Daily Inspiration: 7/2/08

From Graph Jam

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Alone No More: An Online Vulvodynia Support Group

The lovely owner of Life with Vulvodynia has started an online support group for those of us with vulvodynia. The first "meeting" (chat room) is Thursday, July 17 at 8 p.m. EST. Check it out here.

Be there or be square.

Inflammation Theory: Now More Credible Than Ever

A new study shows that my Inflammation Theory is more credible than ever now.

DeLano and his collaborator, Geert Schmid-Schonbein, a professor of bioengineering at UCSD, have been working with a widely used laboratory model of disease, a rat bred to have high blood pressure.

They have found that proteases, whose function is to clear away molecular debris, can go awry and split apart a number of different cell wall receptors. If insulin receptors are damaged, normal metabolism of glucose is not possible, and diabetes can be the result. Proteases can also damage receptors that are vital for the functioning of infection-fighting leukocytes.

And there's more...

The researchers also found that protein receptors on the surface of cells are clipped off as the rats develop high blood pressure. "Many receptors in blood vessels cause them to relax," DeLano said. "Many proteases we see in the animals cleave receptors responsible for relaxation." Giving the rats doxycycline, an antibiotic that is also a protease inhibitor, brought down their blood pressure and restored normal immune system function.

What does this all mean?

"This is really an important observation," said H. Glenn Bohlen, a professor of cellular and integrative physiology at Indiana University Medical School, who wrote an accompanying editorial. "It ties in information that high blood pressure and insulin resistance have the same cause, damage to receptors."

And the real kicker:

The newly reported studies might also help explain why antioxidants such as vitamins C and E help against inflammation, he said.

"The next approach probably would be to treat an inflammatory state," Bohlen said. "There is something going on that we can interact with. There are many commercially available methods for blocking proteases."

In addition to antibiotics such as doxycycline, drugs such as ACE inhibitors are protease inhibitors, DeLano said. Protease inhibitors are also used to control HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

(Emphasis mine.)

Let's home this memo makes it to our doctors.

Why We Should Be Concerned

The state of health care in this nation is abysmal at best. Our older citizens can't get basic health care and have to choose between eating and taking medecine. Those with chronic illness go ignored and untreated. And now this...this shocking evidence of the mistreatment of the mentally ill.

As many of you know, I'm a big mental health advocate. I believe in the mind-body connection, but more importantly I know firsthand what a mind gone awry can do to your life. So it is even more staggering for me to see this: a woman ignored and left to die in a hospital waiting room.

Of course I don't know the background or the setting really, but the story is upsetting. More likely than not, this was the only option this woman had--and she paid for it with her life.

Say what you may about socialized medecine, but people with socialized medecine don't die in waiting rooms.

Daily Inspiration: 7/1/08

The optimism of a healthy mind is indefatigable.
Margery Allingham

Daily Inspiration: 6/30/08

Woman is the salvation or the destruction of the family. She carries its destiny in the folds of her mantle. Henri Frederic Amiel

Daily Inspiration: 6/26/08

I argue very well. Ask any of my remaining friends. I can win an argument on any topic, against any opponent. People know this, and steer clear of me at parties. Often, as a sign of their great respect, they don't even invite me. -Dave Barry

Daily Inspiration: 6/25/08

Most people are too busy living life to ever put life in their living. - Doug Firebaugh

The Chronic Cat Teaches Another Lesson: Be Vigilant

I don't know if these things happen for a reason or I just notice them for a reason. Either way, it's time to get back on the horse when it comes to taking good care of The Body Chronic....and The Chronic Cat.

For the first time in a long time (long being a month or so), I got pelvic pains with no trigger whatsoever on Friday. I was sitting here at work minding my own business when out of nowhere I realized it felt as if someone was stabbing me in the pelvic region. These pains used to be more prevalent before physical therapy, but having a refresher course in them is not something I had hoped to do. I gritted my teeth for a minute to get through the first wave of pain, and then promptly took my medecine--something I've been forgetting to do as of late. Then on Saturday the pain struck again, just as the mood was about to strike. (Remind me to tell you in depth how being a newlywed and having pelvic issues is rather depressing.)

I didn't think much of this. I'll admit it--complacency usually gets the best of me, whether I notice it or not. So a few pains here and there (and when I say pain, I mean the noticeable pain that stops you from doing something, not the everyday pain people with chronic illness/chronic pain face) isn't usually enough to really strike me as interesting.

Then an accident happened. As I was sitting on the couch on Sunday, Lucy, The Chronic Cat, decided it was time to sit with me, as she usually does when I'm on the phone or the computer. So she jumped up and immediately I knew something was off...then I felt it...and smelt it. Lucy had wet herself. I'd like to say this is the first time this has happened--but this is the third time (and the second time since she's last seen the vet). I used to think she'd just get startled easily, but now I wonder if it isn't something more. So after cleaning her, the couch and myself I got to Googling. Sure enough, spayed female cats are known to have this problem. I'd venture to guess that it's even more prevalent in cats with known urinary tract issues already. I e-mailed the vet and tried to not get too hyped up about it. But I believe that Lucy has one of my problems--pelvic floor dysfunction (something about the cat's anatomy when they get spayed leads to it).

I realized throughout all of this, though, that I've been lax on giving Lucy her meds too. In the rush of life and the unconcious desire to escape The Body Chronic, I've not only let my own health slide, but Lucy's as well. Granted, I don't think Lucy's problem this weekend was directly related to her other issues, but it was a wake-up call.

