Some things really bug me. One of the most pesky used to be the statement of the scientific community that AIDS came from Africa.
Actually, first it was blamed on chimpanzees in Africa but nobody actually said anything about how it got to humans - suggesting bestiality silently?
When I heard that, I think I gave my friends a good laugh - I was a university student in America then - when I asked how the African could be blamed for AIDS transmission if the Scientists left their wives/spouses at home for months on end during their research work abroad!
Then, the Haitians got suckered into the blame game when the spread of the AIDS condition to their country was actually traced to the sojourn and subsequent return of some of their kinsmen, who worked in the Congo for some time.
That was half the truth at most! Thanks to the South African political leadership, things were made worse when they claimed that there was nothing like AIDS and that retro viral drugs were not vitally needed!
Of course, the Catholic Church, notably, toed the line of abstinence as a preventive course of action, while other governments and non-governmental organizations simply profited in fame and/or fortune from distributing condoms to all nooks and crannies of 'youthdom' - if you know what I mean...
So, imagine how pleasantly surprised I was yesterday when I saw the following headline and article entitled, "How smallpox vaccine 'triggered' AIDS virus".
Very remarkable revelation, isn't it? You can read the rest of the Nigerian newspaper article yourself below - it appeared on Page 36, DAILY SUN, Tuesday, June 23, 2009 and was written by one Professor Paul Olisa Ojeih.
It makes sense too. Once smallpox was eradicated by the commendable single-minded dedication of the WHO, the dormant HIV/AIDS virus blossomed and had room to grow unfettered.
Yes, an appropriate analogy would be the clearing of an African Rain Forest, whereupon the formerly dormant and minor plants in the undergrowth suddenly see the light and become the major and dominant species as soon as the thick upper storey of forest cover has been removed.
A seventy-five year old mystery was solved recently by combining oral tradition and DNA testing. A saddening story of brutality in the old Wild Wild West of Red Indians and Cowboys but made more heartening by the solution of an age old quandary dubbed the greatest mystery of the Southwest.
It has been made into a movie directed by Sean Penn. The real story is actually about a seventeen- year old Everett Ruess from Hollywood in LA, who went into the desert country of Colorado to hone his poetic skills and find himself in the wilderness but was murdered at 20 by a group of young Navajo Indians, who probably scalped him and took away his horses and other personal effects.
The true story gets very dramatic when a descendant of an old Navajo Indian, who witnessed the murder, finally told her brother, who dutifully let the cat out of the bag and discovered the long lost grave site.
I learned from this real life story that cousins in a DNA test are confirmed as relatives once 25 per cent of their DNA material match - makes sense, since each uncle or aunt inherits 50 per cent from each of their parents, while their offspring retain only half of that amount of DNA material.
That was the conclusion that I was forced to reach after reading this rubbish research about "some Nigerians" who treat malaria with witchcraft!
Which part of Nigeria, which tribe, and which year? I am a Nigerian and I know that even the poorest of the poor in practically every major tribe have their own local - and very effective, I might add - remedies for treating malaria.
That reference in the rather bogus article entitled 'Quack remedies spread by virtue of being useless' reminds me of how an American in New York City or Chicago would view a foreigner who visited only Dallas or Los Angeles before December 24 and concluded that America has no White Christmas!
Speaking further about the ridiculous research result above, I must ask a question of the author of that literary disservice, one Ewen Callaway - be warned though, that could be just a nom de plumeor pen name.
How can quack remedies spread by virtue of being useless? Are the propagators stupid or just plain dumb, or is there nobody smart enough to put a stop to such misinformation.
I have not been paid a dime for this post, unlike the researcher's work cited, but, I think, a more intuitive and intelligent conclusion would be that a reasonable and normal person would most likely not allow such ineffective remedies to become popular!
I read somewhere recently that during the Nigerian Civil War in the late 1960s, an important army general went to a native doctor - not witchdoctor, there is a big difference between them - to prepare a charm for him to prevent bullets from hitting him on the battle field.
He was given the so-called protective charm and he paid, but not before requesting that the charm should be placed on a goat, which he promptly shot at.
The goat died, the native doctor was ashamed, and, of course, he never paid and nobody else in his army division ever went to that quack ever again.
Let alone malaria! There are so many effective malaria remedies available to Nigerians everywhere as cheap options - both western and traditional - even during the suffering-filled and poverty-prone post war time during the 1970s.
So, Ewen, who was your Nigerian source and how sane was he/she, if he/she exists? Nothing personal really, it's just that Nigerians are intelligent and deserve some respect.
After all, is it not a Nigerian scientist who has found a patented cure for diabetes - yes, a US-patented cure! - using, I understand, just bitter leaf and 'akaun'.
I will not tell you what those last two are - come to Nigeria and do the research: Lagos is quite like New York City in most respects!
We are re-branding Nigeria, this time from within. I am using this post as my own little contribution to the project of re-branding Nigeria.
Our Minister of Information, while introducing the worthy project a couple of months ago, gave an example of how the Western Press was always giving Nigeria a bad rap/rep, so to speak.
