The context of this blog entry is that today, a man in Orlando Florida, was arrested for humiliating a child (that he was not even the parent or legal guardian of) on a video he posted online by shaving off the child’s hair, threatening him with a belt, beating him with a belt, and then making him do push-ups and sprints as a form of boot camp. This was all done because the child got in trouble in school and the man was concerned that the child would go to prison one day. Valid concerns. Invalid approach…which is why he was later arrested. While this man’s behavior may have been considered acceptable 20 years ago, today it is considered a form of child abuse.
Saturday, October 08, 2011
Why Corporal Punishment Is Wrong
Corporal punishment, the technical word for physically
striking someone (usually a parent striking their child) as a form of
discipline, simply makes no sense. Many people like to dispute this by saying
something such as “I had a spanking when I was a child and I turned out ok so
it could not have been that bad.” Well, sure, maybe you turned out all right in
the end, but that does not mean that punishment was the reason. After all,
people overcome all sorts of adversity during childhood such as poverty, serious,
medical illnesses, and being bullied, but that does not mean that those were
good experiences. While we all need to learn to deal with the many adversities
that life throws at us, there is no need to create an additional needless
adversity for children that is within our control to stop.
It is important to always keep in mind that children are physically
and emotionally fragile and that early childhood experiences shape the child’s
personality and teaches them how to interact with the others and what to expect
in relationships. The main way this is learned is through the parent-child
interaction. When a parent strikes a child several things occur:
- It causes fear in the child towards the parent. “Good,” you may say. “I want the child to fear me so he/she will listen.” But children do not need to suffer physical trauma to induce fear and respect for you. If you have established proper boundaries with the child and he/she knows that you are the boss, simply raising your voice slightly or looking at them wide eyed with a serious look could be enough to send the message that you are not happy and that the child needs to listen and take you seriously.
- It causes anger in the child…towards you. No one likes to be hit and because of that, the child will not like the source of the hitting.
- It will damage the attachment that the child has with you because of points one and two. Some withdrawal from the parent is likely. Think about your own life. Would it be easy for you to have a good relationship with someone who was hitting you and causing discomfort, pain, and/or injuries?
- It teaches the child that it is appropriate to respond to anger with physical violence. Think about it. You are upset at the child. You then model to the child that the way you are going to handle that is by hitting him/her. So, when the child goes to school and another child upsets them, he/she may respond by striking the other child in response.
While the above focuses on
physical abuse, this is often coupled with emotional abuse (e.g., calling the
child degrading names). This just adds insult to injury and ruins the child’s
self-esteem, while also contributing to additional feelings of anger, sadness,
and anxiety. Tomorrow, I will describe my top ten tips for effectively teaching
children good behavior and discipline without hitting them.
Friday, October 07, 2011
Inspiration if Diagnosed with a Serious Illness
If you or a loved one were diagnosed with a serious medical
illness, particularly a terminal illness, it is very easy to get depressed,
particularly if you read statistics on the internet on how long you are
expected to live. The famous scientist, Stephen Jay Gould, found himself faced
with a prognosis on 8-months to live after being diagnosed with a particularly
deadly form of cancer known as mesothelioma. To read more about mesothelioma
see this entry on asbestos.
After the diagnosis, Gould wrote a brief essay that came to be a source of inspiration for many people in similar situations. He lived a productive life for twenty years after the diagnosis. Not bad for someone given eight months to lived. Below, I have reproduced Gould’s essay, entitled “The Median is Not the Message.” Please read it over, share it with friends, and most importantly, pass it on to anyone you know of who was diagnosed with a serious medical illness (particularly cancer).
The Median Isn’t The Message by Stephen Jay
Gould
My life has recently intersected, in a most personal way, two of Mark
Twain's famous quips. One I shall defer to the end of this essay. The other
(sometimes attributed to Disraeli), identifies three species of mendacity, each
worse than the one before - lies, damned lies, and statistics.Consider the standard example of stretching the truth with numbers - a case quite relevant to my story. Statistics recognizes different measures of an "average," or central tendency. The mean is our usual concept of an overall average - add up the items and divide them by the number of sharers (100 candy bars collected for five kids next Halloween will yield 20 for each in a just world).
The median, a different measure of central tendency, is the half-way point. If I line up five kids by height, the median child is shorter than two and taller than the other two (who might have trouble getting their mean share of the candy).
A politician in power might say with pride, "The mean income of our citizens is $15,000 per year." The leader of the opposition might retort, "But half our citizens make less than $10,000 per year." Both are right, but neither cites a statistic with impassive objectivity. The first invokes a mean, the second a median. (Means are higher than medians in such cases because one millionaire may outweigh hundreds of poor people in setting a mean; but he can balance only one mendicant in calculating a median).
The larger issue that creates a common distrust or contempt for statistics is more troubling. Many people make an unfortunate and invalid separation between heart and mind, or feeling and intellect. In some contemporary traditions, abetted by attitudes stereotypically centered on Southern California, feelings are exalted as more "real" and the only proper basis for action - if it feels good, do it - while intellect gets short shrift as a hang-up of outmoded elitism. Statistics, in this absurd dichotomy, often become the symbol of the enemy. As Hilaire Belloc wrote, "Statistics are the triumph of the quantitative method, and the quantitative method is the victory of sterility and death."
This is a personal story of statistics, properly interpreted, as profoundly nurturant and life-giving. It declares holy war on the downgrading of intellect by telling a small story about the utility of dry, academic knowledge about science. Heart and head are focal points of one body, one personality.
In July 1982, I learned that I was suffering from abdominal mesothelioma, a rare and serious cancer usually associated with exposure to asbestos. When I revived after surgery, I asked my first question of my doctor and chemotherapist: "What is the best technical literature about mesothelioma?" She replied, with a touch of diplomacy (the only departure she has ever made from direct frankness), that the medical literature contained nothing really worth reading.
Of course, trying to keep an intellectual away from literature works about as well as recommending chastity to Homo sapiens, the sexiest primate of all. As soon as I could walk, I made a beeline for Harvard's Countway medical library and punched mesothelioma into the computer's bibliographic search program. An hour later, surrounded by the latest literature on abdominal mesothelioma, I realized with a gulp why my doctor had offered that humane advice. The literature couldn't have been more brutally clear: mesothelioma is incurable, with a median mortality of only eight months after discovery. I sat stunned for about fifteen minutes, then smiled and said to myself: so that's why they didn't give me anything to read. Then my mind started to work again, thank goodness.
If a little learning could ever be a dangerous thing, I had encountered a classic example. Attitude clearly matters in fighting cancer. We don't know why (from my old-style materialistic perspective, I suspect that mental states feed back upon the immune system). But match people with the same cancer for age, class, health, socioeconomic status, and, in general, those with positive attitudes, with a strong will and purpose for living, with commitment to struggle, with an active response to aiding their own treatment and not just a passive acceptance of anything doctors say, tend to live longer.
A few months later I asked Sir Peter Medawar, my personal scientific guru and a Nobelist in immunology, what the best prescription for success against cancer might be. "A sanguine personality," he replied. Fortunately (since one can't reconstruct oneself at short notice and for a definite purpose), I am, if anything, even-tempered and confident in just this manner.
