Thank You Grand Rounds 5.1, guest hosted this week by Dr. Val Jones at KevinMD and Emergiblog. This Grand Rounds was "The historic, 5th year anniversary of Grand Rounds."
Grand Rounds is a web collection of notable medical posts from the previous week. Thank you Dr.Val for doing the hard work of hosting, and for including my post Getting the Right Yoga Medicine.
Here is Friday Fast Fitness - how to get healthy, fun, functional natural exercise, get fresh air and needed sunshine, break out of old ruts, laugh, feel young, strengthen arms, legs, hands, practice balance, try something new, all at no charge:
Go to a playground.
Hang, swing, pull up, jump, climb, balance, laugh. Use muscles, balance, breathing, coordination, imagination, Get fresh air and sunshine.
Have fun.
Use your brains and observe common sense safety. Test movements and equipment slowly first, check height of each apparatus compared to the ground and your head, make sure of your footing, grip, bone density, and landing skills before launching into the air, don't use children as landing pads, etc. Use good manners learned (or should have learned) as a small child.
If you do nothing more than hang from a bar or rings to start, you will strengthen hands, arms, and wrist.
Related Fitness Fixer:
When you are ready for more, make your own parcours (pronounced par-koor, and also called Free-Running) - Parcours - Old Fun Is New Exercise.
--- Read success stories of these methods and send your own. See if your answers are already here by clicking labels under posts, links in posts, archives at right, and The Fitness Fixer Index. Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, click "updates via e-mail"(under trumpet) upper right. For personal medical questions - Replies to Medical Questions. Limited Class spaces for personal feedback. Top students may apply for certification throughDrBookspan.com/Academy. Learn more in Dr. Bookspan's Books.
Since I was small, I wanted to be a scientist. I wanted to study physiology under the sea. I wanted to live underwater, and for a time, I did. This is how I found out about exploding toilets.
I grew up to be a scientist in extreme physiology - the science of surviving extremes of heat and cold, mountain top and underwater, high and low air and water pressure, exercise and nutritional and pharmacologic tinkering, altitude, g-forces, injury, and other things extreme.
One of the laboratories where I worked was tethered to the bottom of the ocean at a moderate depth. It was a small metal building with air inside. You could not see it from the surface. If you went by in a boat, or drove by the highway, you would see only the sea. We wanted to order a pizza and give the lab address and see the delivery person pull up to nothing but water and try to find us at the bottom of the sea. Even scientists can be funny sometimes.
To live in the lab, we swam down in scuba gear, entered through a small hatch in the bottom, and dried off, or just walked around in a towel. Then we stayed dry while working and sleeping inside. We walked around normally and breathed the air normally, day after day. When it was time to go to work outside in the ocean, we put on scuba gear or surface-supplied hoses, and swam down through the bottom hatch. The hatch did not need to stay closed. We could look down to see fish swimming, even sit on the lab floor and dangle our feet in the water through the hatch, without flooding the lab. How does this work? See the drawing at right of an elementary science demonstration:
Hold a glass upside down over a bowl of water.
Push the upside down glass straight down into the water.
Water doesn't enter the glass. Water rises in the glass a small amount because air is squeezed by water pressure. As long as you don't tilt the glass too much, the rest of the water stays out.
It works pretty much the same way in an underwater laboratory, summarized in a child's science homework at right. Water stays out and air stays in with everything dry inside, as long as a sea monster doesn't come and knock the lab sideways.
The deeper the lab, the more the air is squeezed and the higher the air pressure. If you bring something full of air down to the lab, it might squash flat by arrival. One of the scientists had a CD-player that I brought down for him in a transfer pot. We opened the pot to find the case bowed inward, so tightly suctioned from inside that it couldn't open.
When transferring gear back up from the lab to the surface, air expands as water pressure decreases. Water-tight cameras had to be transferred open, or they might pop on the way up.
