Wonderful Weirdos Day

Today is Wonderful Weirdos Day.

According to National Today, “Wonderful Weirdos Day is celebrated across America on September 9.” ¹

Why is it celebrated during an ordinary unit of time such as a day. Isn’t that boring and totally not weird? Wouldn’t it be more appropriate to designate it as Wonderful Weirdos Nychthemeron? ^{2, 3}

¹ https://nationaltoday.com/wonderful-weirdos-day/

² https://english.stackexchange.com/a/595618

³ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nychthemeron

What’s New on Top of Your Utility Pole?

What are these bell-shaped objects that we’re starting to see high above intersections with traffic lights?  They’re traffic cameras.  Of course.  Check it out:
https://gridsmart.com/products/the-bell-camera/

Moon Phase and Its Effect on Sleep

The article Evidence that the Lunar Cycle Influences Human Sleep was published six years ago, but I only just became aware of it today.  Nevertheless, I suspected as much.

I was diagnosed with Sleep Apnea in 2006.  But lately I feel there's more to my sleep disturbances than just cessation of breath.  Some days I wake up after a mere four hours unable to get back to sleep.  Other nights I'll sleep for six hours.

So I think it's ridiculous that health insurance companies will limit coverage for a sleep study to a single one-night study over the member's lifetime.  How can a single study capture all the variations in someone's sleep patterns?

Maybe this study and others like it will motivate The National Sleep Foundation to advocate for policy change.

Happy Birthday Medicare

Fifty years ago today, Medicare was enacted. #Medicare50

Few programs in the history of the United States have brought as much benefit to society as Medicare. Since its enactment in 1965, Medicare has provided access to quality health care for those Americans least likely to be attractive to private insurers - those over age 65, disabled, or with end stage renal disease. Medicare has also prevented many Americans from slipping into poverty...Medicare also provides security across generations: it has given American families assurance that they will not have to bear the full burden of health care costs of their elderly or disabled parents or relatives at the expense of their young families.

 - Nancy-Ann Min DeParle, former administrator of HCFA (Now CMS), in the preface to "A Profile of Medicare" in 1998

Please follow these links to learn more about the impact Medicare has had on USA.

http://www.medicareadvocacy.org/medicares-50th-anniversary/
http://www.medicareadvocacy.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/00119491.pdf

Buy One, Get Six For Free

Temperatures here in the Northeast are at the freezing mark or below, so the heated indoor air is very dry.  This is a good time to use a saline spray to keep nasal passages moist.

I use a lot of saline spray every winter.  My preferred brand comes in little bottles of 50ml (1.69 ounces) and costs about $3.50.  That's $2/oz.  It doesn't last long.

The first bottle of the season already ran out.  So rather than buy another, I bought the saline solution that's marketed to users of contact lenses.  For the same price, $3.50, I got 12 ounces, a whopping seven times more, which should last all winter.

Of course, I don't squirt the stuff into my nose from that larger bottle.  Instead, I refill the little spray bottle.  I just remove the tip from the spray bottle and pour the saline solution in and then press the tip back on.

It turns out that the cheaper, contact lens saline solution is more soothing than the nasal saline.  Perhaps the nasal solution contains more anti-microbial chemicals to keep it from harboring germs.  After all, the bottle is inserted into one's nose.  With each squeeze, the user could aspirate germ-infested nasal mucous into the bottle.  So the producers of the nasal spray would want to ensure that their product won't result in re-infection with some pathogen.

If you decide to try this cost-saving idea, do your best to avoid contaminating the bottles and solutions.  Your workspace and hands should be as clean as possible.  You can place the spray bottle tip on a clean paper towel or tissue while filling the bottle.  Also, don't fill the bottle more than halfway, otherwise you won't get a fine spray when you squeeze but rather a surprisingly strong stream.

