Like, when you feel like some lame stupor has fallen over your desire to Board, you just want to take a shower. Personally, I like the Mandarin Orange lime bath that the cheapest at Ingles, with about a pound of Epson salt dissolved in the water. That is good for those aching joints.
Then you shower.
Golden, like Pony Boy.
]]>]]>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bisphenol_A#Health_effects
Human exposure sources
Bisphenol A has been known to leach from the plastic lining of canned foods[87] and, to a lesser degree,[citation needed] polycarbonate plastics, especially those that are cleaned with harsh detergents or used to contain acidic or high-temperature liquids. A recent Health Canada study found that the majority of canned soft drinks it tested had low, but measurable levels of bisphenol A.[88] This exposure through metal cans is due to the fact that BPA is an ingredient in the internal coating of food and beverage metal cans used to protect the food from direct contact with metal. While most human exposure is through diet, exposure can also occur through air and through skin absorption.[89]
Studies by the CDC found bisphenol A in the urine of 95% of adults sampled in 1988–1994[90] and in 93% of children and adults tested in 2003–04.[91] Infants fed with liquid formula are among the most exposed, and those fed formula from polycarbonate bottles can consume up to 13 micrograms of bisphenol A per kg of body weight per day (μg/kg/day; see table below).[92] The most sensitive animal studies show effects at much lower doses, while the EPA considers exposures up to 50 µg/kg/day to be safe.[72][93] In 2009, a study found that drinking from polycarbonate bottles increased urinary bisphenol A levels by two thirds, from 1.2 micrograms/gram creatinine to 2 micrograms/gram creatinine.[94]
Consumer groups recommend that people wishing to lower their exposure to bisphenol A avoid canned food and polycarbonate plastic containers (which shares resin identification code 7 with many other plastics) unless the packaging indicates the plastic is bisphenol A-free.[95] The National Toxicology Panel recommends avoiding microwaving food in plastic containers, putting plastics in the dishwasher, or using harsh detergents, to avoid leaching.[96]
]]>http://rawstory.com/news/afp/Lack_of_health_care_killed_2_266_US_11112009.html
Lack of health care killed 2,266 US veterans last year: study
AFP
Published: Wednesday November 11, 2009The number of US veterans who died in 2008 because they lacked health insurance was 14 times higher than the US military death toll in Afghanistan that year, according to a new study.
The analysis produced by two Harvard medical researchers estimates that 2,266 US military veterans under the age of 65 died in 2008 because they lacked health coverage and had reduced access to medical care.
That figure is more than 14 times higher than the 155 US troop deaths in Afghanistan in 2008, the study says.
Released as the United States commemorates fallen soldiers on Veterans Day, the study warns that even health care provided by the Veterans Health Administration (VA) leaves many veterans without coverage.
The analysis uses census data to isolate the number of US veterans who lack both private health coverage and care offered by the VA.
“That’s a group that’s about 1.5 million people,” said David Himmelstein, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and co-founder of Physicians for a National Health Program who co-authored the study.
Himmelstein and co-author Stephanie Woolhandler, also a Harvard medical professor, overlaid that figure with another study examining the mortality rate associated with lack of health insurance.
“The uninsured have about a 40 percent higher risk of dying each year than otherwise comparable insured individuals,” Himmelstein told AFP.
“Putting that all together you get an estimate of almost 2,300—2,266 veterans who die each year from lack of health insurance.”
Only some US veterans have access to medical care through the VA and coverage is apportioned on the basis of eight “priority groups.”
“They range from things like people who were prisoners of war, who have coverage for life, or who have battle injuries and therefore have coverage for their injuries for life,” said Himmelstein.
Veterans who fall below an income threshold that is determined on a county-by-county basis can qualify for care, but many veterans are “working poor” and fall just above the bracket.
“The priority eight group, the lowest priority, are veterans above the very poor group who have no other reason to be eligible and that group is essentially shut out of the VA,” according to Himmelstein.
The study comes as the US Senate weighs health care reform legislation and whether to offer government health insurance.
Himmelstein warns that congressional proposals could still leave veterans uncovered and favors a national health care program similar to those in Britain and Canada.
just a reminder.
There are transparent, delicate short hairs on the underside of nettles’ blue-green leaves and along the stalk. These hairs are both toxic and healing. On contact they cause an intense prickly sensation on the skin, and in some cases a red irritation. This is not because they are sharp, but because of the chemicals they eject into the skin, in the form of tiny multiple localized injections. These hairs are filled primarily with formic acid, acetylchlorine, seratonin and histamines.
How nettles treat arthritis is through a process called urtication. When fresh nettles are lashed against the skin and joints they cause a gentle irritation which encourages the dilation of capillaries, stimulating circulation, nerves, lymphatic flow, and cellular metabolism. The seratonin and histamine are both neurotransmitters which act on the central nervous system. Clinical studies in Europe have found that this chemical cocktail blocks cytokines and other inflammation-producing immune cells, which encourage inflammatory deterioration in bone and cartilage. According to the BBC News article, “Nettles ease arthritis suffering’” (May 31, 2000), research done at the University of Plymouth concluded that nettle urtication reduces arthritic pain, possibly through the neurotransmitters which affect pain perception.
