Swine Flu- Its Back

From the Independent

Doctors shocked by spread of swine flu – and its severity

H1N1 virus returns, already claiming lives of 10 British adults with early signs that illness has spread to other European countries

The swine flu virus that swept the world last year causing a global health emergency has returned to claim the lives of 10 adults in the UK in the past six weeks.

The 10 deaths were in younger adults under 65 and associated with H1N1 swine flu. Most had underlying conditions but "a small proportion" were healthy before being struck down by the virus, according to the Health Protection Agency (HPA). More

The Fear of Honest Accounting

Washington Examiner: ... Democratic leaders in Congress have used every government accounting and budget gimmick at their disposal to deceive Americans for the last year about the true costs of Obamacare. These Washington politicians have no business lecturing CEOs on honesty in accounting. ...On Capitol Hill and in the White House on Monday, Democrats were fuming over a series of announcements that started Friday from Fortune 500 firms saying their bottom lines will take huge negative hits because of changes in tax law mandated by Obamacare. That hit in turn means lower profit projections. Caterpillar estimates, for example, that Obamacare will cost it $100 million; John Deere faces expenses of $150 million; 3M, $90 million; AK Steel, $31 million; Valero, $20 million. And then there's AT&T, which is marking its balance sheet down by a whopping $1 billion. All in all, the Wall Street Journal estimated a $14 billion haircut for these corporations.








Under post-Enron accounting rules, the corporations were required to revise their projections to account for the effect of Obamacare on their bottom lines. The effect is negative because Democrats, in their zeal to raise revenues and improve Obamacare's claimed effect on the federal deficit outlook, took away a tax break these companies needed in order to supply prescription drugs to their retirees.

Read more at the Washington Examiner:

Swine Flu Myths That Could Kill You

From New Scientist by way of Avian Flu Diary some popular myths about the H1N1 Flu. I like the format over at Afludairy as they are one of my prime sources for H1N1 info and link back to the main article. But if you prefer, you can go straight to the source.

Myth 1

The symptoms are like regular flu. You've got it if you've got a fever
Up to half the people who get swine flu never develop a fever, and some suffer from gastrointestinal symptoms as well as more standard flu symptoms. Read more

Go and read the updated symptoms list. You may save the life of someone you love.


MYTH 2

This is just mild flu. The death rates are even lower than for normal flu

Swine flu is killing young people rather than the very elderly, and although winter is just starting, more young people have already died of flu than normally die over the entire winter. Read more

I mentioned this earlier this week. The elderly are the usual victims of a flu season which at least in part is an expected outcome. The fact that this flu is killing the young will have a very different psychological impact should the trends continue.


MYTH 3

You're safe as long as you're healthy. Only sick, weak people get really ill

Most of the children who have died of swine flu were perfectly healthy beforehand, and many of the adult victims also had no underlying conditions. Read more

See Myth 2. Personally I know of two individuals, otherwise healthy adults, who have been hospitalized with pneumonia stemming from H1N1. One was hospitalized for 4 days and the other for the better part of September and almost died.

Go here and read more and the other 5 myths...

A Euthanasia Mandate

Far from being an unfounded scare tactic the current healthcare bill has some troublesome language that may lead down some very dark roads. Think it couldn't happen? Well, it already has:

In an April 28 New York Times interview, the president spoke of having government guide a "very difficult democratic conversation" about "those toward the end of their lives [who] are accounting for potentially 80 percent of the total health care bill out here." Those statements sounded a little creepy to us. Deciding who gets denied care at the end of life should not be dependent on government cost controls.

Presidential health care adviser Ezekiel Emanuel, brother of White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and chairman of the Department of Bioethics at the Clinical Center at the National Institutes of Health, has argued that independent government boards should decide policy on end-of-life care. He also has defended rationing care more strictly for older people because "allocation [of medical care] by age is not invidious discrimination."

...the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals this spring ruled that Georgia can override a doctor's decision about how much care is warranted for a handicapped child because the state is "the final arbiter" of medical decisions. ...

...the Oregon health plan last year refused to pay for a recognized drug to prolong the life of lung cancer patient Barbara Wagner even after her oncologist prescribed it. Yet the same bureaucrats told Ms. Wagner that the plan would indeed cover doctor-assisted suicide if she chose that option. ... (more)

A Sign Of Things to Come?

