Medical stuff

recent posts on my medical blog:

Microwave attacks

stuff from Boingboing and NYtimes about the attacks on the US embassy in Cuba.

The Pill changes Women's brains

again mostly from MSNLifestyle about studies showing cognitive changes that can be measured.

on the other hand, our own hormones can cause PMS etc. so it's not just the pill, and often the alternative to the pill is eight kids.


STD increase: is it because of HIV treatment?

the article got a lot of publicity, but no one is wondering what's behind the increase (and I can't find the original CDC article).

But I speculate:

If you are on treatment for HIV, your viral load goes down and essentially you no longer give it to others.
So I wonder: as word of this gets around in the MSM community, could it be a reason for dropping safe sex practices?

As for the increas in women's infections: You know, we are told we no longer need to do yearly pap smears. But we always checked for chlamydia routinely and then treated all the cases we found (which in women often don't have symptoms). I wonder if this might be behind the increase in this STD.

Two medicines in one pill for high blood pressure (back to the 1980s).
we used to use combintion pills all the time before some "expert" at the FDA in the 1980s told us not to. The problem? People don't want to take a lot of pills, and much of the problem in high blood pressure is because they often forget to take them correctly.

Ebola in Africa.

This time, it's in a war zone so more dangerous, but no one seems to be getting hysterical about it.

Electric Catfish therapy.

from Improbable research....why not? It worked in ancient Egypt...
and there is some evidence that electrical stimulation helps some forms of arthritis.

Hormones and Trans.

a long rambling discussion of the side effects of hormones on folks who take them for various reasons, and also about hormone like substances in the environment...
(this is related to the above one about the pill changing women's brains).