Category: Food, Drink & Health

Yours truly made a much procrastinated trip to the dentist this morning. Oh, I’ve been to the dentist regularly for cleanings and a few restorations. Even had a wisdom tooth removed in December. But today’s visit was for two crowns that I’ve been told I needed for a few years now. Between the anxiety and the cost, I had put them off.

After he’d ground away enough of tooth #2 and tooth #3 the dentist could see tooth #4 needed a crown, too.

As my loving daughter Jill wrote, “Is that what they mean by Triple Crown winner?”

($2485 if you must know. Insurance pays half. Last month it was my car (including a timing belt). In April it was my trees that needed pruning. Recession my a**.)

If you eat, you should listen to this 53-minute podcast of a talk by Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals. Pollan covers the essentials of his important book. Informative and interesting.

Podcast link is to iTunes.

“Kentucky Derby Saturday is the only time of year anyone seriously considers drinking a mint julep,” wrote Bob Molinaro of the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot. “Bourbon with sugar? A waste of good whiskey.

“Might as well swallow cough syrup.”

Sideline Chatter

Have you ever tasted a mint julep? What did you think?

What’s important about this virus is its genetic novelty. As far as we know, the human population doesn’t have any natural immunity to it. But what people perceive about the virus is its lack of novelty. Clinically it seems a lot like what they are used to with seasonal influenza. It’s not (so far) the monster of 1918 and doesn’t have the virulence of H5N1. What they are forgetting is what the genetic novelty might mean.

Because there is no natural immunity to this virus, even though clinically it appears to be like garden variety flu to the individual, with respect to the population it has the potential to spread faster and many more people sick than seasonal flu. And remember, seasonal flu is not a walk in the park. It kills an estimated 30,000 people a year.

A bad flu season can fill hospital emergency rooms and in patient beds to the bursting point. We currently have fewer staffed hospital beds per capita than we did in the last pandemic, 1968 (the “Hong Kong flu”). There is no reserve capacity. We can’t just add physical beds. Beds don’t take care of patients. Nurses and doctors do.

Now take a bad flu season and double it. To each individual it’s the same disease but now everybody is getting it at once, in every community and all over the world. In terms of virulence, it’s a mild pandemic. It’s not a lethal virus like 1918. But in terms of social disruption it could be very bad. If twice as many people get sick, the number of deaths could be 80,000 in the US instead of 40,000. Gurneys would line the hallways of hospitals and clinics. And absenteeism amongst health care workers would compound the problem. Infrastructure would probably survive intact. No need to have your own water supply or electricity generator. But it would be a very rough ride.

All of this could plausibly happen from this virus without it causing anything more than the usual case of influenza.

Effect Measure

Don’t you love it when the cashier stops to cough or sneeze and covers their face with their hand, then goes back to touching your food and handing you your change and/or receipt?

If you cough or sneeze, cover your face — but please do not cover it with your hand. Your hand touches everything.

Cover your mouth and nose with the inside of your elbow. You pretty much keep the inside of your elbow to yourself.

Pass it on.

If people actually reduce social contact and cut down on air travel and stay home in response to a single cough, then it’s much likelier that swine flu will quickly die out. If it does, we’ll all feel a bit foolish over having taken those precautions and late night comics will make fun of Joe Biden and everyone will move on. If we don’t, and R jumps up, then we could be dealing with a full blown pandemic and Biden’s warning will come to be seen as, if anything, insufficiently alarmist.

Ezra Klein

R is the reproduction rate. Interesting insight — go read what he has to say, it’s only a half-dozen paragraphs.

More than you want to know about washing your hands.

Key point:

“In general, it’s safer to leave your hands unwashed than to leave them wet.”

“[E]arly analysis of the virus’ protein-making instructions suggested that people exposed to the 1957 flu pandemic — which killed up to 2 million people worldwide — may have some immunity to the new strain.”

Los Angeles Times

If you’re 52 or older you’re golden.

It seems, as this is written late Wednesday morning, that the swine flu is cause for a watchful eye, but possibly nothing more. I have read that some people are wearing face masks on airplanes and I have heard that urgent care facilities are maxed out. That’s to be expected, I guess, what with the news media’s hysterics.

But what does it mean to us, the intelligent, thoughtful folks that read this blog? Has the swine flu changed your behavior in any way? Would you send home an ill co-worker who’s son had recently been to Mexico? Would you cancel a planned trip to Mexico? Would you cancel domestic or international air travel? Would you wear a mask on the plane? Would you keep your kids home from school if a case is diagnosed in your area? Would you avoid the Kentucky Derby and it’s large crowd (or any other crowd)?

My understanding is that the disease cannot be transmitted through the comment feature of this blog.

If you aren’t concerned about the possibility at least that there could be an influenza epidemic, you haven’t read enough about 1918.

From Elin McCoy at Bloomberg.com:

Just in time, the latest box wines are going upscale and hip, touting their higher quality and planet-friendly packaging. Because the compact, 3-liter box costs less to produce and weighs less than the four 750-milliliter bottles it replaces, it costs less to transport and has about half the carbon footprint of the same amount of bottled wine.