This same "pressure-volume" gas-law relationship applied to the marine toilet, a rectangular plastic box with a screw cap lid. When coming up, air expands. From only 33 feet of seawater (10 meters) to the surface, air volume will double because water pressure is decreased by half. Unless you fill the toilet box completely with water (or other liquids and solids), all gas inside will expand on the way up. It was a test for new interns to see if they understood gas laws to prevent the toilet from expanding enough to explode. Good to understand Boyle's Gas Law.
Related posts on better health and improving fitness in extremes:
--- Questions come in by the hundreds. I make posts from fun ones. See if your answers are already here - click Fitness Fixer labels, links, archives, andIndex. Read success stories and send your own. Subscribe free - "updates via e-mail" upper right. For personal medical questions - Replies to Medical Questions. Limited Class space for personal feedback. Top students may earn certification throughDrBookspan.com/Academy. Get more in Dr. Bookspan's Books.
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Cup Underwater and Dry Tissue graphics by www.ied.edu.hk
The equinox occurs this year on September 22. The Northern Hemisphere begins shorter days and longer nights of Autumn. Readers in the Southern Hemisphere begin seeing the longer first days of Spring.
What can you do for better health around this time?
Healthline Named In Top Health Blogs - Thank You RNCentral.com and Readers
Friday, September 19, 2008
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
Healthline's Authority Network (that's us) was just named one of the top 50 health blogs (number three on the list) by RNCentral.com.
Thank you RN Central for recognizing us and other health blogs, and to all the sources providing information to people, so they can make their own decisions about what's healthy and right for themselves.
Thank you readers for using the information in our posts to be healthier and happier. Keep subscribing and sending posts to friends. Keep sending me your success stories and photos.
Click recent post links at right for topics that interest you, and the archives below them (any will do to start) to see a month's topics at a glance.
--- Read success stories and send your own. See if your answers are already here - click Fitness Fixer labels, links, archives, andIndex. Subscribe free - "updates via e-mail" upper right. For personal medical questions - Replies to Medical Questions. Limited Class space for personal feedback. Top students may earn certification throughDrBookspan.com/Academy. Learn more in Dr. Bookspan's Books.
In medicine, if someone wants to lose weight, they can do things to lose weight. It wouldn't work as well to "balance" the practice by doing things that both gain and lose. If someone has too high blood cholesterol, they may use foods, medicine, and exercise to lower it. It isn't helpful to do one thing to raise and another to lower the level. There's no need to "balance" the level by doing things to raise the level too.
In modern life, it is common to sit too much. The answer is not more sitting, or to bend forward more, but to get up and stretch the other way. The concept is not just mystic yoga, but common sense.
It is good yoga to omit moves that are not needed. Yoga has a long tradition to add or restrict specific movements and foods when you have too much or too little of something. Not all forward bending yoga moves are needed or useful to do in every class, and for many people, not at all.
It is not a mystery that several specific injuries come from too much time spent with the hip and spine bent forward. Hours a day, over months and years of sitting rounded forward, bring vertebrae together toward the front of the spinal column, slowly pressing the discs between them outward to the back, like squeezing the front of an old tube of toothpaste. Disc degeneration and herniation slowly result. The muscles that cross the front of the hip can become shortened until it is uncomfortable to stand or lie flat and straight. The front of the chest can round until round - posture feels normal and the rotator cuff rubs a little more raw with each lift of the arm. These are just three of several injuries from too much forward bending, also called flexion injury.
Someone with disc pain or other flexion injury doesn't need more flexion (forward bending). They need to reduce flexion and stretch the areas the other way. It is not unbalanced to give what is needed, not impose more of the cause of the problem. This becomes even more important with every passing year, as patterns and injuries become deep-rooted.
David Demets of Belgium has been invited to participate as a yoga teacher at a Global Mala event in Bruges. The event takes place September 21 and 22 at many places around the world. David will be one of four yoga teacher to lead people in 27 sun salutations on the 21st, to make a total of 108. The developers of the event say there are many approaches to leading a Yoga Mala and that they are open to any style of basic sun salutation.
