Mr Spice Has Saved My Life!!

Well, not really...But he's going to help bring my blood pressure down!

As recently posted, I have slightly elevated blood pressure. Allegedly.

My problem though is that there are only so many things I can do about it. I don't drink a lot of caffeine, I don't have a weight problem, I don't overdo it with alcohol (often), I get my sleep, and so on. I'm not perfect, but gee whiz, I don't want to have to be!

One thing I can do is give up one of the great loves of my life: salt. That just makes sense since we had noticed that meat substitutes wree often sodium-heavy. I don't like to think of it as a break-up though, more of an agreement to see other people.

My first great find is the line of Mr Spice products which, IIRC, I came across at a Loblaw's store.



This stuff is great for all the things it doesn't have:

Claims:
• Organic
• No Cholesterol
• No MSG
• No Preservatives
• Gluten Free
• Wheat Free
• Dairy Free
• No HVP
• No Sulfites
• All Natural
• Salt Free
• Fat Free
• No HFCS

Nice laundry list. And yet, for all that, it's quite tasty with no icky aftertaste. Click on the pic to go to the Mr Spice site and see the various sauces that they offer.

AS for me, I'm going to enjoy it until, of course, someone comes around to tell me i need to stop eating so much damn potassium.

Drinking Aluminum

I've reached something of a milestone at my place of employment. As of the end of June, I'll have put in a decade.

Actually, I was hired in February of 1998 but I was made permanent in June of that year. They choose to not count those four months for some reason. I suspect it has to do with how soon they'd haev to award me additional vacation days. Whatever. Might be that way everywhere for all I know.

Now I won't go into a great deal of detail because I've heard of people getting in trouble over posting work-related matters on blogs and such. Anyone in my little circle knows what company I'm referring to and for those that don't, it's not that relevant anyway. The point is that as a result of my reaching this little milestone, I was awarded a very modest shopping spree through the company's catalogue of promotional items.

On the downside, my "allowance" was modest to the point of making it difficult for me to find something I could "afford". On the upside, I quickly spotted a link for "eco options". All right then, so let's do that!

To my surprise, they offered shirts made of bamboo. That was something that I would have thought too obscure still for the company catalogue. Very pleased, but I can't afford them anyway, so let's move along.

I ended up holding true to a vague promise made at the end of this post. Corn plastic mugs were available and I went for one. It's this kind...



...though not that specific one, sadly (I'm organic...eh eh eh...I like that). Mine bears the company logo (it is, after all, a promotional item), is yellow and only slightly less bright than the surface of the sun.

The link in that post for info about corn plastic is no longer active, so let's throw down a refresher:

Corn-based plastics take just 45 days to biodegrade in a landfill. Normal plastic can take thousands of years to decompose. Corn plastics contain no petroleum, require 20 to 50 percent less fossil fuel to create and are derived from a renewable resource.

But environmentalists warn that corn plastic also has environmental drawbacks.

“The major problem with corn is that 80 percent of the corn crop is paid for by the taxpayers through subsidy payments to producers,” said Jeff Webster, secretary of the agricultural committee of the Sierra Club, a national environmental group. Industrial farming also requires huge amounts of gas, coal or petroleum. “There is a very large environmental price associated with corn production,” Webster said.

There's always something to bitch about...

This mug ate up about half my budget, so items such as umbrellas and writing materials were now out of the question. So I stayed in the same category and scored me an aluminum water bottle.

There's a building movement now towards reducing the amount of plastic bottles from which we drink. They apparently release a bunch of chemicals that I can't pronounce into my Greek God bod and that's bad.

The latest research suggests that students should be wary about which plastic water bottles they drink out of. The dangerous chemical bisphenol A can be found in water bottles sold across campus, including Willy's Hawkshop in the University Center.

