Caught off guard, sickened, and tempted...way tempted.

Type in the word 'obesity' on the Chicago Tribune's website and 10 pages worth of material becomes immediately available to the reader. Articles ranging from a pill that fights obesity to the way obesity campaigns should not shame a child all point out the fact that there is a problem that affects an enormous amount of people around the world. In 2008 the CDC reported that in the city of Chicago 1 out of every 4 adults were considered obese according to body mass indexes (stat taken from the website hispanicallyspeakingnews.com in an article published April 4, 2011). According to many BMI figures I am considered obese so I don't always agree with statistics but the point I am trying to make is that there are definitely health-related problems and one's diet is a major issue. A walk through the Loop at lunchtime is evidence enough. The amount of articles published by the Tribune, just in the last month, that deal with diet, obesity, diabetes, and other similar issues is overwhelming. So I found the front page of today's Good Eating section in the print edition rather disturbing and even dangerous. The article about poundcake and all the suggestions of ways to use it is a careless misstep by the powers that be at the newspaper. I thought high-brow suggestions of affordable wines that cost over twenty dollars in a tragic economy with exorbitant unemployment rates was ludicrous but today's article takes the cake...tee effing hee.

I am no dietician but does poundcake offer anything of nutritional value to a human being unless said human being is attempting to fight off freezing cold temperatures without a winter coat? Perhaps I might step out on the very end of a flimsy ice-covered limb and go ahead and state that poundcake is not a healthy subject to write about on page one of Good Eating. My history at devouring all forms of unhealthy food items and the results is well-documented in my family scrapbook. Poundcake played a starring role during the dessert portion of family gatherings at the dining-room table. To combat the effects rendered by poundcake I had to muster up a lot of energy then put my butt in my Buick and drive
that car to the YMCA. I know first hand what can happen and I found this out way before society fell apart and everything started to really suck, like it does now, if you aren't party of the 1%ers. For some reason it seems even harder in contemporary society to combat everything that is unhealthy, especially eating. I think the main reason is that eating healthy is much more expensive but that is a whole other issue. Time to get back to the fools that the Tribune Company hires and pays salaries to...

The poundcake article points out that bread does not really do as much for certain dishes as poundcake does. Such dishes that could use a little more umph to them by adding poundcake are: rum balls, french toast, apple charlotte, croutons, and toad in the hole. None of the items listed do anyone's waistline any good and adding poundcake to them is one of the most irresponsible suggestions I have ever come across in a newspaper.

Reading the directions of how to make these recipes was like a how-to book on how to ruin yourself. "Cut thin slices of poundcake and butter them or dip in melted butter"..."dunk 1/2-inch-thick slices of poundcake in egg mixture and fry in butter"..."fry the slice and the hole in butter or, better yet, bacon fat" ...are all quotes from the article written by the brilliant James P. DeWan. My favorite quote comes from one of the headlines: "When good isn't good enough, use this classic dessert (and break the bread habit) to build unexpected delights." Break the bread habit would only be a good suggestion if the alternative was using a piece of Romane lettuce.

Healthy eating is not an issue that needs any competition. Sweet treats are attractive enough as they are. Who doesn't think about ice cream, M and Ms, and chocolate chip cookies? I think about ice cream, more than sex and that is why I cannot keep a gallon of Breyers Mint Chocolate Chip in the freezer to last a week; it lasts only one sitting. The general public does not need any help creating those cravings for artery-clogging indulgences. In moderation there is nothing wrong with sweet rewards but maintaining moderation in most anything unhealthy, especially things that taste like heaven, often proves to be very difficult. Publishing an article about poundcake front and center on page one is irresponsible reporting and editing. Adding pictures of the dishes makes me wonder if Mr. DeWan is actually trying to bring this country down using incendiary tactics.

I cannot imagine how the First Lady might react reading this article from her hometown newspaper (which is probably why the Tribune printed it). Her campaign to fight childhood obesity should be applauded and backed at every opportunity; even by right-leaning periodicals. Below is a link to her website to combat any talk of poundcake and other sweets:

http://www.letsmove.gov/

The only safe thing to take away from this lack of discretion by the Tribune is the fact that nobody reads the print edition anymore. I had a hard time finding the poundcake article online. Bravo for that, Tribune.

