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Category: Just for Fun

WORKPLACE WELLNESS: GOOD FOR EMPLOYEES AND GOOD FOR BUSINESS

A survey of CEOs has found that “healthier employees” is the number one reason why companies implement health promotion programs. Numerous studies show that improving employee health can have a direct financial return on investment by lowering health care costs, lowering absenteeism, and increasing employee productivity.

Anti-obesity programs often result in the most significant and immediate improvements for both employees and the business. Weight loss among obese employees has the potential of positively influencing spouses and children, significantly reducing an organization’s participating health care costs. For example, obese people spend 77 percent more on medications than the non-obese.

Obesity is associated with numerous serious health conditions, including hypertension, Type II diabetes, stroke, heart disease and certain types of cancer, which contribute to higher health care costs for employers. High obesity rates in the US directly raise health care costs and lower employer profits. Employers spend $13 billion annually on the total cost of obesity, and 9.1 percent of all health care costs in the country are related to obesity.

Obesity also reduces productivity, for two related reasons. The first is obvious: chronic absenteeism due to various chronic illnesses associated with obesity. But “presenteeism” is also a serious factor – the cost of lost productivity due to employees actually coming to work and producing far below job requirements because of health and other personal problems.

Potential benefits to employers of an employee health and wellness program are:

 

  • Reduced cost for chronic diseases
  • Decreased absenteeism
  • Reduced employee turnover
  • Improved worker satisfaction
  • Demonstrated concern for your employees
  • Improved morale

 

Potential benefits to employees are:

 

  • Greater productivity
  • Reduced absenteeism
  • Improved fitness and health
  • Greater social opportunities and support within the workplace

 

Other benefits that can result from a successfully implemented obesity prevention program include improved employee morale, better worker retention and improved recruiting of new employees.

No Comments by Laurie Puckett on July 28, 2011
filed in Articles, Just for Fun, Uncategorized, Wellness

My Favorite Athlete – Kelly Slater

Slater at Trestles, San Onofre State Beach, Ca...
Image via Wikipedia

If you have been reading my blogs for very long, you may have come to the conclusion that I don’t always run with the crowd.  I am into fitness and sports as both a participant and fan, and I am super-excited that the Tampa Bay Rays are doing so well and have a chance to go as far as the World Series again this year.   But my two most favorite athletes are not in mainstream sports: Lance Armstrong and Kelly Slater.  They are both masters of their sport, have incredible skill, grit and determination and, at least to me, are poetry in motion.  Plus, they are both incredibly good looking (read: HOT)!

This post reprints a GrindTV blog about Kelly Slater who, after 20 years as a professional surfer, is still dominating his sport and winning tournaments….

Nine-time world surfing champion Kelly Slater won the Hurley Pro Saturday at Lower Trestles, the same San Clemente, Calif. venue where he won his maiden victory as a pro nearly 20 years ago to the day.

Of course, if and when any mention of his win makes the mainstream sporting press in the U.S. it’s likely to be shoehorned between coverage of the latest hot dog-eating contest and a brawl between college mascots.

Yet this win in particular should be acknowledged because it marks a milestone in sports that’s rarely — if ever — reached. I’m biased, of course, so I’ll ask you to shoot my theory down by answering the following question off the top of your head: Please name an athlete — any athlete — who’s been the dominant force in their respective sport for a span of two decades?

Mind you, I’m not talking about somebody who’s hung around the top level for 20 years with a single title or two to show for it. Sports history is rich and thick with lovable legends who’ve endured like Brett Favre, Nolan Ryan, Cal Ripken, even George Foreman. Yet there’s a large chasm between enduring and dominating — as in being the primary gravitational force that others must orbit around. Favre, Ryan, Ripken and Foreman were all that force for a time, no doubt, but for 20 years? Nope.

Find me somebody who, let’s say, holds the record for being the youngest and oldest world champion. Whose career win percentage over two decades was near 80% and climbing. Who 20 years after his debut win as a pro, recaptured a lead in the race for yet another world title, maybe a 10th? Somebody who’s owned the top slot in their sport’s All-Star voting 15 times, and year-after-year humbles a fresh set of young rookies — even those less than half his age — who are allegedly coming to dethrone him. Yep, those are just a few of Slater’s stats.

