tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-405093246642064282024-03-13T15:42:11.648-07:00radical thoughtschttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08861599347611131284noreply@blogger.comBlogger96125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-40509324664206428.post-69975467125844292382012-11-21T03:40:00.002-08:002012-11-21T03:40:46.840-08:00school lunch<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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JAMA, November 14, 2012, - vol. 308, no. 18, pg 1849.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Meal programs questioned:<o:p></o:p></div>
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The ranking member of the Senate Committee on Agriculture,
Nutrition, and Forestry, Sen. Pat Roberts (R Kansas) has asked the USDA for its
justification of the new nutrition guideline for the National School Lunch and
School Breakfast programs.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The above was the actual title and first paragraph of the
short article. First, agriculture/nutrition/forestry? I can see the agriculture
and nutrition link, but forestry? That’s gotta be political.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Second, the article’s premise is Sen. Roberts’ questioning
of the new nutrition guidelines for the school lunch program above as required
by the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, which increased the availability
of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and fat-free and low-fat milk in school
meals. This was allegedly passed (this act, which took effect in March 2012) to
meet the nutritional needs of schoolchildren. His concern is excessive ‘plate
waste’ resulting from children not wanting to eat the new meals, especially the
required servings of fruits and vegetables. OMG (that’s not a government
office, nor is AYFKM, which is my wife’s personal favorite response to such BS
–another nongovernment entity, though definitely something funded and encouraged
by the government), if they were hungry, they’d be eating the food given to
them. I strongly suspect/know that if these particular foods, however green and
vegetable-y and whole grainy they were, were airlifted into Ethiopia or Sudan
or (name your starving country), they would be fought over, and not by some fat
and happy Kansas senator whose whiny baby constituents’ kids want corndogs and
mac n cheese every day for breakfast and lunch…pass the mustard for my sausage
biscuit.<o:p></o:p></div>
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This goes back to my 15 month checkup sheet where I
specifically say, for the perusal and questioning of Senators and
moms/dads/grandparents of the world, YOUR CHILD WON”T STARVE! If you offer good
food and only good food (and that’s your choice, not the school’s or the
government’s) and your child is truly needing to eat (not whining they’re
hungry) then whatever you provide THEY WILL EAT.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Kids in the countries where there is truly hunger and
starvation are eating out of the trash cans, licking cans, drinking rancid
water from gutters, they’re not griping about having to eat veggies and fruit
for lunch at school. <o:p></o:p></div>
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What’s next? ‘Transportation program questioned’ – Sen. Bla
Bla reports that his constituents in Connecticut are appalled that children are
forced to ride side by side in yellow (yellow? OMG!) public buses produced by
some American company named Bluebird. The Senator recommends passage of
the’Mercedes only’ school bus program. In this program, children are picked up
in Mercedes limos and chauffeured to school while eating twinkies and ding
dongs (oh wait, Hostess went belly up!). AYFKM?<o:p></o:p></div>
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chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08861599347611131284noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-40509324664206428.post-44325172921321719222012-11-21T03:39:00.001-08:002012-11-21T03:41:05.383-08:00parenting ceasefire<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Time Nov 12, 2012 pg 18<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In a piece about the ceasefire in Syria that was supposed to
be for 4 days but lasted about 4 hours, a sentence caught my eye. ‘Having
mediated in Lebanon and Afghanistan, the…diplomat knows that a civil war ends
only when the parties want a solution as much as the mediator does.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
See ‘Siblings w/o Rivalry” by Adele Faber and Elaine
Mazlish, ca 1980. ‘don't get in siblings’ fights’. Also, my sheet on Child’s
Problems on <a href="http://www.mercy.net/drkellystephens">www.mercy.net/drkellystephens</a>
- the problem must bother the child (in this case the combatants) more than it
bothers you (in this case the mediators, the rest of the world, etc.). <o:p></o:p></div>
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Nuff said.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Pg 27<o:p></o:p></div>
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The obituary of Jacques Barzun, cultural historian, who lived
to be 104 (kudos to him for that!), whose most famous book was written in 2000
and was called From Dawn to Decadence. He warned of the decline of Western
Culture (of which he had experienced 20% of the past 500 years), citing the
glorification of rebellion and the postmodern assault on the idea of truth as
the causes.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Wow, we are supposed to submit to authority and believe in
God’s truth. Whoda thunk it? and this from a secular historian. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I bought
this book but it hasn’t arrived yet. Can’t wait to read it!<o:p></o:p></div>
<!--EndFragment--></div>
chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08861599347611131284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-40509324664206428.post-71653897566197478852012-11-21T03:37:00.001-08:002012-11-21T03:41:43.743-08:00when to take your child to the doctor<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
When to take your child to the doctor.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It’s an age old question, answered many ways by many people,
but forever the quandary is ‘I don’t want to wait too long’ or ‘I don’t want to
go too early’. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For years my smart aleck answer to the ‘ideal patient’ was
one who had a $35 copay or a 35 mile drive. They wouldn’t come in too often but
they weren’t prohibited from being seen if necessary. But they wouldn’t just
‘pop in’ ‘because it was worth the 10 bucks and I was just around the corner’.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Different illnesses have different thresholds of concern.
For instance, a cold can go on for several days before a mom gets concerned
enough to be seen. However, fever and a rash might be cause for concern sooner.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The difference in even 20 years ago and now is amazing. The
fear of meningitis and epiglottitis is pretty much gone. Scarlet fever,
whooping cough, measles, mumps, rubella, all are things of the past…for the
most part.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
While grandmothers are helpful in advising moms in areas of
concern, we in the grandparent age group have had different experiences and
live different realities as parents. Another smart aleck response I have for
grandmothers is that ‘if you act concerned, she will tell you why you’re being
silly and overcautious, but if you act less than worried, she will say you
should rush the child to the ER’. Selective memory is a joke for the most part,
but it can be difficult if grandma is remembering serious illnesses that are
gone now, or if she is chiding her daughter/daughter in law about illnesses
that are relatively new and concerning in this new world. Funny how
grandmothers remember (or misremember) the day you peed in the potty the first
time (always earlier than the actual event) but they seem to have forgotten
what it was like to have a baby keep you up at night crying.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So…some basic tenets: fever for 3 or more days should be
looked at. If the child is under 2 months, the fever is over 102-103, the child
is acting sick (won’t eat, won’t stop crying, won’t wake up), that’s a
different story. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Vomiting is usually self limited and doesn’t cause
dehydration by itself. Give clear liquids and 12 hours and most vomiting will
be gone. Same story as above – age, severity, sickness level, these mean
different things.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Diarrhea is usually not a big deal either. Give it a few
days unless it’s associated with vomiting at the same time and the child is
unable to hold down liquids. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I usually give a cough 2 weeks if it’s not too bad, but
after 2 weeks, if the cough has been consistent and not responding to time and
humidity and OTC medicines as needed, it’s generally bronchitis until proven
otherwise. Wheezing, trouble breathing, coughing til she vomits, stridor (noisy
breathing in), those mean different things.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Rashes are usually not serious. Unless they are. It’s a hard
call with rashes, but in the absence of fever or other illness symptoms, it’s
generally ok to give them a few days or weeks if they aren’t progressing/spreading
quickly or bothering the child.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Bleeding is generally not a good thing for a child to do. Vomiting
with blood, coughing with blood, diarrhea with blood…these would hopefully
alarm most parents and prompt at least a call to the pediatrician. As far as
cuts and scrapes, bleeding is to be expected, and one of my (many, apparently)
smart aleck phrases, shared by many in the health care field is…all bleeding
stops. Well, it does. It’s just at what point it stops that matters. Head and
face wounds bleed more than other areas. Firm pressure on a wound will usually
stop bleeding, and if as the pressure is removed the bleeding begins again,
your child might need medical attention. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Injuries are a subject all to themselves, but I’ll give an
overview. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>If the bone
is sticking out, if the child is unconscious, if a joint is swollen and getting
bigger, if your child is making no sense after being hit in the head or
falling, if your child can’t walk (once able to walk) or use an extremity,
those are reasons to seek medical attention.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Unfortunately, emergency rooms have become a place for
people to go when they have nothing better to do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>People with colds, mild fevers, obviously
mild problems, come to the ER because..because..well, because it’s there. ‘Build
it and they will come’. And they do. If only emergencies went to the emergency
room, I’d tell everyone with an emergency to go there, but that’s not the case.
