Saturday, July 06, 2013

What, me run?


12 comments:

  1. We just got home from Maine. On the way home I checked email and there was a message from a friend asking if we're okay, as she heard that our town was hit hard in yesterday's 4th of July storm! We were in Maine in the sunshine at the beach!

    Taking our usual exit, we found the first road barricaded and needed to go home by a different way. But we're home!
    Check out the photos and video with this article!
    http://www.wcax.com/story/22769890/rain-keeps-falling-repair-costs-keep-rising

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    1. Gee! "Cool" here today--only in the high 90's, which is about normal. One probably heatstroke death the other day, a farmworker; first one this year. With the measures the state and employers take, we sometimes don't have a single such death in a year. It used to be more.

      Last night I figured I had better make a reservation at my second choice of place to stay in San Diego (the old Army Navy YMCA) the week of 7/15; the govt. travel office is a bit slow, and the tourists are probably going to be out in full force and govt. contractors could get stuck anywhere. The online reservation system indicated they were out of smaller rooms 7/16 and booked solid 7/18. I called and spoke to a human bean and got a small room for all four days, 7/15 through 7/18. 24-hours notice for cancellations, so if the Travel Office doesn't come through with a satisfactory billet I'm OK. The old YMCA is adequate (I wish they hadn't disabled the transoms), and the location is great for me. I can't pocket the difference between the govt. rate and their charges (about a hundred dollars a night), but that's OK.

      Pool maintenance and weeding on the agenda for today.

      --Alan

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  2. Alan, wanted to thank you for the gut article. We've come so far medically in the past hundred years, and clearly, have so far to go.

    My first fast, at 12 (two weeks, water only) at a dearest aunt's behest, and followed by a yearly repeat for nearly a decade until I'd totally wrecked my metabolism. And have gotten to spend the rest of my life knowing the docs are just flat wrong about calories, but having to sit and get lectured. Doesn't lead to a great deal of respect for the profession, lol!

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  3. Oops! I accidentally stayed on Thursday's thread and never moved on to Friday's. Time warp or something.

    Listener, beautiful photo for Friday!

    Alan, great firstie for Friday!

    Susan, I'm sorry to hear of your weight gain. It must be very uncomfortable as well as frustrating. I hope the new treatment helps!

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  4. Glad others liked the gut flora article; I thought it was of general interest. At Costco today I picked up a bunch of prebiotic/probiotic capsules; at least they can't do any harm (except to my wallet, and not much there). Did I post here the research showing that gut microbes induced by eating lots of carnitine (e.g. from beef or some energy drinks) process carnitine into something or other that causes atherosclerosis?

    I am going to make a point of drinking a glass of orange juice if (or more likely when) I encounter a fatty high protein breakfast on our Canada trip, that's for sure!

    The weather has cooled off a good bit here. Nice.

    Last hight around sundown we had a power failure that lasted for an extended period of time; we sat in the back yard enjoying the breeze, watched the night descend and the stars come out. Miyoko practiced karaoke and I read the news on my Kindle.


    --Alan

    P.S.: Cat--looking forward to a photo or two of the chair lift. Are the kitties getting used to it?

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    1. Ah, Alan, I had to laugh. My takeaway from the article was kinda different from yours. What I was seeing was lousy fats and carbs, lol! **the sort of high-fat, high-carbohydrate meal that 1 in 4 Americans eats regularly—would have such a dramatic effect. And it lasted for hours.**

      As a matter of further interest: http://rawfoodsos.com/2010/09/02/the-china-study-wheat-and-heart-disease-oh-my/

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    2. One thing that might make the idea of inflammation as a result of disturbed gut flora penetrate the medical consciousness a bit more is ready availability of quantitative CRP (C-reactive protein) tests. The old tests are pretty crude, and not sensitive enough for the sort of measurements described in the first part of the article. Quantitative CRP's first became available, oh, about 1985, but they never caught on. Maybe part of the reason was the company that produced the instrument was not influential (read: big) enough. But at the small rural hospital were I work they are putting the tests on line shortly , if they haven't already. A big company with gazillions of chemistry analyzers all over the country (and the world) has made the test available, and I suppose for a "reasonable" cost (at least to the hospital). Me, I don't figure my gut flora are particularly disturbed, I don't eat much beef, and I certainly don't have a heart attack on a plate for breakfast. But it can't hurt to paper the little darlings, eh?

      --Alan

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    3. Another great use for quantitative CRP's is to monitor post-surgical inflammation--which if increasing, is a sign of infection. Knowing about that a day or two or three or five sooner could be a tremendous benefit for the patient.

      --Alan

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