Saturday, December 31, 2011

Happy New Year

Out with the old
In with the new

Sincerest Wishes for a Saner Tomorrow.

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Correlation Games

Childhood Hypersensitivity Linked to OCD
Results from both studies indicated a strong connection between compulsive tendencies and hypersensitivity. In children, hypersensitivity was an indicator of ritualism, whereas in adults it was related to OCD symptoms. As a whole, these findings provide preliminary support for the idea that such sensitivities are a precursor to OCD symptoms. When children are extremely sensitive to certain types of touch or smell, they can feel that they are being attacked, or that the environment is threatening them, Prof. Dar believes. Ritualism could develop as a defence mechanism, helping these children to regain a sense of control, which is also a symptom of adults with OCD.
My turn-
Those kids have a strep infection in their skin.
And you let it fester until it drives them insane.

As I was saying

Therapists revolt against psychiatry’s bible
Mental health professionals say new diagnoses will lead to overmedication
For many critics, Exhibit A is childhood ADD. As the disorder describing fidgety, easily distracted kids morphed from “hyperkinetic reaction of childhood” to the current “attention deficit hyperactivity disorder,” the number of children given the diagnosis exploded, fueling, by one account, a 700 percent increase in the use of Ritalin and other stimulants in the 1990s. Diagnosis requires checking six of nine boxes from a list of symptoms that include “often does not seem to listen when spoken to directly” and “often fidgets with hands or feet or squirms in seat.” Sound familiar, parents?
Two other newly proposed disorders singled out as problematic in the petition are “mild neurocognitive disorder” in the elderly and “disruptive mood dysregulation disorder” in children and adolescents. Both lack a solid basis in research and may fuel the use of powerful antipsychotic medications, which cause weight gain, diabetes and a host of other metabolic problems, the petition says.

See what happens when the drug companies write the manuals?

The Fruit Loop Protocol

Take Sick person.
Add Sugar. Make them sicker.
Add Drugs to counteract the sugar symptoms.
Add More Drugs to address the side effects of the first drug.
Ad infinitum.
When the patient stops complaining, nobody will remember what the original problem was.
Especially the patient.

Problem solved.

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Yo Dentists

Stop blaming genetics. Stop blaming us. Stop listening to the American Heart Association. Start doing your jobs.
We assumed you already were...

If Your Teeth Could Talk -
The Mouth Offers Clues to Disorders and Disease

Monday, December 26, 2011

A day late

Fun anyway...
Zombie Christmas

Pop Quiz

You ladies can see through this crap now, right?
Study: Bad maternal relationships more common in obese kids
The study found that 26.1 percent of children who reported troubled relationships with their mothers were also obese at age 15, a rate double that of children who reported close relationships to their mothers.

Sunday, December 25, 2011

Go Figure

Patients eager to see doctor's notes; physicians, not so much

Yeah, a little transparency and accountability will change the whole game won't it?

Saturday, December 24, 2011

This is why

Because they prescribe inappropriate drugs and tell us to stop whining.
And if we don't, they prescribe more drugs until we can't do anything.

They make us sicker.
And call it treatment.
Just because we no longer complain.

Potent Drugs and Few Rules
Tens of thousands of powerful pills created to treat serious mental illnesses like schizophrenia are given to developmentally disabled people in the care of New York State every day. But a review by The Times of previously unreleased records, as well as interviews with state employees, clinicians, family members and outside experts, reveals that the psychotropic medications, which alter the brain’s chemistry, are often dispensed sloppily, without rigorous or regular review, by general practitioners with little expertise in the area. And low-level workers at state group homes are frequently given discretion to increase the medication “as needed,” despite their lack of significant training.
Psychologists who have worked inside the system describe a culture in which the drugs are used to control the disruptive behavior of the developmentally disabled — people with conditions like autism, Down syndrome and cerebral palsy — an approach increasingly discredited in the field.

I think I'm going to start calling this the Fruit Loop Protocol.

The Moral of the Story


Misfit Toys need better Dental Care.

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Happy Solstice Everyone!

Greetings People of the Night.
Brighter days are coming.
Light the lights.
Sing and Dance in the Darkness with me...

Monday, December 19, 2011

THEY KNOW THIS, WHY DON'T YOU?

Antiviral Agents in Alzheimer's Disease: Hope for the Future?

It's all there. Eight pages of research.
Herpes 1 is the cause of Alzheimer's Disease. There's no other explanation that makes sense.
Register for free. Read the whole thing.

