California Seeing an Uptick in COVID-19 Cases as Mobility Increases

Hopefully everyone continues to keep their distance as we start mobilizing a bit more. I know I’m getting antsy. In today's news (Monday, May 11, 2020), California is looking worse than expected and one family gathering at Easter has resulted in a cluster of 5 cases including an individual who was coughing and joking about possibly having it. Do everyone a favor and protect yourself. Wear a mask not only for yourself but for others as well. We should know this already! Thanks to contract tracing, it hopefully has been isolated.

Researchers are now predicting that California could see more than 6,000 COVID-19 deaths by the end of August, up about 1,420 from projections they released last Monday. It’s the fifth-largest increase in projected death tolls among U.S. states, after Pennsylvania, Illinois, Arizona and Florida.

The upward revisions “are a result of a combination of updated daily death and case data, recent actions to ease previously implemented social distancing measures and steadily rising levels of mobility in many places,” the researchers said in notes released with the data.

An Apple Watch for Health Proves It's a Valuable Tool →

The development of smart technologies paves the way for new diagnostic possibilities. In the case of the Apple watch, after the mobile application is installed, the records an ECG when a finger is placed on the watch’s digital crown. A 30-s tracing is stored in a PDF file that can be retrieved from the application.

Thus, the Apple watch may be used not only to detect atrial fibrillation or atrioventricular-conduction disturbances but also to detect myocardial ischaemia.

An apple a day may keep myocardial infarction away.

Obviously, one isn’t supposed to take this and make it an end-all for the Apple Watch in detecting all heart conditions, but it does serve as a great example that wearables, particularly the Apple Watch, is proving to be more than a wrist decoration but more of a valuable tool for those that wear one. Here is the direct link to the European Heart Journal’s PDF.

Free Energy →

One of the most fascinating articles I’ve read in a while pertaining to Karl Friston and his idea of “Free Energy.” Also pretty awesome that there is a Twitter parody account called @FarlKriston which essentially lives to mock the opacity if the theory. Heck, I’ve been so intrigued I really want to read his papers! Can anyone lead me in the right direction?

Free energy is the difference between the states you expect to be in and the states your sensors tell you that you are in. Or, to put it another way, when you are minimizing free energy, you are minimizing surprise.

According to Friston, any biological system that resists a tendency to disorder and dissolution will adhere to the free energy principle—whether it’s a protozoan or a pro basketball team.

The DEA Needs to Wake Up →

America faces an opioid crisis: 78 people die daily of overdoses, which is four times as many as in 1999. That means that alternatives for pain that don’t have the same risks are urgently needed. And the possibility that kratom might help people leave their addictions behind makes it seem even more promising as a target for research. So many researchers are wondering why the DEA has chosen Schedule I, instead of a less-restrictive classification. "By restricting our research really you’re restricting the potential for discovery of compounds which could benefit patients who are severely ill," Mehta says.

On September 30, the plant, Kratom, which has been consumed in Southeast Asia as a tea or powder to remedy pain is going to be listed as a Schedule 1 drug because they (DEA) has linked 14 deaths related to it since 2014. Do you see the hypocrisy there? More people have died from pharmaceutical sponsored Schedule 1 drugs on a daily basis but since they're probably being paid off, let's make this plant illegal. The DEA or this administration needs to do what it promised years ago and wake up to alternative medicines.

Evolution of Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria

Not cool. Not cool at all.

More Sex, Better Sleep

Is more sex before bed the answer to getting a good night's sleep? "Not only do I generally agree with that, but there is some good data to support it," says Nicole Prause, Ph.D., a top sex researcher at UCLA. "But, in all of the literature and research, we don’t know if it helps improve the quality of sleep. It's never been looked at. We just know that sex can get you to sleep and to get your brain off what it's ruminating about and that can lead to better sleep."

"There is one good study done in Germany that says when you have an orgasm, oxytocin and vasopressin both go high and they stay high for at least an hour. They did an experiment where they injected male rats with vasopressin and the rats immediately started yawning like crazy. It was actually really cute. This does show that orgasms—whether it's via sex with a partner or masturbation—can help you fall asleep faster."

Filing it under future reference. ^_^

A CerviScope for the Masses

An amazing doctor named David Walmer, set out to help a local OB-GYN in Haiti in detecting cervical cancer and came up with a clever and cheaper device for observing a female's cervix. This is what I believe every doctor should strive for and the doctor I envisioned becoming before my detour in aviation.