Bisphenol A is a molecular monomer (simplest molecular structure in the structure of a larger molecule) that is polymerized (bonded in a continuous chain) to produce many of the plastics we use everyday...For many years BPA was considered harmless, but the latest research suggests that exposure to BPA can be dangerous. A research group funded by the American Plastics Council at Harvard University was the catalyst of the widespread use of BPA. This corporate-funded research group concluded after a two and a half year delay, that low-dose exposure to BPA did not constitute a significant risk, according to Frederick S. vom Saal and Claude Hughes in an article published in Environmental Health Perspectives.

Since then, more than 115 independent, in vivo studies have been conducted that all conclude otherwise. The latest research suggests that exposure levels below the previously thought of safe limit can disrupt the endocrine system, disrupt cell function, mutate genes, stop cell reproduction, and even hinder testosterone synthesis in males, according to vom Saal and Hughes.

Good. So I'm going to ditch the plastic water bottle the company gave me last year (thanks for trying to kill me slowly, bastards) and move on to my aluminum one. That is, until they find out that drinking from aluminum bottles causes dementia and gonad shrinkage or something and we move on to drinking from ceramic pots strapped around our necks. One thing at a time though. For now, aluminum is boss.

At the risk of appearing like an opportunist, I left only $0.75 on the table after my shopping trip. I probably could have ordered mints as well; in fact my co-workers might have appreciated it! But they came individually wrapped so, well, you know...

The mints, I mean, not my co-workers.

140 / 100

So it would appear that your THIT has high blood pressure. Allegedly.

Son of a bitch! That can't be! Just thinking about it makes me so mad I could...

Calm blue ocean, calm blue ocean, calm blue ocean...

All right, I'm better now.

I say "allegedly" because I'm not convinced by the results. This was a test provided by my work place. I'd signed up for it because...well...because I could.

I went a few minutes after being critisized for my handling of a situation. I don't know if that put me on edge a little or what, whatever. I arrive in the testing area which turned out to be the cafeteria on the floor above mine.

I joked right away that I was nervous about the whole thing. The ladies were quite nice, but one was particularly loud and didn't seem too reserved about barking out people's results. Hey, this is hardly a cavity search but nonetheless I expected SOME privacy.

The quieter of the two ladies conducting the tests strapped me up then listened in on my pulse. She then turns to the other one and says "Huh...Can you come listen to this?"

Yeah. THAT will help me relax. *grumble*

The loud one comes over and strats fretting right away. "Oh dear. Oh yeah. I can see why you called me over. Right. Yeah."

The suggestion was that I "relax" some more and they'd try again in five minutes. I enjoyed being given breathing instructions in front of the folks waiting in line, those waiting for the folks waiting in line to be done, and the old lady reheating the previous night's pasta meal. Relaxing was a little tricky right then.

The second test was no better. They then proceeded to quiz me on my sleeping habits, eating habits (vegetarianism went over well), family medical history, etc. I considered offering to turn my head and cough for them but thought that may come off sarcastically.

So due to the methodology and my discomfort in front of crowds and strangers, I question the results. However, rather than being one of those dumb-asses that lives in denial and makes excuses, I shall assume it's accurate and work on the areas that I can improve on.

Wish me luck but I don't need it. ;-)

Salt: Not Just For Breakfast Anymore!

While not a professional nutritionist by any stretch, and not nearly as careful as I could be when determining my snack options, I've come a long since the days I used to have BBQ chips for breakfast.

It turns out that might not have been so good for me. Who knew??

I suppose neither was the time that I scooped a spoonful of salt into a cup of tea. Of course, that was by accident. I thought while drinking it that the contents of my cup tasted...odd.

I read the article below yesterday while on my lunch break at work and wolfing down a 12" Subway Veggie Delite. It was written by one Megan Gillis of the Sun newspaper chain and is a clear, brief rundown of the impact of salt on your diet. Some of the statistics mentioned may surprise you.

Limiting salt in the food we eat would be the biggest boon to public health since safe drinking water and sewers, a coalition of health groups argued yesterday.

The group was urging action to stop an epidemic of high blood pressure linked to strokes, heart disease, kidney failure, blindness and dementia.

