Sodium

I believe it to be a well known fact that canned products tend to contain a great deal of sodium. I just want to start out with that. If you don’t know this, google it, I’m sure you’ll be able to find a ton of information about the uprising over the last year of people opposed to these sodium levels. Oh, I should also include things like microwavable meals in this category (think tv dinner types – i.e. Lean Cuisine).

So yesterday I was waiting in the kitchen at the microwave to heat up my oh-so-yummy homemade chili. The girl I was waiting on pulled her microwavable bowl of Progresso soup out of the microwave, grabbed some salt from a bowl on the counter we keep condiments in and went on her way. I then proceeded to drink 5 gallons of water for her. I was amazed that someone would add salt to a canned soup and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it, so I looked up Progresso’s sodium levels for this product. Between regular Progresso and Progresso Light, the lowest sodium level I can find in one of these cans is 680 mg (in the Chicken Wild Rice flavor). It ranges all the way up to 930mg (in Minestrone).

The daily recommended sodium intake (by the American Heart Association) is 1,000 mg per 1,000 calories you eat, not to exceed 3,000 mg per day. (To give some gauge, 2500 mg is about a teaspoon.) I can’t imagine getting half of my intake in one meal. Then there’s also the question, is there anything wrong with getting less than 1,000 mg per 1,000 calories per day? I’m going to go with no, but if you can prove me wrong, by all means.

Booger Wiper

Someone has recently taken to wiping their boogers on the back of one of the bathroom stall doors at work. I mean, seriously, the toilet paper is right there! It’s really gross. I’m considering putting a note on the back of the stall door similar to these.

Or maybe I should just join in? Maybe said person would enjoy the help?

Speed Up Your Metabolism

I read this article in my Women’s Health this month. I love that magazine. Because of this article I’ve been trying to drink more green tea. Really, any would be more because I can’t stand the stuff. I’m forcing myself to quickly down 2 cups a day. So gross. However, the health benefits far outweigh the face of disgust I make while drinking it. I kind of think if I drink it enough I will get used to it and maybe start to like it. Here’s hoping.

Cancer

I was going to write this post a few days ago, but decided to keep the depressing stuff to myself. Until…

Tonight after work I was walking through Times Square to the subway. My parents called me and my mom said, “I’m here with Dad. I called to update you on Papa.” Papa is my mom’s dad whose 84th birthday is Sunday. He went to the doctor last week because he had been lethargic and not quite himself. The doctor apparently looked at him and said, you’re going to the hospital. He’s been there ever since. They didn’t know what was wrong with him and thought he was better and they were going to send him home. Then he threw up and forgot where he was and why he was there, regardless of how many times people told him when he asked.

It was finally determined to be a gall bladder infection. They were going to give him antibiotics and let him go home. Then next thing I know, mom calls me and tells me he just got out of surgery and that they took out his gall bladder – also, they determined he has cirrhosis of the liver (even though he’s definitely not an alcoholic).

When I got this call I was afraid she was going to tell me he had passed away suddenly – she sounded like she’d been crying. Instead she told me he does not have cirrhosis of the liver, it’s cancer. And it’s inoperable. He’s apparently going home tomorrow with hospice care.

I have so many questions – what stage is it? Usually hospice means it’s bad. Was it another form of cancer originally, or does he only have cancer of the liver? Are they going to treat it? It seems like most of these questions don’t matter because he is 84. Everyone seems to be thinking – well, a lot of people don’t live to that age – be happy, he had a good life. It’s really sad.

I think what compounds it is that we recently found out that my uncle who had esophageal cancer and beat it, now has lung cancer in both of his lungs. Then I found out my dad’s cousin, who is like an aunt, has 2 different kinds of breast cancer. My 31 year old cousin also recently beat breast cancer, and a few years ago, her mom (my aunt) died after 11 years of fighting ovarian cancer.

It’s just a little depressing tonight. Cancer is bad.

ACLU lawsuit against gene patent holders

ACLU Challenges Patents on Breast Cancer Genes

On May 12, 2009, the ACLU and the Public Patent Foundation, a not-for-profit organization affiliated with Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law (PUBPAT), filed a lawsuit charging that patents on two human genes associated with breast and ovarian cancer are unconstitutional and invalid. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of four scientific organizations representing more than 150,000 geneticists, pathologists, and laboratory professionals, as well as individual researchers, breast cancer and women’s health groups, genetic counselors and individual women. Individuals with certain mutations along these two genes, known as BRCA1 and BRCA2, are at a significantly higher risk for developing hereditary breast and ovarian cancers.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) has granted thousands of patents on human genes – in fact, about 20 percent of our genes are patented. A gene patent holder has the right to prevent anyone from studying, testing or even looking at a gene. As a result, scientific research and genetic testing has been delayed, limited or even shut down due to concerns about gene patents.