Now there are urgent care centers on every street corner, but there is no sign
of that slowing the tide of bored people with mild vague complaints on Saturday
night to show up in the ER demanding to be seen, and taking up the room of
someone who is really in need of the level of care available in the ER.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
That said, the ER is sometimes the place to go. Sometimes
you even have to call 911. Unconscious children (after a fall, an ingestion of
something, with a fever…unconscious is on the level of bleeding as something
that is generally not good) and massive unstoppable bleeding and total
unresponsiveness need 911. Unfortunately, like the ER, 911 is abused. If only
people in real trouble called the ambulance, we wouldn’t need so many
ambulances. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But that’s sort of the point of this article, right? When is
it an emergency? When should I worry? What do I look for?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The internet is a treasure trove of paranoia. The second
year of medical school is the year we learn pathology, the science of disease.
All the diseases known to man are in one big book and every day you learn about
a few more and you go home with the same headache and fatigue and insomnia and
anxiety and nausea and stomach pain and each day you interpret those symptoms
in a different way based on the disease you just learned about. One day you
have African sleeping sickness, the next a brain tumor, and one day you have
some illness like Chaga’s disease seen only in South America, to which you’ve
never traveled. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The point is, the internet and Google have made that big old
pathology textbook available to everyone and so everyone interprets their headache
as a brain tumor, their child’s stomachache as appendicitis, their rash as
measles, and their fever and stiff neck as meningitis. Thankfully, rarely are
they right. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Finally, and in summation, use common sense and as much of a
rational brain as you have left at the end of a sleepless night/week and
interpret your child’s symptoms in light of the time, severity, appetite,
sleep, likelihood, exposure,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>of the
illnesses you’re considering in the list of possibles (what we doctors call a
differential diagnosis) and act accordingly, ruling out the Chaga’s disease
early. New parents are given a pass for the first year or so, but after kid #3
you probably know about as much as your pediatrician, so we expect you to do
most of the ‘ruling out’ job for us. <o:p></o:p></div>
<!--EndFragment--></div>
chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08861599347611131284noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-40509324664206428.post-70985118266749727772012-11-21T03:35:00.001-08:002012-11-21T03:42:02.572-08:00the drive across town/surfing<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">The drive across
town, and the lessons for parenting/life it brings.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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During a remodel of our house, we moved into a rental house
in another neighborhood to be out of the dust. This house is not far away, but
to get there (traveling east and west) on the straightest path, one must cross
the railroad tracks. And sometimes there is a train.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Yes, there are other ways to get to there from here or vice
versa, but the easiest way involves the railroad tracks. Oh, there are 2 school
zones, too. <o:p></o:p></div>
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There is one alternative route that involves some
construction zones and only one school zone and it has a railroad bridge over
it, taking the train out of the equation.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Another alternate route is closer into town and there are
many more traffic lights and I’m pretty sure no school zones, and another
railroad bridge that similarly makes the train not an issue.<o:p></o:p></div>
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I could go north or south between these routes and sometimes
do depending on the lights, etc., and I so remember my dad when I was a kid
riding with him to the hospital or office. He had a system. If a certain light
was green way up ahead he knew (or at least he said he knew) that he could hit
all the lights and make it to the office quicker by turning down one route, but
if that light in the distance was red we went another route. <o:p></o:p></div>
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I haven’t come up with a system. Maybe I haven’t tried.
Maybe I’m telling myself that there is no system and to try to come up with one
is a waste of time. I sort of wing it on a day to day basis, trying to make the
best decisions based on time of day and level of traffic and likelihood of
trains and schoolchildren. Sometimes it works out great. Sometimes it doesn’t.<o:p></o:p></div>
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What does any of this have to do with you as a parent? It
means that sometimes you can’t get from point A to point B without encountering
some obstacles. It means that some days there are the ‘trains’ of temper
tantrums and the ‘school zones’ of kids learning to tie their shoes or eat by
themselves. There’s the ‘construction zone’ of picking up the messes left
behind from your previous trip to point B before piling in the van for yet
another adventure. And this may not even be a car ride. It may just be getting
a lesson taught or a room cleaned or a chore done or just trying to navigate a
normal day of picking up/bathing/laundry/groceries/daycare dropoff and
pickup/dinner/naps/birthday party planning/ad infinitum. The point is, each day
is a trip across town, at least figuratively.<o:p></o:p></div>
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One of my favorite sayings is “Leave wide margins in your
day”. If you’ve written from margin to margin in your day planner from top to
bottom with no wiggle room for the ‘train’, you’re going to be very frustrated
when those barriers start coming down right after you missed your chance to use
another route. I see this in the office when parents schedule appointments at
times close to when they need to pick up a child from school. Perhaps it’s our
fault in scheduling, and I’m working on that, but in general, in my world, 2:30
means sometime before 3:00 hopefully. I won’t bore you with the reasons for
this, but many of them start with ‘oh by the way’ or ‘would you mind’ or ‘since
we’re here’.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A variation/improvement/addition to ‘wide margins’ is
‘surfing’ which I took from a marvelous old Christian writer Oswald Chambers:
“The surf that distresses the ordinary swimmer produces in the surf-rider the
super-joy of going clean through it. Apply that to our own circumstances, these
very things – tribulation, distress, persecution, produce in us the super-joy;
they are not things to fight. We are more than conquerors through Him in all
these things, not in spite of them, but in the midst of them. The saint never
knows the joy of the Lord in spite of tribulation, but because of it…”. <o:p></o:p></div>
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My wife exhibited this just yesterday. As aforementioned, we
have moved out of our house to remodel it, but we were able to just sort of
move furniture into other rooms and not have to put stuff in storage or
anything…until now. She texted me yesterday with the news that we need to get
PODS in the drive for our furniture. But instead of griping or a grumpy face on
the text, she put a great quote from one of our favorite Christmas movies,
Christmas Vacation, by Randy Quaid made while he is emptying the contents of
the RV’s septic system into the storm drain. And then she suggested we could put
Christmas lights on the PODS! What a great lady!<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So…there are two lessons (at least) I want to get across
from this ranting/rambling piece.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]-->Leave
wide margins in your day. Don’t overschedule and make things difficult. When
it’s possible, leave enough time that (gasp!) you might have nothing to do for
a few minutes or hours vs. having things timed down to the minute where a train
will just wreck the whole day. Let a 3 year old pick out her own clothes, ask
him if he’d like to shut the door or turn off the light or would he like you to
do it..avoid the obvious areas of confrontation and problems. You know your
kid. You know where their traffic lights and school zones are, and you know
that sometimes there’s a train. Plan for it.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]-->Learn
to surf. So not only do you plan your day to have some downtime or train time,
you learn to make the most of it. One commercial (which is advertising I don’t
know what, but isn’t that true of the best commercials?) is the mom in the
SUV/van with the kids in the automatic carwash as they all imagine monsoon
rains and the brushes and pads come at them and they squeal with glee. She’s
surfing. So maybe, when you have your kids with you and the train comes, or the
school zone light is flashing, or someone pulls out in front of you, you can
learn and teach from the situation. Counting railroad cars is interesting
business for a while. Looking at the graffiti is sometimes fun. Guessing how
long the train is, guessing where it’s going and what is being shipped. Discuss
how school zones are there to keep kids safe if they something stupid like run
out in the street in their exhilarated stated when they get out of school
(since you all homeschool, you can discuss the evils of modern public education
and how it’s nice that they don't have to be confined all day in a classroom
learning revisionist history and new math and all sorts of subversive brainwash
type stuff). <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">3)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]-->Above
all, (that’s why I said ‘at least 2), enjoy life with children. You get in big
trouble if you try to dump them on the side of the road, so you’re pretty much
stuck with them and really, I know you wanted them sometime in the past. So
enjoy them, it beats the alternative. <o:p></o:p></div>
<!--EndFragment--></div>
chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08861599347611131284noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-40509324664206428.post-29326647159258770812012-03-04T08:22:00.001-08:002012-03-04T08:24:58.702-08:00white space<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">in reading malcolm gladwell's book, Blink, i came across a phrase, a concept, that i find interesting. in a part of the book dealing with decisions made in a hurry that turned out wrong, such as police officers shooting someone because they thought he had a gun when in fact it was his wallet, he mentions that the situation set them up to assume he had a gun and that the circumstances were not such that they had any 'white space' to consider their actions more rationally...they were acting on instinct, in this case, wrongly. the whole book is really a wonderful read and sort of reinforces my notion of balance, in this case between acting quickly and decisively on gut feelings vs. considering/thinking long and hard about a decision. gladwell explores the goods and bads of both. i recommend the book.<br />
now to my point...i find myself providing 'white space' more and more. in my capacity as a pediatrician, i am faced with emails, texts, phone calls regularly that are from people facing a problem and they are wanting advice on what to do. usually it's at night or on the weekend when the 'white space' provision comes up.<b> 'do i need to take him/her to the ER or urgent care for this fever/cough/earache/belly pain/acting weird/possible ingestion of poison/bonk on the head or can i wait and see how he/she does?</b><br />
this wasn't an issue in the not so distant past when there wasn't an urgent care center on every corner. i'm waiting for starbuck's to add a clinic. even my employer has sided with the devil and has clinics in walmarts. and this wasn't an issue before the news started getting bored with just what was happening in the city/state/nation/world and started running stories on the weird stuff that very occasionally happens to people in otherwise seemingly normal situations. 'he was fine until he...got his shots, hit his head, got a fever, started coughing'...you name it, 'and then he 'had a seizure, stopped breathing, started bleeding, went unconscious, has never been the same'. mind you, these things sometimes happen. but way more often, they don't. and often the talking heads have to go far and wide to find the story. and of course they wouldn't run a story on a kid who fell off the counter and landed on his head after having a fever of 105 and drinking a bottle of tylenol and eating honey and peanuts together in infancy and lived and was normal. that's boring. but that's normal. but it's not normal if you aren't afforded any 'white space'. if you've just watched the story of the kid who got brain damage and died from a seemingly innocent fall and you hear that sickening thud in the next room and realize it's your baby who just learned to roll over when you thought he was safe on the bed...his dad was watching him while he was folding laundry and just stepped away for a second to shut the lid of the washer so it would start...and you rush in all scared and panicked and set up for an adrenaline-charged reaction (with a heavy dose of guilt because you were watching the news or getting stupid updates on facebook and following rabbit trails on the computer looking for things to worry about so you could avoid all pitfalls in the life of your child when you should have been either the laundry or the baby-watching - send your comments, i'm ready) and you rush to the ER and the goose egg on the kid's head hasn't even gotten a chance to grow. there you run into a doctor who just read an article on 'the effects of traumatic brain injury on otherwise normal children falling from beds at home while supposedly supervised by their parent and who look completely normal and way better than their parents' who is similarly set up to see helicopters landing outside to take your child away if he doesn't act quickly (or he sees lawsuits being delivered on said helicopters because he missed the traumatic brain injury and your child was that rare exception he just read about and you just watched on TV). nobody looks at the child. they do a CT scan. why? because they can. because you want them to. because they think they are supposed to and are justified in doing one. because the hospital owns the CT scan machine and they didn't buy it to toast bagels, they've got to pay for the crazy thing so you'd better use it when you can or your job might be in jeopardy and besides, once you do it you're off the hook and now the radiologist who reads the scan has to interpret it and make the right diagnosis (at least the radiologist isn't supposed to have seen and examined the child first).<br />
nobody considers that the radiation from the XRay or CT scan will add up over time with other 'necessary' tests involving radiation and when the 40 year old kid who somehow survived all those falls off the bed and those jumps out of the swing and stitches and casts now has a weird cancer and that maybe it had something to do with the cumulative radiation exposure from said tests. we're just concerned with the immediate problem.<br />
back to 'white space'. in allowing patients to email me (or text/call if they have found my cell number) perhaps i (and cathy, too, don't forget the cutest little curly headed provider of 'white space' to good Catholics and friends of her daughters everywhere) provide the time needed to slow down and think a little, the shoulder/s on which to unload at least some of the responsibility, so that all minds can get back to the common sense that says 'he's running around playing, he just ate a crayon and didn't throw up, he's opened my iPhone and is accessing his own apps...wait, he's downloading new apps, who gave him the iTunes password?' and i guess he's fine and i'll stay home and not go to starbucks where they have a caffeine addiction clinic that also sees children and they have a drive thru CT scanner that is begging me to pay for it.<br />
ok. i'm happy to provide 'white space'.<br />
most problems don't need an evaluation right away, if at all.<br />
the reason that 'ER' and all those hospital shows get weird really quick is that the exciting stuff...well, it just isn't that common. it's mostly patients set up to worry about the miniscule chance of a fever and headache being meningitis or a stomachache being appendicitis or a head bonk being an epidural hematoma colliding with a room full of people who are primed for an emergency and whose assumption is that your child has all those things and more until we do enough tests to rule them out.<br />
there's an old medical joke that goes 'an internist, a radiologist, a surgeon, and a pathologist go duck hunting. some birds fly over. the internist looks and looks and says they may be ducks but they might be geese and i'm going to need to run some tests before i decide. the birds fly away. next flock of birds flies over. the radiologist says these birds look to be consistent with the appearance of ducks but are not absolutely diagnostic of ducks unless coupled with clinical evidence to support the presence of ducks. the birds fly away. the next flock of birds come by. the surgeons stands up, starts shooting every bird he can see, then he turns to the pathologist and says - 'find me a duck'.'<br />
we have a lot of information and a lot of ways to act on that information and unfortunately no guaranteed filter through which to sift that information. we're going to miss shooting a duck sometimes, and sometimes something other than a duck might get shot. but in the end, 'white space' allows people to look a little closer at the flock of information and act correctly most of the time instead of jumping to the worst case scenario conclusion quickly and acting on it.<br />
so, maybe 'primary care provider' isn't the best name for us. it's not PCP now, it's WSP.</div>chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08861599347611131284noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-40509324664206428.post-91902931985260578702012-02-01T16:52:00.000-08:002012-02-01T16:52:40.854-08:00ISL (infant soccer league)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">i say if you can't beat em, join em.<br />
i'm proposing an infant soccer league. why make parents wait til their kids can walk to be able to enjoy the joys of team sports?<br />
i'm thinking only crawling infants in one league and new walkers in another. the rules would have to be adjusted, of course. use of hands might be allowed, especially in the crawler league.<br />
i'm sure we'd have to watch for those kids whose parents have 'adjusted' their development in a chemical fashion to enhance their performance, but urine drug screens should be easy...just pick the diaper out of the trash can and test it. and the pubic hair noticed during the diaper change might be a hint.<br />
there would have to be age limits, at least on the top end. a 3 year old toddler? come on. early crawlers could be accepted, but after 18 months (when even i get a little worried if kids can't walk) they would have to go into the toddler league (and the peer pressure would be equivalent to the nonpottytrained 3 year old at the MDO that only accepts kids who are potty trained...in a couple of days they will figure it out or be shunned for life by their class/teammates).<br />
you could fit a lot of fields in a small space. i'm thinking indoors, too, because an outdoor league would be subject to the howling winds and freezing temperatures so prevalent on 9 am on saturday mornings at the soccer fields, no matter the time of year.<br />
my friend who is a marketing genius began coming up with ideas for secondary markets: helmets, duh, they're crawling around bashing each other and the ball, talk about a header! a new type of diaper designed for the 'crawling athlete', sleek, light, complete with team insignia/colors. that brings up uniforms. the onesie would be the most sensible, but maybe something with pants with padded knees and feet in them to prevent riding up and ankle exposure.<br />
the ball itself would perhaps have to be redesigned or just use a smaller ball. one with limited motion might make it easier.<br />
as for performance enhancing drugs, i alluded to anabolic steroids above, but perhaps stimulants would be helpful to keep the 'picking the daisies' phenomenon to a minimum. if your baby was focused, he or she could pretty much rule the field when playing with kids whose attention was distracted by bright shiny objects, or the pacifier dropped by a teammate or opponent. that brings up mouthguards...not hard to have since many babies suck pacifiers regularly anyway. but thumbsuckers would be at a distinct disadvantage.<br />