I’ve been racking my brain to trying to come up with somebody else. I even asked my buddies deep inside Y!Sports and ESPN for help. Surely they’d know someone? “A bowler? poker player? billiard champion?” In their defense, they were buried in NFL and MLB drama and had little time for such silliness from an Action Sports guy. Nevertheless, they politely threw me some meat just to appease me, Jordan, Armstrong, Navratilova and Bonds. I didn’t want to rile them by telling them Slater’s stats trump all of the above.

I dug deeper, only to find that most athletes who rule for two full decades come from sedentary sports, like golfing, curling, angling or lawn darts. Or they spend their careers in idle positions that are highly specialized, like pitching, punting or goal keeper.

Arnold Palmer and the Golden Bear are good examples of golfers who enjoyed marathon careers. Jack won his first championship in his early 20s, and The Masters when he was 46. Yet, even according to Golf Magazine, the 70s was the only decade he owned, while Palmer ran the show in the 60s.

Tiger Woods is the obvious man-to-beat now. And though Woods (the first golfer to ever hit the gym?) is four years younger than Slater, and just 14 years into his pro career, his reign will undoubtedly surpass all comers. But that’s still TBD for now, especially since Woods is slumping after his recent foray into public relations hell.

Mariano Rivera is arguably right there with Tiger. He’s been baseball’s dominant closer for 15 solid years. And he stands a decent chance of going five more years since, well, he only throws a handful of pitches per week.

Admittedly, I’m operating under a completely deranged definition of an athlete, especially compared to the contemporary excuse for one. I weigh all of them against an ancient Roman scale that involves lions, tigers and The Colosseum — an imaginary venue where today’s sedentary athletes would become breakfast, brunch or lunch at best.

I know this sounds like an absurd notion. There’s simply no way a surfer can enter the conversation when we’re talking about the most dominant athletes ever, right? Can we even dare to measure Slater’s athletic feats against Wayne Gretzky and Jerry Rice? Those two really did dominate physically grueling sports for two decades. That’s why they’re considered the greatest. And maybe being blasted into the reef at Teahupoo isn’t as scary as being checked, or catching an ill-timed pass over the middle, but watch, then consider which fate you’d choose given the choice.

Whether surfing is a sport or not is an argument even surfers can’t agree on. In fact, anything with judges is suspect since it’s crossing into art. But there’s no denying that whether you’re paddling into 25-foot waves at Waimea Bay, or flying high at five-foot Bells Beach, the act demands endurance, timing, speed and flexibility, not to mention commitment, all which favor the young and athletically spry…or so we were told.

After winning five straight titles in the 90s (six total) Slater retired in 1999, which, when translated, means he went surfing more. He chased swells around the planet for three years, visiting friends at every stop, waiting for a new crop of talent to mature and actually threaten his legacy before coming back to competition in 2003. In his first year back, he fell short in the final heat of the season. But by 2005 he had his title back, repeating again in 2006, and nabbing another in 2008. Now he’s leading in 2010.

Like Favre, Slater threatens retirement at every turn. Unlike Favre, he tends to go the distance when he comes back. Today 38-year-old Slater is not only defying gravity with his results, but halting time with his surfing, which is still getting better. When asked how old he thinks he’d be if he didn’t know how old he was, he says 24. Take one look at his sculpted physique and you’d agree that’s his real age.

 **** Yeah, I agree – he does look and move like a 24 year old ~ dang! :-)   If you would like to knock some years off your age, the anti-aging protocols offered by Remmel Wellness Center can help you live a longer, healthier life – even if you don’t look like Kelly Slater!

Posted by Laurie Puckett at Remmel Wellness Center, a full service wellness and chiropractic facility located in beautiful St. Petersburg, Florida.

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No Comments by Laurie Puckett on September 23, 2010
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Back to School Time is Hard on Pets

Stray puppies, I have found are as cute as pet...
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Kids have been back to school for a few weeks now, and you and they have probably adjusted pretty well.  But how is the other member of you family adjusting?  That’s right, I’m talking about Fido!! 

