Here is some information on Memorial Day by the Department of Veterans' Affairs.
And here is a link to our Veterans' Day tribute to all who have laid their lives on the line for our country, including two family members who died in World War I.Permalink | Comments
Category Random Musings
- Drugs This is a scary one. Modafinil, officially prescribed to treat narcolepsy, keeps healthy people awake and alert on little sleep. Students wanting an extra edge on exams are taking Ritalin for its concentration-enhancing effects. No matter how much it's claimed that the drugs are not harmful, I'm extremely skeptical. But if athletes will sacrifice their future for a little present glory, taking metabolic steroids despite the known risk, can performance-enhanced SAT scores be far behind?
- Food We've heard most of this before: Eat a protein-rich breakfast; they suggest beans or Marmite on whole grain toast, but perhaps we could get away with peanut butter. Throughout the day emphsize fiber (improved cognition), B-vitamins (brain-boosters), eggs and yogurt (for building neurotransmitters), colorful fruits and vegetables (antioxidants), and fish (brain-enhancing omega-3 fatty acids). Avoid brain-fouling trans fats.
- Music The jury is still out on the Mozart Effect, but the brain-boosting benefits of music lessons are clear.
- Mental Workouts Exercises for improving memory help other parts of the brain as well.
- Physical Workouts Regular exercise promotes brain growth and reduces brain-damaging stress homones. Aerobic exercise, sedate walking, and yoga have all shown significant benefit.
- Sleep Just what Mom always said: If you don't get enough sleep, that extra studying is a waste of time. Not only does sleep improve attention and concentration, but it gives the brain a chance to work in ways it can't when you're awake. Sometimes a problem really can be solved by "sleeping on it."
- Not for Children Only Contrary to what we were all told, even adults can grow new brain cells.
- Strange but True? You might have more brain power than you think. Volunteers in one study increased the strength of their biceps by 13% after 12 weeks of spending 15 minutes a day just thinking about exercising. And neurofeedback, related to biofeedback, has enabled some people to use their brains in surprising ways, from improving musical technique, to reducing pain, to treating ADHD.
- Attitude A healthy brain is only one of the benefits of a positive, happy outlook on life.
So what did we do without our Cattlemen's? I tried one alternative brand of barbecue sauce after another; I even tried making my own. Several were good, nothing was what I remembered. Perhaps my memory was fooling me, as it often does, and Cattlemen's wasn't really that good. Or so I reasoned, until we went to a commercial barbecue (put on by our credit union, of all things!) and with my first bite, I exclaimed, "This is IT!" Come to find out, from the cooks, that they were indeed using Cattlemen's, which was still available to restaurants.
Yesterday I walked into our local Albertsons grocery store, and what did I see staring at me from the condiment aisle, boldly proclaiming itself amongst all pretenders? Cattlemen's! Once again in retail sizes. Not only the two I remembered, the original ("Award Winning Classic") and the Smoky ("Authentic Smokehouse"), but also a new variety, "Golden Honey." I snatched up one bottle of each, and am looking forward to assuring myself that the quality has returned along with the name.Permalink | Comments
Category Everyday Life
Not that anyone is recommending we go back to the days of frying ourselves on the beaches. Our overuse of sunscreen, however, may actually be causing more cancer than it prevents. Vitamin D, it turns out, plays an important role in preventing and fighting certain cancers, particularly colon cancer—and even skin cancer itself. Not only are we not getting enough vitamin D in our diets, as a rule, but the supplemental vitamin D we do receive (in milk and vitamin supplements) is not as good as the vitamin D made through the collaboration of skin and sun.
So—heed my mother's warning: Respect the sun, limit your exposure, but never forget that fresh air, exercise, and sunshine provide some of life's best medicine. (Turn off the TV and go play outside!)Consider these statements:
- The health department claimed that if a right to artificial nutrition or hydration (ANH) treatment was established, patients would be able to demand other life-prolonging treatments
- [The government argued that the ruling] may be interpreted as giving patients the right to demand certain treatments, contrary to the considered judgment of their medical team, that would lead to patients obtaining access to treatment that is not appropriate for them, and to inefficient (and unfairly skewed) use of resources within the NHS
- [and also that the ruling] had led to a confusion between the roles of doctor and patient—the decision over treatment [is] for the doctor, not the patient
In the words of Mr. Burke's lawyer, "The key issue could be summarised in two words: who decides?" It's not an easy issue, and it won't go away. I remember a conversation with an anesthesiologist friend 25 years ago, in which he warned that health care resources are not infinite and like it or not we will have to make decisions as to how they are allocated. A capitalist system, in which money provides access to health care, seems at first to be monstrously unfair, but I'll take its flexibility any day over socialized medicine, in which life and death decisions—still made on an economic basis; that's unavoidable—are in the hands of an inhuman, faceless bureaucracy. When decisions are left up to individuals and smaller institutions, creativity and compassion have room to flourish. People can cut back in other areas of their budgets to provide for medical care; families and communities can unite to raise funds; deals can be worked out. A friend of ours who never had medical insurance needed a quadruple heart bypass operation. The hospital asked him to pay his $150,000 bill of at a rate of $100/month. He won't live long enough to pay it off, but this solution pleased both him and the hospital. The more decisions are left at a local level, the more flexibility we have.
