A Prescription for Societal Disaster

08 Wednesday May 2019

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Amerikans must be the healthiest people in history as they take an insane amount of medication.

Nearly half of our citizens (residents, whatever) are on at least one type of legal dope. Most of it is for nebulous pain, mental illness, and fat-related lifestyle choices.

But, even if you have a doctor’s note, be very careful at Disney:

Disney World may be the most magical place on Earth, but it turned into a legal nightmare for a great-grandmother with arthritis.

A 69-year-old woman was arrested at a Disney World checkpoint when an Orange County Deputy found CBD oil in her purse. She then spent 12 hours behind bars before being released on a $2,000 bond.

Hester Jordan Burkhalter, a great-grandmother from North Carolina, began using CBD oil for her arthritis after her doctor recommended it, Fox 35 in Orlando reported. She even had a note from the medical professional in her purse at the time of arrest, but it didn’t matter.

In my book, Disney is always a nightmare, best avoided entirely. Better avoid the cops too. In turn, the cops should probably avoid the peeps, given the rapid rise of medieval diseases.

The LAPD released the following statement Tuesday:

“The health, safety, and well-being of our Los Angeles Police Department officers is critical and we are ensuring the officers exposed to this disease are cared for. First responders throughout the region and especially here in Los Angeles are constantly responding to incidents that put them at risk of potential exposure to various diseases, and that’s why the Department takes this incident very seriously. All of the work areas that may have been exposed have been disinfected.”

Steve Gordon of the L.A. Police Protective League confirmed to CBSLA that it was a homeless transient who came into contact with officers at the station.

Gordon was blunt when asked about the problems officers face when dealing with the homeless population.

“Our officers are being put in very hazardous conditions, with the addiction to drugs, the homeless encampments, the feces, the needles, everything throughout these encampments,” said Gordon. “There’s only one thing that these cameras can’t catch and that is the smell and the vile conditions in which some of these addicted people live in.”

That’s the smell and condition of a society disintegrating.

And, all of this comes during, what we’re told night and day, are the best economic times in human history. There’s a sickness, more than one kind, out there.

Health Bits, Physical and Mental

05 Wednesday Sep 2018

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disease, exercise, health, IQ, risk

WHO: 1.4 Billion adults unnecessarily at risk.

More than 1.4 billion adults are putting themselves at heightened risk of deadly diseases by not getting enough exercise, doctors are warning, with global activity levels virtually unchanged in nearly two decades.

With richer nations enjoying an increasingly comfortable, sedentary lifestyle, a study by the World Health Organization said a third of women and a quarter of men worldwide are in the firing line for killer conditions such as heart disease, diabetes and cancer unless they up their physical activity.

NHS: Four out of Five Adults Unhealthy.

Leading doctors said the number of people with a heart “older” than their actual age was “really alarming” and should spur people to quit smoking, eat better and exercise more. The revelation reflects in part Britain’s high levels of obesity and physical inactivity and previously high smoking rate.

Almost four-fifths (78%) of more than 1.9 million people in England who have taken Public Health England’s new online “heart age test” were found to have a heart that was older than their chronological age.

A third (34%) of those who answered the 16-question survey turned out to have a heart age that was at least five years above their actual age, while for one in seven (14%), it was at least 10 years higher.

Normally I don’t put too much stock in socialist studies and findings. These, however, fit with the trends. Note: I took the survey and found it a little off – though my heart age, by their standards, coincides with my actual age. Good enough.

Also, we know that physical condition and mental condition are somewhat related. So, it’s interesting the way the following story was contexted: Cognitive Power Peaks in Autumn.

Human cognitive powers have a seasonal rhythm, and for those living in temperate regions in the northern hemisphere they are strongest in late summer and early autumn. The effect is large enough to tip some older people over the diagnostic threshold for dementia if their cognitive tests are carried out in winter or spring.

Andrew Lim, a neurologist at the Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre at the University of Toronto, and his colleagues analysed data from 3500 participants aged 60 or over. All of them had undergone tests …

I’ve known this, about myself, for about two decades. Mentally, I get more done in the mid to late fall. This, in miniature, mirrors the boost to IQ usually experienced in the mid 20’s (maybe +5%). Some facets of mental prowess may increase around age 60, just in time for the afore-noted conditions to set in.

It’s interesting, given the demographic changes in aging populations, that they framed the study in terms of dementia rather than peak power for the younger generations. Either way, in a week or two you should feel a little smarter. Use it to arrest the disease risk. That will stave off many conditions – possibly to include dementia. This is a self-feeding loop. Work it, folks.

Robin Williams Did Not Commit Suicide

06 Sunday May 2018

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disease, health, Robin Williams

He was “murdered” by his own mind. A technical self-killing doesn’t necessarily meet the definition of suicide. Something about voluntary intent. A distinct difference here, I think, due to the condition he suffered.