In what may be a sign of things to come in this country, Britain is reporting 100,000 new cases of swine flu recorded in the last week. Of those cases, 840 have been hospitalized and 63 in intensive case.

The situation is getting so bad that one patient has been sent to Sweden because of a lack of beds.

The WHO has stopped tracking swine flu cases and deaths around the world. Still, it is has asked countries to be on the look out for "unexpected clusters of severe or fatal cases of H1N1 or "unexpected, unusual or notable changes in patterns of transmission" (WHO Pandemic (H1N1) 2009 briefing note 3, 7/16).

One such notable event may be occuring in Mexico where it appears they are seeing a bit of a reurgence of the swine flu. Several states in southern Mexico have seen massive increases in swine flu infections in the past few weeks. H/T H5N1

Another notable event is a sharp increase in hospitalizations in Australia. Once again being tracked by H5N1, probably one of the best swine flu blogs out there and conveniently provided in the Swine Flu blogroll on the left column of this blog.

As if this weren't enough we are being told to expect shortages of any possible vaccine as the viruses aren't producing large quantities of active ingredient. (WSJ)

This virus is already acting different than other flu viruses. It has not tapered off in the summer months as most viruses do. Though not expected at this time, worst case scenarios suggest the possiblity that 40% of American workers could be affected.

Of course ultimately, these are only guesses. Perhaps the best advice is to "hope for the best and plan for the worst." This is common sense of course and good advice in any situations, be they medical, or weather or man made disasters.

Toward this end I offer this advice from Avian flu Diary:

The HHS’s Flu.gov website offers this advice on preparing for a pandemic:

You can prepare for an influenza pandemic now. You should know both the magnitude of what can happen during a pandemic outbreak and what actions you can take to help lessen the impact of an influenza pandemic on you and your family. This checklist will help you gather the information and resources you may need in case of a flu pandemic.

To plan for a pandemic:
Store a two week supply of water and food. During a pandemic, if you cannot get to a store, or if stores are out of supplies, it will be important for you to have extra supplies on hand. This can be useful in other types of emergencies, such as power outages and disasters.

Periodically check your regular prescription drugs to ensure a continuous supply in your home.
Have any nonprescription drugs and other health supplies on hand, including pain relievers, stomach remedies, cough and cold medicines, fluids with electrolytes, and vitamins.
Talk with family members and loved ones about how they would be cared for if they got sick, or what will be needed to care for them in your home.

Volunteer with local groups to prepare and assist with emergency response.
Get involved in your community as it works to prepare for an influenza pandemic.


Given the current virulence of the novel H1N1 virus, having 2-weeks worth of supplies on hand is probably sufficient. And two-weeks is also a reasonable amount of supplies to have on hand to weather practically any other major disaster.

$2.6 Million to Train Chinese Prostitutes to Drink Responsibly on the Job and more

CNSNews has done a couple of articles describing the wasting of our federal tax dollars. Reading things like this makes me feel like I'm in a really bad movie...

The National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAA), a part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), will pay $2.6 million in U.S. tax dollars to train Chinese prostitutes to drink responsibly on the job.

Dr. Xiaoming Li, the researcher conducting the program, is director of the Prevention Research Center at Wayne State University School of Medicine in Detroit. The grant, made last November, refers to prostitutes as "female sex workers"--or FSW--and their handlers as "gatekeepers."

"Previous studies in Asia and Africa and our own data from FSWs [female sex workers] in China suggest that the social norms and institutional policy within commercial sex venues as well as agents overseeing the FSWs (i.e., the 'gatekeepers', defined as persons who manage the establishments and/or sex workers) are potentially of great importance in influencing alcohol use and sexual behavior among establishment-based FSWs," says the NIH grant abstract submitted by Dr. Li.(more)

Ya think?

But wait there's more:

Feds Will Spend $400,000 to Study Drinking and Sex Habits of Homosexuals in Argentina

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is funding a study that seeks to discover a link between drinking and having sex among homosexuals in Argentina.The study will send researchers to six bars in Buenos Aires to interview both patrons and proprietors in an effort to discover what it is about those bars that may encourage the risky behavior. ...(more)

Hmmm, what is it about those bars that might encourage...ARE YOU KIDDING ME??!!?? This cannot be a real question that someone is being paid to answer.

