Category Archives: Health

MSG is why McDonald’s fries are so addictive

Posted on July 20, 2021 by | 7 comments

Sneaky bastards!

From Eat This, Not That, July 18, 2021:

[McDonald’s] fries are made of more than just Russet Burbank and Shepody potatoes—they also pack in vegetable oil (canola oil, corn oil, soybean oil, hydrogenated soybean oil, natural beef flavor), dextrose, sodium acid pyrophosphate, and salt. And the culprit that’s responsible for cultivating your addiction is the far-from-innocent natural beef flavor. McDonald’s discloses that this savory addition is mostly made up of hydrolyzed wheat and hydrolyzed milk.

While wheat and milk aren’t bad ingredients (unless you have an intolerance), hydrolyzing them—in a process where heat and chemicals break down the foods and produce MSG, which achieves extra appetizing flavors—poses a threat to your tummy. Besides for weight gain and weird allergy-type reactions, MSG also increases appetite by inhibiting your brain from registering that you’re satiated. In fact, one study found that giving laboratory rats MSG increased their food intake by an extra 40 percent!

From WebMD, Feb. 19, 2019:

Monosodium glutamate (MSG) . . . is a seasoning made from sodium and glutamate, an amino acid that’s found naturally in certain foods like tomatoes, soy sauce, and aged cheeses. Glutamate was discovered as a flavor enhancer in 1908 by a Japanese professor. . . . Glutamate is unique because it hits the fabled “fifth taste” called umami (Japanese for “delicious”), a decidedly savory and meaty flavor. The professor filed for a patent to produce MSG, and it became widely used to season food. . . .

[I]n the 1990s, the FDA asked an independent scientific group to investigate. The group concluded that MSG is safe, though they said some sensitive people might get short-term symptoms (like headache or drowsiness) if they consume 3 grams or more of MSG (a typical serving in food is less than .5 grams).

The FDA classifies MSG as “generally recognized as safe”, the same designation that ingredients like sugar and baking soda have. They say the body metabolizes MSG the same way it does the natural glutamate found in food. Also of note: The International Headache Society no longer includes MSG on their list of headache triggers.

~E

7 Comments

Posted in Health

Tagged ,

Test your balance!

Posted on July 11, 2021 by | 6 comments

As we age, maintaining balance becomes critical so we can stay steady and avoid falls. Falling is the leading cause of fatal and non-fatal injuries for older Americans. Falls threaten seniors’ safety and independence and generate enormous economic and personal costs. (National Council on Aging)

Some alarming statistics from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC):

  • As many as 1 in 4 Americans aged 65+ falls each year.
  • Every 11 seconds, an older adult is treated in the emergency room for a fall; every 19 minutes, an older adult dies from a fall.
  • Falls are the leading cause of fatal injury and the most common cause of nonfatal trauma-related hospital admissions among older adults.
  • Falls result in more than 2.8 million injuries treated in emergency departments annually, including over 800,000 hospitalizations and more than 27,000 deaths.
  • In 2015, the total cost of fall injuries was $50 billion. Medicare and Medicaid shouldered 75% of these costs.
  • The financial toll for older adult falls is expected to increase as the population ages and may reach $67.7 billion by 2020.

But falling is not an inevitable result of aging.

Through practical lifestyle adjustments, evidence-based falls prevention programs, and clinical-community partnerships, the number of falls among seniors can be substantially reduced.

Below are three videos on tests to assess your balance and risk of falling. If you’re not able to safely sit and stand on your own power, skip the tests.

(1) 10-SECOND BALANCE TEST:

In this video, fitness expert David Jack shows us how to do a quick balance check:

  • Stand up in open space, i.e., not against a wall or a piece of furniture.
  • Put your feet together, close your eyes, and balance.
  • Stand for 10 seconds.

Did you have a sense of anxiety or fear? Did you start to sway? That’s your brain telling you balance is something you need to work on.

2. 30-SECOND SIT-TO-STAND TEST:

How many times can you sit and stand from a chair in 30 seconds? In this video, David Jack explains how this quick—but important—test can give you clues about your lower-body strength and endurance.