<br />
so...forget my usual tirades against team sports before middle school. let's go for infant soccer and throw caution to the wind! </div>chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08861599347611131284noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-40509324664206428.post-24389419783982019982011-07-16T05:50:00.000-07:002011-07-16T05:50:01.908-07:00truth in advertisingthe truth hurts. recent ads for a medicine for gout picture a man carrying a big glass container of green liquid with him wherever he goes. he's got gout, caused by high levels of uric acid in his blood. along comes the medicine, uloric, and voila! he is now carrying around a smaller, though still substantial, glass container of green liquid. i'm sorry, but that's not reassuring. it would be like a cancer center ad showing people who added a couple of painful days to their lives instead of years of joyous living.<br />
this truth alongside the 'two bathtubs on a deck' commercials for cialis. seems that cialis makes you go from mowing the yard or changing a lightbulb to having sex in a tent in your (now gorgeous manicured) back yard or a (where did that come from?) waterfall in the woods that just showed up in your living room. not so much truth there, i think.<br />
give me the days of the PF Flyer shoes. they said they made you run faster and jump higher and by golly, i ran faster and jumped higher when i got a new pair, every time, as far as i knew. it sure felt like it. in the movie Sandlot, Benny "the jet" Rodriguez dons a pair of brand new PF Flyers before his monumental battle with/run from 'The Beast'. they worked for him, too. that 'truth' was a little easier to swallow than the previous examples. one is too much truth, the other pure fantasy (get inside and take a shower, you're all sweaty from mowing the yard!).<br />
the most recent addition to the 'too much truth' category is the T mobile ad. and the worst part is, they are marketing the too much truth part and i don't know if they realize it.<br />
in the ad a dad and mom and a kid are carrying huge piles of books, tv's, dvd players and dvds, computers, etc., etc. they are bowing under the pressure of all that stuff and the pretty T mobile girl wonders why they don't have a phone that could have all that stuff inside it instead of carrying it all with them. well...if they get the phone, sure, no more big physical load of stuff, but still the same pile of junk, only now electronically stored for access whenever they want it. the irony of the whole thing to me is that they don't need to carry around all that junk all the time, even if they can (yes, i carry an iphone 4), and the fact that one can advertise as if being able to cram all that junk into a phone (smart phone is an oxymoron in my book) is a good thing that people should strive for, is an indictment of our culture and one that someday may be our undoing. we seem to think there is, or should be, an app for everything, and that by having that app we can do anything.<br />
they need to make an app for the guy with the glass container of green liquid, maybe then instead of a lesser of two evils type of ad it could be just one more thing the guy has piled up on his junk pile of stuff that he's going to be able to put on his phone.chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08861599347611131284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-40509324664206428.post-24493454604779311372011-02-03T04:04:00.000-08:002011-02-03T04:04:36.250-08:00is anybody else reading this stuff?it's funny when i set my mind on something, in this case looking for things for the 'duh' files or looking for things that disagree with the prevailing thoughts on medicine/healthcare, that something just jumps up at me from a sort of unlikely source. in this case it's newsweek magazine - the january 31, 2011, issue. under 'scope, health matters, science+: <b><u>why almost everything you hear about medicine is wrong.</u></b><br />
that's the headline of the article. so, of course i read it.<br />
seems that 'the very framework of medical investigation may be off-kilter, leading time and again to findings that are at least unproved and at worst dangerously wrong'.<br />
we used to think (or, let's say i used to think, as i had been trained to think, with most of my western medicine trained colleagues) that medical trials were rigorously controlled and that the outcomes couldn't be compromised by the authors or the companies paying for the studies of whatever drug or treatment or test was being studied. it was only 'those nonmedical, no fda-approved, non double blind placebo controlled studies' that were suspect. how stupid was that? apparently pretty stupid. i don't know whether to believe the ones i wasn't supposed to believe or just disbelieve the ones that were supposedly done right.<br />
the effect on the practice of medicine in the western world, where drugs cost everybody so much, could be tremendous. tremendous in a good way, as far as i'm concerned. yes, pediatrics is 'safe' in many ways from the statins and the diabetes drugs and the antidepressants and psa tests, etc., but they are still used. and then, after all, pediatricians are people, too, and some are of an age where these medicines and tests are being recommended to us.<br />
what if, instead of overhauling healthcare the way it is, it's overhauled pretty much from the inside out? cut about a trillion (a trillion is a million million, just for you math folks) in drug cost from the national healthcare bill and wow, it's not so bad! instead of figuring out how to pay for all those 'necessary' meds and treatments that studies show are good and safe and effective, and that we now know may not be any of those things, we just pay for the stuff that's really helpful. that should be easy to figure out...not. who's going to do the study to prove which treatments and drugs and tests are really needed? but at least it's not now in a rationing of care sense so much as in a safe/effective sense. until now (and maybe past now if i'm the only person who reads newsweek) it's been counted on that there will be somebody somewhere whose case requires drug A or treatment B and for some reason theirs is unique and therefore the drug or treatment should be available to everyone regardless of whether they meet the same criteria, because this is the u.s. of a and by golly we should be free to get treated in any way we want whether it makes sense of not, and by the way, our insurance should be forced to pay for it.<br />
so now it can be said that nobody needs this medicine or this treatment. that the only effect that the antidepressant that so famously worked by fixing a chemical imbalance (i lost count of how many people wanted a chemistry test done to see if they were out of balance...there is no such test, though i guess i should have faked one and sold it and made a mint before this deal came out!) was a placebo effect. and now, God is so good in the order that He revealed these things to my tiny little mind, since we know that the placebo effect works even though we know it's a placebo, we can cut down our drug costs and side effects tremendously!<br />
quick, someone open a drug company specializing in placebos...oh, wait, there are several, but they thought they were making real drugs!<br />
so, a few quotes and i'll finish this parcel of radical thought.<br />
from a guy who questions the doctor who is calling all this research into question: he worries that the 'most-research-is-wrong claim "could promote an unhealthy skepticism about medical research, which is being used to fuel anti-science fervor'". and on how statistical flukes affect studies: "when you do thousands of tests, statistics says you'll have some false winners(or, even a blind hog finds an acorn every once in a while - my words)...drug companies make a mint on such dicey statistics...by testing an approved drug for other uses, they get hits by chance, and 'doctors use that as the basis to prescribe the drug for this new use. i think that's wrong.'"<br />
the caveat: the last paragraph. "of course, not all conventional health wisdom is wrong. smoking kills, being morbidly obese or severely underweight makes you more likely to die before your time, processed meat raises the risk of some cancers, and controlling blood pressure reduces the risk of stroke. the upshot for consumers: medical wisdom that has stood the test of time - and large, randomized, controlled trials - is more likely to be right than the latest news flash about a single food or drug.'<br />
ok. nuff said. so, what are all those internal medicine/family medicine docs going to do with all those medicare patients on all those drugs? and what are we going to do about this information? be skeptical of medical research? look at the emperor's clothing real closely, he may need viagra.chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08861599347611131284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-40509324664206428.post-50995420951784089342011-01-22T06:37:00.000-08:002011-01-22T06:49:09.311-08:00the 'duh' factor<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; line-height: 15px;"></span><br />