Last but not least, if you have ever doubted the strength of the homosexual lobby:

U.S. Spent More Than Twice as Much on HIV/AIDS as on Flu in ‘06, Despite Almost Five Times More Flu Deaths

The federal government spent $6.1 billion on influenza-related programs in 2006, less than half as much as the $13.7 billion dollars it spent on HIV/AIDS programs that year, according to figures provided to CNSNews.com by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). During the same time, seasonal flu claimed 56,326 lives in the U.S., while AIDS-related deaths stood at 12,113. (more)

WHO Moves Pandemic Alert to 5- Mexican Flu is not Swine Flu

RadioNetherlands is reporting that the World Health Organization says the virus is not caused by pigs and has moved the pandemic alert phase up a level. H/T H5N1

WHOs call new strain of H1N1 "Mexican flu"
Published: Wednesday 29 April 2009 17:32 UTC Last updated: Wednesday 29 April 2009 18:04 UTC The World Health Organisation (WHO) has said that the most recent research on swine flu has shown that the virus is not caused by pigs. The disease is now being referred to as Mexican flu or "2009 H1N1 flu". The WHO has moved the pandemic alert from four to five, the second highest. The first case of what was called swine flu was reported in Mexico and its first fatality was confirmed there two weeks ago. The 23-month-old infant who died in the US state of Texas, in the first fatal case from the swine flu outbreak in the United States, was also Mexican. The child came from Mexico to Houston for medical treatment, officials said.(more)

According to the WHO website:
Phase 5 is characterized by human-to-human spread of the virus into at least two countries in one WHO region. While most countries will not be affected at this stage, the declaration of Phase 5 is a strong signal that a pandemic is imminent and that the time to finalize the organization, communication, and implementation of the planned mitigation measures is short.

Swine Flu Info

Over at Effect Measure some good info on the current Swine Flu situation. I would recommend the whole article.

...If there is normally so much respiratory disease around, why is this an outbreak or even an epidemic? It's a more difficult question than it appears, and it relates to "what did you expect?" An epidemic is an increase in the number of new cases beyond what you would expect. Four or five cases of human rabies in an area in the US would be an outbreak or even an epidemic. Hundreds of colds or even serious pneumonias in an urban area is normal. It's not an epidemic. What makes the swine flu an outbreak is that it is an infection with a virus we haven't seen before and which we believe may be new. Hence these cases are not what we expect and it is an outbreak. If it turned out that there had been the same number of cases in Mexico but from many different known viruses we might look for another explanation, for example, a change in insurance that changed care seeking behavior so cases were counted that weren't counted before.

Another thing that most people and probably most clinicians expect is that we know a lot about influenza. Perhaps because of the increased scientific interest since bird flu (an increased interest which will pay off handsomely in this outbreak, by the way) we do know quite a bit, but we also now know many of the things we thought we knew about flu, like the main ways it is transmitted from person to person, we don't really know. For example, how likely is it that you can get flu by touching a door knob or arm rest that someone with the flu just touched? Or that you can get the flu by sitting in the same emergency department waiting room (but not next to) other flu cases? These are open questions (see some of our many posts on this here, here, here, here). Why is flu seasonal? We don't know. We'll try to get to some more of these questions in the days ahead, since we have many new readers, but one big thing to know was emphasized by Acting CDC Director Richard Besser at the White House briefing yesterday: the influenza virus is highly unpredictable and our certain knowledge of it very scant. If you've seen one flu pandemic, you've seen one flu pandemic.

If this outbreak becomes a sustained worldwide one -- the definition of a pandemic -- you should not expect it to be the same as any other pandemic. It might be like 1918, 1957, 1968 or just a bad flu season. Or not. (more)

Don't Believe the Health Hype. Five Fallacies Debunked

A change of pace from Dumb Little Man with commentary by Eutychus...

1. I should exercise in my “fat burning zone.”
A special zone that allows me to burn more fat? Perfect! So you accelerate, check your heart rate, then decelerate and peddle cautiously to ensure you never leave the fat burning zone.According to Michael Brazeal, Director of Fitness and Exercise Physiologist at the California Health and Longevity Institute at the Four Seasons Hotel Westlake Village, California, you’ve been misled.
If my heart is beating at all during exercise I figure I''m doing pretty well. No thoughts of "fat burning zones" ever darken my minds door.

