Archive for January, 2008
Self-Reliance & Government Run Health Care
Monday, January 21st, 2008The need for universal health care seems to have concentrated like the head of a zit. Congressmen have the urge to pop the pressure and will cause a mess and scarring if they fulfill their urge to “do something”. But do American citizens really want managed care?
It seems some people do, but I have to imagine that they really have no comprehension of what that would mean in practical fact. The populace has certainly moved more interventionist domestically if the majority of people truly do want their health care paid for by someone else, and by someone else, they mean themselves and other tax payers.
The notion of self-reliance seems quaint these days. People are tired of boot-straps and scrimping, maybe. They dislike the uneasiness of being one health crisis away from ruin. The economy shows signs of slowing. They have debt. Their retirement accounts are dwindling thanks to the stock market taking a nose-dive. They’re not quite desperate. Yet.
It is times like these that something for nothing looks mighty good. We all want to avoid pain. And if we can receive a benefit with no possible down-side then why not? But a big government program that takes over health care is a trade. We trade individual power for government power–yet again. And the more individuals cede to the government, the less likely the individual has control of his own life.
Americans have been schooled in passivity and compliance. From day care to public schools to college to grad school to jobs, the key to succeed is complying with the rules of whatever organization one is belongs to. There is something to be said to be a part of something bigger, more universal than oneself, but there is no great mission or value in relying on the government for health care. There is only more passive acceptance.
And really, it’s accepting less than there is now. A delusional belief in empty political promises must be traded for freedom and choice. It’s disturbing how willing Americans are to make that trade.
Caffeine & Miscarriage
Monday, January 21st, 2008Just wanted pass along this research. Anecdotally, I think it’s right, just based on my own experience. I think caffeine may contribute to premature labor, too. Now this conclusion is right, too:
“Moderation in all things is still an excellent rule,” Dr. Westhoff said. “I think we tend to go overboard on saying expose your body to zero anything when pregnant. The human race wouldn’t have succeeded if the early pregnancy was so vulnerable to a little bit of anything. We’re more robust than that.”
The thing is, all women are different and have different sensitivities. Plus, people are so much more nutritionally deprived. A diet of empty calories might be tolerable normally, but a pregnant woman needs solid nutrition and to avoid stressors. She will face enough the way things go in our society, anyway.
It Doesn’t Take Much To Change A Life
Sunday, January 20th, 2008Have you read the stories where an elementary school teacher took an interest in a child, maybe told him once that he was smart and had a future and that was all it took? The child clung to those words and believed them and made them real in his life. The words and the love behind them literally changed the world for that person.
It doesn’t take much to change a life.
A kind word, a word fitly spoken can be like rain on the seed of possibility for a person. But it takes love and awareness and the ability to see outside ourselves to give those words. And, it takes the same to receive them.
Recently, I’ve reconnected with some friends who have challenged me to examine my beliefs about myself and my world view. I’ve had the perfect friend-storm recently. And they have showered me with healing words, but I had to be ready for them.
It’s strange. These friends have been here all along. The love was all around and untapped. We have to open ourselves up to the rain. For a seed to grow, it has to break open and accept the nutrition. Growth isn’t a solitary process.
So here’s another post to encourage you to open up, engage, and let the love flow in. For me, it has happened by being more proactive about letting the love flow out. Giving sweet, loving words costs nothing, but they can mean everything.
It doesn’t take much to change a life.
Sunday’s Picks–UPDATE
Sunday, January 20th, 2008Who you picking? Everyone seems to hate New England, and personally, I dislike Brady, but he’s a machine. Ya gotta admit that. I pick them to go all the way. Eli Manning is coming on strong and that’s heartening. I’ve felt like he’s been an underachiever and tentative in big situations. Hopefully he can toss the monkey off his back.
Brett Favre….Let’s hear a cheer for the old guy! What’s not to love? If he can stay put together, not slip and hurt himself, I hope he goes all the way. What cold-hearted person would root against him? He’s an inspiration. I hope he wins the Super Bowl and retires with his frontal lobe in tact. I would hate for him to get hurt. He’s had an amazing career.
Is there another team playing? Oh yeah…..the Chargers.
Update: Stupid me! I didn’t break out the teams. There will be more than one winner, that’s for sure.
Why Buy The Fake, When You Can Have The Real Deal?
Sunday, January 20th, 2008John McCain can’t help himself.
I was watching the post-South Carolina interview on Fox where Sean Hannity threw McCain softballs. McCain still balked. (I’m not the only one noticing this. It was glaring.) On immigration, he “knows what to do because I’m from a border state”. He said that he understood that people wanted border security. He wouldn’t say that he wanted border security. On taxation, he wants to cut spending, or so he says. He grumped through a post-win interview–with a smile on his face, of course–but his hostility was barely hidden.
Is this playing with conservatives? The numbers I saw from Frank Luntz this morning show that it does. What the HELL are they thinking?