Back-to-school season is a time of transition for the whole family, as parents and children begin to adjust to a new routine. But as the ASPCA reports, it’s also a difficult time for pets, who have grown accustomed to some extra attention during summer vacations and excursions to parks and beaches.

“It’s not an uncommon problem — after all, cats and dogs are particularly vulnerable to any change in their schedules, and they thrive on stimulation,” the group notes. “With nothing to do, pets are forced to find ways to entertain themselves, which may include excessive barking or meowing, gnawing on shoes, raiding the garbage, eating houseplants and scratching furniture.”

If your pet is suddenly having house-training “accidents,” barking or howling more often, pacing or digging or trying to break out of the yard, it may be a sign that the animal is having a hard time adjusting (or readjusting) to the new family schedule.

The best strategy is to avoid an abrupt change in schedule, and in the weeks before school gradually introduce your pet to short periods of separation. But if it’s too late for that, the ASPCA recommends giving your dog or cat a treat every time you leave the house to help them develop positive feelings about being alone. For dogs, they suggest stuffing a rubber toy called the Kong with food to provide stimulation.

Scolding or punishing your dog or cat for bad behavior could make it worse, so be patient. If the problems continue, educate yourself about pet separation anxiety and talk to your veterinarian about your options.

Read the full article on the ASPCA Web site, “Conquering Your Pet’s Back-to-School Blues.”  And if your pet is showing signs of sadness when the kids leave for school, tell us about it.  We love feedback on our blog!

Posted by Laurie Puckett at Remmel Wellness Center, a full service wellness and chiropractic facility located in beautiful St. Petersburg, Florida.

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No Comments by Laurie Puckett on September 13, 2010
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Energy Drinks and Alcohol – A Dangerous Combination

Some typical alcoholic beverages.
Image via Wikipedia

Happy Friday, everyone!  Here’s a good one to get your weekend started off right …  Red Bull and Vodka, a good combination, right? WRONG!!!!!

They provide a jolt to many who need an energy boost, but energy drinks are also commonly mixed with alcohol at parties – a potentially dangerous combination.

It’s a $10 billion industry in the United States.

According to bartender Kara Oglanian, it’s the mixer of choice for many young partiers.  “It’s by far the most popular, Red Bull and vodka,” said Oglanian.

Instead of the drowsy effect of alcohol, the mixture can cause the opposite – what’s called a wide awake drunk.  “The wide awake drunk phenomenon describes an individual who is impaired by alcohol but is wide awake,” said Bruce Goldberger, PhD.

A study from the Journal of Addictive Behaviors found that people who drink energy drinks mixed with alcohol are three times more likely to get drunk and four times more likely to intentionally drive while intoxicated.

That’s compared to those who stick to alcohol alone.

“So there’s an interaction that occurs within the body so these people are more likely to behave in risky ways,” said Goldberger.

The caffeine in energy drinks is a stimulant, while alcohol is a depressant.

Combined, the two not only increases a person’s intoxication level, but decreases self awareness.

“What the caffeine does is it creates this sensation or perception with the person that they’re less intoxicated, so they think they’re okay, but they’re not,” said addictive behavior expert Dennis Thombs, PhD.

The study also found that those who drank energy drink cocktails left the bars later at night and drank for longer periods of time.

***

So if mixing energy drinks with alcohol is a bad idea, maybe you should just do shots.  Then, when you are drunk, you will know it, your body will know it, and you won’t be drinking and driving.  On second though, maybe I shouldn’t advocate that either.  If you must drink, drink in moderation and enjoy responsibly.  Have a glass of red wine with dinner, I will! 

Posted by Laurie Puckett at Remmel Wellness Center, a full service wellness and chiropractic facility located in beautiful St. Petersburg, Florida.

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No Comments by Laurie Puckett on August 20, 2010
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Stand Up Paddle Boarding Makes Waves

Stand up paddle surfing in Okinawa
Image via Wikipedia

Stand up paddle boarding, also known as SUP, is the fastest growing water sport in the world. And, when the Wall Street Journal is printing articles about SUP, you know it has gone mainstream! 

