Category: health
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Medical Equipment Size Limits
5 comments on Medical Equipment Size LimitsThis article focuses on the weight limits of air ambulances, but it’s depressing anyway. The overall message of the piece is to lose weight (which we all know works so well! And immediately!) Now, yes, most fat people aren’t very fat; most cutoffs are 300 or 350lbs; air ambulances appear to have lower-than-typical requirements. But […]
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You’re SORRY? Oh fuck you.
Dr. Peter Attia thinks about his former patient often, the woman who came to him in the emergency room at Johns Hopkins Hospital one night seven years ago. She was obese and suffering from a severe complication of Type 2 diabetes, a foot ulcer, which required an urgent amputation. At the time, Dr. Attia admits, […]
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Itch, Itch, Itch
Ever use a long-handled bath brush to scrub your back? Swap the brush for a dense sponge, and that’s basically the long-handled lotion applicator I got from Amazon. This morning I used it to put Aveeno anti-itch lotion on the itchy spot on the middle of my back. At bedtime I decided to try Benadryl […]
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Histamines in Food
A bit of background: An allergen is something that triggers an allergy. When a person with allergic rhinitis breathes in an allergen such as pollen or dust, the body releases chemicals, including histamine. Histamine […] causes dilatation of the blood vessels (flushing, rash, itching) and increased mucus production (runny nose, productive cough), and bronchoconstriction (wheezing, […]
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Why I Think Declaring Obesity A Disease is Harmful
It’s inaccurate: A fit fat person is usually healthier than a sedentary thin person. Obese people (BMI of 30 to 34.9) have no greater risk of early death than those of “normal” body size (BMI 18.5 to 24.9). Most people who fit the clinical definition of obese are in the smaller categories. “Normal-weight” people who think […]
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The Dose Makes The Poison
[A study], published in 2011, followed 28,800 subjects with high blood pressure aged 55 and older for 4.7 years and analyzed their sodium consumption by urinalysis. The researchers reported that the risks of heart attacks, strokes, congestive heart failure and death from heart disease increased significantly for those consuming more than 7,000 milligrams of sodium […]
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I’m a grownup, right?
Forty-seven years old. Working in software (not rocket science, but involves brains) over 20 years. Employed and promoted by a company that prides itself on “hiring and promoting the best.” Have been taking various meds for allergies for over 30 years. ….so why did I forget the Flonase again??? (I’m sure it has nothing to […]
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Things to Read
By way of Slacktivist comes a piece on recognizing silencing techniques. Some are definitely too familiar. Security guards do not always improve the learning environment. Art teachers might be better. Petition to drop the charges against Keira Wilmot for a science experiment gone wrong and re-enroll her in school has over 36000 signatures — does it […]
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N things make a post
17) It’s the 17th week of 2013. I think. 12) I’ve been married 12 years. 11) My car (which currently isn’t starting) is 11 years old. Probably needs a new battery. 8) I’ve interviewed eight potential coworkers recently. 5) Five loads of laundry today. This is not counting the mattress cover and comforter, which went […]
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Series of Quotes: Disease
Everything that used to be a sin is now a disease. Bill Maher Variability is the law of life, and as no two faces are the same, so no two bodies are alike, and no two individuals react alike and behave alike under the abnormal conditions which we know as disease. William Osler I have […]
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Allergist update
Had a follow-up appointment with the allergist last week. It was nice to confirm that the new meds and cleaning regimen not only feels good for me, I did better on the lung capacity test this time than on my first visit. It was nice to confirm that needing to use albuterol prior to aerobic […]
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Five Things Make A Post
1) I am sooo looking forward to tomorrow morning, when Mark Reads will post the second-to-last chapter of Deadline. Mark Reads reviews books a chapter at a time, progressing through books every other weekday, and it’s been building to this OMG HUGE second-to-last chapter for weeks. (Need I say “spoilers”?) Some of the books he’s […]
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What I do with asthma
Advair inhaler, twice daily. Spirivia inhaler, once daily. Flonase nose spray, once daily. Singulair & antihistamine, once daily. Rescue inhaler, 2 puffs before exercise or as needed. Vacuum several times a week. Weekly wipe down surfaces in bedroom. Weekly wash sheets, comforter cover and pillowcases in hot water to kill dust mites. (Dust mites is […]
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Things To Read
From Dani Kelley’s “The body I have”: I stopped eating in the eighth grade. People complimented me on how much weight I was losing, how much prettier I looked, how much better I was. They didn’t know something was wrong until I started passing out. And when my eating disorder finally came to light, it […]
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What does fat acceptance have to do with health?
Some of the recent discussion about health and fat got me thinking about fat and health. Poll time! (Yes, it’s multiple choice.)
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Conflating Dieting with Eating Healthy
[Feel free to skip if you don’t want to think about dieting right now.] It’s January and there is the usual plethora of diet commercials extolling weight loss. Google “dieting” and up comes Special K’s “Healthy Eating Plan”! That said, it is a bit refreshing to see someone write: As a lifelong dieter, let me […]
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Today in Don’t Read The Comments
Marilyn Wann takes on weight bias in healthcare in “Big deal: You can be fat and fit” on CNN.COM: …People are telling their stories of weight bias in medical care on websites like First, Do No Harm, This Is Thin Privilege and Obesity Surgery Gone Wrong. The National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance has been speaking out […]
Living ~400lbs 