Your mom was right—eat all the colors, and a lot of them

Research shows Mom was right. Eat all the colors. This is a meta-analysis. Fruit and Vegetable Intake and Mortality: Results From 2 Prospective Cohort Studies of US Men and Women and a Meta-Analysis of 26 Cohort Studies (ahajournals.org)  Free, original research article. Print it and read between the food commercials on TV.

• A higher intake of fruit and vegetables was associated with lower total and cause-specific mortality in a nonlinear manner in both an original data analysis in 2 prospective cohorts of US men and women and a meta-analysis of 26 prospective cohort studies.
• The lowest risk of mortality was observed for ≈5 servings per day of fruit and vegetable intake, but above that level the risk did not decrease further.
• The thresholds of risk reduction in mortality were 2 servings daily for fruit intake and 3 servings daily for vegetable intake

My favorite vegetables, peas, corn and potatoes, are not associated with lower mortality. Too starchy. Darn. It's just hard to eat this much of anything.

Despite recommendations in dietary guidelines for decades to increase fruit and vegetable intake, the current average intake among US adults is 1 serving of fruit and 1.5 servings of vegetables per day. Not good. There have been many campaigns (cited in the article) to change this because poor nutrition contributes to the burden of disease and premature death.

BTW, this is a premiere, peer reviewed journal. When I was a librarian, Circulation and its many numbered series, was the bane of my existence.

Subscriptions (digital) to keep me up to date

I subscribe to several medical information services because for years I was a veterinary medicine librarian and sort of got hooked on the genre. (I was also a librarian for Russian and Soviet studies, Latin American studies, and Agriculture in earlier jobs.) However, I've seen quite a change in the last 20 years. I also get the printed version of JAMA. It's really disappointing to see science going the way of intersectionality.

I subscribe to research from START (The National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism) which "prides itself on the diversity of research conducted across the Consortium to bring a holistic understanding to the study of terrorism, counterterrorism and community resilience. START researchers based throughout the United States and around the world bring varying perspectives, experiences, and academic disciplines to their analysis." It doesn't live up to its advertising of mission statement.

I subscribe to beSpacific "Accurate, Focused Research on Law, Technology and Knowledge Discovery Since 2002" And so liberal I sometimes scream at the screen when I see what she's covering. Librarianship, gotta love it. It's mostly political bias, but at least you know what you're up against.

Stay awake, not woke.

Normally, I wouldn’t be reading Refinery29, a digital media source established in 2015. It’s owned by something called Vice Media which in turn is Disney, A & E, and other media investors.   It’s for young fashionistas in New York. But then, it’s the modern version of Woman’s Day or Ladies Home Journal which influenced women of the last century with heath and fashion while being obedient to the needs of the marketing department. 

One of the founders and CEOs Christine Barberich  (the other 3 are all males) resigned in June because a minority employee had said bad things about her and the toxic work atmosphere on her Twitter account. Twitter users can say anything and the accused is toast.  Twitter has so much power it has silenced the President of the U.S., and because it is a private company, freedom of speech does not apply.  Maybe you think that’s great because you don’t like the president.  Just keep in mind there is someone out there who doesn’t like YOU too, maybe an ex-, or a member of your club, or even an adult child. The laws about employee and management put in place over the years to protect you, don’t apply to gossip and whispers on social media. Your union or employer will not protect you if the charge (no hearings or trial) contain the magic word, RACIST.  You could have your life’s purpose and meaning closed out and cancelled by Twitter.

But back to Refinery29—why was I reading a digital style magazine for shallow, young New Yorkers? Because it was quoted in the Ohio State University  “OSU HealthBeat” which I received in e-mail. Elizabeth Gulino in Refinery29  was quoting in “The COVID-19 Vaccine Won’t Make You Infertile” the OSU Iahn Gonsenhauser, MD, chief quality and patient safety officer at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center.  Then HealthBeat also linked to two other articles that quoted R29 which quoted an OSU doctor. This raises R29’s credibility as a serious journal, and OSU’s appeal to the younger set. A two-fer.