Thanks to early detection (and helped by the vaccine for HPV, or human papillomavirus), the mortality rate for cervical cancer in the U.S. is relatively low. Not so in developing countries, where it kills almost 250,000 women every year. Haiti has one of the highest rates of cervical cancer in the world. Walmer knew that a national screening program would save countless lives, but deploying colposcopes across the impoverished nation was not feasible. They’re expensive, they require reliable electricity and they’re too big to be easily carted around to the ramshackle clinics throughout the country. A battery-powered, portable and affordable alternative was needed.

“I was having more fun helping the Haitians than I was at my real job,” he recalls. “You could operate and save a woman’s life, and every time you came back to Haiti, she would come to the clinic and hug you and introduce you to her family members.”

Finally, at the beginning of September 2009, 13 years after Walmer put together his first makeshift gadget, 10 field-test models were ready. They weren’t much more than black metal tubes and lights and wiring, but Walmer says he didn’t stop smiling for a week. One scope was shipped to Malawi, another to Argentina and a third was earmarked for Kenya once doctors there were trained in colposcopy; it would go to a clinic for women in Masai villages, where polygamy increases the risk of cervical cancer. Others landed in Pakistan and, hand-delivered by Walmer, in Haiti.

via NYTimes

GQ Interviews Real Life Barbie

Her beauty, though I hesitate to use the term, is pitched at the exact precipice where the male gaze curdles in on itself. Her features are the features we men playfully ascribe to ideal women; it's how we draw them in manga and comics and video games. Except we don't expect them to comply with this oppressive fantasy so fully. As a result, she almost throws our idea of a supervixen back in our face.

Doesn't actually sound or look attractive to me. It's just so alien, I don't know what to think!

via GQ

Hunt and Gather for your Mitochondria

Dr. Terry Wahls at TEDxIowaCity presents the science behind feeding your Mitochondria and brain cells. http://youtu.be/KLjgBLwH3Wc

Dr. Terry Wahls learned how to properly fuel her body. Using the lessons she learned at the subcellular level, she used diet to cure her MS and get out of her wheelchair.

I'm definitely thinking of a life change right about now especially after those diabolical nachos.

Stop and Use Honest

Since the birth of our daughter, my wife and I were already all about Jessica Alba's company, Honest. In fact, I was so eager to check them out that I ordered a sample a few months prior to her being born and even scheduled our first bundle to ship while we were still at the hospital! We've been subscribers ever since and haven't looked back.

In lieu of recent events of allergies, particularly to methylisothiazolinone (MI), popping up, I thought I'd reiterate their not only effective, but unquestionably safe, eco-friendly, beautiful, convenient, and affordable philosophy. If you haven't read the report on NBC News, I'd get on it then head over to Honest and try out a free sample. Here's a small excerpt:

Dr. Robin Gehris said she has been seeing more and more kids with reactions to the wipes. It’s possible, she said, that this is because manufacturers have bumped up the amount of MI used in wipes 25-fold.

Being the cautious father I am, I still felt compelled to look up the ingredients of the Best, Natural, Plant-Based Baby Wipes by Honest and wasn't surprised at all that it DID NOT contain MI. Here are all the ingredients:

Purified Water, Citric Acid (Fruit-Based Stability Agent), Silver Dihydrogen Citrate (All Natural, Water-Soluble Preservative), Decyl Glucoside (Sugar-Based Cleanser), Sodium Citrate (Corn-Based Antioxidant), Punica Granatum (Pomegranate Fruit) Extract, Glycyrrhiza Uralensis (Licorice Root) Extract, Chamomilla Recutita (Chamomile) Extract, Cucumis Sativus (Cucumber Fruit) Extract, Peucedanum Ostruthium (Masterwort Leaf) Extract

You can read more about Jessica and Chris' story here. Once again, it DOES NOT contain methylisothiazolinone (MI). Go grab a bag and try them out!

Nurses Now have a 99.9% of Getting the Right Vein

Growing up around an amazing nurse, I remember stories my mother telling me of patients who were a "hard stick" but most of them were about how she had special skills (rigorous training in the Philippines) to get it done in one poke. When we would find ourselves at the doctors' office or hospital, she would be angered and mostly aggravated if the nurses would end up poking us multiple times causing severe bruising and inducing pain. Now with Evena Medical's new "Eyes-On" smart medical glasses, "x-ray vision" will help with just that. No more multiple stabs when getting blood drawn or an IV inserted which I'm sure some of you will be more than relieved. I know that my mom will have less of an issue when she watches her kids get poked multiple times by newbies. No offense to new nurses of course. =)

Here's a picture of the output of the x-ray vision along with the EMT/EMS goggles which also provide similar enhancements.

The Evena Medical device will allow the emergency personnel to see the vein and begin IV fluid administration even in the toughest of patients - the critically ill, the dehydrated, young children, and people that are obese and dark skinned.