rhode Island governor vetoed domestic partners burial bill – This bill would have allowed a same-sex partner to make funeral arrangements for a dead partner. Governor Carcieri, have you no decency, sir? Have you no decency?
5. Catholic Church gives Washington D.C. an ultimatum – The Catholic Archdiocese of Washington threatened to pull aid to homeless if the state doesn’t change a proposed same-sex marriage law. Yay extortion!
6. Cincinnati Coalition of Reason billboard taken down due to death threats - And while extremely unfortunate, it both illustrates why these completely unoffensive ads are so important in the first place and on the plus side, the billboard was just moved to a new location. And this will no doubt generate more publicity than the billboard itself.
7. Alabama Atheists and Agnostics get publicity - Last month, they went around chalking their university to advertise their upcoming meeting. Then it got erased and so they chalked everything again, only to have that erased to. And now the story has gotten them some great new publicity, which like the Cincinnati billboard incident, will likely reach a much larger audience than originally intended. Thanks assholes!
8. 10-year-old refuses to stand for Pledge for gay marriage – 10-year-old Will Phillips refuses to stand for the Pledge of Allegience to show support for gay marriage:
“I’ve always tried to analyze things because I want to be lawyer,” Will said. “I really don’t feel that there’s currently liberty and justice for all.”
…
At the end of our interview, I ask young Will a question that might be a civics test nightmare for your average 10-year-old. Will’s answer, though, is good enough — simple enough, true enough — to give me a little rush of goose pimples. What does being an American mean?
“Freedom of speech,” Will says, without even stopping to think. “The freedom to disagree. That’s what I think pretty much being an American represents.”
9. Why chimps can’t speak -
Scientists suspect that part of the answer to the mystery lies in a gene called FOXP2. When mutated, FOXP2 can disrupt speech and language in humans. Now, a UCLA/Emory study reveals major differences between how the human and chimp versions of FOXP2 work, perhaps explaining why language is unique to humans.
Published Nov. 11 in the online edition of the journal Nature, the findings provide insight into the evolution of the human brain and may point to possible drug targets for human disorders characterized by speech disruption, such as autism and schizophrenia.
TORONTO — Families in several provinces were expressing outrage and concern Tuesday after they said their children got double the recommended dose of the H1N1 vaccine from health officials of their government run health care system, but at least one medical expert said there’s little need for concern.
Parents in Ontario, Manitoba and British Columbia have reported that their children received the amount in the adult dose instead of the pediatric dose of the swine flu shot.
It is interesting that while the shot is “rare” and “in demand” in the U.S., Canada seems to have no problem shooting up their kids with mercury.
The Public Health Agency of Canada has received reports of the wrong dose being given out to children but cannot provide exact figures, said spokeswoman Nadia Mostafa, who referred the question to provincial health ministries.
The agency’s guidelines call for adults to receive 0.5 ml in a single shot of the adjuvanted vaccine. The recommendation for children between six months of age to nine years is two half doses at least three weeks apart.
A stressed-out father in Delta, B.C., urged parents to check the dose themselves before their children get the shot. Jeevan Tauro said his three-year-old daughter and 17-month-old son were given the 0.5 ml dose at a Burnaby walk-in clinic Nov. 3.
In a telephone interview from his home Tuesday, Tauro said he asked the doctor if they should return to the clinic three weeks later to get the second half of the flu shot, but the doctor told him not to.
The doctor said there was only one shot and no subsequent vaccination, “so that raised my doubts (as to) what he had actually done,” said Tauro.
The receptionist told him his children had received the full adult dose, he said.
I just spent over an hour watching these three TED talks and I’m completely enamored with the human brain right now. It has been an extremely fascinating hour. Seeing these three extremely smart scientists, Jeff Hawkins (talking about creating a brain theory), Dan Dennett (explaining consciousness) and Michael Merzenich (neural plasticity) have some engrossing views on our current state of knowledge, how that knowledge has changed and what we can do to expand and better understand what we already know about our brain and each lecture is smart, funny and entertaining as well!