The average Canadian eats about a third more salt than the healthy limit and double what they need, most of it from processed foods including bread, cereal, soups and processed fast food.

Research suggests that if Canadians ate only healthy amounts of sodium, the number of strokes and cases of heart disease could drop by 30% and one in three Canadians with hypertension -- a million people -- would have normal blood pressure, saving $430 million a year in health costs and 4 million doctor visits.

"The individual can only do so much and now more food companies have to step up," Canadian Stroke Network director Dr. Kevin Willis said. "If we discovered that a food additive was causing 30% of all cancers, something would be done right away. The same action is needed with sodium to prevent stroke, heart disease and other vascular illness."

Health Minister Tony Clement established an expert working group yesterday as a first step toward a national strategy to cut salt consumption.

But health groups want the government to move quickly to set standards for salt in food, track and report how much Canadians are eating, launch an education campaign and provide incentives to food makers.

The goal is to reduce sodium consumption to healthy levels by 2020.

Meanwhile, people should read labels, eat less processed and fast food and cook more meals at home based on naturally low-sodium foods such as fruits and vegetables.

"It's been said reducing dietary sodium would result in the biggest improvement in public health since clean water and drains," said Sen. Wilbert Keon, the former head of the University of Ottawa Heart Institute.

"It's not just adults who have to worry," Keon said. "Evidence published recently shows that sodium is harmful to children, causing high blood pressure and damage to blood vessels that will lead to ill health later in life.

"In my own work as a heart surgeon, I've seen the impact of poor diet on disease and damaged hearts. It's critical we take a population level approach to reduce sodium in the food supply, make it easier for people to make healthier choices and educate the population on the link between sodium and hypertension."

It's not just the salt shaker. Processed foods can be packed with sodium. Research shows that even Canadians who say they never add salt to their food are consuming too much sodium. A small number of foods -- pizza, sandwiches, subs, burgers and hot dogs, soups and pasta dishes -- account for a third of the sodium we eat.

- Pizza Pizza pepperoni slice (large takeout slice), 1,710 mg.

- Pizza Pizza Big Bacon Bonanza (takeout only), 2,090 mg.

- McDonald's Big Mac, 1,020 mg.

- Burger King Bacon Double Cheeseburger, 1,460 mg.

- Subway 6" spicy Italian sub, 1,580 mg.

- Subway 6" ham sub, 1,060 mg.

- East Side Mario's baked ziti pasta with sausage, 2,310 mg.

- East Side Mario's Bigga Spaghetti with Meatballs, 4,290 mg

Source: National Sodium Policy Statement

One Joint = Five Cigarettes

I'm posting this because I've known people that have tried to convince me that smoking pot is no big deal. It may not be as bad as other drugs, but one shouldn't mistake that for "not being bad".

In any event, by no means am I knowledgeable about this, so I'm laying it out and that's it.

I wonder what those that defend pot based on medecinal usage say in response to news that it's also equivalent to five "cancer sticks".

LONDON (Reuters) - Smoking one cannabis joint is as harmful to a person's lungs as having up to five cigarettes, according to research published on Tuesday.

Those who smoked cannabis damaged both the lungs' small fine airways, used for transporting oxygen, and the large airways, which blocked air flow, the researchers said.

It meant cannabis smokers complained of wheezing, coughing, and chest tightness, the study by experts at the Medical Research Institute of New Zealand found.

The researchers tested 339 people -- those who smoked only cannabis, those who smoked tobacco, those who smoked both and non-smokers.

The study found only those who smoked tobacco suffered from the crippling lung disease emphysema, but cannabis use stopped the lungs working properly.

"The extent of this damage was directly related to the number of joints smoked, with higher consumption linked to greater incapacity," said the authors of the report published in the medical journal Thorax.

"The effect on the lungs of each joint was equivalent to smoking between 2.5 and five cigarettes in one go."

