THE BMI SCALE: What No One Is Saying About Obesity
A good article in OZY by
BENJAMIN SPOER.. The valid point made: The BMI scale should get much less attention than it does in the debate over obesity..
Tag: health
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New Map indicates the ‘Most Distinctive’ Causes of Death in Your State
New Map indicates the ‘Most Distinctive’ Causes of Death in Your State
It sure is a deadly nation.. Showcased by this link which will take you to the most common causes of death, in a state by state in a factual way..
Here in my state of Pennsylvania, where coal still maintains at least a half king crown, lung diseases are the leader. The filth in the air and pollutants that are in the lungs take a heavy toll in the Keystone state..
The takeaway is interesting, with some predictable conclusions and also a surprise from the Garden State.
From the report:
According to Francis Boscoe, a research scientist at New York State Cancer Registry the most distinctive causes of death in majority of cases is not so surprising. In several northern states, including Maine, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming the flu is considered as the most distinctive cause of death. In Alaska and Idaho the most distinctive causes of death is considered to be plane crashes or boat accidents. In mining states such as Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Kentucky pneumoconiosis, a group of lung diseases caused by inhaling dusts, are branded as the most distinctive causes of death.
There were however, some unexpected findings. In New Jersey, Sepsis is categorized as the most distinctive cause of death and deaths by legal intervention. Surprisingly the most distinctive cause of death in New Mexico, Nevada and Oregon is that caused by law enforcement officers, excluding legal executions.
A deadly nation indeed.
With that in mind, it’s a Saturday night.
Party hard and be careful out there. -
THE SUPER BUG DOES EXIST
Los Angeles hospital warns 179 patients possibly exposed to ‘superbug’ »
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – A large Los Angeles teaching hospital has told scores of patients they may have been exposed to a drug-resistant bacterial superbug during endoscopy procedures that infected seven patients and contributed to two deaths
It seems high time for a new fear.. Ebola never quite hit home. Measles didn’t much more to shake the nation to the core.. and the Polar Vortex was replaced with a ‘Siberian Express’ to remind us of how awful weather is and how it’s our enemy. Plus don’t think for a second that news directors aren’t getting a kick out of a slight percentage of Americans believing that Vladimir Putin is somehow creating polar surges into the United States to destroy our Western Civilization..
But all mocking aside, perhaps the new fear of the SUPERBUG is warranted?
More from the REUTERS report:
The possible exposures occurred at the UCLA Ronald Reagan Medical Center between Oct. 3 and Jan. 28 during procedures in which a specialized endoscope is inserted down the throat to diagnose and treat pancreatic and bile duct diseases.
One thing to note: Many of those who may be infected are in the predicament after a ‘routine’ procedure. And now there is nothing routine about the possibility that they have a life-altering bacteria that may kill up to half of the people who get it..
And while we are not calling this one Captain Tripps just yet, public statements being made now will either be looked on as prudent caution or blatant disguises sometime soon in the future..
“It’s important to emphasize: This particular outbreak of CRE is not a threat to the health of the public in Los Angeles County,” said Benjamin Schwartz, deputy chief of the acute communicable disease control program at the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health.
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I am quitting nighttime sleep meditations. But nothing against meditation.
The march of machines is taking our jobs from under our feet.. robots will accomplish tasks once held by human.
But in all of the futureshock we are being hit with, one thing remains clear: People are still trying to be people. And get in touch with the larger element of our cosmos..Enter into the equation something that maybe could be the job of the future: An expert on meditation..
Mary Macvean of the LA TIMES writes that people are seeking a way to slow down.. a moment to take a breather and disconnect from the highly wired world. And in doing so, find the inner peace that is promised with meditation..
The LA TIMES opens this way:
“Bring your attention to this moment,” Janice Marturano instructed. “Be open to sensations of warmth or coolness, sensations of fullness from breakfast, or perhaps hunger.” Minutes later, the meditation ended with the traditional strikes of little hand cymbals.
Buddhists? Old hippies? New Agers?
Nope. The room was full of hospital executives and managers in lab coats and scrubs, jeans and sports coats at Long Beach Memorial Medical Center. And the teacher was Marturano, once a top executive at General Mills.
