Brown Fat Burning

Of "mice and men" the future is still not now but sooner and closer than we thought. The same people who brought us the theory that there exists a new kind of fat in mice have found a "brown fat" in adult humans. This brown fat is a self reducing variety that shakes itself smaller. This shiver function that automatically makes itself smaller could be the future for the lazy among us. This type of fat can be injected within the body and the body will automatically make itself thinner, shades of Stephen King!

It's no where near ready but it is a possible solution to the problems of obesity in children and adults for the future. All is not lost and type 2 diabetes for tomorrow offers us the hope that the present research did not. We do have a problem now and the solutions don't seem immenent nor too far off. There is hope. Nature magazine shows the technical specs which though confusing to us thankfully everyone else can explain it better. This is one example where the reporters get it right.

The Power of Blue

"Traumatic spinal cord injury is characterized by an immediate, irreversible loss of tissue at the lesion site, as well as a secondary expansion of tissue damage over time. Although secondary injury should, in principle, be preventable, no effective treatment options currently exist for patients with acute spinal cord injury (SCI)." This according to the current study from the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

Eating and drinking candies and sports drinks won't get your walking from a serious injury despite what your nightly news might report. But the BBG (Brilliant blue G) dye used in these products has shown when injected to result in fast spinal cord repairs in rats. "15 min after injury reduced spinal cord anatomic damage and improved motor recovery..." There was one side effect though not toxic to the rats albeit just temporary. Rats who were injected with BBG temporarily had a blue tinge to their skin. The treatment is still more years away from useage.

Love Stinks But UnMarriage Kills

"I'm all right I feel real light
I don't live a life that's uptight"
How Do You Feel? - 311

We're getting married on the Labor day and while we're wishing for an "rest of our lives" ending it's comforting or disturbing depending on your point of view to know that it's healthier if its to the end. Recent research from the Journal of Health and Social Behavior has found that government policies: "...encouraging marriage in order to promote health may be misguided. In fact, getting married increases one’s risk for eventual marital dissolution, and marital dissolution seems to be worse for self-rated health now than at any point in the past three decades." The study finds that over years it doesn't matter if you're living single and never married or if you never divorce you'll live a healthy life. The trouble is only if you interrupt whatever choice you make. This might also explain why our never married uncle has outlived all his married brothers and sister-in-laws.

Living & Dying

There have been two more deaths in our lives. Our name sake's twin sister died on Friday before midnight only hours before the family reunion. Today before writing this blog we learned that a young man died from a heart attack that one of us had known. What ties this together with what we do here is that their children preceded them in death. Although their sons' deaths were untimely the young man's death which could have been prevented.

Our favorite former female governor and secretary of HHS reported today about the need to protect our children and save the suffering health care system by addressing the issue of obesity. "...(E)nding obesity would save our health care system fifty percent more dollars than curing cancer." At the Weight of the Nation conference Kathleen Sebelius added that we're saying we want to lose weight but: "Only three in ten Americans said they were actually trying to lose weight. And only one in ten said they had a specific plan to do so."

I'm over weight and before her death Aunt Pearlie was inactive and while neither of us were obese we didn't and I don't do enough to stay fit. (Mamie her twin lived a life as a slim and trim woman.) So what can we do to fix our fat behinds America well not much according to the Recommended Community Strategies and Measurements to Prevent Obesity in the United States. Anything that's not our fault and doesn't take any additional effort on our part we love. Their suggestions and causes of our weight gain: "Environmental factors (including lack of access to full-service grocery stores, increasing costs of healthy foods and the lower cost of unhealthy foods, and lack of access to safe places to play and exercise) all contribute to the increase in obesity rates by inhibiting or preventing healthy eating and active living behaviors."

Alzheimer Studies

For reason this has been the week for Alzheimer study results. None of the reports have been big surprises but there have been some surprises for those of us who hoped it wasn't so such as the older we get the more likely we are to get Alzheimer. Aunt Pearlie had knee surgery and was unable to walk the effects of less exercise increases dementia. The older we get the more likely we are to become susceptible to Alzheimer. Surviving into your nineties is no guarantee that you've avoided or do not have the alzheimer gene. Indeed your chances of succumbing to dementia increases the older you get. If we don't take care by eating less and being physically active our bodies will work against us. The problem is the older we get the more likely we are to not want to exercise.

