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January 1: Hemp, MJ, THC, and CBD . . . Wha.a.a.a? Hemp and marijuana are both cannabis plants. But they are not the same. CBD is being actively promoted for its “wellness” effects.The largest marijuana-producing company in Canada (Canopy) is planning to distribute hemp-derived CBD-infused “sports” beverages in the U.S. Vogue magazine calls CBD wellness products one of the top 10 trends in 2018. The stock price of Canopy January 2019: $28.11 Stock price a year later:$19.28. The 2019 high: $52.70
January 15: Updates
In the U.S. both the average man and the average woman gained 24 pounds from 1960 to 2002. The latest independent estimate of immigrant children held in 9 U.S. centers is 15,000. Most of the children are held for 104 to 240 days in large centers with up to a thousand children. Daily low dose aspirin provided NO benefit to the elderly against all types of deaths, cancer-related deaths, dementia, physical disability, or cardiovascular events.
February 1: Things That Threaten
Repeats from 2010 include: Watching TV increased chance of a cardiac death by 18%; Tanning Booths increased chance of malignant melanoma by 75%; Cell phone use in cars increased risk of accident by 400%; Toy injuries caused 251,000 visits to ERs in 2018; Sleep apnea increases the chance of a driving accident by about 100%; No evidence for Brain cancer from cell phones in 2010, but i 2019 a Swedish study found that very heavy cell phone users had an increased incidence of acoustic neuroma (non-cancerous growth on hearing nerve); Many herbal supplements for sexual enhancements, body building, or weight loss had incorrectly labeled ingredients and/or unlabeled contaminants.
“New” threats: Gun Violence – Two previous blogs (2015 and 2018) compared the story of the frog complacently sitting in the gradually boiling water with our pace of achieving gun safety. (“By Degrees”, Markerelli.com) Climate Change (try to stifle your yawn here) “Climate change is already adversely affecting human health and health systems, and projected climate change is expected to alter the geographic range and burden of a variety of climate-sensitive health outcomes and to affect the functioning of public health and health care systems.” (NEJM editorial)
February 15: Valentine’s Day Using the Arons Protocol of 36 questions caused a journalist to promptly fall in love on one of her dates, and she wrote it up, “To Fall in Love With Anyone, Do This”, her most widely read column according to the NY Times.
March 15: Jargon Update:
“Elderly” is OUT – Few “older adults” want to be called “elderly”. “Seniors” is acceptable, even though it implies that those under 65 are “juniors”. “Perennials”, in contrast with “millennials”, implies that one may not need to be replanted every Spring. The Boston Commission on Affairs of the Elderly changed its name to the Age Strong Commission, becoming a candidate for “Best New Politically Correct Term of the Year” award.
“Organic”, “natural”, “healthy” – All still remain relatively undefined by the U.S. Department of Agricultural, so any company can put those labels on almost any food.
“Moral injury” is a substitute term for “burn out” of our physicians. “The increasingly complex web of medical providers’ highly conflicted allegiances. . . results in the moral injury . . . of not being able to provide high-quality care and healing in the context of health care. . . . Electronic health records track productivity and business metrics, but significantly reduce face-to-face interactions.”
Sexual orientation is “who you go to bed with. Gender is who you go to bed as.”
“Safe-school officers” are combat veterans wearing body armor while carrying a 9mm Glock handgun and a sawed-off automatic rifle roaming the halls of the Manatee School for the Arts in Palmetto, Florida. The principal hired the combat veterans because “I don’t want this to be the first time they’ve had someone shooting at them.”
April 1: Alzheimer’s: There’s an App For That – Dr. Atul Gawande, CEO of Haven, the new healthcare-innovation company, announced that their first “new model of care” is an app for patients with Alzheimer’s. The app’s name is “FIGAWI”, after that ancient Indian tribe that gets lost in the fog on the way to Nantucket from Cape Cod every Memorial Day weekend . I’d give you the website where you can download it, but I can’t remember it.
April 15: A Modest Proposal to Eradicate Measles: Measles was declared “eradicated” in 2000. Since January 1, 2019 the U.S. has had 465 cases in 19 states. One way to get things done in America – to effect change – is to sue somebody—your spouse, your neighbor, the police, the National Enquirer, the President, whomever. We should sue an anti-vaxxer, the parent of an unvaccinated child who spreads measles to other people for civil damages!
May 1: Extend the Modest Proposal to Tetanus: Oregon reported its first case of tetanus in thirty years in 2017. An unvaccinated 6 year old developed tetanus and the total bill for his care exceeded $1 million. What if the parents of the Oregon tetanus-afflicted child were sued by the tax payers in Oregon to “recover” those medical care costs that they paid for?
May 15: Fake nutritious food- Foods that sound healthier than they really are include: veggie sticks, rice cakes (arsenic?), spinach wrap, protein powder, turkey burgers, bran muffins, instant oatmeal, and granola. Most have high sugar or high salt or both.
Part II in two weeks.
HUB's LIST of medical fun facts 