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However if I swallow a penicillin tablet I will end up with severe and violent vomiting. Now I ask you, is it relevant or not if I am not considered allergic because I don't have the correct response to the drug if I can't take it due to extreme vomiting?

I had this discussion with my doctor. He suggested I take it anyway.

Your doctor is, apparently, an idiot. Severe vomiting can be a sign of Anaphylaxis, which is a potential symptom of Penicillin allergy - at least according to the Mayo Clinic.

Unless he/you are willing to carry around an EpiPen whenever you take penicillin, you're probably better off to avoid the drug - unless really necessary, taken under direct supervision. Drug allergies tend to only get worse with repeated exposure. [Disclaimer: I am NOT a doctor, just not an idiot - and someone who had a wife who was very allergic to Sulfa drugs. ]

You may well be right in this case. Probably you are. I don't know much about this specific issue. But I have heard or read from history similar reassurances saying about other things (cocaine in Coca Cola, lead in gasoline, trans fats, smoking, PCBs, MTBE, mercury, etc.) which we have now reconsidered as human health risks. Fracking was supposedly harmless; now it turns out it can cause earthquakes and pollute the groundwater...

At the end of the excellent 1980s video series "The World of Chemisty" (in the last or second to last episode) Nobel-prize winner Roald Hoffman talks in passing about the wonders and great value of a new plastic called BPA (bisphenol A).
http://www.learner.org/resourc...

We now know that BPA can affect developing human brains:
http://www.mayoclinic.org/heal...
"Some research has shown that BPA can seep into food or beverages from containers that are made with BPA. Exposure to BPA is a concern because of possible health effects of BPA on the brain, behavior and prostate gland of fetuses, infants and children. "

See also:
http://science.slashdot.org/st...
"The number of chemicals known to be toxic to children's developing brains has doubled over the last seven years, researchers said. Dr. Philip Landrigan at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York and Dr. Philippe Grandjean from Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, authors of the review published Friday in The Lancet Neurology journal say the news is so troubling they are calling for a worldwide overhaul of the regulatory process in order to protect children's brains. 'We know from clinical information on poisoned adult patients that these chemicals can enter the brain through the blood brain barrier and cause neurological symptoms,' said Grandjean. 'When this happens in children or during pregnancy, those chemicals are extremely toxic, because we now know that the developing brain is a uniquely vulnerable organ. Also, the effects are permanent.'"

Unless people actually look for these materials in human brains directly, it is hard to be 100% sure there is no way they could get into the brain somehow. Although even if they get there, to be fair, then "the dose makes the poison" and what is the effect relative to the benefits? While Roald Hoffman was not more cautious about BPA, nonetheless, modern chemistry has produced all sorts of modern wonders, and it is hard to imagine modern life without it (including safe food storage against insects and bacteria).

Even (life saving) antibiotics are now seen as having a down side that suggests they be used more precisely and also in the context of pro-biotics and/or fermented bacteria-rich foods etc. For example:
"How Your Gut Flora Influences Your Health"
http://articles.mercola.com/si...

A link from a comment there:
"The microbiome-gut-brain axis during early life regulates the hippocampal serotonergic system in a sex-dependent manner."
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pu...
"Bacterial colonisation of the intestine has a major role in the post-natal development and maturation of the immune and endocrine systems. These processes are key factors underpinning central nervous system (CNS) signalling. Regulation of the microbiome-gut-brain axis is essential for maintaining homeostasis, including that of the CNS. However, there is a paucity of data pertaining to the influence of microbiome on the serotonergic system. Germ-free (GF) animals represent an effective preclinical tool to investigate such phenomena. Here we show that male GF animals have a significant elevation

And yay, it shall come to pass that scientists will no longer interest themselves in saving lives and making the world a better place and shall instead devote their attention to preventing hair loss and prolonging erections... and delaying the effects of aging, "leaving your skin feeling visibly younger."

Doesn't match the facts. They were looking for ways to have less internal scarring on major blood vessels, and now their first product will be to treat lupus.