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Which is the best country to practice as a doctor ?

Many doctors are actually at a cross road as regards where to practice...Having sacrificed so much, studying to become a doctor,choosing the best country to practice then becomes a crucial subject.    
However,doing a direct comparison of remuneration across different countries is tricky because the same salary may allow for different standards of living in different places.
But here are two possible ways to think about these comparisons, taken from a 2007 Congressional Research Service report.
One way to compare cross-country data is to adjust the salaries for purchasing power parity — that is, adjusting the numbers so that $1,000 of salary buys the same amount of goods and services in every country, providing a general sense of a physician’s standard of living in each nation.
These numbers are in the second, fourth and sixth columns of the chart below.
They show that American general practitioners and nurses earn more than their counterparts in other developed countries, and American specialist are close to the top of the pack.

Source: Congressional Research Service (CRS) analysis of Remuneration of Health Professions, OECD Health Data 2006 (October 2006), available at [http://www.ecosante.fr/OCDEENG/70.html]. Sorted by specialists’ compensation. Amounts are adjusted using U.S. dollar purchasing power
parities. Amounts from previous years are trended up to 2004 dollars using the annualized Bureau of
Labor Statistics Employment Cost Index for wages and salaries of health services workers in private
industry. It is not known whether wage growth in health professions in other countries was similar to
that in the United States. Amounts are from previous years for 10 countries: data for Australia,
Canada, Denmark (for specialists and nurses), Finland (for nurses), and the Netherlands are from
2003; data for Belgium (for specialists), Denmark (for general practitioners), New Zealand (for
nurses), and Sweden are from 2002; data for Switzerland and the United States (for specialists and
general practitioners) are from 2001; and data for Belgium (for general practitioners) and the United
States (for nurses) are from 2000. Ratios of salaries to GDP per capita reflect the year the data was
collected and are not adjusted for inflation. For countries that have both self-employed and salaried
professionals in a given field, the amount presented here is the higher of the two salaries. Four
countries have both salaried and self-employed specialists: the Czech Republic (where compensation
is $29,484 for salaried and $34,852 for self-employed specialists), Greece ($67,119 and $64,782), the
Netherlands ($130,911 and $252,727), and the United States ($170,300 and $229,500). One country
has both salaried and self-employed general practitioners: in the United States, salaried general
practitioners earn $134,600, compared with $154,200 if self-employed. All nurses are salaried among
this data.

Another way is look at how a doctor’s salary compares to the average national income in that doctor’s country — that is, gross domestic product per capita. These numbers are in the third column, fifth and seventh columns of the chart.
As a country’s wealth rises, so should doctors’ pay. But even accounting for this trend, the United States pays doctors more than its wealth would predict:

According to this model, the 2007 report says, “The U.S. position above the trendline indicates that specialists are paid approximately $50,000 more than would be predicted by the high U.S. GDP. General practitioners are paid roughly $30,000 more than the U.S. GDP would predict, and nurses are paid $8,000 more.”
But it’s important to keep in mind, the report notes, that health care professionals in other O.E.C.D. countries pay much less (if anything) for their medical educations than do their American counterparts. In other words, doctors and nurses in the rest of the industrialized world start their medical careers with much less student loan debt compared to medical graduates in the United States.

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Cure for Alzheimer's disease : An amazing research underway !

There is probably some good news for several millions of elderly people whose life have been miserably hunted by amyloid plaque forming disease.Here is an interesting piece on that.....................................

Destructive plaques found in the brains of Alzheimer's patients have been rapidly cleared by researchers testing a cancer drug on mice.

