Tag: health

Space Invaders is awesome

Teenager moves video icons just by imagination Via Futurismic

The teenager, a patient at St. Louis Children’s Hospital, had a grid atop his brain to record brain surface signals, a brain-machine interface technique that uses electrocorticographic (ECoG) activity – data taken invasively right from the brain surface. It is an alternative to a frequently used technique to study humans called electroencephalographic activity (EEG) – data taken non-invasively by electrodes outside the brain on the scalp. Engineers programmed the Atari software to interface with the brain-machine interface system.

So this kid is not only helping us learn how we might deal with epilepsy, but can also play Space Invaders without a controller.  That’s just one step closer to the end of computer input devices as we know them.  Wouldn’t it be cool if your interaction with the computer wasn’t limited by the speed at which you can communicate with it?

Time again for the flu shot controversy

I was listening to NPR this morning, and they were talking about the difficulty we’ve had in distributing flu shots.  The CDC says that 75% of the country should have a flu shot.  Surveys say that 50% are planning to.  But how about the vaccines?  The NPR story didn’t give all the details, but they did say that doctors give out 70% of the vaccines.  But often big companies like WalMart get more of the vaccines.  NPR didn’t come out and say it, but I suspect this is because the drug companies make more money when they sell to big pharmacies.  I doubt that WalMart pays more than the doctors do, but Walmart is also in the position to buy millions of dollars worth, and pledge to buy millions more of other drugs on the condition that they get the flu vaccines.

Anyway, my point here is that these drug companies are, in effect, deciding who gets a flu vaccine.  Never mind that we should have enough for every human being in the country, if not the planet, just because it’s the right thing to do.  Let’s pretend for a minute that there’s a legitimate reason we can’t produce enough that doesn’t involve profitability.  Who, then, should decide where those vaccines should go?  And now we’re back into the argument over health care.  Can we assign responsibility to the government to ensure that the country is as healthy as possible?  Does every American deserve health care?  The answers are “I hope so” and “yes”.

When it comes to health, no one should ever be denied because it’s not profitable.  I don’t know how to overcome the problems with “free” health care.  I don’t know how to minimize abuse of the system.  But we have to figure it out.

The Pop Tart Scourge

Someone in the office just toasted a cinnamon Pop Tart.  It smells really good.  But Pop Tarts are evil.  First of all, anything with that much sugar is dessert, not breakfast.  Second of all, and this should be illegal, they count a serving as ONE Pop Tart.  You all know the Pop Tarts packaging – they come two to a bag.  And the bag is not resealable.  It’s not even big enough to fold over to keep the second Tart slightly fresh.  There should be a law that anything contained in a non-resealable container is one serving.  Actually, I guess they’d have to make it more specific, because I’d hate to buy a value pack of six pounds of chicken breasts and then have to eat the whole package.  Could it apply only to snack foods?  I guess then they’d just fight to make Pop Tarts a breakfast food, not a snack food.

In any event, it’s an outrage.  One Pop Tart is about 200 calories, 60 of those from fat.  But you can’t eat just one Pop Tart unless you’ve got a buddy to eat the other one.  So one Pop Tart is, in effect, 400 calories and 35% of your RDA for saturated fat.

However, if we make anything in one package have to be a serving, they’d just start packaging things in more plastic.  You’d have a box of cereal that contains 15 little shrink-wrapped packets of exactly 37 bran flakes.  Our landfills would explode.

All of this makes me glad that I ate a bowl of Kellogs Smart Start and some organic yogurt for breakfast.

It begins . . .

For 1st Woman With Bionic Arm, a New Life Is Within Reach – washingtonpost.com

Today, the first woman gets a bionic arm to replace one she lost.  Sooner than you think, a plastic surgeon is going to amputate the arms of a rich bored kid to replace them with metal arms as a fashion statement or a “body upgrade”.

I think it’s great that people without limbs have this available – a partially thought-controlled replacement arm.  I know how difficult it can be to do normal tasks when I’ve just jammed a wrist or something – I can’t even imagine losing a limb.  And while this technology isn’t perfect, I imagine an imperfect arm is better than no arm.

But it’s a new world out there, and it’s only a matter of time before this is cosmetic surgery.  It remains to be seen whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing.

Mom as a role model for kids? Say it aint so.

Mom’s dieting can be unhealthy for kids – Yahoo! News

Shocker.  Mothers who live unhealthy lifestyles then diet when they can’t fit into their pants are likely to have daughters who do the same.  Thank you, Yahoo!, for that unexpected fact.  Note – the study cited in the article focused on mothers and daughters, since a higher percentage of women have body image problems.  Perhaps because all the studies focus on them.

The gist of the article is that mothers who obsess about weight and diet all the time tend to have daughters who do the same.  Mothers who make lifestyle changes towards better health also tend to have daughters who do the same.  Imagine that.  The way you live your life often has a strong influence on the way your kids live theirs.

As someone who has, in the last six months to a year, made a real conscious effort towards a healthier lifestyle, I can tell you that it’s hard.  It’s especially hard at work when we go to lunch.  It’s hard not to get the bacon cheeseburger and fries with six Cokes.  And even the “healthy” choices are usually only healthy in comparison to the 1200+ calorie meals that are typical of most restaurants.  And I even have the advantage of a fiancee who’s a great cook.  If all you out there don’t have that, you’re kind of screwed.  And you can’t have mine.  I found her first.

