Tag Archives: medicine

Smart Juice!

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My friends and I have often jokingly referred to alcohol as “smart juice”
due to its negative impact on reasoning. In an ironic
twist of science, we may have been righter than we thought. (Thanks, Dappled
Things)

Alcohol sharpens your brain, say researchers

It is news guaranteed to raise a cheer among those who enjoy a glass or two: drinking half a bottle of wine a day can make your brain work better, especially if you are a woman.

Research to be published tomorrow by academics at University College London has found that those who even drink only one glass of wine a week have significantly sharper thought processes than teetotallers.

The benefits of alcohol, which are thought to be linked to its effect on the flow of blood to the brain, can be detected when a person drinks up to 30 units of alcohol – about four to five bottles of wine – per week.

Portly Protesters

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“Obesity is not a disease. All this does is open the door for the diet and bariatric surgery industries to make a potentially tremendous profit.” – Allen Steadham in “Fat activists start mass protest“

Riiiiight…and smoking isn’t bad for you either. The campaign against smoking is just a front for extortion by a hippocratic mafia. *rolls eyes*

While I agree that too much emphasis is placed on appearance, in particualr thinness, in our society, I don’t think that means all superfluous weight should be accepted. Some people have genetic predispositions to being overweight. They should seek help. Some people have emotional problems that lead to overeating. They, too, should seek help. Some people eat too many damn super-sized burger meals and unhealthy snacks and drink too much soda. They should quit stuffing their faces with fat , get off their lazy, gluttonous asses and get some friggin’ exercise! (Pardon my French)

P.S. I practice what I preach. I’ve been eating better and working out. I’ve lost about 25 pounds over the last year or so.

15 Minutes of Fame

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Friend and sometime co-blogger Jerry Nora was mentioned in the June/July issue of First Things. 🙂 (Thanks, Quenta Narwenion)

"It's been a while since I've had occasion to remark on Peter Singer of Princeton University, the ageing bad boy of moral philosophy. But now Gerald Nora, a second-year medical student, sends me the dust jacket of the 1996 edition of Singer's Rethinking Life and Death. Mr. Nora is right in suspecting that the blurbs 'praising' the book might have been chosen by Professor Singer's enemies. For instance, there is this from the Washington Post: 'Far from pointing a way out of today's moral dilemmas, Singer's book is a road map for driving down the darkest of moral blind alleys. . . . Read it to remind yourself of the enormities of which putatively civilized beings are capable.' Precisely. If you want a roadmap for driving down blind alleys, this is it. Then there is this from the publisher: 'A profound and provocative work in the tradition of Aldous Huxley's Brave New World.' Precisely again. Even more precisely, it is in the tradition of thinking that Huxley so powerfully warned us against." – Richard John Neuhaus

Poison Pill

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At my 21-week prenatal appointment, my doctor asked if I had read the August edition
of Prevention magazine, and urged that I do so, as she is mentioned in one of the
articles, though not by name.

My gynecologist is the only one in the Allentown, PA area that is 100% pro-life
in support of NFP, and will not prescribe hormonal contraceptives (i.e. the pill).
She and other doctors like her, as well as pharmacists like myself who refuse to
dispense the pill and other contraceptives, are under major slanderous attack in
an article entitled “Access Denied.”

The article, which is quite long and involved, states that access to birth control
is a basic right in the world of women’s health and those of us who will not participate
in its distribution are denying women the proper standard of care. The quote that
burned me the most was from a woman who could not get her “last-minute”
pill prescription filled at a CVS – “I don’t think pharmacists should be in
a position to make that decision.” Yet any pharmacist who dispensed a teratogenic
(i.e. harmful, possibly fatal to an unborn child) medicine to an obviously pregnant
woman would face a lawsuit the size of Texas!!!

I’m obviously heated on this issue. In any case, what I’m asking of all of you is
first of all to pray! Pray for all those in health care under fire for this issue,
and for those beginning health care careers who will face tough decisions about
this matter. Secondly, for all those who like to be active and speak out, I’m asking
you to, if possible, pick up a copy of Prevention magazine for August 2004, read
the article, and flood the
editors with letters to the contrary! The good news is this article would
not have been written if those who support abortion and birth control were not scared.

Women reading an article like this are bound to be misinformed and/or uninformed
about the truths (and lies) concerning birth control. I’m going to do my best to
help them find out the facts and defend my profession.

I’d also urge people, particularly women, to write to Grassfire,
the SBA List, and Feminists
for Life.