One of many different parts of yoga is a short series of movements done in an order, like a dance, called a Salutation. Yoga has many different Salutations - moon salutations, wind salutations, sun salutations among others. They have different purposes, done at different times for different needs. Using all parts of one salutation for all students at all times, for people already loaded heavily with injury or pain from too much sitting does not serve the purpose of yoga.
David writes,
"I think this is a great opportunity to introduce yoga without (weighted) forward bending to a large group of people. So I'm working on an adapted sun salutation where I've left out the standing forward bend. I've made a video of this for my blog."
For forward range of motion without loading outward pressure on the discs, David retains the lunge with hands forward on the floor and the downward dog.
One year ago in October, David wrote me that he developed a yoga class that does not give more flexion to people with flexion injury. He wrote, "My mother follows this class as well. She says she hardly ever feels the hernia (herniated disc) in her back anymore since she started following (this new method). And I know she had really painful trouble with her back the past years. This is simply amazing! I'm very grateful."
Part II coming up - what happened when I explained this to one class that I teach.
Disability Awareness Doesn't End With Summer Paralympics Sept 6-17th 2008
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
The Summer Paralympics Games of 2008 in Beijing China close September 17th. These are Olympic games of athletes with a disability. Information and networking doesn't end with the Games. Here are some sources:
An irreverent site from the BBC is Ouch. Why is the site called Ouch? The writers answer: "We spent literally months trying to come up with a name that wasn't too patronising (bbc.co.uk/smile_through_the_tears) or too suggestive of hideous '90s positivity (bbc.co.uk/Able2Jump2TheSky)…"
The Paralympics and the many world and local sports events and classes for people with a disability remind that physical and mental training is important for fitness and personal development for everyone.
The graphic shows Paralympic logos from past Games. The next and 10th Winter Paralympics will be held in the year 2010 in Vancouver Canada. The 11th Winter Games will be in Sochi Russia, in 2014.
Readers Count - Second Missed Cause of Back Pain With Golf
Monday, September 15, 2008
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
Although twisting during the golf swing is often thought to be part of spine injury, two far more injurious movements are the most ignored.
Reader Jean Christophe wrote asking about the second factor - how many times do you bend wrong, instead of bending right using the leg and back muscles. This is a largely missed cause of back pain both in every day life and in golf. I asked readers to count how many times every day they bent badly. Jean Christophe wrote:
"Dear Dr Jolie Bookspan, "One year ago, I wrote you about golf and you gently answered. I could not play then because of the season and just wanted to share with you that we have to bend and reach the floor a lot of times: We tee the ball 18 times, and pick up the tee from the ground 18 times, we take the ball from the hole 18 times, we repair pitches on the green 10 to 15 times, we putt 36 times, we go to the bunker 4 times so we have to take the rake on the ground, we make divots that we take from the ground 18 times, and we have to take the flag from the ground 6 to 12 times; this means that we bend in a golf course around 115 times in a round of 18 holes. If you add the practice session where we put a ball on the ground 60 times or the putting practice, this means that we bend 200 times each time we go to play golf.
"Now, all of us bend the wrong way. But frankly, I tried to squat but it is not practical to tee the ball (it is not nice looking either but let's forget that) or to pick up the ball from the hole (ie under the ground).
"So I tried to stand on one leg and make the kind of stretch you spoke of ones putting the trunk and the other leg horizontal. This is more nice looking but not really the solution.
At the end, I reverted to bend badly like all the other players, unhappy because there must be a way.
"Last but not least, I made a swing more on my whole feet (instead of on the balls of my feet) and played solid. So the swing doesn't lose with good posture. But these 200 bendings need some work. "Dear Jolie, thank you for all you help. "Jean Christophe"
1. The reader captured the problem with this summary: "All of us bend the wrong way. But frankly, I tried to squat but it is not practical to tee the ball (it is not nice looking either but let's forget that)." To solve this problem, the first thing to do is to make good bending, using a squat (also called crouch) or lunge (drawing at right), practical to tee and pick up the ball:
2. Standing on one leg, lifting the other keeping the back straight and upper body uplifted, rather than bent over is a useful way to bend for objects on the ground. It is often called the "golf pick-up."
