SciAm: Long-Forgotten Research Unearths New Mystery About Lyme Disease.
Got Lyme, took the meds, and still have symptoms? Read this, urgently.
The Atlantic: What’s ‘Healthy’? What’s ‘Natural’?
“PepsiCo misleadingly markets Naked Juices as predominantly containing high-value ingredients such as acai berry, blueberries, kale, and mango, when in fact the predominant ingredient in the product line is usually cheap, nutrient-poor apple juice ...” Well, if you remember ‘60’s advertising like I do, then PepsiCo has gone a long way to save us from terrible laxative adverts ... (wink) ...
SciAm: DEA Drops Ban on Herbal Supplement Kratom.
Suspicious. There seems to be very little science on this, other than overdose stats (and those are not high). Given the potential use profiles, one can’t help but imagine drug companies want an exclusive on the active ingredients (at maximum profit).
naked cap: As ObamaCare Death Spiral Continues, Flailing Institutions Attempt to Cope.
“So, carrying the logic through to its insane conclusion, people could be penalized for not buying insurance where there is no insurance to be bought.” Another must-read.
The Rumpus: A Man’s ABCs Of Miscarriage.
Too flip. If it’s a natural miscarriage, even at a couple of months, the woman’s body goes through all the contractions of birth. It’s devastating physically and mentally, and needs a more empathetic treatment than this. It’s the great undiscussed trauma so many women suffer alone, utterly alone.
Authority Nutrition: Alternate-Day Fasting - A Beginner’s Guide.
Discover: FDA Approves First Artificial Pancreas Faster Than Anyone Expected.
Apparently not for pancreatic cancer, just for diabetes?
Oh and yes, I did watch the debate. Or ‘game show’, as I like to think of it.
Hillary still doesn’t have a strong enough comeback for the ACA price increases. She’s most vulnerable there.
Donald, on certain subjects, was just all over the place. He started off pretty focused - bang on about the problems of the ACA’s costs, yet no real coherent fixes - and ended up a mess afterwards. I felt like I was watching an orange marmalade danish exploding on my kitchen table.
My bugbear, the ACA. I’m looking at a near-$7k deductible, $45-75 copays AFTER deductible for doctor visits (full price before), for the cost of a freakin’ mortgage (over $1k) for the two of us. And that’s the second cheapest offered right now, before the November increases.
I will not continue to pay for the [former] uninsured to have good free coverage, when I’m checking Youtube to fix my own health issues. It costs so much, I have no extra income to pay for the actual doctor visits. Unless I dip into retirement - or go bankrupt, live off the dole and get it all for free. There seems to be an economic range, a spot between subsidies and being comfortably middle-class, where folks like myself end up in tax and health care cost hell.
This is not about selfishness, or conservative/liberal ideology. It’s about life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The ACA is violating all of that, here in NM. It feels like an old-fashioned shakedown, courtesy of the US government. It’s wrong.
Also, Kaiser (who gets quoted all the time in healthcare analysis articles) is FULL OF BS. I have a friend in Rhode Island who’s facing huge increases, and Kaiser claims RI is going DOWN 14%. Press, do your duty. Follow up on this, hard. We’re being fed bullbananas on the actual increases in costs.
In These Times: Hillary Clinton’s Millennial Problem Is Because of Her Policies, Not Her Gende
“Laying out plans for single-payer healthcare and a $15 minimum wage, Sanders beat Clinton among millennials in each one of the 27 states where they faced off in the primaries. And he might still be the most popular politician in the US today.” The gender thing is so overdone. Yes, it exists. I’m not minimizing it. But by harping on it constantly, Hillary supporters drive any shred of enthusiasm into the toilet. It gets to the ‘thought police’ stage. Ridiculous. As I’ve said, Hillary better start talking ACA, public option, single payer, or November will see her slim lead disappear in those seven to eight days.
OpenCulture: Some of Buster Keaton’s Death-Defying Stunts Captured in Animated Gifs.
There’ll never be another like Buster.
TechDirt: J & J Warns Insulin Pump Owners They Could Be Killed By Hackers.
Authority Nutrition: 6 Reasons Why High-Fructose Corn Syrup Is Bad for You.
The lead-in is designed to bring in eyes. As you read, you’ll notice sugar is just as bad, and fruit is not. AN is trying to educate you to minimize all the sugars.
