Tag Archive for disease

No Bread for Ducks

April 13, 2019 Comments Off on No Bread for Ducks

You’re at a lake and the ducks come swimming up near you. They must be hungry, and you have that crust of bread….DON’T DO IT!

Bread is bad for ducks because it fills them up but doesn’t give them any nutrition they need from plants. This is especially harmful for baby ducks. By replacing the nutrients they need for healthy growth and substance, bread can cause a permanent wing-deformity that makes baby birds unable to fly and adult birds sick and fat.

Read more in the Popular Science article Why you should never ever feed bread to a duck, then just enjoy the antics of the ducks on your next picnic and know you’re doing what’s best for them.

Uncategorized , , , , , ,

Is Going Gluten-Free a Healthy Choice?

December 21, 2018 Comments Off on Is Going Gluten-Free a Healthy Choice?

“A gluten-free diet is designed specifically for those with celiac disease and a condition known as non-celiac gluten sensitivity,” yet it has become a health fad, with many people convinced it’s the healthiest thing for them. Is that accurate?  If you’ve been diagnosed as unable to process gluten, yes, or if you have headaches, fatigue, and joint pain, maybe (ask your doctor if they’re related).  Otherwise, there are dangers, like getting false results on tests for celiac disease, not finding out (and being able to treat) what is really causing your health problems, deficiencies in the nutrients you need to take in, thinking that a snack food is not bad for you simply because it’s gluten-free, and just trying to avoid gluten when in social situations.

Going gluten-free is costing us millions of dollars annually–much of it spent by people who don’t need to do so. Read Gluten-free diet not healthy for everyone and decide what’s best for YOU.

Uncategorized , , , , , ,

Getting Dirty is a Good Thing

April 2, 2016 Comments Off on Getting Dirty is a Good Thing

As the weather turns nicer, thoughts turn to gardening.  But the soil is even more important than we usually think of it.

 

 

Uncategorized , , , , , , ,

A Tree-Mendous Addition to Our Home

October 27, 2014 Comments Off on A Tree-Mendous Addition to Our Home

I’ve been accused of being a tree-hugger–time and time again.  Maybe that’s why I’m so exited by today’s addition to our home.  I admit, I hug redwoods, my favorite tree, every chance I get. Redwoods are majestic and beautiful, and they feed my love of symbolism.  That’s because redwoods have shallow roots.  They survive and thrive by growing close together and entwining their roots with each other.  That allows them to grow tall and strong.  Therein lies the lesson for human beings.

But the spot I have is for a single tree.  So I planted a Northern Catalpa.  It doesn’t look like much right now:

New Tree

.     .But with TLC and water, it will look like this:

 

 

I’ve been feeling tree-deprived for a long time.  Several years ago our next-door-neighbor got our beautiful street tree condemned and removed, and about five years ago our gorgeous ash in our back yard became diseased and had to go before its 45′ (or so) beauty crashed onto our house.  That left us with no trees.  Now that has changed.  I’m happy again.

 

Uncategorized , , , ,

This New Virus Scares Me

February 25, 2014 2 comments

Polio-like symptoms in California (and Asian and Australian) children…that’s scary, for two reasons.

First, as a polio survivor, I wouldn’t wish it on anyone.  I’ve had a good life but with a good dollop of struggles.  I’m not complaining, just saying that I wish all children to be healthy and free of pain and encumbrances to their daily lives.

Second, I fear for another type of virus that will likely spread–the virus of misinformation.  I can foresee parents learning that all of these California kids had been immunized against polio, then, as often happens, making the illogical leap to say that the immunization caused the disease. From there they’ll refuse to immunize their next child and convince other parents to do the same.  Soon polio (which isn’t really wiped off the face of the Earth) has returned full force, in epidemic form.  Impossible? I wish it were.

That’s why I’m frightened.

 

 

Uncategorized , , ,

Disease and Choice

February 14, 2014 Comments Off on Disease and Choice

Possible measles outbreak at UC Berkeley?  Or even further?  Unbelievable but true.  Because a Berkeley student  who didn’t know he’d been infected (probably while traveling overseas) rode public transportation (BART) around Contra Costa County and interacted with strangers, friends, family, and other students.

Measles is  easily spread and is very serious, often causing pneumonia, brain damage, seizures, or death.  We don’t see it too often anymore in the U.S., though, because so many Americans have been immunized.  But not this young man.

Why not?  There are nine other diseases, besides measles, that are preventable: chickenpox, lockjaw (tetanus), whooping cough, polio, mumps, German measles,hepatitis B, and type B flu.  All it takes is preventative vaccinations, which everyone should have.

But that interferes with my Constitutional rights, my freedom of choice, some will say.  My answer to them is this: protect yourself, and therefore the rest of us, or become a hermit and live somewhere totally away from us.  Now, THAT’S your choice.

 

 

Uncategorized , , ,