With roots in ancient Polynesian and South American cultures, stand up paddle boarding has enjoyed a recent global resurgence. In the 1950’s Hawaiian surf instructors stood on boards to get a better view of incoming waves. California soon brought it to the mainland and the sport has been evolving ever since! The best part about stand up paddle boarding is that it is accessible to all people in all locations.

In lakes, rivers and bays where the surf is never up, Americans in skyrocketing numbers are standing on boards and paddling, a balancing act that strengthens the muscles of the legs, buttocks, back, shoulders and arms.

“Stand-up paddle surfing is a valuable new form of cross-training, in part because it’s so low impact,” says Cindi Bannink, a triathlon coach in Madison, Wis.

“Stand-up paddling is the fastest-growing segment of the surf industry,” says Sean Smith, executive director of the Surf Industry Manufacturers Association, whose most recent study found that the industry had sales in 2008 of $7.2 billion.

Some manufacturers say they can’t make them fast enough. “Every one we make is already sold, and that’s the case with most manufacturers,” says surfing legend Laird Hamilton, who has licensed his name and stand-up board designs—including a model called the Laird—to Surftech and other manufacturers.

After introducing stand-up boards at west coast stores last year, Recreational Equipment Inc. this summer stocked it in a number of land-locked stores—and met its annual sales projections by mid-June, says Nathan Grothe, product manager for REI, based just outside of Seattle.

Even general merchandiser Costco Wholesale Corp. began selling stand-up boards this summer to great success, says Jack Weisbly, the Kirkland, Wash., chain’s sporting goods’ merchandise manager. “We’re selling a lot of them to hotels and resorts that are located near water,” he says.

Known as SUP (pronounced as in “Wassup?”), the stand-up paddling trend comes on the heels of the kayak craze, but offers potentially greater health benefits, especially given recent research showing the hazards of prolonged sitting. Like yoga, standing on a board requires basic balancing abilities, which in turn strengthen and tone any and all muscles used to stay in position. (A new trend in some still-water locales involves staging yoga classes on stand-up boards.)

People of any age can get started, proponents say, recommending that newcomers should use the widest—and therefore sturdiest—boards. While conventional surf boards are about 20 inches in width, stand-up boards can be 32 inches wide. Children older than toddlers can use them alongside their grandparents, although life preservers are recommended and in some locations required.  Newcomers should kneel on the board and paddle that way before trying to rise to their feet. In still water, standing up is hardly more difficult on a stand-up board than on solid ground.

Like cycling, paddle surfing can be done at a recreational pace or, for an aerobic workout, at heart-thumping speed. And like yoga, stand-up paddle surfing is proving particularly popular with women.  “Nearly 50% of the buyers of our stand-up boards are women, which is a much much higher percentage than” conventional surf boards, says Mr. Hamilton.

High-end models of stand-up boards sold in sporting-goods stores range from about $900 to $1,500, with the paddle costing an additional $150 to $300. Costco, however, offers a board-and-paddle set for as little as $429.

Paddles have given rise to races. Dozens are scheduled this summer, up from none only a few years ago, with the fastest paddlers moving well beyond 10 miles an hour. “This is to surfing what snowboarding first was to skiing,” says Mr. Hamilton. “I’m convinced it will be an Olympic sport.”

Mr. Hamilton declines to call himself the inventor of the sport because Pacific Islanders—and Italy’s Venetians—for centuries have stood in boats using paddles or poles.

Yet there’s one place where stand-up paddling isn’t popular: the waters where conventional surfers converge. To them, the oversized boards and six-feet long paddles represent a danger, especially in the hands of novices. “Don’t Encourage Them,” said a recent headline in a blog called Postsurf.com.

No matter your age or skill level, all you need is some water and a sense of adventure to become a stand up paddler! Standing on the board offers a bird’s eye view of everything in and around the water. Stand up paddle boarding is also an exciting way to be active in the great outdoors. Tampa Bay is the perfect area for this exciting sport! Stand up paddling has something for everyone, whether you want to recreationally paddle, fitness paddle, or surf the waves.  If you are new to the sport, you can get lessons and rent equipment from Chase at the Water Money Shop in St. Petersburg.  Check him out at www.watermoneyshop.com

Posted by Laurie Puckett at Remmel Wellness Center, a full service chiropractic and wellness facility in St. Petersburg, Florida.