<div class="cnnBlogContentPost" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #010101; font-family: arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 4px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="cnn_first" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.7em; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 12px; padding-bottom: 3px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">here are my first 2 duh factor entries.</div><div class="cnn_first" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.7em; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 12px; padding-bottom: 3px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">TEENS WHO SAW TOBACCO ADS ARE MORE LIKELY TO SMOKE <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">(DUH)</span></b></span></div><div class="cnn_first" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.7em; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 12px; padding-bottom: 3px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">A study of German teens finds that those who were exposed to more cigarette advertisements during a nine-month observation period were more likely to take up smoking. The study is published in the journal Pediatrics.</div><div style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.7em; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 12px; padding-bottom: 3px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Researchers looked at the role that any kind of advertising, including cigarette advertising, plays in influencing teens to begin smoking. Researchers showed advertisements to 2,102 German teens who had never smoked. The ads included six cigarette advertisements, and eight ads for other products including candy, clothes, cell phones and cars.</div><div style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.7em; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 12px; padding-bottom: 3px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span id="more-17170" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span>Students also answered surveys about how frequently they had seen each ad, as well as questions about smoking behaviors among their parents, peers, and their attitudes toward rebellious and sensation-seeking behaviors.</div><div style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.7em; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 12px; padding-bottom: 3px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Initially, 47% of students reported one or more parents who smoked and 27% reported having peers who smoked.</div><div style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.7em; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 12px; padding-bottom: 3px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">During the nine-month observation period, 13% of students started smoking, the researchers reported. Increased incidence of smoking was associated with increased exposure to cigarette advertisements, according to the study. Other factors tied to taking up smoking included older age, lower socioeconomic status, having friends who smoked, and higher levels of sensation-seeking behavior.</div><div style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.7em; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 12px; padding-bottom: 3px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The study authors say their research shows that adolescent exposure to cigarette advertising, but not to other advertisements, is tied,at least in part, to the initiation of smoking. The study points out that while some countries, including Italy, Finland and New Zealand have strong anti-tobacco marketing regulations, other countries, including the United States and Germany, have “considerably weaker tobacco-marketing policies.”</div><div style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.7em; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 12px; padding-bottom: 3px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Almost 90% of smokers began the habit when they were teens, according to the<a href="http://www.healthychildren.org/English/health-issues/conditions/tobacco/Pages/Teens-and-Smoking.aspx" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #004276; font-family: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: bold; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">American Association of Pediatrics</a>. Each puff of a cigarette exposes the body to more than 400 toxic substances including cyanide, benzene, formaldehyde, acetylene, ammonia, carbon monoxide, as well as nicotine, the substance that makes smoking so highly addictive.</div><div style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.7em; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 12px; padding-bottom: 3px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.7em; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 12px; padding-bottom: 3px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal;"></span></div><div class="deckhead" style="font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 2px; text-transform: uppercase;">BOOSTER SHOTS: ODDITIES, MUSINGS AND NEWS FROM THE HEALTH WORLD</div><h1 style="color: black; font-size: 28px; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 8px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: relative;">'Healthy' kids' foods usually aren't, study finds <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">(DUH)</span></h1><div class="articlebody " id="story-body" style="color: black; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><div class="thumbnail" style="background-color: #f2f2f2; float: left; margin-bottom: 18px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 8px; padding-left: 8px; padding-right: 8px; padding-top: 13px; text-align: center; width: 300px;"><div class="holder" style="display: inline-block; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><table cellspacing="0" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; border-collapse: collapse; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; width: 1px;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><img alt="Just because a box of cereal claims to be nutritious doesn't mean it's actually healthy, researchers warn." border="0" height="424" src="http://www.latimes.com/media/photo/2011-01/118701800-18230715.jpg" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; display: block; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px;" width="300" /><br />
<div class="small" style="font-size: 11px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 6px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Just because a box of cereal claims to be nutritious doesn't mean it's actually healthy, researchers warn. <span class="credit" style="font-weight: normal !important;">(<span class="photographer">Photo courtesy of Marion Nestle</span>)</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 10px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"></div></td></tr>
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<span class="toolSet" style="display: inline-block; margin-bottom: 14px; margin-right: -50px; margin-top: 6px; width: auto;"><div class="byline" style="color: #292727; float: left; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; max-width: 300px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="byline" style="display: block;">By Karen Kaplan, Los Angeles Times</span><br />
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<div id="story-body-text" style="line-height: 1.43; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: relative;">If the foods we ate were actually as healthy as their packages would have us believe, Americans certainly wouldn’t be <a href="http://www.nber.org/papers/w16467" style="color: #2262cc; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;">spending $168 billion a year</a> on obesity-related healthcare costs. So it shouldn’t exactly be shocking to learn that yet another study has found that the front-of-package labels on processed food items are misleading (to put it kindly).<br />
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Even judging by these low standards, the <a href="http://bit.ly/claiminghealth" style="color: #2262cc; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;">new report</a> out Wednesday from the <a href="http://preventioninstitute.org/" style="color: #2262cc; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;">Prevention Institute</a> manages to evoke some distress.<br />
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The report focuses on the claims made on packages of certain cereals, meals, beverages and snacks that are marketed to kids. Researchers zeroed in on 58 products that were deemed healthy by an industry group and that also made nutritional claims on their front-of-package labels. Among the 58 items were such staples as Campbell’s Tomato Soup, Skippy Super Chunk Peanut Butter and Rice Krispies.<br />
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The researchers examined the "nutrition facts" panels of all 58 items to determine how much sodium and fiber they contained, and to calculate the percentage of total calories that came from sugar, fat and saturated fat. Then they checked to see how many of the items measured up to nutrient criteria derived from the federal government's <a href="http://www.health.gov/dietaryguidelines/" style="color: #2262cc; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;">"Dietary Guidelines for Americans."</a> To qualify as healthy, foods had to:<br />
<ul style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><li style="list-style-image: none; list-style-position: inside; list-style-type: disc; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Derive less than 35% of their total calories from fat (exceptions were made for nuts, nut butters and seeds) and less than 10% from saturated fat;</li>
<li style="list-style-image: none; list-style-position: inside; list-style-type: disc; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Get less than 25% of their total calories from sugar;</li>
<li style="list-style-image: none; list-style-position: inside; list-style-type: disc; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Contain at least 1.25 grams of fiber per serving (milk products and 100% fruit juices got a pass); and</li>
<li style="list-style-image: none; list-style-position: inside; list-style-type: disc; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Contain less than 480 milligrams per serving of sodium (for snacks) or less than 600 milligrams per serving of sodium (for meals).</li>
</ul>Care to guess how many of the 58 items failed to meet at least one of these criteria and were judged “unhealthy” by the Prevention Institute researchers? Would you believe 49?<br />
<br />
<a href="http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/booster_shots/2010/02/food-labels-should-be-banned.html" style="color: #2262cc; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;"><strong style="font-style: normal; font-weight: 700;">RELATED: The FDA should put an end to bogus health claims on packaged foods, experts say</strong></a><br />
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That’s right -- 84% of the items declared healthy by an industry group called the <a href="http://www.bbb.org/us/about-children-food-beverage-advertising-initiative/" style="color: #2262cc; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;">Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative</a> actually weren’t, including the tomato soup, peanut butter and Rice Krispies.<br />
<br />
Among the other findings:<br />
<ul style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><li style="list-style-image: none; list-style-position: inside; list-style-type: disc; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">95% of all products in the study contained added sugars, including high fructose corn syrup and healthy-sounding alternatives such as honey and fruit juice concentrate.</li>