The British government is considering whether cannabis should be reclassified as a more serious drug because of the dangers associated with stronger strains.

Running For His Life

Good story that I happened across while reading the Ottawa Sun.

WINNIPEG -- Tired of watching his relatives die young and overweight, Cole Choken changed his life and dropped 100 lbs.

The Winnipeg man, who used to polish off four pizzas in an evening, now promotes healthy living and is attempting to jog to Winnipeg from Calgary to raise money for diabetes research.

"I went to ... all-you-can-eat restaurants with my uncles and my grandpa. We'd just eat away," Choken, 21, said yesterday from Calgary.

"Everybody (in my family) passed away young because of diabetes and eating too much."

Two years ago, Choken feared he would follow suit. He had ballooned to 320 lbs. and would stay up at night ordering restaurant food.

"He'd go to bed and he'd start ordering pizza and chicken," said his mother, Brenda Choken.

"I'd see four large boxes of pizza and one box of chicken ... in his bedroom, empty."

Choken decided he had to change his ways. He was helped, he says, by a dream in which he saw himself standing on a highway with an old man telling him to run.

So he started running, although it was a tough battle. He vomited halfway through his first attempt to run across Winnipeg.

His body soon got used to the strain, and as he changed his eating habits, he lost more weight and the running became easier.

Last October, Choken ran to Winnipeg from Grand Beach -- a distance of about 80 km. He says anyone can go from obese to marathon-ready, if they're determined.

"Just start off slowly, just do a block. Sooner or later, you'll get farther and farther," he said.

"It's the best feeling in the world. You feel good, you feel healthy."

Choken was scheduled to leave Calgary today on his 1,300-km journey, and hopes to arrive in downtown Winnipeg by Sept. 8.

His mother and other supporters will ride along in a trailer, where Choken will sleep. Eventually, he hopes to run across Canada and raise even more money for the Canadian Diabetes Association.

He's also had some exposure in a Halifax newspaper. More power to him.

D-Licious

Sharon Kirkey , Ottawa Citizen

Published: Thursday, June 07, 2007

A simple vitamin to prevent cancer has finally been accepted by the mainstream.
Long after natural "cures" such as shark cartilage and laetrile from peach pits flopped comes the first study of its kind to show that vitamin D is a potent cancer stopper.

The Canadian Cancer Society has used that finding and others in deciding to recommend for the first time that adult Canadians lower their cancer risk by taking 1,000 international units (IU) of vitamin D daily - five times the current recommended daily amount for people under age 50.

The lead author of the new study called the Canadian move "outstanding," but said she would go even higher and recommend healthy adults pop between 1,500 and 2,000 IU of vitamin D daily.

"It's inexpensive, it's safe, and it's easy to take. It's something that should be considered by a lot of people," says Joan Lappe, professor of nursing and medicine at Creighton University School of Medicine in Omaha, Neb. "It's low-risk with maybe a high pay-off."

Lappe's team studied nearly 1,200 post-menopausal women from rural eastern Nebraska and found that those taking a combination of vitamin D and calcium had about a 60 per cent lower risk of cancer, including breast, lung and colon cancer, over four years of follow-up.

"In other words, it cut more than half the cancers over a four-year period," Lappe says.

Moreover, the higher the level of vitamin D in the blood, the lower people's cancer risks, according to the study, published today in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

An expert in cancer biology called the idea of using vitamin D to cut cancer risk one of the most important advances in cancer prevention. Dr. Michael Pollak, professor of medicine and oncology at Montreal's McGill University, said it may be time for public health authorities to consider mandating higher levels of vitamin D in milk and adding it to other foods, such as bread and flour.

Click on link above for the full article.

Skin Deep

Skin Deep is a safety guide to cosmetics and personal care products brought to you by the researchers at the Environmental Working Group.

Skin Deep pairs ingredients in nearly 25,000 products against 50 definitive toxicity and regulatory databases, making it the largest integrated data resource of its kind. Why did a small nonprofit take on such a big project? Because the FDA doesn't require companies to test their own products for safety.

