HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: lady@uhunix.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu (Lee Lady)
Newsgroups: sci.med
Subject: Re: what causes leg cramps ?
Summary: Try stretching your Achilles tendon.
Date: 17 Aug 92 22:18:38 GMT
Followup-To: sci.med
Distribution: sci
Organization: University of Hawaii (Mathematics Dept)

In article <92226.40447.6310550@LMSC5.IS.LMSC.LOCKHEED.COM> 6310550@LMSC5.IS.LMSC.LOCKHEED.COM writes:
>Does anybody know what causes leg (calf & foot) cramps ?  For the
>past 5-6 nights I've been woken up by leg cramps.  The only thing
>that stops them is to stand up.  I recently started on Weight Watchers
>(trying level 2)... Could the diet have something to do with it ?
>Any insights will be greatly appreciated.

Try stretching the tendon in your heel (Achilles tendon).  Just stand
about three feet away from a wall and lean against it for about thirty
seconds, keeping your feet flat on the floor.  (You do this before going
to bed, not when you get the cramp.)  Also, if you're sleeping on your
stomach, move down the bed so your feet hang over the end.  

I know it's hard to believe that this tendon can have any relationship to
cramps in your calf.  I'm not a physician, so I can't explain the
mechanism involved, but from what you say I'm almost sure that's your
problem.  

And if that doesn't work, quinine might help.  There are two
over-the-counter medications called Legatrin and Q-vel which are very
popular for this purpose.  

--

Imagination is more important than knowledge.  -- Einstein 

lady@uhunix.uhcc.hawaii.edu         lady@uhunix.bitnet
From: geb@dsl.pitt.edu (gordon e. banks)
Newsgroups: sci.med
Subject: Re: Atkins Diet
Date: 17 Aug 92 14:49:11 GMT
Organization: Decision Systems Laboratory, Univ. of Pittsburgh, PA.

In article <1992Aug15.044520.10186@spdcc.com> dyer@spdcc.com (Steve Dyer) writes:
>Ketogenic diets (a la the Atkins diet) are sometimes used to treat some
>seizure disorders which can't be controlled by other means.  Gordon
>would probably have a better idea about their efficacy and palatability.
>I suspect it's scaping the bottom of the therapeutic barrel.
>
There are some forms of infantile epilepsy that respond to nothing
else.  The diets are almost intolerable.

-- 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gordon Banks  N3JXP      | "Skepticism is the chastity of the intellect, and
geb@cadre.dsl.pitt.edu   |  it is shameful to surrender it too soon." 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: vrs0@bunny.gte.com (V. Stern)
Newsgroups: sci.med
Subject: Re: Diabetic coma
Date: 12 Aug 92 12:40:24 GMT
Organization: GTEL

In article <16011@pitt.UUCP> km@speedy.cs.pitt.edu (Ken Mitchum) writes:
> Excuse me, but this group is composed predominantly of lay people, and
> I believe that the old terms "juvenile" and "adult" diabetes mean more
> to these people.
>  If you want to insist on "the more correct terminology",
> perhaps you would like to be the moderator of this newgsroup.

Excuse, me, but I *am* a lay person and one doesn't have to read much 
about diabetes to know what I was writing about.  People who have an 
interest in diabetes would do this reading, people who don't have an 
interest wouldn't care.
It's not necessary to be so snotty with your replies.

Vanessa R. Stern
vrs0@bunny.gte.com
From: rind@binoc.bih.harvard.edu (David Rind)
Newsgroups: sci.med
Subject: Re: On pre-scientific traditions of medicine (was: Use of term
Date: 19 Aug 92 14:59:05 GMT
Distribution: sci
Organization: Beth Israel Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston Mass., USA

In article <1992Aug17.220859.9259@news.Hawaii.Edu>
 lady@uhunix.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu (Lee Lady) writes:
>study.  And the establishment doesn't respond by saying "Your study,
>although not definitive, certainly shows that your approach has promise
>and is worthy of further investigation."  Instead, the attitude is
>"Aha!  We found a flaw in your study!  We're throwing it out.  Your
>approach is still unproven and we're justified in ignoring it."

This is generally the approach to any new therapy (whether presented
by traditional or alternative practitioners) that doesn't have a solid
theoretical basis.  The vast majority of things you could imagine
trying for a disease won't work.  For instance, I could decide that
eating apricots cures heart disease and start promoting the idea.  If
I did a flawed study that "supported" the conclusion, do you think
other physicians should start prescribing apricots?