Lupus is a chronic inflammatory disease that occurs when your body's immune system attacks your own tissues and organs. Inflammation caused by lupus can affect many different body systems — including your joints, skin, kidneys, blood cells, brain, heart and lungs.

Lupus can be difficult to diagnose because its signs and symptoms often mimic those of other ailments. The most distinctive sign of lupus — a facial rash that resembles the wings of a butterfly unfolding across both cheeks — occurs in many but not all cases of lupus.

Some people are born with a tendency toward developing lupus, which may be triggered by infections, certain drugs or even sunlight. While there's no cure for lupus, treatments can help control symptoms.

There's more ... lots more.

I can not see how you can claim I wrote bullshit.

Because I have a background in both history and nutrition; there is no mainstream opinion in the latter field that says it's healthy to live off 1,500 calories a day. My background in the former tells me that people face starvation when they're forced to eat at those levels for extended periods. Research the food situation in Germany and Japan immediately after WW2; people were starving to death while eating the number of calories that you claim is normal.

You might also wish to educate yourself as to what BMR actually means. Hint: It's the number of calories required to sustain life in the absence of any other activity. Completely sedentary coach potatoes require more calories than their BMR if they're to survive in the long term. There's a reason why I used the sentence, "That's my caloric requirement just to stay in bed all day and do nothing." I even placed emphasis on the most important part of the sentence yet you still missed the point.

You're welcome to find a reputable source that says people in the mainstream of height/age/weight can survive on 1,500 (or even 1,700) calories a day indefinitely. The Mayo Clinic has an interesting nutrition calculator, perhaps you can start there? I input numbers for my height that are at the extreme low end of acceptable weight (130#) and still can't survive on 1,700 calories a day. That's with 'inactive' selected for activity level, in reality I'm anything but. I actually have to consume ~3500 calories a day to maintain my weight with my metabolism and activity level. That's a real number, FYI, from a fairly religiously kept food diary; not your nonsense "I had five beers and a pizza" calculation. Incidentally, I hate to break it to you, but five beers and a pizza almost certainly totals up to more than 2,000 calories. It may even be over 3,000 depending on the type of pizza in question.

intentionally risking the infection of people in order to save your own ass is monumentally stupid. But people tend to act in ways of self preservation when the issue is pressed and you will see things like this often. It's no different than a criminal who rats on his buddies for a lesser term in prison or the conscripted soldier who flees to another country to avoid the conscription.

So aspirin, Pepto bismol, and hydrocodone or Vicodin will cover up most early symptoms of Ebola. I guess the issue is will the news coverage be such in ways that people in these infected countries think they can be cured by going to other countries. If so, expect a raid and looting on hospital clinics and people thinking their lives will be saved if they can only get to another country.

And this is not even touching the terrorism aspect of things. Imagine someone intentionally doing this knowing that their eventual symptoms will be discovered after it is already too late. Imagine if they worked at a food stall at a busy mall or subway or right outside the government offices or court rooms or something.

Oh that would be ... let's see ... fantasizing about success.

Narcissistic Personality Disorder. But diagnosis is nothing compared to treatment. Do scroll down to the "When to see a doctor" and "Treatment" sections of those pages sometime.

Narcissistic Personality Disorder symptoms continued:

* Expressing disdain for those you feel are inferior

Previously.

Cancer is a terrible disease and a cure would be a very amazing thing to have. Certainly, if there is any chance of curing it, we should do so.

The thing is, though, we already know how you can greatly reduce your risk factors for developing cancer, and we don't talk about that often enough. We speak so often of "curing" cancer when we should be focusing more energy on preventing it from happening in the first place.

Cancer prevention: 7 tips to reduce your risk

Just to level-set everybody.

http://www.mayoclinic.org/dise...

There are certainly deaths/years of life lost caused by excessive drinking.
But on the other hand, there are health benefits of moderate drinking.