Here’s the kicker (I actually did some further research on this issue, and completely agree with Dr. Gonsenhauser who is quoted in many other popular websites.)  Refinery29 is so woke and so alert to every possible misstep of intersectionalism, it has begun to cancel women by referring to “pregnant people.”  You may skip right over that when you read about pregnancies (the way God designed the plan for males and females to procreate).  That change has moved into the language and fanciful unscientific beliefs because of women calling themselves men while still hanging on to all their lady parts. It’s along the same line as Pelosi destroying the “gendered family.”  It’s all about cancelling women and their uniqueness.

“There is limited data about the safety of receiving COVID vaccinations during pregnancy. Pregnant people are typically excluded from clinical trials due to concerns about harming the fetus (although many argue that keeping pregnant people out of trials leads to their health needs being underrepresented). Twenty-three of the participants in Pfizer's trial became pregnant over the course of the study, but that's too small of a sample to tell us much. Dr. Olulade says that people who are pregnant, breastfeeding, or trying to become pregnant [paraphrase] should talk to their doctor before getting the vaccine (everyone should!). "Ultimately it’s about weighing the risks of the unknown when it comes to the vaccine in pregnant women [direct quote] versus the known dangerous risks of COVID."

You and I are awake, not woke.  We know that pregnant people are women, and that people who are pregnant or breastfeeding are women. Every time you read about “pregnant people,” or see an adjective in front of the word “justice,” you are being manipulated. When the kettle heating the water to boil the frog for dinner gets hot enough, it’s too late for you to jump out and save yourself.

Update:  Facebook gave me a black mark for posting this link to my own blog (owned by Google) to my FB wall.  I'm directly quoting a source that quoted an OSU doctor speaking on Covid, yet Facebook fact checkers find my opinion about being woke objectionable.

New treatment for A-fib

“Scientists at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center also discovered that atrial fibrillation drivers don’t always have the shape of a closed loop but may instead consist of “hubs” where the electrical activity of atrial fibrillation is multiplied much like a small tornado. The study results were reported in The Journal of the American Heart Association.

“Thinking of atrial fibrillation drivers as hubs may change the way we interpret mapping results of the heart to identify these drivers. Finding these reentrant atrial fibrillation drivers is key for doing targeted ablation and successfully treating AFib,” said Vadim Fedorov, professor of physiology and cell biology at the Ohio State College of Medicine and lead author of the study.

At least 2.7 million Americans live with atrial fibrillation, with some suffering from persistent atrial fibrillation that lasts for longer than seven days at a time. When medications don’t work, physicians use ablation.”

https://wexnermedical.osu.edu/mediaroom/pressreleaselisting/ohio-state-research-pinpoints-heart-condition

OSU has discovered racism—yet again

For decades, academe has been soaking up tax dollars for special departments, workshops, conferences, vice presidents for diversity and inclusion, and now with more CARES money floating around, plus BLM pulling in billions in literally black mail, the medical college which has been on a socio-economic-race kick for longer than I can remember, is launching yet another effort.  This one I’m sure will include Critical Race Theory, because with that, no solutions are ever developed, the problems are just expanded.  But this one has a cutesy acronym.  It means, shut up and listen to us roar at you.

“This week, the Wexner Medical Center and health science colleges launched a new webinar series, Roundtables On Actions Against Racism (ROAAR). The focus of these roundtables is to elevate critical conversations about racism and engage community leaders to work collaboratively to achieve meaningful and lasting change.”

Science journals’ editorials against Trump

These science journals promote an amazing misuse of a world tragedy. Since I regularly read medical and science journals, especially JAMA and NEJM, let me assure you they have all been way left in their editorial coverage since I began reading them in the 1980s. Also, in clinical trials, they are quick to demand all sorts of fair, unbiased and diverse controls, sex, age, weight, culture, socio-economic status, smoking, alcohol use, marital status, health history, but in this pandemic, they only look at Trump.

