HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: motto@cbnewsf.cb.att.com (mary.rita.otto)
Subject: Re: FDA still at large
Organization: AT&T
Date: Fri, 31 Jul 1992 20:34:48 GMT

In article <15889@pitt.UUCP> geb@dsl.pitt.edu (gordon e. banks) writes:
>In article <h2mm4m_.sss@netcom.com> sss@netcom.com (Small Systems Solutions) writes:
>>In article <15854@pitt.UUCP> 
>>	geb@dsl.pitt.edu (gordon e. banks) writes:
>>
>>>I suppose it was homeopaths and chiropractors that discovered the
>>>benefits of a low fat diet in heart disease?  But what do you do
>>>with people who have clogged arteries already and are about to
>>>die from them?  Too late for them to try the low fat diet.
>>>Just let them croak?
>>
>>Maybe...compare the cost of the bypass, and all comcomitant therapies, with
>>granting basic health care to 100 people.  Bypass surgery will improve
>>quality of life for some individuals (surgeons, in particular), but it
>>is very expensive (even at the tenfold reduction in cost over the last
>>ten years).
>
>"OK, Mr. Jones, we've decided that instead of giving you your bypass,
>we'll just confiscate your $20,000 and use it to provide basic health care
>to 100 homeless people.  You won't be needing the money anyway
>where you're going."  Do you see the problem with this?
>
Actually, as I understand it, it was cardiologists who discovered
the benefit of a low fat diet.  And, they have found out that such
a diet will actually help reverse existing blockages in clogged
arteries.  I was delighted to read all about this after my husband
had a second heart attack and was treated by angioplasty.  Heck,
if I keep the guy on a 20% fat diet, he may actually get better and
be able to dance with me at our grandkids weddings.  If not, since
he's only 33, I could be a widow before I hit 40.

Which is a better deal for society?
a. take the $14K it cost to patch up my husband, let him die, and
instead temporarily patch up 100 people (not from anything really
complicated mind you - we're talking about <$150 each)
b. take the $14K it cost to patch up my husband, patch him up, let
his case at 33 yrs of age set a CLEAR example to all his co-workers
(most are older than he is, many smoke, etc) and let him return to
his productive work where he generates more than $14K per year in
income tax and social security payments (which can in turn fund
health care for the less fortunate) plus charitable donations of
all sorts and blood donations.

Of course, you don't get to vote on this.  I voted to fix him up
because I'm desperately in love with the man.

But the point is that the social impact of doing a procedure on an
individual is very broad.  And ethical decisions are not often
economic -- so, do you turn away poor people who need expensive
treatment and only help those whose problems can be solved with
a $10 bottle of antibiotics?  Good Lord!

Mary Otto
From: jim.zisfein@factory.com (Jim Zisfein) 
Newsgroups: sci.med
Subject: HAND NUMBNESS AFTER EXTEN
Date: 25 Jul 92 08:30:00 GMT
Distribution: world
Organization: Invention Factory's BBS - New York City, NY - 212-274-1243v.32bis
Reply-To: jim.zisfein@factory.com (Jim Zisfein) 

CR..I went on a 290 km (180 mi) cycle-camping tour on the weekend, and now,
CR..two days later, the ring and pinky fingers on my left hand are still
CR..slightly numb and I'm still experiencing weakness in my whole hand.
CR..The doctor says it's the same nerve that gets hit when you wack your
CR..funny bone, and that the feeling will return in a week to 10 days.
CR..But what about the power?

The nerve your doctor is referring to is the ulnar nerve.  It
supplies sensation to the fingers you mention, and powers the
muscles that spread those fingers apart and straighten them out.
The nerve can be compressed in several places; the most common is
at the elbow.  Long distance bicycling, however, causes
compression at the *wrist*.  I don't know enough about sports
medicine to say for sure which wrist position causes the most
damage, but I suspect it is sustained radial deviation (hand
cocked up in direction of thumb).

Frequent changes of hand position - avoidance of sustained
unusual postures - may prevent this occurring in subsequent
trips.