Dr. Dora Akunyili lamented how, when she was the Director-General of NAFDAC - our own USFDA - somebody was caught red handed at an airport in Ghana attempting to export hard drugs to Europe.
The Western Press concerned mischievously juxtaposed Nigeria with Ghana and, by the time she pointed it out to the Western Press/government concerned, the damage had already been done to our national image - even with a published public apology!
UPDATE - Saturday, May 9, 2009 @ 8:20 AM:
Here's another Nigeria-bashing presentation by the Nigeria-haters, this time in video format -
'Booming' in which part of Nigeria? These publications/presentations - and their authors/artistes - should always endeavor to go deep to name names and places for a more meaningful and corrective impact on everyone reading/watching.
Just the facts and not mere blanket propaganda - it certainly would help the blood pressure of patriots and boost the confidence of the not-so-patriotic.
I had to put that question as bluntly as I could because of the before and after photos of the first female US face transplant patient on CNN today.
It is true that the shark bite was quite serious and all that but, at least, the 'before' photo engendered a feeling of sympathy from any onlooker.
However, the 'after' pictures and videos have forced the poor woman to literally defend herself by stating, "I am no monster."
I saw her speaking at the post-surgery press conference and kept getting the uncomfortable feeling of seeing somebody on screen speaking from behind a mask/facade - even when she laughed a bit at her own little joke about her personal experience.
I really have nothing positive to say about what I saw on TV except to say that I will wait for a few months more to be sure that the bloated look about the transplanted face disappears somehow...
Mind you, it is great that this great medical feat could be performed so successfully that the patient could face the cameras and talk normally during the interview.
My main worry is that whenever someone has enough money to pay for a face job, the surgeons seemingly blithely oblige the patient without qualms, as if the procedure were as simple as any other less controversial surgical operation.
I found this particular CNN presentation as uncomfortable as this one: http://brainden.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=8065.
That brain teaser goes like this:
A man goes home at 4pm and see his wife cooking, he then goes take a nap and when he woke up (at 7pm) a marvelous dinner was prepared. At 10 pm they go to bed. In the morning at 7am, he killed her. Why?
....[ANSWER]....
It Is Obvious! It Says He Saw His Wife COOKING. Not Her Cooking Dinner But She Was Actually In The Oven. He Ate Her So He Killed Her smile.gif Easy smile.gif
The news has been rife lately with cases of people with deep pockets traveling abroad to get treatment not easily or readily available in their home country.
So, the Japanese and some Europeans have been known to travel to China for organ transplant tourism.
Even the Saudi Crown Prince Sultan or the Deputy Prime Minister, despite his country's trillions in oil barrels and currency, recently went under the knife, so to speak, in New york City before jetting out to convalesce in Morocco!
It is nothing new, most heads of state/government, and wealthy people in the developing world have more faith in foreign medical establishments than in their own medical personnel - even if foreign trained.
I found in my e-mailbox just this morning, a missive from an establishment that was offering a "Comprehensive checkup + tour" in Cairo, Egypt's 'International Medical Center'.
The skills being touted? Knock yourself out, if you are Mr./Mrs./Ms, Deep Pockets Stinking Rich - not that there is anything wrong with that at all:
Meanwhile, some Scientists based in the University of South Dakota have invented a germ-killing paint additive that simply lasts for years and can be reactivated even after a home is flooded.
Their discovery is a new type of a bleach-like substance called an N-halamine; the new version is a colorless oil called Cl-TMPM and it kills the notorious and almost ubiquitous Staphylococcus aureus bacteria after lust ten minutes of contact, and is effective against the MRSA super bug and other drug-resistant bacteria, viruses, mold, and fungi - after just three months of exposure.
Thanks to the $19 billion from Obama's economic stimulus package for upgrading health and medical records online, a new breed of medical personnel has emerged: the health informatics specialists.
What or who are they? The following excerpt will fill you in some more:
[...“The health I.T. people run the servers and install software, but the informatics people are the leaders, who interpret and analyze information and work with the clinical staff,”.....]
In related news, an Australian politician called Ban traveled to Russia for a year and paid $28,000 - Us or Australian dollars is not clear - to break and stretch her legs about three inches!
The Russian orthopedic center is aptly named for restorative traumatology. If you ask me, she was lucky because I saw a Chinese girl undergo unsuccessfully the same type of surgery in a documentary - steel nuts and bolts attached to her legs gone awry, so to speak.
In my home town, nobody looks down on short people because of their generally combative nature.
Instead, they are hailed as "O di nkpumkpu e mi re", meaning literally "(Raspberry!) You can't touch their prowess..."
What is healthy multiple Web hosting? For me, that simply means the kind that gives you some peace of mind about the location of your precious content on the Internet.
Multiple Web hosting is the same as multiple domain hosting and just refers to the ability of your Web hosting partner to give you a service bouquet with the option of starting up additional websites without paying extra for the new creations.
My relatively short but experience filled sojourn on the Internet and the Blogosphere, in particular, has taught me that free blogs are great until you wake up one morning to find that your entire content is gone permanently, without notice, and that you have somehow innocently or unwittingly violated the terms of service that you had practically forgotten about over the years of zealous blogging on your favorite topic.
