Day: 04/30/2015

Redheads extremely sensitive to pain

http://www.baffledbaboon.com/5-strange-facts-about-hair/

5. Redheads feel more pain
If I had to choose between being a blonde or a redhead, I would definitely go with blonde. Only because having a silly personality is way better than being extremely sensitive to pain. If you’re a redhead, you probably dread going to the dentist more than others – and for good reason. Standard painkillers don’t work nearly as well on redheads as they do on blondes or brunettes, and they may need higher doses of painkillers than usual to get the desired effect. But being a redhead isn’t all bad! Redheads don’t seem to develop grey hairs – instead turning blondish/pure white as they age.

http://healthland.time.com/2010/12/10/why-surgeons-dread-red-heads/

For those few who do have the redhead phenotype, the physical challenges go beyond the occasional sunburn — something that surgeons well know. And that’s what the BMJ authors sought to explore in their meta-analysis, or survey of the existing scientific literature

Operating room docs, for example, have long reported that redheads appear to need more anesthetic than others. The new study suggests that that observation is an accurate one — mostly. Those with the MC1R mutation are more sensitive to opiate pain killers — which means they’d actually need less — but less sensitive to other types, most notably lidocaine injections. One study which used heat-related pain as its litmus of overall sensitivity showed that redheads indeed felt things more acutely and unpleasantly, probably because the MC1R mutation releases a hormone that stimulates a brain receptor associated with pain regulation…

The Carotenoid Twins

From Wikipedia:

Autumn leaves, yellow flowers, bananas, oranges and other yellow fruit all contain carotenoids, yellow and red organic pigments that are found in the chloroplasts and chromoplasts of plants… They serve two key roles in plants and algae: they absorb light energy for use in photosynthesis, and they protect the green chlorophyll from photodamage…

Carotenoids are common in many living things; they give the characteristic color to carrots, corn, daffodils, rutabagas, buttercups, and bananas…  People consuming diets rich in carotenoids from natural foods, such as fruits and vegetables, are healthier and have lower mortality from a number of chronic illnesses…

They Call Me Mellow Yellow

http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=2554

Mellow Yellow by Donovan

Released:  1966

In an interview with the June 18, 2011 edition of the NME, Donovan was asked what the song was actually about? He replied: “Quite a few things. Being mellow, laid-back, chilled out. ‘They call me Mellow Yellow, I’m the guy who can calm you down.’ Lennon and I used to look in the back of newspapers and pull out funny things and they’d end up in songs. So it’s about being cool, laid-back, and also the electrical bananas that were appearing on the scene – which were ladies vibrators.”

When this song came out in 1966, there was a widespread rumor that it was about getting high on banana skins. The idea was that you scraped the fibers off of a banana skin and cooked them over a low fire. This was supposed to release the hallucinogenic qualities…

I’m a menace without bud

It’s been so long since I had a road rage incident, I almost forgot what it felt like…

I’m traveling behind the truck you see in the photo, and every time the truck driver hit the gas, a huge cloud of smoke came out of the tailpipe.  This was a nice truck and it was obvious to me that the driver had this feature added, not like those with really old cars who probably couldn’t afford to fix something like that.  No, this driver enjoyed making his engine rev so all that black smoke came out of the tailpipe, as if this was macho or something.  Of course, it’s not like he had to breathe it in — that was a gift for me, the driver behind him, with my windows down, previously enjoying a beautiful day in the Q.

I stayed far behind the truck, light after light, waiting for my left turn so I could escape the smoke. But the car traveling behind me wasn’t happy with that.  He started honking at me and that’s when I lost it.  I threw up my hands, yelling at him like he could hear me, when the only person who could hear my rant was, of course, me.  To please the irate driver behind me, I sped up, driving dangerously because he pissed me off.  I suppose I was lucky that he didn’t follow me into the grocery store parking lot with a gun or something.

As a chronic pain patient, driving without any kind of medication to manage my pain creates situations like this.  I wasn’t proud of overreacting, and getting angry just made my head pound. It was a useless waste of energy, but I couldn’t help myself.

So, if you see me driving on the roadways in the Q, I would advise leaving me the hell alone. Without bud, I’m a dangerous driver.

(Photo taken 4/28/2015.)

Drinking in public, sure, but vaping? No way.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/29/ohio-public-drinking_n_7174456.html

Ohio Might Be The Next State To Allow Public Drinking In Major Cities

Assuming he does, Ohio will become the 18th state to allow public drinking in any form and the seventh state to permit public drinking in certain tourist-friendly parts of the city, which are often called “entertainment districts.” Such districts were inspired by the success that New Orleans and Las Vegas have had attracting tourists to their streets with the promise of legal open-air drinking…

http://www.governing.com/topics/health-human-services/tns-portland-smoking-ban.html

Portland, Maine, Bans E-Cigarettes in Public

The City Council voted 7-1 Monday night to prohibit people from using e-cigarettes in public places, making Portland the 275th U.S. community to restrict use of the relatively new technology…

Caitlyn Connors, however, opposed the ordinance. She said that e-cigarettes have helped her quit a 12-year smoking habit. She hasn’t smoked a cigarette in 11/2 years and has been inhaling nicotine-free vapor for the last month.

Connors said ignorance about the safety of the vapor emitted is no excuse to ban it in public. “I feel like ‘we don’t know’ is an unacceptable answer in the realm of public service,” said Connors, who gave councilors studies noting the safety of vapors. “I’d rather hear, ‘We don’t know, but we will find out.’ “

Dr. Michael Bell, a Scarborough resident who spends a lot of time in Portland, said e-cigarettes are helping people quit smoking and that regulating them like tobacco will encourage people to keep smoking cigarettes.

“It’s scientifically inaccurate to equate vaping with tobacco,” said Bell, who said nicotine by itself is no more harmful than coffee or French fries…