There's some presentation of health benefits/problems on the Mayo Clinic web site:
http://www.mayoclinic.org/heal...

So, one question would be: how may years of life for the entire population are lost from excessive drinking, how many years
of life for the entire population are gained from moderate drinking? And how can moderate drinking be encouraged while
decreasing excessive drinking?
In general terms it appears that Russian men are very adversely affected by drinking (life expectancy ~64), and French women's long
life expectancies (~85) are helped by their moderate drinking.
But culture in general can be very hard to change!

prawns fed on the new diet grow 40% faster and are healthier and more robust.

Look similar to the the claims for the rations given to cows, while their meat is not the healthier one. When the ultimate metric is rate of production instead of quality (specially if have health consequences) a lot of consumers will be harmed.

Maybe you should check again: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medline...
"Exercise not only helps your immune system fight off simple bacterial and viral infections, it decreases your chances of developing heart disease, osteoporosis, and cancer."

http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH...
""Nutrition plays an important part in maintaining immune function," explains George L. Blackburn, M.D., Ph.D., associate director of the division of nutrition at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts. "Insufficiency in one or more essential nutrients may prevent the immune system from functioning at its peak.""

People with weaker immune systems are more likely to contract diseases and have them for longer and so spread them around more.

So, again, now that you know this, why not lock up those who eat junk food and who don't exercise, or force them at gunpoint to eat vegetables and do push ups? Such people otherwise pose a health risk to everyone else. That is a fact based on what people at the NIH and Harvard have said.

The same for the other things I mentioned which all affect the immune system. See also:
http://www.webmd.com/cold-and-...

Many things make contracting and spreading disease more likely (poor diet, lack of exercise, lack of sleep, lack of vitamin D, lack of iodine, lack of nursing, sending kids to public school, going into a shared workplace every day, etc.). Why do you call at least some of those "an individual choice that does not affect the well-being of others" when clearly they all increase the risk of disease transmission? All of these choices affect the well-being of those around us. What of the immuno-compromised child who is going to die because your kid spread around the flu contracted in part by vitamin D deficiency, too much sugar, and not enough exercise?

Also, the fact is, vaccinations at best only protect to some degree against catching specific disease. These other things protect against catching almost any disease whether there is a vaccine for it or not. If forcing people to get vaccinated against their will for the public good is a good idea, why not force people to do these other things too?

For example, since people who eat poorly have a greater risk of contracting almost any communicable illness and spreading it around, why allow people to pick what food they want to eat each day for example? Clearly a government appointed dietitian (backed by gun-wielding police) would do a better job of deciding what you should eat each day than you could and thus do a better job of protecting the public health against widespread illness, injury, and death, right? Likewise for those who do not exercise enough. Cops should force people to exercise at gunpoint if needed, right? No less than the NIH and Harvard provide the supporting evidence,

Not laughing enough also is bad for you immune system.
http://www.mayoclinic.org/heal...
"Negative thoughts manifest into chemical reactions that can affect your body by bringing more stress into your system and decreasing your immunity. In contrast, positive thoughts actually release neuropeptides that help fight stress and potentially more-serious illnesses."

So, people who do not laugh enough are a health risk to those around them. It would seem then that people thus have no constitutional right to be dour sour pusses, since that puts everyone around them at health risk. So, why not set up a police force who force people to laugh by watching funny websites? Or do laughter yoga? And otherwise incarcerate them if they don't comply?

Although, like anything, I guess that could go too far:

Check the Science moron. Further studies showed NO CORRELATION at all. There was/is no science based link to cancer or any other malady associated with silicon implants.

The same thing with your inane thought experiment. The depths involved in fracking are orders of magnitude deeper than fresh water aquifers. You have NO FACTS. Just idiot, envirowacko fear mongering. When you have information produced by someone with more than a 6th grade education, let me know.

Be careful with what makes you what you are. This shows the importance of not abusing generic/strong antibiotics, breast feeding childs for years (probiotics are probably an incomplete fix) and not removing your appendix without need. If you don't care enough about that, may be a fecal transplant in your future.

