Category Archives: Health

Going Barefoot – Why Does It Feeel So Good?

Leave a reply

The first thing I do when I walk in the door everyday is take off my shoes. And I know a lot of other people who do the same thing.

Recently I’ve read that it’s a habit that’s actually good for you. It seems that walking on soft carpeting or sand or grass in your bare feet stimulates pressure points on the soles of your feet. Those pressure points in turn signal your brain to release a calming hormone called dopamine.

So, I suppose it stands to reason that if your brain is going to send you a complimentary dose of dopamine, it will eliminate some of your stress and eliminating some of our everyday stresses equals a healthier heart.

No wonder going barefoot feels so good!

Myths – True or False?

Leave a reply

I was watching Inside Edition on TV last week and they were debunking some popular myths–a few conclusions I agreed with, others I did not.

Here’s one I never had heard before. Drinking caffeine will stunt your growth. I was always told smoking cigarettes would do that. Turns out neither is true.

Put ice on a burn. I’ve done this plenty of times, however, ice held on the skin too long can actually make the burn worse. Instead, it’s recommended that you hold the affected area under cold water for ten or fifteen minutes.

And a favorite of mine–chocolate will give you acne. The official finding says False. But I’m living proof that this is absolutely True. If I eat too much chocolate, by too much I mean three or more pieces, (caramels are my favorite) a large zit or two will erupt the very next day. Not acne, but unmistakable lumps that hang around for a couple of days.

The program didn’t mention whether drafts will give you a cold or, for that matter, if going outside on a cold day with wet hair might do the same. They’d probably deem it a myth. As far as I’m concerned, the jury is still out on this one.

Puffed-Up Phlebotomist

Leave a reply

I had to get my blood drawn last week and I’m a “hard stick.” A hard stick is a person who has terrible veins and it’s hard to draw blood out of them.

So, the first thing I say when I’m escorted to the blood-draw cubicle is, “I’m a hard stick and you probably will only be able to draw blood from the veins on my hand.”

Now this nurse believes she is better than all the rest who have gone before her. “Let me look at your arm anyway.”

I extend my arm.

“There’s a perfectly good one,” she says and she proceeds to stick me three times before giving up and blaming me for her failure. “You bent your arm, so I’m going to have to go to your hand. Why did you flinch?”

“Because you hurt me.”

“Well, that jerking made your arm bend. Most people don’t flinch.”

I find that hard to believe, but I don’t respond because she’s the one holding the needle.

She continues to excuse her failure. “You probably didn’t drink enough water this morning. Next time you come in, make sure you drink water. It helps to plump up your veins.”

Finally, after patting herself on the back for managing to get four tubes of blood from my uncooperative veins, I leave.

The end of the story is, I’ve been walking around with a purple bruise the size of a half-dollar on my arm where I received three unnecessary jabs from that puffed-up phlebotomist.

Tomato, Tomahto

Leave a reply

Whichever way you say it, you haven’t eaten a really good tomato in a very long time–well, unless you’re growing your own or buying from a farmers market. However, you are eating really, really pretty tomatoes: bright red, no blemishes, smooth skin, firm to the touch, perfect green stem. Too bad they’re red rocks with little or no juice inside.

photo from

Every year, it gets harder and harder to find an awful looking, ugly tomato–the ones that are grown to taste good, not to look good.

photo from

If you’re lucky enough to find one, don’t expect it to be bright red. Sometimes they’re more orange. And don’t bother to look for a perfect stem sticking out of its misshapen body, because there probably isn’t one.

If you’ve ever bent over and picked a tomato direct from the plant, you’ll know the minute you hold this ugly baby in the palm of your hand that it’s been sun-drenched and grown outside and maybe it hasn’t even been sprayed with “who knows what.”

So, the next time you pass the tomatoes in your supermarket, try to figure out why you don’t see those hideous looking tomatoes in the store anymore. Are we so enamored of beauty that our food has to look gorgeous, while real taste suffers?

Oh, well. Pretty is “in.”  So, I won’t even get started on our pretty, pretty red beef, or our pearly white eggs, or …

10 Men I Like — A Lot

2 Replies

I haven’t listed any American presidents, politicians or religious leaders. That’s an entirely different list. My list is random. Although the names are numbered, no ranking is intended.