The US study, published in the journal Science, reported the plaques were broken down at "unprecedented" speed.
Tests also showed an improvement in some brain function.
Specialists said the results were promising, but warned that successful drugs in mice often failed to work in people.
The exact cause of Alzheimer's remains unknown, but one of the leading theories involves the formation of clumps of a protein called beta-amyloid. These damage and kill brain cells, eventually resulting in memory problems and the inability to think clearly.
Clearing protein plaques is a major focus of Alzheimer's research and drugs are already being tested in human clinical trials.
In the body, the role of removing beta-amyloid falls to apolipoprotein E - or ApoE. However, people have different versions of the protein. Having the ApoE4 genetic variant is one of the biggest risk factors for developing the disease.
Helping hand Scientists at the Case Western Reserve University in Ohio were investigating ways of boosting levels of ApoE, which in theory should reduce levels of beta-amyloid.
They tested bexarotene, which has been approved for use to treat cancers in the skin, on mice with an illness similar to Alzheimer's.

Plaques, in brown, form around brain cells, in blue, which kills parts of the brain

After one dose in young mice, the levels of beta-amyloid in the brain were "rapidly lowered" within six hours and a 25% reduction was sustained for 70 hours.
In older mice with established amyloid plaques, seven days of treatment halved the number of plaques in the brain.
The study said there were improvements in brain function after treatment, in nest building, maze performance and remembering electrical shocks.
Researchers Paige Cramer said: "This is an unprecedented finding. Previously, the best existing treatment for Alzheimer's disease in mice required several months to reduce plaque in the brain."
In people? The research is at a very early stage, and drugs often do not make the leap from animal experiment to human treatment.
Fellow researcher Prof Gary Landreth said the study was "particularly exciting and rewarding" and held the "potential promise of a therapy for Alzheimer's disease".
However, he stressed that the drug had been tested in only three "mouse models" which simulate the early stages of the disease and are not Alzheimer's.

Continue reading the main story

Alzheimer's disease

• Alzheimer's disease is the most common cause of dementia
• Symptoms include loss of memory, mood changes, and problems with communication and reasoning
• No one single factor has been identified as a cause for Alzheimer's disease - a combination of factors, including age, genes, environment, lifestyle and general health are implicated
• Source: Alzheimer's Society

He warned people not to "try this at home", as the drug had not been proven to work in Alzheimer's patients and there was no indication of what any dose should be.

"We need to be clear, the drug works quite well in mouse models of the disease. Our next objective is to ascertain if it acts similarly in humans," he said.
His group is preparing to start trials in a small group of people to see if there is a similar effect in humans.
The disease is likely to become more common as people live longer. The Alzheimer's Society predicts the number of people with dementia will reach a million by 2021 in the UK alone.

Continue reading the main story

“Start Quote

There are a number of drugs in development that aim to clear amyloid from the brain, and the jury is still out on whether this approach will be successful as a treatment for Alzheimer's”

Dr Simon Ridley Alzheimer's Research UK

Its research manager, Dr Anne Corbett, said: "This exciting study could be the beginning of a journey towards a potential new way to treat Alzheimer's disease.

"However, this is very early days. People with Alzheimer's should not rush to get this drug, as we need much more research to establish if it has benefits for humans." Dr Simon Ridley, head of research at Alzheimer's Research UK, said the findings were "promising" but any effect was still unproven in people.
"There are a number of drugs in development that aim to clear amyloid from the brain, and the jury is still out on whether this approach will be successful as a treatment for Alzheimer's."
David Allsop, professor of neuroscience at Lancaster University, said: "I would say that the results should be treated with cautious optimism.
"It looks promising in the mouse model but in recent years, these types of experiments in mice have not translated well into humans."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-16945466

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BODY DYSMORPHIC DISORDER

BDD is characterized by an unusually exaggerated degree of worry or concern about a specific part of the face or body, rather than the general size or shape of the body. It is distinguished from anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa , to the extent that patients with these disorders are preoccupied with their overall weight and body shape. For example, an adolescent who thinks that her breasts are too large and wants to have plastic surgery to reduce their size but is otherwise unconcerned about her weight and is eating normally would be diagnosed with BDD, not anorexia or bulimia. As many as 50% of patients diagnosed with BDD undergo plastic surgery to correct their perceived physical defects.