Hence the dilemma for humane doctors: since attitude matters so critically,
should such a sombre conclusion be advertised, especially since few people have
sufficient understanding of statistics to evaluate what the statements really
mean? From years of experience with the small-scale evolution of Bahamian land
snails treated quantitatively, I have developed this technical knowledge - and
I am convinced that it played a major role in saving my life. Knowledge is
indeed power, in Bacon's proverb.
The problem may be briefly stated: What does "median mortality of eight
months" signify in our vernacular? I suspect that most people, without
training in statistics, would read such a statement as "I will probably be
dead in eight months" - the very conclusion that must be avoided, since it
isn't so, and since attitude matters so much.
I was not, of course, overjoyed, but I didn't read the statement in this
vernacular way either. My technical training enjoined a different perspective
on "eight months median mortality." The point is a subtle one, but profound
- for it embodies the distinctive way of thinking in my own field of
evolutionary biology and natural history.
We still carry the historical baggage of a Platonic heritage that seeks
sharp essences and definite boundaries. (Thus we hope to find an unambiguous
"beginning of life" or "definition of death," although
nature often comes to us as irreducible continua.) This Platonic heritage, with
its emphasis in clear distinctions and separated immutable entities, leads us
to view statistical measures of central tendency wrongly, indeed opposite to
the appropriate interpretation in our actual world of variation, shadings, and
continua.
In short, we view means and medians as the hard
"realities," and the variation that permits their calculation as a
set of transient and imperfect measurements of this hidden essence. If the
median is the reality and variation around the median just a device for its
calculation, the "I will probably be dead in eight months" may pass
as a reasonable interpretation.
But all evolutionary biologists know that variation itself is nature's only
irreducible essence. Variation is the hard reality, not a set of imperfect
measures for a central tendency. Means and medians are the abstractions.
Therefore, I looked at the mesothelioma statistics quite differently - and not
only because I am an optimist who tends to see the doughnut instead of the
hole, but primarily because I know that variation itself is the reality. I had
to place myself amidst the variation.
When I learned about the eight-month median, my first intellectual reaction
was: fine, half the people will live longer; now what are my chances of being
in that half. I read for a furious and nervous hour and concluded, with relief:
damned good. I possessed every one of the characteristics conferring a
probability of longer life: I was young; my disease had been recognized in a
relatively early stage; I would receive the nation's best medical treatment; I
had the world to live for; I knew how to read the data properly and not despair.
Another technical point then added even more solace. I immediately
recognized that the distribution of variation about the eight-month median
would almost surely be what statisticians call "right skewed." (In a
symmetrical distribution, the profile of variation to the left of the central
tendency is a mirror image of variation to the right. In skewed distributions,
variation to one side of the central tendency is more stretched out - left
skewed if extended to the left, right skewed if stretched out to the right.)
The distribution of variation had to be right skewed, I reasoned. After all,
the left of the distribution contains an irrevocable lower boundary of zero
(since mesothelioma can only be identified at death or before). Thus, there
isn't much room for the distribution's lower (or left) half - it must be
scrunched up between zero and eight months. But the upper (or right) half can
extend out for years and years, even if nobody ultimately survives. The
distribution must be right skewed, and I needed to know how long the extended
tail ran - for I had already concluded that my favorable profile made me a good
candidate for that part of the curve.
The distribution was indeed, strongly right skewed, with a long tail
(however small) that extended for several years above the eight month median. I
saw no reason why I shouldn't be in that small tail, and I breathed a very long
sigh of relief. My technical knowledge had helped. I had read the graph
correctly. I had asked the right question and found the answers. I had
obtained, in all probability, the most precious of all possible gifts in the
circumstances - substantial time. I didn't have to stop and immediately follow
Isaiah's injunction to Hezekiah - set thine house in order for thou shalt die,
and not live. I would have time to think, to plan, and to fight.
One final point about statistical distributions. They apply only to a
prescribed set of circumstances - in this case to survival with mesothelioma
under conventional modes of treatment. If circumstances change, the
distribution may alter. I was placed on an experimental protocol of treatment
and, if fortune holds, will be in the first cohort of a new distribution with
high median and a right tail extending to death by natural causes at advanced
old age.
It has become, in my view, a bit too trendy to regard the acceptance of
death as something tantamount to intrinsic dignity. Of course I agree with the
preacher of Ecclesiastes that there is a time to love and a time to die - and
when my skein runs out I hope to face the end calmly and in my own way. For
most situations, however, I prefer the more martial view that death is the
ultimate enemy - and I find nothing reproachable in those who rage mightily
against the dying of the light.
The swords of battle are numerous, and none more effective than humor. My
death was announced at a meeting of my colleagues in Scotland, and I almost experienced
the delicious pleasure of reading my obituary penned by one of my best friends
(the so-and-so got suspicious and checked; he too is a statistician, and didn't
expect to find me so far out on the right tail). Still, the incident provided
my first good laugh after the diagnosis. Just think, I almost got to repeat
Mark Twain's most famous line of all: the reports of my death are greatly
exaggerated.
The above essay is copyrighted by Stephen Jay Gould.
Thursday, October 06, 2011
Pale Skin and Vitamin D
Shade is your best friend and many times it is just easier to stay in doors. The benefit about not exposing yourself to more sun is that you reduce exposure to harmful ultraviolet rays that can cause skin cancer. The flipside, however, is that by avoiding the sun, your body will not convert it into vitamin D. While vitamin D is found in some foods such as salmon, milk, and cheese, you may not get as much from your diet than you need. Many people would be surprised to know that there are very few foods in nature that contain vitamin D. So, it probably should not have come as a surprise that when I went for a routine blood test last year, that I had a low vitamin D level. The solution is easy: vitamin D should be available at your local grocery store or pharmacy as a supplement.
Why should you care if your vitamin D level is low? Well,
for one, vitamin D helps build strong bones so you are more likely to suffer
broken bones if your vitamin D level is too low. More importantly, low vitamin
D levels can also contribute to heart disease, cancer, multiple sclerosis, and
diabetes mellitus.
So, if you are one of my pale and pasty friends out there, get your vitamin D level checked and if it is low, talk with your doctor about how much of a supplement you need. You do not want to overdo it in the reverse direction and take too much vitamin D because that can be harmful as well. As the Greek philosopher, Plato, once said, do things in moderation.
Suggested reading: Vitamin D For Dummies
Related blog entry: Too Much Calcium Can Hurt Men's Hearts
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So, if you are one of my pale and pasty friends out there, get your vitamin D level checked and if it is low, talk with your doctor about how much of a supplement you need. You do not want to overdo it in the reverse direction and take too much vitamin D because that can be harmful as well. As the Greek philosopher, Plato, once said, do things in moderation.
Suggested reading: Vitamin D For Dummies
Related blog entry: Too Much Calcium Can Hurt Men's Hearts
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Wednesday, October 05, 2011
More EXTREME Body Parts: Part 2
Diversity in the human body and other living things is a
fascinating topic. Last month, the most popular blog entry was on
extreme body features. Due to the popularity of that entry, I decided to do
some more research and bring you some more amazing extreme body parts. So…here
we go again (all Guinness World Record holders).
