Day: 02/20/2015

Narcotic Painkiller Use Tied to Higher Risk for Depression

http://www.drugs.com/news/narcotic-painkiller-tied-higher-risk-depression-55732.html

Although the study couldn’t prove cause-and-effect…  The findings are published in the February issue of the journal Pain. After the study was accepted for publication, the investigators continued their research and found “that most of the risk of depression is driven by the duration of use and not the dose,” Scherrer said in a journal news release…

They spend an awful lot of money on studies that don’t prove anything.  And what about the prevalence of depression in pain patients who don’t take prescription drugs?  What are the “experts” going to blame that on?  Junk science is what this is…

Police brutality in Canada

Three Toronto Police Officers Have Been Charged with Sexually Assaulting a Colleague

http://www.vice.com/read/three-toronto-police-officers-have-been-charged-with-gang-sexual-assault-of-a-colleague-and-released-on-bail-875

Look at these officers in the photo above the article…  These two guys are nice-looking, but you can easily tell that they’re both full of themselves.  When women run across men like this, they should run the other way, no matter how handsome they are — it’s a trap.

The video attached to this article looks pretty brutal.  I mean, this cop just kept punching and punching and punching. And then 5 police cars show up to handle this one drunk suspect. Canada, you’re really beginning to look like us… bummer.

I Got a Tattoo While Hypnotized in Amsterdam

http://www.vice.com/read/i-got-a-tattoo-under-hypnosis-876

Sure, hypnosis works for some people… It would be interesting to run an experiment at this place, see what percentage of the general public can be hypnotized while getting a tattoo.  I mean, maybe I’m wrong about how many pain patients could successfully use this therapy, biased by my own failures with it.

Since the VA and the NIDA began their big research program to treat pain without drugs, I’ve been waiting to hear how all these other therapies are working on veterans.  If veterans can obtain pain relief through alternate treatments, maybe the rest of us can too. (Well, not me, I’ve tried all the treatments they’re using.)

If hypnosis doesn’t work for you either, there’s always chocolate 🙂

Answers To This Simple Question Will Make You Laugh Or Cry

http://guff.com/answers-to-this-simple-question-will-make-you-laugh-or-cry/20?ts_pid=2

52% oppose evolution, denying that “Human beings, as we know them today, developed from earlier species of animals”

I know some people are uncomfortable with the fact that our ancestors include monkeys and apes — I don’t know why, these animals are cute and funny.  Compared to what cavemen looked like and behaved back in their time, maybe apes should be looked at as an improvement.

Most if not all of the science that we rely on today comes from our knowledge of animals, including monkeys and apes (and all those poor research mice).  We practice this medicine on humans because we first practiced it on animals — this research taught us who we are and where we come from.  (Unless you dispute DNA.)  Those pain pills you take?  We know how they work because they work the same way on animals.

Animals are a part of our human history, and there’s no going around that. Just like slavery and racism are part of our history (and present), and we can’t pretend they’re not.  Just like the drug war will one day be part of our history. (Unfortunately, I’ll be dead by then.)

70% felt government funding for science was adequate or too generous.

If 70% of Americans think this is true, we are in worse shape than I thought.

DEA should not interfere with physicians and pain patients

DEA should not interfere with physicians and pain patients

My comment:

“The DEA can continue to enforce policies that prevent overuse and overdoses. But it must not interfere in the appropriate relationship between physician and patient.”

Seems like the DEA is actually one of the causes of a lot of drug abuse and overdoses, directly or indirectly. The agency is definitely the cause of who knows how many deaths at the hands of law enforcement, not to mention all the victims (and their families) locked up for nonviolent drug offenses.

And then there’s all the pain patients, doctors, and pharmacists who are now victims of the drug war, too.

It’s too late to stop the DEA’s interference in the medical industry — that’d be like trying to, I dunno, stop the drug war.

Dr. Webster, unless you look realistically at why pain patients are drowning, your arguments are just treading water in this fight (if that).

Having a bad day?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/20/highway-poop-spill_n_6718936.html

An Indiana highway ramp was shut down for hours on Thursday afternoon due to a large and possibly accidental dump in the middle of the road. Two tons of excrement spilled onto the I-65 exit ramp in White County, according to WLFI. The raw sewage was 6 to 8 inches deep in places, the Lafayette Journal and Courier reported.

The crappy job of clearing the road got even worse when the fecal matter froze. The newspaper reported that the ramp had to be salted and sanded before the “toxic poopsicles” could be removed. Police told the newspaper that the driver of the truck has not been found, but said that the poop was likely dumped by accident.

Another awesome woman

Salma Hayek Talks Body Image In Hollywood And Feeling Great At 48

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/19/salma-hayek-body-image-the-edit_n_6713676.html

“I never exercised my whole life, but now I do yoga,” Hayek told Net-a-Porter’s The Edit. “I was always borderline chubby, because I like my food and, frankly, I like my wine. I have to say, I’m pushing 50 but I feel great. I looked worse in my youth! I’m in good shape right now.”

Antonio Zambrano-Montes’ Death Isn’t The First ‘Ferguson Moment’ For Latinos

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/20/antonio-zambrano-montes_n_6714466.html

José Antonio Elena Rodríguez

Joel Acevedo

Manuel Angel Diaz

David Silva

Andy Lopez

Reynaldo Cuevas

José Alfredo Yañez Reyes

Anastacio Hernández-Rojas

While the DEA/law enforcement kills the men in these communities, the women and children are left to suffer in pain and silence… this is what war looks like.