Click on the bubbles to go to the site.

Hair Die

Even though the environment is one of (if not "the") top concerns of Canadian voters according to a number of polls, I don't discuss politics much on here.

There are a variety of reasons for that. Among them...

• Unless it's specific to the environmental or personal health, it's off topic.

• It's a topic that you're either quite interested in, or bored senseless by. If you fit the latter category, you'd probably see the subject matter and leave right away.

• I'm a Green Party member, but I believe that saying so on this blog creates a perception that I am only due to their environmental stance. And that's not true.

• I don't want to come off as a shill. I'm the same with vegetarianism. I'm very willing to discuss it, but if you come off as though you're trying to cram an issue down people's throat, you end up having the opposite effect that you wish you could have. You turn people off.
  

That said, I came across a link that I want to share as a result of keeping tracking of the Green Party across the country. Recently, the Guardian, a newspaper covering Prince Edward Island (like the dew, apparently...I like that) ran a story about how the Greens had selected 18 candidates to run in the pronvincial election there.

Like many only online newspapers, the option to leave a comment is available. Someone (scroll to the bottom of the page if the article is still available online) asked, perhaps sarcastically...

Hair dye damages the environment. Does the Green Party support a ban of hair dye. Do any Green Party members use hair dye????

The PEI Green Party Leader had answer within an hour a half:

...you are absolutley (sic) right that hair dye damages the environment, not to mention what it does to human health. You ask if any Green party members dye their hair. Can't speak for others but I don't. I did the research and some of the writing for the Less Toxic Guide.

There you go. And neither do I, despite the apparent glee with which people like to point out to me that I'm getting a little more snow on the roof these days. Well, I've always said I'd rather look like Phil Donahue...


...than Uncle Fester.



So believe me, I'm not losing any sleep at night.

Besides, when you colour your hair, you eventually reach an age where it's painfully obvious that you're hiding something. My personal opinion is that you're better off trying to grow old with a little dignity.

And now, for no particular reason, here's a picture of Donald Trump.

Like Healthy Candy

Sometime ago, I raved about my new-found love for Booster Juice. It still very much applies and I've found a new reason to feel that way.

Since discovering them (or rather, finally getting around to trying it, since I knew they existed. I may be going treehugger but I don't live in a cave) I've tried a number of their smoothies. If I'm planning on going to the gym that evening, I'll do the Veggie Combo from the Chinese place in the World Exchange Plaza food court (chow mein, mixed vegetables and, imagine that, rice) and have a Booster Juice smoothy to go with it. When I'm done, I'm fuller tham Jennifer Lopez' jeans.

For a few weeks, I'd been drinking one called the Marathon. Sounded appropriate for a subsequent gym visit, and ever-so-slightly more masculine than ordering a "Raspberry Rapture".

Not no more though! My new favourite is the Brazilian Thunder (which, again, is easier for me to order than a "Blue Banana". And while I'm digressing, the Blue Banana is pinkish and tastes like orange. What's the friggin' joke??).

And why is the Brazilian Thunder my new favourite, you ask, assuming you've been able to keep track through my rambling? Because of the delightful little sumbitches above, the acai berry.

The acai berry grows on palm trees in the heart of the rainforest, is dark purple, and looks similar to a grape. Inside, it grows a large seed with a light covering of flesh, which can be pulped in water to produce a thick paste.

The result is a concentrate with an exquisite flavour, often described as something like a mixture of blueberry and chocolate.

More importantly, the acai berry paste provides a remarkable range of nutrients. A complex mix of advanced antioxidants, amino acids, omega fatty acids (healthy fats) and a number of other essential vitamins and minerals, qualifies acai as a genuine superfood. Described as one of the ‘Forty One Best Things On Earth’ by Sports Illustrated for Women (September 2003), this amazing little berry is set to revolutionise the health industry.

Benefits include...

Improved skin tone, with younger and healthier-looking skin.