I am a neurologist and electromyographer practicing in the NYC
area.  Nothing in this message should be construed as medical
advice or consultation.
---
 . SLMR 2.0 .
From: jabba@jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu (Jabba T. Hut)
Newsgroups: sci.med
Subject: Vitamin E rancidity (sic)
Date: 28 Jul 92 22:35:11 GMT
Organization: HAC - Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore


 
Recently I read in an article that a survey of
over the counter Vitamin E showed that almost 2/3 of the
samples were heavily oxidized. This resulted in cases
of Elevated cholesterol etc in patients. Don't remember the
reference off hand. Seems like it would make sense to add
a bit of preservative to the soft-gels. 
-- 


"Work is the Curse of the Drinking Class"
From: shafer@rigel.dfrf.nasa.gov (Mary Shafer)
Newsgroups: sci.med
Subject: Re: menstrual cycle "regulation" with co-workers
Date: 22 Jul 92 03:50:26 GMT
	<1992Jul21.182158.14364@informix.com>
Organization: NASA Dryden, Edwards, Cal.

On 21 Jul 92 18:21:58 GMT, proberts@informix.com (Paul Roberts) said:

PR> In article <1992Jul18.022036.0274677@locus.com> yazz@locus.com (Bob Yazz) writes:
>derion@VAX309.NOSC.MIL writes:
>
>| Can anyone give me info or tell me where to find info on the purported
>| phenomenon of menstrual cycles in female co-workers becoming
>| coincident?
>
>It's real, it's natural and it's caused by pheremones -- substances
>made by the body, released into the air and detected nasally by
>others.  It happens when women live in close proximity to each other.

PR> What I've never understood is: since there is apparently a force/influence
PR> that causes women to synchronise like this, then why don't all the women
PR> in the world become and stay synchronised? This would seem to be the only
PR> "stable" solution, and it seems as if there should be a trend toward it.

Because you have to be exposed to sweat, etc., for a while.  A quick
sniff won't do it.

Until now, I'd never heard of it happening at work.  I'd only heard of
it happening in dorms and barracks (supposedly, everyone has her
period at the same time by the end of Basic Training, leading to a lot
of jokes about how good the training really is).
--
Mary Shafer  DoD #0362 KotFR NASA Dryden Flight Research Facility, Edwards, CA
shafer@rigel.dfrf.nasa.gov                    Of course I don't speak for NASA
 "A MiG at your six is better than no MiG at all."  Unknown US fighter pilot
Newsgroups: sci.med,talk.politics.drugs,pnw.general
From: mdkline@rodan.acs.syr.edu (Mark D. Kline)
Subject: Re: anxiety attacks
Organization: Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY
Date: Tue, 21 Jul 92 13:13:40 EDT

In article <1992Jul20.223802.25337@infonode.ingr.com> haefner@infonode.ingr.com (Mark W. Haefner) writes:
>In article <92202.130231EWN1@psuvm.psu.edu> <EWN1@psuvm.psu.edu> writes:
>>A friend of mine (grad. student) has been having problems with anxiety
>>attacks for several years now.  She feels nervous and anxious all the
>>time and has problems getting to sleep.  Can anyone out there share
>>anecdotal information about how they've dealt with this problem?  My
>>friend is on a limited budget, so professional counseling would probably
>>be too expensive for her.  Thanks in advance.
>>*************************************************************************
>> Ellen Newman                     | You can name your own salary here --
>> LCS - Library Computing Services | I call mine Fred.
>> ewn1@psuvm.psu.edu               |       - taken from a Ziggy cartoon
>> ************************************************************************
>
>Hello,
>
>tell your friend that the best thing to do for starters is to see a 
>doctor and have her problem checked out and diagnosed as anxiety.
>He/she can then prescribe medicine that at least can help lessen the 
>effect of the attacks. I'm at that point now and am considering 
>alternative treatments that may eliminate the problem at the root.
>
>Can anyone else give Ellen's friend some additional advice?


