... a beginner at something

Medical Matrix

 

Jon Rappoport writes: I rerun this Starfield article every so often, just to push the wheel another turn. Each time I try to write a new introduction. Here is one.

After working as a reporter for 30 years, I’ve come to understand a few things about public reaction to the truth. People like to say they’re enlightened. They like to say they’ve seen through the major propaganda operations that are launched and are spinning all around us. But when you bulldoze a hole in a part of the Matrix where certain subjects are engraved on stone pillars, and when those subjects are firmly entrenched in the public mind as foundations of Reality, the usual response is silent shock.

Bicycling on good Spirits

yes, they are both good, my new almost unused 2008 HP Velotechnik Spirit recumbent bicycle on the left,and its 2003 sibling that carried me for some 19,000 km.


Want to know what I use it for? Mostly for commuting. Want to know why and how I got the second Spirit? As for why, well, among bicycles, this is a Rolls Royce.

Hospital stay with a fun part

A multi-night stay last week at Showa University Hospital (site is Japanese)  showed to me the awesome power, performance and fun of working with an organization positively aligned with

• requirements of the art and technology (accident surgery), almost no pain after day 2,
• well staffed and trained (5 patients per nurse by day, 15 by night), 
• focused and able to see immediate needs, (anyone nearby gives a hand), and
• fully aiming to accommodate the patient's interests in the shared final outcome.

I mean: out of the many points of asking informed consent and among hundreds of interactions within nine days only one of my requests was ignored, one was delayed and fixed without my need to follow up, and I heard one white lie, by the anaesthesiologist. Probably I was not clear enough that I had read up overnight on the procedure he preferred and told him I agreed he use it, yet he tried to make me believe he'd use the other less invasive way. Thanks to his prior explanation of side effects for informed consent it was so easy to tell.

Oh, why did I say multi-night stay above? Because the service (not the food) compared to star hotels. The care and personal interactions exceeded it. I saw a lot of concern, smiles, laughter even, and not a single grumpy or harried face. 

They have two kinds of meetings, 1. walking, as in the doctor's morning rounds. 2. standing in a loose circle, when the nurses hand over to the next shift. Patient records fully computerized, lots of checklists and dedicated execution, organized around patient's needs and wishes, with a smile. Their main feedback system is an Opinion/Risk/Proposal card used by staff, patients and visitors alike, and summarized in the internal monhtly newsletter.

 

If you have a choice, this is the kind of hospital I'd recommend.

 

Ah, yes, why was I there? Ski accident, compression fracture of femoral head, set and fixed with three screws now. Recuperating at home and on crutches until end of April.

For upcoming days, I plan on sharing part of my daily log.

Coffee Fog and the Morning After

Now I need a coffee!  Where does this thought come from? Do you want a coffee or does your body need it?  

Image: Roger Karlsson, © free-photo-gallery.org

Welcome to the wacky world of slightly addictive drugs. Think this is too harsh? Coffee not addictive?  How do you know?  Find out for yourself: stop reading, quit for 4 days and see what happens.

Still with me? Good. You probably want to know what qualifies me to point and pontificate.

Popular programmer's drink

OK, let me spill the beans.  Prompted by a painful shoulder affliction earlier this year, I had gone off coffee completely. And back on after I found it was rather not a causative factor. Surprisingly, sugar was. Not white sugar in brown coffee, as I prefer my caffeine hit straight black and unsweetened. This since the time I roasted my own and enjoyed euphorines said to be emanating from a brew just made from the fresh roast. 

In the office my changing coffee habit got a few colleagues remark they  never drink coffee. To me this was motivation to stay off for a while only to get back on after a too short night or while jetlagged.  On and off multiple times brought clarity as to what really are  "coffeeeffects" on my body. 

Coming clean takes three days or so

Withdrawal feels surprisingly close to too short a night or being jetlagged. The body needs more sleep, yet gets not fully out of the fog until three nights after, even with my regular exercise and lots of water. On day three or four the morning was again bright and felt full of beans. 

A single cup after a caffeine-free week

on a Friday afternoon led to a very pronounced fogginess the next morning, as if sleep deprived - and I was not. It took a 30 km vigorous bicyce ride to clear out the fog and lose the need for a coffee.