So, if you are the emotional type or are very passionate about your writing, you can be more easily forgiven, I think, if you take control of your own publishing business online with multiple domain web hosting.
In this particular case, you will get a peer review and ranking of the best Web hosting services available to you, as well as getting a hosting package that is only cheap in price!
In my humble opinion, at least, you get a good and healthy anxiety-free feeling, in addition to a lower blood pressure, from knowing that your best writing is out there on the Internet waiting for the horde of appreciative readers and advertisers, whenever they can spare the time to catch up on your latest ramblings, rantings, and ratings. ;0>)
How did swine flu - or H1N1 or Influenza A - knock dengue fever, the global financial crisis, political human rights violations, the Somali pirates, malaria, HIV/AIDS, cancer, and bird flu off the world news stage so suddenly?
To get a good idea of the origins and the onset and spread of this epidemic, the following is a relevant excerpt from Sleuthing the Swine Flu Virus:
[...What began as a scientific anomaly in this country was now a deadly binational outbreak. And it was spreading fast. In the course of nine days, the virulent bug would jump swiftly from the Americas to Europe, New Zealand, the Middle East and Asia. It would lead to school closures across the United States, the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of pigs in Egypt, and the quarantining of 300 people in a Hong Kong hotel after the disease was diagnosed in a guest....]
As you may have guessed, this Influenza A outbreak has given Mexico a bad name, apart from the preceding drug war between the government and drug barons.
I got my memory joggled recently when I came upon this article about a Swedish gentleman who died from a bacterial infection most likely acquired when he cut down a tree with a large bird's nest in it.
The bacterial infection is called Chlamydophila psittaci, pulmonology psittacosis, ornithosis, or more popularly known as Parrot fever/disease!
An uncle of mine could have met the same fate as the Swedish man, if not for my native wisdom. Last year, I went home briefly to supervise some work in my garden-farm.
As i left with him to the site, he saw a seemingly wounded bird clinging tenuously to the hibiscus flower bush near the garage parkway.
When he made to collect it, as a gift for his little son, I looked at the bird and realized it was sick from something and advised him to leave it alone - that it would probably still be there when we got back, since it could not seem to fly.
I had thought that perhaps another bird had attacked it in a fight or it had eaten a bug or something.
And, indeed, it had a bug! It was dead and hanging by a wing and claw when we got back. I left it alone - and, luckily, my uncle had also forgotten all about it.
Certainly, an unhealthy game is not always game at all - if you are a hunter of any sort.....
UPDATE - Sunday, April 26, 2009 @ 11:20 PM:
I had written this post before the current swine fever news pandemic broke out. Can you imagine better now how the bird-pig-human cycle of infections works?
UPDATE 2 - Saturday, May 02, 2009 @ 3:20 PM: As at yesterday, since the swine flu virus has been discovered to now pass from human to human, it has been identified and referred to by its scientific name - Influenza A or H1N1.
Amazing really that it took only one month to identify the swine flu strain - it had taken over a decade to do the same in 1816 or so!
Bird flu and dengue fever had been the prevalent disease epidemics, until now.
Diabetes and prostate cancer now seem to have something in common: both may have gotten an answer to the question about when their cure would come!
To be living without insulin injections for an average of two and a half years - minimum of one and maximum of about four - is a diabetic's real dream.
It is now reality, with an experimental step-wise treatment procedure called Autologous Non-myeloablative Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation or more simply HSCT.
The treatment is probably best for those who would probably go for a vasectomy anyway - yes, one of the two major side effects is that a man's sperm count will lessen significantly.
The other one? You can get pneumonia! Reminds you of some of the rotten odds and horrible choices humans are often given in life, doesn't it?
The other caveats in this auto-immune system suppression procedure are that it works for diabetics whose cells can still produce some insulin and it has only been tested on newly-diagnosed Brazilian patients aged between 13 and 31 years of age - hence the alarm regarding the observed side effects.
Can you just imagine the personal and insurance cost savings from this innovative procedure, risky or not?
In related news, a vaccine for prostate cancer may have been found - more experimental data to be revealed about Provenge at a medical meeting on April 28, 2009.
The vaccine is really better for terminally ill prostate cancer patients, who should note as follows:
[....the most common side effects in men taking Provenge were chills, fever, headache, fatigue, shortness of breath, vomiting, and tremor, mainly at a low level and for one to two days following infusion.....]
What kind is that? Sounds a bit like a riddle, right? Only for now, unless you skim this post down to the end first.
Let me save you the bother of scanning this post in order to solve the riddle implied in the title to this post.
Have you ever heard of brown fat? I understand that babies have it and it supposedly causes the body-warming shiver and blister-like goose pimples you get when you are cold.
I have often looked in the mirror after being in an air conditioned room for a relatively long time: I have seen myself smooth-faced, more handsome, and with a more aquiline nose - and I do not even have an aquiline nose!