Goldie S. Byrd, Ph.D.	Ron Petersen, M.D., Ph.D.
Ascertaining older African Americans for genetic studies /	Alzheimer's disease in the ‘oldest old’

Drinking one to two alcoholic drinks a day can delay the onset of Alzheimer only if you're a teetotaler. Increase your intake to another drink over the two a day threshold and the effects are reversed. Eat less, exercise more and you can live longer, healthier and in your right mind. That shouldn't have taken major study to reveal by now that the money has been spent - it's good to know.

$350 Mil Flu Funds

Friday after we went to print the Health and Human Services laid out the amounts and locations for Public Health Emergency Response and Hospital Preparedness Grants. Cash strapped California receiving the lions' share of federal funds for emergency response.

While Los Angeles and Chicago received more federal money than most states and other jurisdictions the differences in percentages aren't that substantial. Both Virginia and Maryland who have had twice as many deaths than the DC do receive more funds but by size and distribution costs may have factored in the funding. We've asked Health and Human Services what formula was used to determine who got how much and why. The formula used to distribute the grants was based on population size.

On Sunday CNN's Wolf Blizer on the State of the Union got H&HS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to preview that another billion dollars would be spent funding a soon to be created a safe and effective vaccine. It's not until some seven minutes into the over eight minute interview she says: "We have about a million cases of H1N1 right now in the United States right now..." "...The good news is that it's not terribly lethal right now. We had about 170 deaths, that's too many but we know 36,000 die each year with seasonal flu..." One is too many, but a death that results from a reckless disregard for the consequences is substantially different than an infant or elderly family member who needlessly dies. Let's prevent the preventable.

Elective Surgery

MONKEY FACTS
"Caloric restriction (CR), without malnutrition, delays aging and extends life span in diverse species; however, its effect on resistance to illness and mortality in primates has not been clearly established." Which is science geek meaning skinny monkeys live longer according to a new report. The old joke is of course life just seems longer. The research adds to what is already known. It's not enough to just be healthy long life comes from being thin. The LA Times headline is: "Permanent diet may equal longer life."

Skinny Bitches
While you and Mo'Nique might think "Skinny women are evil!" They live longer and save us taxpayers "mucho dinero" according to the California group and Public Health Advocacy. We don't just mean in public transportation space either nor does that mean you get to be mean to the big and heavy. Just that every unhealthy person costs us cash in the long run.

Eat rapamycin when old and live longer
Finally there is a wonder drug for the elderly who are next to but not near dead. On the basis of age at 90% mortality, rapamycin led to an increase of 14% for females and 9% for males. For the hows and the whys you'll have to spend big money to NATURE magazine unless you're a member. Remember we did say for the ELDERLY!

There's always a catch. We give you the catch they give you hook!

Worst / Best Attacks

What we try to do here is to look at national news health stories and find how they relate to our jursidiction. Sometimes that's pretty simple and fairly easy to do and then came ABC News Men's Health Coverage. Their report based on Circulation's article appears to go beyond what's included. Now if we were physicians or more medically trained we might be better able to decipher the contents. What's missing from the story and the full text of the article are the specifics by state of the best hospitals for treatment of heart problems. Our jursidiction (DC, MD and VA) are not in the top or the bottom of the list.

The report authors place their emphasis on changing the process for treating individuals with heart problems. In an emergency situation such information is crucial. The rule of thumb is you have twenty (20) minutes to receive treatment for a heart attack if you are to survive without any permanent damage or if you are to fully recover from your "episode." Like somehow this is the next installment of "This Is Your Life - the series." This IS your life and not a reality show slated for the new fall season on ABC-TV.

The problem with the reports findings according to the authors are: "At the time of the measurement, there were no financial incentives for hospitals or the community to focus on this aspect of care. In fact, hospitals are penalized by reducing readmission rates, as this would adversely affect hospital revenues." (PDF)

Their solution: Another study on how the rates can be improved for all hospitals. Our opinion: You might not want to spend your 20 minutes trying to get to New Jersey it just might be that hospitals there just have higher revenues (read profits) and NOT better care. In any event the authors state that the differences aren't very large between the best and the worst which is a very LARGE concern to all of us.