Panic disorder is an eminently treatable problem.  Medication can completely
abolish the episodes of panic for many people.  Behavioral therapy can
oftentimes help people get control over their anxiety.
Some psychotherapists believe that panic attacks are related to repressed 
sadism -- but I don't buy that approach myself.
In my opinion, there is no "root cause" in a psychological sense.
For many people with panic disorder, its like having an oversensitive
smoke detector in the head that goes off screaming EMERGENCY EMERGENCY
when there is none.  Get some medication to tone down that smoke detector,
overcome the psychological side effects of having had such awful anxiety,
and you're back in business.

Dr. David Barlow at SUNY Albany has devised a really terrific
behavioral program which people can do on their own called "Mastering
Anxiety and Panic." Dr. David Sheehan's book "_The Anxiety Disease_"
describes the physiology.  The student health service at the university
should be able to provide info on public or sliding scale clinics where
help may be available for less.  

Panic disorder is something which can get worse and become disabling if
untreated, yet is completely "curable" for the majority of patients. 
"Clinical depression" and feeling of hopelessness/futility are often
part of the syndrome.  

--
=================================================================
mark kline                                mdkline@mailbox.syr.edu
suny health science center, syracuse      voice: (315) 422-1050
================= courtesy of syracuse university ================
Newsgroups: sci.med,connect.audit
Newsgroups: sci.med
Subject: Mitral Valve Prolapse
Date: Sat, 25 Jul 1992 09:13:00 -0500

What I wonder is two things:

    1. Will an echocardiogram detect MVP when the chest pains only occur
occasionally and not during testing? (if not, how similar are the symptoms of a
hiatal hernia?); and

    2. Is there is any known, or suspected, association between caffeine intake
and MVP?

Thanks,

John (gasp)
From: km@speedy.cs.pitt.edu (Ken Mitchum)
Newsgroups: sci.med
Subject: Re: Questions for MDs
Date: 28 Jul 92 12:35:29 GMT
Reply-To: km@cs.pitt.edu (Ken Mitchum)
Organization: Computer Science Dept., University of Pittsburgh

In article <1992Jul27.195220.5341@island.COM> green@island.COM (Robert Greenstein) writes:
>My objection is that its the physician that decides when a case is hopeless.

No, it isn't, although it should be. 

 -km
Newsgroups: sci.med
From: cfaks@ux1.cts.eiu.edu (Alice Sanders)
Subject: Shoulder problem two years after accident?
Date: Wed, 22 Jul 1992 03:22:32 GMT
Organization: Eastern Illinois University

I have a shoulder problem that seems to have evolved out of an arm problem
that seemed to grow out of a neck injury following a minor car accident
over two years ago.  I am interested in opinions as to how this could have
happened.  The PT says the arm problem (which included a shoulder blade
that didn't work right) probably came from a postural adjustment to the
neck pain.  The neck and upper back pain gradually subsided over a year
and half with occasional visits to a chiropractor.  Then the arm started
getting numbish, the hand, too.  So I was sent to a PT.  After about three
months at the PT and the feeling that I was getting better, I mowed the
lawn and also (with instruction from the PT) started working out a little
bit with light weights.  All of a sudden, I couldn't sleep on my left arm
because my shoulder would hurt something awful.  If I even try to catch my
balance, without touching anything but the air, I can just about fall over
from the pain in my shoulder.  It seems to occur upon rotation either
forwards or backwards.

Tomorrow I have to have an MRI because x-rays showed nothing today except
that I have very little arm bones, which surprised me.  What I am curious
about is how someone knowledgeable in this area would view the sequence of
events beginning with an accident and a minor neck injury and leading to a
shoulder pain that requires use of a TENS!  (I should mention that a semi
hit my car, but it was going slowly and only moved my car a few inches,
maybe a foot.  I was lucky.)

Any insights?  Thanks.

