Daily Dose of Common Sense

The New York Times does a good job of calling Bill Maher to task for his ignorance and misinformation on the flu vaccine. Maher hosts a chat show on HBO and is usually known for his political commentary. But, lately he’s been spending a lot of time leading people astray about vaccines and the H1N1 virus.

He [Maher] said he did not believe that healthy people were vulnerable to dying from the new H1N1 virus. This contradicts statements from the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that young, healthy people from ages 5 to 24 appear particularly vulnerable to this flu. About a third of the 76 children who have died of H1N1 since April have had no underlying health problems.

Here is Maher getting schooled by Dr. Bill Frist, a heart surgeon.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tB5DLf1Qt78&feature=player_embedded

Do not listen to talk show hosts when considering your safety and health. Please talk to doctors and other health professionals. He may have a big mouth, but Maher may not be right. Get the facts for yourself.

I know recycling and “going green” are really hot topics right now. Sure, we all want our kids and grandkids to have an Earth to call home. But, turning a placenta into a keepsake? I’m just not sure if it will catch on like hybrids did…

A crafty alternative for those who don’t necessarily want to eat their baby’s placenta, but want to pay their respects to the life sustaining organ by turning it into a one-of-a-kind teddy bear.

The best part? It’s a do-it-yourself kit! I’m generally not squeamish, but…ewwwww.

I’m not sure how many people fall into the “Gee, I wish I could eat my baby’s placenta” category. I’m guessing not a whole lot.

If you want to pay your respects to the organ, why not donate the placenta to stem cell research? It just might save someone’s life someday.

A Japanese company has produced a business suit that it claims will protect the wearer form contracting the H1N1 virus.

According to the company:

The suit is coated with the chemical titanium dioxide, which reacts to light to break down and kill the virus when it comes into contact with it.

Well, it’s nice that your clothing won’t contact the virus. But, if you know anything about how viruses are transmitted, this suit won’t solve your problem. The special fabric isn’t going to prevent your hands, face, neck, or head from coming into contact with H1N1.

Unless you wear it over your head. If you do, I suggest cutting out some eye holes first.

[Thanks, Gizmodo!]

As few as 25 years ago, neuroscientists stuck firmly to the belief that as we aged our brains became fixed and static–hence the saying, you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. However, new research is saying otherwise. Enter the relatively new concept of brain plasticity and the related practice of brain fitness.

In the simplest terms, brain plasticity is the brain’s capacity for continuous physical, chemical and functional change. Brain fitness is the purposeful exercising of our gray matter to keep it engaged and healthy.

And, while brain plasticity has bona-fide roots and application in the neuroscientific community, brain fitness seems to be a new ‘it thing’ for some quacky websites, books, training seminars, and even diets. The Wikipedia entry for brain fitness notes, “The term is virtually never used in the scientific literature, but is commonly used in the context of self-help books and commercial products.” But, if you wade through the brain fitness drivel, essentially the premise is use it or lose it. Moreover, how you use it is equally important.

One source lists the following the ideal components of brain fitness activities:

• They should teach you something new.
• They should be challenging.
• They should be progressive.
• They should engage your great brain processing systems.
• They should be rewarding. (My personal favorite.)
• They should be novel or surprising.

And there you have it. In order to maintain our brain health and take advantage of the newfound concept of brain plasticity, we need to continually engage our noggins in new and challenging ways.

Hmmm. I don’t think I need a website or seminar to tell me that.

Actor Kirk Cameron is taking on Darwin’s Theory of Evolution and preparing to spread woo as far as possible. He and some other religious activists will soon distribute their creationist book, which “picks apart” aspects of Darwin’s work, to colleges around the country. You may remember Cameron from such parts as Mike Seaver on Growing Pains, or perhaps as Dexter Riley in The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes.

Their book attempts to link Darwin’s ideas to the Nazi holocaust, and discusses the scientist’s alleged “disdain for women.” Oh, really? Because Christianity has such a long and documented history of being PRO woman. Like blaming the sins of the world on Eve. Or, prohibiting contraception because women exist just to bear children. Or, considering women as just property throughout much of history.

Cameron said:

“We have a situation in our country where young people are entering college with a belief in God and exiting with that faith being stripped and shredded. What we want to do is have student make an informed, educated decision before they chuck their faith.”

Only, the information he’s distributing is nothing more than scare tactics and misinformation.

“This has been refuted many, many times. The anti-evolutionist fearmongers have to link Darwin to every perceived evil from mankind,” says Kevin Padian, professor of paleontology and evolutionary biology at the University of California, Berkeley.

Do you really think that, if Darwin could be discredited, it would come from Kirk Cameron? Wouldn’t this news make the rounds in the big science journals? We can only hope the students act rationally and listen to scientists and educators instead.

Photo courtesy of Flickr: kevindooley

We use water every day without thinking about it. In fact, we can’t live without it. As you’ve probably heard at some point, we can survive for a few weeks without food but only a few days without water. Although water may seem abundant to people in developed countries, globally speaking, potable water is an extremely limited resource.

In fact, lack of access to clean water claims 4 million lives a year–roughly the population of Los Angeles.

So while more fortunate folks don’t have to think about water consumption, just a few quick facts may provide the incentive we all need to think about water as a resource, and to use it accordingly.