On the other hand, if there's a biological reason to expect that
something might work, even a somewhat flawed study may convince
people that further study is needed.  For instance, there was a 
recent paper suggesting that eating yogurt reduces yeast infections
in women.  There were significant problems with the study because
a lot of people dropped out.  Still, I'm sure further research is
being done, since the study was very suggestive, and it is possible
to imagine biologically why this might work.  The traditional medical
community is now interested in what might be considered an alternative
therapy.
-- 
David Rind
rind@binoc.bih.harvard.edu
From: geb@dsl.pitt.edu (gordon e. banks)
Newsgroups: sci.med
Subject: Re: Don't moderate sci.med
Keywords: moderate sci.med not
Date: 22 Aug 92 13:12:07 GMT
Organization: Decision Systems Laboratory, Univ. of Pittsburgh, PA.

In article <rrempel.714334249@sfu.ca> rrempel@selkirk.sfu.ca (Rodney Dwight Rempel) writes:
>indeed "broke and needs fixing". While I agree that the discussion is
>valid and should exist I think (a) there are already a bunch of fringe
>groups in existance - don't know their names since I unsubscribed long
>ago - or (b) there should be. There should be something more general 
>than sci.molecular-bio.chromosome13 (or whatever your favorite hard-
>science group is) yet more structured than alt.crystals.cure-everything.
>
I've suggested this several times, but no one has made a move to
start such a group.  I think the experience with sci.cryonics
shows why.  Very few people are really interested in such groups.
There have probably been fewer postings in the month or so that
sci.cryonics has existed than in one or two days of cryonics
postings to sci.med when they were at it here.  What the fringe
people want is a soapbox where they can broadcast their ideas to
a large audience who are tuned in to get medical information.  
They are crusaders.  That is one of the reasons that I have countered
them so strongly.  I've promised if they take the stuff to their
own newsgroup, I'll leave them alone and let them spout their nonsense
to their heart's content.  But until then, I'll be their adversary.
-- 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gordon Banks  N3JXP      | "Skepticism is the chastity of the intellect, and
geb@cadre.dsl.pitt.edu   |  it is shameful to surrender it too soon." 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: ssouth@hpldsla.sid.hp.com (Steve South)
Newsgroups: sci.med
Subject: Re: Mercury in dental fillings?
Date: 11 Aug 92 20:33:10 GMT
Organization: HP Scientific Instruments Division - Palo Alto, CA

/ hpldsla:sci.med / delisle@eskimo.celestial.com (Ben Delisle) /  1:17 pm  Aug 10, 1992 /


>	Aparently the ADA says that it is 100% safe, while there seems
>to be a growing number of professionals that dissagree.

Which is more expensive - amalgam or the alternative? How much money is to be
made by replacing amalgam fillings in the teeth of paranoid patients?

Does this answer your question?

Steve (cynical?  me?) South
Newsgroups: sci.med
From: roihar@cc4.crl.aecl.ca
Subject: RE: Euthanasia
Organization: AECL RESEARCH
Date: Wed, 12 Aug 1992 14:42:43 GMT

Aunt Jane, of whom I dreamt,
The nights it thundered,
Was dead at ninety,
Buried at one hundred...

We kept her corpse a decade,
Hidden upstairs,
Where it ate porridge,slept,
And said its prayers...

And each night,
Before I went to bed,
They took me upstairs,
To worship with the dead...

Christ Lord, if I should die,
Before I wake,
I pray thee Lord,
My BODY take!
From: dyer@spdcc.com (Steve Dyer)
Newsgroups: sci.med
Subject: Re: Don't moderate sci.med
Keywords: moderate sci.med not
Date: 20 Aug 92 16:48:58 GMT
Article-I.D.: spdcc.1992Aug20.164858.22494
Organization: S.P. Dyer Computer Consulting, Cambridge MA

In article <1992Aug19.211233.18467@newstand.syr.edu> mdkline@rodan.acs.syr.edu (Mark D. Kline) writes:
>It has been suggested that sci.med be moderated.  I oppose the idea;

I agree; whatever we'd end up with, it wouldn't be sci.med.