Causes and symptoms
NEUROBIOLOGICAL CAUSES. Research indicates that patients diagnosed with BDD have serotonin levels that are lower than normal. Serotonin is a neurotransmitter— a chemical produced by the brain that helps to transmit nerve impulses across the junctions between nerve cells. Low serotonin levels are associated with depression and other mood disorders.

PSYCHOSOCIAL CAUSES. Another important factor in the development of BDD is the influence of the mass media in developed countries, particularly the role of advertising in spreading images of physically "perfect" men and women. Impressionable children and adolescents absorb the message that anything short of physical perfection is unacceptable. They may then develop distorted perceptions of their own faces and bodies.

A young person's family of origin also has a powerful influence on his or her vulnerability to BDD. Children whose parents are themselves obsessed with appearance, dieting, and/or bodybuilding; or who are highly critical of their children's looks, are at greater risk of developing BDD.

An additional factor in some young people is a history of childhood trauma or abuse. Buried feelings about the abuse or traumatic incident emerge in the form of obsession about a part of the face or body. This "reassignment" of emotions from the unacknowledged true cause to another issue is called displacement. For example, an adolescent who frequently felt overwhelmed in childhood by physically abusive parents may develop a preoccupation at the high school level with muscular strength and power.
Symptoms
The diagnosis of BDD in children and adolescents is often made by physicians in family practice because they are more likely to have developed long-term relationships of trust with the young people. With adults, it is often specialists in dermatology, cosmetic dentistry, or plastic surgery who may suspect that the patient suffers from BDD because of frequent requests for repeated or unnecessary procedures. Reported rates of BDD among dermatology and cosmetic surgery patients range between 6% and 15%. The diagnosis is made on the basis of the patient's history together with the physician's observations of the patient's overall mood and conversation patterns. People with BDD often come across to others as generally anxious and worried. In addition, the patient's dress or clothing styles may suggest a diagnosis of BDD.

Treatments

The standard treatment regimen for body dysmorphic disorder is a combination of medications and psychotherapy . Surgical, dental, or dermatologic treatments have been found to be ineffective.
Medications

The medications most frequently prescribed for patients with BDD are the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, most commonly fluoxetine (Prozac) or sertraline (Zoloft). Other SSRIs that have been used with this group of patients include fluvoxamine (Luvox) and paroxetine (Paxil). In fact, it is the relatively high rate of positive responses to SSRIs among BDD patients that led to the hypothesis that the disorder has a neurobiological component related to serotonin levels in the body. An associated finding is that patients with BDD require higher dosages of SSRI medications to be effective than patients who are being treated for depression with these drugs.
Psychotherapy

The most effective approach to psychotherapy with BDD patients is cognitive-behavioral therapy , of which cognitive restructuring is one component. Since the disorder is rel

Read more: Body dysmorphic disorder - children, causes, DSM, functioning, therapy, adults, person, people http://www.minddisorders.com/A-Br/Body-dysmorphic-disorder.html#ixzz1lju2ZPDr
ated to delusions about one's appearance, cognitive-oriented therapy that challenges inaccurate self-perceptions is more effective than purely supportive approaches. Relaxation techniques also work well with BDD patients when they are combined wih cognitive restructuring.
Hospitalization

BDD patients have high rates of self-destructive behavior, including performing surgery on themselves at home (liposuction followed by skin stapling, sawing down teeth, and removing facial scars with sandpaper) and attempted or completed suicide. Many are unable to remain in school, form healthy relationships, or keep steady jobs. In one group of 100 patients diagnosed with BDD, 48% had been hospitalized for psychiatric reasons, and 30% had made at least one suicide attempt.

Prognosis

As of 2002, researchers do not know enough about the lifetime course of body dysmorphic disorder to offer a detailed prognosis. The DSM-IV-TR notes that the disorder "has a fairly continuous course, with few symptom-free intervals, although the intensity of symptoms may wax and wane over time."