Better circulation, especially to the fingers and toes.

Relief from inflammation and the symptoms of fibromyalgia.

Healthier eyes, with better night vision.

Increased vitality and energy.

Stronger ability to fight off colds, flu and other illnesses.

Helps to lower cholesterol naturally.

But don't take it from me. I'm still in training. Take it from this righteous chick:

If it's good enough for Oprah, brother, it's good enough for you.

Now I hear wheatgrass is great for you too, and Booster Juice does offer it in their drinks, but...huh...that'll be an experiment for another day.

Source

Booster Believer!

Great Googly Moogly! Ever have this stuff?!

I'm fairly lucky in that in the area where I work, I can find a number of vegetarian food options. Still, there are days that you just don't know what you feel like having.

I forget what prompted it, but a co-worker showed me a flier he had at his desk for Booster Juice. I had a flip through and got a better feel for their product. I thought they were basically glorified milkshakes, but no way Irene!

What's with the name!! BOOSTER JUICE!!? In every smoothie you get a free booster. This free booster is a nutritional supplement. Feeling a bit run down? Choose the Cold Warrior Booster it's full of Echinacea and Goldenseal which are two of the best herbs for building your immune system. Needing a bit of extra energy? Go with our Energy Booster which is a blend of Korean ginseng and bee pollen. The boosters give the customer the enjoyment of customizing their drink. These are just two of our ten boosters which are researched and developed for us with private labeling.

Indeed? But my problem is that I usually only have a small breakfast before leaving for work, so I need something filling. No problem, Chester!

Sonic Soy Low fat soymilk, blended with blueberry, strawberry, sorbet, Wilderness Booster and Protein Booster. Get added protein and enjoy a delicious non-dairy smoothie designed for the health conscious crowd.

That's me all over, motherfu...well, whatever. If I recall correctly (always a shaky proposition) protein is one of the nutrients that they tell you to watch out for if you turn to a vegetarian diet. You may not get enough. The occasional Booster ought to help.

In any event, highly recommended. Check out their menu, learn about this "power berry" they make reference to (I worked in the produce section of a grocery store in my late teens and never heard of it), and next time you happen to walk by one of their locations in some mall, treat yourself.

Would You Take Health Advice From This Man?

One would think not. Clowns are creepy bastards anyway. The New Brunswick Department of Education agrees. With the first part anyway. Story on Canada.com:

OTTAWA - In a Canadian first, the New Brunswick government has banned McDonald's corporate mascot Ronald McDonald from its elementary schools, but says the fast-food giant's controversial healthy living show can stay.

The province's Department of Education made the announcement Monday after discovering the corporate clown had visited some schools this fall to promote McDonald's Go Active Canada program. The interactive show stars Ronald McDonald, who introduces video clips from Canadian Olympians delivering personal messages about leading a healthy lifestyle.

"You wouldn't use Joe Camel cigarettes to talk about your cessation program. It just doesn't fit,'' Jason Humphrey, spokesman for the Department of Education, said Monday in the wake of the ban.

Education Minister Kelly Lamrock elaborated in a letter to school boards, saying the brand-driven marketing "creates a contradictory and confusing message... Specifically, the use of brands reasonably known to be identified with unhealthy lifestyles is unacceptable.''

But critics say the province is going only halfway, pointing out the government has failed to take the next logical move by banning the McDonald's video pitching healthy living from its elementary schools.

New Brunswick schools can also continue sign up with McDonald's GO Active Fitness Challenge that can earn them up to $500 in sports equipment. Last year, 330 schools across Canada participated in the fitness challenge.

Ronald McDonald is still making the rounds in schools in other provinces, most notably in British Columbia, where the mascot turned up recently to deliver his healthy-living message on behalf of the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics; McDonald's is a top sponsor of the Games.

Erika Shaker, an education research fellow at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, says the issue that has boiled over in New Brunswick is part of a larger trend.