-- 
Steve Dyer
dyer@ursa-major.spdcc.com aka {ima,harvard,rayssd,linus,m2c}!spdcc!dyer
From: plebrun@vub.UUCP (Philippe Lebrun)
Newsgroups: sci.med
Subject: Re: Paralytics...
Date: 18 Aug 92 13:25:31 GMT
Organization: Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels

In article <16136@ucdavis.ucdavis.edu>, fzjaffe@hamlet.ucdavis.edu (Rory Jaffe) writes:
> For emergency (field) conditions, the suggestion of administering an
> anesthetic instead of a paralytic is often unwise, 

I didn't get the beginning of this discussion, but I am alarmed
that there might be people giving paralytics instead of
anesthetics. Don't forget that a paralytic only paralyses, it
doesn't prevent the patient from feeling pain, and experiencing
the somatic reactions to pain that we try to avoid in ER or OR
situations. An analgesic or anxiolytic must always be added. 
Regularly, there are patients on artificial ventilation 
in ICUs who are given paralytics without adequate sedation.
What they have to say when they can talk again (I can't say "awake")
is properly horrifying.

> very dangerous drug and can kill someone within seconds.  Anyone using
> it must get adequate training from an anesthesiologist.  The list of
> contraindications and precautions is long.

That penultimate sentence should read : Only trained anesthesiologists
should use this technique in the field.
I have seen it used often, it is priceless in good hands, but
definitely not for the inexperienced or faint-of-heart.

philippe
From: geb@dsl.pitt.edu (gordon e. banks)
Newsgroups: sci.med
Subject: Re: Nutrition (Was FDA still at large)
Date: 22 Aug 92 12:59:30 GMT
Organization: Decision Systems Laboratory, Univ. of Pittsburgh, PA.

In article <714326518.F00001@blkcat.UUCP> John.Willis@p123.f349.n109.z1.fidonet.org (John Willis) writes:
>
>Maybe (:->) I don't understand the terminology... I would not expect a
>"clinical" RD to be a competent "meal planner". If dietitians do not have
>control over diet planning in hospitals, then who does?
>
Generally an administrator.  THe bottom line is usually as
important in deciding on the food as the advice of a dietician
(which usually is consulted to make sure the diet is balance).
Some hospitals try to save money, others use food as a lure to
please patients, others try to provide healthy fare.  It varies.
-- 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gordon Banks  N3JXP      | "Skepticism is the chastity of the intellect, and
geb@cadre.dsl.pitt.edu   |  it is shameful to surrender it too soon." 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: geb@dsl.pitt.edu (gordon e. banks)
Newsgroups: sci.med
Subject: Re: Atkins Diet
Date: 19 Aug 92 14:59:45 GMT
Organization: Decision Systems Laboratory, Univ. of Pittsburgh, PA.

In article <QeYKkWe00YV7M40VsM@andrew.cmu.edu> lc2b+@andrew.cmu.edu (Lawrence Curcio) writes:
>There is a famous New Testament story of Jesus and the epileptic. A
>father tells Jesus of how a devil will take his son and throw him into
>the fire or the ocean. At that moment, the son is afflicted and Jesus
>calms him. The apostles are in awe, but Jesus tells them that the son is
>not fully cured that the devil may be cast out only by constant prayer
>and FASTING (in the King James version -Matthew). Fasting, as it
>happens, is an ancient method of treating epilepsy. It induces ketosis.
>
Is that the one where Jesus starts by taking a history "how long
has this been going on?"  Epilepsy was well known to the ancients,
but perhaps psychomotor epilepsy would be interpreted as "he hath
a devil in him".  The grand mal form was pretty well known to be
a disease by that time I think, and had been associated by the
Greeks with head injuries and was known to be inheritable also.
-- 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gordon Banks  N3JXP      | "Skepticism is the chastity of the intellect, and
geb@cadre.dsl.pitt.edu   |  it is shameful to surrender it too soon." 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Newsgroups: sci.med
From: pdsmith.mitre.org (Pat Smith)
Subject: Re: Help - Computer Class
Organization: The MITRE Corporation
Date: Thu, 20 Aug 1992 20:06:40 GMT