You’ll need a regular, sturdy chair with a seat that’s about 17 inches high.

If you did 19 or more reps, that’s a sign your lower-body strength and endurance are above average.

(3) More Demanding Tests:

How did you do on the three video-tests?

If the results say you need to work on balance, pay attention! 

Having a strong lower body makes it more likely you can keep your balance and avoid falling. Thus, increasing the strength of your thigh, calf and hip muscles should increase your balance. There are balance exercises you can do to improve your stability and reduce your chances of falling. Go here for a video.

But simple things like walking and dancing can strengthen your lower body. A June 2017 report in Disability and Reabilitation tested this idea in older adults with limited mobility. Participants practiced line dancing twice a week for an hour. An untreated group served as the control. After just 8 weeks, the line dancers had greater leg strength and better balance than controls. Interestingly, they also walked faster and felt more mobile.

Stay strong!

~E

6 Comments

Posted in Health, safety

Tagged , , ,

18 of America’s 20 worst cities are run by Democrats

Posted on July 5, 2021 by | 4 comments

WalletHub compared the operating efficiency of 150 of the largest U.S. cities to determine which among them are managed best, based on a “Quality of Services” score made up of 38 metrics grouped into 6 service categories:

  1. Financial stability
  2. Education
  3. Health
  4. Safety
  5. Economy
  6. Infrastructure and Pollution

Each city’s “Quality of Services” score is then measured against the city’s per-capita budget. (To find out more about WalletHub’s methodology, go here.)

Source: WalletHub

No surprise to us, Los Angeles, CA (#134), Chicago, IL (#141), Oakland, CA (#144), Detroit, MI (#145), New York, NY (#148), San Francisco, CA (#149), and Washington, DC (#15o) are ranked among the worst — all governed by Democrats.

In fact, 18 of the 20 worst managed cities have Democrat mayors. The two exceptions are #146 Gulfport, TN (Republican mayor Billy Hewes) and #147 Chattanooga, TN (Independent mayor Tim Kelly).

But that fact won’t deter the voters of those cities to reelect Democrats, which is a sure indicator of their mental illness.

Here’s the list of the 150 cities, ranked from best (#1) to worst (#150):