Thanks to the SGU Neuroscience Society for getting me started with the lecture explaining consciousness!
Enjoy
Dany
Not so fast.
President Obama’s victory dance yesterday for the House-passed health-care bill came as Senate foes — mainly Republicans with one key Democrat moderate — pronounced the measure mortally wounded, if not outright DOA.
Speaking from the Rose Garden after the squeaker 220-215 Saturday-night vote, Obama urged senators to be like runners on a relay team and “take the baton and bring this effort to the finish line on behalf of the American people.”
Instead, he met with immediate resistance.
If a government plan is part of the deal, “as a matter of conscience, I will not allow this bill to come to a final vote,” Sen. Joe Lieberman, the Connecticut independent whose vote Democrats need to overcome a GOP filibusters, told “Fox News Sunday.”
New York Post
Don’t Stifle Innovation with Healthcare Rationing!
Miracles of chemotherapy and modern medicines have been developed in the US, which benefit countries world wide, because of our free enterprise system. That would cease to exist if the government takes over health care. A government run health care system with overwhelming regulations will have devastating and dire consequences to our freedoms. We’d have rationed medical care, decreased quality of care, availability and economic disaster! Don’t let the government decide who lives or dies!
Dr. Harvey Thomas and Heather Sandstrom, my co-host from “Voice of the Nation” speak out against the things they’ve personally witnessed from the healthcare system in Canada.
It’s well made, let’s spread it around while the issue is hot!
—Beetle Blogger
There’s little I can add to the whole David Nutt story – if you’ve been living in a cave for the past week or so, Professor Nutt of Imperial College was last week fired from his position as Chairman of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs for commenting on the cannabis classification debate. His argument was that cannabis shouldn’t be a class B drug, given it’s health effects, and that this [like the rest of healthcare in this country - Ed] was instead being used as a political tool rather than to protect and care for people.
The blogs and traditional media are ablaze with this. My favourite being the ever trustworthy and reliable Daily Mail with an Independent-like headline of “Yes, scientists do much good. But a country run by these arrogant gods of certainty would truly be hell on earth” about the evils of running our lives in an evidence based way. Hmmm.
The trouble with a ’scientific’ argument, of course, is that it is not made in the real world, but in a laboratory by an unimaginative academic relying solely on empirical facts [emphasis mine]
Good work. The fair and balanced A N Wilson there, everybody.
Seriously though, I implore you all to sign up to the petition to re-instate Professor Nutt. Lets try and keep at least some of healthcare policy evidence based, shall we?
I want to go back and revisit a post from a little over a week ago, my response to an article at The Nation about female sexual dysfunction, and Our Bodies, Our Blog’s coverage of the same. At press time, my reaction was to be consumed with rage. The anger has settled down so I’m merely fuming at this point. That’s about as much of an improvement from me as anyone is going to get.
Let’s go back, and take a closer look to address some other problems that The Nation’s article has. Keep in mind, from what I’ve seen online, this is a pretty typical example of FSD literature. This is just one recent example of attitudes towards FSD, the women who have it, and the doctors who treat them. I am likely going to run into these same problems over and over and over again. I know this, because I already have.
I won’t be able to tackle everything in one night. I need to break this down over a few nights. The post is going to get too big to digest if I try to address everything at once anyway.
Last week, I said that one category of FSD was completely left out of The Nation’s article – dyspareunia, sexual pain. Perhaps we should first look at some definitions of FSD so that you can understand why this omission grates on my nerves.
Under a very common definition of sexual dysfunction, (common enough to appear in Wikipedia,) there are four categories of female sexual dysfunction – Desire, Arousal, Orgasm, and Pain. You can have a problem in any one or more of these categories. Usually when we think of a problem in those areas, the problem is too little desire or arousal, too few or nonexistent orgasm, or too much pain. Wypijewski touches upon only three categories, to the total exclusion of pain.