She described it as a perfect storm of cash-strapped schools looking for ways to raise money converging with companies like McDonald's keen to rebrand themselves.

"This is part of a wider movement of companies associated with foods that are not considered healthy and repositioning themselves as being interested in health. But it's not just a question of healthy foods, it's trying to refocus the discussion on active living,'' said Shaker. "And of course the backdrop to all this is the consistent underfunding of public schools.''

/

McDonald's has had a tough time rebranding itself since the 2004 release of the Academy Award-nominated documentary Super Size Me.

Filmmaker Morgan Spurlock ate three McDonald's meals a day for one month. At the end of the experiment, he had gained 25 pounds and suffered severe liver disfunction, a condition his supervising physicians attributed to his high-fat, high-carb diet.

McDonald's isn't the first company to feel pressure from the education sector.

The soft-drink industry has withdrawn voluntarily its carbonated drinks from elementary schools in Canada. And a few years ago, Kraft Foods announced it would stop all in-school marketing of some of its products, including Oreos and Kool-Aid.

You Deserve A (Tax) Break

Damn straight.

During the last federal election, the Conservative Party of Canada promised Canadians they would seriously consider extending a plan to provide tax deductibility for gym memberships.

In September 2006, Fitness Industry Canada (launched) You Deserve A Tax Break, a national postcard writing campaign encouraging fitness club members to send a postcard - via mail or email - to their Minister of Finance and their local Member of Parliament.

You Deserve A Tax Break is your chance to tell the Government of Canada you and your club members deserve a tax break for contributing to lowering national health care costs while maintaining an active and healthy lifestyle.

Makes sense to me. Clicking on the logo will take you to the page from which you can send your e-postcard. The FIC's front page also includes an informative article from the Edmonton Sun.

Now I need to see if I'm charged GST when I buy organic. If so, removing that would help offset the sometimes greater cost of eating healthier.

I think it's probably fair to say that most people don't change their eating habits until they're given a reason to, usually illness or weight gain. Any incentive towards a healthy lifestyle should be encouraged. Throwing more money at the health care system isn't the only way to "support" it; taking some of the pressure off it would help a great deal as well.

And I include myself in the above group incidentally; it wasn't until I got a wicked kidney stone that I began to question my decision to eat two medium pizzas, a large bag of chips, a large bag and M&M's and washing it all down with a 2L bottle of coke every other football Sunday or so. Next thing I know, I'm laid out on the floor in my parents' living room with an ice pack on my gonads waiting to be taken to the hospital. At 22 years of age, that ain't right.

Anyone who's ever had a kidney stone will tell you that it's not an experience they seek to repeat. I was never able to keep mine, but it looked something like this:



That is, if I had a guy running through my urethra.

In any event, it's unfortunate that I wasn't able to keep it because it would have made a great necklace and a constant reminder that cheese is not intended to be a main course. Or alternatively, a delightful conversation piece as a paperweight.

Have I Mentioned I Hate Camping?

Well, I'm still facing at least one more trip to begin the last week of August. Argh!

But this time, I believe I'll try to be better prepared and bring the above, if I can locate it. I recently read in a newsletter I subscribe to (It's called "Ideal Bite" and they sell themselves as "A Sassier Shade of Green". Well, I'm nothing if not sassy!) that deet might be damaging to brain cells.

Fabulous. And here I bathed in it last weekend. And it didn't work worth a damn anyway, as evidence from the 15 or so unsightly lumps on my arms and legs.

In any event, in light of my recent success with Aubrey's shaving cream, I'm going to try to find Burt's bug repellent as recommended. It's deetless so it shouldn't make me any dumber than I already am. I'm optimistic here. Do right by me, Burt!

Cancer Destroyed by Antibody 'Triple Whammy'

Love those scientific medical terms like "triple whammy". :-) From NewScientist.com:

A new cancer therapy using a "triple whammy" of antibodies has shown unprecedented success in mice. Not only does the treatment destroy tumours – even when they have spread around the body – it also prevents the tumours coming back. And the approach should work for a range of cancers.

