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Welch’s Fruit Juice = More Corn Than Fruit
If you buy fruit juices at your local grocery store, you might notice the Welch’s brand juices sold in refrigerated cartons. Welch’s calls them “refrigerated cocktails” and offers exotic-sounding flavors like Strawberry Peach, Dragon Fruit Mango Cocktail and Orange Pineapple Apple.
These products are aggressively marketed with pictures of splashy fruit and loud label claims like “Fruity and Refreshing!” But what Welch’s doesn’t reveal anywhere except in the fine print on its ingredients label is that these juice cocktails contain more high fructose corn syrup than fruit.
In fact, they contain so much high fructose corn syrup that the front label should actually show chunks of corn rather than the fruit they currently depict.
Alien-Looking Skeleton Poses Medical Mystery
A teensy skeleton with a squashed alien-like head may have earthly origins, but the remains, found in the Atacama Desert a decade ago, do make for quite a medical mystery.
Apparently when the mummified specimen was discovered, some had suggested the possibility it was an alien that had somehow landed on Earth, though the researchers involved never suggested this otherworldly origin.
Now, DNA and other tests suggest the individual was a human and was 6 to 8 years of age when he or she died. Even so, the remains were just 6 inches (15 centimeters) long. [See Images of the Alien-Looking Human Remains]
What causes mysterious burning abdominal pain in an elderly patient?
A 76-year-old man presents to the emergency department with sudden-onset abdominal pain of 4 hours duration. The pain is present in the upper abdomen, centered in the epigastrium, and described as deep and burning. The patient has a medical history of coronary artery disease and hypertension. He also reports having “indigestion,” which has caused pain similar to today’s episode in his upper abdomen. In the past, food did not relieve this symptom.
On physical examination, the patient is pale and in obvious discomfort. His heart rate is 122 beats/min and his blood pressure is 110/65 mm Hg. The cardiovascular and respiratory findings are unremarkable, but he has tenderness in the epigastric region of his abdomen. His stool is brown and guaiac positive. Hyperactive bowel sounds are heard on auscultation. Laboratory investigations show a mild anemia, with a hemoglobin concentration of 127 g/L (12.7 g/dL) and BUN and creatinine values of 17.1 mmol/L (48 mg/dL) and 106 µmol/L (1.2 mg/dL), respectively.
What is the diagnosis? How would you approach this patient’s treatment?
Our thanks are extended to Gautam Dehadrai, MD, for providing the details of this case. Check back here in about two weeks when I post the diagnosis and follow-up for this patient.
A look at X-Rays of objects stuck in patients’ orifices..
There are lots of ways to mark the passage of time, but none as unusual as seeing what common household objects find their way up a person’s innards.
That’s the discovery that forensic psychiatrist Marty A. Sindhian, M.D., made while researching “Stuck Up!” — a look at the strange objects that have found their way into the human body through the various orifices. The intentionally funny book includes more than 100 bizarre X-rays, and when you finish, you may never look at Barbie dolls or baby shoes the same way again.
Sindhian, who co-authored the book with fellow shrink Rich E. Dreben and emergency room physician Murdoc Knight, made this discovery while researching a case about a person who came into the emergency room a few years ago and a cassette tape showed up on the X-ray.
Dopamine Under a Microscope
Dopamine: A naturally occurring chemical in the brain that transmits nerve impulses, AKA a neurotransmitter — it is associated with movement, attention, learning, and the brain’s pleasure and reward system.
Learn Chinese in 5 Minutes!