Seriously though, in my early days in the job market, I had observed some of my colleagues, who sat right under or opposite the air-conditioner unit, appear to grow slimmer and leaner with tauter facial muscles.
Now I know that it was the burning of brown fat in their adult bodies that caused them to burn up so much calories in response to the chilled counter-equatorial environment - their diets stayed the same and they were not at all ill or anything like that.
Driving around town with the air conditioner on is one way to remain cool in traffic and still look slim and agile while getting out of the vehicle because you have been losing energy to the cold air.
However, one thing bothers me though about this brown fat research revelation: how come it never worked for the well respected Dr. Henry Kissinger in the 1970's as the US Secretary of State?
I mean, he was recognized as the most traveled US diplomat at that time; his legs reportedly hardly touched anything but the tarmac from frosty high-level diplomatic meetings to air conditioned limousine to climate controlled aircraft and vice versa.
Or, perhaps, he would have gained much more weight had it not been for his brown fat at work?
In a fifty-two-page court document, a New York District Judge decided to appeal strongly to the FDA to reverse its limited ban of emergency contraception for women and also to allow seventeen-year old girls to literally have a Plan B over-the-counter and access to the so-called morning-after pill.
You can label me pro-abortion, pro-choice, anti-life, or one of those other Bush-era and pro-Catholic religio-political sobriquets, but I think it makes sense and stands to reason that a girl or woman should be allowed to make amends for invited/uninvited situations, wanted/unwanted circumstances, and to correct spontaneous or unconscious decisions or acts performed under the influence of force, passion, deception, or even plain stupidity!
Especially in these wonder-full modern days that a 9-year old girl in America has been known to abort her set of twins and a couple in Britain has resulted from a 15-year old girl giving birth to a baby boy for a 13-year old boy!
And now, the best news – Groups urge FDA changes to boost U.S. food safety – in all these things above is that the new FDA is changing for the better: thanks to Obama, the food and medication regulator will henceforth base its decisions not on politics or religion but on empirical Science.
Speaking of Science, did you know that Genius Albert Einstein would have clocked 130 years in age this year, had he lived to this day?
Yes, I added “genius” as a prefix to his name because he whom the cap fits should wear it, as my fellow Nigerian citizens are wont to emphasize in awarding chieftaincy titles to worthy sons and daughters and other great people of achievement.
In case you just emerged from a cave or have forgotten temporarily who Einstein is, let me jog your memory a bit with his equation that totally changed the world for the better: “’E’ equals ‘m’ times ‘c’ squared” or more popularly expressed as E = mc2, where ‘E’ is energy, ‘m’ represents mass, and ‘c’ stands for the speed of light.
That little equation was the first to connect time and space with the energy and the mass of a body using the speed of light; and, consequently, led Einstein to see bigger things unimagined before and even the Big Picture of our universe.
For example, he built on that equation to formulate others while experimenting with the photoelectric effect and quantum energy, his theory of general relativity and the field theory of gravity, and his futuristic predictions about the graviton and the fourth state of matter beyond the three more familiar solid, liquid and gas.
He was so far ahead of his time that it took the development of cryogenics and lasers to discover that the fourth state of matter is called the Bose-Einstein condensate; however, the graviton, or the basic unit of gravity, is yet to be discovered because of technological limitations, for now.
Anyway, let’s get back to the research work of a more disputable nature.
Can you believe that a new study professes that male circumcision decreases the risk of a man getting infected with incurable sexually transmitted diseases or STDs?
Had it not been a well-known fact that Muslims abhor forced infant circumcision, I would have thought that the research result had no covert religious slant.
However, because of the possibility of an ulterior motive, one is now placed in a dilemma about believing the following, until you read through to the end:
[…Circumcised heterosexual men are 35% less likely to contract human papillomavirus (HPV) and 25% less likely to catch herpes than their uncircumcised counterparts… circumcision cuts in half the risk of contracting human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)… Just over half of male newborns in the U.S. get circumcised, according to research published earlier this year in the American Journal of Public Health. The percentage has declined over the past decade, in part because the American Academy of Pediatrics said in 1999 that the evidence is "not sufficient to recommend routine neonatal circumcision."…. Circumcision rates in states with Medicaid coverage for the procedure are nearly 70%, while in the states without such coverage just 31% of male newborns get circumcised…]
Whew! So, there is no religious or political undertone to be associated with the research study cited in the article linked above – now I can let out my breath a little with ease.
The problem now is how to persuade an uncircumcised but ultra-conservative and overtly hygienic full-grown man or teen reading this post to go immediately to the nearest hospital for the procedure!
It is quite interesting to note comparatively that, in my part of the Christian world, tradition encourages male circumcision at most one week after birth, irrespective of the cost of the unessential and albeit unnecessary medical procedure.
The following conclusion about old age and loneliness, arrived at after a new research study, would certainly fall under the category of the “unessential and albeit unnecessary”.
[…. Older adults who lack family and friends, or who feel lonely despite having others around them, tend to be in poorer physical and mental health….]
Let me explain what I mean. The elders in my place of origin always advise that nobody should live alone or feel lonely for want of activities to participate in.