Thalidomide is an interesting case.

It is a photo enantiomer, meaning that it has a left handed, and right handed isomer that will bend light one way, or another, when in solution.

The right handed isomer is an effective sedative, while the left handed one is a tetragenic compound.

The problem is that even if highly refined so that only R isomer is administered, the pH of the patient's blood will racemize the isomers again.

It could be entirely possible for thalidomide to be safe, if administered with a chaparone to prevent racemization.

At the time, the preparations of thalidomide were a heterogenous mix of both isomers, as there was no research into possible side effects from the mixed sample, and the prospect of birth defects wasnt considered, as the intended use was not for treating morning sickness. As an anti-cancer treatment for non-pregnant people, it is still a useful compound.

Thalidomide was originally developed as a sedative/hypnotic compound, and not as a treatment for nausea. (This would be similar to say, scopolamine, which is used to treat motion sickness. This is not meant to imply that the comounds are related. They arent. However, scopolamine is ALSO useful for treating some forms of nausea. Fancy that.) The use as treatment for nausea is what heralded the use of the product to treat morning sickness, and the subsequent epidemic of infant mortality and deformity that swept the world. It isn't that thalidomide is a bad drug: it was, and is still being shown to be a VERY useful drug. The problem is that thalidomide was not used properly, and was provided OTC, which strongly exacerbated the problem. To pick on poor scopolamine again, it too had a stint as an OTC motion sickness medicine and sleep aid, which ended up causing all manner of problems when certain... shall we say, "Degenerate" people discovered that it made an excellent date rape drug when dissolved in alcoholic beverages.

It isn't that either drug is "bad". It is that the lust for profits from the sale of the drugs can lead to very bad decisions in marketing and distribution of those drugs. Drugs developed for a certain purpose should be extensively and thuroughtly tested for efficacy before being used in alternative manners; such as for instance, Minoxadil. It is the primary ingredient in Rogaine, a male hairloss treatment with FDA approval. It was originally a prescription heart medicine for treating hypertension. It took quite some time for minoxadil to recieve FDA approval for treating alopecia. That is a good thing, as the testing helped establish what the ideal dosages are, and that the concentration must be different for treating women than for treating men. If minoxadil had been rushed to market as a treatment for alopecia, there could have been very dangerous results, since it *IS* a blood pressure medication! This is one of the reasons why rogaine is a topically applied preparation, and not a preparation for internal consumption. (The regrowth of hair was a common side effect of orally administered minoxadil for treating hypertension. Oral administration of the compound would be effective for regrowing hair, but the concentrations needed would make taking the drug dangerous to a patient's cardiac health. Topically applied minoxadil allows high concentrations at the site of interest, with a slow overall rate of absorption, making it ineffective at lowering blood pressure. If rushed to market, it is quite concievable that minoxadil tablets would have been seen for treating alopecia, and that there would have been class action suits as bald people all over started dieing.)

The FDA's insistence on efficacy studies is to prevent dangerous drug use, and to ensure that a drug actually does what it says it does. The long term drug study requirements are intended to catch things like thalidomide birth defects, as it would have shown up with thalidomide being used as a sedative/hypnotic as a

Medical professionals have been saying for sometime now that you need to let a fever run it's course. To give an idea how much things have changed I once brought my child into the emergency room for a fever of 105.

I was then made to sign a piece of paper saying that I would not do so again for a temperature that low. Mind you this was the first time I had ever brought my child into the emergency room for a fever. Here's something from the Mayo clinic saying not to even take tyenol below a fever of 102

http://www.mayoclinic.org/dise...
http://pediatrics.aappublicati...