3. Reader Jean Christophe counted 200 bad bends in a single game of golf. No wonder it hurts. He reminds that bad bending is not the answer and wants to know how to get out of the habit: "At the end, I reverted to bend badly like all the other players, unhappy because there must be a way." One good way is to realize that bending right as an isolated strange action will not build the brain and body habit. This is bending you want the day when not golfing:
--- Read and contribute your own success stories of these methods. Before asking questions, see if your answers are already here - click labels under posts, links in posts, archives at right, and the Fitness Fixer Index. For answers to personal medical questions - Replies to Medical Questions. Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail"(under trumpet) upper right. See Dr. Bookspan's Books. Limited Class spaces for personal evaluation. Top students may apply to certify throughDrBookspan.com/Academy. ---
Click the post to find out what it has to do with sting rays. We still don't have a working refrigerator.
On the web, Grand Rounds is a weekly list of best medical posts. Each week, the Grand Rounds host goes to much work to collect posts from Medical and Health blogs from the previous week.
Here is Fast Friday Fitness - strengthen forearm, hand, and wrist while practicing a useful skill (functional exercise).
Use a screwdriver to push in and turn a screw into a block of wood. Then drive two more.
Using the same hand, reverse direction and undo all three.
Repeat with the other hand
Use hand and forearm muscles to power the turning, instead of letting the effort concentrate on the wrist.
Start with soft wood and work up to harder materials.
With your improved skills, you can go from making your wrist better to helping fix and build things to make your community better.
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Read success stories of these methods and send your own. Before asking questions, see if your answers are already here by clicking labels under posts, links in posts, archives at right, and The Fitness Fixer Index. Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail"(under trumpet) upper right. For personal medical questions - Replies to Medical Questions. Limited Class spaces for personal feedback. Top students may apply for certification throughDrBookspan.com/Academy. Learn more in Dr. Bookspan's Books.
"Short history, I have hurt my lower back and neck several times previously through poor lifting technique and bad posture. My chiropractor did help, but it kept happening. I used to sit at a computer most of the day at work, then drive home, then go for a 30min walk with minimum stretching.
"Last year, when my back was ok, I decided to try riding my bike to work, three days a week, for the environment, the money, and for my fitness and weight. Each way is 12 kms, very hilly too in Auckland (New Zealand). After one week, my lower back was very badly hurt. I thought I'd never be able to ride to work again, that I'd have to get dressed sitting down for the rest of my life and I could barely walk. I felt like an old arthritic lady and I was only 38.
"I searched every book and website I could find, I had the idea it was my posture but I didn't know what to do about it. I found some information, but often what they recommended I couldn't do, they were too extreme or hurt me more or made no difference.
"Then I found your website www.drbookspan.com. Aha! I thought-this sounds good. And it was.
"I bought your book "Fix your own pain" and learn't more and got stronger and healthier, following your advice.
"But still my back hurt a bit, I would forget to tuck my pelvis, then it hurt and I'd remember. I would get up and move around more, I adjusted my chair and computer to help my posture at my desk, but would forget and slump and my back or neck would hurt and I'd then I'd remember.
"I can't believe how long it took me to "Click." When you say it's for every time you bend, you mean Every Single Time! Keep your pelvis gently tucked All The Time. Keep your back straight, heels down and knees over your ankles Every Single Time you bend.
"Then I started to remember alot more, and my back only hurt a little bit. Then just recently I decided to try cycling again.
"And my lower back hurt again. I went back to your book and read some more and thought. I read about the hip stretches and read your blog and thought.
"And I tried two stretches I hadn't tried before, the sitting figure-4 stretch and the stretch on your blog where you lay on your back to do the figure-4 stretch and gently lean to the side your foot is facing.
"What a difference they have made. I have to tell you just those two stretches have changed my life. Now I walk (pelvis gently tucked) with no pain, I sit (small lower back arch, chin in, relaxed) with no pain. Any little twinge and I do the seated figure-4 stretch and it's gone. After my bike ride I get down on the ground (in the changing rooms!) and do the stretch on my back.
