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California Teen Shoots Self in Testicles

There has to be more to this story, but MercuryNews.com only has a short blurb about an unnamed teen who walked into a Vallejo emergency room with a gunshot wound to his most private of parts. I’d make a joke, but they kind of make themselves, don’t they?

Teachers are tools of Satan!

Imagine, if you will, a list of life’s make-or-break decisions. Choose well, and you find eternal bliss with a loving God. But stray from the one true path, and you will burn for all time in the lake of fire. The Watchtower has a few examples of these critical moments in the life of a Jehovah’s Witness. But look at the list, and you will see that one of these things is not like the others. Unless you belong to a brainwashing cult that keeps its members prisoner by encouraging ignorance. Shameful.

Beware the spinal trap

[Note: This post is not the work of the usual author of this blog. Simon Singh was recently successfully sued for libel in England by the British Chiropractic Association for publishing the following article about the dangers of chiropractic treatment. In order to ensure a wider dissemination of the information that the lawsuit seeks to suppress, many bloggers have chosen to post an edited version of Singh's article on their blogs. The original article, which contains the supposedly libelous material, can be found here.]

Beware the spinal trap

Some practitioners claim it is a cure-all but research suggests chiropractic therapy can be lethal

Simon Singh
The Guardian, Original version published Saturday April 19 2008
Edited version published July 29, 2009

You might be surprised to know that the founder of chiropractic therapy, Daniel David Palmer, wrote that “99% of all diseases are caused by displaced vertebrae”. In the 1860s, Palmer began to develop his theory that the spine was involved in almost every illness because the spinal cord connects the brain to the rest of the body. Therefore any misalignment could cause a problem in distant parts of the body.

In fact, Palmer’s first chiropractic intervention supposedly cured a man who had been profoundly deaf for 17 years. His second treatment was equally strange, because he claimed that he treated a patient with heart trouble by correcting a displaced vertebra.

You might think that modern chiropractors restrict themselves to treating back problems, but in fact some still possess quite wacky ideas. The fundamentalists argue that they can cure anything, including helping treat children with colic, sleeping and feeding problems, frequent ear infections, asthma and prolonged crying – even though there is not a jot of evidence.

I can confidently label these assertions as utter nonsense because I have co-authored a book about alternative medicine with the world’s first professor of complementary medicine, Edzard Ernst. He learned chiropractic techniques himself and used them as a doctor. This is when he began to see the need for some critical evaluation. Among other projects, he examined the evidence from 70 trials exploring the benefits of chiropractic therapy in conditions unrelated to the back. He found no evidence to suggest that chiropractors could treat any such conditions.

But what about chiropractic in the context of treating back problems? Manipulating the spine can cure some problems, but results are mixed. To be fair, conventional approaches, such as physiotherapy, also struggle to treat back problems with any consistency. Nevertheless, conventional therapy is still preferable because of the serious dangers associated with chiropractic.

In 2001, a systematic review of five studies revealed that roughly half of all chiropractic patients experience temporary adverse effects, such as pain, numbness, stiffness, dizziness and headaches. These are relatively minor effects, but the frequency is very high, and this has to be weighed against the limited benefit offered by chiropractors.

More worryingly, the hallmark technique of the chiropractor, known as high-velocity, low-amplitude thrust, carries much more significant risks. This involves pushing joints beyond their natural range of motion by applying a short, sharp force. Although this is a safe procedure for most patients, others can suffer dislocations and fractures.

Worse still, manipulation of the neck can damage the vertebral arteries, which supply blood to the brain. So-called vertebral dissection can ultimately cut off the blood supply, which in turn can lead to a stroke and even death. Because there is usually a delay between the vertebral dissection and the blockage of blood to the brain, the link between chiropractic and strokes went unnoticed for many years. Recently, however, it has been possible to identify cases where spinal manipulation has certainly been the cause of vertebral dissection.

Laurie Mathiason was a 20-year-old Canadian waitress who visited a chiropractor 21 times between 1997 and 1998 to relieve her low-back pain. On her penultimate visit she complained of stiffness in her neck. That evening she began dropping plates at the restaurant, so she returned to the chiropractor. As the chiropractor manipulated her neck, Mathiason began to cry, her eyes started to roll, she foamed at the mouth and her body began to convulse. She was rushed to hospital, slipped into a coma and died three days later. At the inquest, the coroner declared: “Laurie died of a ruptured vertebral artery, which occurred in association with a chiropractic manipulation of the neck.”

