Category Archives: medical

environment, links, medical, natural history, science

Monthly Links

Herewith are the usual monthly collection of links to items you may have missed. It’s holiday season, so there’s not been so much of interest this month.

Science, Technology & Natural World

This year’s Royal Institution Christmas Lectures should be good. They’re titled “Who are You?” and will apparently be all about evolution and the rise of Homo sapiens. And who better to present them than the ever excellent Prof. Alice Roberts. But I bet there will only be three lectures again this year, rather than the original six.

Talking of human evolution, the latest research suggests that one of the last traits of our primate origins to disappear was our prehensile big toes.

More prosaically, it seems that the UK has this month been plagued by social wasps. I can’t say I’ve noticed, but here anyway are five reasons we should celebrate them. Oh and there’s another reason: our beloved honey bees are descended from ancient wasps.

I’ve seen it suggested that this is old news, but there are recent reports of Pine Marten recolonising the Kielder Forest for the first time in 90 years.

Health & Medicine

There’s a brilliant plan afoot to map the location of every publicly accessible defibrillator in the UK.

And a tragic story: how smallpox claimed it’s very last known victim here in the UK.

There’s new evidence that the HPV vaccine has been responsible for a huge reduction in the rate of cervical cancer. Even better is the news from last month that HPV vaccination is to be offered to teenage boys in England.

Apparently the idea that millions of sperm are in an Olympian race to reach the egg is yet another male fantasy about human reproduction. This Aeon piece has news of what actually seems to happen. [LONG READ]

I wasn’t sure whether to put this item under science or medicine, but here’s a piece of the chemistry of foxgloves, from which we still get the heart drug digoxin.

And here’s a strange phenomenon: aphantasia – the inability to picture things in one’s mind’s eye. It sounds as if there is a spectrum of aphantasia from very lucid to nothing; I suspect I’m somewhere in the lower half as the only pictures I have of events (even significant events like our wedding) are a few “snapshot” images, whereas other people I know can run everything in full HD video in their brains. It’s very curious.

Environment

Here’s another potentially disastrous new vanity project which George Monbiot has got his knife into: the Oxford-Cambridge Expressway. The article contains links to some of the official documentation, and it doesn’t look very pretty!

History, Archaeology & Anthropology

Researchers have made a very interesting discovery of an ancient hominid girl whose mother was a Neanderthal and father was a Denisovan. It suggests that hybridisation between hominid species, and especially our close relatives, was a lot more common than was suspected.

An interesting alternative theory about the development of major monuments like Stonehenge and Easter Island. [£££]

Yet more laboratory research has led investigators to unravel the recipe for Egyptian mummification.

It been a hot summer (although writing this over bank holiday weekend it doesn’t feel that way) and the lack of rain has been a great result for archaeologists as many hitherto unknown sites have become visible in crop marks. And the use of drones has made finding them so much easier than hitherto. [Mostly images]

London

One of our favourite London bloggers has undertaken an epic journey: across London on the 51½°N line of latitude. It is documented in a series of 12 posts of which this is the first – or you can have the whole 51½°N journey in a single post. [LONG READ]

Lifestyle & Personal Development

So what is it really like being an artist’s model? A handful off London’s life models give us a few insights.

Food & Drink

Gluten is getting a bad name. Are problems with gluten in the diet a fad? Or are they a real medical issue? Joanna Blythman in the Guardian looks at some of what seems to be happening. I think the jury is still out.

Despite many people’s dislike, we all know cabbage is good for you and now researchers are suggesting it may contain anti-cancer chemicals. Well if was good enough for Diogenes …

That’s all for this month; more at the end of September.

environment, history, links, medical, science

Monthly Links

So here we are then with this month’s selection of links to items you may have missed the first time round. There’s a lot her again this month, and as usual we’ll start with the “harder” science-y stuff and slalom downhill from there.

Science, Technology & Natural World

So are we alone in the universe? Maybe or maybe not. Science doesn’t know. [£££]

The Earth’s tectonic activity might be essential for the evolution of life.

Most of us hate the sound of our own voices when we hear recordings. Here’s why.

A New Yorker article on the obsessive search for the Tasmanian Tiger (aka. Thylacine). [VERY LONG READ]

Balls! The males of all mammals have them, but not all are on display: some species don’t have descended testicles.

Who could have predicted that crows can work a vending machine – and make their own tokens.

That clean swimming pool smell … turns out it isn’t too good for you!