• Every 15 seconds, a child dies from a water-related disease.
• The water and sanitation crisis claims more lives through disease than any war claims through guns.
• A five-minute shower in an American household will use more water than a person living in a developing world will use in a whole day.
• It takes over 2,900 gallons of water to produce a pound of coffee.
• On average, women in Africa and Asia have to walk 3.7 miles to collect water.

It’s unrealistic to think that few alarming factoids will immediately impact our daily water consumption.

Or, is it?

If every person in the United States chose just one way to save 1 gallon of water each day, we would conserve 307,183,727 gallons per day.

Pretty impressive, don’t you think?

To see water footprints check out this chart:
http://awesome.good.is/transparency/web/trans0309walkthisway.html

To educate yourself about the global water crisis:
http://water.org/

To find ways that might work for you to reduce your water consumption:
http://www.wateruseitwisely.com/100-ways-to-conserve/index.php

Photo courtesy of Flickr: darkpatator

A study found that men who do cooking, cleaning, and other household chores have the highest chances of finding someone to settle down with. Women around the world respond, “You betcha!”

Researchers found a direct connection between marriage and cohabitation rates in countries where views on the roles of men and women are more equal. In these areas, responsibilities for housework and child-rearing are considered a partnership, not just a woman’s duty.

The study found that women living in less egalitarian countries were between 20 and 50 per cent less likely to be living with a man than comparable women living in a more egalitarian country. For instance, the findings would predict that the average British woman was 8.5 percentage points more likely than a similar Australian woman to be in a live-in relationship.

The countries with the highest levels of male participation were Norway, Sweden, Great Britain and the United States (whoo!). At the bottom of the list were Japan, Germany, Austria, and Australia. What’s going on with the Aussies? Are they as old-fashioned as the statistics make it seem?

This study also had one other nugget of note: while egalitarian men fare better with the opposite sex, egalitarian women are seen as a handicap. Women want men who help out, but men want women who will take care of it all. Talk about a double standard.

Guys, here are some ideas to get you started:

• SavvyMiss.com has a great list of Basic Cooking Terms & Tips for the Cooking Inept
• You can’t go wrong with Betty Crocker Cooking Basics: Recipes and Tips to Cook with Confidence on Amazon.com
• Tips for men and housework can be found here at Men and Housework: We Can’t Clean What We Can’t See
• This one is probably for women, but it’s a book called The Lazy Husband: How to Get Men to Do More Parenting and Housework

Photo courtesy of Flickr: eyeliam

When you stub your toe or knock your elbow, the first thing that comes to mind probably isn’t “gosh darn it,” or “barnacles” (unless you’re SpongeBob). No, when most of us are in pain, we usually think of a good old-fashioned curse word. It turns out this may be a good thing. According to a team scientists, swearing may actually help us brave through pain.

In the study, testers had to stick their hands in icy water. Those who cursed reported less pain and generally lasted longer than the non-cursers. This conclusion seems obvious for a few reasons. First, cursing is like exhaling. It’s a quick release of pent-up feeling and emotion. I always feel better after throwing around some of my favorite naughty words (even if there wasn’t exactly good cause). Second, yelling an expletive is like biting down on a knife. It’s a way of hunkering down and riding out the bad feelings. And, if I take the time to try and tone it down by coming up with a non-curse, I’m in more pain from delaying the reaction.

So, feel free to curse like a sailor the next time you get hurt. You’re doing your body a favor.

My daughter had a birthday yesterday, and I had several well-wishers ask if she was bouncing off the walls because of sugar. Well, no, actually she was no more hyper yesterday than any other day. Yes, she ate a cupcake, Cracker Jack, Nerds, and a bunch of other junk, but she’s a healthy kid. That, and there’s no such thing as a “sugar high.”

I know, it takes a second for it to sink in. We have been led to believe that sugar makes people (especially kids) hyper. But, it’s just not true. Our bodies do a really good job of regulating the sugar we intake. Many studies have been done on this topic and the conclusions are the same: the amount of sugar that a kid eats does not affect his or her level of activity.

Jessie from Rational Moms did a great in-depth debunking of the sugar high myth. I highly recommend giving it a read.

So, don’t worry about your kids being up all night after eating a bunch of sugar. They’re up late because they want to be up late. Duh.

Photo courtesy of Flickr: terren in Virginia.

Earlier this year, a brief story appeared in the Times Online (UK) revealing how the data was fixed in the MMR/Autism study that sparked the current vaccine controversy.

The Sunday Times, along with the General Medical Council (our AMA), investigated into the claims made by Dr. Andrew Wakefield’s 1998 study. In the original study, 8 of 12 families at one clinic blamed the MMR shot for their child’s autism. The Times reviewed medical documents and witnesses from the original study, and they discovered that Dr. Wakefield changed and manipulated the patients’ data. Again, both CHANGED and MANIPULATED patient data. In fact, in many cases, medical concerns regarding the child had been raised before the MMR shot was administered.

If this one little study doesn’t sound like a big deal, here is an alarming fact from the article:

Despite involving just a dozen children, the 1998 paper’s impact was extraordinary. After its publication, rates of inoculation fell from 92% to below 80%. Populations acquire “herd immunity” from measles when more than 95% of people have been vaccinated.

Last week official figures showed that 1,348 confirmed cases of measles in England and Wales were reported last year, compared with 56 in 1998. Two children have died of the disease.

This was *the* major study that started all the anti-vaccination hysteria. Now that it’s been debunked, we can only hope the truth starts to get out. There is no scientific proof that vaccines cause autism. Here is a great video by the CDC that discusses some of the common vaccination fears.