How to Maintain Brain Function

The current issue of Neurology Now magazine includes an article on how to maintain cognitive function.  "Staying Sharp: What you do during your free time could help save your brain" lists the following "brain-boosting activities":

• Learn A Second Language
• Become A Social Butterfly
• Play Music
• Exercise

The article also claims that heart-protective measures may also protect the brain.  For example, it recommends:

• Don't smoke.
• Sleep 7–8 hours a night.
• Keep your blood pressure and cholesterol levels in check.
• Eat a low-fat, healthy diet.
• Get plenty of exercise.
• Maintain a healthy weight.
• Limit alcohol consumption.
• Get blood sugar levels (and diabetes, if you have it) under control.

Yes, cholesterol is still a villain, despite assertions from both cardiologists and neurologists that high blood sugar causes damage, and it's the cholesterol that aids in the repair of that damage.

The biggest payoff is to stimulate your intellect while elevating your blood flow.  Learn to dance or practice martial arts for example.  I try to meditate while I walk, or walk mindfully.

That Twee Thing

Tuesday's Colin McEnroe show on "Twee" whisked me all the way from "What on Earth are they babbling about?" to "Oh my Gosh I LOVE TWEE!" before it ended.  Mr. McEnroe often takes on important and controversial issues.  So devoting the entire show on something called "Twee" must mean that "Twee" is important, right?

But in the beginning it really didn't seem so important after all, as they struggled to define the term.  The thing that caught my attention was a person called "Zooey Deschanel" whom I've never heard of before.  They'd repeat her name, Zooey Deschanel said this, Zooey Deschanel did that.  And all this in the context of this "attitude" called "Twee".  I was so intrigued that I actually picked up my Android tablet and used Google's voice search to find out "Who is Zooey Deschanel?"

I saw several images of the beautiful entertainer / actress, plus a list of TV shows and movies that she performed in, almost all of which I'd never seen or even heard of.  The only movie that I was familiar with was one of my all-time favorite movies, "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy."  Yes, Zooey Deschanel played the role of Trillian, whom I'd wistfully imagine asking me to go to Madagascar with her.  "Yes, of course, I'd love to!" was always my reply.

My favorite scene is the one in which Zooey shoots Zaphod with the Point-of-View Gun.  Of course, it's so much better when viewed in context with the story line.

When I connected Twee, Zooey Deschanel and the "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" movie, it helped me define and pinpoint that movie, and how its tone differed so much from the books in Douglas Adams' "Hitchhiker's" series.  Yes, while the books depicted the Universe (or at least the Galaxy) as a harsh and unforgiving place in which if anything could go wrong it would go wrong at the worst possible moment, the movie was Twee, wasn't it?  It was a place where torture involved having to listen to really bad poetry.  It was a place where the zots from numerous Vogons' guns couldn't possibly hit you because the Vogons were such poor marks-creatures and their firearms so cheaply made.  It was a place where, if your house got bulldozed to make way for a bypass on a planet that was demolished to make way for a hyperspace bypass, someone would come along and make exact replicas of both.

Wow.  Twee.  I love it!

October is LBD Month

Lewy body dementias (LBD) affect an estimated 1.3 million individuals and their families in the United States. Though many families are affected by this disease, few individuals and medical professionals are aware of the symptoms, diagnostic criteria, or even that LBD exists. Here are 10 important facts about Lewy body dementias that you should know if you, a loved one, or a patient you are treating may have LBD: http://www.lbda.org/content/10-things-you-should-know-about-lbd

Sleep Well For a Healthy Brain

The latest issue of Neurology Now features an article on the importance of sleep for maintaining a healthy brain, "Sleep Well: Could getting more high-quality sleep protect the brain?".  It is during sleep when the brain cells get rid of waste products.  The article includes tips to ensure you get more sleep.

The same issue lists the following resources that you can use to improve your sleep:

• NINDS Fact Sheet on normal and disordered sleep.
• The American Academy of Neurology's brochure "Sleep Disorders".
• American Sleep Apnea Association.
• National Sleep Foundation.

