There was an audible groan through the audience at Wednesday night’s performance of Iphigenia in Tauris when it was announced that baritone Russell Braun had a cold.
But the Canadian Opera Company audience was quickly elated — and some clapped with joy — when they learned Braun was going to perform anyway.
A cold can do serious damage to a singer’s vocal chords, Braun says in an interview from his Georgetown home Thursday, so he was cautious about performing when he felt ill.
The 46-year-old performer, who has only once withdrawn from a performance due to ill health, first noticed he was getting a sore throat on Monday night after being asked to sing “O Canada” at his son’s sporting event.
“I’ve been around a lot of colds with the kids back at school and at the opera too,” says Braun, adding he set out immediately on Tuesday morning to fight the cold with everything that he had.
Vitamin C, Cold FX, Echinacea and oil of oregano are Braun’s standard cold treatments. A few years ago the family built a steam room in the basement and, while it seemed a luxury at the time, Braun says it comes in handy to fight congestion.
“Fifteen years ago, 10 years ago, I would have panicked,” says Braun, but he knows all sorts of tricks to stave off a cold and protect his voice in a production.
Admitting it’s a double-edged sword to announce that a performer has a cold — it sets people up to expect something inferior and then they wonder what all the fuss was about — Braun decided it was the proper way to acknowledge to those who know his voice well that he wasn’t in top form.
The role of Orestes is emotionally and physically taxing, says Braun, and throughout the opera’s run which began Sept. 22 he’s learned not to overexert his voice in the explosive opening.
Even when healthy, he says: “I always feel incredibly drained after this opera.”
He’s resting and drinking lots of fluids and hoping he’ll be much better on Saturday afternoon for the next show.
2011年9月29日星期四
2011年9月28日星期三
Traffic officer jailed for giving girlfriend herpes freed
A traffic officer who was jailed for giving his ex-girlfriend genital herpes today walked free from prison on bail after launching an appeal against his conviction.
David Christopher Edward Golding, 28, from Braunston, Northamptonshire, was jailed for 14 months at Northampton Crown Court last month after admitting causing grievous bodily harm.
But new evidence could cast doubt on whether it was Golding who actually passed on the sexually transmitted infection to the woman, the Court of Appeal heard today.
A prosecution-commissioned medical report suggests that it could not be proved that it was definitely Golding who gave the victim the disease.
Mr Justice Burnett, sitting at the London court, granted Golding's application for bail to allow him to go home while new evidence is gathered for his appeal.
Golding, who worked for the Highways Agency, was accused of recklessly infecting his then partner with the genital herpes virus when they were together about two years ago.
But his jailing caused outrage among sexual health groups, who said the sentence would add to the stigma attached to carriers of the 'trivial' condition.
The appeal is to be based around examination of a blood sample given by the woman some time ago, which might cast doubt on Golding's guilt, Mr Justice Burnett told the court.
'This whole matter should not go into the long grass whilst both parties seek further expert evidence,' the appeal judge added.
'It is important that this proceeds with some speed. If the conclusion following the further medical evidence is that causation really could not be proved, then the sooner that is, the better.
'As importantly, if the outcome excludes the possibility of causation by another route, then that needs to be known as quickly as possible because the appellant may, in those circumstances, have to return to custody to continue to serve his sentence.'
Granting bail pending appeals is a rare move for the Court of Appeal, but Mr Justice Burnett said Golding's was an 'exceptional' case.
His legal team may also argue that it was wrong that he pleaded guilty to causing grievous bodily harm, rather than the less serious offence of causing actual bodily harm, which carries a lesser sentence.
At the time of the sentencing, Golding’s parents, Janet, 64, and Christopher, 59, said they were shocked by the jail term.
Mrs Golding said: ‘This is David’s first offence and we are distraught at what might happen to him in jail. He’s a good son who did not deserve this.’
Her husband said that he found the sentence ‘difficult to understand’.
The virus which causes genital herpes could cause an outbreak or lie dormant for years, during which time it is not infectious. Many people remain unaware they are infected.
Those who do display symptoms usually suffer fever, headache and tiredness and small blisters and itching.
Nigel Scott, spokesman for the Herpes Viruses Association, said Golding’s sentence was ‘outrageous’ and compared the case to prosecuting children for ‘giving their friends chicken pox’.
He added: ‘It is such a trivial infection that most people don’t notice it. It has exactly the same medical implications and consequences as an ordinary facial cold sore.’
Marian Nicholson, director of the HVA, added: ‘Many of those who are diagnosed are reluctant to disclose their status but this is because of the unnecessary stigma, not because it is serious ... emphatically it is not.’
The appeal is unlikely to return to court for at least a month, but Golding will be allowed to go home while further investigation is undertaken.
David Christopher Edward Golding, 28, from Braunston, Northamptonshire, was jailed for 14 months at Northampton Crown Court last month after admitting causing grievous bodily harm.
But new evidence could cast doubt on whether it was Golding who actually passed on the sexually transmitted infection to the woman, the Court of Appeal heard today.
A prosecution-commissioned medical report suggests that it could not be proved that it was definitely Golding who gave the victim the disease.
Mr Justice Burnett, sitting at the London court, granted Golding's application for bail to allow him to go home while new evidence is gathered for his appeal.
Golding, who worked for the Highways Agency, was accused of recklessly infecting his then partner with the genital herpes virus when they were together about two years ago.
But his jailing caused outrage among sexual health groups, who said the sentence would add to the stigma attached to carriers of the 'trivial' condition.
The appeal is to be based around examination of a blood sample given by the woman some time ago, which might cast doubt on Golding's guilt, Mr Justice Burnett told the court.
'This whole matter should not go into the long grass whilst both parties seek further expert evidence,' the appeal judge added.
'It is important that this proceeds with some speed. If the conclusion following the further medical evidence is that causation really could not be proved, then the sooner that is, the better.
'As importantly, if the outcome excludes the possibility of causation by another route, then that needs to be known as quickly as possible because the appellant may, in those circumstances, have to return to custody to continue to serve his sentence.'
Granting bail pending appeals is a rare move for the Court of Appeal, but Mr Justice Burnett said Golding's was an 'exceptional' case.
His legal team may also argue that it was wrong that he pleaded guilty to causing grievous bodily harm, rather than the less serious offence of causing actual bodily harm, which carries a lesser sentence.
At the time of the sentencing, Golding’s parents, Janet, 64, and Christopher, 59, said they were shocked by the jail term.
Mrs Golding said: ‘This is David’s first offence and we are distraught at what might happen to him in jail. He’s a good son who did not deserve this.’
Her husband said that he found the sentence ‘difficult to understand’.
The virus which causes genital herpes could cause an outbreak or lie dormant for years, during which time it is not infectious. Many people remain unaware they are infected.
Those who do display symptoms usually suffer fever, headache and tiredness and small blisters and itching.
Nigel Scott, spokesman for the Herpes Viruses Association, said Golding’s sentence was ‘outrageous’ and compared the case to prosecuting children for ‘giving their friends chicken pox’.
He added: ‘It is such a trivial infection that most people don’t notice it. It has exactly the same medical implications and consequences as an ordinary facial cold sore.’
Marian Nicholson, director of the HVA, added: ‘Many of those who are diagnosed are reluctant to disclose their status but this is because of the unnecessary stigma, not because it is serious ... emphatically it is not.’
The appeal is unlikely to return to court for at least a month, but Golding will be allowed to go home while further investigation is undertaken.
2011年9月27日星期二
Researching the Sneeze and How to Handle It
THE paper products aisle generally is not seasonal, with consumers using about the same amount of toilet paper, napkins or paper towels every month. But not so with facial tissue: as cold and flu season rears its congested head, monthly sales increase as much as 65 percent over the summer months.
Generally that surge is good news for Kleenex, the Kimberly-Clark brand that invented facial tissue 87 years ago. But both Kleenex and Puffs, a Procter & Gamble brand, lost market share during the economic downturn to cheaper store brands.
In the 52 weeks that ended on June 13, 2010, for example, Kleenex sales dropped 5.5 percent from the previous year, and Puffs, a Procter & Gamble brand, dropped 3.2 percent, while store brands climbed 6.4 percent, according to SymphonyIRI Group data, which does not include Wal-Mart.
Now Kleenex has something it claims is a first: Along with lotion, Kleenex Cool Touch contains ingredients that promise cooling relief tosore noses. A Cool Touch commercial — by JWT New York, part of the WPP Group — is scheduled to be introduced Monday, and the campaign will include print and online advertising as well as social media marketing.
“This really is a game-changing innovation,” said Craig Smith, the brand director for Kleenex. “This is the only tissue that releases a cool sensation, and it takes soothing to a whole different level.”
Kleenex, which declined to reveal how much it will spend on the campaign, spent $51.9 million on advertising in 2010, compared with $29.5 million by Puffs, according to Kantar Media, a division of WPP.
Soon after being introduced in 1924 as a “sanitary cold cream remover” for women, who had tended to reuse towels for that purpose, a Kimberly-Clark researcher with hay fever began using Kleenex tissues for his sniffles, and advertising soon declared them “the handkerchief for health.”
Internal Kleenex research indicates that softness is the most important quality for 84 percent of facial tissue purchasers, but the company and its competitors still pursue other innovations to stand out on the shelf.
Puffs, for example, which began in 1960, introduced Puffs Plus with lotion in the United States in 1987, and Kleenex responded with its first lotion tissue in 1996.
In 2004, Kleenex introduced antiviral tissues, which promise to contain germs from sneezes better than conventional tissues.
And P&G in 2007 introduced Puffs Plus with the Scent of Vicks, a lotion-infused facial tissue that smells like menthol, with the selling point being not that Vicks helps comfort skin but rather that it has a comforting smell.
Kleenex Cool Touch, in contrast, is unscented. Among households that use facial tissue, 89 percent buy unscented varieties, while only 19 percent buy scented varieties, according to Mintel, a market research firm.
“We find that scent quite frankly is polarizing, with some who really enjoy it and some who don’t,” said Tracy Buelow, the Kleenex brand manager. “When consumers are doing excessive wiping, they get what they term a ‘hot,sore nose,’ and while cooling tissues counteract that hot and burning feeling, scent doesn’t address that need.”
Generally that surge is good news for Kleenex, the Kimberly-Clark brand that invented facial tissue 87 years ago. But both Kleenex and Puffs, a Procter & Gamble brand, lost market share during the economic downturn to cheaper store brands.
In the 52 weeks that ended on June 13, 2010, for example, Kleenex sales dropped 5.5 percent from the previous year, and Puffs, a Procter & Gamble brand, dropped 3.2 percent, while store brands climbed 6.4 percent, according to SymphonyIRI Group data, which does not include Wal-Mart.
Now Kleenex has something it claims is a first: Along with lotion, Kleenex Cool Touch contains ingredients that promise cooling relief to
“This really is a game-changing innovation,” said Craig Smith, the brand director for Kleenex. “This is the only tissue that releases a cool sensation, and it takes soothing to a whole different level.”
Kleenex, which declined to reveal how much it will spend on the campaign, spent $51.9 million on advertising in 2010, compared with $29.5 million by Puffs, according to Kantar Media, a division of WPP.
Soon after being introduced in 1924 as a “sanitary cold cream remover” for women, who had tended to reuse towels for that purpose, a Kimberly-Clark researcher with hay fever began using Kleenex tissues for his sniffles, and advertising soon declared them “the handkerchief for health.”