Overall Rank (1=Best)  City ‘Quality of City Services’ Rank  ‘Total Budget per Capita’ Rank 
1 Nampa, ID 23 1
2 Boise, ID 4 3
3 Fort Wayne, IN 63 2
4 Nashua, NH 5 9
5 Lexington-Fayette, KY 44 6
6 Lincoln, NE 8 19
7 Durham, NC 25 11
8 Rapid City, SD 81 4
9 Las Cruces, NM 65 5
10 Virginia Beach, VA 2 36
11 Raleigh, NC 11 29
12 Missoula, MT 67 12
13 Oklahoma City, OK 88 8
14 Manchester, NH 29 20
15 Provo, UT 3 38
16 Sioux Falls, SD 31 21
17 Billings, MT 86 13
18 Madison, WI 6 42
19 Chesapeake, VA 17 34
20 Huntington Beach, CA 1 55
21 Louisville, KY 80 17
22 Greensboro, NC 57 23
23 Arlington, TX 28 31
24 Salem, OR 54 26
25 Mesa, AZ 58 25
26 Bismarck, ND 12 48
27 Charleston, SC 15 44
28 Columbus, GA 95 16
29 Cedar Rapids, IA 34 39
30 Warwick, RI 26 43
31 Albuquerque, NM 127 10
32 Tucson, AZ 111 14
33 Warren, MI 74 28
34 Huntington, WV 114 15
35 Aurora, IL 51 37
36 Phoenix, AZ 65 35
37 Grand Rapids, MI 33 47
38 Lewiston, ME 85 30
39 Tulsa, OK 110 22
40 Topeka, KS 76 40
41 Reno, NV 43 49
42 Worcester, MA 48 52
43 St. Petersburg, FL 42 54
44 Mobile, AL 96 32
45 Fort Worth, TX 56 53
46 El Paso, TX 64 50
47 Wichita, KS 124 24
48 Portland, ME 21 69
49 Corpus Christi, TX 99 41
50 Colorado Springs, CO 78 51
51 Baton Rouge, LA 129 27
52 Las Vegas, NV 49 61
53 Aurora, CO 79 56
54 Gary, IN 141 18
55 Fairbanks, AK 102 45
56 Des Moines, IA 53 62
57 Eugene, OR 38 71
58 Fort Smith, AR 123 33
59 Rutland, VT 59 67
60 Fargo, ND 35 79
61 Spokane, WA 60 68
62 San Diego, CA 7 97
63 Santa Ana, CA 39 81
64 Jackson, MS 148 7
65 Omaha, NE 27 86
66 Little Rock, AR 122 46
67 Hialeah, FL 55 78
68 Indianapolis, IN 93 60
69 Portland, OR 19 95
70 Boston, MA 14 100
71 Akron, OH 97 65
72 Montgomery, AL 119 58
73 Garland, TX 52 89
74 Salt Lake City, UT 16 106
75 Anchorage, AK 83 82
76 Tallahassee, FL 73 85
77 Fremont, CA 13 113
78 Houston, TX 100 73
79 Jacksonville, FL 109 70
80 Frederick, MD 22 108
81 Dayton, OH 101 74
82 Austin, TX 10 117
83 Columbia, SC 103 76
84 Dover, DE 120 64
85 Springfield, MA 121 63
86 Miami, FL 50 96
87 Casper, WY 104 80
88 Tampa, FL 40 101
89 Providence, RI 116 72
90 San Antonio, TX 47 103
91 St. Paul, MN 45 104
92 Columbus, OH 82 92
93 New Orleans, LA 136 57
94 San Jose, CA 20 121
95 Dallas, TX 89 93
96 Burlington, VT 32 114
97 Norfolk, VA 107 88
98 Charleston, WV 128 77
99 Bridgeport, CT 117 83
100 Richmond, VA 87 98
101 Kansas City, MO 112 91
102 Anaheim, CA 69 111
103 Cincinnati, OH 72 112
104 Fort Lauderdale, FL 41 120
105 Charlotte, NC 24 126
106 Toledo, OH 142 66
107 Orlando, FL 61 118
108 Bakersfield, CA 130 86
109 Shreveport, LA 147 59
110 Milwaukee, WI 126 90
111 Nashville, TN 105 105
112 Lubbock, TX 118 101
113 Knoxville, TN 46 130
114 Seattle, WA 9 140
115 Minneapolis, MN 37 133
116 Modesto, CA 108 109
117 Stockton, CA 145 75
118 Birmingham, AL 132 94
119 Syracuse, NY 84 123
120 Sacramento, CA 92 122
121 Pittsburgh, PA 68 129
122 Buffalo, NY 91 125
123 Riverside, CA 90 127
124 Atlanta, GA 77 132
125 Wilmington, DE 113 119
126 Fresno, CA 133 107
127 Long Beach, CA 62 139
128 Baltimore, MD 135 110
129 Cheyenne, WY 98 135
130 Denver, CO 71 141
131 Kansas City, KS 138 116
132 St. Louis, MO 149 84
133 Memphis, TN 143 115
134 Los Angeles, CA 75 143
135 New Haven, CT 137 124
136 Yonkers, NY 70 144
137 Philadelphia, PA 134 128
138 Rochester, NY 115 138
139 Tacoma, WA 106 142
140 Hartford, CT 144 131
141 Chicago, IL 140 136
142 Cleveland, OH 139 137
143 Flint, MI 146 134
144 Oakland, CA 94 147
145 Detroit, MI 150 99
146 Gulfport, MS 125 145
147 Chattanooga, TN 131 146
148 New York, NY 36 148
149 San Francisco, CA 18 149
150 Washington, DC 30 150

~E

4 Comments

Posted in Crime, Finances, Health, safety

Tagged , ,

Religious Americans are only group whose mental health improved during coronavirus pandemic

Posted on July 3, 2021 by | 3 comments

We have evidence from study after study of the beneficial effects of religious faith on one’s physical and mental health.