Alice

Newsgroups: sci.med
From: drand@spinner.osf.org (Douglas Rand)
Subject: Re: athlete's foot and ringworm
Organization: Open Software Foundation
Date: 29 Jul 92 13:02:07

In article <1992Jul29.051212.31974@ux1.cts.eiu.edu> cfaks@ux1.cts.eiu.edu (Alice Sanders) writes:

   I read recently that the same fungus that causes ringworm is what causes
   athlete's foot?  Also, thrush is the same thing, only in the mouth.  Any
   clarification out there?

Usual disclaimers - I'm a software weenie.

I don't think the three are the same.  Thrush is candida albicans
(sp?) which also causes vaginal yeast infection.  Jock itch and
athlete's foot are the same (at least to me :), although I've seen
different names on the cans of antifungals I've bought).  I think
ringworm is different from any of the above.


--
Douglas S. Rand <drand@osf.org>		OSF/Motif Dev.
Snail:         11 Cambridge Center,  Cambridge,  MA  02142
Disclaimer:    I don't know if OSF agrees with me... let's vote on it.
Amateur Radio: KC1KJ
From: km@speedy.cs.pitt.edu (Ken Mitchum)
Newsgroups: sci.med
Subject: Re: Sleep
Date: 25 Jul 92 00:04:38 GMT
Reply-To: km@cs.pitt.edu (Ken Mitchum)
Organization: Computer Science Dept., University of Pittsburgh

In article <10970007@hplred.HP.COM> dsouza@hplred.HP.COM (Roy D'Souza) writes:
>
>Hi,
>
>I am interested in reducing the hours that I sleep.
>Recently I went from eight hours a night to seven.
>I would like to go even lower. Much lower.
>

Go to medical school. You'll get as low as you can. :-)

 -km
From: paulr@syma.sussex.ac.uk (Paul Russell)
Newsgroups: sci.med
Subject: Re: Red Hot Chili Peppers...(was: Colonic irrigations)
Date: 30 Jul 92 16:28:06 GMT
Organization: University of Sussex

From article <15866@pitt.UUCP>, by geb@dsl.pitt.edu (gordon e. banks):
> In article <2466@tau-ceti.isc-br.com> cecilw@access.isc-br.com (Cecil Williams) writes:
>>
>>While we're talking about worms here, I would like to throw out this
>>highly speculative theory of mine for comment...  Ever since my first
>>trip around Asia and my first taste of hot (HOT!!!) curried chicken,
>>I've had the idea that people in third world countries tend to eat
>>extremely spicy hot food because the hot spices would drive parasites
>>from the body (or kill them, or maybe just make them unhappy, and we all
>>know how difficult it is to procreate when you're unhappy...) People
>>who eat the hottest foods would therefore be the healthiest, and have
>>the greatest longevity...
> 
> I don't know whether capsaicin is effective at killing parasites or
> not, but I eat chile because it tastes so good.
                 ^^^^^

Are you planning to eat the whole country ? While that's a potentially
impressive feat, I don't see what connection it has with eating chilli
peppers...

//Paul the Pedantic ;-)
-- 
| Paul Russell              | "Some instructions have legal operation codes |
| Experimental Psychology   |  but try to perform nonsensical operations.   |
| Sussex University, Falmer |  These are called insane instructions."       |
| Brighton BN1 9QG, England |             -- Motorola DSP 56k User's Manual |
From: fzjaffe@othello.ucdavis.edu (Rory Jaffe)
Newsgroups: sci.med
Subject: Re: trachea scarring
Date: 31 Jul 92 15:28:12 GMT
Organization: University of California, Davis

[... story of friend with recurrent tracheal stenosis requiring dilation
periodically...]

There are several alternatives, depending upon where the lesion is, its
length, severity, etc.  Laser is one, and it has the advantage (at
times) of leaving less scar tissue, and thus reducing the incidence of
restenosis.  There is also tracheal reconstruction, but that may be a
drastic step for what seems not to be so severe (in your friend's case).
All this is speculation...  I suggest your friend get another opinion on
treatment--generally an ENT specialist would be the type of person to
see.  As a general principle, if you are wondering if your physician is
doing the ideal thing, GET A SECOND OPINION.  No good physician should
be upset about you doing that, unless your hostile to them (this last
comment aimed at a few not-so-nice posters to this newsgroup).