Internal Kleenex research indicates that softness is the most important quality for 84 percent of facial tissue purchasers, but the company and its competitors still pursue other innovations to stand out on the shelf.
Puffs, for example, which began in 1960, introduced Puffs Plus with lotion in the United States in 1987, and Kleenex responded with its first lotion tissue in 1996.
In 2004, Kleenex introduced antiviral tissues, which promise to contain germs from sneezes better than conventional tissues.
And P&G in 2007 introduced Puffs Plus with the Scent of Vicks, a lotion-infused facial tissue that smells like menthol, with the selling point being not that Vicks helps comfort skin but rather that it has a comforting smell.
Kleenex Cool Touch, in contrast, is unscented. Among households that use facial tissue, 89 percent buy unscented varieties, while only 19 percent buy scented varieties, according to Mintel, a market research firm.
“We find that scent quite frankly is polarizing, with some who really enjoy it and some who don’t,” said Tracy Buelow, the Kleenex brand manager. “When consumers are doing excessive wiping, they get what they term a ‘hot,
2011年9月26日星期一
Check-up genital herpes
Genital herpes is caused by the herpes simplex virus, of which there are two types. Type 1 commonly causes cold sores on the mouth and lips but can also cause genital herpes. Type 2 causes genital herpes but can also infect the mouth. Once it has infected someone, the virus remains in their nerve cells for life.
Most people contract genital herpes by having vaginal, anal or oral sex with an infected person. Even close skin-to-skin contact with someone who is infected can spread the virus. Typically this occurs when the carrier of the virus is experiencing an outbreak of symptoms. But because some sufferers can have a herpes outbreak without showing any symptoms, infection can also occur during these periods.
The first symptoms usually appear within two weeks of a person becoming infected. These last for several weeks and include tingling or sores on the genital or rectal area.
In women, sores may develop inside the vagina and on the cervix. In men, lesions usually appear on or around the penis. Small red bumps appear first and develop into blisters. These become itchy and painful sores that typically develop a crust before healing without leaving a scar.
Other symptoms during the first outbreak can include fever, headache, muscle aches and painful urination. There may be vaginal discharge or swollen glands in the groin area. Some people who have mild symptoms, or none at all, may not know they are infected, but they can still transmit the virus to others.
For most sufferers the virus causes outbreaks several times a year. Recurrences are generally much milder than the first outbreak and tend to become less common over time.
There is no cure for genital herpes, but antiviral medicines may help treat symptoms and prevent future outbreaks. This can decrease the risk of passing herpes to sexual partners.
Genital herpes can cause medical complications in some instances, particularly in the case of babies born to mothers with the condition.
To help prevent the risk of contracting genital herpes, avoid oral-genital contact if either sexual partner has any symptoms of oral herpes.
Using barriers, such as condoms, during sexual activity may decrease transmission when used consistently and correctly, but transmission can still occur because a condom may not cover all infected areas.
Most people contract genital herpes by having vaginal, anal or oral sex with an infected person. Even close skin-to-skin contact with someone who is infected can spread the virus. Typically this occurs when the carrier of the virus is experiencing an outbreak of symptoms. But because some sufferers can have a herpes outbreak without showing any symptoms, infection can also occur during these periods.
The first symptoms usually appear within two weeks of a person becoming infected. These last for several weeks and include tingling or sores on the genital or rectal area.
In women, sores may develop inside the vagina and on the cervix. In men, lesions usually appear on or around the penis. Small red bumps appear first and develop into blisters. These become itchy and painful sores that typically develop a crust before healing without leaving a scar.
Other symptoms during the first outbreak can include fever, headache, muscle aches and painful urination. There may be vaginal discharge or swollen glands in the groin area. Some people who have mild symptoms, or none at all, may not know they are infected, but they can still transmit the virus to others.
For most sufferers the virus causes outbreaks several times a year. Recurrences are generally much milder than the first outbreak and tend to become less common over time.
There is no cure for genital herpes, but antiviral medicines may help treat symptoms and prevent future outbreaks. This can decrease the risk of passing herpes to sexual partners.
Genital herpes can cause medical complications in some instances, particularly in the case of babies born to mothers with the condition.
To help prevent the risk of contracting genital herpes, avoid oral-genital contact if either sexual partner has any symptoms of oral herpes.
Using barriers, such as condoms, during sexual activity may decrease transmission when used consistently and correctly, but transmission can still occur because a condom may not cover all infected areas.
2011年9月25日星期日
New Hope Available for Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Sufferers
Having been undiagnosed and a medical enigma for most of my adult life, I was eager to visit Abby’s Health & Nutrition in Carrollwood to listen to Pam Ross last week.
Ross is a physician’s assistant who specialized in successfully treating chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia in patients for the last three years. She was on a speaking tour discussing her findings.
These syndromes, once misunderstood and oftentimes ignored, have only recently been recognized by the medical community as legitimate illnesses.
Ross has created a treatment in the form of a natural supplement called Virasyl with ingredients scientifically validated over 10 years of university and clinical research.
“Fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue are real,” said Ross. “These patients were being shunned. They were treated different than any other patient. They were referred to psychiatry and told, 'Sorry, it’s all in your head.' No. These issues need to be addressed and taken care of.”
To hear those words from the mouth of a physician’s assistant was a validation that I had been seeking for over 15 years.
My story started like many other sufferers. I remember waking up one morning in 1996 feeling like someone had taken a bat and beaten me repeatedly until there wasn’t a bone, tendon or muscle that didn’t ache. Getting out of bed did not feel like an option, but as a working mom to her precocious two year old, staying in bed wasn’t either.
Fast forward 15 years. My baby is graduating high school, and the flu I thought I woke up with has lasted her lifetime.
I personally identify with every patient who was considered to be a hypochondriac and told his ailment was psychosomatic, that he needed to see a psychiatrist because “people like him need special doctors he can talk to.”
I completely relate to the passage of years without answers, being so filled with hope, going for yet another blood test, MRI, ultrasound and x-ray from every “ist” and “ologist” on your insurance and several quacks not on any plan and having that hope dashed when results came back normal.
I understand the definition of “going back to square one,” and I know what it’s like to be treated with harsh chemicals - Buspar for a Persistent Anxiety Disorder that you do not have and Prozac for a depression that you are not in.
I know, firsthand, the overwhelming frustration of knowing something was wrong with you, feeling just 50 percent, looking perfectly healthy on the outside and not knowing what was happening on the inside, wondering if your friends and even your family really believed you because ‘You looked fine,’ feeling with every year without answers, you were slowly losing your mind.
Chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia presents itself in a number of ways. Sufferers often have a laundry list of symptoms like anxiety, problems sleeping, irritable bowel syndrome, interstitial cystitis, flu-like symptoms, low grade fever or chills, neck pain, shortness of breath, unexplained chest pain, skin rashes, night sweats, headaches, TMJ, chemical sensitivities, depression, acid reflux, canker sores, thinking and memory issues called fibro fog, on top of chronic fatigue and widespread muscle and joint pain.
Because doctors could not understand it, it was easier to chemically medicate a potential problem than to deal with the real underlying one. But putting chemicals in the body of a fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome sufferers doesn’t make sense. With the medicine treatment advertised regularly on TV, the side effects often sound worse than living with the chronic illness.
Ross has taken years of listening to her clinic patients’ needs to create a natural antiviral supplement called Virasyl that is at the very heart of what preventing what might be the cause of the illness, a stealthy, insidious virus.
“It may be from a ‘hidden’ chronic viral infection,” explained Ross. “Everyone has had a virus - whether it be chicken pox or a cold sore. Once you are exposed, it is with you for life. It hides in the tissues and comes out to replicate during times of stress or when the immune system is overwhelmed with other antigens or under physical or emotional stress.”
Ross said that stressors like losing a job, a car accident – stress or trauma cause the same response. Blood diverts to the heart and brain away from the GI tract.
Ross is a physician’s assistant who specialized in successfully treating chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia in patients for the last three years. She was on a speaking tour discussing her findings.
These syndromes, once misunderstood and oftentimes ignored, have only recently been recognized by the medical community as legitimate illnesses.
Ross has created a treatment in the form of a natural supplement called Virasyl with ingredients scientifically validated over 10 years of university and clinical research.
“Fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue are real,” said Ross. “These patients were being shunned. They were treated different than any other patient. They were referred to psychiatry and told, 'Sorry, it’s all in your head.' No. These issues need to be addressed and taken care of.”
To hear those words from the mouth of a physician’s assistant was a validation that I had been seeking for over 15 years.
My story started like many other sufferers. I remember waking up one morning in 1996 feeling like someone had taken a bat and beaten me repeatedly until there wasn’t a bone, tendon or muscle that didn’t ache. Getting out of bed did not feel like an option, but as a working mom to her precocious two year old, staying in bed wasn’t either.
Fast forward 15 years. My baby is graduating high school, and the flu I thought I woke up with has lasted her lifetime.
I personally identify with every patient who was considered to be a hypochondriac and told his ailment was psychosomatic, that he needed to see a psychiatrist because “people like him need special doctors he can talk to.”
I completely relate to the passage of years without answers, being so filled with hope, going for yet another blood test, MRI, ultrasound and x-ray from every “ist” and “ologist” on your insurance and several quacks not on any plan and having that hope dashed when results came back normal.
I understand the definition of “going back to square one,” and I know what it’s like to be treated with harsh chemicals - Buspar for a Persistent Anxiety Disorder that you do not have and Prozac for a depression that you are not in.
I know, firsthand, the overwhelming frustration of knowing something was wrong with you, feeling just 50 percent, looking perfectly healthy on the outside and not knowing what was happening on the inside, wondering if your friends and even your family really believed you because ‘You looked fine,’ feeling with every year without answers, you were slowly losing your mind.
Chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia presents itself in a number of ways. Sufferers often have a laundry list of symptoms like anxiety, problems sleeping, irritable bowel syndrome, interstitial cystitis, flu-like symptoms, low grade fever or chills, neck pain, shortness of breath, unexplained chest pain, skin rashes, night sweats, headaches, TMJ, chemical sensitivities, depression, acid reflux, canker sores, thinking and memory issues called fibro fog, on top of chronic fatigue and widespread muscle and joint pain.
Because doctors could not understand it, it was easier to chemically medicate a potential problem than to deal with the real underlying one. But putting chemicals in the body of a fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome sufferers doesn’t make sense. With the medicine treatment advertised regularly on TV, the side effects often sound worse than living with the chronic illness.
Ross has taken years of listening to her clinic patients’ needs to create a natural antiviral supplement called Virasyl that is at the very heart of what preventing what might be the cause of the illness, a stealthy, insidious virus.
“It may be from a ‘hidden’ chronic viral infection,” explained Ross. “Everyone has had a virus - whether it be chicken pox or a cold sore. Once you are exposed, it is with you for life. It hides in the tissues and comes out to replicate during times of stress or when the immune system is overwhelmed with other antigens or under physical or emotional stress.”
Ross said that stressors like losing a job, a car accident – stress or trauma cause the same response. Blood diverts to the heart and brain away from the GI tract.
