Google image search for scabies. Do not want.

It appears that members of the University of Minnesota Ballroom Dance Club have been dancing with scabies, and therefore ballroom classes were canceled at Bierman Field Athletic Building this week after one member received the disturbing diagnosis.

Jessica Lussenhop’s post tells us, “Scabies are a kind of mite that tunnel into the skin, and cause itching and some pretty grody-looking rashes.”

This tiny parasite wreaked itself into the lives of a family over the summer 2010 as well, as I learned when I read about Taylor Rios and her little girl, age 1.  There were several medical staff members to thank by the time this ordeal was diagnosed and treated, because scabies is not what is necessarily expected when a quick spreading rash shows up during the summer season:

Ms. Rios made her acknowledgements in her 7/29/10 post: “I would also like to thank Dr. Coldwell at Hill Country Memorial Hospital in Fredericksburg, Texas for not giving up on finding the cause of this rash. Many doctors would have shrugged and sent her him with benadryl.  Dr. Coldwell kept at it for 2-3 hours searching for the answer. Thank you so much, Dr. Coldwell and Hill Country Memorial Hospital for your hard work, persistence, and dedication.”

Welcome! That’s what we all love to say to our family and friends as they enter our doors this holiday season. We also love to hear it when we reach our destination and finally get together after who knows how long. I haven’t seen my brother and his wife since last December, so I know it will be totally cool to catch up on where we’ve been all of 2009. But we have a heritage of heart disease in the family, and this could be a cloud over the festivities unless we de-stress, and stay smart as the years rush by. I know I don’t want 2010- or any year- to bring sudden bad news, when simply paying attention to a few good habits could tip the scales the healthy way.

Mary Benton says her Emergency Department Prepares to See Higher Number of Heart Attacks on Christmas, New Year’s

In a national study published in Circulation, researchers at the University of California at San Diego and Tufts University School of Medicine found that there are 5 percent more heart-related deaths during the holiday season. The biggest days of the year for heart attacks are Christmas Day, Dec. 26 and New Year’s Day.

Doc Childre and Deborah Rozman Ph.D. blogged last week that reduced budgets can mean stressing more this year over how much to spend on gifts and what to get.  I’ll implement this tool as they suggested in the post:

Tool: Notice and Ease

Step 1: Notice and admit what you’re feeling.
Step 2: Try and name the feeling.
Step 3: Tell yourself to e-a-s-e- as you gently focus your attention in the area of the heart, relax as you breathe, and e-a-s-e- the stress out.

Allopathic medicine spilled over into the economic sphere when employers and insurance companies realized how predictive genetic testing is for the probability of serious disease. However, recently, the politicals got involved into economics by legislating an ignore button on the matter. [Not to be confused with the easy button.]

A conference is scheduled on the topic next week at the The Society for Genomics Policy and Population Health (SGPPH) Spring Conference will take place on Thursday 8 May 2008 at the Birmingham Women’s Health Care NHS Trust, Edgbaston, Birmingham (UK). The speakers’ topics are building upon the theme of a previous conference which examined genetic susceptibility testing.  The last year has seen tremendous progress in our understanding of the genetics of common diseases. Recent findings from the new wave of genome-wide association studies are being rapidly translated into commercial testing services in Europe and the United States, with many new tests being offered direct-to-consumer over the internet. This one-day conference will review scientific progress in this area and consider the policy issues raised by this new generation of susceptibility tests, with a particular emphasis on the regulation of consumer genetics.

The aim of the Society for Genomics, Policy and Population Health is to provide a forum for those with an interest in the impact of genetic and molecular science on population health, and puts focus on the policy and the ethical, legal and social issues raised by genomic and post-genomic science and technologies.

National DNA Day is a unique day when students, teachers and the public can learn more about genetics and genomics! It was created to commemorate the completion of the Human Genome Project in April 2003, and the discovery of DNA’s double helix.

Natural treatments for the common cold

• Zinc: Research has shown that by giving zinc lozenges the duration of the cold can be reduced and severity can also be decreased.

• Echinacea: Commonly called Purple coneflower, echinacea can also reduce the duration of illness and decrease the severity of cough, headache, and nasal congestion.

• Garlic: A study found that a daily garlic supplement containing allicin, a purified component of garlic considered to be the major biologically active agent produced by the plant, reduced the risk of catching a cold by more than half.

• Vitamins: Different studies have found that large doses of vitamin C may reduce the duration of a cold.

• Chicken soup and fluids: It has been used for treating common colds at least since the 12th century. It may really help. The heat, fluid, and salt may help you fight the infection.