And it goes from there–people who are in highly respected walks of life are the new meditators.. They are attempting to slow down a bit..
Years ago, well before the 60s generation drugged the meditation world up, this would have been unheard of. It wasn’t so long ago that even Catholic priests warned of the dangers of meditation.. you can slip out of the realm here and let evil forces take over. Now most religions are heralding in the power of yoga and mixing it with prayer. What was blasphemy then is bastioning now.
I can see it now.. experts in meditation opening up their own buildings where people can find solitude in darkness. Experts and ‘gurus’ will be the new fad–and lots of people will pay big money to those who call themselves a subject matter expert in the art of just being alive without a handheld device.
Instead of a quiet walk in the woods, we will pay hundreds of dollars to someone who can give us the experience in alternate ways.. A new movement! And a new job market.. Finally humans may have found the one thing robots can’t do. Well.. maybe not.
There is one interesting caveat, and a personal one, I’d like to share on this, however.. And an important one. For about two weeks, I was attempting a certain sleep meditation (one that will remain nameless, as I don’t want to besmirch the reputation of a highly visited YOUTUBE page.) It seemed to be putting my to sleep quite fast.. the video’s essentially said it would connect me, or the user listening, to the God of the universe. Whatever that meant..
The video clearly had an impact on my life. But not the one I expected.. For about two weeks, I fell asleep fast without trouble. But I didn’t dream.. I literally can’t remember one instance in the two weeks where I woke up remembering any dream at all. Even more, for about a week and a half my daily life seemed slower and more zombielike. I didn’t get excited about nearly anything.. I was zoned out, and even my morning coffee didn’t do much to awaken me. I stopped the meditation and without about three or four days I was back acting normal again, heart racing after caffeine. Even my tin-foil hat paranoia was back in full force.
So which ‘me’ was the better me? Zoned out and careless about most of everything. Or wired with a touch of mental anarchy? A better question, perhaps: Which was the real me? I have lived most of my life being stranger than some and perceiving conspiracy where others don’t even see smoke. But I am never at rest. The meditation-version of me was at rest. At night, and even during the day..
This showcases, at least for me, the power of meditation and the ability of the mind-body connection becoming more of an albatross than a savior.
I am quitting the nighttime hypnoses.
Instead maybe I’ll just take a phone-free walk in the snow winter woods.
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One GMO apple will spoil the bunch
Imagine an apple that never browns.. Never seems real. Perhaps never tastes real.. just a vacant, emotionless apple.
Welcome to your new apple, AMERICA..
Despite a big push against it, the first GMO apple in the United States was just given FDA approval. Safe to eat they say!
At this point, I don’t have an opinion.. Everything has become so GMO related, it’s tough to even care about it.. Fight MONSANTO and their weed killers? You’re fighting an uphill battle.. The real battle is just to find your source of good, healthy, and viable organic foods.. The challenge may be difficult, but regardless of FDA approvals and certifications of safety, I still think eating a fresh and healthy bin of apples from organic growth is better than a chemically enhanced specimen that never grows brown.
But that’s just me..
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) approved two genetically engineered apple varieties designed to resist browning that have been developed by the Canadian company Okanagan Specialty Fruits Inc.
Okanagan plans to market the apples as Arctic Granny and Arctic Golden, and says the apples are identical to their conventional counterparts except the flesh of the fruit will retain a fresh appearance even after it is sliced or bruised.
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America finally excels at one thing
Be proud America.. you’re good at something…
STDs!
As a matter of fact, the next time you’re cruising the bar scene looking for a potential mate.. there’s something else to keep in mind besides using that hand sanitizer in the bathroom: The rapid spread of STDs in America.
World media now knows the United States’ dirty little secret: There are 110MILLION cases of sexually transmitted diseases in the United States – and 20 million new infections every year
HPV is the most common. The most infections occur between the ages of 15 and 24—50% of the new cases as a matter of fact.
Southern states seem to be exceptionally bad for chlamydia. Congrats Louisiana, you’re number one. But you can;t beat Georgia in the syphilis category..
Apparently the Bible belt lost its chastity belt.
So tell me again, you’re scared of Ebola?
