PSoTD

These and other baby product recalls are being kept in the public eye by Keeping Babies Safe.

This should be required reading for small business owners.

For anyone my age, Tim Russert's death hits like a double whammy: there is the sadness of the loss of a well-known and well-liked person that had family and many many friends, and there's also the realization that Russert wasn't really much older than us, and it brings the value of "time left" to the forefront of thinking.

Tim Russert's life has been, and will be, discussed considerably in the next few days. I'm wondering, however, how much the story of his death will be covered. For millions of people, this newsworthy and dominant story of the symptomless result of coronary artery disease could lead to their personal efforts to reduce their risk. It's a story that deserves the bright lights of national news coverage attention, and the tragic Russert death could actually help to improve the health of a nation if approached properly by news organizations.

They can be annoying things.

Whatshername wrote about it.

A passenger train was quarantined today after one person died and some people had to be hospitalized with flu-like symptoms in Ontario, CBC reports on its website.

Canwest News Service reports that emergency crews have sealed off two of the cars.

"The whole place is being overrun with ambulances and police cars, and we've got helicopters," Deborah DesRochers, chairwoman of Foleyet, tells the Canadian broadcaster. "They've got the train quarantined. They're trying to isolate what it is."

CBC says the train was carrying about 290 passengers and crew members.

Canwest says 10 people are being treated at a hospital. The rest are being kept on the train, the news service says.

"No one is going onto the train without full protective gear,'' police spokeswoman Sgt. Laura Nichols tells CTV.

The Canadian, as this train is known, was headed from Vancouver to Toronto.

Update at 1:10 p.m. ET: Canadian Press says a woman in her 60s died after boarding the train in Jasper, Alberta. "We don't know if the element is viral or bacterial or a case of food poisoning," provincial police Constable Marc Depatie tells the news service.

He tells CTV that seven passengers from the Jasper area are sick.

Cancer drugs sticker shock.

Drug prices are a growing issue for every disease, especially for people who are uninsured. But cancer sticker shock is hitting hard now, as a list of more advanced biotech drugs have made treatment rounds costing $100,000, or even more, no longer a rarity. Also, patients are living longer, good news but meaning they need treatment for longer periods. The cost of cancer care is rising 15 percent a year, Lichter notes.

Not sure how I missed this, but worth posting:

Some state legislators don't like all the TV commercials from Blue Cross-Blue Shield plans. State Sen. Don White, R-Indiana, complains Highmark Inc. runs TV spots "relentlessly" in his western Pennsylvania district.

He wonders why, given Highmark already dominates the health insurance market in that part of the state. He also wondered if the cost of the commercials, which include health-related public service messages, are counted as part of the Blues' social missions.

Blues plans -- Pennsylvania has four -- are nonprofits, and must fulfill a social mission in return for non-profit status.

The subject of the ads came up this week as legislators questioned Anita Smith, CEO of Susquehanna Twp.-based Capital Blue Cross. Smith said the commercials aren't counted as part of the social mission.

She also defended the need for the Blues, who compete against major for-profit insurers including Aetna and HealthAmerica, to promote their brand. And the public service spots, such as those encouraging kids to eat healthy and exercise, can eventually lower health care costs by reducing obesity and lifestyle-related illnesses, she said.

Smith appears in many of Capital's ads. "The talent comes cheap. They don't pay me for it, and they don't pay the little blue guy," she said, referring to her "Blue Man" co-star.

That seems misleading. Is Smith trying to say that she isn't being paid for being the public face of Capital Blue Cross? If not, why does she do it?

As for the blue guy, doesn't somebody get paid to create him?

I knew there was a good reason I like it:

In recent years, the medicinal properties of cinnamon have been explored scientifically by U.S. Department of Agriculture scientists in Maryland.

A recent study included 60 people with Type II diabetes. The participants ate a small amount (less than one-fourth teaspoon) of cinnamon twice per day. After 40 days, the participants showed a decrease in blood sugar, triglycerides and blood cholesterol (LDL and total cholesterol) levels.

The scientists reported that cinnamon may improve the efficiency of insulin, which is the hormone responsible for moving blood sugar (glucose) into cells. In fact, the effects of cinnamon lasted up to 20 days.

Keeping them awake so they can drink more...