Here’s the latest.

In “Psychiatry Needs to Get Right with God,” for Scientific American, June 15, 2021, David H. Rosmarin, an associate professor at Harvard Medical School and director of the McLean Hospital Spirituality & Mental Health Program, writes:

In the past year, American mental health sank to the lowest point in history: Incidence of mental disorders increased by 50 percent, compared with before the pandemic, alcohol and other substance abuse surged, and young adults were more than twice as likely to seriously consider suicide than they were in 2018. Yet the only group to see improvements in mental health during the past year were those who attended religious services at least weekly (virtually or in-person): 46 percent report “excellent” mental health today versus 42 percent one year ago. […]

My own research has demonstrated that a belief in God is associated with significantly better treatment outcomes for acute psychiatric patients. And other laboratories have shown a connection between religious belief and the thickness of the brain’s cortex, which may help protect against depression.

~E

3 Comments

Posted in Christianity, COVID-19, Health, Science and Christianity

Tagged , ,

Against all odds: World’s most premature baby survives first year

Posted on June 22, 2021 by | 4 comments

Meet Richard Scott William Hutchinson who was born in June 2020. According to the Daily Mail, Richard weighed less than one pound (11.9 ounces) and was born at 21 weeks. He was so small he could fit in the palm of a hand.

The parents were told that baby Richard had no chance of survival.

Fast forward to June 5, 2021: Baby Richard just celebrated his first birthday!

Richard is now officially recognized by Guinness World Records as the world’s most premature baby to survive after birth, having been born 131 days premature.

During Richard’s first year of life, his parents Beth and Rick had many struggles to navigate, especially with the pandemic. From the the Daily Mail article:

“Rick and Beth traveled one hour every day from their home in Somerset, Wisconsin, to Minneapolis to visit their son.

‘The first month they weren’t even sure he was going to make it,’ Beth told Guinness. It was really hard. You know in the back of your mind that his odds weren’t great.’  

Richard slowly gained strength every day and, in December 2020, his parents were told he could go home after six months spent in the NICU. 

He is still on oxygen, is monitored with a pulse oximeter machine 24/7 and still requires some meals through a feeding tube, but he is making progress. ‘We are working on getting him off all of them, but it takes time. He has come a long way and is doing amazing,’ Beth said.

‘He is a very happy baby. Always has a smile on the adorable little face of his. His bright blue eyes and smile get me every time.”

Read this family’s whole story here.

So glad Baby Richard beat the odds!

DCG

4 Comments

Posted in God's creation, Health

Tagged , ,

Saturday Funny: Petition to deny Jeff Bezos spaceflight return to earth

Posted on June 19, 2021 by | 8 comments

Jeff Bezos (né Jorgensen) — the billionaire with odd-sized eyes, CEO and co-founder of the extremely lucrative Amazon.com, and owner of The Washington Post — recently announced that on July 20, he will travel to space on his company Blue Origin’s first passenger flight. The suborbital flight in the New Shepard will travel to an altitude of more than 340,000 feet. (Fox News)

This is the same billionaire Bezos who:

  • Like other billionaires (George Soros, Michael Bloomberg, Carl Icahn), paid nothing in federal income taxes. ProPublica discovered that in 2011, with a then-net worth of $18 billion, Bezos not only paid no federal income tax, he had the gall to file for and received a $4,000 tax credit for his children, although households with over $100,000 in joint income weren’t eligible to receive the credit. (yahoo!news)
  • Amazon’s obsessive focus on speed comes at a huge cost to its employees, who had to urinate in plastic bottles instead of taking restroom breaks. According to a report from the Strategic Organizing Center, a labor union coalition, Amazon has a much higher warehouse injury rate than its competitors:
    • There were 6.5 injuries per 100 full time employees at U.S. Amazon warehouses in 2020 compared to 4 injuries per 100 employees at all non-Amazon warehouses.
    • The Amazon injury rate was also more than twice as high as Walmart, its largest retail competitor.
    • Amazon workers are injured more frequently than elsewhere in the warehouse sector, they are also injured more severely. Last year, there were 5.9 serious injuries per 100 Amazon warehouse workers that resulted in them missing work completely, nearly 80% higher than the wider warehouse industry.

