Friday, May 21, 2010

Chris Rock's Movie Good Hair

On a recent trip cut short by my dog getting another major abdominal surgery I saw the movie Good Hair.

That's one hell of an opening sentence eh?

Yeah I went to Canada too.  What's up with the pre-check point check point when you go over the bridge before meeting the Canadian border guards?   I think it was a group of american border guards who were bored.   But they slowed down the process more than the actual border crossing into Canada.

Any-who,  the movie is a documentary/satire of sorts.  I learned a lot watching it.  Like the chemical in hair straightener is sodium hydroxide,  more commonly known as lye.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_hydroxide

Wiki says most over the counter products switched to less caustic bases but that "professionals" still use the older,  stronger sodium hydroxide preparations.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relaxer

"Manufacturers vary the sodium hydroxide content of the solution from 5% to 10% and the pH factor between 10 and 14"


This looks like the same % found in stuff like liquid drano http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drano


Women and children put this stuff in their hair and on their scalp regularly to break down the chemical bonds that make the hair curl.   


But the big money is made in hair weaves.  Which I was surprised to learn are mostly made of human hair from India.  


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tirumala_Venkateswara_Temple
Many devotees also have their head tonsured as an offer. The daily amount of hair collected is over a ton.[15] The hair thus gathered is sold by the temple organization a few times a year by public auction to international buyers for use as hair extensions and in cosmetics,[16] bringing over $6 million to the temple's treasury


On the other side of the world,  Americans pay around 1000 dollars for a good hair weave.  There's all this maintenance that has to be done on the hair as well and plenty of women spend 10k dollars or more on hair a year.  


Chris Rock interviewed a bunch of celebrities including the Reverend Al Sharpton who said something to the effect that black people should make money off the sale of weaves purchased by black people.  It's interesting that women spending 1000 dollars at a time for other people's hair so they may look more "natural" is a fine business opportunity.  I guess it's ok to exploit a people if you're the same color.   


And don't think these themes are isolated to black women and curly hair modification.  Cosmetics are in general chocked full of toxic metals and petroleum chemicals.  You can't even check the ingredient list on a lot of these products because it's "proprietary".   You have to protect the patent rights of corporations before you disclose the potentially harmful toxins going on a woman's FACE.  


Which reminds me of the Walmart cadmium jewelry story.   


Anyone see this ?  
http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/health1/warning-walmart-issues-recall-on-ge-coffee-maker_100367643.html




Oh snap,  I put "walmart cadmium" into google and that popped up 1st in the news feed.

Just yesterday it was announced that Walmart, the huge department store chain, has finally recalled their Miley Cyrus line of jewelry after finding out that it contained dangerous levels of cadmium back in February. Although they claimed that the jewelry was not made for children, since many young girls do seek out the ‘Miley Cyrus’ name, the products were posing a danger to them which Walmart was aware of for 3 months prior to the recall. And now, as announced by the CSPC, Walmart has issued a recall on their GE coffeemakers.
The US Consumer Product Safety Commission has announced on their website that Walmart is voluntarily recalling several of their GE coffeemakers. To find out if your product is on this list check the CSPC website here. The huge headline for the site states, “Walmart Recalls General Electric® Coffee Makers Due to Fire Hazard”. It estimates that about 900,000 coffee makers are included in this recall. Also stated on this site is the following:
“Hazard: The coffee maker can overheat, posing fire and burn hazards to consumers.
Incidents/Injuries: Walmart has received 83 reports of overheating, smoking, melting, burning and fire, including three reports of minor burn injuries to consumer’s hands, feet and torso. Reports of property damage include a significant kitchen fire and damage to countertops, cabinets and a wall.”



Cadmium in the children's jewelry and now GE is selling coffee makers that burn down houses?   I wonder what the story is behind that?  I'm going to guess it has something to do with using cheap materials and slave labor,  but I'm too lazy to dig into it right now. 


But speaking of GE,   word around the campfire locally is that the mammogram center has seen a steep drop off in screening mammography the past 6 months.  Wonder how that combination of ever increasing health care costs and the recent press over the substantial harms of screening mammograms is affecting the bottom line of our mighty health care institutions.   It's stuff like that that makes it difficult to afford underground parking garage construction.  


/just sayin


For those of you wondering what happened to the hound dog;  he's recovering from a false alarm surgery.  He went into the vet for vomiting and they felt a big spleen and his xray looked funny.  After cutting him open,  everything looked normal and they left him with his spleen.  He's mighty sore but no longer vomiting.  











Monday, May 17, 2010

Richest Country on Earth

Read this is a news story today:


The United States has the highest incarceration rate on the planet - five times the world's average. A total of 2,380,000 people are now in prison. The U.S. has five percent of the world's population, but 25 percent of the world's prison population.
Minorities make up a disproportionately large share of inmates. Black males have a 32 percent chance of serving time in prison at some point in their lives


When we combine this number with the % of young people unemployed (anywhere from 30-50% currently with the recession)  and the % of young people in the military,  you end up with the vast majority of youth in this country.