Is HSV1 Present in Elderly Human Brains? (yes)
Does a Genetic Factor Act with HSV1 to Confer a Strong Risk of AD? (yes)
Does APOE Affect HSV1 Expression and Load in Brain? (yes)
Is There an HSV1 Connection with Senile Plaques and/or β-amyloid? (yes)
Is There an HSV1 Connection with Abnormally Phosphorylated Tau? (yes)
Are There HSV1 Connections with AD-relevant Genes? (yes)
Is Latent HSV1 in Brain Activated by Peripheral Infection? (yes)
Is antiviral Treatment effective for AD? (looks that way...)

The Root of the Problem

Very long, detailed, and excellent article on how and why "Health Care Providers" are no longer actually concerned with people's health.

Medicare Whac-A-Mole
In the wake of the two payment reforms, hospitals began to manipulate the system through “upcoding”—systematically shifting patients into higher-paying DRGs (diagnosis-related groups). Research by economists at Dartmouth University suggests that during the early 1990s, hospital administrators figured out ways to substantially increase the number of Medicare cases they billed to higher-paying DRGs. Payment games continue today. In October the Senate Finance Committee released a report accusing several large home health care companies of abusing Medicare’s payment rules by pushing employees to perform extra therapy visits, thereby qualifying for Medicare bonus payments, even when those visits weren’t strictly necessary. But for many health care providers, that’s the business. Hospital administrators “are people whose job it is to game the system,” Kling says. “They know every little detail of the rules.”
Playing by the rules, and getting the most out of them, becomes the focus. Over time, the rules cease to guide the game and instead become the purpose of the game. Activities that are coded and paid for become the activities that providers do the most. The system encourages covered procedures, such as surgeries and child delivery, while discouraging doctors from spending time in nonpaid activities such as emailing patients or monitoring health data collected electronically at home by the patient. The provision of care bends to fit the shape, however quirky, of the payment rules.

Saturday, December 17, 2011

The Circle of Insanity

Don't Drink and Drive.

Anchorage police say a city van used to pick up drunken people was taken on a joyride by a man suspected of drunken driving.
The Anchorage Daily News reports that 35-year-old Donny H. Weston was arrested late Thursday after police say he got into a Community Service Patrol van parked with the keys in the engine. Police say social workers were attending inebriated people when Weston got into the van. Police say Weston drove the van for significant distance, including driving against traffic, and he eventually crashed the van into a bus and ditched it. The van is part of a city program that picks up inebriated people and shuttles them to sleeping center.
Police say the inebriated men in the back of the van didn't notice the joyride.

Friday, December 16, 2011

Olympic Level Compulsion

Banker blows £70,000 on 'big night out'
A banker has defied the economic gloom by spending more than £70,000 in one night at a London nightclub. The City worker, who has not been named, is said to have bought a £1,860 bottle of vodka for all 24 tables at Rose in Marylebone.
I don't know why that reminds me of this...

Criminal Robs Same Bank 3 Days in a Row
The last three days for Charles Burnett could be considered a cross between Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and Groundhog Day. The 6-foot-1, 275-pound Charles robbed the Sovereign bank in New York, of $2,200. He used his new loot to book himself a fancy suite at the Grand Hyatt near Grand Central. That was Monday.
On Tuesday, he ventured back to the Sovereign bank, much to amazement of the tellers, and robbed them again, this time leaving with $14,000. He decided that for his third repeat performance the following day, he would hire a personal chauffer. So, on Wednesday Burnett hired a luxury SUV and had the driver take him shopping where he purchased a Yankees batting glove and New York Giants hat. The driver had up to this point assumed that his client was some sort of rich baseball player, however Burnett then had the driver drop him off at the Sovereign bank, for his third consecutive robbery, where he was promptly tackled by police while trying to steal $10,000.It was then discovered that Charles had recently been released from a mental hospital...

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

What the Apocalypse looks like

in my dreams...

Bitter Butter Battle
High demand for butter used in traditional Norwegian Christmas dishes has caused a big shortage, leading the government to slash import duties on the cherished product.
Butter consumption has steadily increased in the Scandinavian country this year, partly because of the nation's increased popularity of low-carb but fat-rich diets. Growth in demand peaked at more than 30 percent last month, compared with November 2010.
That has caused empty shelves nationwide.

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

It looks like medicine, but it's not

FDA accuses 1-800-GET-THIN of using misleading Lap-Band ads
The Food and Drug Administration has accused the 1-800-GET-THIN marketing company of using misleading advertising in its promotion of Lap-Band weight-loss surgery, saying the billboard, radio and television ads underplay serious risks to patients.
The billboards, plastered across Southern California freeways, display the smiling faces of thin people and catchy phrases about the benefits of Lap-Band surgery. There are warnings about the risks, but the typeface is so small it's not legible, the FDA said. On the radio, the company uses a catchy jingle, and recently included the endorsement of celebrity doctor Drew Pinsky.
Five Southern California Lap-Band patients have died since 2009 after surgeries at centers affiliated with the advertising campaign, according to lawsuits, autopsy reports and other public records.