2011年9月22日星期四
Candidates go homeless for a night
Three provincial election candidates slept outside in the rain on Monday night to experience — albeit for only 10 hours — what it's like to be homeless.
With only sleeping bags and the clothes on their back, Mississauga-Erindale NDP hopeful Michelle Bilek, Dalbir Kathuria (Brampton West NDP) and Patti Chmelyk (Brampton West Green Party) spent the night (from about 9 p.m. to 7 a.m.) in Duggan Park in Brampton.
They were the only candidates in Peel's nine ridings to accept the challenge from Peel Poverty Action Group (PPAG) to see what it's like to be homeless for one night.
The trio was joined by David Cullen, a volunteer with the Brampton Neighbourhood Resource Centre who guided them and talked to them about what it's like to be on the streets. Cullen, who was homeless for 25 years, showed the candidates places frequented by the homeless, including the wooded area where they spent the night.
Bilek, who shared her experience via Twitter, told The News they met a few homeless people during the night. She said it reminded her of a period in her life when she lived in a car.
Bilek said it's still difficult to talk about how, for several months while she was a university student, she slept in her car and relied on friends and family to help her while she tried to keep up with her studies.
Of Monday night's experience, Bilek said: "It was cold and there was a little bit of fear of what was going to happen, if we were safe, but we felt the camaraderie of being together and we knew that by doing this it would bring awareness to the issue of poverty, and homelessness is at the core of it."
She added that herself, the other two candidates and Cullen spent most of the night talking about ways to eradicate homelessness.
Although she woke up cold, sore and barely rested, Bilek said it was one of the greatest, and most eye-opening, experiences of her life.
Unfortunately, she noted, things haven't gotten any better for people in recent years.
"Your pay cheque is not going very far and the cost of living is going up," she said. "We're at a critical time here in Ontario where we have to make a move to adjust and put people first and give them the support systems they need. When you're worrying about your bills all the time, you really can't live."
PPAG officials say about 1,000 people a month use homeless shelters in Peel. Furthermore, some 15,500 families are on a waiting list for homes they can afford — and they'll be waiting for as long as 20 years.
With only sleeping bags and the clothes on their back, Mississauga-Erindale NDP hopeful Michelle Bilek, Dalbir Kathuria (Brampton West NDP) and Patti Chmelyk (Brampton West Green Party) spent the night (from about 9 p.m. to 7 a.m.) in Duggan Park in Brampton.
They were the only candidates in Peel's nine ridings to accept the challenge from Peel Poverty Action Group (PPAG) to see what it's like to be homeless for one night.
The trio was joined by David Cullen, a volunteer with the Brampton Neighbourhood Resource Centre who guided them and talked to them about what it's like to be on the streets. Cullen, who was homeless for 25 years, showed the candidates places frequented by the homeless, including the wooded area where they spent the night.
Bilek, who shared her experience via Twitter, told The News they met a few homeless people during the night. She said it reminded her of a period in her life when she lived in a car.
Bilek said it's still difficult to talk about how, for several months while she was a university student, she slept in her car and relied on friends and family to help her while she tried to keep up with her studies.
Of Monday night's experience, Bilek said: "It was cold and there was a little bit of fear of what was going to happen, if we were safe, but we felt the camaraderie of being together and we knew that by doing this it would bring awareness to the issue of poverty, and homelessness is at the core of it."
She added that herself, the other two candidates and Cullen spent most of the night talking about ways to eradicate homelessness.
Although she woke up cold, sore and barely rested, Bilek said it was one of the greatest, and most eye-opening, experiences of her life.
Unfortunately, she noted, things haven't gotten any better for people in recent years.
"Your pay cheque is not going very far and the cost of living is going up," she said. "We're at a critical time here in Ontario where we have to make a move to adjust and put people first and give them the support systems they need. When you're worrying about your bills all the time, you really can't live."
PPAG officials say about 1,000 people a month use homeless shelters in Peel. Furthermore, some 15,500 families are on a waiting list for homes they can afford — and they'll be waiting for as long as 20 years.
2011年9月21日星期三
What's going around?
This week, Grand Strand doctors are seeing a lot of upper respiratory illnesses going around.
At Beach Urgent Care, Dr. Ron Reynolds says he's seeing many patients suffering from an early start to cold season.
Symptoms include nasal drainage, low grade fever, sore throat and coughing. He says it's affecting all ages and for the most part, antibiotics aren't needed. Dr. Reynolds recommends fluids, rest and some good, old-fashioned chicken noodle soup.
At Seacoast Primary Care in Little River, Dr. Ray Holt is seeing a lot of bronchitis cases. He says it starts with cold symptoms, but they tend to go away and leave behind a cough.
The cough may turn from dry to wet and Dr. Holt says Robitussin may help ease the cough at night. He says you should see a doctor if the cough lasts more than a week, you feel short of breath or have a high fever.
At Grand Strand Pediatrics, Dr. Nick Colvard is seeing a lot of asthma flare ups. He says it's probably due to the change in weather. Symptoms include wheezing, coughing and trouble breathing.
If you have these symptoms and they don't respond to your normal asthma medication, you should see your doctor as soon as possible.
Dr. Richard Joslin says he's seeing Doctor's Care Strand Office patients complaining about one of three things: summer colds, allergies or sinuses. Dr. Joslin says the symptoms are similar but the causes are different. He says summer colds are caused by viruses that are usually inhaled and can lead to a runny nose and occasional muscle aches.
If it's allergies, symptoms may include a runny nose and sneezing. A sinus infection tends to cause more stuffiness in the nose but at times may open up and run as well. A sinus infection is bacterial and generally starts as a cold.
Dr. Joslin says treatment for a cold depends on the symptoms. Over-the-counter medication may help treat a runny nose. You should also consume fluids and get rest. A sinus infection often requires an antibiotic, which means a trip to the doctor.
Allergies, if mild to moderate, can also be treated with over-the-counter medication, but if more severe, you may need a prescription.
At Beach Urgent Care, Dr. Ron Reynolds says he's seeing many patients suffering from an early start to cold season.
Symptoms include nasal drainage, low grade fever, sore throat and coughing. He says it's affecting all ages and for the most part, antibiotics aren't needed. Dr. Reynolds recommends fluids, rest and some good, old-fashioned chicken noodle soup.
At Seacoast Primary Care in Little River, Dr. Ray Holt is seeing a lot of bronchitis cases. He says it starts with cold symptoms, but they tend to go away and leave behind a cough.
The cough may turn from dry to wet and Dr. Holt says Robitussin may help ease the cough at night. He says you should see a doctor if the cough lasts more than a week, you feel short of breath or have a high fever.
At Grand Strand Pediatrics, Dr. Nick Colvard is seeing a lot of asthma flare ups. He says it's probably due to the change in weather. Symptoms include wheezing, coughing and trouble breathing.
If you have these symptoms and they don't respond to your normal asthma medication, you should see your doctor as soon as possible.
Dr. Richard Joslin says he's seeing Doctor's Care Strand Office patients complaining about one of three things: summer colds, allergies or sinuses. Dr. Joslin says the symptoms are similar but the causes are different. He says summer colds are caused by viruses that are usually inhaled and can lead to a runny nose and occasional muscle aches.
If it's allergies, symptoms may include a runny nose and sneezing. A sinus infection tends to cause more stuffiness in the nose but at times may open up and run as well. A sinus infection is bacterial and generally starts as a cold.
Dr. Joslin says treatment for a cold depends on the symptoms. Over-the-counter medication may help treat a runny nose. You should also consume fluids and get rest. A sinus infection often requires an antibiotic, which means a trip to the doctor.
Allergies, if mild to moderate, can also be treated with over-the-counter medication, but if more severe, you may need a prescription.
2011年9月20日星期二
DHEC clinics offer flu vaccine in area
High fever, sore throat, dry cough, fatigue and muscle aches all come from the flu bug's sting, but vaccination clinics are now set to prevent those outcomes for T&D Region residents.
Public health departments in the Edisto Savannah Public Health District Region 5 area - including those in Orangeburg, Bamberg, Calhoun and Barnwell counties - have now begun administering vaccinations for the highly infectious virus.
The nation's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention touts the flu vaccine as the first and most important step in protecting against the virus.
"The CDC does not expect any kind of shortage at all. We got our vaccine supply early this year, so we already have some in stock," said Jodie Miller, immunization coordinator for the Edisto Savannah Public Health District.
Groups recommended to receive flu shots are: adults 50 years of age and older; all children 6 months to 18 years old; pregnant women; people of any age with chronic health problems like asthma, heart disease or a weakened immune system; health workers; and caregivers to the high-risk including babies younger than 6 months old.
"All of our clinics are going to be by appointment only," Miller said. "There is a $25 administration fee for adults. There will be a $13 administration fee for children eligible under the South Carolina Vaccines for Children program."
Individuals 18 years of age and younger who meet at least one of the following categories are eligible to receive VFC vaccines: uninsured; enrolled in or eligible for Medicaid; American Indian or Alaskan Native; and underinsured. The underinsured category applies only to federally qualified health centers, rural health clinics and DHEC clinics.
"The flu vaccine which DHEC clinics in Region 5 will have for children this year is funded by the VFC program and can only be given to children who meet the eligibility requirements for the program," Miller said. "If a child is insured, they should really go to their medical home or possibly some other vendors such as drugstores."
She said adults coming to the health department for a vaccine will only be administered inactivated flu vaccine - the standard flu shot - this year. Children will be offered both the needle shot or MedImmune's FluMist. FluMist nasal spray is available for people ages 2 to 49 who are healthy, with no underlying health conditions, and are not pregnant. Unlike flu shots that are made with killed flu virus, FluMist is made with live, but weakened, virus.
"We are actively encouraging people to get vaccinated against the flu," said Drew Gerald, disease surveillance and response coordinator at the Orangeburg County Health Department. "Unlike the commoncold , symptoms come on suddenly and are usually marked by high fever, headache and muscle aches. Occasionally, you can have gastrointestinal symptoms such as vomiting, nausea and diarrhea."
He said coughing and sneezing into your sleeve or tissue instead of your hand, washing hands thoroughly and often, and staying home when you are sick are some of the simplest ways individuals can help prevent the spread of flu.
Public health departments in the Edisto Savannah Public Health District Region 5 area - including those in Orangeburg, Bamberg, Calhoun and Barnwell counties - have now begun administering vaccinations for the highly infectious virus.
The nation's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention touts the flu vaccine as the first and most important step in protecting against the virus.
"The CDC does not expect any kind of shortage at all. We got our vaccine supply early this year, so we already have some in stock," said Jodie Miller, immunization coordinator for the Edisto Savannah Public Health District.
Groups recommended to receive flu shots are: adults 50 years of age and older; all children 6 months to 18 years old; pregnant women; people of any age with chronic health problems like asthma, heart disease or a weakened immune system; health workers; and caregivers to the high-risk including babies younger than 6 months old.
"All of our clinics are going to be by appointment only," Miller said. "There is a $25 administration fee for adults. There will be a $13 administration fee for children eligible under the South Carolina Vaccines for Children program."
Individuals 18 years of age and younger who meet at least one of the following categories are eligible to receive VFC vaccines: uninsured; enrolled in or eligible for Medicaid; American Indian or Alaskan Native; and underinsured. The underinsured category applies only to federally qualified health centers, rural health clinics and DHEC clinics.