2. If I focus on abdominal exercises, I will lose inches off of my waistline.
Remember the video of the woman in the pink leotard trying to trim her waist by being violently jiggled by a vibrating belt machine? Guess what? It didn’t work then and it doesn’t work now.
I'm sorry the image of the jiggled woman in a pink leotard got me way off track here..

3. If I do too much weight training, I’m going to look like Schwarzenegger.
Many people like having a toned body, but don’t want a bulky one. As a result, we are suspicious of weight training, scared that the end result will be an overly muscled, Amazonian physique ideal for winning body building competitions. According to Brazeal, that’s a fallacy. “Due to hormonal differences, very few people are capable of achieving exaggerated muscle hypertrophy which is an increase in muscle mass caused by resistance training. Unless you are on some type of supplement, you are not going to bulk up,” says Brazeal. This is a real relief for me as this is the real reason I avoid the gym. (ahem) That and the fact that my dad died at 55 while jogging... but I digress.

4. If I eat meals from the low calorie menu at a restaurant, I’m being responsible.
Just as decadent chocolate desserts tempt us, so do the words guiltless, low fat, low calorie, and heart healthy when they’re printed on the menus at our favorite restaurants. But relinquishing control of what you eat is always suspect no matter how convincing the marketing campaign. I can honestly say I have never been tempted by the words guiltless, low fat, low calorie and heart healthy. Those words might as well be tasteless, boring and "why would I come to a restaurant and eat that." Low fat?- that's like washing your feet with your socks on.

5. If I want to lose weight, I can’t go wrong by eating lots of salads.
The salad myth is wrong for two reasons: salads can be just as high in calories and fat as any other meal (especially when ordered at a restaurant) and your body can feel deprived when it doesn’t receive meals that incorporate all three major food groups. This can cause you to munch relentlessly later on. Two words- "Salad shooter"- nuff said.

The entire article and the rest of the reasons can be found here. (without my commentary)

The Procedure That Must Not Be Named- Part Two

I started sharing "the procedure that must not be named" a couple a days of go.
Here is part 2. Once again, for those who don't like details, turn back now..

I awoke the morning of "the procedure that must not be named" to the sound of small animals (and a few larger ones) in obvious pain and discomfort. The noises actually woke me several times in the night. But no animals were harmed in the preparation for this procedure. It was actually just my stomach complaining loudly that it was beyond empty and was about to consume other parts of my body in protest.

I splurged on supper and had 2 cups of broth and Gatorade. I put some mild seasonings in it since I was allowed to and tried not to scowl at the boys and my wife too much as they ate various meals around me. Normally innocuous exclamations, such as "this is really good" began to appear downright mean. My wife opened a new jar of preserves and insisted (and quite innocently-or so she said) that I see "how good it smells." Whether it was my dirty look or the tear in the corner of my eye which made her realize her mistake, I may never know. I was so hungry for salt I sipped a teaspoon of Soy Sauce around bedtime.

Nothing but nothing after midnight not even water. I checked in at the hospital and filled out enough forms that I may have bought a house. The lady who checked me in was, self admittedly a bit stressed. I told her that it was OK and I was early and not in a hurry. She thanked me for my patience and wanted the secret to my good attitude. Little did she know that I was so hungry that she was actually in danger. You know those cartoons where the cat makes friends with the bird and then hallucinates that the bird is actually a roast or something? Thankfully the check-in went quickly. It was 10:30 a.m.

I went upstairs only half listening to the directions. I was, after all, here a mere month earlier. I stayed overnight in a "cubbie" in the day surgery area where I was headed and another night close by. This was like old home week.

To my credit, I believe I only made one wrong turn and DID ask directions.

When I went through the door that said "Authorized Personnel Only", (with my wife protesting) and was met by a woman with a look on her face that said I was in the wrong place. When I explained why I was there, she looked at the board and then went to the desk and picked up the phone. All I could think about was having gone through all that "prep" and going without food for so long, I was not leaving peacefully. I handed my paperwork to another woman, who was obviously not as tired as the first, and she told the woman on the phone that I was in room 3. The woman on the phone stammered some words through the phone and hung up rather embarrassed and said to me, "Did I scare the hm, hm out of you." I replied that there was none left.

Hooked up to an IV I waited about an hour before it was my turn. Apparently it was "Colonoscopy Day" in day surgery and there were at least two gentlemen ahead of me.