"I found that I needed to lift my foot well up from the floor, keeping my hips level, and move both legs, still in the figure-4, over to the side my foot was facing, helped by holding my crossed ankle with my hands and keeping this stretch for about 30 seconds. This increased the stretch and felt sooooo gooood. And continued to feel good after the stretch.
"This is the first time I've added a comment to a blog, but I just had to let you know how grateful I am to you and your generosity in sharing your knowledge and I wanted to share with your readers about the increased stretch, I've learnt so much from reading their stories and your replies, I wanted to contribute a little bit too."
Many many thanks, Liz Auckland, New Zealand"
Liz, thank you for great work applying the concepts, rather than just doing treatments and exercises, and taking time to write to inspire and teach other readers. Send updates and photos when you can.
Going to a chiropractor does not solve the cause of the pain. Something may be tight or "out" but that is the result, not the cause. Save a lot of money and time by spotting the cause and making simple changes to stop it from happening again, yourself:
When Liz says "tuck the hip" it means straighten the lower spine to neutral position, not to round the back. Rounding is tucking too much. There is a difference. Here is a post with descriptions and drawings - Prevent Main Factor in Back Pain After Running and Walking
How do you keep a search engine happy? Programmers, marketers - do you have ideas how we can write the blogs to better feed the search engines? They seem hungry.
Healthline wrote,
"In part of our ongoing testing, we've discovered that the addition of labels at the end of blogs is actually having a negative impact on the blogs' performance on search engines. I'm asking that everyone stop adding labels until further notice from Healthline."
Healthline asked us to stop using labels on posts for the time being.
Something seems to be missing.
Labels are the keywords assigned by the blog writer, previously included at the end of every post. Each is a topic covered in that post. Clicking any label gives all other posts from that blog on that topic. For example, clicking each Fitness Fixer label gives a page with all Fitness Fixer posts that have been given that label.
To find posts on specific topics, look for the "Search Health Experts" button in the right column below the Health Expert Update buttons. Type your request in the box, for example typing in single words like Scuba, swimming, martial arts, squat, or forensic will show posts with those terms.
Fix Pain, Fix Your House, Get Fit, Go Green, Learn Karate
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
Cool Fall classes:
Paul's Classes
Readers have asked about Paul's classes. Paul teaches Do-It-Yourself home repair and Green home repair classes at Temple U Center City. He has also opened our Karate school in downtown Philadelphia.
Karate - Shotokan karate. Kind and fun environment. Paul is a second degree Black Belt (Nidan rank) and gentle patient teacher. Every class works on several katas (forms), kicks, punches, blocks, strikes, and self-defense partner drills. Beginners through black belts welcome. Classes are small and beginners and kyu rank usually have black belt students to work with personally. Mondays 8 - 9:30 pm and Thursdays 7:30 - 9:00 p.m. Center City Phila. Entrance on 21st Street between Chestnut and Sansom, 2nd Floor. To register, e-mail Paul@PaulPlevakas.com, or come to class.
Do-It-Yourself Home Repair - Learn to fix it all: walls, outlets, plumbing, doors, installing ceiling fans, everything you need around the house. Six Saturdays, Sept 27-Nov 1, 2008. Temple Center City. 1515 Market St. Downtown Philadelphia. To register, e-mail Temple Director Kevin Wood kwood@temple.edu, or call (215) 204-6565.
Do-It-Yourself Home Repair GREEN - Clean, Earth Friendly, Renovations and Product Use. Nov 8 & 22, 10-1. No class Nov 15th. Temple Center City. 1515 Market St. Downtown Philadelphia. Just two classes, helpful to people coming in from out of town. To register, e-mail Temple Director Kevin Wood kwood@temple.edu, or call (215) 204-6565.