Unemployed, serving in the military or in prison....

Is this really the best we can do?   This is the apex of progress?

And don't tell me military service isn't so bad.  We've been at war for damn near a decade with no end in sight.  Soldiers are killing themselves at ever increasing rates.  Hell we haven't demobilized the military since world war 2.  

Most of our youth enter adulthood unemployed, as soldiers or as prisoners.

What does that do to a society?  

The wealth distribution gap continues to grow.   Prisons,  the military and the entitlement systems are our most consistent growth industries.  

In such a land,  it matters not who is elected president.

Our root systems are corrupting.  

We will find a way of living differently because to continue as we are is suicide.

We will find a way of living differently.  

Friday, May 7, 2010

Cardiologist Stirs the Pot

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35895682/ns/health-heart_health/


Doctor says heart groups too cozy with industry

‘It's time to draw the line’ on corporate funding, says prominent cardiologist



The news article spends the 1st half of the story talking about how he got it wrong with the whole coke a cola funding some heart awareness campaign.   Let's see if we can find a copy of his speech somewhere.... 

Putting his name into google: 


He helped put the smack down on a diabetes drug that raises heart attack risk.  Wonder if that drug is related to Avandia? 

I don't know,  but Dr Nissen has also been in Avandia's business it seems http://spotlight.vitals.com/2010/02/dr-steven-nissen-on-diabetic-drug-avandia-shown-to-damage-the-heart/


And the FDA user fees too!

Ok,  I have a new hero.  

Still haven't found a copy of his speech!

Friday, April 9, 2010

Prostate

Sometimes referred to as the prostrate which is fine since the prostrate position protects the prostate.  Anyway,  there's a new twist in the marketing for this much maligned little organ.

Cancer prevention through a pill!   Woohoo!   What can possibly go wrong?


This is the craziest headline ever.  


Heart failure risk linked to prostate drug

FDA recently approved Avodart as a cancer preventive medication for men




I have a copy of the study they're referring to in the article.   They took men with elevated PSA tests and a set of negative prostate biopsies and labelled them high risk.  These men were then placed on a prostate shrinking drug called Avodart or a placebo.  They had another set of biopsies at 2 years and at 4 years.  

There were more men with a positive biopsy for cancer at both 2 and 4 years in the placebo group.  

Turns out that 70% of the benefit was in slow growing cancers.   You can try and predict which cancers are slow growing and unlikely to spread and those which are fast growing based on how abnormal the cells look under the microscope,  it's called a Gleason's score.  Most of the benefit was in preventing or delaying or masking the more benign cancers.  When men are diagnosed with the slow growing prostate cancers there's a lot of treatment options including "watchful waiting".   Where you can tell a man that his cancer is so slow growing that we can't make you any healthier treating it with radiation or surgery only harm you.  

Well what about the cancers that have already spread did Avodart prevent them?   No sir,  there weren't any like that found in this study.

What about the more aggressive looking ones on the biopsy,  with a high Gleason's score?  

Well the highest scores the last 2 years of the study were found more often in the Avodart group.   And of the most aggressive looking cancers found on biopsy those last 2 years of the study,  14 were in the Avodart group and 1 in the placebo group.  

So what will happen is this "prevention" will be applied to all men with a high PSA or with a family history or certain races.  Sure looks like it might be causing aggressive prostate cancers and why are we trying to use a "prevention" when the PSA test has been proven to harm about 48 men for every 1 it saves?

Don't get me started on the rate of side effects 



Tuesday, April 6, 2010

National Breast Cancer Coalition



Sometimes I hear that there are no breast cancer advocacy groups who question the benefits of screening mammography.   Well here's a rather large one:


The National Breast Cancer Coalition (NBCC)* is a powerful voice, speaking for women and men across the country, demanding victory in the war against breast cancer. In 2003 it was named one of the twenty most influential groups in health policy based on a survey of congressional staff-the only grassroots group and the only breast cancer organization to make that list.


NBCC has grown to include hundreds of organizations, representing several million patients, professionals, women, their families and friends. Coalition members include cancer support, information and service groups, as well as women's health and provider organizations.




Check out what they have to say about the recent Preventive Task Force Services screening mammography recommendations 




To Overhaul the System, ‘Health’ Needs Redefining

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/28/health/views/28essa.html?partner=rss&emc=rss


Great Essay 

ends with:

If you are one of the millions of Americans adversely affected by the unrelenting growth of health costs — an employer that can’t afford insurance or a patient who can’t afford prescription drugs or can’t find insurance at all — you have to take back responsibility for deciding what health really means, not surrender that decision to “experts” with strong financial incentives.

And even if you are one of the few who doesn’t need to worry about money, you still need to take back this responsibility. Your health may depend on it.