The basic truth is that a human being must communicate ideas or feelings often to another person, a recording machine, or even a beloved pet or go crazy talking to no one but himself/herself; and, only a highly disturbed personality would probably not find appropriate entertainment even on local television channels these days.
The vegetarians, fish sellers and fishermen are really going to have a field day with this one.
Their own seller’s market could be coming soon: a new research study has promised to link premature death for white human people – yes, quite insular in my humble opinion – above fifty years of age with eating red meat!
This rather really silly study came from the stables of the so-called Center for Consumer Freedom and concludes a bit ambiguously as follows:
[…This study’s data connect mortality with smoking, a lack of exercise, taking daily vitamins, and even marriage….]
Hey, while we are at it, why not blame a comedian’s/comedienne’s mortality on his/her jokes, an astronaut’s on hours logged in space/weightlessness, a politician’s on the electoral system, a teacher’s on his/her students or pupils, a blogger's on blogging or the Internet….
Ha-ha… We all have to die of something sometime, right?
Let’s have another healthy, throaty, and really good laugh on behalf of, and at the expense of, these really loaded – maybe both cash and liquor – consumer freedom guys, shall we?
I think that they have earned it and so they deserve it....Ha-ha...
UPDATE - Sunday, 12th of April, 2009 @ 8:00 AM:
You may be interested in the following articles, for further reading, specifically about circumcision:
The title to this post was the closest that I could get to cloning the old adage about the sweet taste of success, as wine or Champagne glasses are clinked in a celebratory toast. Bottoms up!
Everything has a smell, even water, if you care to stop long enough and just smell it; like the smell of roses, hibiscus and other beautiful flowers, many of which have been officially adopted by each of the fifty states of the United States of America.
Whether you call them smells, scents, fragrances, perfumes, or colognes, every odor has its own characteristic effect, message, or sensation upon the person perceiving it.
You can imagine the positive pleasure you get from a pleasant experience, in direct comparison to the uncomfortable feeling you get from your nose being literally arrested suddenly by even a whiff of a nasty smell.
I can recall in High School how the agreeable smell of expensive perfume hanging in the morning air along the corridors informed everyone that our female English Teacher had just come that way very recently.
I think her perfume was in the oriental category, and could not really be readily classed into the gourmand, fruity, aquatic, green, citrus or floral type, because it had a really wicked lingering twist to it that seemed to intoxicate us all into exchanging knowing looks and sharing healthy smiles of appreciation.
That delicious aroma of the top, middle, and the more lingering base notes wafted into your nostrils by the air, breeze, or wind was the reason that the Latin coined the phrase "per fumum" to describe the fumes perceived from perfumed plants, herbs, spices, ointments, soaps, essential oils, and other natural or synthetic chemicals.
Of course, I have always been a fan of the good smell of air fresheners, perfumes, aftershaves, eau de toilette, and colognes, personally being more partial to perfumes, even though some of the cheaper colored varieties tend to leave a rather very permanent stain on light colored clothing.
The Proprietress of my son's former primary school once revealed to me she collects perfume bottles of all shapes and sizes, once she learned that I was a postage stamp collector.
I could talk up a storm on the healthy and invigorating subject of perfumes but I think that I had better refer you to the perfume blog, where you can talk shop any time you like or choose.
[…12. How could chewing sugarless gum and eating cheese prevent cavities?
Every time you eat, bacteria in your mouth react chemically with the food and introduce an organic acid that can cause tooth decay. By dislodging food, rinsing teeth, and diluting acid, saliva counters this process. The key is to keep it flowing, which is where chewing gum—or at least chewing—comes in.… As for cheese, its fats may act as a protective barrier for the teeth; it also contains calcium and phosphate, which may discourage decay and strengthen teeth… Chew sugarless gum after meals. Or do like the French and finish your meal with a few pieces of cheese….]
Don't you just love the French and their humane ways? They were also the only Colonialists who lived amongst - and interacted closely with - the indigenous populations, not trying hypocritically to convert them to their own "superior" culture whilst living apart in Government Reservation Areas or GRAs or in The House On The Hill.
They were the only G8 country who guillotined their royalty and aristocracy for serving rotten food and fruits to the masses while they dined on the best portions.
Remarkable, that French Revolution....So tres chic, they are, the French....
From Medicare in 1965 to Obama Economic Stimulus in 2009: that would probably be an apt progressive overview of the great improvement in health technology funding in the USA, according to this.
Medpedia – that’s the new name for the mother of all medical reference encyclopedia…
The main aim is just to get rid of ‘quacks’ like yours truly and all those who did not go to medical school but wish to help others in need by showing them where to go and what to do in order to get back their worried minds and perplexed souls into their sound bodies again.
It just beats me hollow wondering who but real physicians would reference regularly such “…. most complete database of information from medical professionals...”
Well, I have just learned something new to that effect from the following excerpt:
[…So far, the project has garnered some significant support from the medical community. Mr.{James} Currier said Harvard Medical School, the National Health Service in England, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the School of Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley, are among the medical organizations that have donated more than 7,000 pages of content to Medpedia. Some institutions, including the N.H.S., the American Heart Association and the University of Michigan Medical School, will encourage staff and faculty members to contribute to Medpedia...]