Clear instruction, and fun classes
Jolie's Classes
Fix Back and Neck Pain – Medical Breakthroughs in Non-Surgical Treatment - Cheaper (and safer) than your Vioxx. Three Saturdays, Sept. 20, 27 and Oct. 4, 2008. 9am-11:30am. This is one class divided over three sessions. Temple U Center City, 1515 Market St. Downtown Philadelphia. To register, e-mail Temple Director Kevin Wood kwood@temple.edu, or call (215) 204-6565.
Martial Arts - Jolie's classes for Fall starting September 16 are already full.
Yoga - If you are strong and brave--or want to be--come learn the most physical and empowering yoga you will ever do. A teaching class, not just to "do" poses. Learn how and why to change common unhealthy movement habits. No experience needed, just desire to use mind and body at the same time, as yoga claims. Yoga instructors, come learn how to prevent injuries for your students. 7 sessions, Tuesday evenings beginning Nov 4. To register, e-mail Temple Director Kevin Wood kwood@temple.edu, or call (215) 204-6565.
All class information - click web site CLASS page.
Medical doctors write frequently that they fix pain for themselves and their patients with Fitness Fixer. Dr Clara Hsu, M.D., Board-certified family medicine physician writes:
"When I was in medical school, no one explained the mechanics of back pain as clearly as Dr. Bookspan.
"I used to think I had pretty good posture until I tried to do the wall stand test. It was difficult to stand with my back straight, and my chin was pointing way up toward the ceiling. I have had trouble with chronic neck stiffness and tightness, and so I began practicing the stretches that Dr. Bookspan recommends for the pectoral and trapezius muscles every day. Now when I do the wall stand, it is comfortable and easy to get my heels, hips, shoulders, and the back of my head against the wall. I also like Dr. Bookspan's suggestion to lie on your stomach and prop yourself up on your elbows as a good back extension exercise to do first thing in the morning.
"As a family medicine physician, I see many patients with back and joint pain. Things like excessive lumbar lordosis, the forward head, and walking duck-footed are common problems that are easy to remedy. Many of my patients comment that they feel like they are “learning to walk all over again.”
"I also practice kung fu and have found Dr. Bookspan's advice to be useful in many of the exercises that we do. For example, we do pushups and planks as part of our warm-up routine. I used to feel strain in my back, because I was allowing my lower back to sag. Keeping the back straight helps to take the pressure off the low back. Some of my fellow martial arts students have had back problems or musculoskeletal injuries, and I often share the articles from Dr. Bookspan's website with them.
"I would like to thank Dr. Jolie Bookspan for her tireless work, generosity, and desire to help people. Her articles and books are a great service to the public and offer much useful advice to assist people in relieving their own pain without medications or surgery.
"I think we could prevent many injuries and drastically decrease the amount of healthcare dollars spent on drugs, physical therapy, and operations, etc., if we were to follow her simple suggestions."
Clara Hsu, M.D. Hands-On Medical Clinic 1024 Pico Blvd., Ste. #3 Santa Monica, CA 90405 (310) 314-0868 http://www.ClaraHsuMD.com
The point of the wall stand is to test if you have tightness or injury preventing healthy stance, not to cause pain by forcing straight standing. First you fix the cause of the tightness, then you can stand straight without forcing. Causing more pain would be silly and counter to the point.
The 13th Summer Paralympic Games begin on September 6, 2008 in Beijing, China. Since 1988, the Paralympic Games are held in the same year and location as the Olympic Games. The Paralympic torch was lit on August 28 at the Temple of Heaven in Beijing, and was relayed by Paralympian athletes for nine days until arriving in Beijing to mark the beginning of the games.
Categories of athletes:
Wheelchair: Spinal cord and other injuries or disabilities requiring use of a wheelchair.
Amputee: Partial or total loss of at least one limb.
Brain Injury: Cerebral palsy, traumatic brain injury, stroke, and conditions affecting balance and muscle control.
Visual: Partial to total blindness.
Les Autres (The Others): Athletes with other physical disabilities such as multiple sclerosis or congenital deformities of the limbs, dwarfism, and others.
The category for Intellectual Disability is currently suspended following events entered by deception at the Sydney games in 2000, and is being re-evaluated by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC).
