jason | Entries tagged with health

Medical Journal blames disabled people “who want to live”

An editorial appearing in the prestigious British Medical Journal (BMJ) has blamed disabled people “who want to live” for the difficulties surrounding the debate in the UK on assisted suicide. Tony Delamothe, deputy editor of the BMJ, bluntly admitted that he is in favour of assisted suicide, reports Hilary White, LifeSiteNews.com.

“The debate on assisted dying has been hijacked by disabled people who want to live. It needs to be reclaimed for terminally ill people who want to die,” he wrote.

Personally I do agree with people’s right… to live or to die, but right I think that the debate should be “hijacked by disabled people who want to live” even though I want the right to die. If my wanting to die causes other people to be forced into situations where they might die or be pressured into suicide, I’m morally and ethically complicit in their death, whether i know about their particular situation or not. And that goes for anyone who would assist my suicide.

If right to die people can’t come up with an iron-clad solution that protects the rights of vulnerable individuals, then their cause is unethical. And to deny that vulnerable individuals will be pressured into choosing suicide is to deny their vulnerable individual status, their alienation and marginalization in the first place. Untenable. Just a thought.

Mirrored from Lemmingworks.

Ontario fires back against woman in ad – The Globe and Mail

The Ontario government has filed a defence against a claim made by a Hamilton woman whos at the centre of the U.S. debate over health care. Shona Holmes is featured in a TV campaign in which she claims she had to mortgage her home and travel to a U.S. clinic for brain surgery in 2005, due to a six-month wait for care in Canada. The ad, which began airing about two weeks ago in all 50 states, warns Americans to reject Canadian-style health care because it failed her. In the ad, Ms. Holmes states that if she relied on her government, shed be dead.

I hope we get more information about this. I merely saw @blurky posting about it on Twitter. Other comments I’ve seen was that she did not have a malignant brain tumor, and she was at no risk. I had a nice ‘perhaps sort of tumor’ for 5 years. We watched and waited, and decided that it really wasn’t a tumor at all. Surgeon (and I saw a few) said that in the US they’d just cut it out to be safe, for the $$ too, but since it was Canada, we only cut when necessary (my words). More likely that I just have a differently shaped brain. Lots of people do. I have been told by doctors that some people freak out over something like this and demand surgery (which just gets in the way for people who NEED surgery). Sounds like this situation could be exactly that. I’m not saying, just suppozin. I do agree that people shouldn’t get whatever surgery they feel like when they feel like it, and get in the way of people who need it. I have been bumped from my MRI at the last minute for people in car accidents and once for a little old lady who had had a fall. The staff apologized and said that someone who needed it more was going ahead of me. Bloody right! That’s as it should be.

I hope the democrats create a rebuttal…

Mirrored from Lemmingworks.

Originally published at Lemmingworks. You can comment here or there.

GimpGirl celebrates its 10th Anniversary! YAY to them! Check out the pictures that Aleja and Buridan took!

I’m interested in the metaphor of “The fridge magnet” and what it says about how children and parents share information, sticking art and notices on the fridge door, AND what draws us to the fridge in terms of food choices and nutrition. I think that ECE, in taking a more age appropriate child-centered approach, can help rethink child’s nutrition by relocalizing the discussion about food in the thoughts, mind and expression of children themselves. How do they learn to interact with food, what do they think about it, what draws them to it or repels them. How can we get them to explore food through play (though not abuse of food), inquiry, creativity, imagination and science. Will they experiment and really develop their own personal relationship with food as part of their lives, AND can that in turn be used to teach the parent about the foods that most positively engage children.

Since children learn about food from adults, and do not really have much opportunity to learn about food on their own and with their peers unmediated by parents and adult culture. And I’d like to explore this more.

Ex-Lemmingworks. ##.

2006 Darwin Award: High on Life

(3 June 2006, Florida) Two more candidates have thrown themselves into the running for a Darwin Award. The feet of Jason and Sara, both 21, were found protruding from a deflated, huge helium advertising balloon. Jason was a college student, and Sara attended community college, but apparently their education had glossed over the importance of oxygen.

The pair pulled down the 8′ balloon, and climbed inside. Their last words consisted of high-pitched, incoherent giggling as they slowly passed out and passed into the hereafter.

Sheriff’s deputies said the two were not victims of foul play. No drugs or alcohol were found. The medical examiner reported that helium inhalation was a significant factor in their deaths. A family member said “Sara was mischievous, to be honest. She liked fun and it cost her.”

Ex-Lemmingworks. ##.

I was watching CBC this morning, and they were talking about the new law requiring labeling of cosmetics. They were interviewing someone from Environmental Working Group || Public Interest Watchdog and this person mentioned their report Skin Deep which talks about toxins in everything from toothpaste to shampoo. I don’t use soaps or personal products unless I know that they are as toxin free as possible, that goes for dishwasher powder and laundry soap. Something to think about!