Energy drinks with alcohol aimed at youths

The images, culled from social networking sites, flashed on a screen: young people laughing, partying, clutching colorful cans of drinks with names like Sparks, Joose and Tilt.

...

Energy drinks with alcohol are dangerous, they are targeted at young people and are hard to distinguish from their nonalcoholic counterparts, the speakers said at a conference Friday morning at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza.

...

The drinks, with their sleek graphics, are referred to as a "speedball in a can," cost less than energy drinks without alcohol and are marketed on Web sites designed to appeal to young people, Ventura County Sheriff's Chief Deputy Geoff Dean told the audience.

"They are intentionally marketing these to a certain segment," Dean said.

Three cans of one of the beverages equals five shots of whiskey and contains the caffeine of 15 Diet Pepsi's, Dean said.

The stimulant of the energy drinks can mask how intoxicated a person is and prevent them from realizing how much alcohol they have consumed, according to Ventura County Limits. The stimulant effect can also make a person not realize they are drunk. Both energy drinks and alcohol cause dehydration.

...

The Sheriff's Department was recently successful in getting one major grocery chain to separate alcohol energy drinks from nonalcoholic energy drinks.

Weird. Alcoholic beverages cost less than nonalcoholic beverages that they're trying to emulate?

Teenage riot.

Central Dauphin School District has removed salt from the tables in its secondary school cafeterias this school year, and CD High School students are venting their displeasure on Facebook.com, the social networking Web site.

Despite the complaints, CD could be leading a trend. In recent years, schools have complied with federal regulations and state guidelines to limit fat, sugar and calories in school meals. Now they're turning their attention to sodium.

"Federal guidelines recommend no more than 11/2 grams of sodium [less than a teaspoon], and we do encourage schools to take the salt shakers off the tables, but we don't mandate it," said Margarita Maisterrena, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Agriculture's food and nutrition service.

...

CD senior Alex Knapp bristled at the new rule.

"We understand where they're coming from with wellness, but our concern is, why can't we as students be trusted with the decision regarding our salt intake?" he said in a phone interview. "Why are they still providing us with soft pretzels, which are covered with salt?"

Some students bring salt packets from nearby restaurants, he said.

Limiting sodium intake is meant to decelerate growing rates of metabolic syndrome, in which high blood pressure, obesity and other factors contribute to heart disease, said associate director of food services Cindy Magee, a dietitian.

I'm all for this. Who salts their food anymore? Simple preventative measures now beat the heck out of illness and medical bills in 25 years. So just shaddap and do what you're told, kids. It's for your own good. You'll thank us later. Really.

No, but there's been an oddity in this year's flu patterns:

One of the mantras of global public health is that infectious diseases know no borders. But this year's flu season continues to thumb its nose at that notion, rolling out in distinctly different patterns on either side of the 49th parallel.

Maps generated by the Public Health Agency of Canada and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control show widespread flu activity in 49 U.S. states, but in only one province, British Columbia. Other parts of Canada are experiencing localized or even sporadic outbreaks; some may be past the peak of their flu seasons.

What explains the differences? Experts shake their heads and marvel at the enduring ability of the famously unpredictable influenza virus to confound explanation and prediction.

Ask Dr. Nancy Cox, head of the CDC's Influenza Division, if she's surprised to see distinctly different seasons playing out on the upper and lower part of the continent, and her response reflects her many years of study of this virus.

"Yes and no," says Cox, who is credited with having coined the oft-repeated expression, "If you've seen one flu season, you've seen one flu season."

"It surprises me because influenza viruses really do not respect boundaries. It doesn't surprise me because we've seen these very striking differences between influenza season in the U.S. and the influenza season in Canada in the past - and haven't been able to explain the differences."

For ease of discussion, people talk about influenza as if it were an entity. But in fact, there are three types that cause human disease - influenza A, B and to a lesser degree C. There are two subtypes of A viruses, H3N2 and H1N1.

And because the viruses mutate constantly, there are families of viruses within each of those types.

In Canada this year, two families of H3N2 viruses, one H1N1 virus, and two influenza B virus groups are circulating and causing disease. The flu shot gives people who get it protection against one H1N1, one H3N2 and one B virus.

But the main viruses causing disease so far this year in Canada are H1N1s that are closely matched to the one included in this year's flu shot. So people who got a flu shot - and as many as about a third of Canadians do - would be well positioned to ward off assault from those viruses.