4. LONGEST FEMALE LEGS: This record belongs to Svetlana Pankratova of Russia
which are 5.9 inches. ZZ Top sure would have loved to have her for their Legs
music video.
5. SMALLEST WAIST: This waist belongs to Cathie Jung, coming in at 15 inches. It almost looks unreal, which is what makes it all the more amazing.
6 & 7. LONGEST MALE AND FEMALE FINGERNAILS (EVER): These belong to Melvin Boothe (now deceased) which were 32 feet and 3.8 inches. To the right is Lee Redmond whose nails measured 28 feet and 4.5 inches. I’m guessing they don’t use computers.
8. TALLEST LIVING MAN: This is Sultan Kosey from Turkey. He is 8 feet, 3 inches tall. Here he is with…Al Roker! Guaranteed Al asked him how the weather was up there.
9. TALLEST LIVING WOMAN: This is Yao Defen from China. She is 7 feet, 7 inches tall. I’d like to see her take on Yao Ming in a game of one on one.
10. WIDEST TONGUE: This is Jay Sloot from Australia, who has a 3.1 inch tongue width. One wonders if Gene Simmons is jealous.
Want more? Click for even more and more extreme body parts.
1. WIDEST MOUTH: This is Francisco Domingo Joaquim
"Chiquinho" from Angola.
His mouth is 17 inches wide. By the way I am a Pepsi fan so this picture should
not be seen as an endorsement for Coca Cola.
2. LARGEST BREASTS: This is Annie Hawkins-Turner (aka Norma
Stitz). The around chest-over nipple measurement is 70-inches. I’ve spared you
some other pictures but if you dare, you can search on-line for more.
3. LONGEST NOSE:
This record belongs to Mehmet Ozyurek from Turkey. This
schnozz measures 3.46 inches long. I’d hate to be near one of this guy’s
sneezes.
3. LONGEST NOSE:
5. SMALLEST WAIST: This waist belongs to Cathie Jung, coming in at 15 inches. It almost looks unreal, which is what makes it all the more amazing.
6 & 7. LONGEST MALE AND FEMALE FINGERNAILS (EVER): These belong to Melvin Boothe (now deceased) which were 32 feet and 3.8 inches. To the right is Lee Redmond whose nails measured 28 feet and 4.5 inches. I’m guessing they don’t use computers.
8. TALLEST LIVING MAN: This is Sultan Kosey from Turkey. He is 8 feet, 3 inches tall. Here he is with…Al Roker! Guaranteed Al asked him how the weather was up there.
9. TALLEST LIVING WOMAN: This is Yao Defen from China. She is 7 feet, 7 inches tall. I’d like to see her take on Yao Ming in a game of one on one.
10. WIDEST TONGUE: This is Jay Sloot from Australia, who has a 3.1 inch tongue width. One wonders if Gene Simmons is jealous.
Tuesday, October 04, 2011
When Patient Advocacy Becomes Patient Enabling
Physicians, nurse practitioners, nurses, psychologists,
physical therapists, and a whole host of other health care professionals
entered their respective professions to help people. One part of being an
effective health care provider is to advocate for your patient when they need
it. If your patient (who is a mechanic) broke his arm and needs a
note for the employer for a few weeks off, you provide it. If your pediatric
patient (who suffered a severe traumatic brain injury) needs you to write a
note regarding academic accommodations, your write it. If your stroke patient
needs you to write a letter of medical necessity to the insurance company for
why they need extra physical therapy for rehabilitation of a weak limb, you
write that too. This is just common sense and while it can be seen as advocacy
it is also sound practice.
Where patient advocacy starts to become problematic and can lead into patient enabling, is when there is: a) a lack of objective biomarkers to indicate the presence of a pathological physical condition and/or b) the patient is pursuing some form of compensation (e.g., disability application, workers compensation claim, no-fault insurance claim, and/or litigation). By objective biomarkers, this means that there are no significant abnormalities on blood tests, x-rays, MRI scans, physical exam, or other objective measures. When a and b are both present, the risk of patient enabling increases significantly.
In such cases, the health care provider is often left to
diagnose, treat, and manage the patient based purely on subjective symptoms. The
provider may also be asked to fill out disability paperwork (even on the first
visit), fight insurance company denials for expensive tests, and be asked to
refill pain medication prescriptions. While it may be easier to go along with
these requests, if you are a healthcare provider how do you know that the
patient is not exaggerating their presentation, that you are actually treating
the true source of the problem, that you are not causing more harm than good in
the process, that you are not enabling abnormal illness behavior, and that you
are not enabling someone’s financial goals as opposed to medical treatment goals?
This is a topic that rarely commented on in clinical notes
or discussed with the patient. There are several reasons why this is the case,
including but not limited to: a) an automatic proclivity among some providers to
believe subjective symptom reporting is accurate based on a belief in the
inherent truthfulness of others, b) a belief that reinforcing and “validating”
symptoms helps the patient feel like someone cares and is thus more important
than questioning if the symptoms are accurate, c) helping patients is equated
to prescribing and ordering diagnostic tests targeted to each specific symptom,
d) not realizing that the presentation may be exaggerated by failing to
integrate evidence-based research findings into case conceptualization, e) not
utilizing objective measures of treatment progress (or lack thereof), f) fear
of complaints and litigation, g) it takes too much time to address, and h) not
realizing that there are ways to more objectively and comprehensively evaluate
exaggeration.
As a caveat to this discussion, I want to be clear that
there are patients with only subjective symptoms who may have a genuine medical
problem that objective tests did not detect. A famous quote about this drives
the point home “absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.” To be more
accurate, however, the phrase should read, “absence of evidence is not always evidence of absence.” This is
because many times a medical test is negative because there really is nothing
medically wrong. In other words, many times, “absence of evidence actually is
evidence of absence.”
This post should not be read to imply that patients with
subjective symptoms, negative objective test results, and who are pursuing
compensation should not be treated and advocated for. These types of decisions will
always depend on the specifics of the particular case. However, in general, health
care providers need to exercise much greater caution in such cases than in the
ones described in the first paragraph.
A few tips are as follows.
1) Use
objective measures of treatment progress and require/request this of others who
you refer the patient to for treatment. If the patient is not improving with a
certain plan of care, it is time to change direction rather than continuing the
same treatment for months to years. You may be surprised to find when doing
this that the patient is actually reporting worse symptoms over time. If so, it
is time to consider why and change course.
2) Consider
if the patient’s presentation significantly exceeds what would be expected
based on scientific knowledge of the condition. If the presentation is not
biologically plausible, it is time to consider a psychological explanation for
the presentation, reexamine the diagnostic impressions, treatment, and advocacy
efforts.
3) Do
not feel compelled to immediately fill out disability paperwork or other
paperwork supportive of compensation requests without having some data to
support your position. If a physical limitation is described as disabling,
refer the patient for a functional capacity evaluation. If the patient claims
cognitive impairment, send the patient for a neuropsychological evaluation so
the role of psychological factors can be explored. These types of evaluations
can provide very useful information about the reliability and validity of the
patient’s symptoms that is based on objective data and supported by
peer-reviewed research.