"The flu vaccine which DHEC clinics in Region 5 will have for children this year is funded by the VFC program and can only be given to children who meet the eligibility requirements for the program," Miller said. "If a child is insured, they should really go to their medical home or possibly some other vendors such as drugstores."
She said adults coming to the health department for a vaccine will only be administered inactivated flu vaccine - the standard flu shot - this year. Children will be offered both the needle shot or MedImmune's FluMist. FluMist nasal spray is available for people ages 2 to 49 who are healthy, with no underlying health conditions, and are not pregnant. Unlike flu shots that are made with killed flu virus, FluMist is made with live, but weakened, virus.
"We are actively encouraging people to get vaccinated against the flu," said Drew Gerald, disease surveillance and response coordinator at the Orangeburg County Health Department. "Unlike the common
He said coughing and sneezing into your sleeve or tissue instead of your hand, washing hands thoroughly and often, and staying home when you are sick are some of the simplest ways individuals can help prevent the spread of flu.
2011年9月19日星期一
Curing your ailments one iPhone app at a time
Certain people rise above minor illness to conquer any obstacle in their way. I’m thinking specifically of Michael Jordan’s infamous Flu Game against the Utah Jazz in 1997. But not me... no chance. Personally, I get a bad sore throat and a night of cold sweats and I wait for the grim reaper to arrive at my door and deliver me from this minor inconvenience on Earth.
Failing his arrival, I look for apps. That’s what I did this week when some minor malady led to me sleeping roughly 24 hours over a two day period. The time I spent not zonked-out on cold meds was spent searching for good old-fashioned home remedies, the kind mom used to tell me never ever to bother with.
First up I tried Home Remedies ($0.99). Even as I write this, I’m not sure whether to take thiw app seriously or not. Sure, it has some handy tips for dealing with bruises and burns, but I get a bit more wary when it begins to offer tips for fighting Cholera, which I thought only existed in the Oregon Trail.
Needing something a bit more grounded, I tried the free Reader’s Digest Easy Home Remedies app. Boasting home remedies for 74 different ailments was a good start. And the ability to share the remedies with friends via Facebook was sort of charming, even if I’d never actually take the app up on the offer. I was generally sold on the Reader’s Digest app but I wanted more. After all, I wasn’t getting out of bed any time soon.
After following my own home remedy, “Endless tea drinking,” I tried Home Natural Remedies ($0.99), an app that promised me over 1,500 cures. It probably has cures to diseases of which I’ve never even heard. And that’s exciting. I especially liked the app picture of the pestle and mortar with a lemon. That let me know it was all natural from the get-go. Home Natural Remedies was also photo-heavy, which is helpful for someone like myself who can use all the help he can get when purchasing strange roots and leaves.
Finally I arrived at Natural Cures and Remedies ($0.99). It was slightly more bland than the rest, which I suppose was a given considering the name seems like an amalgamation of every similar remedy app out there.
My grand takeaway from this experiment is that while most of these home remedy apps could stand to get a little more creative in the naming department, they all offer a number of creative excuses to hold off on going to the doctor. At least until you’ve run out of odd roots you found on the street to mix into your food. And if I ever get a pet, I’ll be ready with the Home Remedies for Pets ($0.99) app, too! Ugh, that may have been a step too far. I think I’ll go lie down again.
Failing his arrival, I look for apps. That’s what I did this week when some minor malady led to me sleeping roughly 24 hours over a two day period. The time I spent not zonked-out on cold meds was spent searching for good old-fashioned home remedies, the kind mom used to tell me never ever to bother with.
First up I tried Home Remedies ($0.99). Even as I write this, I’m not sure whether to take thiw app seriously or not. Sure, it has some handy tips for dealing with bruises and burns, but I get a bit more wary when it begins to offer tips for fighting Cholera, which I thought only existed in the Oregon Trail.
Needing something a bit more grounded, I tried the free Reader’s Digest Easy Home Remedies app. Boasting home remedies for 74 different ailments was a good start. And the ability to share the remedies with friends via Facebook was sort of charming, even if I’d never actually take the app up on the offer. I was generally sold on the Reader’s Digest app but I wanted more. After all, I wasn’t getting out of bed any time soon.
After following my own home remedy, “Endless tea drinking,” I tried Home Natural Remedies ($0.99), an app that promised me over 1,500 cures. It probably has cures to diseases of which I’ve never even heard. And that’s exciting. I especially liked the app picture of the pestle and mortar with a lemon. That let me know it was all natural from the get-go. Home Natural Remedies was also photo-heavy, which is helpful for someone like myself who can use all the help he can get when purchasing strange roots and leaves.
Finally I arrived at Natural Cures and Remedies ($0.99). It was slightly more bland than the rest, which I suppose was a given considering the name seems like an amalgamation of every similar remedy app out there.
My grand takeaway from this experiment is that while most of these home remedy apps could stand to get a little more creative in the naming department, they all offer a number of creative excuses to hold off on going to the doctor. At least until you’ve run out of odd roots you found on the street to mix into your food. And if I ever get a pet, I’ll be ready with the Home Remedies for Pets ($0.99) app, too! Ugh, that may have been a step too far. I think I’ll go lie down again.
Can a mild infection give you the shakes?
A rigor, the symptom which you experienced, can indeed be alarming. But be reassured: as your GP explained, it is only a bout of exaggerated shivering that occurs when you have a high temperature and is a marker for what may be a significant infection.
When an infection takes hold, the inflammation causes various chemicals to be released into the bloodstream. These alter the setting of the natural thermostat in the brain, causing you to feel cold.
The body tries to remedy this drop in temperature by shivering — an involuntary muscle reflex that causes a rise in body heat.
When diagnosing the cause of rigors, doctors look for evidence of an infection — for instance, a respiratory infection, which would also cause a sore throat or cough; or a urinary infection, bladder pain or burning when passing water.
Abdominal symptoms, such as pain, vomiting or an upset bowel may also signal an infection in the colon, such as diverticulitis.
If nothing is immediately apparent, as was the case with you, reaching a conclusion about the cause is more difficult.
Here, the patient’s medical history is important and we need to consider a range of factors, such as past surgery or rheumatic heart disease (when the lining of the heart or the heart valves is damaged by a streptococcal throat infection earlier in life and has now become a source of infection).
Foreign travel and even contact with animals, may be other factors linked to infection. However, it is quite common to come across patients in whom there is no definite reason for the rigor — and, in a man of your age, the urinary tract is often to blame, even without any specific bladder symptoms.
One possible explanation is the gradual enlargement of the prostate in older men that occurs naturally with age. The prostate gland wraps around the exit pipe from the bladder and any increase in its size hinders the flow of liquid. As a result, there is usually a greater volume of residual urine remaining in the bladder after visiting the loo.
This residual liquid is not noticed by the individual, but the bacteria it contains can multiply and cause infection. The first clue of this might be a rising temperature and rigors — even without any other symptoms.
For that reason, even if an initial clinical examination of the throat, chest and abdomen does not reveal the source of infection, a dipstick test of the urine is essential to confirm or exclude that type of infection.
If testing of the urine shows a normal result and the temperature and rigors continue, then more exhaustive investigation is called for, such as blood tests and examination of the heart, lungs and abdomen by imaging with ultrasound or CT scanning, which may reveal an infection or abscess somewhere else in the body.
This time, the antibiotics you took were effective, despite the lack of an exact diagnosis. But if there is another episode, you should be investigated in further detail.
When an infection takes hold, the inflammation causes various chemicals to be released into the bloodstream. These alter the setting of the natural thermostat in the brain, causing you to feel cold.
The body tries to remedy this drop in temperature by shivering — an involuntary muscle reflex that causes a rise in body heat.
When diagnosing the cause of rigors, doctors look for evidence of an infection — for instance, a respiratory infection, which would also cause a sore throat or cough; or a urinary infection, bladder pain or burning when passing water.
Abdominal symptoms, such as pain, vomiting or an upset bowel may also signal an infection in the colon, such as diverticulitis.
If nothing is immediately apparent, as was the case with you, reaching a conclusion about the cause is more difficult.
Here, the patient’s medical history is important and we need to consider a range of factors, such as past surgery or rheumatic heart disease (when the lining of the heart or the heart valves is damaged by a streptococcal throat infection earlier in life and has now become a source of infection).
Foreign travel and even contact with animals, may be other factors linked to infection. However, it is quite common to come across patients in whom there is no definite reason for the rigor — and, in a man of your age, the urinary tract is often to blame, even without any specific bladder symptoms.
One possible explanation is the gradual enlargement of the prostate in older men that occurs naturally with age. The prostate gland wraps around the exit pipe from the bladder and any increase in its size hinders the flow of liquid. As a result, there is usually a greater volume of residual urine remaining in the bladder after visiting the loo.
This residual liquid is not noticed by the individual, but the bacteria it contains can multiply and cause infection. The first clue of this might be a rising temperature and rigors — even without any other symptoms.
For that reason, even if an initial clinical examination of the throat, chest and abdomen does not reveal the source of infection, a dipstick test of the urine is essential to confirm or exclude that type of infection.
If testing of the urine shows a normal result and the temperature and rigors continue, then more exhaustive investigation is called for, such as blood tests and examination of the heart, lungs and abdomen by imaging with ultrasound or CT scanning, which may reveal an infection or abscess somewhere else in the body.
This time, the antibiotics you took were effective, despite the lack of an exact diagnosis. But if there is another episode, you should be investigated in further detail.
2011年9月18日星期日
Former favourite languishes in supporting role
Roberto Mancini made eye contact and delivered his words matter-of-factly. Carlos Tevez was not in the Manchester City team, he explained, because the cold reality was he did not deserve a place. "At this moment," he said, "there are players who are better than him."
His expression was of a man who had already taken the view that, if that meant problems further down the line, then so be it. The dynamics have changed at City this season. Mancini increasingly gives the impression he is not willing to bend for anyone, and the days are gone when the club were prepared to coddle Tevez, place an arm around his shoulder and tell him whatever he wanted to hear to make him feel special.
A manager can take these kind of decisions when he has two other players excelling in the arts of centre-forward play. Sergio Aguero has scored six times in his first five games since signing from Atletico Madrid. Edin Dzeko has seven goals from his five appearances and barely looks recognisable from the maladroit player who plodded through matches last season.
For Tevez, it meant a place among the substitutes for the Champions League tie against Napoli on Wednesday, and probably the same again when City take on Fulham at Craven Cottage today. Four league games into the season, Tevez has lost the captaincy and his place. "I don't know if he is happy," Mancini said. "But it's normal in football that any player who is not playing is not happy."
Tevez being Tevez, Mancini and his coaching staff have already discussed the possibility that, sooner or later, his rebellious side might come to the surface. Perhaps tellingly, however, it is not something that appears to trouble City as it once would have. One insight from Eastlands was of Mancini being encouraged by an apparent improvement in Mario Balotelli's training-ground behaviour.
The word is that if there is a mutinous reaction from Tevez the manager is comfortable about Balotelli taking over as first-choice understudy.
The lesson of history is that Tevez does not take well to feeling underused. "He's not someone who can play one game in three and be happy," Gary Neville writes in his new autobiography, confirming what everyone had suspected about Tevez's second season at Manchester United. "He was in and out of the team and he became insecure. After the hunger of the first year, he'd started to toss it off a bit in training. He was constantly saying his back was sore. He'd become very fond of a massage."