<li style="list-style-image: none; list-style-position: inside; list-style-type: disc; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">17% of the items contained “no whole food ingredients.”</li>
<li style="list-style-image: none; list-style-position: inside; list-style-type: disc; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Only one of the 58 products contained a green vegetable (peas).</li>
</ul>The study concludes that it’s time to call in the food police -- otherwise known as the Food and Drug Administration -- to create a rational, uniform and honest system for conveying nutritional information on food packages, as is already done in Canada, Sweden and the Netherlands:<br />
<br />
<em style="font-style: italic; font-weight: normal;">“Key nutrition information, including calories, saturated fat (and trans fat), added sugar, and sodium should be listed in easy-to-read type, on the front of packaging. Nutrients associated with health, including vitamins A, C, D, calcium, and fiber, should not be included since they have the potential to mislead shoppers into believing that foods with a poor overall nutritional profile are healthful.”</em><br />
<br />
Those who disagree with this will probably point out that the study was commissioned by an advocacy group that calls itself <a href="http://eatbettermovemore.org/SA/" style="color: #2262cc; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;">the Strategic Alliance for Healthy Food and Activity Environments</a>. Some may say that self-regulation by the food industry and greater parental responsibility can lead to healthier choices.<br />
<br />
Just keep in mind, under this laissez-faire approach, added sugars and unhealthy fats have come to account for almost 40% of the calories eaten by kids and teens, according to <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20869486" style="color: #2262cc; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;">a study</a> published last year in the Journal of the American Dietetic Assn.</div></div><br />
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</div><div>ok, sorry. tell me if you want the whole article posted or just the title. these just came across my desktop this week and are representative of the 'news' in healthcare these days, or at least some of it. </div><div>people are getting money, money i say, to study these things. and both entries are pure advertising 101. 'let em see it, think it looks good or sounds good, and they'll buy it/do it'. </div><div>we are so gullible. not sure which is more indicative of gullibility, the fact that people didn't know this already or that they paid people to study them!</div></div>chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08861599347611131284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-40509324664206428.post-55741719145280298852011-01-22T06:25:00.000-08:002011-01-22T06:25:52.224-08:00healthcare rant<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">listening to intelligence squared u.s. debate on 'should obamacare be repealed?' and had to respond…my take on the healthcare debate is that they are all missing the point. People shouldn’t go to the doctor so much, shouldn’t be screened for so much that generates rx’s that are expensive and cause side effects for which more rx’s are given…this occurs in kids some, but big time in adults, and adults with the most access to healthcare easily get…more healthcare. Not better, just more. And more tests and more meds and more to talk about how bad they feel on fb and at coffee club or work and it’s a status symbol to be on the ‘you need to be wound up like a friggin doll’ medicine or the ed drug that could make your penis fall off…</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Sorry, it’s just that more healthcare isn’t better healthcare. But if someone shows up in the office with anything as an adult they get everything screened increasing the stress level and therefore the blood pressure, etc., etc., and instead of saying, ‘hey, fatso, lose some weight’ they say ‘here’s your medicine for your type 2 diabetes, hypertension, and high cholesterol, hope you don’t die of the side effects’ and when the government gets involved if the adult docs DON’T do that they will get in trouble.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">just like the financial crisis (for which intelligence squared u.s. - npr - has an excellent debate from a couple of months ago) we want something we don't want to pay for. so we dump it off on the government. then we don't want our taxes raised and we don't want to go into debt with china any further but we...want our cake and we want to eat it too. we just can't have it like that. but the debate is about those people who can't afford healthcare or have preexisting conditions and whether they deserve better treatment by insurance companies. yes, they do. we all do. insurance companies are making the lives of doctors, hospitals, pharmacies, and patients miserable while they cash in because 'gasp' what if they didn't? </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Ok, I’m through. Thanks for listening.</span></div>chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08861599347611131284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-40509324664206428.post-80138664903517460112011-01-15T08:42:00.000-08:002011-01-15T08:42:46.517-08:00sorry, i must have RDSRDS, it sounds more official and takes less time to say than 'reward deficiency syndrome'. never mind that it also means 'respiratory distress syndrome', not to be confused with RSD, which is 'reflex sympathetic dystrophy'. it's also 'radio data system' or 'relational database system'. these acronyms DMC! (drive me crazy).<br />
but i guess i'm addicted to blogging right this moment, i can't stop! i've been mindful of the fact that i sometimes feel the need to share my thoughts with other people, and for some reason, i think they should care. i guess that's a typical blogger mentality (TBM?). but then God shows me that the thing i thought was so important that had occurred to me or that i heard that i thought others should hear was just important to me and just for that one moment and that other people probably didn't really need that information filed away in their brains under 'things that somebody thought would be interesting' because that storage unit is already full and taking up space that could be used for things like, remembering directions (oh, wait, there's GPS) or phone numbers (oh wait, they're stored in my phone) or friend's names (oh wait, they're on facebook if they're really my friends) or important passwords to secure websites (now that one calls to mind a quandary - can you store them safely in one place and if so, what if you forget that password?). so, i'm going to quit blogging now. someday, maybe i'll look back to all the blogs i've done, all the crap i've committed to the blogosphere and other digital media, and write a book. not that anyone would want to read a compilation of the stuff i thought was important any more than they would want it handed to them a piece at a time.chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08861599347611131284noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-40509324664206428.post-66874843126849798122011-01-15T08:29:00.000-08:002011-01-15T08:29:25.838-08:00placebos revisitedcan you get addicted to a placebo? i was searching for a definition of reward with google (easier than finding and thumbing through the dictionary) and one of the reasons i love and hate the internet popped up. when i put 'reward' in the google search box, 'reward deficiency syndrome' came up as an option. now i've seen it all. it's supposed to explain addiction by showing how people need positive strokes or rewards and when they don't get them they look to temporary 'cures' like alcohol, drugs, sex, gambling, etc., to help assuage the deficiency.<br />
there's a diagnosis for everything.<br />
and do you know why a diagnosis is important? other than that it gives people the ability to say 'i have reward deficiency syndrome' instead of 'i can't control myself'? it allows doctors to put its number in a box beside which said doctor can put an order for a medicine or a treatment for that diagnosis and then the insurance company is supposed to pay for it. no diagnosis, no payment.chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08861599347611131284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-40509324664206428.post-68220389846185253752011-01-15T08:22:00.000-08:002011-01-15T08:22:36.239-08:00put mercury back in vaccines10 years ago thimerosal, the mercury-containing preservative used in many multiple dose vials of vaccines, was removed due to the thought (not proof, just idea of possibility) that it contributed to the rising incidence of autism. since then, thankfully, autism is now nonexistent....no, it's not, autism diagnoses are rising even faster. makes me wonder if we should put the mercury back into the vaccines?chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08861599347611131284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-40509324664206428.post-49363526621863187242011-01-15T08:18:00.000-08:002011-01-15T08:18:38.705-08:00beware of false studiesthe temptation to jump on the bandwagon against andrew wakefield and his study about MMR and autism being false (pretty much proven already) and even (collective gasp) motivated by monetary gain is strong. but if that same critical eye is aimed at many pharmaceutical studies sponsored by the company who stands to profit, we find that it's easy to point fingers when the villain is our enemy but not so easy when they are feeding us lunch every day. ouch.chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08861599347611131284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-40509324664206428.post-87001942520759129132011-01-15T08:12:00.000-08:002011-01-15T08:12:14.502-08:00placebosa new study shows that placebos work...duh...that's what they're supposed to do. but they work even when we know they are placebos. we always, at least i always, assumed that they worked as a tactic to fool people into thinking they were getting something that they really weren't getting, and that it proved that it was not the medicine that worked but that the person thought they were getting better so they did. and that may be true, but now it seems that we don't even have to be fooled to believe stuff works even without any reason to believe it will. this makes me think at several different levels.<br />