4) Use
data from the above evaluations to help guide decision making. For example if
you find out the there is overwhelming evidence that the patient’s presentation
is exaggerated, malingered, and/or caused by psychiatric as opposed to
neurological problems, it is time shift the care to a psychiatric focus and
only treat physical symptoms that can be objectively verified.
5) Consider
the possible harmful effects of continued treatment without employing
reliability and validity checks. For example, if you are treating a
non-existent attention problem with a neurostimulant you can be raising the
patient’s blood pressure to dangerous levels. If you are keeping patients in
physical therapy for gait imbalance who are not improving and who have a
non-physiological gait pattern, you are restricting access to care for patients
with genuine medical problems who need the service. The same applies for
ordering diagnostic tests (e.g., CT scans which expose patients to radiation) that
have very little chance of yielding any new information given what is already
known about the case.
In sum, health care providers best help patients by using objective data to guide case conceptualization, treatment, and advocacy efforts. Sometimes, you need to be skeptical, sometimes you need to say no, sometimes you need to say something the patient may not want to hear, and sometimes you need to decide and communicate that there is nothing else you can do. This can all be done in a polite, caring, and respectful way. It does not mean that you have failed if all of your patients do not get better. Some will never get better and some do not want to. It’s just the reality of working in the modern day medical system.
Monday, October 03, 2011
Guest Blog Entry: Are You a Helicopter Parent?
Today's guest blog entry is written by Dr. Tanya Gesek. Dr. Gesek is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor at Syracuse University. She has
worked as a middle school psychologist, in residential care for
children, in county mental health, and has always maintained a
private practice in some form or fashion. She is also the current President of the Central New York Psychological Association. Her guest blog entry discusses parenting, teaching responsibility to children, and helicopter parents (parents who hover like a helicopter over their children whether it is needed or not).
Are helicopter parents becoming a thing of the past? I sure hope so. Last spring I received an email from a parent asking about their child’s grade on a test. The parent wanted to know what their child could do to improve their grade. Right now you may be thinking, “That is not so bad.” Well what if I told you that I teach at a major university? Yeah, now you are with me.
The trend has likely predated my professional career, but I
have been amazed in my work with both college students and younger children in
my private practice, at how much parents do for their children. For some reason, we parents have come to
think that our job is to make our children happy, all the time. Whatever happened to facing the
challenge? Do we even use the term “buck
up” anymore?
Yes, it is much easier to tie their shoelaces for them. Homework goes a lot smoother when you hold
the pencil. Your child will be more
content if they never hear the word “no”.
There are less tears when everyone gets the first place ribbon. Your house will be much cleaner if you just do
the chores in the first place.
But what you will also have is a grown up that does not know
how to deal with frustration, a college student that cannot troubleshoot a
really busy week, and a future employee that falls apart if they get critical
feedback from their boss.
I have never heard of a child dying from disappointment and rarely hear my adult friends complain that they had to problem-solve for themselves as children. Being a resilient adult includes facing challenges, dealing with disappointment and “bucking up”.
Sunday, October 02, 2011
And the Top 5 MedFriendly Blog Entries in September Were...
Below are the top 5 most popular blog entries for the month of September. This will be a monthly feature of the MedFriendly Blog and gives readers a chance to catch up on the most popular blog entries they may have missed. Overall, a good month for the MedFriendly Blog. As the blog becomes more popular, page views will increase. Please post a comment if you have blog entry suggestions. Here is the Top 5 list:
1. Amazing Images of Extreme Bodies and Body Parts: This is the clear winner with 76 page views. People love the visuals. I’ll try to put up more images next month.
2. Guest Blog Entry: Chakras 101: This was the first guest blog entry since the MedFriendly Blog relaunched. It came in a close second with 57 views. Will a follow-up to this entry be in the works? Stay tuned.
3. White blood cells promote cancer: Cancer will always be an interesting topic for readers. But hearing that white blood cells many play a role in the disease? Definitely of interest. Comes in at 43 views.
4. Abandoning Alzheimer’s Disease: My Response to Pat Robertson. This was my response to Pat Robertson’s advice that a husband of an Alzheimer’s patient should divorce her after putting her in custodial care. It was featured on the popular medical blogging site, KevinMD. Comes in at 42 page views.
5. What to do if You Can’t Afford Medications: A helpful primer for patients on this topic. Comes in at 41 page views.
Saturday, October 01, 2011
Is Asbestos in Your Children's Crayons?
Is asbestos is your children’s crayons? Can asbestos cause
cancer and other serious illnesses? How much asbestos was released into the air
on 9/11/01? What is asbestos anyway?
You’ve all heard of asbestos, know to stay away from it, but
do you really know what it is and why it so dangerous and deadly? Do you know
what to do if it is found in your home and who to contact for inspections and
possible removal?
Find out the answer to these questions and more on the brand new asbestos entry on MedFriendly.com. This entry was created after months of
research and represents the most detailed and comprehensive article on asbestos
on the internet today. The entry was created to commemorate the 10 year anniversary of MedFriendly – where medical information is easy to understand.
Friday, September 30, 2011
The 10 Year Anniversary of MedFriendly.com
October 2011 is the 10 year anniversary of MedFriendly.com. I’ll
be going out to celebrate with my family and reflect on how much hard work has
gone into this lifelong project of mine. I figured I would reflect a little here
on the past 10 years, how it all started, and where things go from here.
I remember the beginnings of the website idea like it was yesterday. I was driving with a friend in Ft.Lauderdale, Florida, where I was attending graduate school. The person I was driving with told me that his girlfriend had a website that she made about psychology.
“Really?” I asked, “How did she do that? She must know a lot
about computers.”
“Nope,” the person replied. “She just bought some books and taught
herself.”
Immediately, I thought to myself that it would be fun to
have a website about something. I had no idea how to make one, but if someone
else could pick up a book and figure out how to do this, I figured that I can
too. I won’t repeat how I decided to create a medical website where medical
information is easy to understand, because that is all described here.
Upon reflection, a few embarrassing admissions are in order.
First, I initially avoided computers when they first became popular. To
understand how much I avoided them, I was still using a Brother Word Processor
in 1998 to write reports in college. That year, I met my future wife and she
introduced me to programs such as Microsoft Word and AOL.com (the 3.0 version!).
Man, do I feel old writing this. Fortunately, I was a quick learner and within
a few years, she was coming to me for computer questions. Within three years,
in October 2001, I had taught myself HTML (hypertext markup language) which is
the code you write to make a website. MedFriendly.com was born.
Learning can sometimes be a painful process, especially when
technology is in its infancy. If you were ever to see what a MedFriendly
website page looked like when it first began compared to what it looks like
now, it is like the difference between night and day in terms of design and
functionality. Changing all of the pages to modify the format took an intense
amount of work since each page is uniquely customized. Back then, you were also
forced to work at a desk because there was no wireless internet. Nowadays, it
is so much easier to be able to have mobility and work on the website from
anywhere in the house.