They can tell you at West Ham, too, about Tevez's desire to be the biggest fish in every pond. Tevez reacted to being substituted in one game at Upton Park by storming out of the ground. He did apologise to the manager, Alan Pardew, but his dislike of other people making his choices was evident again when the other players were asked to choose a training-ground forfeit. They agreed he should wear a Brazil shirt. Tevez refused.
Neville's conclusion from two years together at Old Trafford is of a player whose ego never recovered from the signing of Dimitar Berbatov. "He's a brilliant striker, as he has proved at City. But I can judge only on what he did in that second season and, to all of us at United, it seemed his heart wasn't in it. He'd been upset by the signing of Berba, and Carlos needs to feel the love."
Except there is not a great deal of love and affection at Eastlands for a player who has made it clear he is in Manchester only because he could not arrange a multi-million pound escape route. Tevez scored or made almost half of City's league goals last season, but Aguero's arrival is marginalising him in the way Berbatov did at United and, just as at Old Trafford, there is a sense at City that he is not giving everything in training. "When he is playing well," Mancini said, "probably he will have a chance."
The supporters have new heroes. Vincent Kompany wears the armband these days and, when the teams were read out for the Napoli game, there was not even a flicker of surprise that Tevez had been left out. A year ago, with City needing a goal, the crowd would have implored Mancini to introduce him. On this occasion the sideshow of Tevez's warm-up -- a few stretches on the spot while repeatedly looking over to Mancini -- passed almost unnoticed.
His expression was of a man who had already taken the view that, if that meant problems further down the line, then so be it. The dynamics have changed at City this season. Mancini increasingly gives the impression he is not willing to bend for anyone, and the days are gone when the club were prepared to coddle Tevez, place an arm around his shoulder and tell him whatever he wanted to hear to make him feel special.
A manager can take these kind of decisions when he has two other players excelling in the arts of centre-forward play. Sergio Aguero has scored six times in his first five games since signing from Atletico Madrid. Edin Dzeko has seven goals from his five appearances and barely looks recognisable from the maladroit player who plodded through matches last season.
For Tevez, it meant a place among the substitutes for the Champions League tie against Napoli on Wednesday, and probably the same again when City take on Fulham at Craven Cottage today. Four league games into the season, Tevez has lost the captaincy and his place. "I don't know if he is happy," Mancini said. "But it's normal in football that any player who is not playing is not happy."
Tevez being Tevez, Mancini and his coaching staff have already discussed the possibility that, sooner or later, his rebellious side might come to the surface. Perhaps tellingly, however, it is not something that appears to trouble City as it once would have. One insight from Eastlands was of Mancini being encouraged by an apparent improvement in Mario Balotelli's training-ground behaviour.
The word is that if there is a mutinous reaction from Tevez the manager is comfortable about Balotelli taking over as first-choice understudy.
The lesson of history is that Tevez does not take well to feeling underused. "He's not someone who can play one game in three and be happy," Gary Neville writes in his new autobiography, confirming what everyone had suspected about Tevez's second season at Manchester United. "He was in and out of the team and he became insecure. After the hunger of the first year, he'd started to toss it off a bit in training. He was constantly saying his back was sore. He'd become very fond of a massage."
They can tell you at West Ham, too, about Tevez's desire to be the biggest fish in every pond. Tevez reacted to being substituted in one game at Upton Park by storming out of the ground. He did apologise to the manager, Alan Pardew, but his dislike of other people making his choices was evident again when the other players were asked to choose a training-ground forfeit. They agreed he should wear a Brazil shirt. Tevez refused.
Neville's conclusion from two years together at Old Trafford is of a player whose ego never recovered from the signing of Dimitar Berbatov. "He's a brilliant striker, as he has proved at City. But I can judge only on what he did in that second season and, to all of us at United, it seemed his heart wasn't in it. He'd been upset by the signing of Berba, and Carlos needs to feel the love."
Except there is not a great deal of love and affection at Eastlands for a player who has made it clear he is in Manchester only because he could not arrange a multi-million pound escape route. Tevez scored or made almost half of City's league goals last season, but Aguero's arrival is marginalising him in the way Berbatov did at United and, just as at Old Trafford, there is a sense at City that he is not giving everything in training. "When he is playing well," Mancini said, "probably he will have a chance."
The supporters have new heroes. Vincent Kompany wears the armband these days and, when the teams were read out for the Napoli game, there was not even a flicker of surprise that Tevez had been left out. A year ago, with City needing a goal, the crowd would have implored Mancini to introduce him. On this occasion the sideshow of Tevez's warm-up -- a few stretches on the spot while repeatedly looking over to Mancini -- passed almost unnoticed.
2011年9月15日星期四
Bob Kahrs: Infectious bovine rhinotracheitis
Infectious bovine rhinotracheitis (IBR) is caused by Bovine Herpes Virus-1. It is a globally distributed respiratory infection of cattle that induces fever, loss of appetite, coughing, rapid breathing, and nasal discharge. It can cause pregnant cattle to abort within 100 days of infection.
It sometimes produces diagnostically significant pus-filledcold -sore -like lesions in the nasal passages. These are found with flashlight-assisted searches and are often overlooked.
Initial IBR infections are usually non-fatal but can become deadly when complicated by stress, secondary bacterial infections including pneumonia, bovine virus diarrhea (BVD) virus, parainfluenza-3 virus, or other infections.
A closely related strain of Bovine herpesvirus-1 is called infectious pustular vulvovaginitis (IPV) virus. IPV virus causescold -sore -like lesions in the birth canal and on male genitals. IBR and IPV differ largely by their method of transmission and the fact that IPV is usually a localized infection.
Both of these bovine herpesviruses produce persistent latent infections that are carried for years and can be reactivated in healthy cows by stress or steroid injections. Such carrier cattle can initiate outbreaks in susceptible herds that are unvaccinated and free of infection.
IBR is diagnosed by its clinical signs and lesions, by isolation of the virus, or by paired blood samples that lack IBR antibodies early in the infection but are positive three weeks later. Treatment with antibacterials helps control secondary infections.
It sometimes produces diagnostically significant pus-filled
Initial IBR infections are usually non-fatal but can become deadly when complicated by stress, secondary bacterial infections including pneumonia, bovine virus diarrhea (BVD) virus, parainfluenza-3 virus, or other infections.
A closely related strain of Bovine herpesvirus-1 is called infectious pustular vulvovaginitis (IPV) virus. IPV virus causes
Both of these bovine herpesviruses produce persistent latent infections that are carried for years and can be reactivated in healthy cows by stress or steroid injections. Such carrier cattle can initiate outbreaks in susceptible herds that are unvaccinated and free of infection.
IBR is diagnosed by its clinical signs and lesions, by isolation of the virus, or by paired blood samples that lack IBR antibodies early in the infection but are positive three weeks later. Treatment with antibacterials helps control secondary infections.
2011年9月14日星期三
Top travel tips for emergency food aid
According to over fifties travel review and advice website Silver Travel Advisor food isn’t just for eating, it can also be invaluable as a freely available medical aid and even a life saver, particularly when travelling.
Here are Silver Travel Advisor’s top tips for `Medicines on the Menu’ while on holiday:-
Freely available in bars and shops worldwide Coca-Cola can be used to take the pain out of a wasp sting, but never use on a bee sting. Cola contains phosphoric acid, which counters the akaline wasp sting whereas bee stings are acidic and Cola would have no effect.
The pain of jellyfish stings can be alleviated immediately by dousing the area with vinegar and rinsing with salt water (the sea will do). Remove the tentacles by scraping them off with a sea-shell or credit card and apply a cold compress. Never rinse stings with alcohol or fresh water or the pain and stinging will get worse.
Tomatoes are invaluable travel companions. To stop itching and swelling, apply raw tomato to insect bites. Simply apply a slice to the bite. If hair takes on a tinge of green after swimming in a chlorine laden pool, simply comb tomato sauce through it. And two cupfuls of tomato juice added to a warm bath helps dispel the odours of excess perspiration, especially in hot climates. Sit in the tomato infused water for 15 – 20 minutes and you’ll be ready to face the heat again.
A cold or sore throat is a miserable holiday companion. Infuse a mug of boiled water with ginger to create a fast and simple cure for sore throats, especially if caught in a monsoon or on the promenade on a wet afternoon in Bognor. Ginger can also be taken to suppress nausea and alleviate motion sickness.
Raid the condiment pots in the hotel or restaurant for salt and apply directly to mouth ulcers. It’ll sting like crazy at first, but the soreness of the ulcer fades like magic. Alternatively if a glass of water and a sink are at hand, regular saltwater mouth washes have the same effect.
Yoghurt is one of the greatest and healthiest food aids. It’s an antibiotic, an immunity booster and helps clear up travellers’ diarrhea, it also soothes ulcers and rids women of yeast infections. Check the label first to make sure it contains a live acidophilus culture.
Found naturally throughout Asia and the Far East and in supermarkets worldwide, cinnamon has an antimicrobial action and can quickly settle nausia and upset stomachs. Eat it in stews, on toast, in desserts and teas and a daily does will keep the doctor away.
The Greeks apply a lighted match to a small container of ground coffee to keep wasps away. Just a couple of teaspoons on a saucer or small dish will smoulder for hours, it’s cheap to top up and even if the wasps persist, it smells nice.
To counteract the anxiety caused by airport queues, flight delays and general travel stresses, bite on a banana. This happy fruit’s 105 calories and 14g of sugar provides a mild blood sugar boost which helps the brain produce mellowing serotonin.
For an emergency sunscreen, slice open an avodaco. This oil-rich, nutrient rich and delicious fruit offers rapid skin penetration which quickly protects, softens and soothes the skin. When the sun is behind the clouds, or proprietary sunscreen is at hand, apply to the skin, avocados can be used as a skin moisturizer, cleansing cream, makeup base, bath oil, and hair conditioner.
Silver Travel Advisor’s MD, Debbie Marshall, said “It’s well worth knowing some of the healing properties of common foods when travelling. Conventional medicines aren’t always readily available, pharmaceutical labels may be written in an unfamiliar language, prescriptive quantities can be ambiguous when quite often nature has a ready, freely available remedy that will bridge the gap until more conventional aid can be found”.
Here are Silver Travel Advisor’s top tips for `Medicines on the Menu’ while on holiday:-
Freely available in bars and shops worldwide Coca-Cola can be used to take the pain out of a wasp sting, but never use on a bee sting. Cola contains phosphoric acid, which counters the akaline wasp sting whereas bee stings are acidic and Cola would have no effect.
The pain of jellyfish stings can be alleviated immediately by dousing the area with vinegar and rinsing with salt water (the sea will do). Remove the tentacles by scraping them off with a sea-shell or credit card and apply a cold compress. Never rinse stings with alcohol or fresh water or the pain and stinging will get worse.
Tomatoes are invaluable travel companions. To stop itching and swelling, apply raw tomato to insect bites. Simply apply a slice to the bite. If hair takes on a tinge of green after swimming in a chlorine laden pool, simply comb tomato sauce through it. And two cupfuls of tomato juice added to a warm bath helps dispel the odours of excess perspiration, especially in hot climates. Sit in the tomato infused water for 15 – 20 minutes and you’ll be ready to face the heat again.
