H1N1 is Worse Than We Thought

Ever since I was doing my clinical rotation at Amherst College I've known in the back of my head that the swine flu outbreak was going to be bad. The father of a lacrosse player there works for Infectious Disease Control in Boston and he drove out to Amherst late one night to give his son 3 different kinds of shots that, at the time, could help with the swine flu.

According to the Center for Disease Control there have been 22 million cases of swine flu and more than 4000 deaths due to swine flu. Interestingly enough, in China where there population is exploding, they have only suffered 70,000 cases and only 53 deaths! China has also staged a massive vaccination effort in trying to vaccinate 1.5 million people per day and hopefully reach 90 million people by the end of the year. This doesn't help with Americans because we can barely get 42 million doses of the vaccine.

After going to Florida over the weekend I found it ironic that I came across this article from Disney World. Disney has decided to install hand sanitizer dispensers around their parks. When I thought about it I actually do remember seeing hand sanitizer boxes all over the place down there and these boxes were not there when I went down back in May.

I feel like our government needs to step up and do something about this outbreak. Our country is supposed to have one of the top health cares in the world but yet we have over 4,000 deaths from swine flu and can't provide our country with vaccinations to stop these deaths from occuring. In my eyes, our country is pathetic and needs to do something about it.

http://www.charter.net/news/read.php?id=16023045&ps=1019&cat=&cps=0&lang=en

http://www.charter.net/news/read.php?id=16021209&ps=1019&cat=&cps=0&lang=en&page=2

Red Cross is Feeling the Pain of the Bad Economy

From what I read in this article is seems that the economy has been so bad that the Red Cross is selling pieces of its history to make money back from an over $200 million deficit in which they still have $33.5 million left. Everything from old WWII nurse uniforms to what may be the last Civil War era flag in existence is being auctioned off.

I can't believe that our economy is so bad that a company that was so crucial to our health while we started as a country has to auctioned off artifacts just so they can stay on their feet. Meanwhile we sit here giving out billions of dollars to General Motors so they can keep making cars so that our quickly growing obese population can eat more and drive themselves around. Here's an idea, stop making cars, get off the couch and use your own 2 feet, take a train somewhere if you need to, and throw those billions of dollars into our health care system that seems to be quickly falling apart.

I'm getting a bit heated thinking about this issue right now so I'll stop before I start cussing like a sailor but what do you guys think about this issue?

To Fat To Kill?

I just found this story to be so bizarre and ridiculous that I had to post something about it. A man from Florida is accused of killing his son in law in New Jersey but he says he couldn't have possibly pulled off the killing and get away. Why you ask? He says he's too fat.

Edward Ates of Florida says that the side effects from him being obese make it nearly impossible for him to have climbed a staircase, shoot his son in law, and then make the speedy get away.

This just seems so insanely bizarre to me that I am almost baffled by it. The first thing I thought about when I read this was when some of my friends come up with a ridiculous idea and you think about it, and then you go "hey, that's just crazy enough to work!"

But snap back to reality here. Are we honestly living in a world now that someone is really using the defense that their obesity renders them incapable of committing a crime? I am a firm believer that anyone, no matter who you are, can potentially kill someone. No matter who or what, if they snap one day, they'll do it. But the only way I am going to believe that someone is too obese to commit a crime is if they are so obese that they cannot physically get out of their house. And even then, they could potentially commit a crime without leaving their house!

Do you think that claiming you are too obese to commit a crime should even be merited in a court of law? Tell me what you think.

Flu Shot Can Cause Some Major Problems

It's been a little while since I wrote an entry on here basically because I've been sick with the flu. It seems almost like fate that I found this story online happening at the same time that I got sick. Unfortunately this story is quite a sad one. A 25 year old cheerleader for the Washington Redskins went for her flu shot back in August and now suffers from what the doctors claim is a 1 in a million side effect from getting the flu shot.
Desiree Jennings now suffers from a condition called dystonia. Dystonia causes certain muscle groups and the nerves that innervated them to either become disabled or misfire at any given time similar to a seizure. The disease causes her to be unable to walk forward and causes her to suffer from random seizures. Although she cannot walk forward she can walk backwards perfectly fine. She can also run forwards with a normal gate. And while she runs forward her inability to speak normally disappears and she speaks without any sort of impediment. The movie below will show you what I am trying to explain.


This story really strikes a cord with me and it's extremely sad to see an individual who is so young and had so much going for her and gets knocked down by something as simple as a flu shot. I know doctors say that vaccines are perfectly safe and I believe they are too but to think that this could happen to anyone is just scary. I don't think words can really describe how this story makes me want to react and it really is just a terrible side effect to something that is supposed to make a person healthier in life but clearly this was not the case. It makes me question whether or not I want to get a flu shot again. What do you guys think?


*UPDATE*
I did some more reading on this topic and found out that Desiree now is unable to move her neck and tongue which makes it extremely difficult for her to communicate however with the help of 2 friends who gave her a jump start from walking to running, she successfully completed an 8k road race in Virginia a last week.

Tattoos- Health risk or just a myth?

In light of getting a new tattoo on Tuesday I decided to make a post on whether or not tattoos are a health risk. I'm sure most of you have heard rumors about how tattoo shops are dirty, unsanitary, and just plain gross. However, from my experience going in and out of tattoo parlors over the last 5 years now, I can tell you this accusation is far from the truth. Don't believe me? See for yourself... most parlors look like this or like this. Most of the time the front of shop looks like a retro style living room while the tattoo work station in the back resembles something that looks more like a surgical room at a hospital. Typically the tattoo artists work station will have a stainless steel counter top or a marble counter top to reduce the risk of germs harboring on the surface.