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No Comments by Laurie Puckett on August 9, 2010
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Skin Care Tips to Help You Look Younger

We all want to age gracefully, and what you don’t know—or think you do know—about your skin can sap its youthful luster.  One particularly dangerous misconception: After a certain point, the damage is done—and can’t be erased. In reality, there are lots of simple, effective ways to minimize fine lines, erase brown spots, and firm up sagging skin. “If you stick to just a few basics, your skin can look younger longer than you thought possible,” says Dennis Gross, MD, a dermatologist in New York City and founder of the Dr. Dennis Gross Skincare line.

Here, experts separate fact from fiction and reveal the best ways to keep years off your face.

Myth 1: Skin Should Feel Tight After Washing

Truth: If your skin doesn’t feel fresh and supple, you’re probably washing with a cleanser that’s too harsh. Daily cleansing banishes blemish-causing bacteria and removes radiance robbers such as makeup, oil, and dead cells. However, harsh detergents and overwashing can increase the appearance of fine lines and can often trigger breakouts, too, as oil production kicks in to overdrive to compensate for a lack of moisture.

Switch to a creamy cleanser with hydrators such as glycerin as well as mild surfactants like sodium or disodium cocoyl glutamate or cocamidopropyl PG-dimonium chloride phosphate (CPG) (and in case you were wonder,No I can’tpronounce them!), which are derived from coconut oil. “They all wash away makeup but restore moisture too,” says Marianna Blyumin-Karasik, MD, a clinical instructor of dermatology at the University of Miami.

Myth 2: Drugstore Products Aren’t As Good

Truth: “Regardless of where they’re sold, most anti-aging lines contain the same ingredients,” says David Bank, MD, a dermatologist in Mount Kisco, NY. These include scientifically proven anti-agers such as retinoids, alpha hydroxy acids, peptides, and antioxidants (like vitamin C and green tea). To get the most bang for your buck, look for packaging designed to maintain a product’s freshness and potency. For example, an airless pump keeps oxygen (and your fingers!) out of a cream, while an opaque coating around a bottle blocks sunlight. Another tip to boost effectiveness: Check the ingredient label to be sure the rejuvenators you want are listed high up—ideally, within the top 10.

Myth 3: Anti-Agers Make Skin Look Worse

Truth: Topical creams won’t leave skin as red and blotchy as either of the big anti-aging guns–lasers or chemical peels. But key rejuvenators like retinoids, which speed cell turnover and stimulate collagen production, can be so irritating you may just want to give up. Don’t! These simple tricks will keep you from hoisting the white flag: First-timers should prep skin for 2 weeks with an antioxidant like green tea.

And consider a milder OTC retinol instead of a stronger Rx version.  Mix a pea-size amount of retinol with your face cream to help offset dryness, and apply it every second or third night.  Skin still too dry?  Build up tolerance for a few weeks by putting the cream on for 5 minutes every other night and then rinsing it off. As skin becomes acclimated, work up to full nightly applications.

Myth 4: After Age 40, anti-aging is Pointless

Truth: By now, your skin has seen only about half its lifetime sun exposure. So don’t put away the SPF–there’s still plenty of time to ward off sun-induced aging. Bonus: Protecting your skin on a daily basis allows it to repair itself from past assaults. Surprisingly, most of the damage isn’t from baking on the beach–it’s the result of cumulative, incidental UV exposure from, say, a quick drive to the supermarket or a midday walk. Besides damaging skin directly, “UV rays trigger free radicals, destructive molecules that act like little darts, poking holes in skin’s support structure that lead to lines and sagging,” says Gross.

The protection in a daily lotion with built-in anti-aging might not be enough, though. Even when the SPF is 30 or above, these formulas often lack adequate coverage against UVA rays, the main culprit behind skin aging. To fully safeguard your skin, wear a separate anti-aging product over your face cream or choose a moisturizer with avobenzone, Mexoryl, or zinc oxide, the best UVA blockers.