Artificial trans-fats, also pushed by many of the same players as GMO today, on the other hand, are another story.

http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/high-blood-cholesterol/in-depth/trans-fat/ART-20046114

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AReHTIVuCbA

More hippy FUD. "....according to the National Cancer Institute and other health agencies, there's no sound scientific evidence that any of the artificial sweeteners approved for use in the U.S. cause cancer or other serious health problems." http://www.mayoclinic.org/artificial-sweeteners/art-20046936

Willms isn't the only one to survive and thrive after the government imposed a huge Internet ad-related fine. Google Chairman Eric Schmidt even managed to get named to the Mayo Clinic Board of Trustees in November, after his company agreed to forfeit $500 million for allowing online Canadian pharmacies to place advertisements through its AdWords program targeting consumers in the U.S., resulting in the unlawful importation of controlled and non-controlled prescription drugs. In December, the Mercury News reported on Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood's ongoing efforts to stop Google from making it too easy to buy drugs online without a prescription (screenshot). In his 2011 Senate testimony (PDF), Schmidt said "we absolutely regret what happened. It [drug advertising] was a mistake," and replied "Absolutely" when asked if Google had "taken steps to make sure that that sort of thing never happens again."

There is a growing movement blaming autoimmune arthritis diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis and ankylosing spondylitis, on gut flora. http://www.mayoclinic.org/news2012-rst/6933.html

http://www.mayoclinic.org/news2009-rst/5318.html

Oh really? Then why did the Prime Minister of Newfoundland come to the US for heart treatment? Because the wait in Canada would have caused his death, that's why. He's 59 fer chrissake, why save him? And, skip the argument that he's got millions. He's doing what the Democrap morons in the USA want to end for all of us - free choice.

The disingenuous Canadians know that rationing exists in the Canadian health system. A 20-something or 30-something gets fairly quick care mostly because it's routine stuff. Go try for for something more serious, and be over 40 and you wait - wait until you die or leave for the US to seek treatment. Heaven help you if you're over 50.

Cut the bullshit and tell the truth Canucks. Your system only treats the healthy. It's like banks who only lend money to people that don't need it.

NEWS FLASH!! Rich person from another country visits Mayo Clinic for best health care in the world - disgracing his local MD. USA! USA! That's right, best health care in the world! Suck it, Canada! Meanwhile, Mayo clinic health care recommendations to be ignored - http://www.mayoclinic.org/healthpolicycenter/recommendations.html.

Some collected thoughts on building meaning and happiness in life.

People are like trees that need roots to keep from falling over in the storms of life. Those roots come from all sorts of relationships to people, places, ideas, causes, experiences, and so on. When we lose a root (a relationship), sometimes we can grow another. People with shallow roots are more likely to fall over from a storm of life -- but some storms are worse than others, and sometimes trees fall over for no obvious reason.

The book "Descartes' Error" is about how emotions underlie all "logical" thought.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Descartes'_Error

Happiness (and meaning) in life comes from various directions:
* sensuality
* helping others
* a sense of "Flow" in what we do, even if it is "hard fun"
* human relationships, including parenting
* humor
* creating things we love, and maybe even destroying things we hate (a tricky thing)
* preserving a pattern important to us
* probably many others?
The first three are from this guy's book "Aging Well":
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Eman_Vaillant

But watch out for progressive desensitization and "The Pleasure Trap":
    http://www.amazon.com/Pleasure-Trap-Mastering-Undermines-Happiness/dp/1570671508

Addictive-looking behavior otherwise often has more to do with the environment than the person:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rat_park

How we look at time has a lot to do with happiness, too:
    http://www.ted.com/talks/philip_zimbardo_prescribes_a_healthy_take_on_time.html

It is often better to build on strengths than try to eliminate weaknesses:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positive_psychology

Alfie Kohn has a lot to say about eliminating competition and grading from our lives:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfie_Kohn

Good sleep, pleasurable exercise, a relationship to nature, education-on-demand instead of education-just-in-case, and eating right help a lot:
    http://www.mayoclinic.org/feature-articles/levine-office-of-future.html
    http://www.chrismercogliano.com/childhood.htm
    http://www.newciv.org/whole/schoolteacher.txt
    http://www.honestfoodguide.org/

Solar panels and a basic income are ways forward towards a happier global society:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanosolar
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_income

The gene is responsible for Hypertrophic Cardio Myopathy. HCM causes a thickening of the heart muscle and is often treated with medication, installation of an ICD to mitigate the chance of sudden cardiac death and for those with obstructions, a myectomy can be done. Something like 5% of HCM cases will require a heart transplant.