Health & Medicine

There’s this yeast; it’s a strange and deadly superbug.

So just how easy is it to catch germs from a toilet seat?

Women’s healthcare could be normalised by employers understanding the need for menstrual leave.

Low risk of breast cancer? Seems like skipping that mammogram isn’t such a bad idea.

Two items on fish oil and Omega-3 supplements. A study by the Cochrane Institute (who are the gold standard of medical reviews) concludes the supplements give no protection against heart disease and stroke. And what’s more the second article points out that such supplements are doing immense harm to the planet.

There’s a better medicine for the elderly than umpteen pills. It’s called social prescribing, where GPs can signpost people to activities and support – except most don’t know what is actually available.

Sexuality

Do lesbians have better sex than straight women? Seems like they probably do.

Environment

I remember my father talking about this 50+ years ago, so it’s been known for years (and ignored) that we need to look after and repair the soil to grow crops sustainably and with good yields.

Timber! So just how are tree trunks cut to make wood with a range of uses and appearances?

Social Sciences, Business, Law

Now I was suggesting this as a corporate strategy some 12 or more years ago, and it has taken this long for someone to catch on: accountancy giant PwC is making employees use mobile phones and cancelling landlines.

History, Archaeology & Anthropology

Archaeologists have unearthed an unknown Neolithic site near Woodbridge in Suffolk. Ritual is suspected.

IanVisits pays a visit to Avebury Stone circle (above).

Ireland is having a hot, dry summer which is good for revealing crop marks of ancient remains. In one a drone has spotted the outline of a previously unknown henge near Newgrange.

Slightly nearer home, soldiers have found the skeleton of a Saxon warrior on Salisbury Plain.

There’s an unexpected cockatoo in the margins of a 13th-century manuscript in the Vatican. And it’s forcing a rethink of the ancient trade routes.

Meanwhile on the north Kent coast a 16th-century shipwreck is being revealed by the sea, and it too is expected to reveal a lot about trade in Tudor England.

Still on watery archaeology, there is a massive metro construction project in Amsterdam which is necessitating the clearance of some stretches of canal. The astonishing range of finds, right back into pre-history, has been put online.

London

Kew Gardens station has a remarkable concrete bridge. IanVisits goes to see.

The Horniman Museum in south-east London has a new World Display as well as being all-round interesting.

Lifestyle & Personal Development

Are things getting worse – or does it just feel that way?

And are women’s breasts getting bigger – or is it just bras? (Or is it just low levels of hormones in food?)

Some schools are banning girls from wearing skirts supposedly to protect the girls. But skirts aren’t the problem; the problem is boys who think girls are lesser creatures. No, just let girls and boys wear skirts, or trousers, as they please.

A parents’ guide to surviving children’s teen years.

So just why do people believe in superstition and the unbelievable?

People avoid adopting black cats because they’re supposed to be unlucky and because they are hard to photograph. Neither is actually true!

Ah yes, the cashless society. It’s another big con of the banking sector to boost its profits. As Sweden is beginning to realise, if you don’t have cash the whole of society is vulnerable to computer malfunction, attack and power failure. Just think about that for a minute.

Food & Drink

On the history of borscht.

Shock, Horror, Humour

And finally one from Norfolk Police, who stopped a motorist only to find he was driving while sitting on a bucket and steering with pliers!

environment, history, links, medical, science

Monthly Links

There’s again a lot in this month’s round up of items you may have missed the first time. So here goes …

Science, Technology & Natural World

Maglev trains have been around for a surprisingly long time, so why aren’t they ubiquitous?

Inter-species hybrids were once looked on as just biological misfits, but science is now coming to appreciate their importance for evolution. [LONG READ]

Did you know that witches’ brooms grow on trees? You do now!

Tidal power is supposed to be able to provide a significant percentage of the world’s energy needs, but a close look suggests it won’t. [£££]

Health & Medicine

Here’s a little about how Moorfields Eye Hospital in London really has changed the world.

It’s only a matter of time before we get the next major pandemic. An American-centric look at our preparedness? [VERY LONG READ]

The medical profession prescribe a lot of opioid painkillers. But are they all they’re cracked up to be, and would we miss them if they weren’t there?

Restoring life using CPR is brutal and rarely works. So why do people have so much faith in it and demand resuscitation at all costs?

Against most specialists expectations there’s work going on to develop a single vaccination to prevent several common cancers. It’s about to start a major trial in dogs.