Personally, I think voters on the right are desperate. Lower and moderate income social conservatives feel the economic squeeze. Business owners feel the squeeze from the slowing economy. That alone might push Romney to the forefront. He sounds strong, confident and experienced on the economy. Iraq is going well. Immigration has faded as an issue. Suddenly, the pocketbook issues are coming to the forefront. Jeff Goldstein thinks this is what voters are thinking:
Which means that if Fred Thompson drops out of the race (aside: I have no idea what Republican primary voters are thinking — other than that they are no longer interested in conservatism, and have become every bit as statist as their progressive counterparts), I’m resigning myself to a Democratic presidency in 2008 — and to the years of pain that will follow should the Dems maintain control of both the Executive and Legislative branches of government. Who knows? Maybe they even get the courts, too.
In other words, Hello “progressivism”! Which, as Ezra Levant and Mark Steyn can tell you, is simply another word for tyranny of bureaucracy under the auspices of an anti-individualistic, centralized coalition government — and is about as “American” (in the strictest, foundational sense) as caviar or goulash or the Yugo. Decline and fall.
Jeff captures my ennui perfectly. And this reminds me of what I’ve written before: bloggers are a different breed than the average American. The air we breath on the conservative side is as rarefied as the air breathed in newsrooms around America. Here’s what I said average Americans want:
The average American has inhaled, had premarital sex, looks at porn, had an abortion but wish there were less of them, knows someone removed from life support and has gay friends. (The votes divide because half believe in trying to maintain the ideals while others feel we should let them go.) The average American lives in a nice house, tries to recycle and worries about Global Warming. The average American works hard, thinks Europeans are pansies and worries about terrorism and the best way to deal with it. The average American is ambivalent about Iraq but is uncomfortable with repeating the Vietnam performance. The average American believes most of the leaders are corrupt wind-bags, but what are you going to do? They like their guy. (Kinda like they like their lawyer, but lawyers in general stink.) The average American hasn’t looked all that deeply into the issues, but feels a certain way and votes that way. Political bloggers are not average Americans–they are more attached to ideals and more convinced of their views.
By the time the election rolls around, a solid recession will have sucked the energy, never mind money, and Americans will be jittery, looking for solid. This bodes well for Clinton–as the populace still identifies the name Clinton with golden years (even though the economy has been stronger under Bush).
Speaking of narratives (which The Anchoress does)….. You know, the stuff that is axiomatic, that we all believe because the press pushes forward the idea, can anyone believe anything any of these people say? This year more than any other, I feel that the candidates are willing to say anything to get elected. And so McCain can, with a relatively straight face, imply that he wants border security when he wants no such thing. Huckabee bleats on about small government. Romney pretends at social conservatism.
For all my irritation with George W. Bush from time to time, he campaigned on certain issues and those issues drove his presidency. There were no surprises–at least to me. He campaigned on issues and then, when he became President, he acted on them. The current candidates are “evolving” as they go. We expect this from Democrats, but it is disturbing to have the Republican candidates tap dancing their way through the primaries. Not only that, it’s disturbing what messages are succeeding–essentially Democratic messages.
The net effect? A Democrat as President and her name will be Hillary Clinton. And yes, that’s a prediction.
Cross-posted at Right Wing News.
UPDATED: Betsy notes this:
I can well envision a President McCain working with a Democratic congress to enact legislation to stifle innovation and research done by drug companies to treat terrible diseases. And it would all be done with that self-satisfied smirk of the self-righteous who believe that they have done something wonderful for the common man while they stifle one American industry that leads the world in helping the world – our pharmaceutical industry. And once they have killed off the goose, there will be many fewer golden eggs to use in fighting all sorts of dread diseases. There is a reason why countries that have drastically reduced the profit incentive for drug companies to do research into new drugs don’t have that sort of industry anymore.
Fibromyalgia
Friday, January 18th, 2008Fibromyalgia is a diagnosis in search of disease. It is descriptive of symptoms that vary from person to person. Doctors who even acknowledge the existence of fibromyalgia give the diagnosis as a last resort. To me, the diagnosis just means that the cause of the problems haven’t been found.
Now a new drug to treat this ailment has been approved by the FDA. But to treat what? This is the heart of the controversy:
For patient advocacy groups and doctors who specialize in fibromyalgia, the Lyrica approval is a milestone. They say they hope Lyrica and two other drugs that may be approved this year will legitimize fibromyalgia, just as Prozac brought depression into the mainstream.
But other doctors — including the one who wrote the 1990 paper that defined fibromyalgia but who has since changed his mind — say that the disease does not exist and that Lyrica and the other drugs will be taken by millions of people who do not need them.
In some respects, the argument doesn’t matter. The pain and symptoms are real enough. The question is what to do to help the patients. Often diet, exercise, and righting sleep problems can cure the problem. One of my first patients had “fibromyalgia”. The cause was two-fold, but it took months of hunting to find the problems. First, she had banned pesticides from the 70s that had been seeping into their house. They removed that. Second, her husband snored something fierce and she hadn’t slept for more than two hours in a row for over fifteen years. The latter problem was not something either of us thought of right from the beginning, but actually sleeping did more to reverse her symptoms than anything.
Here’s my fibromyalgia protocol:
- No naps.
- No caffeine.
- Set bed time.
- Set bed time ritual.