The above, and more, no doubt prompted Jose Ortiz to create an online petition to deny Bezos’ space flight from returning to Earth.

The “Petition to Not Allow Jeff Bezos Re-Entry to Earth” says:

Jeff Bezos is actually Lex Luthor, disguised as the supposed owner of a super successful online retail store. However, he’s actually an evil overlord hellbent on global domination.

As of the writing of this post, the petition has garnered 17,008 signatures. To sign, go here. LOL

~E

8 Comments

Posted in Funnies, Health, safety

Tagged , , ,

Hackers are trying to poison America’s water treatment plants

Posted on June 19, 2021 by | 3 comments

This is what Joe Biden’s proposed plan on rebuilding America’s infrastructure should address, instead of “climate change”.

Courtney Teague reports for Patch.com, June 18, 2021, that the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and National Security Agency recommended in July 2020 that operators of critical infrastructure take immediate action to safeguard against “foreign powers attempting to do harm to U.S. interests or retaliate for perceived U.S. aggression,” because more and more companies are shifting to remote operations and monitoring, outsource operations, and a decentralized workforce.

Already, two water treatment plants have experienced hackers trying to poison the water:

  1. NBC Bay Area reports that in January, 2021, the FBI investigated a hacker’s attempt to poison an unnamed San Francisco Bay Area water treatment plant. The hacker knew the username and password of a former employee’s TeamViewer account, which allowed them to remotely obtain access to the plant’s computers. The hacker deleted computer programs used to treat drinking water. The plant discovered it had been hacked the next day, then reinstalled the water treatment programs and changed its passwords. There were no reports of anyone being sickened by the water. NBC’s report marked the first time this incident was made public.
  2. The Washington Post reports that the same method was used in February, when an Oldsmar, Florida water plant operator watched as his computer mouse moved around his screen and opened programs, eventually raising the levels of sodium hydroxide, or lye, by more than 100 fold to a level that could cause illness and corrode pipes. As in the California water treatment plants, the hacker also used TeamViewer to gain access to the Florida employee’s screen. Fortunately, the employee quickly reversed the lye levels and water quality was not significantly impacted. Nobody was sickened.

~E

3 Comments

Posted in Health, safety

Tagged , ,

Friday Funnies!

Posted on June 11, 2021 by | 7 comments

~E

7 Comments

Posted in COVID-19, Funnies

Tagged

In October 2020, former Pfizer VP said no need for coronavirus vaccine because pandemic was already over

Posted on June 10, 2021 by | 6 comments

Pfizer is one of the manufacturers of the COVID-19 vaccines. So it is significant that last October, a former vice president of the pharmaceutical giant, Dr. Mike Yeadon, publicly said there was no need for the vaccine because the pandemic was already over.

Dr. Mike Yeadon

Mike Yeadon is a scientist, with a Ph. D. in respiratory pharmacology from the University of Surrey, UK, and a B. Sc. with joint honors in biochemistry and toxicology. He has spent over 30 years leading new medicines research in some of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies. At Pfizer, he served as Vice President and Chief Scientist for Allergy and Respiratory until he left Pfizer in 2011 and founded his own biotech company, Ziarco, which was sold to the world’s biggest drug company, Novartis, in 2017.

For a list of Dr. Yeadon’s research publications, go here.