Gene testing is something I'll be doing soon to identify exactly which mutation I have, several are responsible for HCM. Once that's done I'll have my kids tested so they don't have to go through the annual testing that they are beginning this year.

HCM is the number one cause of sudden cardiac death in people under the age of 30. You may have heard of professional or college level athletes dying on the court/field/ whatever. This is usually the cause.

I am in otherwise excellent condition. I have had a "healthy lifestyle" my whole life but now I can't walk up a flight of stairs without experiencing shortness of breath. I will likely have a myectomy this year.

  I take it you're under a group plan.

Anyone in an individual plan will be paying for their own myectomy by the time they got to that point.

The good news is that this operation has a very high success rate. Another piece of good news is that if you have HCM and are treated by a specialist your life expectancy jumps back up to that of the general population.

The gene is responsible for Hypertrophic Cardio Myopathy. HCM causes a thickening of the heart muscle and is often treated with medication, installation of an ICD to mitigate the chance of sudden cardiac death and for those with obstructions, a myectomy can be done. Something like 5% of HCM cases will require a heart transplant.

Gene testing is something I'll be doing soon to identify exactly which mutation I have, several are responsible for HCM. Once that's done I'll have my kids tested so they don't have to go through the annual testing that they are beginning this year.

HCM is the number one cause of sudden cardiac death in people under the age of 30. You may have heard of professional or college level athletes dying on the court/field/ whatever. This is usually the cause.

I am in otherwise excellent condition. I have had a "healthy lifestyle" my whole life but now I can't walk up a flight of stairs without experiencing shortness of breath. I will likely have a myectomy this year.

  I take it you're under a group plan.

Anyone in an individual plan will be paying for their own myectomy by the time they got to that point.

The good news is that this operation has a very high success rate. Another piece of good news is that if you have HCM and are treated by a specialist your life expectancy jumps back up to that of the general population.

The gene is responsible for Hypertrophic Cardio Myopathy. HCM causes a thickening of the heart muscle and is often treated with medication, installation of an ICD to mitigate the chance of sudden cardiac death and for those with obstructions, a myectomy can be done. Something like 5% of HCM cases will require a heart transplant.

Gene testing is something I'll be doing soon to identify exactly which mutation I have, several are responsible for HCM. Once that's done I'll have my kids tested so they don't have to go through the annual testing that they are beginning this year.

HCM is the number one cause of sudden cardiac death in people under the age of 30. You may have heard of professional or college level athletes dying on the court/field/ whatever. This is usually the cause.

I am in otherwise excellent condition. I have had a "healthy lifestyle" my whole life but now I can't walk up a flight of stairs without experiencing shortness of breath. I will likely have a myectomy this year.

The good news is that this operation has a very high success rate. Another piece of good news is that if you have HCM and are treated by a specialist your life expectancy jumps back up to that of the general population.

The gene is responsible for Hypertrophic Cardio Myopathy. HCM causes a thickening of the heart muscle and is often treated with medication, installation of an ICD to mitigate the chance of sudden cardiac death and for those with obstructions, a myectomy can be done. Something like 5% of HCM cases will require a heart transplant.

Gene testing is something I'll be doing soon to identify exactly which mutation I have, several are responsible for HCM. Once that's done I'll have my kids tested so they don't have to go through the annual testing that they are beginning this year.

HCM is the number one cause of sudden cardiac death in people under the age of 30. You may have heard of professional or college level athletes dying on the court/field/ whatever. This is usually the cause.

I am in otherwise excellent condition. I have had a "healthy lifestyle" my whole life but now I can't walk up a flight of stairs without experiencing shortness of breath. I will likely have a myectomy this year.