The neuropathologist’s diagnosis was: “diffuse Lewy body dementia.”

The comedian did not have Parkinson’s, he had not fallen off the wagon and he was not severely depressed. It was something even graver: He suffered from an incurable brain disease that occurs when proteins build up in the brain’s nerve cells, impairing its function. It begins with memory problems and physical stiffness and graduates to extreme personality changes, psychiatric symptoms and eventually death.

Lewy body is the second most common progressive dementia after Alzheimer’s disease. Unlike Alzheimer’s, where sufferers have issues forming new memories, people with Lewy body dementia can form new memories but have a hard time retrieving them. It’s as if the very essence of Robin was still there — he just could no longer access it.

Anyone with experience with Parkinson’s, Lewy, PSP, ALS, or any similar condition knows the patient reaches that point where they lose control, either of the body, the mind, or both. How does one decide to do or not to do something (like a belt hanging) when the decision-making process is compromised? They don’t. They become a tortured prisoner to the degeneration.

And, yes, this is to excuse the behavior, which isn’t dictated by rationality. If you know, you know. If not, hope you can keep it that way.

I never knew this about Williams.

gettyimages-57475996

NY Post.

Invasion of the Super-Bugs

11 Monday Jul 2016

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antibiotics, bacteria, disease, exercise, FDA, government, health, medicine, science, The People

As from the beginning of a horror/zombie movie, scientists have positively identified a strain of E Coli bacteria which is resistant to the “last line of defense” antibiotics. Please read: A ‘slow catastrophe’ unfolds as the golden age of antibiotics comes to an end, Melissa Healy, LA Times, Science, July 11, 2016.

Ms. Healy and the LA Times did a wonderful job with this story. The Times science section impresses at times (get it….).

The devious little bacterium seems to have developed a new gene, “mcr-1”, which makes it resistant to colistin. Colistin is the “last line” drug given when other antibiotics are not effective. Now, for this particular bug, even that doesn’t work. It seems that the infection at issue in the case study was beaten off with a combination of other treatments. However, doctors and researchers are not overly optimistic about what this portends for the future of medicine. Some are downright pessimistic.

“It’s a slow catastrophe,” said Army Col. Emil Lesho, director of the Defense Department’s Multidrug-resistant Organism Repository and Surveillance Network.

The problem goes beyond treating infections. As bacterial resistance grows, Lesho said, “we’re all at risk of losing our access” to medical miracles we’ve come to take for granted: elective surgeries, joint replacements, organ transplants, cancer chemotherapies. These treatments give bacteria an opportunity to hitch a ride on a catheter or an unwashed hand and invade an already vulnerable patient.

…

“It’s not apocalyptic until it is,” said Peter Pitts, president of the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest and former associate commissioner of the FDA. “Shame on us if we wait till bodies are in the street.”

Whoa, apocalyptic? Bodies in the street! This story made me think of several things:

First, we’ve been being warned for years now, by experts, about our overuse of antibiotics. Drugs given to patients who don’t need them. Drugs given to our cows, hogs, and chickens. And, so on. Maybe it’s not to late to heed the warnings. I haven’t had an antibiotic since I can’t remember when. Since I lost the weight and started working out, I don’t find myself seeing the doctor much at all.

Second, medical science has a history of outmaneuvering the bugs. The Times story included this chart:

nimbus-image-1468286810078

This isn’t the first time there’s been a gap between drugs. They’ll make a new one.

Third, the Times notes the high FDA regulatory costs of developing these new drugs. The drug companies prefer to concentrate on fields where the patient uses the medication for a lifetime. The return on the R&D (and regulatory compliance) isn’t worth the return for antibiotics. Another case of government getting in the way and potentially getting people killed. The author suggests the government might find some incentives (our taxes) to ease the process. Rather than more corporate welfare, I say get the state out-of-the-way. If the FDA had been around in 1928, we might still be waiting on basic penicillin.

Fourth thought – the government which makes it cost prohibitive to develop new miracle drugs is the very same government which is madly trying to bring as many “refugees”and other non-Westerners as possible into the country. Many of these folks, regardless of their intentions, carry diseases we haven’t had here in years. If they’re not going to curb the flow, maybe they could at the very least implement some better medical screenings.

Fifthly and finally, there is something you can do right now to circumvent the government, the scientists, and the culture. Get in shape. A healthy body does an unbelievably good job fighting off disease. Since I went “health nut” – and, yes, cigars are a component – I haven’t been sick once. It’s simple – drink water, sleep, exercise, and don’t eat as much and not as much junk. You can survive the apocalypse.