Initially, there was never any intent to make money with
MedFriendly. It was a fun interested way for me to learn, share knowledge, and
teach others along the way. It still is. But over time, advertising
opportunities arose that would have been foolish not to take advantage of. I
experimented with various options. Initially, most pages on MedFriendly had
links to books to books on Barnes and Noble.com but sometimes the links would
change and instead of having a picture of a medical book on the page, I was
left with a big red X in it’s place. I also could not always find a book to
match the page content. In addition, not many people were buying the books and eventually,
it just was not worth the hassle. I tried a similar arrangement with Amazon.com
and with another company I cannot remember that sold medical supplies. For
similar reasons, these arrangements did not work out.
Then Goodle AdSense came out and revolutionized the online
advertising industry. Now, all I needed to do is place the same ad code on all
my pages, and Google targets advertisers to the specific content on my page. Quick,
easy, and profitable. That relationship has endured, has grown to this day, and
will continue to evolve.
Over the years, I’ve been fascinated to see which of the
thousands of entries on MedFriendly that people gravitate towards. For some
reason, no matter what medical condition I write about, the term feces has been
the #1 term on for over five years. I think this may because the entry is
somewhat humorous, but is mostly because it covers a topic that people have
healthcare questions about but may be embarrassed to talk to their doctor
about. Solution: search the internet. The second most popular type of entry is
anything that has to do with blood test results, which makes sense given that
people are curious about what their blood test results mean. And, people really
like detailed content. Long entries, with a lot of detail, are far more popular
than brief entries that provide definitions of descriptive medical terms.
In that vein, there will be a focus in the future on adding
more entries with detailed content. The goal is to continue to provide
information that laypeople and medical professionals find useful, is easy to
understand, covers interesting topics, and does so in a way that sets it apart
from any other website on the internet.
Tomorrow, to commemorate the 10 year anniversary of MedFriendly, I will unveil a major new detailed entry that has been months in the making on a topic that is medically, legally, and historically fascinating. Come back tomorrow to see what it is. Thanks to the readers and fans of MedFriendly for helping make it a popular healthcare website! Here’s to another 10 years!
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Waking Up with a Live Grenade in Your Face
This is an amazing story. Imagine selling some food on a
street corner, minding your own business. All of a sudden, you hear an
explosion. Stunned, you turn around to see what it was and an object hits you
in the face. You get knocked down. Your face is burning. You touch it. You
check your hands. Blood.
The next thing you know, you wake up in an ambulance. There is something in the right side of your face. You figure it’s a rock. The doctor examines you. It’s a live grenade fragment that was supposed to explode when it hit you but it did not. You need it removed. But there’s a problem. If people try to remove it and it explodes, everyone within a 32 mile radius will be blown to smithereens.
This sounds like something from a Hollywood
movie or the TV show, 24. But it is exactly what happened to 32-year-old, Karla
Flores, from Mexico.
Fortunately for her, a brave team of medical professionals saved her. They
moved her away from the other patients and medical volunteers were sought to
treat her. Four brave people volunteered: three doctors and a nurse. Two
explosives experts also consulted.
Only local anesthesia could be used to cut a hole into her
trachea (windpipe) to help her breathe during the surgery, as she could barely
breathe before the surgery or swallow her own bodily fluids. The military doctors guided the doctor and the
grenade fragment was removed. She is left with a massive facial scar and half
of her teeth missing, but at least she is alive. The medical staff should
receive some type of award and recognition for incredible bravery.
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
My Take on Michael Jackson's Death, Propofol, and His Doctor
What people need to understand about propofol is that this is not a pill you get from your pharmacist or buy off the street. This is a very powerful medication you get in a surgery room to render you unconscious. It is a white, milky liquid that looks like Milk of Magnesia. It is so mind altering that it is referred to by doctors as Milk of Amnesia. In fact, Jackson reportedly referred to it as his “milk.” I’ve been given this medication many times when I was younger for various surgical procedures. I remember watching the doctor push the medication in and telling myself that I would see how long I could mentally resist its effect. Within 10 seconds, I was out cold…every time.
Now, the trial needs to play out of course and people are
innocent until proven guilty, but there is no getting around the fact that
people simply should not be administering this medication outside of a surgical
setting, where anesthesiologists (not cardiologists) are on hand to closely monitor
the patient. Why? The drug is so powerful that it slows the heart rate down and
can make it impossible to breathe without use of a respirator. Keep in mind
that Michael Jackson was found in full cardiac arrest by paramedics.
On top of using propofol, Michael Jackson was also using
several other sedating medications (lorazepam, diazepam, and midazolam). You
are probably familiar with lorazepam and diazepam since they are usually
marketed under the name, Ativan and Valium, respectively. Both are typically
prescribed in pill form to treat acute anxiety but have other uses that cause
sedation (e.g., insomnia treatment). Midazolam is sometimes marketing as
Versed. It is a very powerful medication that is sometimes also used in
surgical centers for sedation. He also had lidocaine in his system, which is a
local anesthetic medication commonly used in dental offices. Lastly, he was
using ephedrine, which is a stimulant medication.
All of these medications were found in Michael Jackson’s
system when he died, with propofol and lorazepam in the greatest amounts. Just
taking one of these medications has a powerful effect on the body. Imagine the
effect of combining all of them. Also, Michael Jackson had a history of taking
many other powerful prescription medications, most of which were again sedating
and mind altering in other ways.
If you want to get a sense of exactly how Michael Jackson
sounded with these medications in his system, just listen to how he sounded on
Dr. Murray’s cell phone recording. You do not need to be a doctor to understand
that something was wrong here.
So, would anyone reading this then order forty more bottles of propofol for Michael Jackson? Well, that is what Dr. Murray is said to have done. He also used non-standard CPR by not doing this on a hard surface and not using both hands for compression. According to testimony today from a bodyguard who was present at the time of Jackson’s death, Dr. Murray asked if anyone knew CPR. How a cardiologist administering propofol does not know CPR has go to be one of the most ridiculous things I have ever heard.
Testimony today was also that Dr. Murray did not call 911 right away but called Jackson’s personal assistant instead, saying he had “a bad reaction.” That may be the understatement of the year. He also tried to get the assistant to remove the propofol from the room, according to testimony today. Thankfully, Dr. Murray’s license to practice medicine has already been suspended in California. However, Dr. Murray has more to worry about now than the judgment of a state licensing board.
So, would anyone reading this then order forty more bottles of propofol for Michael Jackson? Well, that is what Dr. Murray is said to have done. He also used non-standard CPR by not doing this on a hard surface and not using both hands for compression. According to testimony today from a bodyguard who was present at the time of Jackson’s death, Dr. Murray asked if anyone knew CPR. How a cardiologist administering propofol does not know CPR has go to be one of the most ridiculous things I have ever heard.
Testimony today was also that Dr. Murray did not call 911 right away but called Jackson’s personal assistant instead, saying he had “a bad reaction.” That may be the understatement of the year. He also tried to get the assistant to remove the propofol from the room, according to testimony today. Thankfully, Dr. Murray’s license to practice medicine has already been suspended in California. However, Dr. Murray has more to worry about now than the judgment of a state licensing board.
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Waking Up Alive in a Morgue
Well, now it has happened again…this time to a woman in her 60s in Brazil, who was pronounced dead from pneumonia after suffering two strokes. In this case, the woman’s daughter came to see her mother in the morgue and gave her one final hug. When doing so, she realized her mother was still breathing. The hospital was notified but this was after the poor woman had spent two hours in a plastic bag. The patient was immediately put back on life support. The nurse who first checked her vital signs was fired.