The good news is that this operation has a very high success rate. Another piece of good news is that if you have HCM and are treated by a specialist your life expectancy jumps back up to that of the general population.

That's bullshit. Laser pointers have a few mW power (more powerful lasers are already regulated); they don't cause blindness even at short range, let alone at a distance of hundreds of feet when pointed at a moving plane with a pilot with normal blink reflexes. You really have to work hard to produce any kind of damage with a laser pointer.

http://www.mayoclinic.org/news2005-rst/2800.html

For more information about electronic medical records, and the efforts to create national medical databases, I would suggest an article that appeared in IEEE Spectrum's October issue entitled "Dying for Data." The article describes some of the monumental challenges in creating such a system, profiles the British effort, and highlights the success that the Mayo Clinic has had in moving to electronic records for all its patients.

[I can't link to the full text of the article, because that issue is not longer current. IEEE members can log in and view it, however.]

For more information about electronic medical records, and the efforts to create national medical databases, I would suggest an article that appeared in IEEE Spectrum's October issue entitled "Dying for Data." The article describes some of the monumental challenges in creating such a system, profiles the British effort, and highlights the success that the Mayo Clinic has had in moving to electronic records for all its patients.

[I can't link to the full text of the article, because that issue is not longer current. IEEE members can log in and view it, however.]

We have set up two workstations with treadmills, inspired by Dr. James A. Levine's work at the Mayo clinic:
        http://www.mayoclinic.org/endocrinology-rst/112066 08.html
        http://mayoresearch.mayo.edu/mayo/research/levine_ lab/
        http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2005-06-07-offic e-fit_x.htm?csp=34
Each has three LCD monitors on a shelf on the wall in front of the treadmill.

One big issue is we had to rearrange our house to have the heavy (~250lb) treadmills on the ground floor -- both to not carry them up the stairs and also for concerns about noise.

Your comment and the parent were interesting to me.

We are setting up workstations with treadmills, inspired by Dr. James A. Levine's work at the Mayo clinic:
    http://www.mayoclinic.org/endocrinology-rst/112066 08.html
    http://mayoresearch.mayo.edu/mayo/research/levine_ lab/
    http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2005-06-07-offic e-fit_x.htm?csp=34

While we had a custom tray made for a treadmill by a generous neighbor a couple days ago, on reading your comment I do now realize it is a bit low and I am hunching to use the keyboard and mouse on it. So a few boxes to prop up the keyboard and mouse pad added just now and it feels better.

As the parent post to yours suggests, having multiple monitors also helps, and I have three in this setup, and it is nice to switch between them for moving around the neck and so on.

Anyway, the treadmill may be nice, but for the week or so that I was standing just with a drafting desk moved to standing height with three LCD monitors, I felt a big improvement. We also had tall chairs for variety, and also a floor rest for alternating resting feet while standing. The more you can keep moving in various ways and vary your body position while working for a long time, the better. The treadmill is mostly geared towards weight loss in my case. :-)

And I am typing this going half a mile an hour on the treadmill, having just walked about a mile during the two hours I have been web surfing (including reading this slashdot article and replying to this).

Well, except for hopping off the treadmill to give a treat to our two dogs. :-) We work at home, so dogs and workstation customizations are more possible here. Could ergonomics be a push for more home offices?

You're assuming a 'fishing expedition' for any random gene mutation in common, though.

These studies looked specifically at genes that were known to be related to heart problems in adults. CAV3 was recently identified as a genetic cause of long QT syndrome, while RyR2 is linked to catecholaminergic polymorphic ventricular tachycardia (press release).

If these mutations occur at a low baseline rate in the general population, two hits of each may be quite significant. This link indicates that RyR2 mutations are rare in the general population, with a probable incidence of under 1%. (They found no mutations in 200 healthy volunteers having 400 copies of the gene.) I'm not going to dig further for incidence numbers, but I'd bet good money that both RyR2 and CAV3 mutations are rare and that getting two hits of each in a population of 135 is quite unlikely.