I signed some more forms, one of which informed me that instead of anesthesia I would be under "medium" sedation. I was a bit concerned. I wanted to be out. I asked the doctor for clarification. I won't feel anything, right? "Right," he replied. That's what I wanted to hear.

I was wheeled into the endoscopy room and introduced to a woman in surgical garb. I remarked that this was a hell of a way to meet someone for the first time. She laughed. She told me to roll on my left side. all I could think was "where is the sedation." After a few adjustments the nurse that wheeled me in said they were going to give me some stuff to help me relax and sleep. And that was that. I seem to recall making the remark that things were a bit uncomfortable at one point but have no recollection of pain or discomfort. The rest of the story comes more from my wife's perspective as she was the more sober.

The gentleman in the "cubbie" next to mine (curtains for doors, paper thin walls) had a different doctor than mine. My wife thinks that the other doctor used more gas than mine (they pump air into you to get a better look at your insides). She made this observation because "Mr Moreno" let loose with an award winning and quite prolonged passage of air which apparently was quite impressive.

My wife says that when I did the same, (in more modest tones) it was followed by the words, "uh oh, I messed up." When I complained to the nurse I was told that a certain amount of lubrication was used and I was off the hook. All of this I'm getting "secondhand."

Apparently every time I got up to go to the bathroom, I told the nurse that my wife said I had a cute backside. The nurse replied that while that may be the case I didn't have to show the entire hospital. However, my gown had no ties and they had to tape it shut.

I spent the rest of the day in a pleasant haze. I made supper though my wife refused to let me use the stove. We settled on Tuna Salad. Normally we add a hard boiled egg to our Tuna Salad. It took 3 tries with the egg. One I dropped and one I soft boiled.

The haze finally lifted today. But I'm tired and going to bed.

Cleansing The Temple

My apologies, if you are looking for something high minded after reading the title. Truth is, I was doing my devotional this morning and that is the caption for today, the Monday of Holy Week. I had to laugh at the irony because today- (warning-for those of you who think I share too much, turn away now) today I started "preparation" for my "procedure." These are two words which will never have the same meaning for me.

A while back I wrote that I had a series of "itisis's" (i.e. appendicitis and two weeks later diverticulitis) As a result of the latter I do not have to wait till I'm 50 to get everyone's favorite "procedure", the colonoscopy. Dave Barry wrote an hilarious story about his experience some time ago. You can find it here. To start you off, here is an excerpt:

...I called my friend Andy Sable, a gastroenterologist, to make an appointment for a colonoscopy. A few days later, in his office, Andy showed me a color diagram of the colon, a lengthy organ that appears to go all over the place, at one point passing briefly through Minneapolis. Then Andy explained the colonoscopy procedure to me in a thorough, reassuring and patient manner. I nodded thoughtfully, but I didn't really hear anything he said, because my brain was shrieking, quote, ``HE'S GOING TO STICK A TUBE 17,000 FEET UP YOUR BUTT!''

Now no one really explained the details to me but I looked it up and Dave pretty much has it right as near as I can tell.

My doctor's office called me in a prescription that I was to pick up. I knew what it was:

..a prescription for a product called ''MoviPrep,'' which comes in a box large enough to hold a microwave oven. I will discuss MoviPrep in detail later; for now suffice it to say that we must never allow it to fall into the hands of America's enemies.

Except mine had a different name but still with a huge box with those big blue letters on the side that are not covered up by the HEB grocery plastic bag they force it into at the pharmacy. This means you must walk through the store with a bag that announces "BOWEL PREP KIT" for all the world to know. The fun has just begun. The pharmacy (stupid kid) could not find the prescription at first (namely because it was so dang big they had to keep it in another building) and asked me if I knew what the prescription was. With a line of people behind me I lied through my teeth and said "no."

Like Dave:

...I spent the next several days productively sitting around being nervous. Then, on the day before my colonoscopy, I began my preparation. In accordance with my instructions, I didn't eat any solid food that day; all I had was chicken broth, which is basically water, only with less flavor. ...

My particular brand of "prep" came with flavor packs. I could choose between pineapple, lemon/lime, cherry or orange. I chose lemon/lime. Mixed it up and placed it in the fridge. The first step was two take two sticks of dynamite that were disguised to look like pills. I was to then wait for that first explosion, otherwise known as a bowel movement which would occur (like the cable guy) sometime today. Luckily, and I use the word loosely, (sorry unintentional bad pun) I did not have to wait 6 hours for things to start hoppin. At the 9 o'clock -H hour, the war began.