Hillary, Health Care, and the Morbidly Obese

As you may know, I’m in favor of universal health care, although it would need to be watched carefully to prevent inefficiency and abuse. If every American is guaranteed public schooling, it’s ridiculous not to offer health care as well.

I’ve always wondered, though – how do you stop abuse? I don’t want my tax dollars to go to pay for repeated bypass surgery for someone who refuses to even try to be healthy. Should everyone have to pay for the 400 pound man who smokes two packs a day and never gets off the couch?

I was talking to a friend of a friend of my fiancee, a guy who happens to be a Canadian citizen (Through a rather confusing set of circumstances). The conversation came up just as we were leaving, so it didn’t go as far as I might have liked, but he made the point that there will always be people like that, no matter what is being paid for, and we can’t choose yes or no on universal health care based on that.

It got me thinking. What about the kid in the public school system who cuts class when he can, and sleeps or misbehaves when he can’t? I don’t want to pay for his schooling, either. Or perhaps the couple who fight constantly – I don’t want to pay for the police to come break it up once a week. For any service the government provides, there will be people who abuse it.

So we have to figure out how to prevent abuse. We don’t want people rushing to the emergency room every time they sneeze in search of expensive prescription drugs. We don’t want people to abuse their bodies, knowing that corrective surgery will be available when they need it. We also need to protect the system from abuse by politicians. It would be a matter of minuntes after a universal health care system was put in place before someone tried to pass a law saying that the government would never pay for anything to do with birth control.

So, how can we make this work? I think a co-pay system might help. If people have to pay some amount, it would make them think twice about going to the doctor for something trivial. Of course, there’s virtually no way to keep a co-pay system from being like a regressive tax, and putting more burden on those with lower incomes.

A non-partisan council to determine what is necessary and what is elective might help, as well. Of course, I have no idea how such a council might be created.

So, Hillary, I’ll make you a deal. If you present a realistic and feasible plan for universal health care, I’ll vote for you, despite my misgivings. And I’ll even consent to paying for a bypass surger for the fat smoker on the couch. However, I reserve the right to throw rotten tomatoes at his house while he’s in the hospital.

Is the big house in the suburbs really worth it?

Commuting Is a Drag (on the Economy): Money & Happiness – Yahoo! Finance

. . . classic studies of lottery winners and paralyzed accident victims found only small differences in life satisfaction between these groups and control subjects. But certain experiences — living near a noisy highway, for example — become more aggravating over time, something scientists call “sensitization.” Commuting falls into this category.

A friend at work recently bought a big house pretty far away from where we work.  We don’t really have the option of telecommuting, so he drives an hour and a half or so each way (on a normal day.  Bad days can be much worse).  Is he happier that way?  I don’t know. But it’s interesting to think about what really brings us satisfaction.  I don’t think a big house in the suburbs would bring me much satisfaction.  I mean, I don’t have kids now, so I don’t need a yard for them to play in, or good schools, or anything like that, so it gives me some more freedom to choose where I live.  But I live with my fiancee in a two bedroom condo, about 1100 square feet, in a safe but uninteresting community that’s just a bus ride from the Metro.  Would we like a bigger kitchen and some more storage space?  Sure.  Do I need two more bedrooms and a den?  No, not really. I don’t mean to bash those who live far from work.  Although I do give my friend a hard time about it sometimes.  People have different priorities, and one of mine is a short commute.  I had a two hour or more round trip commute for about a year, and I hated it.  My commute is maybe 25 minutes now, and that includes dropping the fiancee at the Metro.  And I’d still telecommute if I had the opportunity.

Never, ever go out in the sun

CNN.com – Sun kills 60,000 a year, WHO says – Jul 26, 2006

“The application of sunscreens should not be used to prolong sun exposure but rather to protect the skin when exposure is unavoidable,” the report advises.

When the World Health Organization tells me to only go outside when absolutely necessary, I stop paying attention.  Sure, we should do more to protect the ozone layer.  But staying inside with the A/C blasting isn’t really the way to go.

I’m too lazy to look up numbers, but I imagine that 60,000 people a year makes the sun about as dangerous as a pair of toenail clippers.  How many people are there in the world?  Four billion?  What percentage of four billion is 60,000?  Well, I’ll tell you.  It’s 0.0015%.  You’re more likely to be struck by lightning while being mauled by a bear and holding a winning lottery ticket.  Actually, I made that up.  But seriously.  More people die from heart disease because they stayed inside worrying about skin cancer than die from actually getting skin cancer.  I made that up, too, but I guarantee it’s true or your money back.

The age of cigarettes may be drawing to a close

San Diego bans smoking at beaches, parks – Yahoo! News

This is a pretty big step for San Diego. It’s one thing to ban indoor smoking, but we haven’t seen too many outdoor smoking bans. The focus of this article, though, is more on the discarded butts than the health hazards. That may be a subtle acknowledgement of the fact that secondhand smoke is unlikely to be too great a danger in huge, wide-open spaces. But it reminds me of my old boss at a summer job in high school. He was a smoker, but he absolutely refused to pitch a butt on the ground. He would twist off the burning end and put it in his pocket until he could throw it away. “It’s my nasty habit, not anyone else’s”. He said.

I wonder how many people would be less adamant about banning smoking if more smokers were as considerate about their habit as he was.