This is what Dr. Yeadon wrote on October 16, 2020 that “current evidence” shows that in the UK “there will not be another large, national scale outbreak of COVID-19. Limited, regional outbreaks will be self-limiting and the pandemic is effectively over.” As a consequence:

There is absolutely no need for vaccines to extinguish the pandemic. I’ve never heard such nonsense talked about vaccines. You do not vaccinate people who aren’t at risk from a disease. You also don’t set about planning to vaccinate millions of fit and healthy people with a vaccine that hasn’t been extensively tested on human subjects. This much I know after 30 years in the pharmaceutical industry. Yet there are such moves afoot. One thought piece suggests that anyone who refuses vaccination should be subject to indefinite house arrest (Mello et al, 2020). In some countries, there is talk of “no jab, no job”. There have even been job adverts for openings in NHS [National Health Service] Wales for people to “oversee the vaccination of the entire population”. Any such proposals are not only completely unnecessary but if done using any kind of coercion at all, illegal. I would completely understand and would consider accepting early use of a vaccine only if done with fully informed consent and, even then, only if offered to the most vulnerable in our community. Other proposals have, to me, the whiff of evil about them and I will oppose them as vigorously as I have followed the pandemic so far.

I am not an epidemiologist. I’m not a mathematician, either. I do think, though, that I’m a highly experienced life scientist, who has held positions of significant responsibility in large organisations set up to identify and advance experimental medicines. I have had to make big decisions from time to time, using every ounce of experience, imagination, ingenuity and often found myself reading at speed into new areas, tentatively getting to grips with new concepts and knowledge. I’ve always been a collaborator, seeking to work with the most talented individuals I could. I’ve done this repeatedly across a more than 30-year career in new drug discovery. To this day, in notionally early retirement, I advise clients who are building new biotechnology companies, who are dealing with very diverse diseases and novel therapeutic approaches. I respectfully suggest that this background has ideally placed me to assess others’ propositions and assumptions and to bring well-grounded science to bear on complex issues, of which the SARS-CoV-2 is but one, albeit perhaps the most important work I’ve ever done.

See also:

~E

6 Comments

Posted in COVID-19, COVID-19 vaccine, Health

Tagged ,

Why some decline the COVID-19 vaccine

Posted on June 9, 2021 by | 1 comment

Some businesses, states (e.g., Oregon) and even countries are requiring vaccine passports or proof of you having been vaccinated against the COVID-19 Wuhan virus.

Many Americans, including health care professionals (in March 2021, as many as 48% of all health care workers had not taken the vaccine although they were eligible) refuse this vaccine for reasons that include the following:

(1) In the cases of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines that are most widely deployed in the United States, they really are not vaccines in the traditional sense because they do not inject DNA of the actual coronavirus which would stimulate your body’s immune system to produce antibodies. Instead, a wholly new method is employed by injecting molecules of a synthetic RNA (ribonucleic acid) into your body. Those molecules act as messengers (thus, mRNA) that cause an “adaptive immune response” that presumably would lead your body to identify and destroy the COVID-19 virus.

(2) There are known side-effects of being vaccinated, ranging from fairly mild effects like pain and swelling in the injection site, headaches, chills, fever and fatigue (CDC), to severe side-effects in allegedly “rare” cases, including “temporary” paralysis and allergic reactions that have led to death.

(3) Rushed into production, the vaccines did not undergo the usual protocol of lengthy human trials, which means possible long-term effects of these vaccines are unknown. That would explain why in the United States, the vaccine manufacturers are exempt from legal liability. From CNet:

At this point, it’s way too early to determine whether the COVID-19 vaccines cause long-term side effects, although experts are confident the vaccines are safe. The CDC, WHO, FDA and other health institutions will continue to monitor long-term effects and collect data as more people get vaccinated.

In other words, and to put it bluntly, vaccinated people are being used as guinea pigs in a massive medical experiment.

For people who refuse to receive this experimental “vaccine,” below are images of the front and back of the CDC COVID-19 Vaccination Record Card showing you’ve been vaccinated against the Wuhan virus. (H/t Elizabeth)

Instructions:

  • Resize the two images to 3″ x 4″.
  • Center and print the first image (front of vaccination card) on card-type paper.
  • Then flip the paper, center and print the second image (back of vaccination card).

Here is source link, where additional info can be found: https://s2underground.files.wordpress.com/2021/04/covid-vaccine-card-version-2.pdf

See also “Madness: Coronavirus-vaccinated are ditching friends who refuse to be vaccinated“.

~E

1 Comment

Posted in COVID-19, COVID-19 vaccine, Health

Tagged , ,