I went to the dermatologist today to have additional tissue removed from around where a “moderately abnormal” mole was removed a couple months ago. I’m quite the wimp when it comes to doctors and dentists. I just hate going. However, since Lily was diagnosed with leukemia and has had to go through SO much needle pricks, chemo, accessing/deaccessing her port, lumbar punctures and bone marrow biopsies, I figured I could endure the few needle pricks necessary to numb the area for my procedure. Despite my determination to chill out and not obsess over it, I still kept jerking away as the nurse injected the pain killer. After about the third time I jerked in response to the needle prick, the nurse asked me if I’m always so slow to numb.

The mole was on my back and so I was lying on my side as the doctor removed the tissue. I tried to figure out what was going on by what I could hear and feel. The doctor kept pressing against my back - dabbing at blood, I figured. About that time I remembered, “OH yeah! I was supposed to stop taking my daily low-dose aspirin and vitamin E a few days ago so I wouldn’t bleed too much during the procedure.” Oops. I’d had to re-schedule the appointment, and so I had forgotten that part of the instructions. I figured there was no point in mentioning it since it obviously was too late to change anything. And everything seemed to be going just fine.

Before the procedure, as I was waiting, I picked up the only magazine in the room and thumbed through it. The magazine was More Magazine. I’d never heard of it before today. Towards the back of the magazine, there was an article on factors that are associated with a long life. There were the ones I’ve read about before - broad hips, Asian-Americans, good sleepers, first borns, believers, etc. However, they also had one that I had never heard before. People with lots of moles - 100 or more - generally live up to 7 years longer than their non-moley counterparts!!! Seriously!

People with a lot of moles While skin cancer remains a worry, researchers from King’s College in London say that people with more than 100 moles have longer (more protective) telomeres, chromosome-protecting buffers that delay aging and may extend longevity by up to seven years.

Who would’ve ever guessed?! Okay then - I’m set to live a long time - I sleep great, I have wide hips, and I definitely have 100+ moles.

Sphere: Related Content

It’s the answer to many a couch potato’s prayer. Researchers have discovered a chemical compound that they say will produce the benefits of an aerobic workout - but without the aerobic workout.

Exercise in a Pill?
They experimented with the chemical compound called AICAR on mice that did not exercise. AICAR allowed the mice to run 44% further on a treadmill than the mice that didn’t receive the drug.

The big question is how does it work? Apparently it changes the physical composition of muscle - similar to what happens to the muscles of athletes through training.

“You’re getting the benefits of exercise without having to do any work,” said David Mangelsdorf, a pharmacologist at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, who was not connected with the research.

There are many other questions: Does it work for people who are already physically fit? Is it safe? How is research done with mice transferred and adapted to humans? Those answers are yet to come, but the pill has been getting a lot of notice already.

Nonetheless, lead researcher Ronald Evans, a molecular physiologist at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, said he has already been contacted by dozens of athletes and overweight people who have heard about his research from previous lectures.

“Anything that could provide half of a quarter of one percent is attractive,” said Dr. Don Catlin, a professor emeritus of molecular and medical pharmacology at UCLA and a top anti-doping expert. “The athlete who can find a way to get an edge is one up on his competitors.”

Read the entire article here and here.

Sphere: Related Content

Who dreamed up the prep necessary for a colonoscopy? I personally believe that it’s doctors’ revenge. Doctors who must spend their days looking up people’s butts with a tiny video camera must want the patients to pay. And the prep for a colonoscopy is how patients pay. There are tablet laxatives. There are easy ways to clear out the lower digestive track. But, are patients allowed to take this easy way? Of course not.

Tomorrow I will have my first ever colonoscopy. When I turned 50 my doctor recommended that I get a “screening colonoscopy.” I felt fine - hadn’t had any problems. I declined. When I turned 55, she told me I REALLY should. I had occasional stomach-aches, but them doesn’t everybody? No big deal. However, I made the appointment with the gastroenterologist (I think that’s what they’re called), went to the pre-procedure appointment, and then just never showed up for the actual colonoscopy. I know. That was very bad of me. The doctor’s office thought so, too, and charged me $250 for the missed appointment. I don’t blame them. They set that time aside for me - and I simply didn’t show. So I paid the $250 and felt that I’d gotten off pretty easy actually. They lost money because of me.

So just this past Thursday - three days ago - I had my regular appointment with my doctor. I turn 59 next month. Once again, she mentioned that I really SHOULD get a screening colonoscopy. Okay, I said, I’ll do it. I was more compliant because on Wenesday a man I greatly respected had died of colon cancer. Going through a colonoscopy would be a mere blip on the screen of the overall picture. I think my doctor was surprised at my change of attitude and had her office immediately schedule me for the next available appointment - this time with a different gastroenterologist since we all figured the first one wouldn’t appreciate seeing me again.