I think they are angry that his leadership in cutting red tape and "making deals" has uncovered the stultifying "science" culture which has its own deep state and swamp. This isn't China, David Foster, or even Sweden. In a country where we have a Constitution to protect us from the state, "scientists" see this as a lost opportunity for the federal government to take the same grab for power that the states have with mandates, lockdowns and petty local demands.

The "scientists" (I think Obama had one advisor on this one) have loved the EMR installed by fiat at a cost in the billions (which is why medical costs soared during Obama's reign) with no known benefit to health or reduced cost because it's plan was data diving and not to get you quickly admitted or treated. Now they are called on to do actual research, find new drugs, figure out the mutations, think outside the box--as a businessman would do. We already have many new drugs ready to be on the market--it's called competition--and you can see how the popular and science media have reacted. Why can't everyone get this drug, why compassionate use for a guy we hate, why should he speculate or dream when that's a scientist's job, why does he listen to a virologist or an epidemiologist and not a cell biologist (or someone on our board); and most importantly, why didn't he die!

Trump has shown in 4 years that our bloated government, our stagnant universities, our rigid peer review publication system, our technology sector with embedded lobbyists in Washington to make sure start ups get squashed with new laws needs a shake up. I don't believe the pandemic was a plot (many do), but leftists in every field, every corporation, every university, every church, realize that if they don't act very quickly and get rid of this man, their days of fancy awards, fat grants at our expense, flying to conferences to wine and dine, and living in their self designed bubbles, just might be threatened. Bring him down and get rid of him, no matter the cost. We all know the next Democrat elected whether this year or in 4 years will return things to "normal" crony capitalism, but they are are afraid of the fall out.

The battle of the masks.

I do wear a mask--although there's no evidence that a bandana folded on an angle and tied behind my head then pulled up over my nose (2 layers of cloth) will protect me from anything except the flying bugs I meet on my morning walks. I passed 3 men running on the lakefront path this morning, splattering as they went. I read the research. What I see is that medical quality/grade masks worn properly, fitting tightly by medical staff are somewhat effective in blocking viruses, but those made for the general public offer very little protection, plus they cause us to touch our faces more. Nor have I read of any effort to make medical masks for the general public available even though all the experts agree those for the general public are next to useless.

Here's the statement on the box of my most recent purchase of washable, reusable 100% cotton masks, breathable, with adjustable nosepiece. "Not recommended for use in a surgical setting or where significant exposure to liquid, bodily or other hazardous fluids may be expected." "Shall not be used in a clinical setting where the infection risk level through inhalation exposure is high." Then in teeny-tiny print there is something about Covid. First, it has, "not been FDA cleared or approved." Then on the next line, "This product has been authorized by FDA under an EUA (emergency use authorization) for use by HCP as PPE to help prevent the spread of infection of illness in healthcare setting and by the general public to help slow the spread of the virus during the Covid19 pandemic." And then it cites section 564(b)(1) of the Act, 21 U.S.C. Section 360bbb-3(b)(1) unless the authorization is terminated or revoked sooner.

Meanwhile it has been a very useful method to keep Americans fighting amongst each other, even here in peaceful idyllic Lakeside, instead of taking back their country, churches, and freedoms.

Also, you can do your own research.  Don’t take my word for it. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/

Dr. Fontana—do your research and rewrite your blog

From the website, KevinMD.com: "Health care workers need to start talking about white people killing black people, and here’s why: every victim of racial violence will be seen by a health care professional at or near the time of the event."

Except, Dr. Elizabeth Fontana, MD, (the author), you've not given the facts. 93% of the injured or killed or assaulted black people you will see who called the squad or the police have had a black assailant, NOT white. Not police. Even so, fatal injuries caused by police officers is miniscule and you as a health professional/provider are more likely to treat a police officer hurt by a black youth or gang member than the other way around.