  1. Prince William – He has done his mother proud.
  2. Anwar Sadat – His death was a tragic loss to his country.
  3. Joseph, Chief of the Nez Perce tribe – His ill-fated retreat of more than 1,000 miles from federal troops is legendary.
  4. Martin Luther King – He had a dream. We’re still working at it.
  5. George Carlin – He’s probably my all-time favorite comedian.
  6. Paul Newman – A good man.
  7. Danny Thomas – He was much more than met the eye. Visit the St. Jude Children’s Hospital in Memphis to see what I mean.
  8. John J. Audubon – I’m a birder, so Audubon makes my list. He spent 50 years painting and describing the birds of America.
  9. Norman Rockwell – He shared the spirit of America through his paintings. I grew up enjoying his artistry on the covers of The Saturday Evening Post.
  10. Thomas Edison – Every time there is a power outage, I wonder what people did before the light bulb.

These are the first ten names that popped into my mind. I probably missed a few of your favorites.

Darvocet Is Off The Market!

5 Replies

Are you asking me to believe that it took the FDA over fifty years to decide Darvon and Darvocet should be taken off the market?!

It appears even the panel of experts couldn’t agree:

The pain medications Darvon and Darvocet should be pulled off the market, according to a recommendation approved on a 14-12 vote by a panel of medical experts assembled by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

For those of us who suffer from chronic pain, this is a catastrophe. Anyone who uses Darvocet or its generic, propoxyphene, which is a mild drug, will attest to its effectiveness, and it doesn’t make you drowsy. In case you’re wondering how many people that is–in 2009, 10 million people depended upon propoxyphene to help make their life livable. Deaths linked to Darvocet annually – .0005%.

What I find so wrong about this is–I would like to be able to make my own choice. Give me the facts and let me decide whether the risk is worth the pain relief.

Here are some comments from Join Together. It appears a lot of people would like to make their own decisions.

According to an article on the link Darvocet should be banned.. 23 million prescriptions per year are issued, (for the last 50 years??) the article also mentions 2,100 deaths from 1981 to 1999 (18 years). This does not seem to be a high risk ratio to me. I can only conclude the people making these waves have never dealt with moderate to severe chronic pain.

Here’s another:

I hope that this medicine is NOT taken off the market. I am deathly allergic to ALL NSAIDS.

And another:

My wife had a stroke and none of the other drugs that she was given gave the relief for the nerve pain that she has. If it is taken off the market then what can she use? The other drugs are either more addictive or so strong that it causes her to sleep 24/7. What quality of life would she have without it? Darvocet seems to be the only drug that actually cuts down the pain to tolerable level.

I’m really, really tired of the government taking such good care of me.

Now, I’m in the process of trying out other drugs that might be able to take the place of Darvocet. If and when I find it, I can be sure it will cost a whole lot more than my 50-year-old medication.

I’m sure the pharmaceutical companies are happy with the FDA’s decision. They must be jumping up and down with joy.

All My Children

2 Replies

Alright, All My Children is one of my guilty pleasures.  I’ve become addicted. I tape every episode.

I was so happy to see Michael Nouri (Caleb) join the cast. He’s been a favorite of mine for years. I hope the writers keep him on for a long time.

And it will be interesting to see if Vincent Irizarry (David) can rise from the dead. (As I understand it, this type of thing happens all the time on the soaps.)

What I’ve noticed lately is the ladies on this soap opera are withering away. It’s like watching skeletons walk across the screen.

Susan Lucci has always been petite, but now there seems to be a lot of slimming down going on. Alicia Minshew, who plays Kendall, is tall and painfully thin. Rebecca Budig (Greenlee) (where did they come up with that name?)  and Christina Bennett Lind (Bianca) aren’t far behind.

It was refreshing to see Jamie Luner’s character, Liza, in her underwear recently. She actually has a “real” woman’s body.

I hope the skeletal look doesn’t become a trend.

That said, here’s a little something on Scott Chandler’s character.

RefDesk.Com

2 Replies

By now, I hope everyone has discovered  RefDesk

It’s my home page. I think you can find just about anything you could ever dream of on this page. It’s chock full of trivia and what’s new in the news. Some of the daily things you will find on this page are:

Site of the Day – Today it introduces you to  Free Ebooks and Texts Archive

Thought of the Day – It’s really a good one today, which is what prompted me to write about this site.    “If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.”
Abraham Maslow

This Day in History Today it’s about Narcotics Anonymous

Article of the Day Do you know what a Bonobo is? You will after reading this article.

Daily Diversions Games, Jokes, Stumble Upon, etc.

Today’s Potpourri Trivia, Science, Technology, Health

There are so many additional and varied resources, there is no possible way you could ever peruse every one of them. You’ll find all types of news, even “hold your hat now”–there’s even Positive, Good News. And expect the pictures from outer space to blow you away.

Don’t miss out on this site.