A request by Healthline has come in to not use labels. They state,
"In part of our ongoing testing, we’ve discovered that the addition of labels at the end of blogs is actually having a negative impact on the blogs' performance on search engines."
Here is Fast Friday Fitness - quick vitamin and fiber-rich sweet drink helpful before and after exercise:
Put fresh watermelon slices in a blender, seeds and all.
Blend to a sweet smooth drink.
Depending on your blender, you may need to push the slices down to the blades with a wooden spoon. If you don't have a blender, get arm exercise mashing the slices to sweet juice in a bowl.
The seeds provide good nutrients. Watermelon has high levels of several vitamins including lycopene. Replaces muscle glycogen, blood electrolytes, and other helpful nutrients. No chemicals or refined sweeteners.
Healthline has requested that we don't add labels to the posts, for now. To see easy sources of good tasting healthy recipies and sports food, see my books page, www.DrBookspan.com/books.
--- Read success stories of these methods and send your own. Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail"(under trumpet) upper right. See Dr. Bookspan's Books, take a Class, get certifiedDrBookspan.com/Academy. ---
Our old computer has been fading over months. Home made software and hardware patches keep it going, barely. Last week we were ready to make the leap to a new computer, when the refrigerator decided to go. We realized that as vegetarians, we don't need the refrigerator much. When we live part of the year in Asia, we don't have a refrigerator at all, the same as most of the locals, and just bike past vegetable markets on the way to work. The decision of which to spend the money to replace has come to the computer.
Now go a few years back. During one of my early graduate degrees, I worked in an acoustics lab to develop a voice generator that could generate spoken words from written. Years later, I experimented with the opposite - computer voice recognition (dictation) software for my sports medicine practice. Voice recognition for dictation is where a computer can hear your voice and write down what you say in a text or word processing document. Early software was known for inaccuracy. Following are some of the real results of my dictation from patient notes and manuscript preparation for books. Errors persisted even with weeks of "training" for the computer to know my voice and accent. Nothing is changed from what the computer decided were my words:
I said: sepsis It wrote: Sexists
I said: benzodiazepines It wrote: Then said Diane subpoenas.
I said: Oxygen periods are separated by five minute air breaks.
The computer wrote: Oxygen periods are separated by five men and their brakes.
I said: Then two treatments each 24 hours until symptoms resolve.
The computer wrote: Then to treatments each 24 hours until symptoms result.
I said: In cases of osteoradionecrosis, 30 sessions before surgery and 10 sessions after.
The computer wrote: In cases of Bastille radio and a crisis, 30 sessions before surgery and concessions after.
I said: Therapy of burns is to minimize edema, preserve marginally viable tissue, enhance host defenses, and promote wound closure.
The computer wrote: Fairer P F Burns is to minimize the team, preserves marginally viable tissue, enhance hoes defenses, and promote wound closure.
I said: Wounds (not obvious third degree) are best treated with topical antimicrobial agents, bedside debridement , wound care, and adjunctive HBOT.
The computer wrote: Wounds (not obvious third degree) are best treated with topical antimicrobial agents, bedside to breed and, wound care, and at adjunctive HBOT.
I said: Although atropine blocks bradycardia, its administration has no significant effect on vasoconstrictor response suggesting the response is not affected by cholinergic sympathetic vasodilator fibers.
The computer wrote: Although atropine blocks Bradycardia, it's administration has no significant effect on vasoconstrictor response suggesting the response is not affected by: Richard sympathetic then said I later rioters.
I said: Hematologic changes, including platelet microthrombi and hemoconcentration, occur in the post-capillary venules.
It wrote: He met the logic changes, including plate with Microsoft by and he no concentration, occur in the post-capillary the annuals.
I said: Patho physiologic changes are similar to those of the ischemic reperfusion profusion model i.e., depletion of ATP and production of xanthene oxidase, with subsequent generation of oxygen free radicals.
But it wrote: Path of physiologic changes are similar to those of the skin near where profusion model i.e., depletion of a tepee and production of Zen the knocks the days, with subsequent generation of oxygen free radicals.