After dynamiting the dam, it was time to open the floodgates on what was left. I was to begin drinking the "solution" in 8 ounce increments every 10 minutes. Dave Barry said the stuff he drank:

...tastes -- and here I am being kind -- like a mixture of goat spit and urinal cleanser, with just a hint of lemon....

I am happy to report that this is no longer the case as they have improved the taste of urinal cleanser since he wrote that. Actually, the taste was more akin to purified paper with just a hint of lemon. The more I drank, the less I tasted the lemon.

Mr Barry describes the next 3 hours thus:

The instructions ..., clearly written by somebody with a great sense of humor, state that after you drink it, ''a loose watery bowel movement may result.'' This is kind of like saying that after you jump off your roof, you may experience contact with the ground.
(this stuff) is a nuclear laxative. I don't want to be too graphic, here, but: Have you ever seen a space shuttle launch? This is pretty much the... experience, with you as the shuttle. There are times when you wish the commode had a seat belt. You spend several hours pretty much confined to the bathroom, spurting violently. You eliminate everything. And then, when you figure you must be totally empty, ... your bowels travel into the future and start eliminating food that you have not even eaten yet.

During my experience the letters on the box began to transform. I first read HalfLifetely instead of HalfLytely and thought that was because half of you had passed in the form of water. Then the Flyte part of the name came to mind as you made your umpteenth flight to the bathroom. It was not a shuttle experience. The shuttle does not have the same power and after a while it feels like you were passing a Brillo pad. This stuff is nothing but food poisoning in a bottle.

After the first 30 minutes I began to get very cold. I think this was due to the fact that all of that fertilizer inside of me had been working like a compost heap and giving off heat. As it left the room so did my heat source.

After about three hours, the tide has turned. Halflytely has done its job-I hope. I see my doctor occasionally when I take my youngest to cubscouts camping. Like Dave I am a bit nervous:

...Not only was I worried about the procedure, but I had been experiencing occasional return bouts of spurtage. I was thinking, ''What if I spurt on Andy?'' How do you apologize to a friend for something like that? Flowers would not be enough.

For now, its more broth. Tomorrow is part 2

Sleep Your Way To Health

Two articles on sleep. One a warning and the other a how to...

First, get to bed at a decent hour:
An article at WebMD says:
Late Bedtimes Linked to Heart Disease- Men who Turn In After Midnight Show Early Signs of Atherosclerosis

And the folks over at Dumblittleman (no relation) have some suggestions for getting and keeping the 'ole log sawing factory in shape:

Getting Better Sleep – The Google Method

A Change of Pace

Here are a few links you might find useful or at least interesting:

Recession putting a crimp in your pizza runs? H/T Lifehacker
Over at SimpleDollar A Guide to Making Inexpensive and Delicious Homemade Pizza

Homemade pizza night is a weekly occurrence at our house. For us, there is simply nothing that quite matches homemade pizza for appealing to all of us - it’s infinitely flexible, incredibly cheap, fun to make (and it gets everyone involved, even the small children), and quite delicious. Best of all, if you plan ahead a bit, it doesn’t take long to make, either - you can have a made-from-scratch pizza on the table in a half an hour if you’ve done some reasonable prep work the night before.
Here’s a step-by-step guide (along with some surprising and unusual hints) for making some great homemade pizza for your family. (more)


Lifehacker also has The Five-Minute Prison Workout Keeps You Fit in Any Space (cell mate not included)
Mike Rowe from Discovery Channel's Dirty Jobs demonstrates how to get a great workout in any space by performing several sets of descending repetitions of the classic "burpie."


Over at Dumb Little Man:
Ditch Google For A Day: 10 Amazing Search Engines To Try out
As much as Google has evolved since its inception, the internet too has changed drastically and has spawned upon a huge number of alternative search engines, some of them being really good in what they do.


And finally over at STR a list of places to study apologetics

Dueling Java- Dueling Science

Some good news about coffee....on the other hand....

Coffee Strong Enough to Ward Off Dementia?
Moderate Coffee Drinking Reduces Risk of Dementia and Alzheimer’s by 65% in Study
Those who drank three to five cups of coffee per day in midlife were much less likely to have developed dementia or Alzheimer's in follow-up checks two decades or more later, the researchers say in the January issue of the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease...

