Category Archives: medical

beliefs, current affairs, environment, medical, pleasures, science, thoughts

Stress

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Jane Matera is a counsellor with Diabetes UK and she writes an interesting article in the charity’s latest magazine about her theory that type 2 Diabetes is often triggered by people not dealing sufficiently well with the stresses of life.

I’m not going to delve into that subject here – I’m hardly qualified to do so, except by having type 2 Diabetes myself. What interested me as much in Matera’s article is that she actually spells out the stresses we face in modern life compared with earlier generations. Not a surprising list but interesting to see it gathered together in one place.

Humans have always had stress. The hormones involved in the fight or flight response protected early humans from the dangers of the prehistoric world. Some degree of stress is creative, stimulating and necessary to a life fully lived. But […] our bodies are only equipped to cope with short bursts during periods of acute danger.

In our society, I feel there are many everyday stresses that might have been unthinkable 50 – or even 10 or 20 – years ago. They are accepted as immutable facts of life [and] not challenged or much discussed.

This normalisation means we maybe living for long periods […] at a level of stress […] considerably too high for our minds and bodies to safely cope with. And this is at a time when the traditional human support structures – such as the community, work security, the extended family, stable relationships and religious faith – have changed, been depleted or are not available to us.

Common modem stresses that have been normalised include:

  • long-distance commutes, either through heavy traffic or at the mercy of public transport when we are most tired and vulnerable, either at the too – early start or exhausted end of the day
  • the working world of short-term contracts, constant appraisal and machine-led environments may seem practical and economical but can take a human toll
  • the pressure on mothers of even young children to work outside the home to meet the demands of an inflated mortgage
  • mechanisation, which means humans are forced to adopt methods of communication and behaviour dictated by the machine rather than those that are innate
  • mobile phones, iPods, ATMs, etc., disconnect the individual from human contact
  • the fear of a terrorist attack – not a new phenomenon, but one that seems intensified of late in urban areas
  • the completely rational fear of air travel, which is seen as neurotic because of its ubiquity.

How do we fix it? Unless there is a paradigm shift in society and the way our economy works sadly I suspect all we can do is to mitigate these stresses in ways which work for us individually. And hope this is enough to keep Diabetes – and depression – at bay. I see no magic panacea.

Food for thought.

beliefs, books, current affairs, medical, memes, personal, science, sexuality, thoughts, topographical

One Word Meme

This meme has managed to insinuate its way into here, so I’d better respond to it.

There’s only one rule: you get only one word.

Yourself: Depressed
Your Partner: Sexy
Your Hair: Greying
Your Mother: Ninety-Two
Your Father: Dead
Your Favorite Item: Camera
Your Dream Last Night: Anxiety
Your Favorite Drink: Beer
Your Dream Car: None
Your Dream Home: Tidy
The Room You Are In: Study
Your Fear: Poverty
Where Do You Want To Be In 10 Years: Retired
Who You Hung Out With Last: Friends
What You’re Not: Fit
Muffins: Mules
One of Your Wish List Items: Japan
Time: Midday
Last Thing You Did: Email
What Are You Wearing: Nothing
Your Favorite Weather: Sunshine
Your Favorite Book: Dance
Last Thing You Ate: Tablets
Your Mood: Lazy
Your Best Friends: Local
What Are You Thinking About Right Now: Sleep
Your Car: None
Your Summer: Seaside
What’s on your TV: Politics
What is your weather like: Raining
When Is the Last Time You Laughed: Yesterday
Your Relationship Status: Happy

Feel free to allow this to insinuate its way into your mind/weblog as well. 🙂

current affairs, freedom of speech, history, medical, pleasures, science, thoughts

Save GMT Campaign

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For years – and I mean like 40+ years, since I was at school – there have been campaigns and continual sniping to keep the UK’s clocks one hour ahead of GMT around the year. I don’t just not get it, I fundamentally disagree with it. It was tried in the 1960s, when I was at school, and was a complete failure, So we had lighter afternoons in winter coming out of school, but we also had darker mornings and days when it didn’t get properly daylight until 10AM. As someone who suffers (albeit marginally) from SAD I need that early morning light to get me going and reset my body clock.

Jilly over at jillysheep has suggested in a post today that we should preserve GMT all year round. And I have to say I agree. I don’t see the point of continually changing the clocks with the seasons. Every time we move the clocks an hour (in whichever direction) it throws everyone’s body clocks; it isn’t just me who notices it; I hear many people commenting that their body clock is out of kilter with the our artificial time.

Now I can understand why the government thought it a good idea to put the clocks forward in summer during times of war (which if I recall correctly was a significant part of the rationale for its use; tho’ not the original reason for the idea). But I do not see the least necessity for it today. What does summer time give us? Longer and lighter evenings; nothing more. And while I love long summer evenings as much as anyone, in these days of flexible working we could achieve the same effect just as easily by adjusting our working hours if we need to. (Already some of us frequently have to start early or finish late because we are dealing with colleagues or clients on the continent or in the Americas.)