Prevention

Given the pervasive influence of the mass media in contemporary Western societies, the best preventive strategy involves challenging those afflicted with the disorder and who consequently have unrealistic images of attractive people. Parents, teachers, primary health care professionals, and other adults who work with young people can point out and discuss the pitfalls of trying to look "perfect." In addition, parents or other adults can educate themselves about BDD and its symptoms, and pay attention to any warning signs in their children's dress or behavior.

See also Aromatherapy ; Yoga

Read more: Body dysmorphic disorder - children, causes, DSM, functioning, therapy, adults, person, people http://www.minddisorders.com/A-Br/Body-dysmorphic-disorder.html#ixzz1ljx3P0MW

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Why several ladies get worried about the size of their breast & why men think their genitals are too small !

Over the years,I have come across many people,mostly adolescent that feel something isnt just right about the size of their genitals- Many young men complain about their genitals been too small and several ladies get so disturbed about the size of their breast.
A vast majority actually dont have problem with this respective body parts.They rather have a pathology of the mind.....This condition is known as BODY DYSMORPHIC DISORDER.

The question that now comes to mind is; What is Body Dysmorphic Disorder?
Now i will demystify that in a short moment, and i do hope the treatment i would profer would help several readers that supposedly have this symptoms !

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Sign Bruce on for 5 years of Super Bowls... at least do something

Would it be so bad?

Bruce Springsteen can reach a wide range of audiences. Pair him up with a rapper who has reached a mature age and knows how to deliver a performance instead of an antic and just imagine how much fun an audience would have watching that! Go ahead, NFL, sign him on to take over as half-time entertainment for the next 5 years so we do not have to suffer through more hype and very little delivery. You couldn't do any worse or maybe you could...

Madonna wasn't awful but she should have stood still and sung...live. Last night's performance was a mixture of mid-tempo aerobics and really well-executed lip-syncing. The Super Bowl should be a test for artists who can deliver a performance that does not need Pro Tools to fix the voice or a strong back up dancer to help them do a cartwheel.

And speaking of voices...how in the hell is Blake Shelton a judge for the television show The Voice? His part in "God Bless America" might have been one of the worst performances by an individual I have ever seen. At least Tim McGraw admits he is tone deaf and has to work extremely hard to sing live. If you enjoyed him last night you need to go see an Audiologist.

Interesting pairings make for entertainment. Unfortunately the NFL usually misses the mark on this. Music fans should have known that all the artist involved in the performance last night require a lot of flash to make up for a lack of natural talent. Without tremendously talented designers (and some schemers incorporated into the mix) none of those artists would have ever made it to the top, including Madonna. Then add in the look-at-me antics of some never-will-be and disaster can be the only outcome. Audiences deserve more.

Madonna used to be an excellent entertainer. I thought she would have been smart enough to realize when it was best to take a step back and let the younger performers carry the torch she held so high for so long. Obviously her ego has pushed her into territory where I would have never expected to see her. I cringed watching her perform those moves at such a deliberate and hesitant pace. Even she seemed nervous she was going to break a hip. That was not the performer I grew up watching and last night was the performance I never wanted to see her put on display.

American Football is an American sport so why can't we use American talent, who actually have talent, during the half-time show of the Super Bowl? The Who? M.I.A? What's wrong with Aerosmith and Run DMC? The last time I saw them perform live together it was awesome. Kid Rock...Eminem...Jay Z...Pearl Jam...Katy Perry...Bruce Springsteen...Alicia Keys...Tom Petty...Pitbull...and so many others. It's the Super Bowl. Let the game be the star of the evening.

Lady Gaga would have been awesome last night. I cannot imagine what she would have done with that canvas but I bet I would have been completely entertained.

The best duet I ever watched perform live on television was Tom Petty and Axl Rose when they sang "Free Fallin'." That was completely unexpected and amazing. The second best collaboration I saw was Kid Rock, Steven Tyler, and Run DMC all doing "Walk This Way."

Does the same person pick the entertainment year after year? I hope not because that person must certainly get used to failure.

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