Myth 5: If A Product Doesn’t Work Quickly, You Should Move On

Truth: It’s crucial to stick to a regimen long enough to see what works for your skin and what doesn’t. “I suggest waiting 8 to 10 weeks before you abandon a product and try the next thing,” says Mark G. Rubin, MD, an assistant professor of dermatology at the University of California, San Diego, and author of Your Skin, Younger. And keep in mind that not everyone’s skin will respond the same way to an anti-ager. “Most active ingredients do work on everyone—just to varying degrees,” he says.

The bottom line, it’s not too late to do something to help your skin look younger and to slow down the aging process.  And, if you have some age spots that are making you unhappy (like I do), come on in for a consultation with Dr. Remmel.  I have begun receiving cold laser treatments on the age spots on my hand, and in just one week, the color has lightened about 50%!  You, too, can look younger ~ ask us how!

Posted by Laurie Puckett, Remmel Wellness Center - a full service chiropractic and wellness facility located in St. Petersburg, Florida.

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No Comments by Laurie Puckett on August 2, 2010
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Music in the Brain

This is so cool!!!  A doctor has been mapping brain activity and turning it into music!  Read the following story posted by BayNews9.  I wonder what my brain sounds like?  Hopefully not like jazz music :-)  

For dozens of years, doctors have realized that listening to music can have positive effects on all sorts of patients.

Albert Yost has enjoyed music and entertained with it for more than 50 years.

He believes songs not only live in our brains, but in our toes, fingers, and mouths.

“Inside each of us there’s a symphony going at all times,” said Dan Lloyd, Phd. with Trinity College. “We’re never quiet inside. Basically, I think of the brain as if it were a musical instrument.”

Lloyd is turning brain scans into music in order to get a better idea of what’s going on in the brain.

When brains are scanned, active areas light up and are assigned a different note.

As the intensity of the activity increases, so does the volume of the sound.

“So here we have all the areas of the brain playing together as our subject looks at a flashing checkerboard,” said Lloyd.

Lloyd has created symphonies using the brains of people of all ages, and even those with mental illnesses.

“I think with the brains in schizophrenia, there’s a tendency for things to drift out of synchrony and so it comes out a little jazzier,” said Lloyd.

Researchers said it is possible to use brain music to help diagnose conditions like schizophrenia.

There are thousands of notes possible in each brain, but only a few dozen have been mapped.

Fa la la la la …

Posted by Laurie Puckett, Remmel Wellness Center – a full service chiropractic and wellness facility in St. Petersburg, Florida.

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No Comments by Laurie Puckett on July 22, 2010
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Poisonous ‘shrooms kill 400 in China

Annie Encounters a Mushroom
Image by Waldo Jaquithvia Flickr

I just couldn’t resist pulling this story.  I could say it is because we are always talking about being healthy, eating right, getting your fruits and vegetables, but I mean, really … any of you who grew up in the 60s, 70s or 80s probably have an idea why I just had to read this story!  It’s probably the same reason why YOU are reading it!  :-)  

Ok, here’s the story:  Every summer during the height of the rainy season, villagers of all ages in a corner of southwestern China would suddenly die of cardiac arrest.

No one knew what caused Yunnan Sudden Death Syndrome, blamed for an estimated 400 deaths in the past three decades.

Now, after a five-year investigation, an elite investigative unit from China’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention believes it has pinpointed the cause: an innocuous-looking small mushroom known as Little White.

The search for the culprit began in 2005 and took investigators to remote villages spread over the rural highlands of Yunnan province, said Robert Fontaine, an epidemiologist with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

There was “this very obvious clustering of deaths in villages in very short periods of time in the summer,” said Fontaine, who helped in the investigation. “It appears that there was something a little different going on.”

Local health officials had noted the deaths for years. In 2004, they appealed to Beijing for assistance. The government gave the task to the China Field Epidemiology Training Program, a unit of medical investigators at China’s CDC assigned some of the country’s toughest health mysteries.

The medical teams encountered obstacles. Many villagers didn’t speak standard Chinese, instead communicating in their own dialect. Villages were scattered in often remote areas. Rapid burials made it difficult to conduct autopsies. Torrential rain and mudslides hampered travel.