Ex-Lemmingworks. ##.

[Of course, I’ve not personally verified this, so this is just ‘information’, but it is interesting. I certainly do not eat white bread as a rule.]

White bread increases cancer risk | the Daily Mail

Eating lots of white bread raises the risk of a cancer that kills thousands of Britons every year, according to new research.

Those who eat five slices a day are almost twice as likely to develop the most common form of kidney cancer compared to those who have one and a half slices.

Scientists put the cause down to refined cereals triggering a surge in blood sugar and insulin levels, which is thought to fuel cancer cell growth.

People should particularly cut down on white bread, which causes the biggest rise in blood glucose levels, and opt for wholemeal varieties instead.

Ex-Lemmingworks. ##.

As part of my course on critical thinking, I ‘ban’ cola from class. It is a bit of a joke, because I also tell students that I have no right to do it, but I want them to think professionally and critically about everything, including food choices, especially in front of children. I had found some information, but today CBC and a pile of other news sources had another article on it. See CBC’s: Drinking cola may increase risk to women’s bones. Get the full study: Colas, but not other carbonated beverages, are associated with low bone mineral density in older women: The Framingham Osteoporosis Study — Tucker et al. 84 (4): 936 — American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

This year they caught on quickly, and we added Aspartame which is something in my gum, when some wit decided to wisely call my habits into question. I thought this was great, because I’d never even thought of the problem. I have switched to Spry Gum which tastes better, and actually costs about the same, though according to google (Trident gum - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) Trident gum also contains Xylitol (Xylitol - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) as does Spry Gum. Xylitol is produced naturally in the human body, and according to these links is actually GOOD for your teeth (see Trident FAQs). So now we have a new sweetner.

Now, if we can get fizzy drinks sweetened with Xylitol and without phosphoric acid (which according to this link is primarily used in soaps, detergents and fertilizers) which is the chemical reported to cause problems in colas, we’ll be in a better place. I wonder what people think about drinking something that is marketted as a rust remover… the Wikipedia page on phosphoric acid is particularly interesting, talking about why it is used, in place of other options.

Who says what you learn at school isn’t useful!!!

Ex-Lemmingworks. ##.

This is sweet. How come this story has to come to me from India? I would hope that it came to me from parents on the street where I live. Perhaps i’m not listening hard enough:
ChildCareExchange.com - View Past EED - Parent Alarmed by KFC

My three year old doesn’t know to read ABC yet but he sure knows the McDonalds and KFC signs. Even though he hates burgers, he insists on getting into an outlet the moment he sees one — just for the Happy Meals, which by the way are eaten entirely by me, while he enjoys the toy and ice cream….

“Mamma, I’m your baby and you love me right…?” he asked, wanting some reassurance

“Of course…” I answered warmly with a hug.

“Egg is a baby chicken, then how can she cook her own baby?” he demanded to know, pointing a little finger at the hen, unable to hold back his tears. “Does it mean you and papa can also cook me to eat?” he wailed.

“It’s only a toy…just for playing…don’t bother about it,” I tried to pacify him, a little shaken up myself.

“I don’t like this toy — it makes me sad.” He burst into tears again.

Ex-Lemmingworks. ##.

You are a thirtysomething

You’re a little frustrated that you can’t hear all the tones that the young ‘uns can but will be more than happy if it means you don’t have to listen to their damn ringtones on the bus anymore.

The highest pitched ultrasonic mosquito ringtone that I can hear is 14.9kHz

Test your own hearing at Ultrasonic ringtones

It’s nice to be 30 something, while in my mid-40s. I think I could hear higher pitches, but since I have tinnitus in both ears, and 30% hearing loss in my left, it is hard to tell. 14.9 is just below one of my tinnitus pitches, so perhaps the next level above is what I hear everyday anyway.

Ex-Lemmingworks. ##.

I always read mindhack, just for the curious little blurbs on how the mind might work. This article is of personal value, as those who know me can imagine. Nice to have a name for things like that. Mind Hacks: Time magazine on prosopagnosia:

The curious condition of prosopagnosia (something referred to - somewhat incorrectly - as ‘face blindness’) is featured in a short article in Time.

Prosopagnosia is a term used to refer to quite a broad range of neuropsychological difficulties that impair people from recognising others by their face, despite the fact that they may recognise them by other features (such as by voice, or even by a distinctive tatoo) and have little trouble with recognising non-face objects.

The article focuses on recent findings that prosopagnosia can result from inheriting genetic traits, rather than only from brain injury, as was previously thought.

For years, prosopagnosia was associated with damage to the fusiform gyrus and was considered quite rare owing to the fact that this brain structure is quite protected from most sorts of head injury.