This is distressing to me, because I fall into that last category of female sexual dysfunction, the one that is all too often overlooked and the one which I have sought medical treatment for. You may also note that Wikipedia mentions that dyspareunia is almost exclusively a female problem – it’s rarer (but still definitely exists) among male-bodied individuals; for example anybody can develop Pudental neuralagia, which is associated with chronic & sexual pain regardless of the patient’s sex.
One problem with this definition of FSD though is that, it doesn’t leave much room for the patient to determine whether or not she actually thinks she has FSD. The definition makes the determination for her – “You have FSD if you have this, that, or the other thing, regardless of your own feelings about this situation.” That’s not fair to the patient, and that’s where we get that big 43% number from – the one that says up to 43% of people have some kind of sexual dysfunction. That big percentage came from a study that made that distinction of sexual dysfunction arbirtarily, based on survey responses. If a survey-taker replied that one event or another did or didn’t happen during sex (Ex. orgasm, erections, etc.) then that study decided it was a dysfunction, without regard to how participants felt about those events.
This study has been criticized for that very reason – shouldn’t participants in these studies have some say over whether or not thier sex lives are a source of distress or satisfaction? It’s not fair to make that decision for individuals.
The thing is, even under a definition that includes patients’ own feelings about their sex lives, I still identify as having FSD. For me, the vulvodynia & vaginismus (and recent, recurrent vaginal infections) are strong enough to cause distress in my sex life, which in turn spills over into anxiety in the rest of my life. The anxiety was even worse a few years ago, before I started treatment, since I had no idea of the road ahead – and I was still dealing with some invasive physical symptoms (notably itching & irritation not due to any infections.) For me, I’ve seen quite a lot of improvement in the pain and anxiety from a few years ago, but I need to manage the residual vulvodynia & vaginismus with my physical therapy & alternative medicines, among other things. It’s looking like I have a long road ahead of me yet.
However, it is not fair for me to say that all other vulvodynia & vaginismus patients have FSD. This is not the case for all other pelvic pain patients, as not all will be as distressed as I was. I can speak only for myself. But I, and I alone, am comfortable with this label. To me, it is as neutral and thank-you-Captain-Obvious as, “White, female, cis, heterosexual, monogamous. Has sexual dysfunction,” or “Sexually dysfunctional.” Yes, those fit me.
Yet vulvodynia itself is somewhat unique in that, it’s not necessarily isolated to sexual pain. It can become, for some patients, a chronic pain condition in general. (And even if the pain is isolated to sexual activity, there’s a pretty good chance that the sexual pain is still going to stick around for a long time. It may just be provoked with certain activities.) That pain can bleed out into other non-sexual areas of life, including sitting, working, playing… It can be a sex pain disorder, but it can also be a chronic pain problem in general for some patients.
A difficult pain problem to talk about openly too, since it involves a mysterious, taboo area. I have a feeling the mystique of the vulvovaginal area and women’s sexuality has contributed to maintaining silence about these conditions up until the last few years. Thanks to the internet, I don’t feel so alone.
It’s also worth noting here that, for some reason, pelvic pain can sometimes overlap with other chronic conditions, like irritable bowel syndrome, intersistial cystitis, endometriosis, fibromylagia, etc. I do not know why this is, and I do not know why I myself do not have these other chronic conditions (to the best of my knowledge.)
So by completely ignoring the existence of sexual pain, Wypijewski has, deliberately or not, contributed to that taboo and ignorance that such pain conditions even exist.
Yet, even though it has not been acknowledged, that sexual pain is still there – it’s just not paid any attention.
Anyway, these four areas – desire, arousal, orgasm and pain problems – are not necessarily the only definition of sexual dysfunction. In response to criticism about the way the medical community handles sexual dysfunction, alternative models have been presented, notably one put forth by someone whose name appears in the article – Leonore Tiefer, pH.D.