In the United States, a recent surge in H3N2 activity has made those viruses the most predominant cause of illness there this year.

Seems like it's here. We've been going through something in our household, and when I coached basketball yesterday, the girls told me that there had been a lot of kids out sick this week, and the opposing team was down to 6 players. When I was at the grocery, it seemed like everyone had a cough or runny nose.

This flu sounds like it wasn't quite what was expected with the vaccine.

One of the little quirks of my family - which goes back to when I was a kid and probably goes back generations - is the enjoyment we derive from having our back scratched. Not rubbed - but a light nail scratch gently across the back.

In my personal experience, the "rub" is greatly inferior to the "scratch" in terms of pleasure, the rub feels good, but the scratch clearly does some alteration to the entire body and brain while it is in process. Relaxation, almost to the point of falling asleep, is the result.

I've often wondered, and still do, why a slightly sharper but smaller point of contact on the back is so much more impacting than a larger, duller contact - the different between fingernails and fingers. Perhaps science is starting to unravel this mystery.

There's a lot of buzz out there about the health benefits of the neti pot.

For 21 straight years I've dutifully pumped my body full of drugs with names like Zyrtec, Optivar, Astelin, Benadryl, Nasalcort, Allegra, Singulair, Nasonex, Claritan, Clarinex and Seldane - shelling out anywhere from $10 to $35 per month, per drug, just for the right to breathe.

Last year, my allergies were so bad in the winter and spring, I was spending $100 a month on a three-drug cocktail, just so I could see (the allergies affected my eyes), breathe and sleep.

That, the medical experts told me, was my only choice.

So imagine my surprise the first time I tried the "neti pot."

The neti pot is a simple device - it looks like an Aladdin lamp crossed with an old-fashioned cream pourer - that allows users to engage in nasal irrigation.

What's nasal irrigation? Well, it's what it sounds like. You pour a salt-water solution up one nostril and it comes out the other.

It was my wife who first told me about the neti pot. She saw it on Oprah. Dr. Oz was pimping it as a solution for allergy and sinusitis sufferers. The practice of nasal irrigation goes back many years, he said. It's a yogi purification practice.

When I first heard about it and saw the videos of people using it online, I said: "No way. There's no way I'm pouring crap up my nose and letting it come out the other side. That's gross. And stupid."

And then my wife bought me one for Christmas. And to be a good sport I tried it.

I was blown away.

It works wonders. I've used it twice a day - after I brush my teeth in the morning and at night - for three weeks.

I'm off the drugs.

January 8th, and it might be 70 degree outside. Fresh air...

Stomach Flu Spread By Contaminated Computer Keyboards

It has a catchy name.

Professor Joseph G. Grzywacz of Wake Forest University School of Medicine reports in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine ...

NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) - A flexible work life, including telecommuting and job shares, is good for your health, researchers said on Tuesday.

They found that if people have the ability to work from home and to compress work weeks, they are more likely to make healthier lifestyle choices, to exercise more and to sleep better.

This is why we're a poor but healthy bunch at PSoTD!

Is it because we expect people in nursing homes to be depressed?

Nursing home residents with proper eyeglasses enjoy life more and are less depressed than those with uncorrected vision problems, a study has found. Obvious? Perhaps, but nursing home residents have three to 15 times higher rates of uncorrected vision impairment than seniors living independently.

Before testing their vision, researchers led by opthalmologist Cynthia Owsley scored 150 nursing home residents on scales of quality of life and depression. "Some of the people had no glasses at all," says Dr. Owsley, a professor at the University of Alabama, Birmingham. "Some had glasses at one time, but they got lost. And some had glasses but the wrong prescription."

Half of the residents had their vision tested and corrected immediately with proper glasses. Two months later, both groups were retested for depression and how much they enjoyed life. Then, the second group had its vision tested and corrected.

The study, published in the Archives of Ophthalmology, found that those receiving glasses did better on follow up, reporting much less difficulty reading, looking at magazines, playing cards, watching television and reading a clock, Dr. Owsley says. "They also had less psychological distress and were more socially interactive."

I think the big question is - what will nursing homes, and the medical care and finance community, do about this?