But that first year, investigators were able to narrow down the list of possibilities: most victims had drunk surface water, they had emotional stress and they ate mushrooms.

The investigators zeroed in on mushrooms, because the deaths were closely aligned with the harvesting season. More than 90 percent of the deaths occurred in July or August. By the end of 2005, investigators began issuing warnings to some villages to avoid eating unfamiliar mushrooms.

That was a difficult order to follow. Yunnan province is legendary for its wide variety of wild mushrooms, many of which are exported at high prices. Entire families go out to hunt for them during the summer months.

By 2008, investigators had discovered a relatively unknown mushroom in a number of homes where people had died. The mushroom is not usually sold in the markets, because it’s too small.

“We repeatedly found it at all these sites,” Fontaine said.

A public information campaign to warn against eating the mushrooms has dramatically reduced the number of deaths. Only a handful have been reported in the last couple of years, and none so far this year.

However, the mystery has not yet been definitively solved.

Testing found the mushroom contained some toxins, though not enough to be deadly. Chinese scientists need to isolate the toxin and test whether it triggers cardiac arrests.

Researchers have hypothesized that there is a second agent. Many of the victims showed high levels of barium, a heavy metal in the soil that seeps into mushrooms.

“There is a lot of work left to do,” Fontaine said. “We really need additional lab investigations.”

Problems with poisonous mushrooms are common throughout Asia, said Diderik De Vleeschauwer, a spokesman for the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization regional office in Thailand.

“Normally we expect people to have knowledge of what they can and can’t eat. One would think there is indigenous knowledge available about what they can forage,” he said. “But these are accidents that can happen.”

So the lesson to be learned?  Be sure to know what kind of mushroom you are eating!!!

Posted by Laurie Puckett, Remmel Wellness Center – a full service chiropractic and wellness facility in St. Petersburg, Florida.

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No Comments by Laurie Puckett on July 21, 2010
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Stupid Human Tricks

Image representing YouTube as depicted in Crun...
Image via CrunchBase

I think it is human nature to be amused by the really stupid things that people do.  Darwin’s theory of natural selection takes care of some of the stupidity, but not all of it.  Stupid human tricks seem to be on the rise, probably due in large part to the fact that YouTube and teenagers with video cameras are a potent combination.  

According to a story in the New York Times, some child specialists worry about this. Teenagers have always been prone to taking foolish risks (thanks partly to the brain’s prefrontal cortex, which governs decision-making and is still developing in adolescence). But with the rise of sites like YouTube and Facebook, these experts say, teenagers now face virtual peer pressure to emulate all kinds of dangerous stunts and dares, and post them online.

There are no data to demonstrate whether Web-inspired recklessness is really increasing or whether teenagers are taking the same risks as earlier generations — and just finding it easier to document idiotic exploits for all to see.

But some doctors say that at the very least, the Internet is causing adolescents to ratchet up the danger level. A few weeks ago, Dr. E. Hani Mansour, a burn specialist in Livingston, N.J., treated a teenager who had been severely burned after lighting fireworks. This was not your father’s fireworks accident. The boy had filled the family bathtub with fireworks, covered his body in protective clothing and set up a video camera to record the event. The resulting explosion, which the teenager later said he had hoped to post on YouTube, created a fireball that left the boy with burns on about 14 percent of his body.

“Boys have been trying to be rocket scientists for many years,” said Dr. Mansour, medical director of the burn center at St. Barnabas Medical Center. “But now we’re seeing it in a more brazen way. They’re doing it for the purpose of filming it.”

Indeed, unlike their counterparts from the past, these young burn victims fully intended to create a flaming spectacle, and often take basic precautions like covering their skin.

Last winter, a 15-year-old boy was treated at the burn center after trying to film an attempt to shoot a basket with a flaming basketball. He wore layers of clothing to protect his skin and doused the ball in gasoline before lighting it. But when he threw the ball, his clothing caught fire. The young man is recovering, Dr. Mansour said, but he will have lasting scars from second- and third-degree burns on his chest, abdomen and thighs.