• Get plenty of rest and drink lots of fluids.

I’m a smoker, I don’t always wash my hands before or after handling food or other sources of bacteria, and I take care of my friends when they’re sick without gloves or a mask – I do just about everything “wrong” in terms of not getting sick…

And yet, I can’t remember the last time I had a cold or the flu. It was probably something like 5 years ago, but I can’t be sure.

Although, last week my boyfriend had a massive case of food poisoning for 6 days. The day after he came down with it, I prayed at the porcelain god once (as compared to his hourly “confessions”), slept most of the day, and felt fine after that.

Here’s my secret: I don’t take medicine.

The Problem With Medicine

Suppression of the common cold through medication is not a cure. Suppression temporarily makes the symptoms go away but since the cause is not removed the symptoms usually return at a later date as a more sever symptom. – Brannick Clinic of Natural Medicine

It is all too easy to forget that doctors and medicine are best suited to treat emergencies. Having a cold is not an emergency. However, having a fever of 103 for more than an hour is an emergency, and well worth the risk of whatever that chemical cocktail will do to you later on.

Otherwise, throw out that NyQuil, DayQuil, and Alkaseltzer Cold & Flu. You’re not doing yourself any favors by inhibiting the body’s battle against your infection.

You have a fever because the body is trying to burn it out. You are sneezing with a runny nose because the body is trying to expel it. You feel achy and tired because you should be sleeping.

Taking a chemical cocktail to suppress these symptoms just means you’re not burning it out, you’re not expelling it, and you’re not giving your body ample opportunity to heal.

Building a Better Immune System

My seemingly dumb luck with avoiding disease didn’t happen overnight. I built this immune system from the ground up – the long, hard, and correct way.

Think about it this way. How did you get to be so good at your best skill? Did you have someone else do it for you all the time (i.e. take medicine to suppress symptoms), or did you get hands-on experience with just about every possible situation (i.e. let your immune system handle it)?

You know how most people say “I have a cold, you better stay away from me.” I’m not afraid of sneezing, coughing, Pee Wee Herman sound-alikes – I want my immune system to get all the practice it can!

Next time we’ll have a look at some natural remedies to nip the problem at the bud and make sure you never get sick again.

You might have seen the article in your local paper last week: AP Probe Finds Drugs in Drinking Water or Drugs in Your Drinking Water. The Associated Press National Investigative Team found pain killers, hormones, psychotropics, bronchial dilators, antibiotics, and even veterinary medications in 24 major metropolitan areas out of only 28 water providers tested (although 62 were contacted). Some of the more common drugs were ibuprofen, aspirin, caffeine, nicotine and Salinomycin (a growth hormone for farm animals), with 56 pharmaceutical chemicals found in Philadelphia’s water supply. More than 41 million Americans from Louisville to Detroit to Northern New Jersey are effected by the waters tested.

“Members of the AP National Investigative Team reviewed hundreds of scientific reports, analyzed federal drinking water databases, visited environmental study sites and treatment plants and interviewed more than 230 officials, academics and scientists.” AP

And if you thought bottled water was any safer, you ought to read this article. There is no legal standard for testing for bottled water. Luckily, the amounts of these chemicals found in the water were measured in parts per billion. The EPA’s Bottle Water Basics is a helpful guide to buying clean water. To ensure pure water in your home you could invest in a very fine filter for your faucet, buy your water in 5 gallon jugs from a water store (my family uses The Pure Water Shop), or collect and purify your own rainwater. When it comes to disposing of medication, put them in a plastic bag with your coffee ground or kitty litter. Both absorb the medication’s chemicals and prevent them leaking into groundwater.

I was born and raised in Florida – the lightning, and (may as well be) mosquito capital of the world – but rarely has a mosquito dared come close to me. My brother and sister however, fresh and sweet from Illinois, are apparently irresistible.

Am I lucky? …nah. I just have bad breath.

Making an effort to repel mosquitoes the natural way is far better than the alternative – such as mosquito borne disease and chemical repellent side effects.

Unfortunately: most of the stuff they sell in stores is made to fail. Fortunately: you’re about thirty seconds from knowing what does work, but doesn’t harm you.

Garlic – the famed natural remedy for mosquitoes – certainly isn’t the only solution, and definitely isn’t the end-all be-all to natural mosquito repellents. However, if you eat garlic on a fairly regular basis, say three to five times a week or more, keeping mosquitoes away will be much easier.