In fact, according to Nielsen, the premium 3-liter box wine category is the fastest-growing segment of the wine industry. In the fourth quarter of 2008, table-wine sales growth slowed to 2.8 percent, yet premium boxes zoomed 32 percent. Key buyers? Those with incomes of $70,000 and up, especially men.

Box wine itself isn’t new. The packaging system, developed about 50 years ago by Illinois-based Scholle Corp. for sulfuric acid, was first used for wine in Australia, where the now wildly popular box is known as a “wine cask.” A flexible plastic bag with a built-in spigot holds the wine inside a sturdy box. Vacuum-sealed, the bag collapses as wine is drawn off, which prevents oxygen from spoiling the remainder, as happens to a half-full bottle within a day or two. Most brands claim that opened box wines will stay fresh for a month to six weeks, though I’ve found that three weeks is usually the max.

I’m not a wine snob, but I have sent back a bottle at a restaurant, so I do have some standards. Thanks to the recommendation from the proprietor of Louisville Juice, I tried Black Box Merlot and found it to be just fine. I’m trying their Cab next — $18 for three liters at that big warehouse store I favor.

From Well, The New York Times health blog:

Last year, researchers studied 34 students at the University of Virginia, taking them to the base of a steep hill and fitting them with a weighted backpack. They were then asked to estimate the steepness of the hill. Some participants stood next to friends during the exercise, while others were alone.

The students who stood with friends gave lower estimates of the steepness of the hill. And the longer the friends had known each other, the less steep the hill appeared.

From Newsweek.com:

It’s common knowledge that a glass or two of red wine a night will do more than enhance a great meal or put you to sleep: it can reduce production of “bad” cholesterol, boost “good” cholesterol and reduce blood clotting, all of which will help reduce the risk of heart disease. But recent studies are showing that wine aficionados may also reap even more benefits, from inhibiting tumor development to helping form nerve cells. Here’s a roundup of four recent studies that might encourage you to uncork that bottle of merlot …

Coffee in the morning (see yesterday’s post), nap in the afternoon (see earlier post today) and red white wine in the evening. Life is good.

Via The Huffington Post:

Drinking coffee may do more than just keep you awake. A new study suggests an intriguing potential link to mental health later in life, as well.
. . .

After controlling for numerous socioeconomic and health factors, including high cholesterol and high blood pressure, the scientists found that the subjects who had reported drinking three to five cups of coffee daily were 65 percent less likely to have developed dementia, compared with those who drank two cups or less.

Coffee, for some is an acquired taste they haven’t acquired. You might want to acquire it — or are you already demented?

Or as WebMD puts it?

“Want a drug that could lower your risk of diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, and colon cancer? That could lift your mood and treat headaches? That could lower your risk of cavities?”

The researchers note that previous studies have shown that coffee drinking improves cognitive performance, and caffeine reportedly reduces the risk of Parkinson’s disease.

The researchers say it’s not known how coffee would offer protection against dementia, but that coffee drinking also has been associated with a decreased risk of type 2 diabetes, which is a risk factor for dementia. The authors speculate that the effect may have something to do with coffee’s antioxidant capacity in the blood.

WebMD

An acquired taste worth acquiring.

The end of the holidays, cold weather and economic gloom will make today one of the most stressful days of the year for returning to work.

But experts have come up with an unlikely remedy – throwing a tantrum.
…

‘When stress threatens to overwhelm you, try a short sustained burst of shouting, or alternatively, go somewhere quiet, close your eyes and take a few deep breaths to help calm you down.’

Mail Online

I’m taking the tantrum remedy.

Oh, wait, I’m retired. I don’t have to return to work today. I don’t have to do anything today.

“… headed out for blue corn chili pinon pancakes.”

A friend on Facebook earlier this morning.

Time Magazine’s Invention of the Year — and now just $399.

Order the kit, spit in the test tube and have your DNA genotyped.

• Discover how your genes influence your health and traits. Get your data on over 90 traits and diseases, with more topics added every month.
• See your personal history through a new lens with high-resolution maternal and paternal lineage, ancestry painting, and similarity to various global populations.

Health and Traits – List of Conditions

Ancestry

Lincoln, Neb. is the healthiest city in the U.S., and Huntington, W.V. is the least healthy, 2007 CDC data reveal.

The CDC’s city-by-city report is based on annual health surveys. Residents were asked to rate their health as excellent, very good, good, fair, or poor.

Topping the list was Lincoln, Neb., where 92.8% of residents say their health is good or better and only 7.2% report fair or poor health.

At the bottom of the list is Huntington, W.V., where only 68.8% of residents say they enjoy good or better health, and a whopping 31.2% report only fair or poor health.

WebMD

Fargo was second, Boulder third.

Albuquerque ranked 95th of 184 cities ranked. Santa Fe 88th.

All 184 cities ranked.