It is reassuring that this has not happened in the United States yet but it may just be a matter of time. My concern is that there may be too casual of an attitude towards death and that the evaluations of these patients were not done as carefully as they should be. In many cases, where people have advanced directives to keep them alive at any circumstances, there would usually be an objective way to test to see if the person was truly dead – an absence of electrical activity of the heart as measured by an electrocardiogram.
However, some people have advanced directives that they should not be resuscitated and so they may not be hooked up to such electrical tests. This often happens in nursing homes, for example. In such cases, a nurse usually checks the pulse and respiration (breathing). This should be double checked by another nurse. In hospitals, a doctor usually does this. It is very hard to imagine, if the nurse or doctor took their time doing this assessment, how a person can be declared dead when they are alive because they would be breathing and have a pulse, even if both were decreased. These issues need to be taken more seriously because what happened in these two cases should never happen anywhere.
Monday, September 26, 2011
Medical Blogging and Patient Privacy
But recently, things have changed. For example, I am aware of specific recent policy implemented by some health care organizations that any employee who has a social media account (e.g., Facebook, Twitter) or a blog cannot post information related to a specific patient case even if the patient is the only person who may be able to identify him/herself based on the information posted. One way around this is getting consent from the patient, but sometimes you may not think to write about a specific situation months of years later after reflecting on it.
In those cases, retrospectively obtaining consent is unrealistic and can seem unprofessional to the atient. For example, imagine making this kind of phone call:
“Hi, Mr. Jones, this is Dr. Smith. I saw you at General Hospital a few years ago. Yes, yes, I’m doing good. How about you? Good. So anyway, I was wondering if you could give me permission to write about your case on a blog I run.”
One of the medical blogs I like to follow is KevinMD. One of the main features is that it shows a collection of the top medical and healthcare blog postings from the internet each day. I was perusing some of these entries last night and I was interested to see that there are still many doctors posting about specific patient cases. These are good posts. Excellent posts. Posts to learn from.
But I fear we are increasingly going to reach a point where these types of posts decline in frequency, either for fear of litigation for arguably violating patient privacy (even if the patient is the only person who can identify him/herself) or for fear of termination by an employer. Personally, I’ve decided to take the safe route and not report on any specific patient cases from my current place of employment. But I am curious what other medical and healthcare bloggers think about this and how they are handling (or plan to handle) this potential limitation in blog posting at present or in the near future.
When considering these recent restrictions, I think back with a smile to the days where you could open an old medical text and see pictures documenting specific medical conditions in patients, full face and all.
Saturday, September 24, 2011
How I defeated low back pain
I could literally not lift my left foot up to move it into the car or to put on my socks. Sometimes, I was stuck on the ground and could not get up. It was terrible and demoralizing.
I tried all of the common remedies: back bend stretching exercises, pain medication, yoga exercises, lumbar rolls, use of a back brace, etc. Some of these remedies had worked in the past, but this time, they only provided very mild relief or none at all. I knew that the cause was most likely my posture. Being 6 foot 6 and 250 pounds and having a job that requires constant sitting, there is constant pressure exerted upon my back all day. Although that was a problem, the bigger issue was that I had a leather sofa that I would sink into at night and sometimes fall asleep in. This was throwing my back out of alignment eventually causing the disc to slip out and press upon the nerve.
The only place I could find at home that gave me any type of
relief was sitting in a reclining chair and leaning backwards. It was terrific
because it allowed me to sit while taking the pressure completely off my lower
back. I could even fall asleep in it without aggravating my back. I immediately
realized that I had to move this chair into my living room and use this as my
new seat at night. For a few days, it was also my new bed. No more sinking into
leather couches.
By making this change, it helped put my back into alignment.
I also bought a new Shiatsu massager for my work chair and I was able to check out both orthotics and braces from an As Seen On TV store. The massager is helpful when a
flare up occurs but I have not needed to use it since using the recliner chair.
Nevertheless, I still keep the massager over the chair because the knobs press
into the lower part of my back and force me into an upright position during the
day. Another thing I did to help was to get up out of my chair and take a walk
around the hall several times a day, making sure I was standing as straight as
I could.
The point is that posture plays a huge role in low back pain
and you can get into bad habits that cause this problem. One way to relieve and
rid yourself of the pain is making major changes to your posture by getting rid
of bad habits. Now, I can play basketball again with my kids, paint for a few
days without back pain, and sleep in my regular bed without pain.
The interesting thing is that no one I had ever spoken to, including a physician, had ever mentioned trying to relieve back pain by using a recliner chair. It was such a simple solution but one that I discovered myself and wanted to share with you. Please pass it on to anyone you know with low back pain.
The interesting thing is that no one I had ever spoken to, including a physician, had ever mentioned trying to relieve back pain by using a recliner chair. It was such a simple solution but one that I discovered myself and wanted to share with you. Please pass it on to anyone you know with low back pain.
Friday, September 23, 2011
Spontaneous human combustion
I remember watching a TV show about this a few years ago and the best explanation was the wick effect. That is, a source of flame (such as a burning cigarette), burns the clothing of the victim in one area, splitting the skin and releasing fat from under the skin. The fat is then absorbed into the burned clothing, and acts like a candle wick. The burning can continue for as long as the fuel is available. This hypothesis was successfully demonstrated on the show with a pig. With that being said, some debate whether this process can occur in humans and cases continue to pop up now and then.
If you have not heard of a specific case, below is a report of a case of spontaneous human combustion reported several days ago by Nick Collins at The Telgraph.
Man 'spontaneously combusts'
Spontaneous human combustion has long been the stuff of fiction, endorsed by eccentric scientists and employed by novelists including Charles Dickens as a convenient plot twist.
But yesterday the most unlikely cause of death, in which people burst into flames without any external source of ignition, was given official sanction when Irish coroner found a pensioner had burned to death for no apparent reason.
Michael Flaherty, 76, was found dead at his home in Galway last December after a neighbour heard the smoke alarm in his house go off in the middle of the night.
But while his body had been burned to cinders, fire officers who attended the scene were astonished to find nothing else had been damaged apart from the floor below him and a patch of ceiling above.
There were no signs of any devices which could have ignited the body, and no indication of foul play, officials said – Mr Flaherty's body appeared to have simply cremated itself.
Officers who attended the scene claimed they had never seen anything like the extraordinary case, and the inquest heard fire officers were unable to give any explanation for what sparked the blaze.
Recording his verdict, west Galway coroner Dr Kieran McLoughlin was left with little option but to become the first coroner in the country's history to record the unusual verdict.
He said: "This fire was thoroughly investigated and I'm left with the conclusion that this fits into the category of spontaneous human combustion, for which there is no adequate explanation."
Spontaneous human combustion was a phenomenon first described by Victorian doctors, who suggested the body could suddenly go up in flames as a divine punishment for alcoholism.
Other explanations for the unexplained combustion of the body include the influence of ghosts or other paranormal entities, the production of unusual concentrations of gas, or external factors like cigarette sparks.