One thing I know: I agree with Mr. Burke that I don't want a doctor, a lawyer, a judge, or anyone else who doesn't know me extremely well deciding that my "quality of life" isn't worth living.Most of the vistors have been from the United States, but others have come from Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, Bahamas, Belgium, Canada, China, Croatia, Czech Republic, the Dominican Republic, Egypt, Ethiopia, the European Union, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Guatemala, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Luxembourg, Macau, Malaysia, Mexico, Namibia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Pakistan, the Philippines, Poland, Puerto Rico, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Syria, Taiwan, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Venezuela, and Vietnam! I might be able to account for Italy, Hong Kong, and New Zealand as well as a few from the U.S., but who are the rest of you? How did you find my blog? Are you a one-time visitor, or do you check in regularly? What do you like, or not like? Please leave a comment and let me know. You don't have to identify yourself; just let me know you are a real person! I certainly hope that most of my "readers" aren't just robots.
The good news is that if a day care worker can wield the equipment after a week of training, so can a parent. When our children were young we were blessed with a doctor who respected our powers of observation and judgment; he spared us many unnecessary trips to his office by dealing with minor problems over the telephone. Although few doctors these days are so accommodating, perhaps this new equipment will make them feel more comfortable with trusting their patients.
For the most part, however, I don't think this development is worthy of the enthusiasm with which it is being received.
- 92 percent of parents said the hassle-free option allowed them to stay at work when they otherwise would have taken their children to a family doctor or an emergency room
- doctors have diagnosed mostly everyday illnesses like colds, rashes, asthma, ringworm and pink eye that account for almost three-quarters of all pediatric office visits
- any patient with a fever or a contagious disease is sent home
- ...available where children spend the majority of their time, such as schools and child-care centers
I know we must make decisions based on the knowledge we have at the time, and have no problem with honest errors. My quarrel is with those—I include myself—who in the certainty of their own convictions would use the force of law or their position to shut down contrary beliefs.
"First, do no harm."Permalink | Comments
Category Everyday Life
However, there is a downside to all this screening that is now beginning to be recognized.
In an article questioning the wisdom of celebrity endorsements of cancer screening, I came upon these astonishing statements:
- Counterintuitive as it may sound, it's sometimes better not to find out about cancer
- Some cancers are likely to resolve themselves without treatment
- Some patients may be likely to die of another ailment before cancer becomes an issue
- The risk of false positives seems to increase with more screenings
- Overdiagnosis…is an increasing problem
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force has a collection of current recommendations for cancer screening, plus a lot more. I don't know anything about this organization, and in any case it is no ultimate authority, but it's a place to start.
Having known people whose lives were probably saved by cancer screening, and people whose lives were probably shortened by cancer screening, I can only conclude that life is never as simple as we want it to be.- All the teachers among our family and friends
- Teachers who struggle year after year in increasingly difficult situations for the sake of making a schoolchild's day less bleak
- Teachers who quit the system for the sake of conscience
- Teachers who brave dismissal and lawsuits, daring to hug their students
- Teachers who still believe that rigorous study and high achievement are important goals for everyone
- Teachers who work with parents and not against them, respecting their values, insights, and goals
- Students who succeed in making their education their own business, in spite of school
- Students who take back the joy of learning and refuse to submit to school's stultifiying regimen
- Parents who embrace their responsibilities as their children's primary teachers, exercising extreme caution when delegating any of the work to others
- Parents who not only love but respect their children
- All babies and very young children, who know that learning is the most fun game of all, and who excel at it, until we crush their spirits
"The girl has gone into hiding with her family in Ontario to avoid blood transfusions that a [British Columbia] court ordered should be given."
"B.C. courts ruled the girl is capable of making a decision, but B.C. law requires that a person be 19 years or older before they are allowed to refuse lifesaving medical treatment."
"April 11 B.C. Supreme Court ruling said she couldn't refuse treatment despite her religious beliefs."
"The B.C. Ministry of Children and Family Development was granted custody of the girl last week."
"All children are entitled to be protected from abuse and harm . . . the ultimate threat of harm would be death. . . her religious beliefs don't override her right to life and death."
"[An] order of apprehension issued in B.C. remains on police computers."
"We are using all of the resources available to us to make sure that we know where she is."
"An air ambulance to return her to B.C. is on standby."
Think about it.Hard, painstaking work is the toll an independent spirit charges itself for self-respect.
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Category Random Musings