Read more: http://herbalmedicine.suite101.com/article.cfm/stinging_nettles#ixzz0UF2WVFU6
oh, and its real good as a tea and fresh steamed greens. yummy.
http://rawstory.com/08/news/2009/09/08/obama-open-to-sin-tax-on-fattening-beverages/
]]>Obama open to ’sin tax’ on fattening beverages
By Agence France-Presse
President Barack Obama hinted he could support a “sin tax” on fizzy drinks to help lower high rates of US obesity, but admitted it would be an uphill battle against corporate and economic interests.“I actually think it’s an idea that we should be exploring,” Obama said in the forthcoming issue of Men’s Health, regarding potential taxes levied on soft drinks such as colas and other sugar-filled products.
“There’s no doubt that our kids drink way too much soda. And every study that’s been done about obesity shows that there is as high a correlation between increased soda consumption and obesity as just about anything else,” he said in excerpts released ahead of the magazine’s mid-September publication.
The president — reported to be one of the fittest US commanders-in-chief in decades — stressed that “obviously there is resistance on Capitol Hill to those kinds of sin taxes.
“Legislators from certain states that produce sugar or corn syrup are sensitive to anything that might reduce demand for those products,” he said.
In addition, “people’s attitude is that they don’t necessarily want Big Brother telling them what to eat or drink, and I understand that,” Obama added.
“It is true, though, that if you wanted to make a big impact on people’s health in this country, reducing things like soda consumption would be helpful.”
His comments come just six weeks after US health experts told a national conference on obesity in Washington that a significant portion of increased caloric intake in recent decades can be directly attributed to soft drinks and other sugared foods and drinks.
The president is currently embroiled in the most compelling domestic priority of his presidency, a reform of the US health care system.
Obama, who said he works out nearly every day in order to clear his head and reduce stress, described himself as “a healthy eater” with low blood pressure.
He keeps a bowl of apples in the Oval Office. “It was our first step toward health reform,” he said.
Two-thirds of American adults are obese or overweight and obesity-related illnesses cost the United States nearly 150 billion dollars a year, health officials were told at the July conference.
]]>http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/25/business/25novel.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss
Plugging Into the Eye, With a New Design
Article Tools Sponsored By
By ANNE EISENBERG
Published: October 24, 2009WHEN disease destroys vital parts of the eye, causing degrees of blindness, scientists can sometimes replace damaged tissue with electronic implants that help patients see lines and basic shapes.
A model of an eye with a newly designed implant from a Boston group of researchers. The tips of the implant’s electrodes, which help replace the work of diseased rods and cones, slide into a snug berth just below the retina.
But as with any electrical connection, these implants must fit snugly and not jiggle or shake loose after a few months, like a drooping plug in a wall socket.
Now groups of scientists have demonstrated retinal implants that they say will resist the jarring of daily use. The implant contains a tiny array of electrodes whose tips slide into a snug berth just beneath the retina, the nerve tissue lining the back of the eye, and are held in place by natural suction.
The electrodes prompt the remains of retinal circuits to transmit signals to the brain, said John L. Wyatt, a professor of electrical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and co-founder of the Boston Retinal Implant Project, one of the groups that has developed a prototype of the new design. The research team includes scientists from the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, the VA Boston Health Care System and Cornell University.
A camera that is worn on eyeglasses supplies images to the implant wirelessly. The implant is intended for people with retinitis pigmentosa, a disease that damages the rods and cones in the eye, and for macular degeneration, which also affects these photoreceptors, Dr. Wyatt said.
Most retinal prostheses being developed for these diseases have a different design: they tack the electronic arrays to the inside surface of the retina for a tight fit, said Dr. Jay S. Duker, professor and chairman of ophthalmology at Tufts Medical Center in Boston. But using a metal tack may have disadvantages, he said. “The tack can cause bleeding, or shake loose during the life of the implant,” Dr. Duker said.
“The tight contact in this design matters,” he said. “A retinal implant is like any other electrical connection. You don’t want it to shake loose.”
Brian Mech, vice president for business development at Second Sight Medical Products of Sylmar, Calif., which makes retinal prostheses that use a metal tack, said the tacks had not posed problems.
“We’ve implanted 38 people so far with a retinal prosthesis,’ he said, “and the tack has never caused bleeding in any of them.” Some of the people have been wearing the devices for more than five years, he said.
Question : With the weather getting colder and flu season upon us, is it OK to work out when you’re sick?
Answer : People often say that working out is fine if it’s just a head cold. This is generally true, but if you have a fever, body aches or other more serious symptoms, you should leave the exercising to the rest of us.
When I’m working out, I don’t really want people sneezing and coughing around me — and I would guess you don’t either.
Plus, I would rather rest up for a day or two, even if I just have a head cold. Then, when I get back to exercising, I can pick-up right where I left off.
Why? Isn’t this information we can get in dozens—hundreds—of other places online? Why here? And why not talk to, say, a doctor? Or a nutritionist? Why a guy who owns a gym? I’m not saying Longo is giving bad advice, I’m just wondering why this merited coverage and print space.
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