While we’re on cancer, the placenta may just give us insights into cancer treatment – it’s just one of nine ways the placenta is so amazing. [£££]

Scientific American recently asked “When Does Consciousness Arise in Human Babies?”

Did you know you have an “inverse piano” in your head? Well actually there are two and they’re in your ears.

Finally in this section, Fred Pearce in the Guardian, takes another look at the real fallout from the Fukushima Dai-ichi disaster.

Sexuality

Why was it ever in doubt that women can have multiple orgasms?

Environment

Here are two articles on the length of time it takes garbage to decompose. The first is fairly general; the second gives us the following graphic looking at plastic and other rubbish in the sea.

And while we’re on plastic, Annie Leonard in the Guardian says that the “plastic crisis” is too big to be solved by recycling alone.

The Woodland Trust are understandably – and quite rightly – angry at Network Rail’s apparent plans to clear trees from railway embankments.

Social Sciences, Business, Law

History tells us that all cultures have their sell-by date, so has the West’s time come and are we on the brink of collapse?

Oxford and Cambridge Colleges own a bigger portfolio of property than Church of England.

The rail industry are running a public consultation on rail fare structure prior to submitting proposals to the government. Do have your say.

History, Archaeology & Anthropology

Aethelflaed: A Saxon warrior queen who was out to vanquish the Vikings.

London

Layers of London is a super resource which allows you to overlay a number of old maps on the current street plan of London. One of the best is the Tudor layout of 1520. IanVisits takes a look.

Lifestyle & Personal Development

So just why are Dutch teenagers among the happiest in the world? And couldn’t we learn something from their approach?

Here’s Zen Master and writer Brad Warner contemplating the problem of spirituality, religion, the ego and intellectual honesty. It is readable, and well worth a read.

Meanwhile the Guardian (again!) reports that UK homes vulnerable to a staggering level of corporate surveillance from smart TVs, smartphones, laptops, security cameras etc.

Shock, Horror, Humour

And finally, just because it isn’t 1st April … a prep school in Derbyshire has lost its Bakewell pudding in space. So very careless!

More next month!

medical, personal

On Depression – VII

Another in my very occasional series of articles on depression – my depression. They are written from a very personal perspective; they are my views of how I see things working and what it feels like on the inside. Your views and experiences may be vastly different. My views and experiences are not necessarily backed by scientific evidence or current medical opinion. These articles are not medical advice or treatment pathways. If you think you have a problem then you should talk to your primary care physician.

Articles on Depression

Here’s a small selection of links to articles on depression which you may find useful and/or interesting.

medical, personal, thoughts

On Depression – VI

Another in my very occasional series of articles on depression – my depression. They are written from a very personal perspective; they are my views of how I see things working and what it feels like on the inside. Your views and experiences may be vastly different. My views and experiences are not necessarily backed by scientific evidence or current medical opinion. These articles are not medical advice or treatment pathways. If you think you have a problem then you should talk to your primary care physician.

Noise and Depression

Helicopters, leaf blowers, sirens, car alarms, washing machines, motorways, food processors, construction sites, microwaves, air conditioners, lawn mowers, hair dryers, motorcycles, motorboats, cell phones, TVs, stereos, car doors, people constantly talking loudly, aeroplanes, screaming children …

We have non-stop noise these days in our lives.  How can we possibly have mental clarity and peace?  Our minds are constantly being jolted and thrown violently back and forth by this sudden noise and then the next. [1]

We live in a noisy world – we shouldn’t. No wonder we get so fraught, anxious and depressed.

It is well established that noise is a major disrupter of health – both physical and mental – and seems to be a factor in depression [1,2,3,4,5,6].

Is depression the inevitable aftermath of unabating stress on our bodies, minds and souls living in this noisy, fast-paced modern society? If depression can be caused by a depletion of chemicals that our body naturally produces when in harmony, how can we expect to have this harmony in such an environment that violently assaults our natural relaxed state with noise at two-second intervals? [1]

Noise is certainly a factor in my depression, which is often triggered by pure overload. I don’t want to be assailed by noise – any noise, but especially secondhand noise – just as I don’t want to have too much to do heaped on me.

I need quiet. Much to Noreen’s bemusement, I seldom play music these days; or have the TV or radio on. I used to have something playing all the time but I now cannot function with continual background distraction. Continual (especially man-made) noise – even just the hum of my PC – drives me up the wall.