Since the procedure is tomorrow morning, that means that today is my prep day. At noon I had to drink 10 ounces of a vile and disgusting grape-flavored concoction of citrate of magnesium. Almost two hours have passed, and I still feel sick from it. I might add that it, by itself, is working quite well. However, the worst is yet to come. At 4:00 I have to take two Gas-X tablet, and then starting at 5:00 I have to drink 64 ounces - that’s a HALF GALLON - of Gatorade that has an entire bottle of Mira-Lax dissolved in it. Yes a HALF gallon. I hate Gatorade. I never drink Gatorade. It is nasty-tasting. And Gatorade laced with an entire bottle of Mira-Lax will almost certainly be even more disgusting. I don’t want to create a self-fulfilling prophecy, but I will undoubtedly feel quite sick from drinking it - without even counting the laxative effect of it.

That’s what I mean about doctors’ revenge. You can’t tell me that there are not easier ways to get the lower digestive system cleaned out for the colonoscopy?

Sphere: Related Content

Getting a pedicure typically involves having the pedicurist use a razor to scrape away dead skin or a stone to file it away. Concerns about how sanitary those razors are led at least one salon owner to try something different - a fish pedicure. There are tiny carp that nibble away at dead skin. They don’t have teeth, and so they can’t bite live skin. Instead, they use their suction-like mouths to remove dead skin only.

The fish are called “garra rufa” but are generally known as “doctor fish.” They have become popular in Turkey and some Asian countries, but they’re just beginning to be used in the United States.

First time customer KaNin Reese, 32, of Washington, described the tingling sensation created by the toothless fish: “It kind of feels like your foot’s asleep,” she said.

The fish don’t do the job alone. After 15 to 30 minutes in the tank, customers get a standard pedicure, made easier by the soft skin the doctor fish leave behind.

Fish Pedicure

With a fish pedicture, the price is based on how much time the client spends with his/her feet in the treatment tank containing the fish. $35 for 15 minutes or $50 for 30 minutes. Typically there are about 100 doctor fish in each individual pedicure tank.

In some Asian countries, doctor fish are used not only for pedicures, but for the rest of the body as well. Some people claim that treatment with doctor fish can help with a wide range of physical ailments.

Doctor Fish

Just watch this video. Amazing!

Fish Pedicure - Video

Sphere: Related Content

A Vietnamese girl has been dealing with a steadily growing schwannoma tumor on her face for over ten years. It is a giant tumor. I won’t include a photo because it is quite disturbing. You can click this link, though, if you want to see it. It’s sad because we have a choice about whether or not to look at the photo, and yet this 15-year old girl has to live with this tumor everyday - and know that looking at her face is something that most news services won’t show because of how shocking and disturbing she looks.

Girl to Have Giant Facial Tumor Removed
Surgeons Prepare for 10-Hour Surgery to Remove Enormous Growth
By DAN CHILDS
For most of her life, 15-year-old Lai Thi Dao has lived a life that many teenagers could not comprehend.
For the past 10 years, a slowly growing tumor has gradually consumed the lower part of the Vietnamese girl’s face. As it grew, normal tasks such as talking, eating, drinking and sleeping became increasingly difficult.

Lai has never been to school. And since the tumor is heavy and located on one side of her body, even walking has become a challenge.

Tragically, the growth, known as a schwannoma tumor, started off as little more than a cyst on Lai’s tongue. At this stage, the surgery to remove the growth would have been quick, cheap and relatively painless. But Lai had little access to medical care where she lived, leaving the tumor to continue to grow.

Now, a team of surgeons at the University of Miami is preparing for a marathon 10-hour procedure next Tuesday intended to cut away the growth, which now weighs an estimated 10 pounds and could be the largest recorded tumor of its kind reported in the medical literature.

Now the news is reporting that the tumor is 16 pounds. God bless this young girl and bring her safely through this surgery.

Sphere: Related Content

Lord have mercy! Do you recall that back the first of March I ordered the NutriSystem food, and I waited and I waited - and finally after many emails and phone calls, I finally received the food several weeks later. Only to discover that the food was mostly inedible. So I shipped it back. Almost two weeks ago, I decided to give The Biggest Loser Meal Plan a try. I placed my order for FIVE DAYs worth of food. I barely missed the deadline for last week. Supposedly the food is shipped each Monday. So my order would have been shipped this past Monday. It is Friday. No food has arrived. Do I have a curse on me? Am I jinxed?

Sphere: Related Content

If you read The Median Sib regularly you know that I’ve tried a couple diets lately.  Nutrisystem was a bomb.  I shipped all the food back today.  A lot of it was simply inedible.  Now I’ve ordered a week’s worth of The Biggest Loser food.  My shipment should arrive tomorrow, and I’ll let you know how that goes.

Now there are two other diets that are making headlines:  The DASH Diet, and the Dr. Siegal’s Cookie Diet. 

Here’s a little info on the DASH Diet:

A healthy diet rich in fruits and vegetables and low in fat has long been touted as heart smart. Now, increasing evidence suggests that a similar diet reduces blood pressure and decreases a woman’s risk for heart attack and stroke.

