Category Archives: health & happiness

DIY diagnosis

14 Wednesday Nov 2007

Posted by in health & happiness, nablopomo

≈ 6 Comments

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Kit to spot serious illness early

A home testing kit that spots early signs of disease anywhere in the body could be available within 10 years, according to a leading scientist.

The simple blood test is being developed to allow people to screen themselves for life-threatening diseases, including a variety of cancers and dementias, before they develop any symptoms.

In many cases, a quick diagnosis significantly improves a patient’s chances of recovering from an illness.

The article goes on to say that spotting serious illnesses early could pose ethical issues. For example, finding out sooner that you have something for which there is no known treatment could just cause extra anxiety. Should people in this situation be told? How might it affect their jobs, insurance rates, etc? In short, do you think that DYI diagnosis would be a good thing?

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simple back therapy

10 Saturday Nov 2007

Posted by in health & happiness, life stuff, nablopomo

≈ 6 Comments

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Simple therapy ‘best for backs’

Paracetamol and keeping active are the best cures for back pain, according to Australian researchers who warn that other treatments do not work.

A Lancet study of 240 back pain sufferers found anti-inflammatory drugs and spinal manipulation did not make any difference to recovery time.

I love this study because it backs up (no pun intended) what I’ve known for about 25 years. That the best thing for lower back pain is just continuous gentle movement and occasional painkillers, though I do sometimes take an anti-inflammatory for the first day or two.

And that’s it! No muscle relaxants, no bone-crackers, no nuthin else is necessary.

It’s kind of like having a cold. If you rest in bed, drink plenty of fluids and take aspirin your cold will last for about 7 days. If you do none of those things it’ll last a week.

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trusty steeds

08 Saturday Sep 2007

Posted by in fun stuff, health & happiness, life stuff, sevilla

≈ 7 Comments

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Two tired and thirsty bikes . . .

Actually it was more like two tired and thirsty first-time-in-years cyclists (2 years for me, about 20 for Nog) . I took this photo after we’d stopped for a cold beer at a little outdoor bar in a park near the river. All in all we were out about two and a half hours but the first half hour or so was spent trying to find a bike station that had any bikes. I guess early Saturday evening is a popular time to go out for a bike ride.

And the reason this is our first time out since I mentioned sending in our applications over here on this post is because Nog just got his card this week. First they lost his application and then the card went missing and they had to send out a duplicate. So we basically missed out getting to use the bikes while we were on holiday, but at least we can go out cycling now.

Anyhow, it was great fun and good exercise. Even though we’re both quite pooped it’s a nice tired feeling. So off to veg a bit and watch yet another episode of The West Wing (latest television series addiction).

poison popcorn!

07 Friday Sep 2007

Posted by in food & drink, health & happiness, life stuff, weird

≈ 13 Comments

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Doctor reports 1st consumer case of microwave popcorn lung

Microwave popcorn lung??? Good heavens. I wondered if I should cancel my standing request for Orville’s , but in fact I prefer the plain flavour (as opposed to ‘butter’ flavoured) and although I’m quite hooked on popcorn I certainly don’t eat two bags a day, nor do I sniff in the fumes like the guy in the article.

I imagine that eating anything to that excess would cause health problems, but apparently factory workers have been suffering from ‘popcorn lung’ – a potentially fatal disease – for years due to constant contact with diacetyl. Yet it took this one consumer to be diagnosed before Big Food did anything about it. Hmmm… perhaps I should consider boycotting ConAgra products altogether.

~ first seen at Wandering Coyote’s ~

~ fab pic from Sid in the City ~

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pain in the neck!

30 Thursday Aug 2007

Posted by in health & happiness, life stuff

≈ 12 Comments

neck-pain.jpg As if having a wonky hip and sciatica/lumbago wasn’t enough…

I’ve had chronic neck pain for years. Apparently this is because my neck is completely rigid and lacks the slight curve that necks normally have. I found this out about 12 years ago when I could barely move my neck and my left forearm very weirdly swelled up to almost double its size. Even after a whole whack of tests nobody could explain this, though the two things must have been connected because after a couple of months the neck pain subsided and my arm went back to normal.

Another weird thing I notice is that when I’m lying down on my back I sometimes can ‘hear/feel’ an odd sound/sensation where the neck joins the skull … kind of a bubbly feeling with the slightest ‘almost there’ sound similar to crumpling up a paper bag.

As I say, this has been going on for as long as I can remember. But since yesterday I’ve been getting dizzy whenever I lie down (and sometimes getting up from lying down). And not just a bit dizzy – I always thought the expression ‘the room was spinning’ was an exaggeration until now.

My GP is away on holiday – the one I saw yesterday says it’s a neck contraction and prescribed muscle relaxants for 3 weeks, which I’m not really keen on taking. He also gave me a prescription for some ‘anti-dizzy’ pills (no idea what those are …). I dunno, I think I’ll just wait until next week when Agustín is back and get his opinion, because the dizziness is quite worrying.

Meanwhile, just wondering if anyone has had anything similar and what sort of treatment worked for you.

~ neck pain pic from Damon Tommolino ~