The Flu is Coming

The flu is coming! I mean the vaccine is coming. The vaccine is coming! With 170 deaths and counting according to the current CDC report (issued every Friday at 11AM) but with some states showing widespread infections the president's Health and Human Services said the programs for our shots should be ready by the time the landlord switchs off the air and turns on the heat, in October. Or for the homeowners among you that means as soon as you get to changing the air filters in your furnaces.

SWINE FLU	Cases	Deaths
District of Columbia	43	0
Maryland	686	2
Virginia	300	2

Can you trust the figures? No! Even in the case of the District of Columbia in their last report to the city their figures issued June 19, 2009 their count has higher than the posted CDC report figures. Maryland doesn't release their current figures on the website but they did issue a press release about their second death WBOC TV16 reports the figure at 686. Virginia's site publishes their numbers by county and their numbers issued yesterday are higher than published with an additional death as well.

Cancer 1 Us 2

Why it's taken me two days to post the understanding of the government's cancer report is beyond me. Aunt Pearlie died as a result of her surrendering to her breast cancer. "The 2008 report shows that, from 1996 through 2005, death rates for all cancers combined decreased for all racial and ethnic populations and for both men and women, except for American Indian/Alaska Native men and women, for whom rates were stable. The drop in death rates has been steeper for men, who have higher rates, than for women. Death rates declined for 10 of the top 15 causes of cancer death among both men and women. However, death rates for certain individual cancers are increasing, including esophageal cancer for men, pancreatic cancer for women, and liver cancer for both men and women. Overall cancer death rates were highest for African-Americans and lowest for Asian American/Pacific Islanders."

The Washington Post says: "African Americans are less likely than whites to survive breast, prostate and ovarian cancer even when they receive equal treatment..." The 2009 report's conclusions were: "The black-to-white disparity in age-standardized breast cancer mortality was largely driven by the higher hazard rates of breast cancer death among black women, diagnosed with the disease, irrespective of ER expression, and especially in the first few years following diagnosis. Greater emphasis should be placed on identifying the etiology of these excess hazards and developing therapeutic strategies to address them."

The first report uses data from 2005 and the new report reviews data from 2004. While both are the most current data my Aunt wouldn't be included in either. Since her death won't be reflected as lung cancer or cancer it is no doubt in my mind that it was the breast cancer that caused it. She refused to either disclose the mass to her physician or family nor were ever discovered through her numerous physicals. Her response was that she expected it to be discovered fearing once cancer was discovered it would mean the end of her life. In this case it was certainly true. Although her cancer was responsive to treatment and would not have been life threatening.

Flight Risks

Speaking of bad information. USA Today wrote about the new report concerning leg blood clots that tells of a 3 fold increase in risk. The USA Today article quotes a doctor not a part of the report and even gives suggestions which the researchers don't for treating the problem. The problem is another citation of numbers to reassure us that it doesn't affect us.


I don't long distance travel much, though now more than before I met my wife-to-be. It's good to know that the pains I felt in my legs could have been serious but weren't. What the article ignores that the report doesn't is that size and weight matter. What "panel chair of the American College of Chest Physicians" gets incorrect to add coffee to the alcohol dehydration list to avoid on long trips. Better to drink coffee than cola - though water might be a better choice. Drinking excessly on long trips to me that means more trips to the cramped airline bathrooms something the large and over weight certainly seek to avoid.

Feel Better Don't Die

When my Aunt Pearlie first started having back pains she began to self medicate like all of us, certainly I'm guilty of playing physician with myself. Every day there's a report of something that we thought was safe that has resulted in deaths. Most startlingly to me is how numbers are cited as though their deaths are unimportant or somehow not something that should concern us. So is the case with Tylenol whose makers want you to know that: "There's nothing generic about TYLENOL." Which begs the question what's the difference between TYLENOL and Acetaminophen?

What's more confusing is that inspite of the reports and the confusing information it's what TYLENOL says on their website that conflicts with our concerns to not die: "It’s important for people to know that it’s not the recommended dosage of acetaminophen that poses the risk. Rather, it’s when people take more than the recommended dose either intentionally, often because they think it will work better — which is not the case — or unintentionally, often because they don’t realize that several products they are taking at the same time (both prescription and OTC) each contain acetaminophen." Edwin K. Kuffner, MD.