In article <Aug.19.22.01.36.1992.15088@gandalf.rutgers.edu>, jjmorris@gandalf.rutgers.edu (Joyce Morris) writes:
> 
> Unfortunately the new school year is fast approaching so I have to start
> thinking about what I will be teaching this fall.  One of those courses
> is Computers in Health Services.  This is a course for seniors, mostly
> majors in public health administration.  Some of the students will be
> going on to medical school while the rest will be going into entry-
> level adminstrative jobs in the health field - hospitals, health
> departments, insurance companies, drug companies, etc.
> 
> I would like any and all ideas for what should be included.  I particularly
> would welcome specific books/articles for the students and/or me.  What
> is there that you think that someone going into an entry-level job should
> know about computers and their use in the health field?
> 
> Also if anyone has ideas for hands-on exercises I would welcome those.
> I have need for computer-based and non-computer based [ie, thinking and
> reasoning exercises].
> 
> Thank you for your input.
> 
> Joyce Morris  jjmorris@gandalf.rutgers.edu
> Urban Studies and Community Health
> Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
> 
> 
How about a teacher who cares a a bit about what they are teaching.  Phrase
like "Unfortunately the new school year is fast approaching so I have to start"
really worries me.  Its August 20th and school starts in a few weeks.  Most
folks have year round jobs and I thought college prof's were no exception.  
Joyce what have you done on your summer vacation?  Its a little late now.   Do
the paying students a favor and cancel the class if you are not prepared.  You
will do everyone a disservice if you continue and pretend to teach.  We need
teachers who know what they are teaching - an everyone wonders why our 
students don't measure up to Asian students for example.  Not only do Asian
kids take school seriously, their parents and teachers do to.  Wise up Joyce.
Newsgroups: sci.med
From: smathur@McRCIM.McGill.EDU (Shailendra Mathur)
Subject: med school application
Organization: McGill Research Centre for  Intelligent Machines
Date: Wed, 19 Aug 92 22:28:13 GMT



I'm filling an application for med school. Does anybody know what do the
following terms really mean:
1. Self-directed learning skills
2. self-assessment ability
-- 
/***************************************************************************
* Shailendra Mathur        	 Internet: smathur@vishnu.rvhobs.mcgill.ca *
* Computer Vision Lab, McCRCIM 	 Phone:	   office: (514)-842-1231 ext 4565 * 
* McGill Univ., Montreal, Canada	   home: (514) 481-5390, 482-3884  *
Newsgroups: sci.med
From: motto@cbnewsf.cb.att.com (mary.rita.otto)
Subject: Re: Smart Drugs
Followup-To: sci.med
Organization: AT&T
Date: Tue, 18 Aug 1992 21:06:11 GMT

In article <9811.2A8BA7DD@stjhmc.fidonet.org> Jo.Russell@f150.n110.z1.fidonet.org (Jo Russell) writes:
>
>   What is the feeling among the docs here about the so-called "smart drugs"?
>The nootropics, choline, ginko bilboa, etc?
>  Also, to any who use them, what's the present state of the effort to make 
>ordering some of these things from European countries illegal?
>

I first read about "smart drugs" in a 1979 issue of Omni magazine.  It
included Cocaine in it's list of drugs for better thinking.  This was
while many people were still touting Cocaine as non-addictive and
harmless.  Being the law-abiding daughter of a cop (he would have
killed me first and asked questions later), I steered clear of
illegal drugs.  But I was entering my senior year of engineering school
and had never had much luck remembering formulae -- the idea of vitamins
to help memory seemed intriguing.

ANECDOTAL EVIDENCE:  YOUR MILEAGE MAY VARY!!!
I started taking one Lecithin capsule and one small (lowest dosage sold
at Walgreens) B12 every day.  I didn't change anything else.  I started
this routine one week before school started.  On Wednesday of the first
week of school, I was given an assignment to memorize (yikes!) 108 opcodes
(strange abbreviations used for computer language) by Friday.  To my
surprise, I memorized them by simply reading the list twice.  I was able
to remember them all through the course, and for about a year afterward.
(I didn't need them after that, so I haven't tested it.)  Previously, I
hadn't been able to do that.  Lecithin, according to the article, is
*remember*, was supposed to
be used in "memory transactions" in the brain - one molecule to store and
one molecule to recall.  Sounded kind of hokey even then, but they had
some sort of numbers to back it up.  I figured that anything that they
put into chocolate bars (lecithin - an emulsifier) couldn't be all bad,
and maybe it did help.  As for the B12, the article said something about
increasing the ability of the brain for electrical activity.  I'd also
heard from my nursing school pal that her dad was taking B12 to help
his hypertension -- again, it couldn't be all bad.

I don't know if it was the placebo effect or real, and I didn't care because
I got the results I wanted.  I got results ten years later, too. After
my mother died, I was very upset for a long time and suffered from a long
case of flu/etc/etc.  My memory was so hosed up that I had to write everything
down or I would forget it.  I started to take the vitamins again, and the
condition improved.  Maybe it would have improved in time, anyway.  I
don't know.  Maybe I don't have enough B-vitamins to deal with stressful
situations unless I supplement.  I just know that it helps.