It must take a while. I've been going to the YMCA 4-5 days a week now for about a month and can't say I have any more friends because of it.

Or maybe it's just me.

Since I take this medication, I'm interested in this story, although late getting to it. There sure doesn't seem to be much followup in the press.

A Barron's newspaper article Monday cited physician concerns that Abbott's cholesterol medicine TriCor might cause kidney and heart problems. But Abbott disputed the report on its fourth largest selling drug, and investors shrugged off the article.

Barron's referenced a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association earlier this year by Dr. Steve Nissen that raised questions about the drug's safety. The small study found that levels of creatinine, a substance produced by the muscles and eliminated by the kidneys, can be elevated in patients taking fenofibrate, marketed by Abbott as TriCor.

The concern is that the increased levels could be a sign of kidney function decline, according to Nissen, chairman of the department of cardiovascular medicine at the Cleveland Clinic. Such a decline could lead to plaque buildup in the arteries that in turn could increase cardiac events, according to another cardiologist quoted by Barron's.

by William Bonilla

I painfully prepare, my deep Hot Tub
Adjusting the hottest water
I could stand
To soothe my achy body

That just recently
Greeted the morning sun.

With an achy body
Last night
I laid, to sleep
Hoping the sandman
Would have mercy on me
As he dusted my eyes
I seek relieve.

Too many interruptions
In my dreams
As I constantly wake
For several short journys
To drain the lizard.

In my Hot Tub I dream
Dreams
With open eyes
As my thoughts travel
Through
My youthful memories
Where pain was unknown
Unless you broke a leg.

Days when pain
Was, but a challenge
Of endurance
Pain was seek then
Not wanted
As every sunrise
Has for me.

I seek not pity
I blame non
The cards have been dealt
In a game of no return
As I accept, my hand.

For I am, but a man
Of flesh
My soul is energy
Slowing down.

My heart
Used to host a flame
Which in time has trickled
To a glowing ember
Waiting a slow demise
As it flickers dim.

The Reaper stands
At the edge, of my infinity
To gallantly gather
My ashen dust
I pray, he scatters them
Into the four winds.

May my seed, root deeper
As a tear may escape
While memories of me
Travel through their
Blest thoughts.

The whole chore seems pretty mellow to me, I must be doing it wrong.

Even though raking does not utilize power tools or sharp blades, it can still cause injuries. According to 2006 U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission statistics, more than 76,000 people were treated in hospital emergency rooms, doctors' offices, clinics and other medical settings for injuries related to non-powered garden tools, including rakes.

"Many people consider raking just another chore, but it requires a lot more reaching, bending and lifting than most odd jobs," says Daryll C. Dykes, MD, PhD, orthopaedic surgeon and spokesperson for the Academy. "Raking should be treated like any other vigorous exercise. People should pay close attention to their arms and backs, being careful not to reach or stretch too far."

Seriously, though, there are good recommendations to warm up before raking to prevent such injuries.

Thursday mornings are usually a time for soreness for me, but one I appreciate. For 2/3rds of the year, I play basketball on Wednesday nights, and I've always had some tightness or ache the day after, but at 48, well, these occurrences have increased. I can count on my ankles or feet to be achey - not pain as much as the dull reminder that they were used harder than normal yesterday, and they comment for a while after I get up, and then those aches go away.

Sometimes my right shoulder is sore, sometimes a tendon or ligament elsewhere. Lately my lower back has been tightening up a bit. Sometimes I know when something occurred during basketball that snagged me, most of the times I don't. I used to bemoan the Thursday Aches, if only as a reminder that hell, I'm getting older, my body's not as prepared as it should be for Wednesday nights. But I've actually learned to appreciate, if not enjoy, the Thursday aches now. Not because I like pain, but because it's at least hope that I'm doing something to slow down my decay.

What I really ought to do is pick up the regimen so that I "enjoy" the soreness three mornings a week, but it will have to be something other than hoops, something I can fit in while the kids are at school.

This sounds like the kind of national business that George W. Bush might run after he leaves office.

A company that spreads processed human waste from New York on north Alabama farmland has agreed to make changes after complaints about strong odors.

Alabama Agriculture Commissioner Ron Sparks and officials of Synagro Technologies talked Friday and both sides then issued statements about the planned changes.