We live in a noisy world – far too noisy. To demonstrate just how noisy our world is, try doing my 10-minute test.

  1. You will need: pencil and paper, a watch.
  2. Go and sit outside, somewhere where you aren’t going to be disturbed for 10 minutes: your garden, your balcony or the square you live in.
  3. Sit quietly and listen – really listen, 100%.
  4. Write down every single noise you hear as you hear it. (If you hear it more than once, write it down each time.) What do you hear?
  5. At the end of 10 minutes have a look at your list. How many noises have you written down? How many are natural sounds (birds, animals, the wind, the stream); how many are man-made (cars, planes, appliances)?
  6. Ideally you should be able to hear only natural sounds – the more man-made sounds you hear, the more your environment will be stressing you.

Now compare with what Piers Plowman would have heard 500 or more years ago while eating his lunchtime bread and cheese under a tree: birds, sheep, a distant dog barking, wind rustling the trees, his horses’ whinnying, a babbling brook, maybe the swoosh of the windmill. How often do any of us hear these natural sounds?

Unless you live in the depths of the countryside I wouldn’t mind betting well over 50% of your noises are man-made and/or drown out the natural. That, at least, is my experience. OK, it isn’t scientific, but it is likely to demonstrate just how noisy our environment is. Is it any wonder we feel hammered?

What can you do about it? Here are twelve things which may help you:

  1. Avoid places with high noise levels; if necessary walk away to somewhere quieter.
  2. Avoid open-plan offices; research shows they are a major disrupter of work and mental processes [2].
  3. Don’t have the TV, radio or hi-fi on unless there is something specific you want to listen to/watch (and then give it your undivided attention).
  4. Don’t play music, especially through headphones, as background; this doesn’t make it better [2].
  5. Complain in bars, restaurants and shops which play “musak”; if they don’t like it, go somewhere else; remember you have a choice.
  6. Keep your mobile phone on vibrate and your PC speakers on mute.
  7. Try to avoid having the phone ring; try using text messages instead [5].
  8. Avoid noisy household appliances like hair dryers, food processors, lawn mowers and leaf blowers.
  9. Try to find quiet household appliances.
  10. If you have hearing aids and want more quiet, take your hearing aids out; it isn’t rude if it is looking after your mental well-being.
  11. Spend time away from the city; go somewhere you can listen to the birds or the sea.
  12. Plan for some quiet time every day.
References

[1] Noise Pollution, Depression, … and Nature As Our Guide
[2] Seven Ways Noise Affects Your Health
[3] Decibel Hell: The Effects of Living in a Noisy World
[4] What Did You Say?! How Noise Pollution Is Harming You
[5] Depression: On Noise, Answering the Telephone and Making Decisions
[6] The ubiquity of the modern beep

amusements, medical

Something for PPG Awareness Week

This week (4-9 June 2018) is Patient Participation Group (PPG)** Awareness Week. And as I’m Chairmen on my GP’s PPG I thought we might have three, light, doctor-orientated amusement.

** What’s one of them then? You can find out the basics of what PPGs do in this short article from the Patients’ Association

environment, history, links, medical, science

Monthly Links

Here’s this month’s collection of links to items you may have missed the first time round. As usual we start with the seriously scientific and end with … the not so seriously scientific.

Science, Technology & Natural World

London blogger Diamond Geezer visits the National Physical Laboratory in Teddington. I’ve never been there, but I really should because, although it will be much changed, my mother worked here as a draughtsman’s tracer during the WW2.

A guide to the spiritual world of Hawaii’s lava. Guess you need it if you insist on sitting atop a huge volcano!

We have this notion that all humans are descended from a small population in East Africa. However the current theories are that this is wrong and that our origins are much more diverse and colourful. [LONG READ] [£££]

Now you might think this is bit of an obvious thing to do, but scientists have finally unravelled the genetic secrets of roses.

So what sort of nutter spends his life being stung by insects? Justin O Schmidt is the answer.

Health & Medicine

Do you keep marine fish? If so do you know how deadly your aquarium might be?

It seems that migraine changes your brain and the way you experience the world – all the time, not just during an attack. [LONG READ] [£££]

Nothing is off limits at the Menopause Cafe – watch the video!

Sexuality

Oral sex has been around for a long, long time: here’s a brief history from ancient China to DJ Khaled.

Environment

So how are we really going to solve our waste problem? New Scientist takes a look. [£££]

This is why I don’t indulge in long-haul, safari holidays: it seems tourism’s carbon impact is three times larger than previously estimated.

