Category Archives: healthcare

No, it is true that meat causes cancer | Sci-Tech | DW.COM | 29.10.2015

“I have sat on many committees around the world, I have done cancer research for 35 years – if you want the ultimate answer to something, you go to the IARC monograph program,” says Neil Pearce, a professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.Pearce tells DW that such criticisms come out every time IARC produces a monograph. “The same happened with smoking, with asbestos and many other things.”

Source: No, it is true that meat causes cancer | Sci-Tech | DW.COM | 29.10.2015

All the Dirt on Gardening: Mites are Biting

It’s mite season, ladies and gentlemen, and they are causing wide spread itching. There are two types that are causing the most trouble: 1) straw itch mites and 2) oak mites.Don’t ignore the symptoms, the Australian Dept. of Agriculture and Food points out, “In severe cases of mite attack, victims have reported headache, fever, nausea, vomiting, mild diarrhoea and joint pains.”Prevent oak mite bites If you see brown and crusty edges on oak tree leaves, be aware that mite activity is possible. Don’t sit under oak trees or on nearby lawns. Illinois Dept of Public Health.Prevent straw mite bites by avoiding straw bales1. Straw itch mites are the topic of this week’s entomology pest alert from Oklahoma State Univeristy.. Here’s the link –  http://entoplp.okstate.edu/pddl/2015/PA14-43.pdf

Source: All the Dirt on Gardening: Mites are Biting

One-woman counter-protest breaks up anti-choice vigil by chanting “yeast infections!”

Numair’s best friend and co-worker clocked in early so she could head out to the protest, where she planted herself between two families with children. “In my first 30 seconds of walking out there, I did get called a whore,” Numair said. “One woman was shaking her head. I knelt down to her kid and said, ‘Do you know about yeast infections?’ ”Onlookers gave Numair the thumbs-up, and some passing cars honked in support, but she was the only counter-protester on the scene. Still, with a spontaneous chant, she managed to break up the protest in under a half-hour. “I don’t know why I started chanting ‘Yeast infections!’ but it just came out. I have this cold, so it was just this obnoxious squeak, cheerleader-like. And I started doing high kicks, which I don’t normally do, in my skinny jeans.” A religious leader was guiding a circle of protestors in prayers for Numair—but as her chants got louder and more grating, they stopped.I’m on board with pretty much anything — including being straight-up obnoxious — that makes it as hard as possible for anti-choicers to gather in front of clincs. A recent British study found that patients found the presence of anti-choice protestors outside clinics distressing, regardless of the protestors’ behavior; a silent prayer vigil by so-called “sidewalk counselors” was just as much of an unwanted intrusion as a more aggressive protest with graphic signs.Unfortunately, our legal system apparently thinks anti-choicers’ right to free speech takes precedence over patients’ right to access a legal medical procedure without harassment and intimidation. As long as that’s the case, the only (imperfect) solution is countering their speech with our speech — and if it’s shouting about yeast infections that makes anti-choicers as uncomfortable as they make those seeking abortions, so be it.

Source: One-woman counter-protest breaks up anti-choice vigil by chanting “yeast infections!”

Texas Is Fishing Through Your Abortion Files | Dame Magazine

A demand for records—especially an extensive demand such as the one apparently occurring in Texas—is just as much about serving as a warning to future providers and patients as it is about casting as wide a net as possible in the hopes of finding some sort of error or deviance to potentially prosecute. For doctors, it’s a warning that the act of performing an abortion will inevitably put you under a microscope, where a mistake made in another medical profession that would likely be overlooked could in this case turn into a fine, a loss of a medical license, or worse. For patients, it’s an active reminder that someone, somewhere could find out about your medical past, and that there is always the chance that information could get out.  That’s an especially alarming scenario for the women of Texas, who are already learning the hard way that politics will often trump their health and safety, as the state cuts off family-planning services, refuses to expand Medicaid for low income residents, and will even arrest an undocumented mother while she is visiting her gynecologist.Subpoenaing medical records is just the latest salvo of the state of Texas’s vendetta against Planned Parenthood, and regardless of what the health department finds, the state will most likely be successful in frightening some patients and medical professionals away from the clinics. But like every other political attack in the state, it will do nothing to stop the need for reproductive health services, and instead it will just continue to put those services further out of reach for those who need it.

Source: Texas Is Fishing Through Your Abortion Files | Dame Magazine

I Wasn’t Supposed to Get Breast Cancer | Dame Magazine

I feel very fortunate that I’ve been alive and able to experience my daughter’s childhood. It could just as easily have gone differently, as it does, tragically, for so many women.  I think of friends whose lives this disease has claimed in the years since I beat it back, and I feel sorrow, mixed with gratitude. And I try to get on with my life.

A few months ago, my most recent MRI showed a small area of abnormality in my other breast. My oncologist feels it’s most likely benign. I trust her, as I trusted Mary, as I trusted the crystal ball of the Oncotype score. You just have to keep moving the pieces around the board, making the best decisions you can, using whatever information you can get, trying to win the game and get to the end of your life before the cancer does.I have a follow-up test soon. I’ll keep you posted.

Source: I Wasn’t Supposed to Get Breast Cancer | Dame Magazine

Is the New “Female Viagra” Really Just a Roofie? | Dame Magazine

There is something very 19th century about this diagnosis.And now the attitude is we can fix this, we’ll give you a pill. It’s so Western and male-driven, where the whole point of sex is to get to the finish line, which has traditionally been about the male ejaculation. Viagra is the No. 1 prescribed medication of all time. Pfizer has made so much money. They’re so invested in this way of looking at the issue. So why wouldn’t a drug company want to find the “pink Viagra?”One of my fears about Addyi is that women are going to take it, and because the efficacy rates are poor they’re going to feel like a failure. And those women who have serious issues around physical pain such as vaginismus, or sexual abuse, or post-traumatic stress, or a history with orgasmic dysfunction are going to take this drug instead of getting sex therapy or good treatment for the actual psychological issue that might be underlying some of the greater problems.There are real physical issues such as age-related issues of menopause—but many women might be pulling away from sex with their partner because they sense something is wrong in the relationship, such as betrayal or abuse.Women are very intuitive so sometimes our bodies know before our heads know what is going on in our relationship. Women exist in their bodies in a different way than men because we have to let someone in, physically, emotionally, sexually. We will protect ourselves if we sense that there’s any danger whatsoever. Often sex shuts down long before the relationship is over.

Source: Is the New “Female Viagra” Really Just a Roofie? | Dame Magazine