All criminal violence has been reduced drastically, about 50%, since the early 90s. Millions of black lives have been saved because the crime rates for blacks reduced more than whites after the Omnibus Crime Bill of 1993. By 2010, the rate of firearm homicide for blacks was 14.6 per 100,000, compared to 1.9 for whites, a decline of 51% for blacks and 48% for whites. Nationwide, there were over 1.5 million firearm non-fatalities in 1993 compared to about 478,000 in 2011. Because of the bias in research based on political and religious views, it’s difficult to tease out the details, but one thing is for certain, the media distort reports of violent crime and despite your excellent education, you've fallen for the big lie.

That said, millions of black babies die in the womb from chemical and surgical abortions. That's at genocidal levels. Rates for heart disease, hypertension, diabetes and obesity are much higher for blacks than whites, and yes, that IS something you as a doctor can tackle, but with them, not me. I have my own health problems.

Violent crime is committed close to home; black on black, white on white, Hispanic on Hispanic, gay on gay. Except for women. And you Dr. Fontana, should be concerned about all young male victims (usually), not just those black men assaulted by whites or police. When George Floyd was killed, there were many other black men killed that same day in Minneapolis, Chicago, Cleveland, and LA, but because a black man killed them, you didn't hear about it on the news. 24/7. But it's in the statistics. Their families grieve also. So too, if they died of a stroke or heart attack. Get to work, doctor. You have a job to do.

https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/elizabeth-fontana

A call for plasma

Today I read "that Ohio State researchers and clinicians have found a way to take plasma from someone who has recovered from COVID-19 and deliver it to patients who are currently battling the virus to aid in their treatment and recovery." Hey, that's great news. But in that e-mail people who'd had Covid19 and been symptom free for 28 days were urged to donate plasma. Huh? Don't we have a billion dollars worth of EMR in Ohio and the other 49 plus DC and territories so some researcher can data mine our health records even if our MD has to call for it? Doesn't Dr. Brix always say, "the data show?" If the first known death was Feb. 29 in the U.S. and it wasn't in Ohio and many had it and didn't know it, maybe even me or you, should everyone who's had a mysterious cold or cough since the fall be tested?

Ohio has had less than 8,000 confirmed cases and barely over 2,000 were hospitalized. Doctors' offices are swamped with calls from clients who can't even be tested without all the signs. Surely somewhere in all those computers there's a record of the people to contact.

And President Trump will probably be blamed for OSU not knowing where to look for donated plasma. After all, isn't it his fault he didn't close down the economy before anyone had died?

Sowing fear and distrust about hydroxychloroquine

While the media, including NPR, try to frighten people about "unproven" emergency use of Hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine here's what CDC says about therapeutic options:

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/hcp/therapeutic-options.html? which links to the authorization of its use while clinical trials are performed. It won't harm anyone, and could help many based on trials in other countries. The media hate Trump so much they will try anything:

"On February 4, 2020, pursuant to Section 564(b)(1)(C) of the Act, the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) determined that there is a public health emergency that has a significant potential to affect national security or the health and security of United States citizens living abroad, and that involves the virus that causes COVID-19.3 ,4 Pursuant to Section 564 of the Act, and on the basis of such determination, the Secretary of HHS . . . Based upon limited in-vitro and anecdotal clinical data in case series, chloroquine phosphate and hydroxychloroquine sulfate are currently recommended for treatment of hospitalized COVID-19 patients in several countries, and a number of national guidelines report incorporating recommendations regarding use of chloroquine phosphate or hydroxychloroquine sulfate in the setting of COVID-19. FDA encourages the conduct and participation in randomized controlled clinical trials that may produce evidence concerning the effectiveness of these products in treating COVID-19. FDA is issuing this EUA to facilitate the availability of chloroquine phosphate and hydroxychloroquine sulfate during the COVID-19 pandemic to treat patients for whom a clinical trial is not available, or participation is not feasible. "

Also notice the date. Feb. 4. While Democrats and their media arms were calling Trump a racist for attempting to limit entry to our country by infected people.

