The Linsanity Phenomenon

I love playing basketball.  I don’t care much for watching the sport on T.V., except for maybe the last few games of the NBA championship playoffs each year.  The past 2 weeks however, have been much different.  Linsanity fever has taken over, and I have planned my life around watching each televised New York Knicks’ basketball game.  I am not a Knicks’ fan by any stretch of the imagination.  I am a Jeremy Lin fan.

Jeremy Lin is the basketball wonder who has gone unnoticed by the powers that be in the NBA, and has seemingly come out of nowhere to become a guy who previously warmed the bench and contemplated leaving the sport, to now being the highest scoring player in the league in the past 2 weeks since February 4th, 2012.

This story is fascinating on many levels.  Peter Savich of Duck and Gather eludes to a socio-politcal aspect of the story as seen here and here.  In these articles, he draws similarities between the rise of Lin and the rise of the Occupy Wall Street movement.

Squashing the Underdog

As I have mentioned in the ‘About’ section, my blog is divided into 4 categories.  The ‘Dad’ section is basically for my family and for posterity, so that a written record will be available for my children and potential grandchildren and great grandchildren in the event that they are interested in knowing about their ancestors.  The ‘Medicine’ section is for anyone who may find this information of value.  ’Food’ is also for anyone.

The ‘Ramblings’ section is a category I created mostly for myself.  It contains thoughts rolling around in my head that I want to express in written form.  It also contains rants for my own therapeutic benefit.  Today’s blog is a therapeutic rant for myself.

I play morning co-ed basketball with players ranging from ages 15-58.  I am the oldest female on the court by about 10 years.  I am the least athletic.  The slowest.  The shortest.  If we were picking teams in the back of a schoolyard, I’d be picked last.  I am the underdog.  I don’t mind though, because I have lots of fun and I maintain my level of fitness on a regular basis as I age into my middle years.

Helicobacter Pyloris: An Atypical Case

Helicobacter pyloris is a bacteria that infects the stomach lining.  This bug is associated with gastric ulcers, and to a much lesser degree, gastric cancer.  Half of the world’s population is infected with this bacteria, but a large majority of those infected, display no symptoms.

The transmission of this bacteria is thought to be from person to person via the oral-oral route or oral-fecal route.  One theory is that both water and houseflies act as reservoirs.

For those who are symptomatic, complaints of indigestion, stomach pain, nausea, heartburn, bloating and belching are common.

There is insufficient data regarding H. pyloris in the pediatric population.

Diagnosis involves one of 4 methods:  gastric analysis following endoscopy, a blood test (for antibodies to the bacteria), a urea breath test, or a stool test (for the antigen).  The blood test method is only useful for initial diagnosis but not for follow-up testing when assessing efficacy of treatment.  This is because the blood test will likely show circulating antibodies to the bacteria even after the eradication of the bug.

Dr. Tori Hudson N.D. – Women’s Health

I just discovered that Dr. Tori Hudson N.D., a naturopathic physician who is an expert on natural medicine and women’s health, has a blog!  In fact, she has been writing since 2006.  (I swear I need to get out more, or at least poke my nose outside of my rural community in beautiful boonie-ville more often).

Dr. Hudson wrote a book in the late 90′s entitled, “Women’s Encyclopedia of Natural Medicine” and it is a book that I have used countless of times over the years for reference in my practice.  It appears as though it has recently been updated in 2007.

I have heard Dr. Hudson give lectures numerous times at various naturopathic medical conventions.  As well, for years now, I have prescribed many of the products she has formulated for a company called Vitanica, and find some of these nutraceuticals invaluable in assisting patients with their health.

Lessons For Us All: Believers, Agnostics and Atheists

This is one of the most beautiful articles I have read in awhile;  for believers, agnostics and atheists alike.  I have nothing more to add to it.  Love and humanity reign supreme regardless of beliefs.

Panacea: The Greek Goddess of Healing

Panacea was a mythological Greek goddess that was known to heal the sick.  She possessed a medicine that was known to cure every illness on earth.

Panacea and her potion was a myth, and yet as a collective society, we still believe in that myth;  that there is some treatment somewhere in the world that will cure everything.

It doesn’t exist.

That’s not to say that there aren’t wonderful treatments to be found in all types of medicines and in all types of cultures around the world that are extremely useful.  There just is no one remedy that will help all people.  Not a one.

One size does not fit all.

From here on in under the blogging category “Medicine” of this website, I hope to offer useful information regarding specific health topics;  not for everyone, but for those who would find this information helpful.

Fanaticism and Ignorance in Medicine

In an earlier post called My View On Medicine, it was brought to my attention in the comments section by duckandgather, that I was promoting a middle road type of thinking in my approach to medicine.

That’s only correct if I define that middle road to be very, very wide, at which point it would cease being a middle road, but just a wide road that contains room for all possibilities:   the choice for conventional medicine only, the choice for alternative medicine only, the choice for a combination of the two, or the choice for no medicine at all.  I promote all of these choices, provided that they are based on wisdom.  However, my worldview of medicine has little room for the willful ignorance and blatant fanaticism that comes from a tiny handful of healthcare practitioners;  some of whom are licensed professionals, and some, unlicensed healthcare providers.

Is Homeopathy Nonsensical?

Long ago, during my first years in naturopathic medicine college, I was the bane of some of my classmates.

I held the unenviable position of class skeptic.  Even though everyone of my classmates and I studied university chemistry and physics for our pre-med entrance into naturopathic medical college, it was always me who questioned the absurdity of some of the naturopathic therapies we would study.  Nutrition made sense to me.  Minerals, vitamins and massage made sense to me.  Even herbal medicine made sense.  But homeopathy?  Ridiculous.

Cholesterol and Statins

This article isn’t necessarily about cholesterol and statins. I’m just using them as an example to make my point.  The thrust of this article is thus:  when we read about science based medicine (SBM) and follow the advice of our science based medical doctors, looking closely at the evidence for ourselves will help us make better decisions.

About 10 years ago, I saw a woman who had high cholesterol levels controlled with a statin drug, and had no previous history of coronary artery disease.  She developed severe myalgia (muscle pain) due to the drug, so she took herself off of the medication and I supported her decision to do so.  Her family physician called me up and asked me if I was aware how important it was for patients with hyperlipidemia to stay on the statin medications he prescribed for them, since these drugs doubled the chance for preventing cardiac mortality and non-fatal MIs in these patients.  I told him that I was aware of the benefits that these drugs produced, but that I didn’t realize their preventive capacity was that high.  I told him that I would work with his patient using botanicals and nutrition to lower her cholesterol since she could not tolerate this drug.

I bought into this bogus line of thinking regarding the efficacy of statins –  hook, line and sinker.  

A Beautiful Death

Dad was clear that he wanted to die at home.  He wanted to spend the remaining weeks and days of his life in the home he had known for 50 years.

At the beginning of November 2010, we found out that dad had advanced metastatic prostate cancer.  My sister Julie, who had always been there for dad, both in proximity to where he lived and as an unending supportive force for him for decades, made arrangements for her older son to move into dad’s home in order to help him out.

Dad’s family doctor was a lovely and helpful man who initiated diagnostic radiological testing, along with the much needed narcotic prescriptions for dad’s initial bouts of excruciating and unbearable pain.