A cold or sore throat is a miserable holiday companion. Infuse a mug of boiled water with ginger to create a fast and simple cure for sore throats, especially if caught in a monsoon or on the promenade on a wet afternoon in Bognor. Ginger can also be taken to suppress nausea and alleviate motion sickness.
Raid the condiment pots in the hotel or restaurant for salt and apply directly to mouth ulcers. It’ll sting like crazy at first, but the soreness of the ulcer fades like magic. Alternatively if a glass of water and a sink are at hand, regular saltwater mouth washes have the same effect.
Yoghurt is one of the greatest and healthiest food aids. It’s an antibiotic, an immunity booster and helps clear up travellers’ diarrhea, it also soothes ulcers and rids women of yeast infections. Check the label first to make sure it contains a live acidophilus culture.
Found naturally throughout Asia and the Far East and in supermarkets worldwide, cinnamon has an antimicrobial action and can quickly settle nausia and upset stomachs. Eat it in stews, on toast, in desserts and teas and a daily does will keep the doctor away.
The Greeks apply a lighted match to a small container of ground coffee to keep wasps away. Just a couple of teaspoons on a saucer or small dish will smoulder for hours, it’s cheap to top up and even if the wasps persist, it smells nice.
To counteract the anxiety caused by airport queues, flight delays and general travel stresses, bite on a banana. This happy fruit’s 105 calories and 14g of sugar provides a mild blood sugar boost which helps the brain produce mellowing serotonin.
For an emergency sunscreen, slice open an avodaco. This oil-rich, nutrient rich and delicious fruit offers rapid skin penetration which quickly protects, softens and soothes the skin. When the sun is behind the clouds, or proprietary sunscreen is at hand, apply to the skin, avocados can be used as a skin moisturizer, cleansing cream, makeup base, bath oil, and hair conditioner.
Silver Travel Advisor’s MD, Debbie Marshall, said “It’s well worth knowing some of the healing properties of common foods when travelling. Conventional medicines aren’t always readily available, pharmaceutical labels may be written in an unfamiliar language, prescriptive quantities can be ambiguous when quite often nature has a ready, freely available remedy that will bridge the gap until more conventional aid can be found”.
2011年9月13日星期二
Staying healthy while traveling on business
Three road warriors sat across from me on a recent plane trip. They were hunched over working on their laptops, probably being very productive. Yet one was sneezing and another was coughing.
Research shows that frequent business travel takes a toll. According to a study by Andrew G. Ruedle and Catherine A. Richards of Columbia University's School of Public Health in New York, "people who travel for business two weeks or more a month are fatter and report worse health than employees who don't travel."
So what do you do if you must travel for your job? Here are a few tips.
Before you go: Be prepared. Build up your immune system in advance with rest, exercise, a good diet and vitamins, including vitamin C and zinc.
Check your health-insurance coverage: Most companies cover you if you travel domestically, but what about foreign travel?
Pack a first-aid kit: Your schedule will be so packed with meetings, business meals and entertaining that getting to a drugstore may not be possible. Include any prescriptions you take, asthma inhalers or other devices you use regularly, headache remedies, anti-diarrhea medicines, cold and sore-throat treatments, bandages, antibiotic creams and anything else you may need.
If you have a chronic or pre-existing condition: Take a letter from your doctor explaining your situation and your needs. It will help if you need medical attention in a strange city or country.
Need a doctor? Call your company's representative or check at the hotel desk. They can assist you.
While you're traveling: Forget the airplane food. Bring your own healthy snacks like dried fruit, fresh apples and bananas, nuts, healthy power bars and even a few pieces of dark chocolate (for antioxidants). Or bring a healthy sandwich or wrap from an airport vendor. Cut down on the caffeine intake. Too much can make you restless, disrupt your sleep and make you nervous. Good substitutes are water and vegetable and fruit juices.
Where to stay: If possible, choose a hotel that has a decent restaurant. You'll have convenient healthy meals and room service if you need it. Hotels with exercise facilities, pools and whirlpools are also very popular with business travelers.
Research shows that frequent business travel takes a toll. According to a study by Andrew G. Ruedle and Catherine A. Richards of Columbia University's School of Public Health in New York, "people who travel for business two weeks or more a month are fatter and report worse health than employees who don't travel."
So what do you do if you must travel for your job? Here are a few tips.
Before you go: Be prepared. Build up your immune system in advance with rest, exercise, a good diet and vitamins, including vitamin C and zinc.
Check your health-insurance coverage: Most companies cover you if you travel domestically, but what about foreign travel?
Pack a first-aid kit: Your schedule will be so packed with meetings, business meals and entertaining that getting to a drugstore may not be possible. Include any prescriptions you take, asthma inhalers or other devices you use regularly, headache remedies, anti-diarrhea medicines, cold and sore-throat treatments, bandages, antibiotic creams and anything else you may need.
If you have a chronic or pre-existing condition: Take a letter from your doctor explaining your situation and your needs. It will help if you need medical attention in a strange city or country.
Need a doctor? Call your company's representative or check at the hotel desk. They can assist you.
While you're traveling: Forget the airplane food. Bring your own healthy snacks like dried fruit, fresh apples and bananas, nuts, healthy power bars and even a few pieces of dark chocolate (for antioxidants). Or bring a healthy sandwich or wrap from an airport vendor. Cut down on the caffeine intake. Too much can make you restless, disrupt your sleep and make you nervous. Good substitutes are water and vegetable and fruit juices.
Where to stay: If possible, choose a hotel that has a decent restaurant. You'll have convenient healthy meals and room service if you need it. Hotels with exercise facilities, pools and whirlpools are also very popular with business travelers.
2011年9月12日星期一
Country living is hard work
The weather in South Jersey was crummy for most of the last week: torrential rain alternating with overcast days so humid I felt as though I were swimming instead of walking. Although I'm glad for the chance to visit family, the climate has meant a period of readjustment.
It was lovely to feel warm sun on my bare legs -- I rarely wear shorts in Seattle -- and to breathe air that wasn't as damp as the laundry I'd just pinned up. The weather was so nice, in fact, that I picked up a bunch of storm-thrown branches and twigs and piled them for kindling.
This week I'll help mow around several fields of Christmas trees (my dad grows them commercially) and tear down the dregs of this year's vegetable garden. I like to do these things. Heck, I didn't even mind hoeing weeds last week.
But that's probably because I don't have to do it all the time. If I did, I wouldn't wax rhapsodic about it.
Don't get me wrong: If I had a little piece of land or even a house with a yard, I'd be gardening and preserving and hanging out laundry. But I'd go into it with my eyes open. Real life is not a Martha Stewart magazine layout.
When you pull weeds or pick vegetables in a South Jersey summer, you're one long, sweaty ache. Canning tomatoes is, despite air conditioning, a hot and stinky job. Blanching, paring and slicing a basket of fruit for processing leaves your hands sore and shriveled.
City or suburban dwellers may daydream about country life: growing vegetables, making jam, watching their kids play on the lawn, raising chickens. The reality is considerably earthier, as it were.
It's mowing twice a week during summer's heat. It's fighting to keep deer, slugs, moles, weeds and those chickens away from your veggies, and getting your arms slashed picking blackberries. It's taking diseased produce or captured insects to the Cooperative Extension Service and saying "What is this?"
Oh, and that laundry you hung out? Plan on rewashing some of it. Birds, you know.
Is it worth it? Sure. It just takes effort. As my dad says, "That's why they call it 'work.' If it were fun they'd call it 'fun.'"
For now, and maybe forever, I'm a city girl. But I have a few daydreams of my own. Everbearing strawberries and dwarf fruit trees. A dozen shades and textures of lettuce. Snap peas so sweet and tender they don't need cooking.
Potatoes in red, blue and purple. Tomato plants sagging under the weight of scarlet fruit. Enough produce to eat all summer long, to share with neighbors and the food bank, and, yes, to can and freeze.
Last Friday night I dreamed about such a place, complete even to a milch goat -- which is weird, because I don't want one. But it doesn't surprise me that I dreamed of a little slice of rural paradise. Nestled in sheets dried in the wind and sun, how could I not?
It was lovely to feel warm sun on my bare legs -- I rarely wear shorts in Seattle -- and to breathe air that wasn't as damp as the laundry I'd just pinned up. The weather was so nice, in fact, that I picked up a bunch of storm-thrown branches and twigs and piled them for kindling.
This week I'll help mow around several fields of Christmas trees (my dad grows them commercially) and tear down the dregs of this year's vegetable garden. I like to do these things. Heck, I didn't even mind hoeing weeds last week.
But that's probably because I don't have to do it all the time. If I did, I wouldn't wax rhapsodic about it.
Don't get me wrong: If I had a little piece of land or even a house with a yard, I'd be gardening and preserving and hanging out laundry. But I'd go into it with my eyes open. Real life is not a Martha Stewart magazine layout.
When you pull weeds or pick vegetables in a South Jersey summer, you're one long, sweaty ache. Canning tomatoes is, despite air conditioning, a hot and stinky job. Blanching, paring and slicing a basket of fruit for processing leaves your hands sore and shriveled.
City or suburban dwellers may daydream about country life: growing vegetables, making jam, watching their kids play on the lawn, raising chickens. The reality is considerably earthier, as it were.
It's mowing twice a week during summer's heat. It's fighting to keep deer, slugs, moles, weeds and those chickens away from your veggies, and getting your arms slashed picking blackberries. It's taking diseased produce or captured insects to the Cooperative Extension Service and saying "What is this?"
Oh, and that laundry you hung out? Plan on rewashing some of it. Birds, you know.
Is it worth it? Sure. It just takes effort. As my dad says, "That's why they call it 'work.' If it were fun they'd call it 'fun.'"
For now, and maybe forever, I'm a city girl. But I have a few daydreams of my own. Everbearing strawberries and dwarf fruit trees. A dozen shades and textures of lettuce. Snap peas so sweet and tender they don't need cooking.
Potatoes in red, blue and purple. Tomato plants sagging under the weight of scarlet fruit. Enough produce to eat all summer long, to share with neighbors and the food bank, and, yes, to can and freeze.
Last Friday night I dreamed about such a place, complete even to a milch goat -- which is weird, because I don't want one. But it doesn't surprise me that I dreamed of a little slice of rural paradise. Nestled in sheets dried in the wind and sun, how could I not?
2011年9月8日星期四
Hannah Bowness-Major of Widnes nominated for award
A WIDNES girl who faces a daily battle for survival has been nominated as the Young Champion of the Year in the Trinity Mirror-Scottish Power Your Champions Awards.
Hannah Bowness-Major suffers from a range of problems, including chronic eczema which in the past has left her ‘bandaged from neck to feet’, asthma and anaphylaxis – a condition which makes her allergic to a huge array of foods and even lifesaving antibiotics.
Her food allergies are so severe that even being in the same room as someone eating the wrong type of food could stop her heart.
To make matters worse for the 10-year-old, of Hampton Drive, intensive steroid treatment for her illness has left her with potentially life-threatening adrenal deficiency.
The St Basil’s pupil’s plight prompted her to sell her toys – some donated by TV personality Jennifer Ellison – so she could help fund the start of a support group for people with adrenal deficiency.
Hannah suffered an ‘adrenal crisis’ in March when she was hospitalised for two weeks.