Reasons to not go to med school

About 2 years ago I signed up for an on-line class on the microbiome through Coursera.  After a few weeks of thinking about billions of microbiota on my skin, hair and in my gut, I was so grossed out, I dropped the course.  But occasionally, I do fall for a good looking blog on the topic, like NextGenMedicine written by a University of Illinois grad, Lucy Mailing.  Now the latest blog edition explains why she isn’t going to go on with her MD as she had originally planned, and has chosen a PostDoc.  What is interesting in today’s edition is she lists all the wrong reasons she originally thought were good reasons, but she’s changed in the gap year.  Most interesting reason not to go to medical school was she had a full ride scholarship and that was influencing her decision.
https://www.ngmedicine.com/why-im-foregoing-med-school-and-starting-a-postdoc/

Look through the slides of a 2019 presentation by Lucy.  “Modulating the gut microbiome for health: Evidence-based testing & therapeutic strategies”
https://www.ngmedicine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Modulating-the-microbiome_AHS19_slides.pdf

You are being manipulated about gender dysphoria and transitions

Don't believe the misinterpretation of the data. Compared with the general population, the researchers explain that gender dysphoric individuals after "treatment" have extremely high levels of mental health problems: six times the rate of visits for mood or anxiety disorders; more than three times the rate of prescriptions for depression or anxiety; and more than six times the rate of hospitalization after a suicide attempt. This is not how normal medical research is done--so what is the agenda? Yet when normal, rational people object to men on women's athletic teams or being forced to change pronouns, we're called haters and phobic.

https://dailycitizen.focusonthefamily.com/study-shows-gender-affirming-treatments-dont-help-transgender-mental-health/

https://collectingmythoughts.blogspot.com/2019/10/the-crazies-in-our-culture.html

https://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2019/11/58371/

Snow blindness question

Dear Dr. Toole,

I’m a retired OSU librarian, and receive the Ohio State OSU Health Beat daily. Although it’s an interesting blog/aggregator/prepackaged digital publication, I think it’s a little sloppy on its research and links. It cites health articles from Reader’s Digest which has used articles from newspapers with no links or citations, or CNN, for instance.

Today it had an index summary of an article on snow blindness, and it refers the reader to a contracted commercial aggregator site, HealthDay, Dec. 15 which it often sites. In that article it credits, but doesn’t link to, a Wexner Medical article of Dec. 5. My concern was that the large photo accompanying the article was of 2 adult skiers, a man and woman, with a baby on the man’s back. The 2 adults had on sunglasses and the baby didn’t. The article explained in some detail the damage to eyes caused by bright sunlight and snow. It’s the first thing I noticed, and thought it was a little odd. So I decided I would try to find the original article. I googled as much as I knew—produced at OSU in December. There I found your name and an article on an inhouse  blog, December 3, https://wexnermedical.osu.edu/blog/snow-blindness. From that I went to the staff directory. From that I went to your vitae. I see a lot of your articles concern children. So here’s my question, which should have been answered at the first link I went to at OSU Health Beat; Is it safe for young babies to be out skiing in the bright sunlight without proper sunglasses-- "Blocks 100% UV-A and UV-B," or "UV400."?