In the 1850s Charles Dickens, the novelist, attracted controversy after Krook, a rag and bottle merchant, spontaneously combusted in Bleak House.
The mystique of the theory is heightened by the striking similarities between documented cases. In many instances the body is found reduced to ash while the arms, hands and legs remain, and in several others the victim is completely consumed while nearby objects such as furniture remain untouched.
In one example, a Welsh policeman who found the victim's body noted that the fire appeared to have come from within her abdomen.
The latest case bore many of the hallmarks of the classic case – the victim was found on his back by the fireplace, with his head intact but the rest of his body entirely consumed.
Fire experts said the evidence suggested the fire had not been the source of ignition.
Bob Rickard, of the paranormal magazine the Fortean Times, told the Telegraph: "It has become rare now, I have not heard of a case for a couple of decades. But what is even more interesting to me in this case is it is the first time I can remember that a coroner has come out and announced a verdict of spontaneous human combustion.
"Normally they try to leave an open verdict or try to express it in some other way."
Mr Flaherty's family said they were satisfied with the investigation, the Irish Independent reported.
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Top 10 Ways to Tell if You Need To See a New Doctor
As a patient care provider and someone who is occasionally a
patient myself, I am going provide some suggestions on ways to know when it is
time to consider seeking a second opinion or time to seek a new health care
provider. This top 10 list is taken from personal experience.
- The number one reason to seek a new healthcare provider is when the treatment you are receiving is not working. This may seem obvious but sometimes, people continue to remain with the first treatment provider they come into contact with because they “feel bad” that the provider may be offended and sometimes just fall into a pattern where they are going for “treatment” without realizing that their symptoms have remained the same or worse for years. The patient needs to care about him/herself first. With modern healthcare being as busy as it is today, the provider will likely be too busy to get upset about some patient attrition now and then.
- The healthcare provider is more concerned about discussing himself that talking about you. I will never forget going to see an ear, nose, and throat (ENT) doctor once who literally would not stop talking about himself and his own accomplishments for the first 10-minutes of our interaction. It is a bad sign that the provider will not be sufficiently focused on the patient to provide proper evaluation and management.
- The healthcare provider does not want to order tests that can aide in better diagnostic decision making (such as magnetic resonance imaging) because they “don’t want to fill out all of the forms.” This is different from not wanting to order tests that would not be helpful. If a surgeon did not want to fill out forms to order a test that can clarify the diagnosis, for example, would you feel confident that this person would take the time to take put the sutures in properly, or would they possibly, leave a scalpel inside of you? I would not want to take the chance.
- You are rarely being seen by the doctor but are almost constantly being seen by a physicians assistant or nurse. Not that there is anything wrong with physicians assistants or nurses because they do play a very important role in health care, but if you are seeking the care of a specific healthcare provider and are rarely ever getting to see that individual (and you are not getting the care you believe you need as a result) this is a good sign that it may be time to make a switch.
- The provider becomes defensive and angry when asked polite but challenging questions. No health care provider is always correct with diagnostic decision making or managing treatment. Patients should feel like they can have an open and honest discussion with the provider which includes asking questions about possible alternative diagnoses, treatments, or inquiring about information gathered from popular news sources. Provided that the questions are asked politely and without the intention of being antagonistic, there is no need for the provider to become upset. There is no need for a patient to feel scared to ask questions of their physician, nurse, psychologist, etc.
- Feeling rushed. Healthcare is best when the provider is able to take the time to listen and understand the patient’s problems. When the provider gives off signals (e.g., frequently checking the clock or a watch, sighing when questions are asked, walking towards the door, cutting off questions) that he/she cannot spend much time with you, it may be time to consider seeking the care of someone who can.
- When the provider makes decisions that turn out to be harmful. An example of this would be going to a pediatrician for a child with respiratory problems and constantly being told it is probably due to allergies despite the fact that the child has no known allergies and has not improved with allergy medications or a nebulizer. Due to the delay in taking the parental report seriously that the problem is likely more than allergies, the child develops pneumonia and is hospitalized. Situations like these are reasons switch providers. While no health care provider is free from making mistakes, this does not mean you have to stay under that provider’s care.
- The provider has decided upon your course of care before evaluating you. This one sounds hard to believe but it happens sometimes. I had a situation once when I went to a doctor, he saw my chief complaint, and filled out two medical scripts before talking to me or evaluating me. Medication and other treatments should be based on a discussion with the patient and an evaluation.
- The provider is not really listening to you. If you go to see a health care provider and he/she is too busy doing other things while you are trying to explain what is wrong with you, it is a bad sign that the provider is not paying sufficient attention to detail to provide optimal care. Examples include writing out another patient’s medical notes or prescriptions, typing text messages, or sending emails when the patient is trying to explain the reason they are there. While some people are good at multi-tasking, attention to detail decreases and errors increase when multi-tasking occurs. The provider should be focused on you, and only you, when you are in the evaluation room together.
- Lastly, research your healthcare provider on your state’s online licensing board’s website. You would be surprised how many are still practicing despite being the focus of serious investigations, reprimands, and recipients of prior disciplinary charges for actions that violated standards of the licensing board (e.g., improper note keeping, fraudulent billing, poor medical care). An internet search on popular search engines can also be helpful as some physicians move to another state if a license to practice has been removed from a prior state of residence. Online searches can also reveal prior criminal acts or charges. It is important to be careful with on-line searches, however, because you need to be sure that the person you are reading about is the same person as your health care provider and not someone else with the same name. In addition, be wary about information from health rating websites that are purely written by former patients, because they can be biased towards negative reviews which may not accurately reflect the qualities and attributes of the person you are seeing.
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Attack of the killer cantaloupes
How can this happen, you ask? Many assume that fruits and vegetables are always safe because we are taught to eat them in plentiful amounts and favor them over processed foods. While that general recommendation still holds true, people need to be aware that there will always be a small risk when eating fruits and vegetables just as there are when eating meat. With meat, however, if you cook it enough, you will generally kill the harmful bacteria. With fruits and vegetables, however, it is sometimes impossible to reduce the risk of contamination ahead of time because it is usually eaten raw.
It is important to understand that there are harmful bacteria that live in the soil and one such type of bacteria is Listeria monocytogenes. It lives in the soil because it loves to eat dead plant matter. When the bacteria enter a fruit such as cantaloupe, they can be passed on to someone who consumes the fruit. Once in the body, the bacteria changes, can enter cells, and can even enter the blood if the immune system does not control it. That, in turn, leads to sickness. If it enters the brain, it can lead to death.
Newborns, the elderly, and people with weak immune systems are most likely to contract listeriosis, in addition to pregnant women. If pregnant women become ill, the fetus can also become ill and die. The most common symptoms of listeriosis are fever and muscle aches and vomiting.
Cantaloupe and bacteria are both "all natural." The take home message is that "all natural" does not always mean good for you and safe.To read more, see here.
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Video Gamers Solve HIV Protein Puzzle
These days, video games have advanced significantly to include huge online communities, live simultaneous international competition, rewards and prestige for earning achievements, and often require excellent visual-spatial skills and highly complex strategic decision making. The people who play these games and do well and them are highly skilled and many are very intelligent. My brother, an engineer who graduated from Lehigh and Georgia Tech, is a perfect example.