A single cup a day may be harmless

Depending on which study you you trust, coffee may be anything from beneficial in moderation to an addictive  drug. I am not here to argue with scientific findings, especially as disclosing conflict of interest from accepting payment is not the broad norm it should be in biochemical and pharmaceutical research. What I can say is that even with the best of intentions a single cup a day leads me to 2, 3, 4 on the following days - right back into addiction. I admit being a social coffee drinker. Harmless as it may be it is annoying to be at the call of habit without having a workable antidote. 

What do you do to undo caffeine addiction and avoid the fog?

Food could be defined as "Choices made for you!" :-)

As a German, living in Japan, I may have an untypically wide array of choices. I could be adding my view on something you can easily research for yourself (Japanese cuisine, for example, or German cooking). If this whets your appetite, it might be leaving you where you live with a partial list of hard-to-get foods.  So I don't do the expected marveling about food choices.

Instead, I add my view on what may be worth NOT eating, or eating much less of, leaving you with the great choice of all the other raw foods or just slightly processed more healthy alternatives you can get. Fair deal? Read on.

Food could be defined as "Choices made for you!" :-)

Mary Louise said this, in response to Randell posting in a closed social media circle  about the book

The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite

by David A. Kessler.  Here he is, to introduce pertinent points by video.

It is amazing indeed what food can do for you, or against you, once you find out what to eat and what to cut. I speak from recent subjective experience, painful until the removal of one massively marketed food additive allowed the healing to start.

I had to cut refined sugar, sucrose. More than a month now and the torn muscles are almost fully healed while they did not for some painful three months before.

See why food as the topic for the 2009 WBSD (World Blog Surf Day) intrigues me.

I believe Kessler is right in his basic take about the frequent folly of feasting on factory food. Sensing ruthless business intentions, I ask:

Is convenience food a product of addiction engineering for profits?

This suspicion was fueled by brazen disclosures such as from Ajinomoto in its patents mentioning MSG (Monosodium Glutamate). For example check out US patent

5,955,124

Process for producing a condiment

2. Discussion of the Background

Extracts of livestock meats and bones thereof have previously been used for  various condiments or bases thereof and have wide application. However, these extracts are limited both in complexity of flavor and strength. Moreover, extracts obtained from chickens and pigs generally have unpleasant odors. Beef extract has been used in the past for many condiments, but an extract of good quality cannot be easily obtained and is expensive. Thus, other extracts including vegetable extracts, components such as monosodium glutamate (MSG) and inosine monophosphate (IMP), sugars, and many other condiments and spices are usually added and used.

That amounts to claiming this substance is, as earlier patents put it, useful to "mask a bad taste" and to improve the taste sensation, by adding the elusive "umami". This translates to - eating more, selling more! Ever had this bag of potato chips and could not stop snacking until it was empty? Check those labels now. I do, and thoroughly.

Years ago, NHK Japanese national TV demonstrated one measurable effect of MSG was stimulating specific areas of the brain into seven- to ten-fold of their regular activity levels. That made me think is reason enough to explain the 20-30% of us suffering from China restaurant syndrome headaches or worse, caused by MSG being poisoning to their metabolism. Once found out, and it took me decades, I can now avoid this, thanks to strict fool labeling laws in Japan. 

Think I am being far off the mainstream? You are certainly entitled to enjoy your opinion, but then I am not alone. Seth Godin said in a recent TED interview:

If you were a James Bond villain, how would you take over the world? -- Andrew Noseworthy

I'd release a pheromone that increases the fear that people have about doing great things. It would only increase it by 3%, but that would be enough to wipe out most competition. I'm convinced someone is already doing this, by the way.

Seems logical to me that fast factory food composition has side effects not declared in the Nutrition Facts, such as contributing to bingeing, overweight, obesity and attendant feelings of self-hate only quenched by more - you guessed it - unhealthy "comfort" foods. (This statement has not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.)

But wait.

Before pointing a finger at the fattening (its customers and its wallets)  food industry, let's realize they just make more of what we buy more. Look where the remaining three fingers are pointing. Despite colorful seductive ads pushing emotional buttons, and whether addiction-engineered or not, the only one to overcome a food temptation or the likes of a sugar addiction is the one reading this.  I wrote this for you and only you. How about going foodie today?