So, go get your health aid where you can help yourself the most but remember those of us who spell it the way you like it more often.
That brings me to one more point: a piece of advice to those professional researchers getting huge funds to look into producing a malaria vaccine.
Big hint: malaria regularly torments people with AA genotype but leaves those with AS relatively unscathed! That’s my expert opinion – from empirical evidence around my own home growing up in Nigeria.
With the financial crisis stemming from the US mortgage bombshell during the antiterrorism war in Iraq and Afghanistan becoming increasingly more global each month, new fallout has emerged.
Talk about a double whammy! China is a Communist/Socialist Eastern nation that has emerged to become the major lender to America, the heretofore epitome of capitalism!
As if the embarrassment of having to swallow that bitter fact were not enough, it appears now that many cash-strapped Westerners are surreptitiously taking what I would call a health holiday to China in order to get access to expert but cheaper medical and health care…
I hope I am not beginning to sound like one of those writers of anti-capitalism rhetoric – because I am not anti-making-dough in any sense, whether the sun is shining while I am hay making or not.
A relevant excerpt – leaving out some most of the gruesome details - about this trend in organ transplant tourists is as follows:
[…China has banned all transplants for foreigners — so-called organ tourists — because an estimated 1.5 million Chinese are on waiting lists for transplants. The ban was issued May 1, 2007… 17 tourists had spent $87,000 each for the operations. The price included travel, accommodations and 20 days of treatment at a hospital in Guangzhou, in southern China … An investigation in China in 2004 by the British newspaper The Independent found a flourishing underground trade in organ sales and transplants, especially for Japanese patients...]
If you are scheduled for a stress test – to monitor the performance of your heart under the load of strenuous activities, take particular note of these major warnings:
[…The U.S. National Library of Medicine offers these suggestions to help you prepare:
For at least three hours prior to the stress test, don't eat or smoke. And don't drink anything that contains alcohol or caffeine.
Do not use Viagra within 24 hours of the test. Nitroglycerin (sometimes given during a stress test) may interact with Viagra, resulting in a dangerous drop in blood pressure…]
IN and OUT; UP or DOWN; LEFT then RIGHT; TURN not REVERSE; REPEAT but REST...
AEROBICS
AVOID THE 3 MOST COMMON GYM MISTAKES
Mistake #1: No warm-up or cool-down
Jumping into your workout routine without a proper warm-up or finishing without a proper cool-down is a surefire way to set yourself up for acute injuries during the workout or chronic injuries over time......
Mistake #2: Poor technique
Doing an exercise too quickly or executing a move with sloppy form can increase your risk of injury. And an injury can interrupt your workout program, and make it difficult to be consistent and get results......
Mistake #3: Skipping muscles or movements
Most of us tend to work muscle groups that are problem areas or important to us.For example, many women place an extra focus on their legs, buns and thighs, and many men place more focus on their chest and arms. And everyone wants flat, tight abs!
It is OK to place an emphasis on the muscle groups that are extra important to you, but it is critical to provide your body with a balanced workout to avoid short- and long-term injuries......
1. Smart, consistent scheduling – Keeping a regular workout schedule that fits into your life makes it easier to stick to your program......
2. Proper pacing and progression – Pacing yourself, listening to your body and not overdoing it help ensure you don’t get too tired or injured, and this makes it easier to stay consistent......
3. Shorter workouts when necessary – Even if you are consistent, life has a way of throwing curve balls into your schedule, and you may not always have the amount of time you had planned to work out. However, even a little exercise is better than no exercise.......
4. Well-timed workout “vacations” – To avoid burnout, it is important every now and again to take workout “vacations” – one day, two days … maybe even a week......
5. New adventure workouts – Trying a new activity, sport or challenge can be a great way to keep your training interesting and fun........
6. Strength AND flexibility training – Fitness fanatics tend to be “cardio junkies” and spend most of their workout time challenging their heart and lungs. However, a well-rounded workout program should also include strength-training and stretching.......
7. Workout buddies – The single best way to boost your workout consistency is to find someone to work out with you....
Remember, you don’t need to incorporate ALL of these tips. Just try the ones that appeal you.
Who is at risk? • Women who are older. A woman over age 60 is at greatest risk. The disease is very uncommon before menopause. • Women with a family history of breast cancer. Women face a greater threat if their mother, sister or daughter had breast cancer, especially before age 40. • Not having children or having a first child after age 30 increases the risk. Women who had their first menstrual period before age 12 or went through menopause after age 55 are more likely to develop the disease. • Women who become obese after menopause. • Menopausal hormone therapy also increases the risk. • Women who are physically inactive throughout life appear to have an increased risk of breast cancer. Being physically active may help to reduce the risk by preventing weight gain and obesity. • Women who drink alcohol. Some studies suggest that the more alcoholic beverages a woman drinks, the greater her risk of breast cancer.