Mary Otto


Newsgroups: sci.med
From: jgd@dixie.com (John De Armond)
Newsgroups: sci.med
Subject: Re: ******** MICROWAVE HAZARDS *******
Date: 21 Aug 92 10:39:29 GMT
Organization: Dixie Communications Public Access.  The Mouth of the South.

terry@ithaca.Eng.Sandy.Novell.COM (Terry Lambert) writes:

>My uncle Stan, who was one of the guys who worked on the initial Microwave
>oven idea at Boeing, refuses to have one in his house.  The exact quote from

>Seems to me that if he refuses to keep one in his house, there has to be
>good reason behind it.

Senility, perhaps?

John


-- 
John De Armond, WD4OQC               |Interested in high performance mobility?  
Performance Engineering Magazine (TM) |
Marietta, Ga                         |Interested in high tech and computers? 
jgd@dixie.com                        |Write me about PE Magazine
Need Usenet public Access in Atlanta?  Write Me for info on Dixie.com.
From: bunnym@nos850.UUCP (Bunny Miller)
Newsgroups: sci.med
Subject: stomach tube
Date: 20 Aug 92 12:50:14 GMT
Organization: US Naval Ordnance Station  Louisville, KY

I am interesed in any information, medical or personal family experience,
about a feeding tube placed in the stomach of elderly patients that
don't want to eat.

The reason that I ask is my 75 year old grandmother has been placed in a
nursing home because she passed out from not eating.  She currently
has an IV in her neck (they tried several times in the arms but they
kept getting infiltrated) that they are using for medication and
for "feeding".  The doctor wants to remove that line stating that it is
too expensive and a high risk for infection.  She does not want the
stomach tube nor does the family want it.  In the state of KY however,
they can get a court order to put the tube in against the will of the
patient or the family.

Thanks in advance.

-- 
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Bunny Miller                                     ...bunnym@nos850.uucp
Naval Ordnance Station   Louisville, KY.
(502) 364-6617
From: loftis@hpcc01.corp.hp.com (Kirk Loftis)
Date: Tue, 18 Aug 1992 19:07:22 GMT
Subject: Re: Beta blockers & Olympics
Organization: the HP Corporate notes server
Newsgroups: sci.med

|During the Olympics coverage, in connection with the sprinter
|who has Graves disease, it was mentioned that beta blockers
|are on the list of banned drugs.  Given what I know about beta
|blockage, namely suppression of heart rate increase under
|stress (such as exercise), it is difficult for me to see how a
|beta blocker could be used as a performance enhancing aid.  It
|seems to me the *last* thing an athlete would want would be an
|artificial cap on his/her heart rate, which would limit oxygen
|supply to muscles and hence limit performance.
|
|Does anybody know why beta blockers are on the banned list?
|
|  -- Chris Thomas (CSMSCST@MVS.OAC.UCLA.EDU)
|----------

	When I used Beta-Blockers for my High-Blood Pressure, I thought
those were the worst pills ever.  It blocks adrenalin, which hindered my
workouts in running and weight-lifting.  It would block all the rush one
would get from quick accelarations of autos, rollar-coaster rides, etc.
It made me feel like I was not alive.  It hindered my sex drive (I was
only 23 when I took those).  I do not recommend Beta-Blockers for use.
I now use Enapril, this is much better for my activities.
NOTE: My high-blood pressure is natural.  I have cholostrol count of
167, my heart beat is 65 bpm.  I am fit and thin (long distance runner
type).  

	I would not see any advantage for any athlete to use beta
blockers for "athletic" activities (Shooting Guns is a skill developed
through intense practice and ability).

	Kirk
From: geb@dsl.pitt.edu (gordon e. banks)
Newsgroups: sci.med
Subject: Re: Need info on TENS electro stimulator
Date: 17 Aug 92 14:44:50 GMT
Distribution: na
Organization: Decision Systems Laboratory, Univ. of Pittsburgh, PA.

In article <JF5NBAAH@dri.com> liberato@dri.com (Jimmy Liberato) writes:
>
>I inquired into purchasing my own unit and he replied that they are only 
>available to medical professionals.  Indeed, I did notice a sticker on the 
>TENS unit that said that federal law prohibits distribution except as 
>prescribed by a physician.

What he meant was you can't get it from him.  He is not a physician.
There is no problem with patients buying their own TENS units.
(I wonder where he got his?)  The companies making the TENS units
probably restrict them to prescription only for liability purposes,
although it may be a FDA requirement also to avoid pacemaker patients
killing themselves with them or something.


-- 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gordon Banks  N3JXP      | "Skepticism is the chastity of the intellect, and
geb@cadre.dsl.pitt.edu   |  it is shameful to surrender it too soon." 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Newsgroups: sci.med