- Set wake-up time.
- Light aerobic exercise for no more than 15 minutes around 3-4 p.m. (no later)
- Lots of water.
- Fresh diet: fruits, veggies, meat, light on carbs.
- Testing for food allergies.
- Testing for sub-clinical virus/bacteria infection.
- Support the immune system.
- Support other weak systems (right the hormones, if that’s a problem).
There is no one treatment plan for fibromyalgia. There is no magic treatment plan. Often, the woman’s health has deteriorated over decades. She has either been malnourished or had a virus she never recovered from or some other chronic stressor has chipped away at her health. Building back the body, and then psychologically getting congruent with the healing is often a long-term proposition.
With fibromyalgia, the woman has often felt crummy for years and years and just can’t imagine not feeling bad. She doesn’t remember what healthy felt like. She spends her days feeling the pain and that exacerbates the pain and further sensitizes her to it. It’s a vicious cycle. She has also been dismissed by a multitude of doctors. She may end up in pain management. She may end up in the psychiatrist’s office. And, she might need both, but she feels that her history and story haven’t been honored.
With many fibromyalgia sufferers, there is often an underlying event that precipitates the episode. It takes some detective work to get to it. Sometimes the “cause” is never found but with enough lifestyle changes, the syndrome can be managed. Anecdotally, I’ve found that many fibromyalgia sufferers have suffered childhood traumas such as abuse, sexual abuse or something similar. This is not so strange. One of the history questions for Junior Rheumatoid Arthritis is whether the child has an alcoholic parent. Very often, he or she does. I have yet to work with a fibromyalgia patient who doesn’t have an emotional component to the syndrome.
These ladies, and some men, need encouragement and support. They are, without fail, sensitive souls who I believe “absorb” the pain around them. Helping them to create boundaries both in their relationships and for their own psychological safety is paramount to future health. It is a frustrating disease and the people who endure the pain experience real suffering.
So, while I believe that fibromyalgia is a bogus diagnosis and shouldn’t be masked with some new drug sure to score pharmaceutical companies money, I believe that these patients should be taken seriously. Something is wrong. That something needs to be found. And in these days of managed care, rushed appointments and overtaxed doctors, patients are often dismissed as crazy. It’s just easier than admitting that the doctor is baffled.
iPhone’s New Software Updates
Thursday, January 17th, 2008So, I love my iPhone. Love. It. It goes with me everywhere and does almost everything I want it to. They updated something, though, and it ticks me off. One nice feature of the phone is the ability to dump all your email addresses into one place using POP. That means I can see my email, keep it, delete it, but it’s still in my Gmail file. Well, now, Apple has this IMAP deal and when you delete a message on your phone, it’s deleted everywhere. Me no likey. And there’s no way to change it. So, I have to stare at a bloated in-box on my iPhone just like I have to stare at one in my Gmail account.
I’m not alone in my irritation. Apple needs to allow both formats. This is not a big deal. When is it a good idea to take away flexibility? Hmmm….??
On an up note, last week while running, my iPhone popped out of my pocket, fell on the ground and I stepped on it. The bottom part came a bit loose, but everything worked okay. Still, everything wasn’t smooth and flush and I feared that a mere bump would cause a problem. So, I took it into the store with trepidation. I didn’t deserve mercy, that’s for sure, but I have a zillion Mac things now, and have paid for extended warranties on everything including the iPhone. The guy looked at it and said, “We’ll just replace it.” I was stunned and thrilled. Wow. What service!
I already tell everyone about the phone and how much I love it and all the other Mac products, too. Now, I’m letting you all know that the great thing about buying Mac these days isn’t just superior products, but superior service and support. Half the time, we have these machines and don’t know what the heck we’re doing. Apple helps you figure it out. That alone is worth the extra bucks for their product. Good luck finding a Dell person to help you use the software and figure everything out.
Pretty Pee
Thursday, January 17th, 2008We’ve discussed contraptions created for the purpose of helping women pee better. Now, there’s this for men. I kinda like it, but the price tag is a bit steep.
No Cold Medicine For Babies
Thursday, January 17th, 2008Really, no one should take them, they do no good and only mask symptoms. Cold medicine for children is downright harmful:
The reason: There’s no evidence that these oral drugs actually ease cold symptoms in children so young — some studies suggest they do no good at all. And while serious side effects are fairly rare, they do occur. Indeed, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last year reported that more than 1,500 babies and toddlers wound up in emergency rooms over a two-year period because of the drugs.
“It’s one thing if you’re curing cancer, but we’re talking about a self-limiting illness,” said Sharfstein. “If there’s really no evidence of benefit, you don’t want to risk the rare problem. Then you’re left with tragedy that you can’t justify.“
Specialists are back to recommending old-fashioned steps, such as plenty of fluids and rest, saline drops to loosen stuffy noses, and humidifiers while sleeping.
This is good advice. Another piece of advice: nurse your children as long as possible. It will loosen mucous, the mother produces antibodies to the virus the child is fighting, the jaw motion helps keep the ear canal unplugged and the baby/toddler will nurse when it wouldn’t eat so the baby doesn’t get dehydrated.