Please note that the author of this blog is not a medical doctor or surgeon or practitioner.
He is just someone who has been interested in providing helpful and cutting edge medical information from professionals in the field - and from his own personal experience or from those of his relatives and friends or acquaintances - in order that those who may need similar aid in a timely manner can get it or at least know exactly where to access it.
Intrauterine devices appear to be safe and effective for women who ordinarily might not be considered good candidates for this form of contraceptive because of factors such as a history of sexually transmitted infections, multiple partners or prior pelvic inflammatory disease, according to a new report.....
IUDs have a high level of effectiveness, do not have any systemic metabolic effects, and require placement just once to provide long-term protection....
After the IUD was inserted, 5.4 percent of women had a clinically diagnosed STD and 19.4 percent had clinically diagnosed gynecologic infection. Three pregnancies were reported after insertion.
No significant increased risk of pelvic inflammatory disease was seen after IUD insertion compared with before insertion....
Alcohol and drug addiction can ruin lives and devastate families. We must continue working toward a society in which our citizens can lead lives free from the influence of alcohol and drugs. Friends and family members can play a vital role in the fight and prevention of abuse by discussing the dangers and consequences with loved ones....
The Drug Enforcement Agency is helping stem the flow of illegal drugs into the United States by targeting the production, distribution, and sale of methamphetamines and other precursor drugs.
The Drug Free Communities Program helps our neighborhoods develop strategies to prevent substance abuse. .....we seek to raise awareness about the destructive cycle of addiction and work to provide assistance to those who suffer from substance abuse.
All men can develop prostate cancer, yet studies have shown that risk increases with age. Although the exact cause of the disease is not yet known, factors that may affect the likelihood of developing prostate cancer include race, diet, general health, and family history.
Because the chances of surviving prostate cancer may be higher when it is diagnosed and treated in its early stages, men should speak with their doctors about their risk and screening options....
Through work at the National Institutes of Health, National Cancer Institute, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Department of Defense, we are exploring the genetic, biochemical, environmental, and lifestyle factors that increase prostate cancer risk and lead to its development and progression....
.....Ovarian cancer is one of the leading causes of cancer-related deaths among women in our country, and the risk of developing it increases with age and a family history of this disease.
Other risk factors include a history of endometrial, colon, or breast cancer, and obesity. Because early detection is crucial in treating ovarian cancer and its symptoms can be difficult to identify, women should consult their doctors about personal risk factors, early warning signs, and screening options....
We will continue to commit our resources to seek better ways to prevent, detect, and ultimately cure ovarian cancer.....
Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer cases and cancer deaths around the world, claiming 1.3 million lives each year.
In the United States, 213,380 new cases and 160,390 lung cancer deaths are expected this year.
Nearly 60 percent of people die within one year of diagnosis. Nearly 75 percent die within two years. Only about 15 percent survive five years or more.
Five-year survival rate:
— Stage 1: 47 percent
— Stage 2: 26 percent
— Stage 3: 8 percent
— Stage 4: 2 percent
Sources: American Cancer Society, American College of Surgeons
Check out your sleep habits with this quick RealAge test to find out what’s keeping you up at night.
Despite the laments of pining pop stars and sad sack poets, U.S. researchers now think breaking up may not be so hard to do.....
Finkel and colleague Paul Eastwick studied young lovers — especially those who profess ardent affection — to see if their predictions of devastation matched their actual angst when that love was lost.....
“People who are more in love really are a little more upset after a breakup, but their perceptions about how distraught they will be are dramatically overstated when compared to reality,”....
Two dozen investigators from the CDC, the World Health Organization and other health agencies have been in a remote part of western Uganda, following the death ... of a 29-year-old man who worked in a lead mine there.
The man died of Marburg virus, a rare cousin of Ebola that can cause a rapid and gruesome death in which patients may bleed from the eyes, ears and elsewhere....
Since Marburg was first identified in 1967, large outbreaks have been reported in Congo, Angola and other countries. It can spread from person to person and international health responses to outbreaks are common....
.....WHAT IS YOUR MESSAGE TO OTHER PEOPLE WITH THE SAME CONDITION?
If you're overweight don't just sit back and expect a miracle.
You need to take action and the sooner the better. Think about longevity and the bigger picture - do you want to be around to see your kids grow up?
Go to your doctor or get in touch with a group like the British Heart Foundation who can tell you the facts about being overweight and give you some advice on how to get started with exercise.
You don't have to join a gym or hire a personal trainer.
It really is as simple as doing the vacuuming, pruning the bushes or playing footie with the kids, so long as it's regular.
If you have a spare 30 minutes don't sit around and watch TV, get out and go for a walk! You will feel better and notice little differences in just weeks, and within months you'll see some major change.
Scientists using a computer game have discovered how the brain's response to fear changes as a threat gets nearer in a development that could help people suffering from panic attacks.
Two key areas of the brain are involved in fear, with the more impulsive region taking over as a threat looms closer. A malfunctioning in the balance between the two could explain some anxiety disorders, researchers believe.