Success in mice is far from a guarantee of success in people, but human trials have now begun on one component of the therapy.

The research, by scientists in Australia and Japan, is “an exciting advance”, according to cancer biologist Carl June of the University of Pennsylvania, US: “This novel form of therapeutic vaccination would not only enable potent tumour eradication but also protect from recurrence.”

The idea of using the body’s immune system to kill cancerous cells is already routinely deployed. Our immune system contains killer white blood cells called cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs), which single out and destroy tumours. But the body’s natural response to cancerous cells is often not strong enough to wipe out the tumour.

The new therapy, called TrimAb (triple monoclonal antibody) therapy, may solve that problem. Mark Smyth, at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in Australia, Kazuyoshi Takeda, at the Juntendo University School of Medicine in Japan, and colleagues used a cocktail of three different antibodies.

The first attacks the tumour directly, by stimulating the receptor for a death-inducing protein on tumour cells, called TRAIL. The boost that strengthens the response comes from the other two antibodies which activate killer T-cells that pitch in to kill the tumour.

TrimAb cleared large breast tumours in 80% of the mice that received the treatment, while the tumour disappeared in less than 30% of mice that got either single antibodies or double antibody combinations. And furthermore, the therapy induced a complete cure in 60% of the mice in which the breast cancer had spread to the lungs, liver, and brain.

TrimAb causes T-cells to produce an immune molecule named interferon gamma. “This molecule is key to tumour destruction”, Smyth told New Scientist. While TrimAb elicited the killer molecule in the lymph nodes of treated mice, treatments with a single or a pair of antibodies did not. “TrimAb also recruits a higher frequency of CTLs to attack the tumour,” he adds.

Many cancers express TRAIL, so TrimAb is not just specific for breast cancers. In particular, says Smyth, it works for renal cancer and sarcomas, and colon cancer is a promising target.

TrimAb prevents the recurrence of cancer because destroying the tumours presents the immune system with antigens, priming it for the future. A specific advantage of this is that the immune system is then primed against that particular tumour.

Three antibody combinations have never been used in patients to treat cancers, says Smyth. Although the combination was non-toxic to mice, careful pilot testing of each component and combination needs to be done in human trials, he cautions. The team is now awaiting results of Phase I trials involving humanised anti-TRAIL antibodies.

And I Would Walk One Hundred Miles...

Have I mentioned that I climbed the CN Tower recently?

Discussing this with a co-worker of mine the other day, she told me about what her father-in-law does. The dude walks from Ottawa (or maybe Gatineau, on the Quebec side, I'm not certain) to close to Montreal. It's something referred to as the "Pélerinage Chemin des Centenaires". That's difficult to translate, but the point is that it's a pilgrimage. In total, it's 223 kilometres (about 139 miles) over the course of 12 days. He's doing it again this year, starting June 11th and and reaching his destination on the 22nd.

Fairly impressive in itself.

Then you're told he's 87 years old.

Man, I love that to death. I recall an older gentleman at my previous gym who used to pound the treadmill until sweat dripped from his elbows. Tell me that doesn't push you into going an extra few minutes on your own machine.

Do They Have Something Against Fingers?

From Canada.com:

Capitol Records have air-brushed cigarettes from an original picture featured on the cover of a Beatles four-CD box set, in a bid to fit in with more health-conscious times.

The Capitol Albums, Vol. 2 - which marks the first appearance on CD of the U.S. versions of Rubber Soul, the Help! soundtrack, The Early Beatles and Beatles VI - will see the Fab Four's former tobacco habit and two of Ringo Starr's fingers magically erased.

Previous Beatles reissues also had their artwork changed - when I Want to Hold Your Hand was re-released in 1984 by EMI records, Sir Paul McCartney's cigaretty was removed from the original cover.

A U.S. poster company also digitally removed the same Beatle's cigarette from its poster of the 1969 album Abbey Road three years ago.