I will be gone for this week, headed out to Baltimore for the East Coast natural foods convention.  I will be there soaking up knowledge anf dining interesting new things.

As usual, I will be driving,since flying does not agree with me.   If you see the VTMN LDY plate, give me a wave!

I cannot do better than to quote the words of the nurse who sent me this e-mail:

I'll never forget the look in my patients eyes when I had to tell them they had to go home with the drains still in , ... and no breast. I remember begging the Doctors to keep these women in the hospital longer, only to hear that they would, but their hands were tied by the insurance companies.
So there I sat with my patients, giving them the instructions they needed to take care of themselves, knowing full well they didn't grasp half of what I was saying, because the glazed, hopeless, frightened look spoke louder than the quiet 'Thank You they muttered.

It is barbaric to throw women out of the hospital the day after they have had a major procedure performed.  There's a bill called the Breast Cancer Patient Protection Act which will require Insurance Companies to cover a minimum 48-hour hospital stay for patients undergoing a mastectomy. It's about eliminating the 'drive-through mastectomy' where women are forced to go home just a few hours after surgery, against the wishes of their doctor, still groggy from anesthesia and sometimes with drainage tubes still attached.

PLEASE GO HERE AND TAKE THE FEW SECONDS NEEDED TO SUPPORT IT.

I cannot do better than to quote the words of the nurse who sent me this e-mail:

I'll never forget the look in my patients eyes when I had to tell them they had to go home with the drains still in , ... and no breast. I remember begging the Doctors to keep these women in the hospital longer, only to hear that they would, but their hands were tied by the insurance companies.
So there I sat with my patients, giving them the instructions they needed to take care of themselves, knowing full well they didn't grasp half of what I was saying, because the glazed, hopeless, frightened look spoke louder than the quiet 'Thank You they muttered.

It is barbaric to throw women out of the hospital the day after they have had a major procedure performed.  There's a bill called the Breast Cancer Patient Protection Act which will require Insurance Companies to cover a minimum 48-hour hospital stay for patients undergoing a mastectomy. It's about eliminating the 'drive-through mastectomy' where women are forced to go home just a few hours after surgery, against the wishes of their doctor, still groggy from anesthesia and sometimes with drainage tubes still attached.

PLEASE GO HERE AND TAKE THE FEW SECONDS NEEDED TO SUPPORT IT.

I expect we have all hear that the incidence of cancer is falling in this country, perhaps we were even slightly encouraged by this news.  Granted, it was pretty obvious that the decrease was due in large part to the cessation of synthetic hormone use in menopausal women .. but even so, it was  a step in the right direction.

How much more alarming is it then, to discover that these heartening figures were incorrect:  that they in fact did not include ANY of the cancer cases under the care of the Veteran's administration. 

This means that despite the decrease in the hormonal cancers, between 40,000 and 70,000 cases a year have not been taken into account in the National figures.

VA Cancer Data Blockade May Imperil Surveillance

We have looked before at the issue of pharmaceutical drugs in our water supply, but this report suggests matters are becoming critical. 

In addition, the problem apparently is now so well known, that scientists are proceeding along the lines not of WHETHER there are chemicals in our marine species, but WHICH drugs are represented and how dangerous they are.

Since sharks are perched (little pun) at the top of the food chain, the status of chemicals in their bodies is of particular interest.  This group of scientists looking for common precsirption drugs in Bull Shrak juveniles found that of ten sharks sampled ... nine tested positive for Zoloft.

On a lighter note, more contented relaxed sharks may mean fewer shark attacks ...

Shark Rx

They used to say that only  bad news gets air time, and I would certainly ask how many of us have heard in the Media recently that Vitamin E is helpful in preventing thrombosis?

"Results showed that both groups receiving gamma tocopherol had significantly lower platelet activation after supplementation. Moreover, significant reductions in LDL cholesterol, platelet aggregation, and mean platelet volume were found in "

Less risk of stroke, lower LDL levels - what's not to love?  Note that this is gamma tocopherol rather than alpha that they are investigating here.

Vitamin E May Reduce the Risk of Thrombotic Markers

Gamme-E by Jarrow Formulas