Researchers at the University of Washington
figured they may be able to use the skills of video gamers to help them solve a
problem they had been unable to figure out for over a decade. Specifically, the
researchers were trying to determine the structure of a protein (known as
protease) that forms retroviruses. This protein plays in important role in causing
certain viruses to multiply, including HIV. The structure was difficult for the
researchers and computers to decipher because the amino acids that make up the
protein fold into very complex shapes.
In order to create a drug to deactivates the protein (which
would then stop the virus from multiplying), the researchers needed to know its
exact structure. Why? Think of a lock
and key analogy. Just like a lock will only open for a specific key based on
the structure of both components, parts of the protein have structures that will
only react to a medication made of molecules with a corresponding matching
shape.
So the researchers at University of Washington
made a video game named “Foldit” to see if they could get people to build
models of the protein. The game was competitive and required the use of
three-dimensional problem solving skills.
Result…In just three weeks, video gamers deciphered the structure of the protein. The discovery is expected to result in the development of new anti-retroviral drugs, which includes anti-HIV drugs.
Result…In just three weeks, video gamers deciphered the structure of the protein. The discovery is expected to result in the development of new anti-retroviral drugs, which includes anti-HIV drugs.
Conclusions:
- Human intuition can be superior to automated computer methods.
- Some video gamers are geniuses.
- Video game players provided a positive contribution to science.
- Video gamers may have just opened the door to giving many sick people an “extra guy.”
Click here for reference
Monday, September 19, 2011
Amazing Images of EXTREME Bodies and Body Parts
Unfortunately, the short little thick Guinness books are gone and they have been replaced by the larger books that just don't seem to hold the same charm to me. But today, I found some newly announced 2012 world records from Guinness and wanted to share them with you.
First, here is the lady (Channell Tapper) with the longest tongue (3.8 inches) in the world. For the longest tongue in the world (a man) see here. This will give Gene Simmons a run for his money:
Second, here is what is described as the world's fattest woman (Pauline Potter), although I am told that the politically correct term nowadays is "persons of size." Either way, she's 643 pounds:
Third, here is Jesus Aceves, who is the closest possible match to a human werewolf. He has a rare condition called congenital generalized hypertrichosis (excessive facial and torso hair).
Fourth, here is the world's shortest man (Junrey Balawing, age 18), from the Philippines, coming in at 24 and 1/4 inches tall:
Fifth, here is Christine Walton, the woman with the world's longest fingernails, coming in at 10 feet, 2 inches on the left hand and 9 feet, 7 inches on the right hand:
Hope you enjoyed these pictures as much as I did. Feel free to pass this blog entry on to others who may like them too. Also, be sure to click here for more extreme body parts and even more and more extreme body parts.
Sunday, September 18, 2011
Guest Blog Entry: Chakras 101
The Skinny on Chakras
If you have ever taken a yoga class, learned to meditate or simply wondered the meaning behind the band Third Eye Blind's name, chances are you have heard of chakras. Knowledge of the Chakra system comes from the ancient Indian practice of Tantra Yoga. The word Chakra comes from the Sanskrit word “Cakra” which means “a wheel or a disk of energy”. This energy or Prana is the vital life force essential to the function of the physical body. Balance of this pranic energy through each of the chakras is associated with optimum state of health both physically and emotionally. Just as a closed or misaligned chakra can deprive its corresponding organs of vital energy, a wide and misaligned chakra can overload its corresponding organs with too much energy. There are seven main chakras: The lower: root, sacral, solar plexus and heart. The upper: throat, third eye and crown.
The Lower Chakras
The first chakra is the root chakra. It is located at the base of the spine and the pubic bone. This chakra encompasses the genitals, reproductive organs, the adrenal glands, the kidneys and the spinal column. The color associated with this chakra is red. The second chakra is the sacral chakra. It is located in the sacrum, just behind the navel. Organs associated with this chakra are: the spleen, bladder and the kidneys. The color of this chakra is orange. The third chakra is the solar plexus chakra. It is located in the solar plexus area of the abdomen cradled by the ribs. Organs associated with this chakra are: the pancreas, the stomach, the liver, the adrenal glands and the kidneys. The color of this chakra is yellow. The fourth chakra is the heart chakra. It is situated midway between the shoulder blades over the sternum. Organs fed by this chakra are the heart, the thymus glad, the blood and circulatory system, and the immune and endocrine systems. The color of the heart chakra is green.
The Upper Chakras
The fifth Chakra is the throat chakra. Located in the throat, it feeds the thyroid and parathyroid gland, the lungs, the vocal cords, and bronchial apparatus. The color of this chakra is blue. The sixth chakra or the third eye, is located in the center of the head behind the forehead. This chakra feeds the pineal and the pituitary or master gland. The color of this chakra is indigo.
The seventh chakra is the crown chakra and it is situated on the top of the head. This chakra also feeds the pineal and pituitary glands. The color of this chakra is white.
Chakra Tune-up and Balancing
So now that we have discussed what the main chakras are and the organs they feed it is important to understand that chakras need to be balanced in order to for the physical body to perform optimally. It is considered preventative medicine in the world of alternative therapy and holistic medicine. There are many ways to balance one's chakras such as with the use of aromatherapy, crystals, music, chanting and meditating. The use of a pendulum is preferred by the author along with her own home made organic incense herbal blend.
Mediation vs.
Medication
If you thought meditating is for monks... better think
again! Here are a few benefits of meditation:
Meditation has been shown to decrease blood pressure.
Meditation has a positive chronotropic effect much like
Digoxin (it increases cardiac output and slows the heart rate).
Meditation has been shown to lower oxygen consumption and
respiratory rate, leading to increased exercise tolerance especially in heart
patients.
Meditation has been shown to enhance the immune system by
increasing the activity of natural killer cells and by reducing the activity of
viruses.
Meditation has been shown to enhance post operative healing
by reducing inflammation.
Meditation has been shown to reduce allergies, arthritis,
irritable bowel syndrome and other inflammatory conditions.
Meditation has been shown to decrease muscle tension and
tension headaches.
Meditation has been shown to improve the quality of sleep as
well as increase the amount of REM cycles by inducing deeper levels of
relaxation.
Meditation has been shown to reduce anxiety by lowering
lactate levels in the blood.
Meditation has been shown to increase Serotonin production
thus improving depression and other mood disorders, as well as by reducing
obesity.
Meditation has been shown to reduce PMS.
1.
Create a sacred space: Find a
quiet spot, lite a white candle. Play soft instrumental music or mediating
CD’s. Initially set a timer for 10 minutes.
2.
Quiet the committee: Concentrate
on breathing, If you find your mind wandering, bring it back to the breath. You
can even recite a mantra or short phrase such as SO/HUM. This is done when you
breathe in you visualize the word. So in your mind and when you exhale you
visualize the word HUM.
3.
Be Persistent: Meditate for 10
minutes everyday. It will become easier and you will learn to look forward to
it.
I don't know about you, but I rather stock my medicine
cabinet with scented candles, incense, Indian chants and lavender oils rather
than the alternative!
Namaste!
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