first, it explains why babies get better with pretty much any kind of drop you put in their mouths when they are fussy. after a dose or two, just the touch of the dropper to their lips makes them calm down. sometimes. truly sick babies believe less in the placebo effect than others.<br />
it explains why babies seem to get sleepy when given tylenol by their parents. seems that the placebo effect is transferable. if the parents believe it, the kid gets sleepy.<br />
it explains why antibiotics work. and it explains why colloidal silver works. and ear drops with vinegar. and pretty much anything else you do with the belief that it's going to help. because usually the ear infection will go away in a couple of weeks regardless of what you do.<br />
but it doesn't explain why people continue to take medicines whose list of side effects is longer than the list of good effects. why not just take a placebo? it's got about as good a chance as any to work, without the side effects.<br />
so this study both explains why pharmaceutical companies are making so much money, and asks why? at the same time. maybe it's the side effects that make you know it isn't a placebo.chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08861599347611131284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-40509324664206428.post-57167873331775240382010-12-22T18:09:00.000-08:002010-12-22T18:09:43.417-08:00prairie voles and songbirdsjust got a newsletter/fundraising letter from OSU dept. of zoology (my alma mater, my major). two professors each got grants of over $300K to study songbirds and prairie voles. the songbird study will see if growing up in a good environment affects adult zebra finches vs. those growing up in bad environments (not sure what that would be, maybe lots of cats around), and the prairie vole study is what really caught my eye. these little creatures are 'monogamous animals that form long-term pairbonds and exhibit behaviors that appear very similar to those that we humans might call 'love' for both a mate and for offspring'. the guy is going to look at their brains and see what hormones make them 'love' and especially look at the males and their attachment to their offspring 'to provide a better understanding of what controls monogamy and offspring care by fathers'.<br />
hey, save your money and quit looking at tiny animal brains and read the bible, numbnuts! <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">'</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Start children off on the way they should go, </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16px;">and even when they are old they will not turn from it.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">', and '</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.'</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">we get angry when people waste their money on frivolous stuff but welcome it, almost worship it, when it's in the name of science. especially in the name of 'developmental origins of adult disease' and 'understanding the causes of dysfunction in social attachment, such as.........autism'. </span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">words of wisdom from my lovely bride: 'you find what you're looking for in the last place that you look'. and it seems that scientists have the bible buried pretty deep in their piles while looking elsewhere for answers to life's questions. but i guess you don't get much grant money for studying 'why people don't pay attention to what God says despite continually suffering the consequences of such behavior'. oh, well.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Charis SIL', charis, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span>chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08861599347611131284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-40509324664206428.post-24140738735152591242010-11-10T04:00:00.000-08:002010-11-10T04:00:31.519-08:00need a doctor?<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Charis SIL', charis, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><sup class="versenum" id="en-NIV-23392" style="font-size: 0.65em; font-weight: bold; line-height: normal; vertical-align: text-top;">12</sup></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Charis SIL', charis, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Charis SIL', charis, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">On hearing this, Jesus said,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Charis SIL', charis, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Charis SIL', charis, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><span class="woj">“It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.</span></span><br />
in matthew 9:12, mark 2:17, and luke 5:31 Jesus makes it pretty clear that it is the sick who need a doctor, not the healthy. man's response to this? the healthcare industry, with us (i'm sure i'm as guilty as the next "health care provider") as its minions, is out to make everyone think they are sick. so they'll need a doctor. God forbid that people figure out that most of their sickness is self-induced or just plain made up out of thin air, drug advertisements, and webmd. not to tout my knowledge or that of the medical profession so much as to help lay persons figure out why when they search symptoms on the internet and find weird stuff that it's not the long list of things that could cause the symptoms they are having that we need to learn in med school, but which ones on the list we can mark off without a lot of unnecessary expensive tests and treatments. the 2nd year of med school, pathology was the course, was a whole year of being pretty darn sure i had every disease about which we learned because they all had fatigue, headache, irritability, or some other random symptom common to every disease in the world, including not getting enough sleep, but surely it's something way more interesting than just that i'm staying up too late and not eating right and not exercising and working too hard and generally ignoring the common sense signals my body gives me, has to be. i must be sick. so i must need a doctor. Jesus said so. so i still have a job. so what started as a rant against webmd and people thinking they are sick all the time ends up as thankfulness that i have a job that benefits from this! wow. sometimes you just gotta think/write things through. i forgot how much fun this blogging stuff was.chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08861599347611131284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-40509324664206428.post-48703704836503690232010-01-06T19:48:00.000-08:002010-01-06T19:59:10.994-08:00a cynical look at john chapter 11in studying john 11 for a bible study there were a couple of questions asked that brought out my cynical side. ok, it's always out, but it was provoked. <div>one was about which of the sisters martha and mary and which one was more responsive to Jesus. i'm pretty sure the answer according to the 'experts' is going to be martha. but i'm going with mary because she chilled at the house until Jesus called for her, then she went to Him and talked with Him, while martha had been on webmd looking for a cure for lazarus all the time Jesus was waiting to come and it's pretty obvious she was a bit ticked at Our Savior for taking so long, making me wonder if He needed malpractice insurance or something. so our american way is to go with the aggressive out front ask the questions regardless of the fact that you know what Jesus is going to say and things are going to work out ok in the end because after all it's Jesus after all and you trust Him and everything but you just have these couple of questions you really need to get answers to so that you can understand even though you understanding really adds nothing to the situation other than making you look like an impatient wench and then you argue with Him when he wants the tomb opened because you're afraid it's going to stink and you'll be embarrassed because nobody in this family has ever been stinky in public if martha had anything to do with it. ok, enough on martha.</div><div>next, the whole lazarus thing had to happen back then because now old martha would have had him bundled up and taken him to an urgent care or er where they would have done $5000 worth of tests on him to diagnose and then treat his problem and he would have never died and the book of john would have been one chapter short. and the shortest verse in the bible wouldn't be there. john 11:35 'Jesus wept'.</div>chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08861599347611131284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-40509324664206428.post-8166176228486873982009-10-22T03:48:00.001-07:002009-10-22T03:49:44.362-07:00radical thoughthumility is when you're still surprised when you're right.chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08861599347611131284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-40509324664206428.post-9626018278230748182009-08-17T20:25:00.000-07:002009-08-18T19:32:06.725-07:00conspiracy?<div><div>would anybody really think this kind of thing up? did it happen accidentally? did we pig out our way into this mess and now we need help to get out? i hope it's not a conspiracy, because if it is, whoever did it is brilliant, and evil.</div><div>get people to eat more by supersizing everything, make fast food and junk food and processed food cheaper and easier to get, advertise it all out the wazoo, and watch as people get diabetes predictably, high cholesterol and obesity become the norm, and strokes and heart attacks are commonplace. and cancer, pretty much everybody's going to get it somewhere sometime, right? now most people take at least a prescription drug or two. health care costs more and more because more and more people need to see the doctor more often and need more tests for more problems caused by more drugs and nobody seems to pay attention to the last 45 seconds of the drug commercials because they're so snowed by the promise of more hair, less weight, better attitude, less depression, better sex and they don't hear the part about your penis falling off or your anus losing control. </div><div>fast forward to the near future: people are begging for help paying for or even getting health insurance and are willing to gamble on about anything to get them out of the mess that they don't even know that they got themselves in. they want fast food, fast track healthcare when they want it and they want the drugs they want and they are blind to the reality that they have sold their healthcare souls to the drug companies and the medical walmarts of the world.