Sometimes, for those of us in The Body Chronic, it's a helluva lot easier to ignore the signs and even our better judgment and just pretend as if everything were normal. I skip pills more often than I'd like to admit and way more often than I should, but then I complain when I have an issue. I can't have it all--either I treat myself properly or I fall back into the pain that got me here in the first place. The same goes for The Chronic Cat.

I'm happy to say that Lucy has had her medecine for two days in a row now and I have set out my pills for the week in my elderly-inspired-pill-box. It may be a pain, but it's better than being in pain. And I will not let the issue drop again. We're going to find a fix for both of us...even if it's just a patch..and we're going to be consistent.

Or at least we'll strive for consistency and settle for something more than complacency.

Daily Inspiration: 6/23/08

Scientists announced today that they have discovered a cure for apathy. However, they claim no one has shown the slightest interest in it.
- George Carlin

Friday Chronic Roundup

PCOS/Insulin Resistance/Diabetes

• Researchers at the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston have found a defect in beta cells that make and release insulin that has implications in the development of diabetes.
  
• Once a week Byetta is on its way--in one form or another.
• Is an anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant agent going to be the next step in treating diabetes?
• Men and women process fructose differently.
• Does Actos keep diabetes at bay?
• Metformin slows early-onset puberty in girls.
  
• 
  

Interstitial Cystitis/Pelvic Floor Dysfunction/Vulvodynia

• Defining and treating IC--are we dealing with "a heterogeneous and poorly defined spectrum of disorders? (I think so!)
• IC drives managed costs up--2.4 times.
• Pelvic Floor Prolapse associated with levator trauma
  

Irritable Bowel Syndrome/Celiac Disease

• Irritable bowel syndrome linked to an overactive chili pepper pain receptor?
  

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Fibromyalgia

• Different thalamic (brain) structures have a relationship to sleep problems in CFS patients
• Diagnostic and treatment challenges of CFS
• Cymbalta has been approved for Fibromyalgia.
  

Other

• A primer on food allergies versus food intolerance
• Could tumeric be more than a spice? (I'm skeptical since curry sends my body aflame)
• Is it true? Do gay men and straight women have similar brains? And do lesbians and straight men have similar brains?
  

The AMA Does It Again

In a terrifying move for anyone who is planning to have children biologically or is on their way to do so now, the AMA has passed a resolution that calls for governments to BAN home birth. This is notwithstanding the fact that it is safe, secure and has been done for millenniums. The lengths these people will go to in order to ensure a monopoly over all things health-related is mind-boggling.

You can read the full text of the resolution here. It even references Rikki Lake's amazing documentary, The Business of Being Born which I adored.

But the scary part can be seen in the last sentences of the document:

RESOLVED, That our AMA develop model legislation in support of the concept that the safest setting for labor, delivery, and the immediate post-partum period is in the hospital, or a birthing center within a hospital complex, that meets standards jointly outlined by the AAP and ACOG, or in a freestanding birthing center that meets the standards of the Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care, The Joint Commission, or the American Association of Birth Centers.” (Directive to Take Action)

Ughhhhhhh. No, dear sirs (and I use that term purposefully), the safest setting for birth is not in a hospital or a birthing center within a hospital complex. In fact, women have been safely having babies at home forever. The AMA just had to stick their regulation where it doesn't belong.

So if you want to battle back, check out one of these resources:
The Coalition for Improving Maternity Services
American Association of Birth Centers
Citizens for Midwifery
The Big Push for Midwives

Thanks to Miriam at Feministing for bringing this to my attention.

And American Medical Association--you are on the list.

Nausea, Heartburn, Indigestion, Upset Stomach, Diarrhea

The American Gastroenterological Association has a somewhat neat function. It's a quiz (like a Cosmo quiz but not sexist) about your digestive health. Though I disagree with BMI being as big of a factor as they make it out to be, the quiz is a helpful tool for those assessing whether it's time to see a doctor.

For the record, 50+ points was a serious problem and I had 170. Yeah...

Daily Inspiration: 6/18/08

Odors have an altogether peculiar force, in affecting us through association; a force differing essentially from that of objects addressing the touch, the taste, the sight or the hearing. -Edgar Allen Poe

Really?!? No food allergies, huh?

Round two of The Forced Allergy Experiment took place this morning with about 48 more pricks in the back. I tested positive for the mold with the interdermal tests (more sensitive). But I did not test positive for any food items.

Now I'm at a fork in the road. I was kind of hoping we'd find a food allergen that was causing stomach problems and we could rule out IBS. I was just not looking forward to another chronic and misunderstood illness. With food allergies you can explain them away pretty easily. It's harder telling someone that your bowels don't like to color inside the lines.

But I guess the food allergy...or should I say food intolerance...experiment is not really over. There is a difference between food allergies and food intolerances. The symptoms are different and seeing as I've rarely had a wheezing fit over food (other than curry, which I don't think they tested), it shouldn't be a shock that I don't have a food allergy. In fact, very few people have true food allergies.

Food allergies cause:

• Rash or hives
• Nausea
• Stomach pain
• Diarrhea
• Itchy skin
• Shortness of breath
• Chest pain
• Swelling of the airways to the lungs
• Anaphylaxis

Food intolerance causes:

• Nausea
• Stomach pain
• Gas, cramps or bloating
• Vomiting
• Heartburn
• Diarrhea
• Headaches
• Irritability or nervousness

And maybe since the IBS symptoms are so akin to food intolerance symptoms, I may never know. What an discomforting thought.

In any event, the experiment is over. I was put on a new daily inhaler for my asthma and Singulair in addition to Allegra for good. We'll see how this works out. But in the meantime, my stomach rages on.