Covered in hundreds of cold sores and infected with MRSA, doctors feared she could lose her sight. Her treatment was complicated by her condition, which makes her allergic to many common forms of antibiotics.
Hannah has raised £302 toward her campaign by selling her toys.
She said: “I want to raise awareness of the problem that me and other people have, and get to know people that have the same disabilities that I have.
“My dream is to travel with my friends when I leave school, take pictures all around the world and swim with some dolphins.”
Hannah Bowness-Major suffers from a range of problems, including chronic eczema which in the past has left her ‘bandaged from neck to feet’, asthma and anaphylaxis – a condition which makes her allergic to a huge array of foods and even lifesaving antibiotics.
Her food allergies are so severe that even being in the same room as someone eating the wrong type of food could stop her heart.
To make matters worse for the 10-year-old, of Hampton Drive, intensive steroid treatment for her illness has left her with potentially life-threatening adrenal deficiency.
The St Basil’s pupil’s plight prompted her to sell her toys – some donated by TV personality Jennifer Ellison – so she could help fund the start of a support group for people with adrenal deficiency.
Hannah suffered an ‘adrenal crisis’ in March when she was hospitalised for two weeks.
Covered in hundreds of cold sores and infected with MRSA, doctors feared she could lose her sight. Her treatment was complicated by her condition, which makes her allergic to many common forms of antibiotics.
Hannah has raised £302 toward her campaign by selling her toys.
She said: “I want to raise awareness of the problem that me and other people have, and get to know people that have the same disabilities that I have.
“My dream is to travel with my friends when I leave school, take pictures all around the world and swim with some dolphins.”
2011年9月7日星期三
Dose ducky wobed dust don’t ged id, do dey?
Ian Snelling of Hillcrest has sent me a message headed Man flu – scientific facts. Wives should take note: man-flu is more painful than childbirth, according to a survey of over 100 000 men. In 1982 scientists simulated the agonising symptoms of full blown man-flu in a female chimp. She became so ill that her head fell off.
Man-flu is not “just a cold”. It is a condition so severe that the germs from a single sneeze can decimate a neighbourhood.
Women don’t get it. At worst they suffer from “sniffles” which, if a man caught, he would still be able to run, play golf and tear a phone book in half.
Full recovery from man-flu would take place much quicker if their simple requests for care, sympathy and regular beverages were met.
Is that really so much to ask? Florence Nightingale would have done it.
I could relate to Ian’s message. Right now you can phone just about anybody and say: “Excude by voice but I hab a dreadful code in de dose.” And they say: “Wab do you bean, YOU hab a code? You shoub see BY bloody code!”
The difference between flu and a cold is that a cold lasts a fortnight but flu lasts a full two weeks.
But flu or cold, all a man really needs is a sympathetic word, otherwise the whole point of having a cold becomes ridiculous. You can take aspirins, eat honey by the jar, swallow six hot toddies, but nothing is as comforting as somebody saying: “Gosh, you should be in bed!”
Psychologists support Ian Snelling’s view. A recent report said (and I am not kidding) that when a man gets a cold he suffers much more than a woman.
Psychologically, it said, a man needs more sympathy because a woman cannot admit, even to herself, that she is incapacitated by a bad cold.
This, apparently, is because, no matter what, she has to get the kids up and do the house and, maybe, she has an outside job and then she has to come home and cook the meal.
She is biologically programmed not to seek sympathy.
Women are so lucky.
Even as I write I am under enormous strain (I’ll hab you doe) – sweating and coughing like ednything. I have a painful cold sore on my upper lip; my head aches and my eyes are like burning coals. But do I feel sorry for myself?
You bet I do.
Just by poking my head out from under the bed covers would be a threat to public health.
I had agreed to give a talk one evening to a society for the physically handicapped so I rang the convener to ask if they had a standby speaker. I could sense she was aghast. People were coming from as far away as the next room to hear me speak.
My wife was hissing (in that way women have when interrupting you on the phone): “How can you ring them – of all people – and tell them you’re not feeling well?”
The convener conceded: “Gosh, you should be in bed!”
It was all I needed.
When I got there with my red, raw eyes and cold sore, I found the convener was blind so my condition went unnoticed and I thought of describing them to her but this would have knocked a lot of the pathos out of the situation.
In any event, when I saw my audience I stopped feeling sorry for myself – at least until I got home.
Man-flu is not “just a cold”. It is a condition so severe that the germs from a single sneeze can decimate a neighbourhood.
Women don’t get it. At worst they suffer from “sniffles” which, if a man caught, he would still be able to run, play golf and tear a phone book in half.
Full recovery from man-flu would take place much quicker if their simple requests for care, sympathy and regular beverages were met.
Is that really so much to ask? Florence Nightingale would have done it.
I could relate to Ian’s message. Right now you can phone just about anybody and say: “Excude by voice but I hab a dreadful code in de dose.” And they say: “Wab do you bean, YOU hab a code? You shoub see BY bloody code!”
The difference between flu and a cold is that a cold lasts a fortnight but flu lasts a full two weeks.
But flu or cold, all a man really needs is a sympathetic word, otherwise the whole point of having a cold becomes ridiculous. You can take aspirins, eat honey by the jar, swallow six hot toddies, but nothing is as comforting as somebody saying: “Gosh, you should be in bed!”
Psychologists support Ian Snelling’s view. A recent report said (and I am not kidding) that when a man gets a cold he suffers much more than a woman.
Psychologically, it said, a man needs more sympathy because a woman cannot admit, even to herself, that she is incapacitated by a bad cold.
This, apparently, is because, no matter what, she has to get the kids up and do the house and, maybe, she has an outside job and then she has to come home and cook the meal.
She is biologically programmed not to seek sympathy.
Women are so lucky.
Even as I write I am under enormous strain (I’ll hab you doe) – sweating and coughing like ednything. I have a painful cold sore on my upper lip; my head aches and my eyes are like burning coals. But do I feel sorry for myself?
You bet I do.
Just by poking my head out from under the bed covers would be a threat to public health.
I had agreed to give a talk one evening to a society for the physically handicapped so I rang the convener to ask if they had a standby speaker. I could sense she was aghast. People were coming from as far away as the next room to hear me speak.
My wife was hissing (in that way women have when interrupting you on the phone): “How can you ring them – of all people – and tell them you’re not feeling well?”
The convener conceded: “Gosh, you should be in bed!”
It was all I needed.
When I got there with my red, raw eyes and cold sore, I found the convener was blind so my condition went unnoticed and I thought of describing them to her but this would have knocked a lot of the pathos out of the situation.
In any event, when I saw my audience I stopped feeling sorry for myself – at least until I got home.
2011年9月6日星期二
Sucked in by supermarket peer pressure
At the supermarket the other day, I was totally sucked in by a new, sneaky, guilt-trippy marketing trick. I'd love to hear from any other victims, because I'm feeling pretty stupid.
Right, so it was a Thursday, I think, during the after-school rush at New World Birkenhead. I'd stopped to get a bottle of wine.
According to those little yellow tags, which I love because they always make me feel thrifty, the Saints range had the best savings to price ratio. But I don't really like their chardonnay.
I was reaching for something else when a Martha Stewart-ish blonde standing next to me at the fridge said: "Oh hi!"
Me: "Hi?"
She beamed.
"The Saints range is $9.99, which is a saving of $11."
Her smile ratcheted up a notch.
She wasn't holding a skull, but her smile went a little something like this:
"Oh, okay, I really like Saints, ah, is there any chardonnay cold?"
She beamed again, found me a bottle in the fridge, and bustled off to the next victim. I watched her for a while. She was accosting anyone who walked through the wine section - which you had to do to get from the milk fridges to the checkout - and her hit rate was spectacular.
Every time I pour a glass of that wine I berate myself. That was pure peer pressure. And I totally folded to it. Have I learned nothing since high school?
Sure, I was vulnerable. I was tired and grumpy. I had a big ugly coldsore on my face. I'd stepped in a puddle so my old suede shoes were leaking black dye onto my feet. I just wanted to buy some wine, go home and put my trackpants on, and I simply did not have enough nice left in me to nicely tell the nice lady to bugger off.
What really hacks me off is that I know the supermarkets, and Saints, were totally counting on that: it must be a million times harder psychologically to say no to an actual person, than to a yellow price tag.
The upside is I now have an excellent excuse - no, reason - to bulk-buy wine online.
I'd love to hear your supermarket stories.
Right, so it was a Thursday, I think, during the after-school rush at New World Birkenhead. I'd stopped to get a bottle of wine.
According to those little yellow tags, which I love because they always make me feel thrifty, the Saints range had the best savings to price ratio. But I don't really like their chardonnay.
I was reaching for something else when a Martha Stewart-ish blonde standing next to me at the fridge said: "Oh hi!"
Me: "Hi?"
She beamed.
"The Saints range is $9.99, which is a saving of $11."
Her smile ratcheted up a notch.
She wasn't holding a skull, but her smile went a little something like this:
"Oh, okay, I really like Saints, ah, is there any chardonnay cold?"
She beamed again, found me a bottle in the fridge, and bustled off to the next victim. I watched her for a while. She was accosting anyone who walked through the wine section - which you had to do to get from the milk fridges to the checkout - and her hit rate was spectacular.
Every time I pour a glass of that wine I berate myself. That was pure peer pressure. And I totally folded to it. Have I learned nothing since high school?
Sure, I was vulnerable. I was tired and grumpy. I had a big ugly coldsore on my face. I'd stepped in a puddle so my old suede shoes were leaking black dye onto my feet. I just wanted to buy some wine, go home and put my trackpants on, and I simply did not have enough nice left in me to nicely tell the nice lady to bugger off.
What really hacks me off is that I know the supermarkets, and Saints, were totally counting on that: it must be a million times harder psychologically to say no to an actual person, than to a yellow price tag.
The upside is I now have an excellent excuse - no, reason - to bulk-buy wine online.
I'd love to hear your supermarket stories.
2011年9月5日星期一
Launches to Provide Natural Health Information
Health is wealth: the older this adage gets, the more relevant it becomes to people. With the many health hazards that exist practically everywhere, it is important to be able to keep one's health in check at all times. Learning everything there is to know about maintaining a sound mind and body has become top priority.
HomeRemediesMD.com was launched to provide information for health questions that are commonly asked about natural health, home remedies, and organic foods. The website lets individuals say good bye to drugs, processed fruits, and cosmetic surgery by tackling the treatments that herbal remedies can offer. Home or herbal remedy submissions can also be submitted to be published on the website.
HomeRemediesMD.com is backed by a diverse group of editors with combined experience in health, wellness, fitness, nutrition, parenting, and lifestyle content. The website's talented writers have written for several large online health and lifestyle publications.
With the goal of providing visitors with quality health information, HomeRemediesMD.com allows people to immediately apply the information to practical life to improve their overall well-being. It comes with articles under categories that pertain to maintaining balance in the home; keeping a healthy lifestyle; the dos and don'ts on eating and diet or food and cooking; fitness and exercise; skin and beauty; as well as the truth about vitamins.
In addition, HomeRemediesMD.com discusses the many health conditions that strike people, including abscess, acne, Alzheimer's disease, anxiety or panic, cold sores, diarrhea, cancers, bronchitis, bruises, bunions, sore throat, and swine flu, among many others. Topics such as men's health, women's health, sex and relationships, and enhancing parenting skills are also comprehensively tackled on the website.