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Roll out the beer guts
Study: Main Ingredient Found In Beer Can Help Improve Memory – CBS Seattle »
A compound found in hops helps younger mice improve their memory but had no effect on older animals.
I love these types of articles.
Whenever someone says wine is healthy, people go out and drink it by the bottles. Same with beer, when we get a study which ‘proves’ the benefits of beer, guts immediately increase in girth as livers get inflamed with the fatty tissue of alcohol and decay.
Let’s keep this in perspective, as the story goes on to say:
The researchers point out that they gave the mice huge quantities of xanthohumol as dietary supplements and caution people shouldn’t start drinking lots of beer to improve their memories.
“A human would have to drink 2000 liters of beer a day to reach the xanthohumol levels we used in this research,” warned Magnussun.
While I know some people who may be able to ingest 2000 liters of beer a day, this headline is very misleading (As most are.) Beer is not healthy.. does it have some good effects now and then? Yes.. But if you drink on a constant basis every day of your life, your living start to look like Freddy Krueger and you will not live very long. ..
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While we are watching the friendly skies for Ebola to land.. maybe it’s already here?
A doctor named Alan Jamison put himself in self-quarantine in his Tennessee home. While there are no reports that he has Ebola, he treated Ebola patients in Liberia…
He did this Monday—meaning that this entire week, while the United States debated whether bringing Ebola patients to a hospital adjacent to the CDC was a good idea or not, it may have already here all along..
CNN is reporting on the doctor.. and also the fact that he has exhibited no signs of the disease yet..
Worth reading: Jamison has no symptoms at this point.
CNN says,
He plans to be in isolation for 21 days, which is the incubation period for the disease or the time between infection and onset of symptoms.
“My last encounter with a patient who had Ebola was on July 19,” he said. “I contacted the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on my arrival … and informed them I had been in West Africa and my history.”
The father of three said his daughter picked him up from the airport and dropped him at home, where he’s quarantined himself and has had no contact with anyone since.
Good thing the CDC knows about this..
But I have a few questions…
How many other doctors, or people, are doing the same thing as Dr. Jamison? Should the CDC be more keenly aware, and are they even aware of everyone that may be doing this self-isolation treatment? Should Dr. Jamison being transferred to the CDC location where these other two patients—who definitely have Ebola—are going to be housed ..?
But potentially even more troubling in my mind.. it’s a nice gesture to self-quarantine, but what about the plane he rode with others to get back to the United States?
There is one factor also worth considering—I did not know this until now. Ebola is only contagious after the 21-day incubation period.. That would make for a great sequel to 28 DAYS LATER, but it also creates a far greater chance for developed nations to prevent this disease ..
And let’s face it: The death toll is rough. 90% of those who contact Ebola die.. But a few hundred (conservative estimate, sure) of a few million people isn’t a lot.. Even in third world nations, where disease is abundant, Ebola is still hard to catch under the right circumstances.
The problem is the amount of distrust of governments in the African nations where the disease is hitting, and the refusals to be isolated and also, quite often, the fears of modern medicine..
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The future is now
Google to collect data to create a full picture of what a healthy human being is »
Called Baseline Study, Google’s project will gather anonymous genetic and molecular information to create a full picture of what a healthy human is.
The future is always now.. this was eventual, as anything technological really is at this point.
Google is trying to go deep inside the human body.. it’s going to give guidance on what a ‘healthy’ human is..
This:
The study may, for instance, reveal a biomarker that helps some people break down fatty foods efficiently, helping them live a long time without high cholesterol and heart disease. Others may lack this trait and succumb to early heart attacks. Once Baseline has identified the biomarker, researchers could check if other people lack it and help them modify their behavior or develop a new treatment to help them break down fatty foods better, Dr. Conrad said.
Sounds fine, dandy, healthy, and Googly. But what else is there behind that scene..
Imagine a future, where transhumanism is in full supply, and you get the sniffles.. then a sore throat.. then.. Google it! Search your body deep to get an answer.. let a computer scan through your organs, get your vitals, and spit back to what of the 1000s of named diseases you actually have. That would be an amazing future.
But of course with each passage of wonderful technology comes the ability to use it for awful things.
But Google won’t be evil. Right?