Also, because OSU has its own reliable articles for the layman on health topics (as yours was written), wouldn’t it be better and more authoritative for OSU Health Beat to cite those articles with a link rather than a commercial health cite that has further reduced the level of research providing no link. If HealthDay was able to find your article, why couldn’t the OSU staff?

https://wexnermedical.osu.edu/-/media/Files/WexnerMedical/OSU%20HealthBeat/2019/12/MB-121719

https://optometry.osu.edu/directory/faculty/andrew-toole

https://consumer.healthday.com/eye-care-information-13/eye-and-vision-problem-news-295/snow-blindness-a-wintry-danger-752853.html

https://blog.quiet.ly/industry/aggregators-vs-traditional-publishers/

Tumor Treating Fields—a review and graphic

Treatment for glioblastoma approved in 2015.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6406491/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29349613https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29349613

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28298023

“In 2011, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a tumor treating fields (TTF) device for treatment of recurrent or refractory GBM. More recently, the FDA approved the TTF device as adjuvant treatment for newly-diagnosed patients after completing standard-of-care surgery and chemoradiation. The National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) added the TTF device as an option for treatment of newly-diagnosed GBM. Despite FDA approval, skepticism remains regarding this therapy. In this review we discuss the current evidence supporting treatment with the TTF device and its limitations.”

TT Fields Treatment https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/brain-tumor/tt-fields-tumortreating-fields-for-brain-tumors

• The TT fields treatment device is portable and may help people treat their cancer while continuing their normal activities.
  
• People undergoing TT fields therapy use small transducers that are attached to their head with adhesive bandages. Hair must be shaved in order to use the device.
  
• The transducers are connected to wires, which are plugged into a battery that is about the size of a book. The batteries fit into a bag that the person carries with them, either in a backpack, across the body, or over the shoulder like a messenger bag.
  
• The system comes with multiple batteries and a charging station. The user is alerted when batteries need to be changed.
  
• The therapy is continual, but people can unplug the device for short times
  

There’s Good News in the Bible, but also in the economic news

There's a lot of good news out there if only the liberal media would let you in on it. The U.S. Census Bureau’s latest report on income and poverty, which came out in October found real median family income up 1.2 percent from 2017 to 2018, real median earnings up 3.4 percent, the number of full-time, year-round workers increased by 2.3 million, and the poverty rate declined from 12.3 percent to 11.8 percent, with 1.4 million people leaving poverty. That's why Democrats want to impeach the President. The poverty and earnings report combined with the November jobs report could just signal that not as many people need the federal government, and for leftists, that's tragic news.

https://www.nationalreview.com/the-morning-jolt/the-world-is-getting-better-its-just-that-no-one-tells-you-about-it/

There are many items of good news in this article—from medicine to technology to environment.

Google and our health data

According to a story I watched on Fox today, we're not to be concerned that Google is controlling and distributing our health information and data--they are being HIPAA compliant. Big Whoop. What about being compliant with our wishes, with our concerns? Remember Henrietta Lacks? Did her medical information only matter because she was black? Researchers are lusting for this information--imagine having the data for 1500-2000 people with disease xyz with a key stroke instead of the 30 or 40 you can find with months of appeals and research. And cha ching, your data is part of a study which may bring the researcher/company millions.

https://www.engadget.com/2019/11/11/google-ascension-patient-records-project-nightingale/

https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/henriettalacks/

Reflection on Exodus 17:8-13, with apologies to Moses.

In those days, Cancer came and waged war against Phil's brain. Phil Bruce therefore said to his medical posse, "Pick out the best you have--surgeons, nurses, therapists, med techs, hematologists, cardiologists, radiologists--and go out and engage Cancer in battle. I will be standing on top of the hill with the staff of God in my hand."

So the posse did as Phil told them: they engaged Cancer in battle after Phil had climbed to the top of the hill with his family Norma, Bob, Phoebe and Mark. As long as Phil kept his hands raised up, his body had the better of the fight, but when he let his hands rest, the Cancer had the better of the fight.

Phil's hands grew tired so they put a rock, his church, in place for him to sit on. Meanwhile, his family, extended family and close friends--Ron, Keith, Carl, Tom, John, Sara, and many others-- supported his hands, some on one side, some on the other side so he remained steady till sunset. And the medical posse mowed down the Cancer and tumors with the edge of medical miracles swords.