Sparks said the officials of the Houston-based company had assured him “they will no longer distribute the fertilizer on pasture land.” Where it is spread, it will be worked into the dirt instead of being placed on top of the soil.

The company said it will continue going to the most remote locations for applications and will make deliveries just before application to reduce odor concerns. It also plans to alter transportation routes to avoid populated areas and schools.

Synagro Technologies has a contract to dispose of human wastes from New York. The company, which operates with approval from the Environmental Protection Agency, treats sludge from wastewater plants in New York and ships it to Alabama by rail car. The sludge is treated at a plant in Leighton, then offered at no charge to farmers in Limestone County to fertilize their fields.

About 40 farmers have signed up and more are on a waiting list.

The spreading of the fertilizer has drawn opposition from the Limestone County Commission and complaints from neighbors.

Meanwhile, Commission Chairman David Seibert said Friday he will meet next week with Synagro officials.

“We have a meeting set up with them Thursday,” Seibert said. “Hopefully, something can be worked out at that time.”

Commissioners voted Wednesday to seek an injunction to stop the spread of the human wastes on Limestone County farmland as fertilizer. Seibert is in the process of seeking that injunction in Limestone County Circuit Court.

Residents in the Goodsprings area of Northwest Limestone County complained two weeks ago that the sludge being spread on farmland there has created an unbearable odor.

Borborygmi.

I was given Versed to put me out prior to my arthroscopic surgery yesterday. It was very effective, and when I came to, I felt a bit groggy only for a few minutes and then I felt like I was pretty much back to normal.

However, both my wife and my daughter have been telling me about ordinary events that occurred yesterday between 9:30 AM and 1 PM or so that involved me that I have no, or only very, very fuzzy recollections of. Other recollections, such as watching Tora! Tora! Tora! on television, are pretty clear. This isn't usually an issue for me, so I thought maybe there was some sort of memory issue with versed - and found these postings about the drug.

And wheeze.

Finally, today's my date with the dreaded knee surgery... Whee! I'll be back sometime after I wake up after the a-scoping.

Just a horrible thing to do.

HIV positive patients in Zimbabwe face more risks amid reports that unlicensed drug dealers are flooding the market with counterfeit ARVs that could do more harm than good to the health of consumers.

The country’s medicines regulatory body has warned that patients on ARVs should avoid buying the drugs from the parallel market were the drugs are cheaper but also fake. The Medicines Control Authority of Zimbabwe (MCAZ) said this week that individual drug importers had flooded the local market with cheap counterfeit ARVs, which they are selling from unlicensed locations such as flea markets and hair salons.

MCAZ fears the drugs could expose HIV positive people to health hazards as counterfeit medicines usually cause drug resistance.

“This is a dangerous practice because the medicines may have been subjected to inappropriate and hazardous storage conditions, thus affecting the quality and effectiveness of the medicine.

“Such medicines may be counterfeited, adulterated and contaminated, thus rendering them ineffective and sometimes dangerous”, said the MCAZ in a statement.

Health and Child Welfare Minister David Parirenyatwa said his Ministry was fighting to stamp out the unauthorised drugs market, estimated to be worth billions.

“We are aware that people may want to make capital out of it especially in light of the HIV and AIDS pandemic,” said Parirenyatwa.

Medical experts say the collapse of the government health system has created a vacuum in which a parallel market for drugs has thrived. They warned that un-prescribed ARVs would result in drug resistance.

Sixty-two thousand HIV–positive people are on the government’s treatment programme, but this figure is expected to double by the end of this year.

But over 700 000 Zimbabweans are estimated to be in urgent need of ARV therapy.

If you're flying with young kids to different states, and you're not taking your kids' car seat/booster with you, this chart might come in handy in determining the law for where you're going - although simply following the locality's law to the letter isn't necessarily the safest thing for your children. It's surprising how much difference there is in the law from state to state on this child safety issue.

Was there something hinky about that blue plate special you just picked through at lunch? Find out your chances of keeping it down at the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture's website. They have a searchable database of food safety inspection results and compliance statuses for eating establishments throughout the state.

Browse for violations at your favorite restaurants or zero in on the joints to avoid. Bon appetit!

Decide what you're having for lunch yet?

No way I'm eating one of these but this guy tried to. You could clog an artery just looking at it. Put me down for Chinese!

I think we've all seen it.