Now that we know tattoo shops aren't a slum bucket like most people think, we can move on to the health risks. It sounds like a broken record when I hear my mother comment about how I'm going to contract Hepatitis from getting tattoos. But did you know that you run less of a chance of getting Hepatitis from a tattoo shop than you do going to the dentist? The Center for Disease Control reports that you are actually more than 300% likely to contract Hepatitis from a dentist office than you are from a tattoo parlor! 300% more likely!!! Even more shocking than that, since tattoos started to be track in 1985, not one case of HIV has been linked to tattoos but 7 cases of HIV contraction have been associated with dentist offices. These numbers make me question whether or not I want to go back for my 6 month cleaning.

Tattoos and individuals who bear tattoos are constantly under the microscope in society today however they are slowly becoming more accepted. What ever the matter I can safely say that yes there are health risks that come with tattoos (i.e. infection and Hepatitis) but I they do not pose a threat for horrible diseases like HIV that they are believed to cause.

http://www.tattooartist.com/health.html

A few weeks ago I was told that the father of one of my good friends in high school was diagnosed with stage 4 non-small cell lung cancer. Sadly stage 4 is so advanced that all you can do is prolong life as much as you can and improve the quality of life as much as you can.

There is a walk being put on in Boston on November 7th by the LUNGevity Foundation to help raise money for lung cancer research in hopes to find a cure. Unfortunately, I won't be able to attend this walk but I was hoping that some of you might by chance be able to attend. Even if you can't attend please consider donating toward the cause. Even the smallest amount can help. Thanks!

Comedians Take on Serving Sizes

After talking in class today about serving sizes I remembered seeing a comedian on TV who talked about serving sizes in one of his shows. What he says is pretty funny and extremely true. Check it out!

HPV Vaccine a Possible Killer?

So I just read this story a few minutes ago and as far as I know there are no other cases like this to have happened. Please correct me if I am wrong. A 14 year old girl from the UK died after receiving routine vaccination treatments for the sexually transmitted infection known as Human Papillomavirus.

Teenage girls from the UK were involve in an immunization program where they receive the HPV vaccine. Shortly after one of the girls receive a vaccine treatment she started experiencing unusual signs and symptoms. The girl died shortly after.

There's not much information regarding whether the vaccine cause the girls death but this causes a few red flags to pop up for me.

Vaccines are supposed to be a safety measure that we take in order to avoid becoming ill with the "real thing". So why is it that this vaccine was examined to the fullest extent to ensure that nothing was wrong with it? Not only has one girl died but others are experiencing similar signs and symptoms!

If I am going to be getting a vaccine I want to know that it is 100% safe for me to get it and I feel that this vaccine that was being given was not 100% safe.

What do you guys think?

Doctor Assisted Suicide

I'd like to talk about an extremely controversial subject today; doctor assisted suicide. Some of you may remember back in the late 90's when Jack Kevorkian, also known as Dr. Death was sentenced to prison for second degree murder for helping terminally ill patients who were not physically able to end their own life, to end their lives.

Here we are 10 years later and the issue of doctor assisted suicide had come back up in the news. Since 1998 when Kevorkian was convicted, doctor assisted suicide has exploded from less than roughly 5 cases per year to nearly 200 cases per year!
These numbers are staggering! As you can see from the chart above, most of the countries are even in their numbers but Germany is "leading the way" and I use that term loosely because this may not be the best topic to lead the way in.

I am usually a person who can take one side or the other on an argument and have a fairly good reason for taking that side. However this is an issue where I am not too sure either way. I can take the side of the patient where they may have a life that is less than favorable to them and they simply can't take it anymore and want to die. But I don't think that it is morally right for a doctor to be the one who administers the "final blow". I feel that there could be personal bonds with the patient that may sway an opinion in certain directions to allow the suicide or to deny it. Personally I am just not sure about this one.

So tell me, do you think it should be legal for a doctor to assist and allow a terminally ill patient who cannot physically end their own life to do so or is there more to the issue?

From Fit to Fat

Alright well I can't wait till next week to start a post on here because this story just seems too ridiculous to be true. I heard about this story last semester and couldn't remember this guys name so I didn't feel the need to look it up anymore but this seemed like a perfect opportunity for me to look it up.

Anyways, there is a personal trainer from Australia by the name of Paul James (no not the gardening guy on HGTV) who decided he wanted to better understand his obese clients at his gym. To do this James stopped his meticulous diet and began to eat a less than healthy diet. In 6 months he gained over 80 lbs to understand what it was like to be overweight. In doing this he also wanted to prove to his clients that it is possible to shed the weight afterwards.

Now let me start by saying I may not lead the healthiest lifestyle but I certainly know what I should be doing with my body to at least maintain a somewhat healthy lifestyle. Like anyone else I enjoy junk food, eating more ice cream than any individual should, and indulging in the occasional adult beverage. You might remember about 5 or 6 years back when Morgan Spurlock did a documentary called Super Size Me that basically consisted of Spurlock eating McDonalds for a month straight. That movie single handedly stopped me from eating any fast food for about 2 years. That being said... what is wrong with this James guy? He did this for 6 months!

I had mentioned this story to someone back when I heard it and they made a comment that really makes you think. Amazing might not be the right choice of words here but the question arises...

Wouldn't it be amazing if this guy went through all of these unhealthy moves to better understand his clients and then had a heart attack because of it?

By no means do I want to bring bad luck upon this guy for what he's doing but it would prove how such an unhealthy lifestyle can cause more problems than one might think.

I could rant and rave all I want about this but I want your opinions on this topic.

Welcome!

Hey Everyone!

Welcome to my blog. Hopefully during the middle of next week I'll have my first blog posted. If there is anything that you might want to hear about that is health related let me know and I'll look up the nitty gritty on it.