Not coincidentally, OBOS has itself reprinted Tiefer’s also-four category definition of sexual dysfunction. Here, it takes an even looser and non-judgmental name, “Sexual problems.” The four new categories are, broadly,
Click through the link to read some bullet points & examples under each category.
Even here, under Tiefer’s new grouping, I still exist, since I have sexual problems due mostly to medical factors – vulvodynia, vulvar vestibulitis, and recent infections. At least, I think these count as medical factors, since they can potentially be measured and treated medically. Some folks say that vaginismus is largely a psychological problem; I would disagree with that for my own self, since I’m seeing a very physical basis for mine, and my vaginismus responds very well to physical treatment. Plus counseling with talk therapy would not be the right treatment for me, as I have zero interest in getting sex therapy. (I’m still not fully comfortable with saying vaginismus is purely psychological, because it sounds too much like “All in your head.”)
One interesting note is that, the last section of Tiefer’s new categories actually sounds similar to the traditional definition of FSD – “Pain or lack of physical response during sexual activity despite a supportive and safe interpersonal situation, adequate sexual knowledge, and positive sexual attitudes.” [Emphasis mine.] That sounds very similar to having problems with libido, arousal, and orgasm – and it acknowledges pain. The difference is that Tiefer first turns to and then rules out non-medical reasons for the lack of response before jumping in with doctor referrals. Another notable feature of this definition is that that last category, medical factors, isn’t as well fleshed out as some of the other groupings. Not a lot of sub-bullet points under category four. I don’t know why this is; my guess is that because Dr. Tiefer herself is not a medical doctor, she has a doctorate in philosophy and is a psychologist, perhaps she felt that it’s best to leave medical factors to the medical doctors?
“So many times I don’t think sex is a matter of health,” Dr. Leonore Tiefer, a sex therapist and founder of the New View Campaign to challenge the medicalization of sex, told me the other day.
Or I could be totally wrong.
This kind of statement – that sex is independent of health – terrifies me because I fear it is making it harder for me to find treatment. After all, I’ve run into enough doctors who tell me that my pain is not physical in nature, but all in my head. Because the pain must be psychological, there is no reason to treat me medically. Have a glass of wine and relax. I must not really love my partner then if I’m experiencing pain & anxiety around sex. Maybe I should dump him or work out whatever relationship problems the doctor assumes we’re having. Or maybe he’s not contributing to the relationship enough; maybe I’d want to have sex with him if he would take out the garbage/walk the dog/do the dishes/pick up the kids after school. Or maybe I’m just stressed out in general and somatizing that stress physically – I’m somehow making my vagina sick.
Except not really.
To me, to say that sexual dysfunction – the broad umbrella under which sexual pain falls, including vulvodynia which also intersects with chronic pain – isn’t a matter of health, is like saying that other chroni conditions such as pain in general shouldn’t be treated. And okay, not everyone needs medical treatment for pain… but what about those who want it and seek medication for their chronic conditions?
Well, if you visit Tiefer’s New View Campaign website – you’ll have to Google it because I still refuse to link to it – one of the first images there is a clear anti-pill picture.
Does this anti-pill sentiment apply to pain management & medications used off-label, like tricyclic antidepressants and antiseuzire medication sometimes used for managing vulvodynia? Some of my friends need to take oral pills like those pictured just to make it through the day… Pain management medication. And I needed those antibiotics & antifungal pills because I’m too scared to use traditional at-home remedies for infections. (It’s not a fear due to a lack of empowerment, or ignorance of my own body, or not wanting to touch myself, or not knowing how to use the at-home treatments… it’s fear of upsetting the balance in vaginaland even worse than it already is.)
Does this anti-medicalization backlash apply to researching and developing treatments for vaginal infections like the bacteria & yeast I kept developing over the summer? Does it apply to researching causes & treatments of pelvic pain?
What does medicalization even mean?