Talking about health from A to Z, HomeRemediesMD.com also features in-depth reviews of Hemmorhoid Miracle, Linden Method, Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle, and Muscle Maximizer - all of which claim to cure or offer relief from various conditions of the body.
The website also strives to blend great information with a little bit of social interaction through the forum section to keep the audience engaged with its content. Visitors can also check out its Facebook page and connect on Twitter.
HomeRemediesMD.com was launched to provide information for health questions that are commonly asked about natural health, home remedies, and organic foods. The website lets individuals say good bye to drugs, processed fruits, and cosmetic surgery by tackling the treatments that herbal remedies can offer. Home or herbal remedy submissions can also be submitted to be published on the website.
HomeRemediesMD.com is backed by a diverse group of editors with combined experience in health, wellness, fitness, nutrition, parenting, and lifestyle content. The website's talented writers have written for several large online health and lifestyle publications.
With the goal of providing visitors with quality health information, HomeRemediesMD.com allows people to immediately apply the information to practical life to improve their overall well-being. It comes with articles under categories that pertain to maintaining balance in the home; keeping a healthy lifestyle; the dos and don'ts on eating and diet or food and cooking; fitness and exercise; skin and beauty; as well as the truth about vitamins.
In addition, HomeRemediesMD.com discusses the many health conditions that strike people, including abscess, acne, Alzheimer's disease, anxiety or panic, cold sores, diarrhea, cancers, bronchitis, bruises, bunions, sore throat, and swine flu, among many others. Topics such as men's health, women's health, sex and relationships, and enhancing parenting skills are also comprehensively tackled on the website.
Talking about health from A to Z, HomeRemediesMD.com also features in-depth reviews of Hemmorhoid Miracle, Linden Method, Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle, and Muscle Maximizer - all of which claim to cure or offer relief from various conditions of the body.
The website also strives to blend great information with a little bit of social interaction through the forum section to keep the audience engaged with its content. Visitors can also check out its Facebook page and connect on Twitter.
2011年9月4日星期日
Baseball more than afterthought here
Frank Hebl peered out from underneath the bill of a paint-spattered Brewers cap with the old-fashioned yellow-and-blue mitt logo on the front that is, in the words of the youthful 72-year-old former baseball player and coach, "so cool."
Frank leaned over the side of his beat-up red pick-up truck in the parking lot of a Dunham's sporting goods store in Menomonie — a part of western Wisconsin once infested with Minnesota Twins fans. Then he turned over a garbage can he'd been hauling around, so I'd have something to rest my notebook on.
"What do you do in hard times?" he asked me.
Worry? Work harder? Try to find a place to work at all?
"You look down through hard times, baseball was popular during the Depression. It was popular during World War I and World War II," said Frank, who used to teach math at the nearby University of Wisconsin-Stout. "America needs something to change the subject."
That something is not the Yankees. Or the Twins. They would be part of the same old conversation.
Anyway, I was up in Minnesota right before stopping to talk to Frank, and even hometown hero Joe Mauer is being called a softie and a self-coddler. Minnesota is eating its own.
Craig Foster, the owner of Foster Sports in River Falls, says he used to sell eight Twins T-shirts for every two Brewers shirts. Now, the ratio is about six to four — and River Falls is only half an hour from the Twin Cities. Twins fans, said Craig, have "real shallow allegiances."
Inside the Dunham's store, the manager told me he couldn't talk about sales. But you could tell from the displays that Menomonie right now is Packers and Brewers territory. There were a couple of Adrian Peterson shirts hanging from the rafters and reams of A.J. Hawk and Ryan Grant and Aaron Rodgers and Cecil Fielder and Ryan Braun jerseys.
Outside, Frank told me he didn't think Twins fans are becoming Brewers fans so much as Brewers fans are becoming a little more vocal.
"I don't think (Twins fans) are turning," he said. "I think (Brewers sentiment) has always been there. But being a Brewers fan has come with a nagging discontent for a long time.
"It's like a cold sore," said Frank. "It's there and you kind of wish it would get better" and for so long it never does "and come football season it will just go away."
This football season, the sore is already long gone. The Brewers are "for real," Frank says. It's the "camaraderie" and the "intangibles" that are key. Suddenly the nation wants to kiss us, instead of mock us.
Despite the garbage can he tipped over, Frank is not a trash-talker. He won't deride the Twins. He's just a fan of good baseball, he says. And right now the way to see good baseball is to watch the Brewers.
Frank, the oldest of 17 kids from the gigantic Hebl family of Madison and Sun Prairie, once played some pretty good baseball himself.
"I went to school to play sports, not to learn anything," said the guy who attended college in both Madison and at Whitewater. "We had visions of playing ball for the rest of our lives."
No one gets to do that. During a season like this one, the thing is though, dreams last a lot longer than a strong arm or keen vision. Even Braun won't play forever. But he's playing now and — thirty years down the road — we might still be talking about 2011 instead of, say, that distant year of 1982.
Older folks remember that 1982 was the last time the Brewers won something big and also was a very tough economic time for many Americans looking for something to take heart in.
Like Frank says, it's time to change the subject.
Frank leaned over the side of his beat-up red pick-up truck in the parking lot of a Dunham's sporting goods store in Menomonie — a part of western Wisconsin once infested with Minnesota Twins fans. Then he turned over a garbage can he'd been hauling around, so I'd have something to rest my notebook on.
"What do you do in hard times?" he asked me.
Worry? Work harder? Try to find a place to work at all?
"You look down through hard times, baseball was popular during the Depression. It was popular during World War I and World War II," said Frank, who used to teach math at the nearby University of Wisconsin-Stout. "America needs something to change the subject."
That something is not the Yankees. Or the Twins. They would be part of the same old conversation.
Anyway, I was up in Minnesota right before stopping to talk to Frank, and even hometown hero Joe Mauer is being called a softie and a self-coddler. Minnesota is eating its own.
Craig Foster, the owner of Foster Sports in River Falls, says he used to sell eight Twins T-shirts for every two Brewers shirts. Now, the ratio is about six to four — and River Falls is only half an hour from the Twin Cities. Twins fans, said Craig, have "real shallow allegiances."
Inside the Dunham's store, the manager told me he couldn't talk about sales. But you could tell from the displays that Menomonie right now is Packers and Brewers territory. There were a couple of Adrian Peterson shirts hanging from the rafters and reams of A.J. Hawk and Ryan Grant and Aaron Rodgers and Cecil Fielder and Ryan Braun jerseys.
Outside, Frank told me he didn't think Twins fans are becoming Brewers fans so much as Brewers fans are becoming a little more vocal.
"I don't think (Twins fans) are turning," he said. "I think (Brewers sentiment) has always been there. But being a Brewers fan has come with a nagging discontent for a long time.
"It's like a cold sore," said Frank. "It's there and you kind of wish it would get better" and for so long it never does "and come football season it will just go away."
This football season, the sore is already long gone. The Brewers are "for real," Frank says. It's the "camaraderie" and the "intangibles" that are key. Suddenly the nation wants to kiss us, instead of mock us.
Despite the garbage can he tipped over, Frank is not a trash-talker. He won't deride the Twins. He's just a fan of good baseball, he says. And right now the way to see good baseball is to watch the Brewers.
Frank, the oldest of 17 kids from the gigantic Hebl family of Madison and Sun Prairie, once played some pretty good baseball himself.
"I went to school to play sports, not to learn anything," said the guy who attended college in both Madison and at Whitewater. "We had visions of playing ball for the rest of our lives."
No one gets to do that. During a season like this one, the thing is though, dreams last a lot longer than a strong arm or keen vision. Even Braun won't play forever. But he's playing now and — thirty years down the road — we might still be talking about 2011 instead of, say, that distant year of 1982.
Older folks remember that 1982 was the last time the Brewers won something big and also was a very tough economic time for many Americans looking for something to take heart in.
Like Frank says, it's time to change the subject.
2011年9月1日星期四
Cold sores: the truth & a new treatment
The Edmonton company behind Cold -fX has launched a new product that promises to cut down the healing time of cold sores - a not-so-pretty condition, with even uglier myths surrounding it.
"A common myth is that it's a sexually transmitted disease, especially when you say the word 'herpes,' but it's actually not," said Gavin Searle, of Afexa Life Sciences Inc., responsible for helping develop the new remedy.
A recent Canadian survey reveals some surprising statistics: 28 percent of non-sufferers would not kiss someone who getscold sores - even if they didn't have one at that moment. And 20% of non-sufferers would question the sexual history of potential dates who get cold sores. Given those numbers, it's not surprising that about 60 percent of people who get cold sores, say the skin condition has a severe impact on their lives, including keeping them from going to school or work, and avoiding other social situations.
But the reality is that the Herpes Simplex I virus, which is responsible forcold sores, is a "contact-spread disease," that can be passed onto someone through something as simple as using the same towel, drinking from the same glass, or sharing lip balm. And while 80 percent of people actually carry the virus, only 20 percent get cold sores from it.
Scientists say that whether or not you get thecold sores can depend on the strength of your immune system. "Like with most skin conditions, you have a predisposition to the condition and then you have the weather, or psychological stress - certain things can trigger it," said Dr. Linda Papadopoulos, a psychologist who has been researching the social stigma attached to cold sores.
"I get them about once a year, when the weather changes," said Deborah Price, who has been dealing with the condition since she was little. "People stare and people comment, and yeah it's embarassing."
Price admits to trying everycold -sore remedy on the market, including some unconventional treatments. "My dad always said to use after-shave when I was a child - it was always something that stuck with me - except that burned - stung terribly," she said with a laugh.
Now, she has another treatment to try - Coldsore-fX. The newly-launched product is made from propolis, a compound generated by honeybees to help seal their hives and keep them sterile.
"Propolis itself has been shown to have quite a lot of different effects such as antibacterial, antiviral, antifungal, even regenerative," said Searle. "And this particular propolis extract that we're using has been shown in clinical trials to have a really good effect oncold sores."
The new product promises to cut down the healing time ofcold sores, which usually takes about 10 days, to just four. And that gives some cold -sore sufferers, like Price, a new hope. "I will try anything on the market that will get rid of them as fast as possible."
Canadians spend nearly $20 million on over-the-countercold sore remedies each year.
"A common myth is that it's a sexually transmitted disease, especially when you say the word 'herpes,' but it's actually not," said Gavin Searle, of Afexa Life Sciences Inc., responsible for helping develop the new remedy.
A recent Canadian survey reveals some surprising statistics: 28 percent of non-sufferers would not kiss someone who gets
But the reality is that the Herpes Simplex I virus, which is responsible for
Scientists say that whether or not you get the
"I get them about once a year, when the weather changes," said Deborah Price, who has been dealing with the condition since she was little. "People stare and people comment, and yeah it's embarassing."
Price admits to trying every
Now, she has another treatment to try - Coldsore-fX. The newly-launched product is made from propolis, a compound generated by honeybees to help seal their hives and keep them sterile.
"Propolis itself has been shown to have quite a lot of different effects such as antibacterial, antiviral, antifungal, even regenerative," said Searle. "And this particular propolis extract that we're using has been shown in clinical trials to have a really good effect on
The new product promises to cut down the healing time of
Canadians spend nearly $20 million on over-the-counter
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