It's ironic that I'm staying up late in order to bring this information to you.

Good night!

No More Tobacco at CVS

CVS pharmacy recently announced that it intends to stop selling cigarettes starting October 1, 2014¹.  This announcement comes out just over fifty years after the US Surgeon General released its report that linked smoking with disease².

A pharmacy is a place where people who are sick obtain products that are supposed to make them well.  So it's ironic that pharmacies also sell products that are known to make you unwell.

Tobacco is just one example of such a product.  But consider sugar.  Although the Surgeon General hasn't mandated the labeling of sugar-laden products with health warnings, it does state that "...eating healthy means ... limiting intake of ... added sugars."³

Sugar can be found in some form in every drug store.  It's in the candy isle, of course.  And in the soda aisle.  Some larger stores might harbor it in the freezer case in the form of ice cream and other frozen desserts.  Then of course the seasonal isle erupts with candy right after Labor Day with Halloween candy, which transforms into Christmas candy on November 1, then into Valentine's candy in January, and ultimately appears in a majestic fanfare as Easter candy at various times in Spring.  Come Memorial Day, sugar goes on a much needed vacation, at least until it becomes fashionable to eat candy for Independence Day.

Eventually CVS will find it necessary to eliminate candy from its stores once it realizes that selling candy "...is inconsistent with our purpose – helping people on their path to better health."¹  It might take CVS another fifty years to reach that conclusion, although without the profits from tobacco sales to keep it afloat, CVS might not be around that long.

---

¹ https://cvshealth.com/newsroom/press-releases/cvs-caremark-stop-selling-tobacco-all-cvspharmacy-locations
² https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK179276/pdf/Bookshelf_NBK179276.pdf
³ https://www.hhs.gov/fitness/eat-healthy/dietary-guidelines-for-americans/index.html

2020-02-29 SPG -- Updated broken links in footnotes.

What's in Your Water?

Residents of USA can query the Environmental Working Group's (EWG) National Drinking Water Database to find out what's in their water.  Results for homes that draw well water are not included in this database.

While browsing the EWG's website, be sure to check out the articles on Bottled Water.  Here's one page you can start with.

The Energy-Saving Myth of LED Holiday Lights

If you use strands of lights for holiday decorating, you may be wondering whether you should trade in your sets of traditional incandescent lights for the new LED lights that have become popular.

The answer is no if:

• Your incandescent light sets are in good condition.
• You have (or know how to get) spare bulbs for your current lights.
• You use the lights sparingly...
• Only a few hours per day.
• Only a few weeks per year.
• You use the lights indoors only during cold weather days when you heat your home.

Understand that the incandescent lights you use now convert most of the electricity into heat.  So that any energy savings you might realize by switching to LED lights will mostly be offset by an increase in the energy you'll use to heat your home.  And if your home uses electric heat, you'll never re-coup your savings.

So by all means trade in your traditional incandescent lights for the new LED lights if:

• You use the lights outdoors or in unheated areas.
• You use the lights when the weather is warm.
• You can't find replacement bulbs for your current set.
• The wiring in your current set has cracked or missing insulation.
• You use more lights than your house wiring can handle...
• When you turn them on a fuse blows (or the breaker trips).
• The outlet or extension cord feels very warm.

I continue to use two sets of incandescent lights that are rated at 75W each.  They use special C7 bulbs that are designed with an internal bimetallic strip.  When the light is on, the strip heats up and bends to interrupt the current flowing to the filament.  This enables each one to blink on and off randomly independent of the others.  It's a lovely effect, one I've not seen duplicated with LED sets.

Besides, the LED light sets that I've seen have an annoying flicker to them.  LEDs turn on only when current flows in one direction.  They remain dark for half the cycle unless a special "full-wave rectifier" has been included in the design.  Unfortunately, the packaging won't tell you anything about the design, so you have to take your chances.  Be sure to buy light sets at a store with a good return policy and save your receipt.

I hope this helps you in some way!