Although garlic is the only way I use to repel mosquitoes, and eating it almost daily has worked very well for me, not all mosquitoes are turned off by garlic. Hence the 3 bites I’ve gotten in my entire lifetime.

Nevertheless, here are some useful bites from the ‘net to help you have a mosquito-free summer:

Harmless Mosquito Repellents

• Sixwise.com is an excellent resource, with detailed articles on effective natural ways to keep pests at bay, which pests you should really worry about, and things everyone should know about chemical pesticides.

• An About.com article has some of the most practical tips for repelling mosquitoes I’ve seen yet, with one very important section on what attracts mosquitoes. Before you buy that citronella candle, know this – “A burning candle or other fire is another source of carbon dioxide” – which actually attracts mosquitoes.

• A much better alternative, use natural plants, including the citronella plant for repelling mosquitoes.

• For hard-core herbalists – natural recipes for mosquito repellents.

• Here’s a few great, but strange, tips for repelling mosquitoes from around the world.

And last but not least, a reminder to be careful where you get your advice:

Although this guy seems to realize DEET is harmful, his first recommendation is to use fabric softener to repel mosquitoes – and on children no less! Sixwise.com to the rescue with the details on toxic dangers of fabric softener and dryer sheets.

I’m sure there’s even still plenty of other ways people repel mosquitoes around the world. What have you heard? How do you keep mosquitoes from biting?

(I just ran across this really interesting tidbit – maybe I am just that lucky.)

It’s that time of year– when New Year’s Resolutions unfortunately start to tarnish in their appeal. But I have an inspiring report on a serious way to get moving while helping yourself get/stay healthy like you may have resolved to do a few weeks ago at the beginning of January AND helping others at the same time.

If we all lived like this, maybe we could even eliminate entropy!

This humanitarian project is like the original Iditarod Trail race to deliver essential medicine to a remote locale. But instead of being cold, this new project races in the heat of the continent of Africa. Barry Coleman and Andrea Coleman, a British husband-and-wife team, “saddled up” motorbikes, which are perfectly suited for travel in the harsh African landscape, where roads are often practically impassable or nonexistent. In a few years, the Riders for Health project took on larger tasks to meet the medical needs of rural Africa.

What does the project say about itself? “We are working to make sure all health workers in Africa have access to reliable transportation so they can reach the most isolated and vulnerable people with regular and predictable health care.”

What did the Times (UK) say about Riders for Health? YouTube features this story showing some of the workers, riders and clients. Riders for Health trains doctors, nurses and health workers to ride motorbikes safely and has developed a system for self-sufficiency within each locally-run program module. The ‘preventative maintenance’ system maintains the bikes in Africa’s harsh environment.

Fast facts about Riders for Health

* Health care can be delivered to five times more people by motorcycle than on foot.

* A 21 per cent decline in malaria deaths has been measured in areas where all health workers are mobile. Riders prevent the motorcycles from ever breaking down. So communities are reached, day in day out, with bed nets and curative medicine.

* People are almost certain to die in rural Africa if they are seriously ill and live more than 8 miles from a hospital or clinic because of lack of transport

* Motorcycles and ambulances managed by Riders increase a vehicle’s life span by 300 per cent in the harsh conditions of Africa.

* Reliable access to health care means more people are reached per £1 and fewer people die of easily preventable and curable disease.

* Men, women and children in remote rural communities will see a health worker every week if the health worker has a motorbike. That means health workers can visit many more patients, hold mobile clinics in far flung villages and crucially, offer preventative treatment

Sure, we make decisions large and small day by day, even moment by moment. A coin toss? If it is, the best advice is to remember to call heads, according to Dr. Randy Pausch. For Dr. Pausch of The Alice Project/Carnegie Mellon fame, the decision was made for him when he was diagnosed more than a year ago with pancreatic cancer (adenocarcinoma).

Summary: Late in the summer of 2006, I started having some unusual symptoms, culminating with jaudice. Scans revealed it was pancreatic cancer. At this time, my wife Jai and I had a 4 year old, a 2 year old, and a three month old baby.

The University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI) and the team there, together with Dr. Pausch himself, has put this devastating diagnosis on notice: the news according to the blog is that for now, palliative chemo is WORKING!!!! [Emphasis Dr. Pausch's] Obviously, guarded optimism is what the Pausch family is facing during the next weeks and months as he battles this terminal medical condition.

If you wish to learn more about the value of time — and the point is that we may be good at valuing money, but not as skilled at valuing our time — from a person who has something to say about the topic, please consider viewing Dr. Pausch’s Time Management lecture at Google video.

Be well.