C-Sections Increase Chances of Childhood Asthma and Allergies, Who Knew?

Science (ooohhhh, science, I picture it as some sort of poorly-dressed action hero wearing an ill-fitting cape) is busy discovering the importance of our internal bacteria in our lives. It turns out that passing through the vaginal canal gives babies a head-start on getting those important bacteria. If they're just pulled out of their mom's womb, they end up under-bateria-ized, which can lead to later autoimmune problems, such as asthma and allergies.

*note, C-sections save many women's lives, but they've risen to epidemic proportions here in the good ol' U.S. of A.

Another Day, Another Lying Republican

Now Steele joins the procession of Republicans using scare tactics and outright lies to smother healthcare reform. Frankly I have misgivings about the implementation of a European style healthcare system here only because I suspect that we would bungle it. (I agree that their programs are much better than ours.) But I don't want the American initiative to be torpedoed over a bunch of lies. I want the kind of honest debate that would spur the development of a system that could work here.

Watch Steele claim that veterans here are given pamphlets encouraging them to commit suicide. Why don't republicans seem to care that their leaders are such brazen liars? The pamphlet to which he refers makes it clear that suicide is illegal in this country, and encourages the readers to make clear what their choices would be in a variety of different circumstances-----one of the options presented was even to have one's clergyman contacted to make sure what choices were consistent with one's religious principles.




Now that there are machines that can keep people alive fairly indefinitely, it is important for people to understand how to make their wishes for end-of-life care known. Having doctors discuss these issues with patients helps people to control their own situations; labeling them 'death panels' is a dishonest misrepresentation.

If the White House were to support an initiative to help Americans lose weight, no doubt the Right would describe it as a campaign of forced mass starvation.

DIY?

Some people blame the recession and others blame body dysmorphic disorder or BDD. But more and more people are attempting crazy (stupid) do it yourself plastic surgery procedures.


This woman injected her face with cooking oil ?!? She was a model before, and now.....!

So if you can't stand the way you look, get professional help: a plastic surgeon, or perhaps better yet, a psychiatrist. After all, the plastic surgery route did not seem to work wonders for Michael Jackson if memory serves.

Relief Is In Sight

Thank goodness for the cutting edge coverage at 'The Onion'!

I had thought that the mortgage meltdown with its seismically destructive ripples throughout the economy would have been enough to quell all the irrational exuberance. But the audacity of hope being what it is, requires that we seek out more advanced solutions.

Finally we have the pharmacological technology to target individual cheery people, so we will no longer have to rely on tsunamis, earthquakes, Republican candidates and financial catastrophes with all their attendant collateral damage.

But take these welcome tidings in stride, or you may need a dose yourself.

A birthday present for Darwin, proper Victorian Gentleman, he.

Surf punk, wasn't that his secret obsession, besides barnacles, I mean?



In such very very very bad taste. You will be amazed. Warning. Warning. Warning.

What foods are good for you is dependent on who you are.

A large study "with volunteers from across Europe" has shown that your specific genetics determines what type of diet is good for you. Basically, some people do just fine on a high saturated fat diet (the supposedly bad kind; the example given is Irish food), and do not have the expected health improvements when put on a low saturated fat diet (the Mediterranian diet). So eat, drink, and be merry, 'cause who knows what's going on? Me? I'm off for more sausages.

Marijuana, cancer, prohibition, and you.

About one out of eight people in prison is there solely for Marijuana offenses, costing the government 9 billion dollars a year. However, marijuana is not addictive--unlike alcohol and cigarettes--is not a gateway drug, and seems to be bizarrely good for you.

What do I mean by that? Compounds in Marijuana protect against lung cancer, and block cancer growth in leukemia, lymphoma and cancers of the breast and skin. Why?

This study discovered that pot use "reduces the invasiveness of cancer cells." Here's a study, from Harvard, that finds that it "cuts lung cancer tumor growth in half and significantly reduces the ability of the cancer to spread." In fact, it seems to be the magic bullet that researchers have been looking for--it looks like it kills the malignant cells without harming healthy cells.

But, the US has not allowed any human trials of this most promising cancer drug, because the war on drugs has trumped the war on cancer. Go Drugs.

A main reason for marijuana prohibition is that it is said to be a gateway to harder drugs. The opposite seems to be the case. A recent comparison of drug use in Amsterdam where Marijuana is legal, and San Francisco, where it is not, showed very similar rates and patterns of marijuana use in both populations; however pot smokers had a much higher use of other, harder, drugs in San Francisco.

So, counterfactually, decrimilization of marijuana would appear to not change marijuana use, but would lead to lower rates of all-around drug use. Not only that, duh, people don't commit crimes, (other then the obvious one) when they smoke up. Perhaps we should pass out joints to violent offenders.

Anyway, the point of this post, which seems to have gotten away from me, is that there were 10 marijuana decriminalization initiatives in the US this election cycle, and 9 of them passed!

Maybe in another twenty years or so, we can start with the cancer cures.

Cleanliness leads to sickliness

I confess, straight up, that I have bad allergies, so I am rather interested in why my body would decide that perfectly harmless substances (eggs, chocolate) are life-threatening.


Perhaps, this is explained by the Hygiene Hypothesis--kids who grow up surrounded by more pollution have less asthma and allergies than those that grow up in more desirable circumstances. Growing up with insufficient exposure to dirt gives us a bored immune system. It must find something to do...Ah ...ha! No Peanuts for You!


New research shows that roundworm infections (ewww, gross, but roundworms activate the histamine response, the same response that runs amok to create allergies) lessens allergy & asthma attacks--presumably gives our poor bored immune system something productive to do. I say let's just teach it to surf the net.


When cleanliness goes terribly wrong; Ukrainian Eurovision entrants; clearly the result of overzealous scrubbing--how else would everything be so shiny?
PS. This video is quite possibly my current fave on the intertubes.

Smoke, drink, and be merry, or tomorrow we may have arthritis.

Moderate drinking cuts chance of getting Rheumatoid arthritis almost in half. Drinking and Smoking, even better (for the arthritis.)

What next, Heroin as a baldness cure?

People who had a moderate alcohol consumption were 40 and 45 percent less likely to develop rheumatoid arthritis compared with people who did not drink or drank only occasionally, it found.

Among those who had a high consumption, the risk was reduced by 50 and 55 percent respectively.

Most surprising was that the biggest benefits were seen among smokers with a genetic profile known to make them vulnerable to the disease.

Turns out there's no placebo effect (mostly).

You all know the placebo effect; the near-universal belief that people's minds can make them well when a magical sugar pill masquarading as actual medicine is offered. Turns out that this isn't true.

Some number of people get well with no treatment at all. These were the folks who were considered cured by the placebo effect.

There are two caveats, however; there is a real placebo effect for painkillers, and a smaller placebo effect for subjective symptoms.

But, if you need, say, an antibiotic, not so much.