</div><div><br /></div><div>when the government offers 'cash for clunkers' but they're asking for your grandmother instead of your gas guzzler, what are you going to do? </div><div><br /></div><div>a conspiracy? sometimes i hope so, at least that would mean we were duped instead of just greedy, lazy, and stupid.</div></div>chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08861599347611131284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-40509324664206428.post-48701445373958339372009-08-14T03:12:00.000-07:002009-08-19T04:16:06.677-07:00cash for clunkers, part 2got an email forwarded to me today...'cash for codgers'. man, i thought i'd come up with this idea myself, but once again, i've either stolen it or synthesized it from many ideas floating around in the air and in my head.<div>if a couple wants to have a baby and wants the government healthcare system to assist them in covering the expenses, they apply for permission and have to turn in an old person in exchange for the new baby. the exchange rate is on a sliding scale, with the highest values given to the old person with the most healthcare problems, on the most medicines, smokers, alcoholics, the obese, and republicans. the old person is taken care of with a toxic injection that guarantees that they can't be resold or their body parts reused.</div><div>i really and truly had this idea and was on my way to blogging it when i got this email. i want you to believe that, for some sick reason. but i was missing the key ingredient: exchanging the old for the new - what was i (not) thinking?</div><div>this seems orwellian, i know. but so many things that seemed so 'out there' a few years ago are now occurring on a regular basis, that i'd make sure your 'value' for exchange is pretty low as you get older, or your kids might just come visit and say, 'dad, i've been thinking...'. </div><div>talk about incentive to stay healthy! gives new meaning to the statement 'i'm worth more dead than alive'.</div>chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08861599347611131284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-40509324664206428.post-53150092180527348622009-07-12T16:06:00.000-07:002009-07-12T16:11:21.953-07:00big brothergood news, bad news. there are cameras everywhere and that's good if you're looking for a criminal like on csi or law and order or ncis. i guess that's good if you can watch your kid while at daycare and you're at work, though if you have time to watch them on the computer...never mind, i digress. good news if you're a wannabe singer/star who gets discovered on some tv show. bad news if you're watching your brother play the final at wimbledon and you're caught picking your nose. ouch. how is ou going to spin this to make it go away?chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08861599347611131284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-40509324664206428.post-53723616887632760702009-07-03T05:35:00.000-07:002009-07-12T16:24:47.419-07:00filters<div>our minds are like filters - stuff goes through all the time. some stuff gets stuck. like in the dryer, the lint you have to clean off. you don't keep it, you throw it away (or at least i haven't heard of anyone recycling lint...yet).let's say that something that is allowed through is gone, forgotten, not considered, out the vent. the stuff that is filtered out is to be mulled over, considered. in our world today there are so many floating pieces of information, advice, opinion, and b.s., that our brains get clogged quickly and our options are to get rid of some stuff or to get lost in all the crap that is trapped. the latter option is where so many people live, worried about seemingly (to me, at least) nonsensical stuff and obsessing about things that in the big picture are really just fluff that got stuck in the filter. </div><div>so how do we clean the filter? dump the crap? one thing we can do is pray. go to God and give it to Him and let Him deal with it. one is to just forget it. that's not easy, and those forgotten memories tend to resurface at inopportune times. some people can 'rinse off' their filters by talking about stuff with other people, like counselors, therapists, and the like. my personal opinion is that talking things over with counselors just keeps the fluff circulating and sticking back in the filter. i'm not a fan of counseling. </div><div>i'm for praying and giving it to God. then pray again that you don't go back to the pile at His feet and pick your junk up for another round.</div><div>oh, one other way to at least help with the crap we have to filter through? don't go looking for it! on the internet, with your friends, on tv (oprah produces a ton of lint every day!). sure, everyone diagnosed anymore with any illness will go home and research it on the internet. at least it seems so. but don't believe it all. do you think they put the boring stuff on there? like on tv, the medical shows, law shows, cop shows - they distill out the boring 99% and give you the gunfight in the er between two lawyers! 99% of most of the stuff i see could be listed under "it will go away pretty much no matter what, so don't worry", or "it's a phase many kids go through and is normal and will resolve without treatment, but if you hurry and get him in therapy you could make it a big deal and spend a lot of money on it". notice how everything has a name now? you don't just have crappy eyelashes (like brooke shields, yeah right she's got crappy eyelashes!) you have hypotrichosis. no longer can you be in a bad mood sometimes, you're bipolar, you're depressed if you cry, obsessed if you think too much. ok, that's it. </div>chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08861599347611131284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-40509324664206428.post-54602972455655213892009-06-24T16:20:00.000-07:002009-06-24T16:50:00.874-07:00summer accidentsread an article in the oklahoman this week about how the writer doesn't think kids play outside enough and they're just sitting around playing video games and facebooking and twittering. well, that may be true, but i still see, and generally comment positively on, kids who have the kinds of summer accidents we used to have. like stepping on a piece of glass in the creek that's usually dried up but it had rained recently and there were some crawdads and tadpoles and we were catching them and then we started playing swordfight with some sticks we found and maybe somebody got poked in the eye but then we used the sticks like rifles and played army for a while and then got into some poison ivy but the shot doesn't hurt that much and besides i kinda like that pink stuff and we went on a hike because we had these cool walking sticks/swords/rifles and nothing else to do but have fun and imagine ourselves as adventurers like lewis and whoever and we found all kinds of cool stuff and almost caught a lizard and threw rocks at a sign and one kid got hit in the head but we don't think he will need stitches and decided not to swim in the deep part of the creek because there were some bubbles that kinda looked like pee up by the edge and that was gross and then we climbed a tree and that was cool until another kid fell out and i hope he doesn't have his cast for the whole summer but man, we had fun.<div>those were the days. and they're not gone. just to reassure you. kids are still kids if their parents will let them and i know you can't just let them wander around like you used to when you were a kid and there are infections and perverts and toxins in the water and west nile virus and rocky mountain spotted fever ticks and any number of other scary things out there, but kids need to play in puddles and swordfight and play army and throw rocks and not have plans all the time like soccer practice and be kids. </div><div>one of the first blogs in this long line was 'the rant' and it's this exact mood i'm getting at here. i'd love to see a few more sets of stitches and the occasional piece of glass in the foot and poison ivy and maybe a broken arm instead of chronic stomachaches and headaches and trouble sleeping and trouble concentrating and (now i'm going to offend, sorry) fights over what johnny gets to do at dad's house that he isn't allowed to do at mom's and maybe the stomachache is from worrying whether he can tell his 'primary custodial parent' how much fun he had at his 'noncustodial parent's' house over the weekend without hurting her feelings or getting his noncustodial parent in trouble with mom's lawyer. there, i feel better.</div><div>and this is a good time to rant on something else. today's paper has two articles, both about dead kids, one who drowned and one who was shaken to death. both kids were allegedly killed by men in their mothers' lives, one was actually the father, one her boyfriend. the one who was the father had already abused a kid, but hey, it was over 10 years ago 'and he's changed'. and i'm sure there were protests of 'but i love him'. oh please, ladies! i'm sure there are boyfriends out there who won't kill your kids, but be careful. and the ex-wife of the drowned kid is defending her ex, and in a move that actually made sense for once, dhs took her other kid away. </div><div>this story plays out over and over. i caution guys - if you've got a girlfriend with a child, be careful. first, don't kill them. but seriously, don't be left alone with the child and consider every potential problem with every situation when you are with that child. statistically you are the prime suspect if that kid is abused or killed or if anything happens. apparently (and here i'm going to get in trouble again) girls don't think too clearly when it comes to guys. </div>chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08861599347611131284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-40509324664206428.post-49136852040492736062009-06-24T16:16:00.001-07:002009-06-24T16:20:32.117-07:00heat indexi know the heat index has something to do with the temperature and the humidity, sort of a reverse of the wind chill, but is there an age-adjusted heat index? i remember 100 degree days where it didn't feel like my brain was melting. and cindy thinks it's because i was driving her convertible with the top down! i'm thinking maybe temp plus humidity plus age plus amount of hair* (*or lack of it) and plug it into some formula and it comes out to...HOT. <div><br /></div>chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08861599347611131284noreply@blogger.com0