Where do we draw the line between researching the how the body works vs. reducing it to component parts? When does a shielding against reduction to component parts turn into maintaining ignorance? hen does protecting women from manipulation by a Patriarchial medical community cross over into patronization? When does protection for our own good become Matriarchy?
I don’t know where those lines are drawn in the sand, but I think it’s been crossed. My metaphorical toes hurt from getting stepped on & steamrollered over, as someone who does identify as having FSD and is told that FSD doesn’t exist. Ow, my toes. They hurt from being told that anyone who does think they have FSD and so seeks treatment for it, is a “Slave,” as Wypijewski has done in her Nation article. Ow, my feet. Ow, my vag.
To Dr. Tiefer’s credit though, she did, once, say that dyspareunia is a valid sexual dysfunction & one worth treating. She said it, once, that I know if, in a journal that I had to jump through hoops to get my hands on. I’m referring here to the Archives of Sexual Behavior, 34, 49-51. The title of the article (or editorial, really, it wasn’t a research paper,) she had published is, “Dyspareunia is the only valid sexual dysfunction and certainly the only important one.”
So okay, I guess that I have a Tiefer-approved Hall Pass to go to use the restroom during class and get bugged by hall monitors along the way go to my doctor to get medical treatment.
The thing is, having dyspareunia myself, and seeing how much distress it has caused me, I do not agree with the statement that it is the only dysfunction that is important and worth treating. Who gets to decide what is & isn’t important? Don’t the people directly effected get some say in this? Or are we to disregard what the patients say they want, because they have been brainwashed by unrealistic media images of sexuality, and so do not know what they really want?
It just doesn’t seem fair to me, to minimize the very real suffering that other people experience if their sex life is not even minimally satisfactory, or if someone is genuinely dissatisfied with some parts of their body. It seems so unfair to say that a lack of orgasm is unimportant to a person who feels that it is & is distressed by an inability to achieve one. I don’t think it’s fair to decide on other people’s behalf, what is & isn’t worth pursuing in their unique sex life as they see fit.
Who am I to say that another person’s emotional pain is any less real and less important than the physical pain I experienced? Who is to determine what the best course of action towards resolution is for that person, other than she herself?
Now maybe the resistance to FSD comes from one word in it in particular – dysfunction. It’s a pretty heavily charged word. It says, “There is something wrong with you if your body does not operate like the rest of ours,” ours being whatever majority has organs (in this case) that operate with some predictability and “Success,” however that majority defines success. Dysfunction implies that something is lacking. So the message I hear from outside myself is, “You don’t want to be dysfunctional. You don’t want to be one of those people. You don’t want to have a bad & wrong sex life.” I think I’m kind of an exception since I actually embrace the term. I still say, only half-jokingly, “I have a broken vagina,” when I’m down on myself, even though I know I’m actually very warm & loving sexually. I may be dysfunctional, but that doesn’t make me bad. Seeking medical treatment shouldn’t make me a bad person, either, but, reading articles like this, that’s the message I get. There must be something wrong with me, not because there’s something causing me physical discomfort – there’s something wrong with me because I want to stop being uncomfortable.
But convince other ordinary folks that thier sex life is somehow lacking, and therefore their sex life is bad and wrong, and that they are dysfunctional because one thing or another does or doesn’t happen in bed, and it leaves those folks vulnerable to sneaky marketing designed to make money off such insecurities. “Oh no, I don’t want to be dysfunctional. I want to be normal just like everybody else!” I see pills marketed towards men who have erectile dysfunction, although we do not know whether that target audience is genuinely bothered by a lack of erections. I see creams & gels in the backs of magazines, marketed to women who want to increase sexual sensation, arousal, and/or lubrication, although perhaps those targeted women never really even thought about such factors before.
It sounds to me like one of Tiefer’s big concerns is that Big Pharma is going to play up ordinary folk’s insecurities about having sexual dysfunction and milk the insecurity for all its worth, by cranking out sex-enhancement treatments, like pills, hormone patches, surgeries, etc.