<<<<<Generic disclaimer here>>>>>
Discussion on the net is for information only.  It is impossible to be
someone's doctor by teletype.
From: levin@bbn.com (Joel B Levin)
Newsgroups: sci.med
Subject: TV Sensationalism [Re: 60 Minutes-Heart Disease & The French]
Date: 28 Jul 92 14:39:16 GMT
NNTP-Posting-Host: bbn.com

km@speedy.cs.pitt.edu (Ken Mitchum) writes:
|In article <1992Jul28.005145.229@ttinews.tti.com> hollombe@polymath.tti.com (The Polymath) writes:
|>"60 Minutes" exists to sell TV ad slots, period.  They do this by
|>presenting sensationalized rubbish to attract their target audience.  A
|>balanced presentation of correct information isn't even on their agenda.
|This is not only true for "60 Minutes" but for the media in general.
|The few times in my life that I have been involved with something
|covered by the national media, I have been very impressed with how
|many errors they commit, and how they twist things to suit their
|purposes. And I'm a liberal!
  [example omitted]

I would be interested in your comments, if you have any (or can make
any) on the 20/20 piece on VA hospitals (aside from the ethical issue,
if any, of using hidden camera techniques).  [I don't remember which
hospital they did that story on.]

	/JBL
=
Nets: levin@bbn.com  |  "GO TO JAIL.  Go directly to jail. Do not pass
POTS: (617)873-3463  |  Go.  Do not collect $200."
              N1MNF  |           -- Parker Brothers
From: lgsax@igc.org (Lynn Gazis-Sax)
Newsgroups: sci.med
Subject: Psychological Effect of War
Date: 30 Jul 92 04:22:00 GMT
Nf-ID: #N:cdp:1467700002:000:185
Nf-From: cdp.UUCP!lgsax    Jul 29 21:22:00 1992


I am looking for information on the psychological
effects of war, to pass on to people working with
refugees in Croatia.  Can anyone suggest any good
references for me?

Lynn Gazis-Sax
Newsgroups: sci.med
From: gdavis@griffin.uvm.edu (Gary Davis)
Subject: Medicine and politics
Keywords: Politics
Organization: University of Vermont -- Division of EMBA Computer Facility
Date: Fri, 31 Jul 1992 20:11:45 GMT

         It seems to me amazing that only a handful of physicians have
spoken out decrying the Bush administrations mixing of politics and
religion with the practice of medicine.
The recent confiscation of RU486 is but another chapter in the long
saga of George Bush and the "Right to Life" political faction.
The attempts earlier in his term to prevent physicians from suggesting 
abortion as an alternative to carrying a fetus to term and the insidious
prohibition on fetal cell research speek only too clarion of a mind 
gone to seed.
Bush's further refusal to discuss population control during the recent
symposium of environmental issues in Rio,further was an expected response.
Are physicians too busy with patients or planning the purchase of the next
Mercedes to speak out?

It would seem to me as an informed layman that these issues strike at the
very heart of the patient doctor relationship and at the thorat of
the advancement of medical research?

Could it be that 95% of MDs are much like the rest of the American
population,simply burned out and apathetic?