A search on YouTube for “flaming basketball” turns up more than 100 videos. In a presentation for the American Burn Association, Dr. Mansour studied 46 Web videos focused on “fire tricks.” Although a few involved adults, most participants appeared to be 13 to 20, and a few looked even younger.

In April, Canadian researchers reported on the growing number of online videos documenting recreational asphyxiation, commonly called “the choking game.” The videos showed young people intentionally choking themselves to create a brief high. Although the game has been around for decades (there’s even a reference in a British medical journal from the 1890s), some experts are concerned that the Web is giving it new popularity.

At the time of the study, the 65 videos had been viewed nearly 174,000 times, according to the report, in the journal Clinical Pediatrics. The lead author, Dr. Martha Linkletter, a pediatrics resident at IWK Health Center in Halifax, Nova Scotia., said the Web was giving the game “a broader audience and informing people how to do these things.”

Some experts say YouTube, MySpace and the like should be used to alert teenagers to the consequences of risky behavior. Dr. Mansour said his hospital planned to launch a YouTube video depicting the pain and scars of burn accidents. Dr. Megan A. Moreno, an adolescent medicine specialist at the University of Wisconsin, recently conducted a study in which a MySpace persona called Dr. Meg reached out to teenagers who used their pages to boast of drinking or sexual exploits. “Are you sure that’s a good idea?” asked Dr. Meg, who went on to explain why they might want to remove the information. The note also warned them about the risks of sexually transmitted diseases.

Teenagers contacted by Dr. Meg were twice as likely to remove references to sex or substance use during the next three months as those who weren’t contacted, according to the study, published in The Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.

Beyond the obvious risks of filming dangerous stunts, some doctors are intrigued by how the Internet may be influencing normal adolescent development. Dr. Moreno notes that one of the distinguishing characteristics of early adolescence is the “imaginary audience” — the self-conscious feeling that everybody is watching you.

“For kids in middle school, a really normal part of that is the perception that you’re on stage, and that everybody is looking at you,” says Dr. Moreno. “But for kids today it’s a different world they’re growing up in. It’s a world where there really is that audience.”

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No Comments by Laurie Puckett on June 21, 2010
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You Guys are So Sweet!

Ochlerotatus notoscriptus, Tasmania, Australia
Image via Wikipedia

In the age old battle of the sexes, the question is often posed:  Who is sweeter – guys or gals?  The old wives’s tale has held that mosquitoes find women to be a tastier treat than men, but research has found little validity to that stereotype.  While putting on your insect repellent (Skin So Soft works well), check out this story from the New York Times:

Mosquitoes find some people tastier than others. But a widespread notion is that women, to mosquitoes at least, are the sweeter sex, supposedly because estrogen is a strong attractant.

In reality, gender does play a role, but not in the way most people think. As one report in the Annals of Internal Medicine pointed out, men are more likely to be attacked, primarily because of their greater body size.

“Larger persons tend to attract more mosquitoes,” the study said, “perhaps because of their greater relative heat or carbon dioxide.”

A similar effect can be seen among women. When scientists compared pregnant women with their nonpregnant counterparts in a Lancet study in 2000, they found that the pregnant women attracted twice as many mosquitoes. The study noted that the pregnant women exhaled more carbon dioxide and had higher body temperatures, allowing mosquitoes to detect them more easily.

Think about it this way.  When dining out at a buffet or smorgasbord, most people prefer a large spread to a small selection of foods.  Funny thing it, mosquitoes are the same way. 

In addition to carbon dioxide, lactic acid is strong attractant, which is why people are attacked more when they are outside and sweating, said Dr. Clifford W. Bassett of Allergy and Asthma Care of New York.

“Mosquitoes can sense these chemicals off the skin from up to 30 meters away,” Dr. Bassett said.

For people who react strongly to bites, he recommends insect repellent and taking a non-sedating oral antihistamine — which can lessen the itch after a bite — before spending time outdoors.

So, go ahead and light your citronella candles and enjoy your back yard.

Posted by Laurie Puckett, Remmel Wellness Center – a full service chiropractic and wellness facility in St. Petersburg, Florida.

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No Comments by Laurie Puckett on June 19, 2010
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