As a result of the PTO granting patents on the BRCA genes to Myriad Genetics, Myriad’s lab is the only place in the country where diagnostic testing can be performed. Because only Myriad can test for the BRCA gene mutations, others are prevented from testing these genes or developing alternative tests. Myriad’s monopoly on the BRCA genes makes it impossible for women to access other tests or get a second opinion about their results, and allows Myriad to charge a high rate for their tests – over $3,000, which is too expensive for some women to afford.

The lawsuit, Association for Molecular Pathology, et al. v. United States Patent and Trademark Office, et al., was filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York in Manhattan against the PTO, Myriad Genetics and the University of Utah Research Foundation, which hold the patents on the BRCA genes.

I had no idea this happens and I can not believe it is allowed. People can patent genes??? I can understand wanting to get the recognition when it comes to having discovered say, the gene that causes Parkinson’s or Alsheimer’s, but when this causes research and exploration to be limited, why would anyone want to do that. I find it to be incredibly irresponsible on the government’s part to allow this to happen.

I understand that America is the greatest country in the world, blah blah blah. I also understand that we have some of the best medical research in the world right here in the good ole USA. I know that if medicine was never turned into the business it is treated as, we would never be able to afford the research we can. At the same time, however, my family has a BRAC mutation. Every woman in my mother’s side of the family as far back as anyone can remember has died of “women trouble” and then Ovarian Cancer once we had the technology to identify it. My mother is the first woman to live to her age without being sick and this is because she had a hysterectomy as a result of our knowledge of this genetic mutation.

It takes so long to be tested for this gene, they need family records of other people with it, and it is so expensive. I had no idea this was because there was a patent on the gene. Why would anyone ever want to do something that affects people’s lives and could be essentially allowing thousands to die? I understand that research is a business and labs need funding and scientists, but what if lab A has the patent and there are scientists at lab B and lab C who went to school with lab A’s scientists, but graduated with better understanding and grades? I want lab B and C’s scientists researching cures for my potential cancer. Problem is, they can’t. I find something wrong with this. Morally, shouldn’t we be doing everything we possibly can to find cures to things? Doesn’t competition bring out the best in people? Wouldn’t competition challenge people to work harder and think better? We don’t allow monopolies in our country (technically), so why this?

Reading this article disgusted me and really, it made me want to cry. To learn something that so personally affects you and your well being is controlled by politics when the issue is health and life is disheartening. I suppose then you could start to argue about stem cell research and abortion, but I’m so not looking to get into those topics.

Hahaha

Do I Have Pig Flu?

Sent to a friend and he said:

It says, YES, I have it…and I just bought the shotgun.

Swine Flu Outbreak

This whole swine flu thing is getting a little ridiculous to me. I do understand that it could become a pandemic (which is scary) and I do understand that it is killing people (which is sad), but I also understand that what is being said about swine flu was also said about bird flu and SARS. Even if this is worse, which it very well may be, I have no idea, worrying isn’t going to help anything. So far, to my knowledge, the virus has not been deadly in the US and there are people who are definitely recovering.

I’m waiting for people in the city to break out the masks as there are confirmed cases of 20 high school students in Queens, as well as at least one employee at Earnst & Young (according to my roommate). While masks might be a smart preventative measure to take, they will make me snicker.

My roommate is freaked out by this whole thing and is eating up the news the media is putting out about it. My question though, is at what point does journalism become irresponsible. Of course this is something that is news worthy and should be covered so that people are aware of both its existence as well as symptoms, treatments, and when it is appropriate to go to the hospital. However, at some point that line can be breached and people are now having a sense of fear instilled into them rather than just getting the news.

I’m to the point that I don’t really want to hear much more about this. I know it exists, I know the symptoms are like any other flu, I know it’s spreading across the world and could become a pandemic, but I also know that even in 1918 when there was an influenza pandemic, it only killed 2% of the population. I do understand that 2% is a lot of people, but in perspective, it’s nothing compared to something like the bubonic plague that killed 25%-50% of Europe’s population.

In short, I am aware of the swine flu, the chances of my dying from it are small, and I’m tired of hearing about it.

Ear Candling

I have been really interested in ear candling since I first heard about it while I was in college, but have never had it done because I also hear it is not good for you. People say it is necessary to have ear wax. I recently looked into ear candling and it seems like the issue is not that it is not good for you, it is that it is totally ineffective.

Apparently anything that comes out of the ear is residue from the candle. One site I was reading said:

Since wax is sticky, the negative pressure needed to pull wax from the canal would have to be so powerful that it would rupture the eardrum in the process. However, candling produces no vacuum. Researchers who measured the pressure during candling of ear models found that no negative pressure was created. The same investigators candled eight ears and found that no ear wax was removed and candle wax was actually deposited in some of them!

I guess I will stick to Q-Tips.