--
                      Gary E. Davis WQ1F
        "Squeeky,but rarely immaculate. Sometimes immodest,but
         impotent, never!" Later Dude... Yo!
Newsgroups: sci.med,talk.politics.drugs,pnw.general
From: kurt@eskimo.celestial.com (Kurt Cockrum)
Subject: Re: government still at large (was Re: FDA still at large)
Keywords: FDA, unconstitutional illegal action,single-issue blindness
Organization: >>> Eskimo North (206)-FOR-EVER <<<
Date: Sat, 25 Jul 1992 18:05:05 GMT

In article <1992Jul24.063341.13871@apex.com> chuckh@apex.com (Chuck Huffington) writes:
>In article <1992Jul23.185038.3415@eskimo.celestial.com> kurt@eskimo.celestial.com (Kurt Cockrum) writes:
>>Another thing I've never liked is the concept and apparent necessity of having
>>to sell one's toil/time or the best part of one's life to others in order to
>>stay alive (or the other leg of the so-called "free choice": starve), an
>>inherently irreversible transaction.  In other words, "work sucks".
>
>You would prefer that someone else toil and spend the best part of
>their life so that you would not have to?

This is such a pitiful rejoinder that, beyond this, I will not dignify it
with a reply.

>>I would have no problem if I could simply, whenever the need arose, quickly,
>>and with a minimum of hassle, make a mutually agreeable win/win deal with
>>somebody else to satisfy a need of theirs for their satisfying a need of mine.
>>How this could be done without a "system" springing up, I have no idea.
>>One thing is for certain -- I don't trust "systems".
>
>Thats called free market.  If have a skill or product someone else needs
>and he has something you need you both win.  The problem arises when
>a third party wants a piece of the action to support the public need
>or those who will not support themselves.

Can a "free market" exist in a closed society?
The problems arise when meddlers and do-gooders get into the act, that I
agree with.

>I have no problem with support of those who can not support themselves.
>But only on a private basis.  The cost of govt programs is too great.

Do you have a problem with panhandlers on the street?  They are trying
on a private basis to support themselves.  Yet there are those who would
make such acts illegal.  It really sticks in some people's craw (usually
some "hard-working" mean-spirited Pioneer Square boutique owner or feather
merchant) to see somebody making a go of it panhandling (or trying to, at
any rate), and they want to fuck it up.
-- 
kurt@grogatch.celestial.com (Kurt Cockrum)
Xref: sparky sci.med:14459 rec.food.veg:7302
From: young@serum.kodak.com [Rich Young] (x37176)
Newsgroups: sci.med,rec.food.veg
Subject: Re: 60 Minutes-Heart Disease & The French
Date: 25 Jul 92 15:18:00 GMT
Article-I.D.: pixel.1992Jul25.151800.7725
Reply-To: young@serum.kodak.com
Organization: Clinical Products Division, Eastman Kodak Company
Originator: young@sasquatch


   With reference to the recent "60 Minutes" discussion about wine and
   heart disease, I thought the following might be of some interest.  Qouted
   from SCIENCE NEWS: Vol. 142, No. 3, July 18, 1992, pp. 47 (without
   permission):

	"Good news for teetotalers: grape juice contains resveratrol, the
	chemical in wine thought to lower cholesterol levels in the blood."

	"Naturally produced by grapes to fight disease, resveratrol has
	been identified as the active ingredient in many folk medicines.
	Research in Japan indicates that it lowers cholesterol levels in
	rats, but studies on the effects of resveratrol in humans have
	not been published."

	"Leroy L. Creasy of Cornell Universoty announced last summer that
	wine contains resveratrol.  Concentrations vary but are generally
	highest in red wines made from grapes fermented in their skins,
	where resveratrol is concentrated."

	"Grape juice lovers clamored to know if their drink also contains
	resveratrol.  Creasy obliged, finding that purple grape juice
	contains more resveratrol than 60 percent of the wines he analyzed.
	And like white wine, white grape juice contains little resveratrol,
	largely due to differences in processing."

	"Analyses of table grapes reveal only minimal amounts of resveratrol.
	Creasy plans to analyze other grape products, including jellies,
	jams, nonalcoholic wines, and raisins."

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>|<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
Rich Young                             | Phone: (716) 253-7176
Eastman Kodak Company                  | FAX: (716) 253-7254
Clinical Products Division             | Internet: young@serum.kodak.com
100 Carlson Road                       |
Rochester, New York, USA   14653-9122  | These are MY opinions, not Kodak's!!!
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>|<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

Don't get angry, get accurate information.