I wonder if anyone has ever worked out the (notional) cost of changing the clocks twice a year on business? I would think it is rather large. And certainly not something worth paying to get longer light evenings when there are other cost-free options available.

There’s the usual good article about Daylight Saving Time over on Wikipedia. What is interesting, that I didn’t know, is that a large swathe of the world has used summer time and has now abandoned it. Basically it is only the “western industrialised nations” (and some of South America) which use summer time. Large chunks of the globe have either given it up or never used DST in the first place.

Anyway … we really should keep GMT alive. It is, after all, a cornerstone of our heritage. Universal time was “discovered” in England, yes at Greenwich, which is why the Meridian is there! Universal time has been a great thing: the world equivalent of “railway time”. But let each country keep its own time zone. And let us keep and celebrate the heritage which is ours and is GMT!

Now who feels like starting a campaign to preserve GMT? Hands off our time zone! 🙂

medical, memes, personal, photography, science, thoughts

Pondering (Thirteen Things) in the Rain


Pondering in the Rain, originally uploaded by kcm76.

This week’s self-portrait: 52 Weeks 5/52, 2008 week 13.

As I took this standing outside the doctor’s this morning I thought we might have 13 medical things to go with it (mainly for the Flickr “Thirteen Things” group …

  1. I’ve never yet broken a bone in my body.
  2. I’ve had all the usual childhood illnesses except mumps.
  3. I’m short sighted and have worn glasses since my mid-teens.
  4. I have type 2 diabetes.
  5. I had my appendix out when I was 28.
  6. I had glandular fever when I was 32, and had 3 months of a nice hot summer off work.
  7. I suffer from hayfever; and with me the allergy really is to some species of grass pollen.
  8. I have obstructive sleep apnoea; this means I have to wear a mask at night with gentle air pressure pumped into it to keep my airway from collapsing.
  9. I was born with a deformed nail on my right index finger; everyone who noticed it assumed that I had damaged it in an accident. I finally had the nail permanently removed after I did rip it off by accident.
  10. When I was a kid of 6 or 7 I would have a week off school every term with a high fever (nothing else, just the fever). No-one knew why, but our old family doctor eventually suggested my parents take me off sugar; so no sweets for years, but no fever either. I still don’t know why it worked or what the underlying cause was.
  11. I’ve lost count of the number of crowns I have; it’s at least six. But none caused by an accident; all due to teeth falling apart.
  12. I’ve had a cartilage operation on both knees (at different times) and my knees still give me pain. But then apparently I also have the beginnings of arthritis in my knees; not surprising as my father had severely arthritic knees.
  13. I suffer from depression; Churchill’s “black dog”. It’s worse in winter as I am slightly afflicted with SAD as well.
beliefs, medical, photography, pleasures, ramblings, science, thoughts

It's Easter

It’s Easter Day. And I’ve spent almost the whole day doing literary society work – well it is the end of our financial year coming up and membership renewal time, so lots of mailing to do.

Just as well I have plenty to do as I don’t like Easter; I think I never have; I always enjoy Christmas but not Easter. And no, it’s not because of my atheism and general lack of belief in anything – I enjoy a long bank holiday weekend as much as anyone. It’s just that I always feel Easter is a dismal time; I don’t know why. Which is weird as I am (marginally at least) affected by SAD and about now start to look forward to and appreciate the lengthening days. Maybe this year feels worse than most as Easter is so early, and it’s grey, wet, cold, and snowing on and off. I’m ready for a 3 month holiday in the sun: sun, sea, sand, warmth, wine, good food. I wish!

Now where did I put that lottery ticket?

medical, natural history, science

Mammal Senses

There was an interesting article in last week’s New Scientist about the strange anatomy of the brain. It contained this quote:

No matter how bizarre a vertebrate is, it receives only three types of incoming sensory data: chemical (smell and taste), electromagnetic (light, and electric and magnetic fields) and movement (touch and sound).

I’d never quite looked at it this way before, but of course it is right. The only bit I don’t understand is what organ we use to detect electric and magnetic fields. Maybe we don’t. Maybe this is the preserve only of pigeons, which have been shown to have lodestone like sensors in their brains. Interesting though.

beliefs, freedom of speech, medical, photography, science, sexuality, thoughts

Circumcision

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Writing my Thirteen Things post for Flickr the other day set me thinking …

I made the comment that I am glad my parents didn’t have me circumcised. I won’t say that their decision was great foresight: from my observations the rate of male circumcision of my generation in the UK is somewhere around 30-40% (amongst Americans it is more like 80%), and moreover my father was also entire so probably didn’t feel there was any “precedent” to follow. So my parents weren’t exactly bucking a trend (medical or otherwise). But I’m still glad that I’m entire; I like being entire; I’m comfortable with my “male apparatus” and I would never have inflicted circumcision on any son I might have had.

