Truth In Medicine

The Argument for Paper Planners

I have been recommedning paper planners for a very long time.  It is much easier to plan and manage time, particlrly if you use a default scheduling system and block out times so that activities can be grouped by type. Sometimes new is not better - people who are typing appoitments into their phones are often choosing times that are available to schedule things, but not necessarily the best times to do so.

This morning I was pleased to see an article in the New York Times which stated that the paper planner has now become fashionable. Perhaps now people will stop calling me a dinosaur! 

Pam's Food Journal!

For those of you who are curious - here's what I ate yesterday:
Breakfast - always the same - Wellness Forum Health smoothie (yum, can't start the day without it!), 2 pieces of Ezekiel bread toast with fat-free hummus. Big breakfast but then this is meant to last until after morning exercise (hot yoga yesterday in our fabulous hot room!)

Lunch at 11 - BIG salad - think salad for 6 but I ate all of it - and a big dinner plate of baked potato slices (from batch cooking on the weekend). A Gold Rush apple for dessert.

Mid afternoon - vegetables and rice and a banana. Could not resist the fresh bread Del baked for an event last night at the center - had some of that!

Dinner was another big salad, more rice and vegetables, Two peaches for dessert.

Finished teaching at 11PM and ate about a pound of blackberries - could not stop eating them so I ate them all.

The Americans

There are few series I watch on TV. I'm not a "TV snob" - there are many good things to watch, like Book TV on the weekends, which is how I find out about non-fiction books to read. But once in a while something catches and holds my attention - in this case for six years!

The last episode of the entire series The Americans just aired a week ago, and I'm still thinking about it - the series and the last episode. I'm planning to watch the entire series again, and I NEVER have done this before. It's based on a true story - Russian spies lived in the U.S. as Americans during the Reagan years. One who was caught appeared on 60 Minutes a couple of years ago. 

The Jennings are Russian spies living outside Washington D.C. They are not married, but have two children, and own a travel agency. An FBI agent who works in the Russian unit moves in across the street. The story is about politics, the work the Jennings do, but even more important, the people they are, the conflicts they have, and life. It's a realistic portrayal of things that can happen in this scenario. The teenaged daughter joins a fundamentalist church which is a problem for her atheist parents. She starts dating the son of the FBI agent. While Elizabeth and Phillip are cold-blooded killers, they are humans, and sometimes this gets in the way of their mission. 

The series had to end when it did, and the writers get credit for not degenerating into insane, unbelievable episodes. Instead, the story ran its course, the U.S. and Russia began to force a relationship, Elizabeth and Phillip were reaching a decision-point, and it was time for it to end. 

Don't let the violence in the beginning scare you away. It really is a necessary part of the the story and it ends up being a minor part as it unfolds. 

This series is full of surprises and things do not always happen the way you think they will. Eerything is not good/bad or right/wrong - lots of shades of gray. I think you will enjoy it.

 

More Books!

I know I should  post more often - I receive requests from people asking me for more book recomendations regularly.  This year I've been busy writing a book, which will be released this summer, along with a film called Diet Fiction. I just finished it a week or so ago. But I still have had time to read - my job involves reading, and recreational reading is the way that I relax. So here's an updated list of what I've been reading:

Dreamland by Sam Quinones. It's about the opiate epidemic, and how a major drug company (Purdue Pharma) paved the way for the Mexican heroin dealers to sell enormous amounts of heroin to people addicted to opiate drugs. The book reads like a novel -only it's true. Great, horrifying book that everyone should read.

The End of Food by Paul Roberts. The first part of this book is an historical account of the birth and growth of both agriculture and food processing.  The rest of the book deals with the consequences of our current food system, and some of the barriers to change. This book is frightening because Roberts does not make doomsday predictions, or demand solutions that are impossible to achieve (everyone must become vegan or the planet ends in 20 years, etc.). Instead, his scenarios are realistic and he offers some direction for realistic solutions. 

The Salt Fix by James DiNicolantonio. I checked the references and the author is right. salt-bashing has become great sport and restricting salt in the general population has most likely caused many more health problems than it has prevented. This book confirms what I already knew to be true. DO NOT REPEAT WHAT OTHERS TELL YOU - CHECK OUT EVERYTHING FOR YOURSELF.

The Forgotten Therapy by Anna Kuchment. This book is the fascinating history of bacteriophages, which may be the answer to our growing problem of antibiotic resistance.

Enough of the worl books, now for some great recreational reads...