Scientists reporting in the April 14 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine have found that healthy, middle-aged women who closely followed the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet have lower rates of cardiovascular disease (CVD) than women who do not follow such diets.

And Dr. Siegal’s Cookie Diet:

Obesity expert and author Dr. Sanford Siegal, best known as the creator of the popular Dr. Siegal’s® COOKIE DIETâ„¢ weight loss system and hunger controlling foods, today announced that he has posted on the CookieDiet.com web site a new entry in his personal blog that addresses recent comments made by Madonna pertaining to husband Guy Ritchie’s loss of libido while on “the cookie diet”. Madonna made her comments last week during an interview on the Johnjay and Rich radio show which originates on KZZP-FM in Phoenix, Arizona. Coincidentally, Dr. Siegal’s company is a frequent advertiser on the station.

Hmmm - not that’s not the kind of publicity Dr. Siegal wanted!
Stay tuned for my review of the Biggest Loser Meal Plan.

Sphere: Related Content

Yes, it’s an old joke, but as soon as I told RT that I had hurt my knee earlier today, he said I must have an ACLU injury.  Ha! Ha!  I laughed.  RT’s corny, but I enjoy his humor.

It DOES hurt like crazy when I put any kind of strain on my knee - as in bending it or stretching it out - basically any movement at all.  I remember when it happened.  I was bending down and I felt it pull on my knee - but I wanted to finish whatever I was doing, and so I didn’t stop.  I don’t even remember what I was doing - tying my shoelaces, maybe.  But when I stood up, I realized that perhaps I should not have so quickly dismissed that initial warning pain.

RT and I flew down to my mother’s this evening in order to attend a family funeral tomorrow.  The plane trip was not very comfortable since it is RT’s plane and it is very small and there was no room to stretch out my leg.  And the pain has gotten progressively worse this evening. 

So I’ve been researching ACL injuries.  The diagram above is one thing I’ve found.  I have no idea if I have an ACL injury.  I just know my left knee hurts.

Perhaps tomorrow I will wake up and it will be much better, and within a few days it will be completely back to normal.  Yes, that is definitely what will happen.

Sphere: Related Content

Borba seems to be THE hottest thing in skin care products lately.  I keep hearing about it.  It is obvious that the Borba line of skin care products is growing quickly because it doesn’t just cover up skin care problems, it truly works to promote healthy skin.  I’m really picky about the lip treatments I use.  I tend to find a product I like and stick with it for years.  Seriously.  Besides everyday lipstick, I use a lip treatment at night because my lips get dry at night, and the lip treatment keeps them soft and moisurized.  Because of that, it has been many years since I experienced the pain and discomfort of chapped lips.  For women like me who take their lip treatments seriously, Borba has Lip Kix which has apricot kernel oil, coconut oil and vitamin E which provide a triple-layer of soothing softening.   Sounds wonderful, doesn’t it?

Borba has a special promotion for April going on. If you spend $100, you get a cool gift. Check it out here. Borba also has a blog where you can read all about skin care options.

Borba should be the first place you look when you want the best in skin care products.  They’ve got it all.  Their products are affordable, are the highest quality, and there was no animal testing involved in their developments.  Best of all is their philosophy about dealing with skin beauty from not only the outside but the inside as well.  Check out their website.  There’s nothing more convenient.  Just go online and place your order.  They have a convenient auto shipping program that allows you to keep your favorite products on hand.  Just sign up for auto shipping and you’ll automatically receive you choice of products whenever you need them.  There’s no obligation.  So there’s no risk in trying it out.

Sphere: Related Content

My Cotillion friend, Beth, told about this article.  Read it and weep for the sorry state of parenthood - at least some of the parents.

Melanie Engle was trying to just pluck the stray hairs here and there. She was trying to deliver an age-appropriate eyebrow wax to her client. It was hard, though, because there was a foot tapping next to her, and a voice shouting in her ear: “No! Not like that — like a supermodel’s. I want them arched.”

After years in the beauty biz, Engle had seen her share of crazy ladies demanding perfect, Glamour-cover-worthy brows. But this Crazy Lady wasn’t talking about her own brows. The brows in question belonged to Crazy Lady’s daughter. Who was eight.

After sweating through the kid’s eyebrow wax, Engle, today an aesthetician at the Adolf Biecker Salon/Spa outposts in the Rittenhouse Hotel and Strafford — and, it should be noted, one of the most sought-after eyebrow specialists in the region — was directed to give her pint-size client a … bikini wax.

Engle was, predictably, extremely uncomfortable with the idea. But she sent the girl next door to the spa to have it done anyway. “It was clear that this girl was getting a bikini wax no matter what,” she says. “Better for her that we did it, instead of her mother dragging her off somewhere else to get it done.”
There’s more, but it’s almost more than I can stand to read.

Sphere: Related Content