PS Mag: An Obamacare Exit in Minnesota Will Raise Premiums by at Least 50 Percent
“Now, Democratic politicians are advocating for one of the most controversial of the proposed Obamacare remedies — the public option, in which the government would up competition by offering its own insurance plan. Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton began voicing her support for the public option in February, the New York Times reports.” My underlined emphasis. As I said previously, better start inoculating now, Hillary.
KTVQ: Montana man documents moments after grizzly bear attack.
Bear spray wasn’t enough. A momma with two cubs. The folks at the Grizzly Center I visited in Montana said two cans during this season - one on your chest for immediate grab and one on your belt if one isn’t enough. This makes me seriously consider about some of the short pistols made for the purpose as a backup (if you even have time to think). 80 yards - and they can run FAST.
NY Times: Why New Jersey’s Trains Aren’t Safer.
You could just have crush zones, like the long sand inclines you see on ski mountains for brakeless trucks. Tech fails. Analog (physical) fixes are more reliable. And CHEAP. NJ Transit’s skint.
Neuroskeptic: The Terrorist Inside Robin Williams’ Brain.
It’s a very sad story, only read if you have the ability to absorb it without consequences. A terrible end for such an amazing person. Gifts given are sometimes devastatingly and cruelly ripped away. Makes me even more convinced that assisted suicide should be a legal option.
I’m going to say it again. November 1 and November 8. Hillary, inoculate yourself.
The new ACA rates come out on November 1. Election is November 8. The new rates are going to sink you, Ms Clinton, unless you do something NOW. Your polling margins are terribly slim. Even three days of the 24/7 news cycle can sink you. Please listen, take my advice. DO SOMETHING. Don’t just shimmy.
I told everyone back when this started that the media would do their utmost to make this entire political season a 50/50 horserace. They have done so through simply terrible journalistic practice and false equivalence. When you’ve blogged through as many elections as I have, and had to suffer Bush/Gore, you know the territory. Sometimes I hate being right.
AuthorityNutrition: The 14 Most Common Signs of Gluten Intolerance.
Of note. In spite of the GF hatred and the belief that gluten intolerance is a myth - read the footnoted studies. Gluten affects many of us, negatively. What you choose to call it, I don’t give a darn. But keep our GF options available, please. Just reduce the sugar content, will ya?
Reuters: Parent bloggers question role in Mylan’s EpiPen schools push.
Note this is the same strategy big pharma uses with doctors; symposia held in exotic locations. Read: bribery. I used to wonder that anyone would accept such largess without having at least one night of moral indigestion. I’ve since learned humanity has an incredible capacity to rationalize just about any action.
Bloggers, wake up. List your favor-granting, tchotchke-supplying influencers. Even if offered for free or for ‘loan’. List your sponsors. I understand you want or need to make money. Be open and honest, please.
I have no sponsors, have had none. If I did, they would be prominently listed in my right-side nav section here.
Authority Nutrition: How to Choose The Best Yogurt for Your Health.
Yes, but only certain stores ever carry anything other than the sugar-loaded ‘candy’ yogurts. Annoying.
Reuters: U.S. lawmakers blast Mylan CEO over ‘sickening’ EpiPen price hikes.
Even a Republican’s pissed. Nice to know there’s still only so far down they’ll go.
The Atlantic: The Vexing Economics of Obamacare.
“Single-payer health care ... [snip] ... would be the clearest way of solving the access-affordability conundrum.” Their ‘con’, that people ‘don’t want to give up their plans or physicians’ - they’ve already had to multiple times now, due to the ACA. That’s not a valid argument.
Authority Nutrition: Casein Protein Is Way Underrated.
Interesting. I may try it out for overnight or post-workout.
NY Times: ‘Active Monitoring’ of Prostate Cancer Does Not Increase Death Rate.
Of note, guys.
NY Times: Could Ancient Remedies Hold the Answer to the Looming Antibiotics Crisis?
“Meanwhile, the world indulged in the existing array of antibiotics in such a reckless fashion that it’s hard to know where to place blame. Physicians are just as guilty of overprescribing antibiotics — even to mollify hypochondriacs — as patients are of demanding the drugs too often.” No, you are wrong, NY Times. This is incorrect and placing blame squarely in the wrong place. Physicians were given perks to push antibiotics to patients - by drug companies. I worked as an A/V tech long enough to see how the third-generation cephalosporins were marketed. “Your patient could take amoxicillin and be better in a week, or take our new cephalosporin and be better in A DAY.” Doctors were complicit, but they wouldn’t/couldn’t have done it alone. To blame the patient, after the use of the above marketing? Revisionist history.
