Health Care

Atkins Revision

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In tomorrows NYT this article (R) will tell you:

…the director of research and education for Atkins Nutritionals, Colette Heimowitz, is telling health professionals in seminars around the country that only 20 percent of a dieter’s calories should come from saturated fat. Atkins Nutritionals was set up by Dr. Robert C. Atkins to sell Atkins products and promote the diet.

But I don’t think Atkins dieters will be too stressed since “…a person who eats 1,500 calories a day could eat a 17-ounce strip steak every day.”
As best I can tell this is a fairly modest revision all things considered. They are still talking 60% of your calories from fat so substitute some chicken and fish if you are eating more then 17 ounces of red meat a day.

Why there are cold viruses

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According to this there is potentially a really good reason for cold viruses to be around. Never mind the sniffles:

“Viruses are seen as unhealthy organisms, but we have identified a potential way they can be used by the body to fight and destroy disease.”
In the method, the virus is injected into a malignant melanoma, then replicates itself and starts killing the cancer.
Researchers expect the melanoma to shrink within weeks and eventually vanish. At the same time, it is expected the virus will circulate through the body, seeking and destroying other melanoma cells.

Note that an article in The Age says:

Australian researchers are “extremely excited” to have discovered that the bug that causes colds – the coxsackievirus – is an efficient killer of melanoma cells.

Now I don’t know what is different between Australians and the rest of us but in the US coxsackievirus most commonly shows up as Hand, Foot and Mouth disease and infrequently as colds which are most often caused by rhinoviruses.

Potter Headache

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I thought the headache I had while reading Order of the Phoenix was simple transference from Harry as the pain from his scar waxed and wained.
But a Northwest Washington physician thinks otherwise:

three patients, ages 8 to 10, complained in June that they had been suffering from headaches for two or three days.
“In each case, the headache was dull and the pain fluctuated throughout the day,” Bennett wrote in a letter published in today’s issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
….
“On further questioning, it was determined that each child had spent many hours reading J.K. Rowling’s latest book in the Harry Potter series,” Bennett wrote in the letter, which journal editors titled “Hogwarts Headaches — Misery for Muggles.”
……
“The presumed diagnosis for each child was a tension headache brought on by the effort required to plow through an 870-page book. The obvious cure for this malady — that is, taking a break from reading — was rejected by two of the patients, who preferred acetaminophen instead,” ….

Hmmmm, I still think I’m right and when the next volume comes out I suggest parent’s of 8-10 year olds give them something to prop up the book.

Epistaxis Treatment

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Apparently, in 1881, only men got nosebleeds:

Keep the patient erect or sitting, with his head thrown a little backwards, take off his cravat, unbutton his shirt collar, and expose him freely to the cold air; apply ice or cold vinegar and water to the back of his neck.

Hey, and if there is too much blood just reduce the pressure:

If the pulse be full, bleed him from the arm.

But more entertaining is this part of the treatment:

If these are not sufficient, moisten a plug of linen or cotton with brandy, roll it in powdered alum. and screw it up the nostril. A piece of catgut may also be passed through the nostril into the throat, drawn out at the mouth, and a bit of sponge be fastened to it and drawn back again, so as to make the sponge block up the posterior nostril. In doing this it is necessary to leave a piece of the catgut so as to be got hold of, in order to withdraw the sponge.

Actually, there is a lot of interesting material in this 1881 Household Cyclopedia and lest we laugh too much just remember what folks 120 years from now will be thinking about material from early 21st century encyclopedias.
Via Circadian Shift.

Weed and Sperm

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If you’re trying to be a daddy you might want to lay off the weed:

A study of 22 college students who were heavy marijuana users suggested their sperm moved too fast too soon and lost oomph before they could reach their destination � the egg.
“Sperm in semen are supposed to sit quietly and wait for their chance to get out of the semen,” said Dr. Lani Burkman, a researcher at the University of Buffalo. “The sperm of marijuana smokers when sitting in the semen were very, very active.”

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