If we didn't self medicate imagine how much longer the waiting times would be in our doctor's offices, emergency rooms and hospitals. To see the progress of the TYLENOL tv ads from 1988 with Susan Sullivan tellings us how hospitals used TYLENOL more than any other pain relievers, to how to use it often, to the current Feel better.

To "Don't Die" if you take ANY over the counter medication to the daily maximum and you have to do it for another day - DON'T! The time for playing is over you might not die but why take the risk. Spend the time go stand in line where ever it may be. Feel better and live!

Kissable Breath & I'm Sorry What?!?

I love kissing my wife (actually "wife-to-be" until Sept 5) and she loves her morning coffee. I am not a coffee drinker, so once she's had her cup I tend to miss her lips and catch her cheek when we kiss and say goodbye. That will change with the two latest news reports about some very old news. Coffee kills the bad breath germs, prevents/reverses Alzheimer (PDF) and many other illnesses associated with aging. What we thought that we knew about coffee is largely wrong. Coffee isn't caffine and in most cases is more beneficial than water and ISN'T hazardous to your health.

Unless you're "with child" or in my case "exceptionally sensitive" coffee can be better than water to your health. There is even some evidence that if I lose the weight even my sensitivity will be reduced. Coffee, the caffinated variety, could even be beneficial to me.

Our tax dollars at work lead to this discovery. The Joint National Committee on Hypertension has specifically stated that there is no evidence linking coffee/tea and high blood pressure. Although all of the news reports say that you shouldn't increase your coffee intake based on these "early" results, that's not what the researcher suggests(LISTEN). Early studies from the same university indicate that Alzheimer can be dormant decades earlier so it doesn't pay to wait and see.

Fat Stupid

What are you stupid? No, but "explain it to me like I'm a four-year-old." What is obese? I know it means we're overweight. (Actually its when an overweight person is overweight.) Think of it as your eating habits. If you order a Starbucks anything and its Venti, or a you morn the loss of McDonald's supersize choices, if you 7-11 and "Super or Double Big Gulp" you're probably obese. If you think snack foods should be eaten between meals and you snack every day, you're probably obese.   I don't mean to sound like an overweight Jeff Foxworthy but you just might be obese. If you desert every day and the size of the desert is larger than all the fresh vegetables you've eaten all day, you just might be a fat person.

We all feel fine and not fat at all until we're having problems breathing while walking somewhere we couldn't park close enough to enter, or can't make love as long as we use to while trying to satisfy our partners desires, or we just plain run out of steam. When we're leaning against everything to hold ourselves up while standing still or asking the young ones to slow down because we're a little tired. But we're not fat. Fat is someone else we know bigger than us but its not us. Or if it is we're happy with the way we are and you just have to accept us for who we are you skinny heifer!

Blaming you isn't the solution anymore than reminding me that I'm an obese person in waiting. What might help is more than perpetual naked mirror watching or news stories telling us that we're not as large as people from Mississippi. BMI (Body Mass Index) - It takes some higher math abilities to figure out how to compute how overweight you are scientifically. Let's just KISS (keep it simple sweetie) "if you can pinch and inch" then walk one around your neighborhood everyday.

How Fat Are We

We're not as fat as our kids who are pretty fat. Not that fat is a nice word it's really just a three letter four letter word. Washington DC (34th out of 40) is also not as fat as Maryland (tied for 19th) and Virginia (three way tie for 21st) either, well, us adults anyway. Our children, rather, your children are fatter in DC (9th out of 44) than in the surrounding jursidictions. Since your offspring don't usually commute for hours a day that's probably why the obese Maryland (32nd) and Virginia (23rd three way tie) adults probably have slimmer children. While their children are awaiting mommy and daddy's arrival home from work they're out and about playing until their parental units arrive.

WED MD says that Mississippians eat to much fried foods according to the comments of a newly transplanted Washingtonian. Lack of a public transportation system throughout the state could also be another reason but that's just speculation.

Who says we're fat - we'll they don't use the word fat the use the "O" word. How obese we are comes from the Trust for America's Heath in partnership with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation who get the actual numbers from the government's U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. They do the math so we don't have to!