Coffee-induced hallucinations? Caffeinated co-eds hear voices, study says
But the Durham University researchers acknowledge that their study of 219 coeds doesn’t prove that caffeine, a stimulant in coffee, actually caused them to hallucinate. For instance, the students who reported hearing voices may have had psychological disorders and been chuggingcups of, in this case, instant coffee to help them cope with symptoms, write study co-authors Charles Fernyhough, a developmental psychologist, and grad student Simon Jones.
Some previous research has found that reducing or eliminating caffeinated coffee from the diets of schizophrenics reduces their hallucinations, but other studies haven’t replicated those findings, they note.

And then we have this bit of, well, I'm not sure what you'd call it, from the BBC News:
Personally I think the Tea Association has something to do with all this but I have no proof. Think I'll go brew a cupa Earl:

Cut caffeine, pregnant women told

Caffeine 'could help prevent MS'

Decaf coffee cuts diabetes risk

Decaf coffee linked to heart risk

One cup of coffee a day 'risky'

Coffee 'protects female memory'

Coffee 'raises miscarriage risk'

Coffee and exercise 'save skin'

One cup of coffee a day 'risky'

Coffee may help relieve gym pain

Coffee knocks out women's pain

Coffee 'boosts female sex drive'

Health News- Vitamins, Cancer and Living Longer

No they really aren't related and maybe not even too interesting but here they are anyway-a smattering of health news:
From Well:
News Keeps Getting Worse for Vitamins

The best efforts of the scientific community to prove the health benefits of vitamins keep falling short.
Consumers don’t want to give up their vitamins. (Tony Cenicola/The New York Times)
This week, researchers reported the disappointing results from a large clinical trial of almost 15,000 male doctors taking vitamins E and C for a decade. The study showed no meaningful effect on cancer rates.
Another recent study found no benefit of vitamins E and C for heart disease.
In October, a major trial studying whether vitamin E and selenium could lower a man’s risk for prostate cancer ended amidst worries that the treatments may do more harm than good.
And recently, doctors at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York warned that vitamin C seems to protect not just healthy cells but cancer cells, too. (more)

That Vitamin C could give aid and comfort to cancer cells is scary but I thought E and C were for colds not heart disease...oh well

Well, here's some good news from the NYTimes:

Study Suggests Some Cancers May Go Away

But then it turns out that maybe they do or maybe they don't but probably not...:

Cancer researchers have known for years that it was possible in rare cases for some cancers to go away on their own. There were occasional instances of melanomas and kidney cancers that just vanished. And neuroblastoma, a very rare childhood tumor, can go away without treatment.

But these were mostly seen as oddities — an unusual pediatric cancer that might not bear on common cancers of adults, a smattering of case reports of spontaneous cures. And since almost every cancer that is detected is treated, it seemed impossible even to ask what would happen if cancers were left alone.
Now, though, researchers say they have found a situation in Norway that has let them ask that question about breast cancer. And their new study, to be published Tuesday in The Archives of Internal Medicine, suggests that even invasive cancers may sometimes go away without treatment and in larger numbers than anyone ever believed.
At the moment, the finding has no practical applications because no one knows whether a detected cancer will disappear or continue to spread or kill.
And some experts remain unconvinced.

But there is good news after all:

Attend Religious Services, Live Longer

From WebMD

Nov. 25, 2008 -- Going to church -- or any kind of religious service -- may prolong your life.
A new study shows that older women who regularly attend religious services reduce their risk of death by 20%. The study was published in Psychology and Health.
Researchers from Yeshiva University's Albert Einstein College of Medicine grouped all religions together, looking only at whether the women attended services regularly and whether those services brought them comfort.
Organized religion creates a social network with regular routines, which is known to enhance well-being. However, even when researchers adjusted for that factor, the women going to services were still less likely to die.
"Interestingly, the protection against mortality provided by religion cannot be entirely explained by expected factors that include enhanced social support of friends or family, lifestyle choices, and reduced smoking and alcohol consumption," lead author and clinical assistant professor of psychology Eliezer Schnall says in a news release. "There is something here that we don't quite understand. It is always possible that some unknown or unmeasured factors confounded these results."

ah yes, those unknown or unmeasured factors. But some of us know, don't we. And we'd love to share..