April 2011
27 posts
6 tags
Top 100 Secrets
These secrets are 100 of the top board alerts. They summarize the concepts, principles, and most salient details of neurology.
1. The first step in treating patients with neurologic disease is to localize the lesion.
2. Myopathies cause proximal symmetric weakness without sensory loss.
3. Neuromuscular junction diseases cause fatigability.
4. Peripheral neuropathies cause distal asymmetric...
5 tags
Working Long Hours Is Bad For Your Heart
People who regularly work long hours may be significantly increasing their risk of developing heart disease, the world’s biggest killer.
Researchers said a long-term study showed that working more than 11 hours a day increased the risk of heart disease by 67 percent, compared with working a standard 7 to 8 hours a day.
I guess that means I am at a higher risk of heart disease —...
4 tags
Lesson From Japan: For Your Family's Health and...
Setting aside some needless panic on the West Coast tied to the Japanese earthquake, tsunami and resulting nuclear calamity, the recent tragic disasters can have a beneficial aspect, providing us the prodding to do some critical thinking and talking about emergency preparedness. Ready or not, disasters will strike and they may put your health and well-being at risk, especially if you’re...
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Choosing To Not Have Medical Insurance
Most health insurance payments to providers are for routine services that, strictly speaking, are not insurable events. The real purpose of insurance is to protect you against sudden, unexpected, unaffordable events, for instance, a heart attack or cancer diagnosis. Yet that’s not how most of us use our health insurance these days. We use it to pay regular, predictable expenses such as office...
10 tags
“Oh, It’s Genetic” -- Genetics, Disease, and...
One of the most crazy making yet widespread and potentially dangerous notions is:
“Oh, that behavior is genetic.”
Now what does that mean?
It means all sorts of subtle stuff if you know modern biology, but for most people out there what it winds up meaning is: a deterministic view of life, one rooted in biology and genetics.
Genes equal things that can’t be changed. Genes equal things...
6 tags
The 15 Styles of Distorted Thinking
You’re not always right and things are not always black and white. Avoid cognitive distortions that may skew your perception.
Read about 15 common types of distorted thinking:
1. Filtering: You take the negative details and magnify them, while filtering out all positive aspects of a situation. A single detail may be picked out, and the whole event becomes colored by this detail. When you...
8 tags
50 Life Secrets and Tips
“50 Life Secrets and Tips” is a wonderful collection of easy-to-implement ideas that will improve your life.
1. Memorize something everyday.
Not only will this leave your brain sharp and your memory functioning, you will also have a huge library of quotes to bust out at any moment. Poetry, sayings and philosophies are your best options.
2. Constantly try to reduce your attachment to...
11 tags
Scientific studies reveal hallucinogens are good...
LSD and ketamine, two powerful hallucinogens, are also potential cures for depression, OCD, and anxiety. Two studies published in Science and Nature, confirm that hallucinogenic drugs stimulate healthy brain activity, even promoting the growth of neurons.
Ketamine and Depression
The study in Science, focused entirely on the drug ketamine. Used frequently as an animal sedative, ketamine can...
March 2011
77 posts
5 tags
Things (I) Learn From My Patients
All these stories are borrowed (and cleaned up, which is my contribution) from the forums over at SDN.
They’re just too good to pass up…
Never, ever leave flashlights, beer bottles or any other long, circular object on the floor because someday you will fall on it… and it will somehow impale its way up your rectum.
Always do woodwork with your skill saw before using meth.
White latex paint,...
6 tags
Challenging a Culture of Alcoholism
Over 25 percent of teenagers and young adults in the U.S. admit to being binge drinkers (according to the CDC). And over 33 million adults admit to binge drinking in the past year. Binge drinking is defined as having over four or five drinks in a matter of a few hours. And, as we all know, it’s becoming a cultural norm.
Alcohol ranks third as the cause of preventable deaths (after...
7 tags
Handsome Sportz Klüb's Bizarre 'Raza Scoota' Music...
“I ride my raza scoota sroo ze night / to get to your heart / to get to your heart.”
Has there ever been a catchier hook to a fake-German pop song? Probably not. We don’t know who the guys behind Handsome Sportz Klüb really are, and frankly, we don’t want to.
According to their highly suspect Wikipedia page:
Handsome Sportz Klub is an electronic synthpop band from...
3 tags
9 tags
Honor Your Doctor For National Doctors' Day
Health professionals can sometimes be under-appreciated, but today seeks to combat that. March 30 marks National Doctors’ Day and it’s the perfect opportunity to thank your own doctor or physician for their service.
The annual event was first celebrated March 30, 1933, when Eudora Brown Almond, wife of Dr. Charles B. Almond, set a day aside to honor physicians. From those beginnings...
5 tags
'Facebook Depression': Do You Have It?
At the end of the recent film The Social Network, Mark Zuckerberg’s character, by now a wealthy and successful entrepreneur in Silicon Valley, types in the name of the young woman from Boston University who had dumped him at the beginning of the film. He sits all alone before the computer and stares at the screen, suggesting to filmgoers that the billionaire with millions of...
5 tags
The Sound of Dubstep
I just absolutely love the way the new Ministry of Sound - The Sound of Dubstep 2 album sounds on my new Beats by Dre Solo HDs.
Check out some of the tracks below:
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Future iPods could be powered by the human...
Yes, you read that right. The Telegraph yesterday ran an interesting piece that caught my attention. The basis for their story is a breakthrough development calling for a chip that can generate power from microscopic body movement such as the human heartbeat or the pinch of a finger. The new chip is “thousands times more powerful” than a previous prototype and it’s based on nanogenerators.
...
3 tags
4 Ancient Secrets To Revitalize You For Spring
At the arrival of spring, it is a natural instinct to cast off the winter blues and feel renewed. Preserve your longevity by greeting the spring with seasonal health practices. Nearly five millennia ago, Eastern physicians observed the influence of each season on health and contrived specific seasonal advice to avoid illness. The tips below are adapted from the age-old wisdom in the...
10 tags
Ramachandran: On Your Mind
Ramachandran is incredibly entertaining, presenting complex ideas on the function of the brain. I love it that he is applying his findings to theories on abstraction, metaphor, & creativity.
I can’t decide whether - besides being a neuroscientist - he is also a poet or a stand-up comedian: “you can’t have disembodied pain just floating out there.”
5 tags
CHF: Congestive Heart Failure
Legendary actress Elizabeth Taylor passed away last week at the age of 79 from congestive heart failure.
The condition is a situation where the heart cannot appropriately pump enough blood to the body’s organs. It can be caused by any number of things.
Below are a few potential causes:
narrowed arteries that supply blood to the heart muscle — coronary artery disease
past heart...