I said: An additional important mechanism in tissue damage is the activation of polymorphonuclear cells (neutrofils) and endothelial adherence, an ongoing damage.
It wrote: An addition and import mechanism in tissue damage is the activation of polymorphic nuclear cells (which fills) and ethereal adherence, an ongoing damage.
I said: Alpha-excitatory receptors provide primary control of limb vasoconstriction , nullifying vasodilation by beta -inhibitory receptors. Finger vasoconstriction may be due to a neural reflex. It is absent in denervated or sympathectomized limbs .
The computer wrote: Alpha-excite to Tory receptors provide primary control of limp as though construction, nullifying vessel dilation by baited-inhibit Tory receptors. Finger Vasoconstriction may be due to a narrow reflex. It is absent in D enervated or sympathy victimized litmus.
I said: Sting rays cause tissue damage with their sharp tail.
It wrote: Sting rays cause tissue damage with their shirt tail.
I said: Emergency cases, such as carbon monoxide poisoning or severe arterial gas embolism, may only require one or two treatments. Where angiogenesis is the primary goal, 20 to 40 treatments may be needed.
It wrote: Emergency cases, such as carbon monoxide poisoning or several arterial gas and symbolism, the only require water to treatments. Where N.J. Genesis is the primary goal, 2240 treatments may be needed.
I said: Transcutaneous oximetry
It wrote: Trans detainee is ox symmetry
I said: Pulmonary oxygen toxicity: substernal chest pain, cough, and patchy atelectasis may occur.
It wrote: Pulmonary oxygen toxicity: some stern old chest pain, cough, and patchy at electives may occur.
I said: Possibility exists in patients previously receiving chemotherapy affecting the lungs, or in patients who are on 100 percent oxygen between HBOT .
It wrote: Possibility exists in patience previously receiving chemotherapy affecting the longs, or impatience moron 100 percent oxygen between H P O T.
Newer software versions are said to give better results, but transcription errors from human and computer operators still result in false patient summaries and prescriptions. As Churchy la Femme said, "I'd back a tax on rabbits too." Or was it, "I'd back attacks on rabbit stew?" Or was it . . .
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Television crime dramas often include a scene where time of death is predicted based on body temperature and cooling rates. Is this an accurate method?
After death, metabolic processes that make heat in the body stop. The body begins cooling. Cooling and cooling rates were first recorded in 1710, when English physician John Davey first used the new invention of the thermometer in a human body at autopsy. Davey’s experiments took place in the high heat of Malta, rendering measurements only good for that environment. Later pathologists who followed Davey’s published descriptions did not place the thermometer inside the body, but in the armpit. Publications of their inaccurate information of cooling became widely popularized and passed from school to school.
Cooling does not follow predictable time intervals as once thought. Cooling is often too imprecise to estimate time since death. It turns out that the widely held dogma that body temperature drops at a precise and steady rate of 1.6 degrees an hour (later rounded to 1.5 for ease of calculation) was never the case.
Inaccuracies and things that were never true have been found to be printed and reprinted in medical books, repeated by instructors who heard it from their teachers. Be careful of medical "facts" learned in school untested.
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It is not a mystery that several specific injuries come from too much time spent with the hip and spine bent forward. Hours a day, over months and years of sitting rounded forward, bring vertebrae together toward the front of the spinal column, slowly pressing the discs between them outward to the back, like squeezing the front of an old tube of toothpaste. Disc degeneration and herniation slowly result. The muscles that cross the front of the hip can become shortened until it is uncomfortable to stand or lie flat and straight. The front of the chest can round until round - posture feels normal and the rotator cuff rubs a little more raw with each lift of the arm. These are just three of several injuries from too much forward bending, also called flexion injury.
Someone with disc pain or other flexion injury doesn't need more flexion (forward bending). They need to reduce flexion and stretch the areas the other way. It is not unbalanced to give what is needed, not impose more of the cause of the problem. This becomes even more important with every passing year, as patterns and injuries become deep-rooted.
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