To find out exactly where our fear resides, British scientists scared volunteers with a Pac Man-like computer game, in which subjects were chased through a maze by an artificial predator. If caught, they received a mild electric shock.
Simultaneous brain scans measuring blood flow showed that when the predator was distant, lower parts of the prefrontal cortex area of the brain behind the eyebrows were active.
This region is associated with complex decision-making, such as planning an escape.
But when the predator moved closer, activity shifted to the periaqueductal grey area, responsible for quick-response survival mechanisms such as fighting, flight or freezing....
"It's a bit like a see-saw — both regions play a role but one becomes more dominant at different stages of threat,"......
Although banned since 2002, puffer fish continues to be sold in large quantities at local markets and restaurants....
“Some sellers dye the meat of puffer fish and make it look like salmon which is very dangerous,”....
The ovaries, liver and intestines of the puffer fish contain tetrodotoxin, a poison so potent that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration says it can “produce rapid and violent death.”......
Every year, there are reports of people dying or falling sick in Asia from eating puffer fish. Eating the fish can cause paralysis, vomiting, heart failure and death....
A common cause of pneumonia can kill by causing bleeding in the lungs, researchers said .... in a finding that may explain why antibiotics fail to save many patients.
They found the bacteria Streptococcus pneumonia secretes a toxin that causes severe bleeding in the lungs in some patients, killing them within days.
The toxin is unaffected by antibiotics, which explains why the drugs often fail to save patients, the researchers reported....
S. pneumonia infects the upper respiratory tract, causing pneumonia, meningitis and ear infections in the elderly and young children.
Before a vaccine was introduced in 2000, there were 500,000 cases of pneumococcal pneumonia every year in the United States, with up to 40,000 of them serious.
Serious pneumonia killed up to 100 children every year and thousands of elderly people....
Many experts assumed that inflammation killed patients. As with any bacteria or virus, the body’s immune system activates to repel the invader, but in some patients this reaction becomes too strong and can itself be fatal.
“Many patients die at a very early time point -- 48 hours or so, but less than 72 hours. People noticed this but they didn’t know why,”.....
But Li’s team found a possible antidote, a protein called plasminogen activator inhibitor 1 or PAI-1....
Li believes that spraying it into the breathing passages of patients may counteract the action of pneumolysin.
“The next step will be to design a small molecule, a protein fragment, that can mimic PAI-1, which would be easier to deliver in the lungs, more effective and have fewer side effects,” .....
“It would be even better if we could design an aerosol form, so you could just spray it into the air around these patients and their bleeding would stop.”....
With the help of unscrupulous doctors and pharmacists, hundreds of Web sites dispense prescription narcotics to customers in exchange for nothing more than a credit card number.
Even as law enforcement agencies and state governments respond, rogue pharmacies continue to grow, filling hundreds of prescriptions a day.... about 95 percent of products sold by online pharmacies are controlled substances.
By comparison, controlled substances amount to roughly 11 percent of the dosages dispensed by legitimate pharmacies....
Pharmacist Don Perdue has seen customers who run out of prescription refills turn to illegal online pharmacies....wants to see federal law changed to make it easier to shut down illicit pharmacies....
The experiments.....offer a scientific explanation for a phenomenon experienced by one in 10 people.
Two teams used virtual reality goggles to con the brain into thinking the body was located elsewhere.
The visual illusion plus the feel of their real bodies being touched made volunteers sense that they had moved outside of their physical bodies.
The researchers say their findings could have practical applications, such as helping take video games to the next level of virtuality so the players feel as if they are actually inside the game.
Clinically, surgeons might also be able to perform operations on patients thousands of miles away by controlling a robotic virtual self....
For some, out-of-body experiences or OBEs occurs spontaneously, while for others it is linked to dangerous circumstances, a near-death experience, a dream-like state or use of alcohol or drugs....
Women who force themselves to stay quiet during marital arguments appear to have a higher risk of death..... Depression and irritable bowel syndrome are also more common in these women.
Such “self-silencing” during conflict may have provided an evolutionary survival advantage long ago, and unfortunately may be a necessity for women in abusive relationships.....
Eaker and her colleagues found that, over a 10-year period, the most striking finding was that women who self-silenced were four times more likely to die than women who expressed themselves freely during marital arguments....
The study confirmed that marriage is good for men’s health — compared with unmarried men, husbands were nearly half as likely to die during the follow-up period.
The researchers also found that men whose wives came home from work upset about their jobs were 2.7 times as likely to develop heart disease as men with less work-stressed wives....
The findings underscore the importance of healthy communication within marriage....“both spouses really need to allow another person a safe environment to express feelings when they’re in conflict,” both for their own health, and for the health of the relationship....
Rock-solid evidence that testosterone is tumbling is still limited to studies on men in Denmark and Finland. But other indicators — like the global fall of sperm counts — seem to point to a downward trend worldwide.
Shanna Swan, Ph.D., .....reviewed sperm concentrations from men in 61 countries between 1934 and 1996, and discovered a strong downward slope: "It's dropping by about 1 percent per year, but the trend is strongest in Western Europe and the United States."
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