National Brain Tumor Society

News, information, research, blog.

On Tuesday our son had several seizures, went to the ER, had a CT scan and MRI and by Wednesday we knew he had a brain tumor. A new chapter in our lives.  We had lunch together on Saturday in our old neighborhood and there were no signs of a problem.  Life changes quickly.  Don’t waste your opportunities.

Interesting video of a brain tumor patient with a sense of humor.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WG0Khy5751Y

Philomena the movie, HIV and Reagan

This week at Lakeside we have a foreign film series, but these are all in English and two are about international adoptions, Philomena (British) and Lion (Australian).  I’d seen Philomena starring Judi Dench years ago and had forgotten most of it, particularly the sub-plot about the journalist who had lost his career and was more or less forced into writing a “human interest” non-fiction story which later became the book and then the movie. That it’s anti-Catholic is probably no surprise—the Roman Catholic church may be the largest and oldest target for both religious issues and social issues. Atheists, agnostics, and Protestants can all find something to criticize.    It is not just a Christian church—it is the largest social service agency in the world, and has about 26 different branches under its name all over the world each with unique language and culture. In the end, it is Philomena (the woman) who understands forgiveness, not the nuns and certainly not the journalist/author.

But Philomena the movie is also anti-Republican and anti-President Reagan, and that’s par for the course for the Brits who think we should have been happy to remain under the Union Jack.   Philomena’s birth son was adopted by an affluent American couple and grows up to become a valuable member of both the Reagan and Bush I administrations. He dies of AIDS in 1995.  However, he was gay during a time when there was almost no hope for remission from HIV (and 30 years later—it was identified in 1981—there is still no vaccine or cure), so Reagan is blamed for not pushing the federal funding more vigorously in 1986.  That’s absurd.

The U.S. was emerging from the boomer, free-sex and legalized abortion movements of the 1960s and 1970s,  people were demanding privacy in all things sexual and personal, the gay lifestyle was increasingly being recognized for “loving and caring” relationships particularly in literature and the arts, healthy lifestyles and personal responsibility for health advocacy groups were growing.  On top of all that, in the medical field researchers and university faculty were practically assuring us that the era and threat of infectious diseases was over.  STDs were going to be held at bay not by responsible monogamous life styles, but with penicillin. I remember that from the medical journals I was handling in the library.  Infectious disease journals were gathering dust.

President Reagan was blamed for the “gay disease” charge about HIV-AIDS in this movie.  And yet if you read any CDC fact sheet today, virtually all new cases (83%) of HIV are among “men who have sex with men” and that includes bi-sexual men who then infect women.
The recommendations by the USPSTF on screening are in order of importance:

1) Male-to-male sex (every 3 to 6 months screened)
And any risky life style comes next.
2) injection drug use
3) anal intercourse without a condom
4) more than one partner whose HIV status is unknown
5) transactional sex (exchanging sex for drugs)
6) commercial sex trade (prostitution)

So you see, in many cases it is still behavior and personal responsibility, not the federal government, which is your best protection from any sexual disease from syphilis to gonorrhea to AIDS. Don’t get advice on serious health matters from a movie with a political agenda.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rG3QP8foCvg  Trailer

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2690288/
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2016/01/philomena_and_the_magical_sodomite_archetype.html
https://www.thebalance.com/who-funds-biomedical-research-2663193
https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2015/01/29/public-and-scientists-views-on-science-and-society/

Older people and protein needs

Today I attended a program on protein at the wellness center at Lakeside and wasn’t satisfied with what I heard.  Most of her references were 15-20 years old. Her citations for RDA were for the “universe” of adults, rather than the elderly, and most attending were over 70.   Here’s my recommendation when googling health information.  Add the letters NCBI to your search.  Here is “elderly protein ncbi”.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4924200/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30036990

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24814383

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4882708/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30037048