A Brilliant Death by Robin Yoakum. Robin is a local author who was a reporter at the Columbus Dispatch and now writes novels. He is amazing - I think better than Grisham and others who are more well-known. This is the second of his books we read in my book club. Last Thursday, we all had dinner wtih Robin and had the opportunity to learn more about him and his writing career. Great evening, and I was so inspired I bought 3 more of his books. I'm starting The  Essay today, which he says is the best one he's written. Support this author - he's really good. 

The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah. Love this author, have read all of her books now (I think). This is her latest, about a vet with PSTD who moves his wife and daughter to Alaska. Great story about love, dysfunction, and survival.

The Trophy by Steffan Jacobson. The story takes place in Scandinavia, and involves a wealthy family with a terrible secret. Disturbing but very good and an ending I would not have predicted.

After Anna by Lisa Scottoline. Love this author, and this book. It's an emotional thriller about a happily married woman who takes in her estranged adult daughter after years of separation. What follows is an emotional nightmare, and a roller coaster ride to find the truth.

Ill Will by Dan Cheon. I think I'm going to choose this book for my selection for book club this year. A great suspenseful book.  The book opens as Dustin Tillman, a psychologist, finds out that his adopted brother is being released from prison. The brother was given a life sentence of murdering Dustin's parents, aunt and uncle, but new evidence has resulted in his release. Dustin was the primary witness in his trial, but what if Dustin's recollections about what happened were not right? What if Dustin's ideas about other things, like his children, and a patient who claims several deaths of young men are related, are also not right too? A real thriller - could not put it down!

The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn. If you liked the Girl on the Train and Gone Girl, you will like this psychological thriller too.

Reversal by Michael Connelly. Another in the Lincoln Lawyer series. Pure brain candy. Great way to pass an afternoon. 

There are more but these are the highlights. And one day I will follow through on my promise to post more often!

 

Update on HHS Religious Exemptions Concerning Vaccines
Pamela A. Popper
Wellness Forum Health

A couple of weeks ago I reported that an Executive Order issued by President Donald Trump called for the establishment of a new rule by the Health and Human Services Department protecting the rights of healthcare workers to decline to participate in any healthcare process or procedure based to their conscience or religious beliefs. HHS published its proposed rules which now includes specific language concerning vaccines.

Not only are healthcare workers covered, but the requirement to receive vaccinations as a condition of education is also covered under the proposed new rule.

"Despite the longstanding nature of the Federal health care conscience and associated anti-discrimination laws that this rule proposes to enforce, discrimination and coercion continue to occur. Relevant situations where persons, entities, and health care entities with religious beliefs or moral convictions may be coerced or suffer discrimination include:
• Being asked to perform, participate in, pay for, counsel or refer for abortion, sterilization, euthanasia, or other health services;
• engaging in health professions training that pressures students, residents, fellows, etc., to perform, assist in the performance of, or counsel for abortion;
• considering a career in obstetrics, family medicine, or elder care, when one has a religious or moral objection to abortion, sterilization, or euthanasia;
• raising religious or moral objections to participating in certain services within the scope of one's employment; and,
• being required to administer or receive certain vaccinations derived from aborted fetal tissues as a condition of work or receipt of educational services."

The rule supports the rights of patients to seek out doctors who share their point of view concerning vaccines, with this statement:
"PATIENT BENEFITS FROM CONSCIENCE PROTECTIONS
In supporting a more diverse medical field, the proposed rule would create ancillary benefits for patients. The proposed rule would assist patients in seeking counselors and other health-care providers who share their deepest held convictions. Some patients will appreciate the ability to speak frankly about their own convictions concerning questions that touch upon life and death and treatment preferences with a doctor best suited to provide such treatment. A pro-life woman may seek a pro-life ob-gyn to advise her on decisions relating to her fertility and reproductive choices. A pro-vaccination parent may seek a pediatrician who shares his views. Open communication in the doctor-patient relationship will foster better over-all care for patients."

To be clear, this rule does not supersede state laws (California, West Virginia, and Mississippi do not allow religious exemptions), and it does not apply to educational institutions. But it does set up a process whereby people can complain about organizations that receive federal funding and that coerce vaccination or discriminate against those who object. And it specifically addresses the issue of coercion in educational settings. It states, “"Third, providers of pediatric vaccines funded by Federal medical assistance programs must comply with any State laws relating to any religious or other exemptions."

Please visit the website below, which includes information about how to comment. It is imperative that we overwhelm the system with supportive comments in order for this rule to take effect:

https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2018/01/26/2018-01226/protecting-statutory-conscience-rights-in-health-care-delegations-of-authority