Following which, the Guardian looks at the true cost of eating meat, only to find this is also even worse that we thought.

But then we can’t even manage the food we don’t eat: Sainsbury’s has dropped a pilot project to halve food waste.

Social Sciences, Business, Law

So here’s a 45-year-long American study on how to raise genius children. No it isn’t for parents to “hothouse” normal kids but to take the brightest and stretch them. Now explain to me why we shouldn’t have Grammar Schools! [LONG READ]

History, Archaeology & Anthropology

New evidence suggests that ancient humans settled the Philippines 700,000 years ago. That’s around 600,000 years before previously thought.

The Ancient British Queen Boudica was the scourge of the Roman’s in Britain. Or was she?

How about finding an 800-year-old label to date a shipwreck in the Java Sea – and thereby rewrite its history?

Wow! Just, WOW! An historian has created an incredibly detailed map (above) of the medieval trade routes across Europe, much of Africa and much of Asia. Absolutely stunning!

London

So just why has the number of Londoners using are tube recently fallen so dramatically?

Lifestyle & Personal Development

Scientific American reckons that we don’t understand ourselves as well as we think, and offers ten things you don’t know about yourself.

If you’re really curious, and not at all paranoid, you can get a clue as to how long you are going to live.

Every year there is a Boring Conference in London. Diamond Geezer reports on this year’s siesta fiesta.

Did you ever want to know everything Facebook and Google know about you? Here’s how. [LONG READ]

Shock, Horror, Humour

And to round off this month’s offerings, we have not one, but three amusements …

Ever wondered what to do with your old bras? Well you can always donate them to the cows.

Not to be beaten by the Boring Conference, the Flat Earth Conference suggests the Universe is an egg and the moon isn’t real. There’s another report here.

And finally … If you ever happen across a Tube Snake, do make sure you report its location as they are an endangered species in need of conservation.

Toodle-pip.

medical, personal

Yes, I’m Fat

In an article on BBC News website over the weekend one woman talks about how she feels about being fat. I found it interesting because so much of what she says chimes with how I feel. Here are some of the things she says and which I share (plus a few tropes of my own).

Feeling good about your body isn’t always easy when you are overweight.
. . .
Quite literally, I am the elephant in the room.
. . .
I am fat, there’s no getting away from it.
. . .
I don’t think there’s a single part of me … that is small.
. . .
Society has its own sort of perception of people like me – we are disgusting, fat, slothful, lazy, incompetent, stupid.
. . .
[H]ow could you be that fat? The answer is simple – a lack of control, a lack of confidence …

Yes, I have a lack of self-control; it isn’t good enough now but it was much worse years ago when I first put on weight. It is partly down to the lack of confidence but it’s also, in part, the anxiety and depression.

It’s kind of sad that I’m comforted by food rather than other elements in the world.
. . .
The eating combined with my osteoarthritis and other disabilities doesn’t help – the additional weight on the joints isn’t a positive impact.
. . .
I did swim, but don’t any more.
. . .
“Just lose weight.” I hear that all the time from family, friends, colleagues, doctors …
It’s not rocket science – I know that … but that means effort, doesn’t it? It means having to motivate myself and persevere … I can’t …

I can’t because mostly the depression acts as a complete roadblock. I wish it didn’t, but despite trying just about everything available I’ve not yet found a way through the roadblock.

What is also for many oversized people, me included, is that the brain doesn’t internally know one’s real size. The brain still thinks of you being your normal size and doesn’t adjust for your new size. So you don’t (instinctively) realise how much space you take up. You have this internal picture of yourself the way you were (or should be).

People are constantly judging me … I am a reflection of something that they could become. They tell themselves that they’ve got control, they’re sensible, intelligent and no way would they ever get to my size. But let me tell you, I was you once and you could be me.
. . .
The only person I can hold responsible for my position is me. However, I refuse to accept the size I am. This is not who I was meant to be.
If I accept it then I’m telling myself that I’ve given up and I don’t want to give up.
I don’t want to be normal because normal is boring. I just want to be the best of myself.

I wish it wasn’t thus. I don’t like being the size I am. I understand the risks. I know all the things I should do to combat it, and if I could do it I would have done long ago. But having looked at, and thought about, the problem in depth, the first thing that has to happen is to fix the depression and other mental issues. That is a huge challenge, and I’ve not yet found the key to unlocking it – I wish I had!