This case is not unique. In Canada alone there have been several other women who have died after receiving chiropractic therapy, and Edzard Ernst has identified about 700 cases of serious complications among the medical literature. This should be a major concern for health officials, particularly as under-reporting will mean that the actual number of cases is much higher.

If spinal manipulation were a drug with such serious adverse effects and so little demonstrable benefit, then it would almost certainly have been taken off the market.

–
Simon Singh is a science writer in London and the co-author, with Edzard Ernst, of Trick or Treatment? Alternative Medicine on Trial. This is an edited version of an article published in The Guardian for which Singh is being personally sued for libel by the British Chiropractic Association.

Long Time, No Blog

Just a quick update to say I’m not dead. I’m going to make some changes around here soon, so watch this space.

–V

Breakfast Menu for May 6, 2009

1 package unflavored instant oatmeal, prepared with 2/3 cups water
2 cans Sugar-Free Amp Energy Drink

Total Calories – 130

I know slamming two cans of energy drink is not the best way to start the day, diet or no. I promise to do better.

Akismet + ReCaptcha = Spam-Free Blog!

I could say that I miss the days when my blog attracted 2000+ comments per day. But seeing as they were all spam, I don’t miss those days at all. Thanks to Akismet and ReCaptcha, I see less than a spam per day on average get through. Awesome!

This Week’s “The Biggest Loser”

Seems like the only blogging I’m doing these days is about other people’s weight loss. This week’s episode was shortened by an hour thanks to President Obama’s press conference. As an aside, I am very happy that we have a president who will take questions from the press in prime time. It’s a big change from the stage-managed presidency we endured for eight years. Politics not withstanding, this week’s Biggest Loser was pretty enjoyable.

The dominance of the Black team over the Blue finally came to an end, but not because the Blue team actually won a challenge – instead, the game went back to individuals, and each player had to decide who to train with for the rest of the competition. This provided plenty of psudeo-drama, as each player had to announce his or her choice in front of both trainers. However, there were no real surprises, except for Mike’s decision to choose his trainer with the flip of a coin, which caused his father Ron to opine, “My son is an idiot.” The immunity challenge had a NASCAR theme and despite being saddled with an extra 200+ pounds, Tara came through and won immunity, a special NASCAR trip, and what looked like an extraordinarily terrifying hot lap in a Corvette piloted by a NASCAR driver.

The big promo for this week was that two women had the chance to be the first woman in Biggest Loser history to break the 100 pounds lost mark “on the ranch”. With immunity secure, I was pretty sure Tara wasn’t going to be the one to do it, and I was right. Her stall continued, and she left the weigh-in having lost a total of 99 pounds. That left Kristin to make history and cross the 100-pound mark. Kristin is very concerned with serving as an inspiration to other heavy young women, and her continued success makes her feel good. The other big surprise from the weigh-in was Ron’s second week of double-digit weight loss. He is by far in the worst shape of the remaining contestants, but he keeps losing the weight needed to stay above the yellow line. Speaking of the yellow line, the two contestants up for elimination were Aubrey and Filipe. As usual, I won’t spoil the ending, but you can probably guess who went home. The follow-up video was particularly painful to watch, but to be honest, not completely unexpected.

More Geocaching!

Went looking for some caches along Charles Blvd. in Greenville after work yesterday. I took one of my dogs (Stella) with me, and we chased after four micro caches. Alas, we only found two of the ones we were looking for, although I think I might know where to find one of the ones we missed. Still, we were out in the fresh air instead of playing video games, and there is something to be said for that.

Geocaching – A Fun Way To Exercise

I’ve been trying to get out more and work up a sweat, but after many years of doing nothing more strenuous than GTA on the Xbox/Playstation I simply don’t enjoy exercise for its own sake. I need something to distract me from the fact that I’m sweating and uncomfortable. I was listening to a recent episode of Fat2Fit Radio about Geocaching, and decided to give it a try. I’ve got a very nice GPS, a Garmin Nuvi 680 that my wife gave me for MBA graduation, although admittedly, it’s probably better suited to road trips than to geocaching. I went to Geocaching.com, found a geocache in a park nearby, and headed off in search of my first geocache. If you’ve never done this before, read on for some things I learned from my first find. Read more…

Menus for Thursday, May 22, 2008

Skipped Breakfast

Lunch:
4 chicken sausages
Steamed Broccoli

Snack:
Atkins Advantage Bar

Dinner:
2 small tilapia filets topped with salsa