The thing is, I don’t think that the making of sexual insecurity comes from Big Pharma alone. Some of it does, sure; I’ve seen the commercials for Levitra, Viagra and yes, even Enzyte on TV. (Remember Smilin’ Bob? and all the phallic imagery of those commercials?)
But I’ve also seen lots of movies, books, tv shows, magazine articles, internet websites, sex advice columnists, sex therapists, blogs, sex toy retailers, etc., also put out this message that sex should or shouldn’t be a certain way.
Sex should be sacred; sex shouldn’t be taken so seriously; you should be able to have g-spot orgasms; g-spot orgasms are overrated; the clitoris is the primary female sex organ; the brain is the primary sex organ for all; give a girl an orgasm like this guy on TV; learn how to give a great blow job so your husband never leaves you; light a fire under his balls by wearing this lingere; if your boyfriend doesn’t respond to your advances he’s seeing someone else; try this big giant dildo because women like ‘em big; enlarge your sex organ because women like ‘em big; it goes on….
It’s exhausting and confounding.
And it dosen’t come from Big Pharma. Those conflicting sex messages that say sex should be like this or that and try this toy or that condom – that comes from the culture I live in (I live in US culture.)
Why are we focusing so much on Big Pharma, which hasn’t even yet produced the magic pink equivelant of Viagra for women? Are there enough non-medical treatments for sexual pain so that we can completely turn away from medicine as an option?
I’m not so sure we should be looking at Big Pharma and Big Surgery alone, as the sole source of sexual insecurity and therefore sexual dysfunction. No, I think we may need to look at some other well-meaning but still counter-productive so-called experts on the matter. And I think we may need to look closer at the body’s own cells & chemistry – why did my body manifest vulvodynia in the first place? Why does this happen to some but not others?
Isn’t there a way we can acknowledge the reality of FSD and the value of the medical community in treating it, while still taking a respectful, holisitic view of the patients who have it? I don’t think we should have to completely divorce medicine from sexual health. Can’t we critique how our cultures market sex AND help people attain the sex life we want?
There’s a couple of areas of FSD that Nation article brought up that I still I have left to talk about. I’ll need to flesh out some other ideas over the next few days/weeks/however long it takes. I don’t mean to tease anbody who made it this far without getting bored to tears, completely lost or grossed out, but I need to put this list up for my own reference later, so I don’t forget:
“Female sexual dysfunction” in quotations marks and believing patients at thier word – why do I need to prove myself? What about those who have nothing to prove?
Vulvovaginal surgeries
The voices of patients themselves – where are they? And how patients are treated in this kind of writing (Hint: Not very well.)
I’m sure there’s more…
3742301 อายุรศาสตร์สำหรับนักกายภาพบำบัด Medicine for Physical Therapists
หลักเบื้องต้นของการตรวจร่างกาย สาเหตุ อาการแสดง อาการที่ตรวจพบ การดำเนินของโรคหัวใจและทรวงอก โรคทางเมแทบอลิซึม โรคผิวหนัง โรคทางเดินอาหาร และโรคทางเดินปัสสาวะ
(Basic physical examination; causes, signs, symptoms and processes of cardiopulmonary diseases, metabolic diseases, skin diseases, gastro-intestinal diseases and urological diseases.)
(3742301 จุฬาลงกรณ์มหาวิทยาลัย)
Pathophysiology: TTP is caused by a defect in ADAMTS13, a metalloproteinase responsible for the cleavage of vWF. This results in a hyper-coagulable state.
Clinical Presentation – Classic Pentad:
Etiology:
Primary TTP: Idiopathic, autoimmune Abs against ADAMTS13
Secondary TTP: Mechanism unknown. Triggered by cancer, pregnancy etc.
HUS:
Seen more commonly in children. Triad of symptoms (MAHA, renal failure, and thrombocytopenia). Triggered by E. coli 0157:H7 infection.