But there is one thing I do not understand about our western culture. Female circumcision, as still practiced in many parts of Africa especially, is considered barbarous, a violation of a woman and abuse. And I have to agree; it is all of these. And yet, male circumcision is considered much more (though not universally) acceptable; even those who are against male circumcision don’t generally have “screaming fits” about it the way they do over female circumcision. It is even being advocated as a way of constraining the spread of HIV, as I’ve blogged before. Why is this? I do not understand how one can be considered barbarous and the other acceptable.

OK, so before anyone screams at me let’s be clear. Male circumcision (at least as we practice it in the western world) is generally performed on the very young, by a surgeon, often with anaesthetic, in a sterile surgical environment; hence immediately post-operative complications are rare, although no-one seems to agree about the long-term effects on sexual function. Even if performed later in life male circumcision is a proper medical procedure. This contrasts with the vast majority of female circumcision in the developing world, where the operation is mostly performed by the medically unskilled, without a sterile environment, seldom any anaesthetic and mostly against the will of the female concerned who often has to be physically restrained. Needless to say post-operative complications appear to be the norm rather than the exception and death is not uncommon. The UN and WHO now use the term Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) when referring to female circumcision, but make no comment on male circumcision

But I still don’t see how it is acceptable for parents to have an infant boy routinely circumcised without any immediate medical necessity – as is still widely practiced in the USA. And I include in that the religious practices of both Judaism and Islam – albeit I can understand how male circumcision may have originally arisen in an ancient, hygienically-challenged, desert community, even if this was based on a false premise.

Having started writing this I found a good couple of paragraphs at the History of Circumcision which sum up my dilemma:

Given the similarities between the male and female genitals, the nature of the surgery and the justifications offered, it is surprising that male and female circumcision enjoy such strikingly different reputations, at least in Anglophone societies: the first, a mild and harmless adjustment which should be tolerated, if not actively promoted; the second, a cruel abomination which must be stopped by law, no matter how culturally significant to its practitioners. If you call circumcision of boys male genital mutilation, you are accused of emotionalism; if you fail to call circumcision of women or girls female genital mutilation you are accused of trivialising the offence. While the United Nations, Amnesty International and other international agencies spend millions on programs to eradicate FGM, they have never uttered a word against circumcision of boys.

It might be thought that the reason for this double standard lies in the greater physical severity of female circumcision, but this is to confuse cause with effect. On the contrary, it is the tolerant or positive attitude towards male circumcision and the rarity of female circumcision in western societies which promote the illusion that the operation is necessarily more sexually disabling, and without benefit to health, when performed on girls or women. It is, of course, also true that the term female circumcision is vague, referring to any one or more of a number of surgical procedures.
… …
But it should be remembered that the most extreme forms of FGM are rare, and that male circumcision in general is far more common on a world scale than female: about 13 million boys, compared with two million girls annually.
… …
Given the respective numbers of victims involved and the fact that some circumcisions are worse than some instances of FGM, there is no justification for perpetuating the gender discrimination which has characterised discussion of these issues.
… …
To compare female and male circumcision is not to trivialize the enormity of the first, as some feminists seem to fear, but to recognise that the physical and moral similarities between the two are very real.

So here we have it. The two “procedures” while different are the same. So why is it OK for males to be circumcised but not females? Even after reading a number of worthy websites on the subject I still do not understand.

PS. Anyone who wishes to delve a little deeper might like to start with:

beliefs, current affairs, freedom of speech, medical, science

Drugs to be Legal in 10 Years?

Yes, you read it right! This was the thrust of a BBC News item yesterday. Richard Brunstrom, Chief Constable of North Wales, believes that in about 10 years time drugs which are currently illegal will be legalised. His logic is impeccable:

  • Over 50% of all recorded crime is caused by people feeding a drugs habit.
  • Despite drug misuse falling (slowly) because of better treatment programmes it is still causing a ÂŁ20bn a year hole in the country’s finances.
  • Portugal has already gone the legalisation route
  • And it is being talked about elsewhere in the world (although the article doesn’t specify where!).

All that is needed is a shift in public opinion (as has happened against drink-driving in the last 20 years or so) and the change will become inevitable, Brumstrom appears to believe.

But interestingly there is one argument which hasn’t been used – and which is sometimes used for the legalisation of cannabis: if it is legal you can regulate the supply (by licencing sellers) and you can tax the proceeds. That has to be powerful: stop large swathes of crime, save ÂŁ20bn a year, and generate income as well.

Even so, personally, I can’t see it happening. I cannot see any politician sticking their neck out and advocating such a policy, let alone voting for it. The legalisation of cannabis I think will come, although it may take a while yet. However I’m not sure that the legalisation of heroin, cocaine, etc. isn’t a step too far even for me, at least at present. But it is an interesting idea, and one worthy of discussion. And hoorah for a senior plod who has enough foresight to be able to think outside the box!