Disclosure: I have not read Kessler's "The End of Overeating". I do not recommend for or against it. You determine whether this book or any of the insights I share is right for you or for your friends. This latter point would not change even after I read the book. If you are griping about exploring what looks like a book review only to find it isn't -  stop it. If you read all the way to here, you are either genuinely interested in this topic or you sensed way earlier this was not what you were after but kept reading anyway. Do you usually approach life like that?

Check out the next WBSD blog: Czaroma

WBSD link list

World Blog Surfing Day is a loving co-creation, among others with Anastasia Ashman, an American cultural producer based in Istanbul, who is the creator of Expat Harem, the anthology by foreign women about modern Turkey. Her Tweetstream is named Thandelike. She focuses on women, travel and history and she shares resources for writers/travelers, expats, Turkophiles & culturati of all stripes.

A serious shoulder finally better: water, supplements and my exercise.

This is part two of a four-months painful shoulder saga that started in 2008-12 with injury from doing Nintendo Wii Sports.

Do not read further if you have a medical condition. Seek professional help for that. I am only relaying what worked for me. Your case may be different, I don't even know that and I don't care. This report is entirely subjective. Read and apply at your own risk. Ahh, but it worked well for me.

Nintendo Wii Sports a health hazard?

Not another case of remote controls flying wiiinjury style. This is about how easily you can inflict an injury upon yourself and end up in pain that calls for a doctor to kill it. Or something better.

I did both. Went through a bit of doctoring and learned of surgery being the last resort. Opted to find out for myself how to heal.  And I did. Just wish I had found some of the stuff earlier. To make it easier for you or someone you may wish to help, here  is part 1 of my story. I waited until I was sure I could report a happy end. 

Shoulder Pain!

On 2009 March 02, I could not go to work because I had to see the doctor a second time after a very painful right shoulder kept me awake most of the night. You may not wish to let it come so far that you need such a corticosteroid injection to relieve an inflammation in the shoulder joint. Man - I was in tears from pain for close to an hour until the painkiller started working. How could this happen?

Wii Sports, easy to overdo

I am in good health, enjoy regular bicycling (weather permitting), and when we bought this family game for Christmas, I knew about some of the health risks associated with the Wii console (search "Wii sports injury"). The game I played most was "Mariokart", which is not really physical exercise. Yet, I had given up on it, because it made my shoulder feel sore, in the end even after just on round. And  the kids almost always beat me at the races.

We have two other Wii games, "Fit", which the aficionados know is very mild Yoga-type exercise, and "Sports", which includes tennis and baseball. In December I had tried swinging that virtual baseball bat, not even a full game, and that is my memory of the first time I got sore shoulder from the Nintendo Wii. It went away in a day or so, but in the weeks following, I experienced recurring discomfort and a slow onset of shoulder pain which started to affect my work and personal life. Yet, it was bearable and got better every now and then, e.g. from drinking more water, walking for 20 minutes or doing  Codman's exercise.

Seeking professional care

The first time I saw the doctor for shoulder pain was mid-February. The pain had slowly developed throughout January and the pain-free positions had gotten fewer. By X-ray he diagnosed calcifying tendonitis,  prescribed  pain-relief shoulder patches, and when asked whether I could go skiing for three days, he said yes. Indeed the mild exercise relieved symptoms, so did the warm Onsen water, until later at night I found it had made the inflammation worse. Back from the ski trip I went to the sports clinic my wife goes to, for a thorough massage. Felt fine, but but that also made the inflammation  worse. So back to the doc and despite the wall-climbing pain that the injection caused  I was happy that it worked. Yet, as web sources and the doc told me, not likely to help for more than a week or two, and then we had may be another shot before it was going to be invasive treatment or surgery. I did not want that and will share later what worked for me.

Step zero: prevent injury

Lesson learned: Do warm-up and stretching exercises before engaging in vigorous exercise or in movement your body is not used to. Building muscles takes more time. Stop immediately when there is discomfort! (yet that may be way too late, as my example shows). The Nintendo Wii Sports Games come with such kind of warning in the manual, but not on-screen. And I did stop upon discomfort, but that does not replace a competent trainer and the need for warm-up exercise. So you are on your own.

Upcoming: More on the treatment effects, what the doc had overlooked and what finally worked for me. (No, it was not the product offer behind the helpful information on calcifying tendonitis, above).