Alchemy of dentistry (1) Feb 25, 2008
I find it odd that we as an advanced human race have pills to cure serious diseases, vaccinations to prevent them in the first place, and surgeries to fix everything else, yet we still go to strange men in small offices to sit on robotic leather chairs, where we pay to have x-rays shot into our skulls and have our teeth scraped with sharp metal tools, after which we spit blood and schedule an appointment to do it all over again. #health
Presenteeism Feb 14, 2008
Presenteeism is when employees come to work when they're sick, as opposed to absenteeism, which is when employees don't come to work when they're not sick.  The New York Times (via Lifehacker) says you should stay home when you're sick, but I don't.  Unless I'm physically unable to perform the rigorous task of sitting at a computer all day and occasionally walking down the hall to get food or talk with co-workers, I go to work.  And really, the only illness that would make me physically unable to do these things is when I'm puking.  If I have a runny nose, sinus congestion, sore throat, cough, phlegm, or any other standard illness, it's almost never bad enough to make me stay home from work.  I guess I could stay home, what with the ridiculous amount of sick time I accumulate, but if I did, I'd pretty much be doing exactly the same thing as if I went to work:  Computery things.  Plus, by spreading my germs to otherwise healthy people, I'm helping their immune systems develop the necessary antibodies to fight off whatever virus I have.  So really, I'm doing a good thing by going to work sick. #health
Bad back (1) Feb 4, 2008
Apparently, I can no longer laugh in the face of the warning "Lift with your legs, not with your back".  For the first 24 years of my life, I ignored this rule of thumb and saw no ill effects.  I lifted with my back all the time.  Sometimes I would purposely lift things without my legs just to prove how invincible I was. 

However, in the past two months, I've hurt my back bad enough to know that I'm no longer invincible.  For 24 years, I was fine.  Now that I'm 25, it's completely different.  It's all starting to go downhill. #health
Injuries never heal Jan 15, 2008
I think I've convinced myself that injuries never fully heal.  I sprained my ankle when I was a junior in high school (8 years ago).  I did all the proper rehab and was fully healed.  I went on to live a happy and productive (that's questionable) life.  I'm physically active and have regularly done things to test the ability of my healed ankle.  For most activities, I'm fine.  I'm even fine walking along rocky trails in the woods and occasionally twisting my ankle.  But certain things I do have a very specific effect on the exact part of my ankle that was sprained.  It's been 8 years and I've proven myself to be fully recovered, but some things still hurt.  This isn't an isolated incident or injury, and it doesn't only happen with me.  I see it in professional sports all the time.  A player gets injured, recovers, and ends up either re-injuring the same thing or having problems later on down the road.  It also happens with people who can "feel" a storm coming in because their knees or hips ache.  It seems like there's a certain amount of permanent damage done with serious and semi-serious injuries. #health
Medical myths debunked Dec 27, 2007
The British Medical Journal recently exposed seven common medical myths: 
  1. People need to drink eight glasses of water per day
  2. Reading in dim light ruins your eyesight
  3. Shaving makes hair grow back faster or coarser
  4. Eating turkey makes you drowsy
  5. We use only 10 percent of our brains
  6. Hair and fingernails continue to grow after death
  7. Mobile phones are dangerous in hospitals
Some of the reasoning for the debunkage is a little tricky (e.g. stubble appears courser because it doesn't include the taper of normal hair), but otherwise it's pretty interesting. #health
Cracking body parts Dec 18, 2007
Parts of my body that don't seem like they should crack or pop, but do, and on a regular basis: 
  1. Sternum
  2. Collar bone
  3. Tail bone
  4. Eyeball (kidding)
#health
Moral pharmacists (1) Nov 9, 2007
This just in: 
A federal judge has suspended controversial state rules requiring pharmacies to dispense so-called "Plan B" emergency contraceptives, saying the rules appear to unconstitutionally violate pharmacists' freedom of religion.
Forgetting any type of moral objection a person can have towards the morning after pill, abortion, when a life is actually a life, stem cell research, evolution, and any other medical/religious topic you can throw in there, I think it's an absolute travesty that a pharmacist can choose when and when not to fill a customer's prescription.  The system is broken. #health
Pharmacists (2) Oct 31, 2007
Why do pharmacists need to go to school for 6-8 years?  All they do is hand out pills.  You can train a monkey to do that.  I've heard the argument that pharmacists figure out if any new medications will react negatively with ones that are currently being taken.  You can train a monkey to do that too.  The only conceivable reason I can come up with for the existence of pharmacists is that they're older than both monkeys and minimum-wage-earning teenagers, so they're less likely to be bribed or talked into giving away the wrong drugs to the wrong person.  So basically, pharmacists exist because we need mature people to hand out our medication. #health
Prescription drug addiction Sep 5, 2007
I keep reading stories about the vast number of people addicted to prescription drugs.  To be honest, it's not surprising in the least.  We as humans are great at finding ways to enjoy ourselves while simultaneously destroying our bodies. 

But I think it also has something to do with the plethora of billion-dollar drug companies in our country and their legitimate desire to make money.  Companies exist to make a profit, and drug companies happen to do that by inventing drugs.  The problem is, I think their practices are sometimes a little questionable, especially since they're leveraging peoples' health for a profit.  Plus, their advertising is a little overboard.  Walk into any doctor's office in the country; what do you see?  Pens, pads, clipboards, magnets, clocks, and a host of other objects with prescription drug advertising on them.  While these objects are generally trivial and are used merely for promotion and marketing, it's naive to think a doctor can be completely neutral when they're obviously so heavily influenced by drug companies.  In addition to the marketing materials, doctors get all kinds of free samples.  I know this because I've been given a free sample in lieu of a prescription.  I appreciated it because it saved me some money, but it scared me because of how simple it was to obtain. 

Another problem is that doctors have an eager willingness to push pills.  The main reason I hate going to doctors is because they always focus on the symptoms and never on the problem.  Symptoms can be easily eliminated with drugs, and that's what doctors try to give me.  "I'll just give you a cortisone injection and then a prescription for pain killers."  No, idiot, I said my shoulder hurts, which means I should stretch it and exercise, not fill my body with pills so I won't feel any more pain.  I find it hard to believe doctors don't receive some sort of kickback for so readily pushing pills. 

Perhaps it has something to do with many Americans' mindset that simply seeks a quick fix.  They want a drug to lower their cholesterol so they don't have to change their diet.  They want a pill to make them feel better after they get drunk so they can continue getting drunk.  But I also have a hard time believing the overabundance of pills is entirely due to human stupidity and greed. 

I think the cause of prescription drug addiction is some sort of combination of the three:  People are human, humans are stupid, drug companies want money, and doctors want money too. #health
Cadaver Calculator (2) Jul 6, 2007
Because of my age, height, weight, and lack of major surgeries, I just learned this bit of information: 
Congratulations, your dead body is worth $4525!
That's awesome.  From the Cadaver Calculator (via Neatorama). #health