Being awake during certain surgeries is not common, but by no means is it unheard of.

http://www.mayoclinic.org/awake-brain-surgery/cand idates.html
http://www.mayoclinic.org/awake-brain-surgery/brai n-mapping.html
http://www.expresshealthcaremgmt.com/20041015/hosp inews03.shtml
http://www.nmff.org/clinicaldepts/deptnewsstory.as p?id=137&page=3
http://www.blonnet.com/2005/06/24/stories/20050624 01531700.htm

In the words of Foamy, "Do a damned Google search!"

Being awake during certain surgeries is not common, but by no means is it unheard of.

http://www.mayoclinic.org/awake-brain-surgery/cand idates.html
http://www.mayoclinic.org/awake-brain-surgery/brai n-mapping.html
http://www.expresshealthcaremgmt.com/20041015/hosp inews03.shtml
http://www.nmff.org/clinicaldepts/deptnewsstory.as p?id=137&page=3
http://www.blonnet.com/2005/06/24/stories/20050624 01531700.htm

In the words of Foamy, "Do a damned Google search!"

For a community that touts their "above average" intelligence, Slashdotters are showing more than just a little ignorance of what depression and mental illness really are. Please, take a look at the Mayo Clinic's Very brief description of depression before you post more uninformed blather.

That being said, the way the research is reported is inflammatory: just because you're 87% (or whatever) more likely to get something doesn't mean that 87% of people will get it. I'm not sure what glaucoma rates are, but assuming it's 1 in 1000 adults, this still means that less than 2 in 1000 heavy computer users will get it.

Sure, the Slashdot crowd will realize that if they stop to think, but I'm thinking the average public won't.

The First World would be much better off if such studies were reported as "2 in 1000 computer users get glaucoma versus 1 in 1000".

Hmmm...quick Googling reveals the actual number for Caucasians is 0.145 per 1000. So I overstated the risk severely in my hypothetical.

The Mayo Clinic came to my mind too. He should get his doctor in Fargo to contact the Mayo clinic, tell them he has to be seen ASAP and don't take no for an answer or let them put him off.

In my experience (our family dealt with a rare infectious disease - Kawasaki's - in which I knew more about it than our doctor thanks to the internet), doctors are fascinated by a chance to treat a rare disease that they don't see too often, esp. at a teaching/research hospital. Get going already!

Being in Fargo, he's only 5 1/2 hours from Rochester, MN, where the Mayo Clinic is. I'm not sure if its warranted, but I've known a few people who have gone there under similar circumstances when all else has failed.

I heard that Botox can actually be used to treat Hyperhydrosis. In looking it up, I came up with this link that mentions it as well as a whole range of other treatment options.

pyxis
Dr. Plummer
Facts

can you tell i was thinking orkut with my links?

There's also a similar condition called hyperhydrosis that some people are seemingly born with or develop at an extremely young age. Like in hyponatraemia, the near-constant sweating can cause both dehydration and unpleasant mineral imbalances. Luckily there are a number of treatments for hyperhydrosis, ranging from surgery down to special OTC anti-persperants like Certain-Dri.

Here at Mayo, we have performed the most RRP's (radical retropubic prostatectomies) than anywhere in the world. We have the largest database of patients that have had them out. So we have some authority to make these recommendations. It was not 1 month ago that the chair of the department, another surgeon and I were discussing this and the conclusion was that for the next year or two we can't offer prostatectomy removal by da vinci and offer the same low degree of complications as you can offer with RRP.

In prostate removal, the primary goal is removavl of the cancer. Secondary goals are preservation of quality of life such as 1)continence - the ability to control your urine and 2)erections - preservation of the nerve pathways at time of surgery. Since the nerve pathways run past the seminal vesicles directly next to the prostate it requires delicate excision to preserve these. You won't enjoy the same success statistics for quality of life if you have your prostate removed by robot right now.