June 2009

 Premarin (pre-pregnant, mare – horse) is a mixture of “natural” estrogens used to treat menopausal symptoms, dysfunctional uterine bleeding, and certain cancers.  Did you know that Premarin comes from the urine of pregnant mares (female horse)?  Did you know that there are such things as “Pee Farms” where they lock up these pregnant horses practically starving them, giving them no where to move and only allowing them water a few times a day, making sure that their urine remains strong?  If you knew all of this, would you stop taking Premarin?  I am curious as to why PETA is not all over this.

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As an activist, you may have done a lot of things that could have been detrimental to your health. You may have cleaned a highway, during which you could have been hit by a car—or you may have cleaned a river, during which you could have drowned. You may have attended a potentially dangerous protest, or even been arrested for civil disobedience and thrown in jail with some people who are probably a lot less nicer than you are—and did not hesitate to let you know. But have you taken the ultimate act in saving a life—have you given blood?

I know, it’s scary, it’s faint-inducing sometimes, and it’s even a little creepy (with or without the Twilight hysteria going on). But it really is one of the biggest ways you can make a difference in someone’s life. And besides, what if you had gotten hurt during one of your heartfelt but hair-brained activist stunts? You may have needed blood!

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A big thing that pregnant women are told to stay away from and warned about is the cat's litter box. Isn't the sound of that great!? Doctor's orders to have someone else do the the dirty job for once! Once that is said not many people ask why it's not good for pregnant women to be exposed.

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Even those who only consider themselves fat are at an increased risk, study shows

Teenage kids who are overweight, or even those who think they are, have greater tendencies of attempting suicide than other teenagers, a new U.S. study reports.

For the study, the research team examined more than 14,000 high school students to find if there exists a connection between suicide tries and body mass index (BMI). The study further sought a possible link between suicide attempts and a teenager’s self-perception of being overweight – be it the truth or not.

The findings of the study revealed that teenagers who were overweight those who considered themselves to be overweight had higher tendencies of attempting suicide than teenagers who did not think they were overweight. For both girls and boys, the results were equally significant.

The study is published online in the Journal of Adolescent Health.

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Cubital tunnel syndrome stems from flexing of the elbow over an extended period, experts say

Nintendo thumb arrived first; followed by the Guitar Hero wrist. And now, the most recent illness afflicting the wired generation, is known as the cell phone elbow.

Known in the medical field as cubital tunnel syndrome, cell phone elbow is a condition characterized by numbness, tingling and pain felt in the forearm and hand. This condition occurs as a result of compression of the ulnar nerve, which stretches along the bony prominence of the elbow.

And according to experts, one of the culprits that apply pressure on the ulnar nerve is excessive chatting over the cell phone, which is made possible by those cell phone plans offering unlimited talk time.

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Cheers!

Marie Antoinette is famous for her line: Well, let them eat cake. When an elderly person is in the twilight of their life, I definitely believe we should let them eat cake and perhaps even allow them the occasional beer. 

Not only should we question the role of medicine as suggested in my colleague's interesting article about her recent and unfortunate injury, I think we should reconsider our responsibility to the elderly. Often we are so focused on the health of an elderly family member that we forget the little things (some of them not so healthy) that can affect the quality of their lives.

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I've been thinking a lot about the limitations of medicine, ever since I broke my wrist last week.  It was a chicken related injury; I was towing my chicken pen across the yard, and the tow rope broke.  I stupidly did not have a leg out behind me, and I fell straight back and caught myself on my wrist. 

I broke my scaphoid bone, which is one of those tiny bones inside your wrist.  It turns out that breaks of the scaphoid bone are very common.  This seems very unfair, because there are so many little tiny bones inside your wrist, and do we really need all of them?  But it turns out that even the little tiny bones can hurt an awful lot.

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In tests with lab mice, researchers think that they may have isolated the specific protein that causes the formation of unnatural "clumps" of protein inside of nerve cells, resulting in the neurofibrillary tangles thought to be one of the causes of Alzheimer's disease. The protein, named Tau by researchers, is normally a key protein found in all healthy nerve cells, but a rogue form of the protein misbehaves, and triggers the cells to form neurofibrillary tangles, an abnormal behavior.

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