This is how desperate we are to lose weight.
And yet people still believe we choose to be fat.

This is Why

Because narcoleptics are prescribed just about as many drugs as doctors can think of.
They start with amphetamines and just pile on for every other symptom.
Most narcoleptics are on multiple psychoactive medications.
Someone sent me this list-
  • Panic attacks, depression, blood pressure, arthritis, acid reflux, bloating, headaches, dizziness, cholesterol, sleep apnea.
And that doesn't even include the sleep meds- uppers and downers.
Good grief, she's lucky she doesn't have restless leg or fibromyalgia too...

Holy Toledo

Somebody is talking about Orexin!!

Why Sugar Makes Us Sleepy (And Protein Wakes Us Up)

Monday, December 12, 2011

Less is More

Drug Scarcity’s Dire Cost
More than 251 drugs have been in short supply this year, including about 20 chemotherapy agents, according to the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, which has been tracking the problem.
The vast majority are generic injectable medications widely used in hospitals, including drugs used to relieve pain, fight cancer or infections, anesthetize surgical patients, treat cardiovascular disease and manage psychiatric conditions. Critical intravenous nutritional supplements and oral drugs for controlling diabetes, high blood pressure and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder are difficult to find, said Cynthia Reilly, the director of practice development at the pharmacists’ organization.
...
The scarcity drives up health care costs as hospitals turn to more expensive substitutes and must spend time and money teaching staff how to use unfamiliar drugs. The risk of medical errors and complications also increases, experts say; many procedures have been delayed or canceled.

Nobody could have predicted.

Zombies in the Mall

A very nice old man asked me to help him find his way back to his assisted living home today.
We had a lovely chat about memory loss along the way.
And when I got home I realized I had totally forgotten my dentist appointment.

Saturday, December 10, 2011

Well how about that

Carb Counting May Abate Breast Cancer Risk Factors
Limiting carbohydrate intake just two days a week can mitigate some risk factors for breast cancer by burning body fat and improving insulin sensitivity, researchers said here.
Over three months, eating fewer carbohydrates alone, or combining that reduction with severe caloric restriction two days per week, was associated with significant changes in body fat and insulin resistance, Michelle Harvie, PhD, of Genesis Prevention Center at University Hospital in South Manchester, U.K., reported during a poster session at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.
I find this part interesting-
In an earlier study, Harvie and colleagues demonstrated that two days per week of calorie restriction was comparable to daily calorie restriction in terms of weight loss, but it wasn't any easier for patients to follow because the choice of food was limited to fruit and vegetables on restricted days.
Eating only carbs gives you food cravings. It's a horrible diet.

Surviving the Apocalypse

Here, I found some medical ID jewelry I kinda like-
They're dog tags with USB drives. These could probably go on a key ring too.

Medical Alert USB Flash Drive Pendant Steel
Medical Alert USB Flash Drive Pendant Black
Medical Alert USB Flash Drive Dog Tag

I hate bracelets. But they have a bunch of them with flash drives.
Would rather have a ring. Somebody should be able to make something tiny enough by now.

search for "medical ID USB"

Friday, December 9, 2011

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

I've been waiting...

I was beginning to think he had a really good dentist or something.

Alec Baldwin asked to leave flight for playing game.

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Self-Selected Behavior

Behold the awesome power of food technology:
A sandwich which stays fresh for up to two years has been developed by the US army.

Saturday, December 3, 2011

Passive Aggressive Public Service Announcement #1

Just wanted to mention:
Acyclovir and Valacyclovir are dispensed over-the-counter in pharmacies in Mexico.

Friday, December 2, 2011

Alzheimer's Disease is caused by Herpes Virus

There I said it. Prove me wrong.
I'll gladly play that correlation game.

All the research points at the same conclusion-


And the research also shows that it is probably easily treatable and possibly reversible.

What I want to know is why the herpes and dementia researchers aren't running through the streets screaming this at the top of their lungs?
Why aren't the news shows trumpeting this information? There's way more evidence for this than most of the health information they broadcast.
Why is there NO information about this on the Alzheimer's Association website?

Somebody could put out a tweet and in one day get a thousand volunteers to take acyclovir for a while.

What the hell is wrong with the world???

5-24-2014-  updated research here...

Old song of the day

Paul Simon - The Boy In The Bubble

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Further adventures with Fruit Loops

I talked to my sister yesterday. She worked with the "medically fragile" students this week. The ones who can't walk or take care of themselves.
Her duties involved taking Fruit loops and chocolate milk and putting them in a blender and feeding it to palsied children through a straw.

She said she wanted to scream the entire time and kept wondering if it was real or some disturbed version of a practical joke. She kept hoping that someone would come out and say "HA! Nobody would ever do such a thing- You've been Punked!