Saturday, October 28, 2017
Friday, October 6, 2017
Scribbled File Fish: Tioman Island.
Scribbled File Fish: Aluterus scriptus
We were at Tioman Island
We have always been led to believe that bleaching of the world's coral reefs is final proof of global warming. Not quite according to the NOAA:
We have always been led to believe that bleaching of the world's coral reefs is final proof of global warming. Not quite according to the NOAA:
When corals are stressed by changes in conditions such as temperature, light, or nutrients, they expel the symbiotic algae living in their tissues, causing them to turn completely white.
Warmer water temperatures can result in coral bleaching. When water is too warm, corals will expel the algae (zooxanthellae) living in their tissues causing the coral to turn completely white. This is called coral bleaching. When a coral bleaches, it is not dead. Corals can survive a bleaching event, but they are under more stress and are subject to mortality.
In 2005, the U.S. lost half of its coral reefs in the Caribbean in one year due to a massive bleaching event. The warm waters centered around the northern Antilles near the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico expanded southward. Comparison of satellite data from the previous 20 years confirmed that thermal stress from the 2005 event was greater than the previous 20 years combined.
Not all bleaching events are due to warm water.
In January 2010, cold water temperatures in the Florida Keys caused a coral bleaching event that resulted in some coral death. Water temperatures dropped 12.06 degrees Fahrenheit lower than the typical temperatures observed at this time of year. Researchers will evaluate if this cold-stress event will make corals more susceptible to disease in the same way that warmer waters impact corals.
These are doing fine at Tioman Island, 2.8167°N
All photos©2014 Am Ang Zhang
Medicine and Snorkelling: Think outside the box!
The first modern snorkel was invented by none other than Leonardo da Vinci, apparently at the request of the Venetian senate. It consisted of a hollow breathing tube attached to a diver's helmet of leather.
You may wonder why I wrote about snorkels in my book The Cockroach Catcher. The evolution of the snorkel tube makes me think about progress in medicine.
“... In those days we had snorkels that had a Ping Pong ball at the top end – a sort of umbrella handle at the top with the Ping PongBall inside a little cage so that it floated up to stop water coming in. ….
Imagine the shock when we went to the Great Barrier Reef and were given snorkels that bore no resemblance to the ones I used in my childhood. There was no Ping Pong ball in a cage and there was a drain at the bottom. The top was slightly curved with a clever design so that water from waves could not get in. Any water that managed to get in was drained away at the bottom. I looked at it and smiled. One must always question traditional beliefs. We can be blinded by what looks like a most sensible and reasonable approach – Ping Pong ball in a cage. ...
Medical Schools should remember to teach future doctors that without breaking rules and old dogma, no progress would ever be made in medicine....”
My Point is that doctors sometimes need to “think outside the box”.
Snorkelling is one of my favourite hobbies. I find it so relaxing and therapeutic. Slow breathing, say for 15 minutes a day, is now proven to help reduce blood pressure by a clinically significant amount. What better way to do it than in the sea, surrounded by fish and corals?
American Psychiatric Association 2017: Lithium!
Atacama where Lithium is extracted © Am Ang Zhang 2015
Lithium:
The Gift That Keeps on Giving in Psychiatry
At the recent American Psychiatric Association
annual meeting in San Diego Harvard Medical School
Leonardo Tondo, MD, a prominent researcher on
lithium and affective illness, who is on the faculty of McLean Hospital/Harvard
Medical School and the University of Cagliari, Italy, reviewed studies on
lithium's effects for suicide prevention. Ecological studies in this field have
found an association between higher amounts of lithium in the drinking water
and lower suicide rates.
These "high" amounts of lithium are
equivalent to about 1 mg/d of elemental lithium or somewhat more. Conversely,
other studies did not find such an association, but tended to look at areas
where lithium levels are not high (ie, about 0.5 mg/d of elemental lithium or
less). Nonetheless, because these studies are observational, causal
relationships cannot be assumed. It is relevant, though, that lithium has been
causally associated with lower suicide rates in randomized clinical trials of
affective illness, compared with placebo, at standard doses (around 600-1200
mg/d of lithium carbonate).
Many shy away from Lithium not knowing that not prescribing it may actually lead to death by suicide. As such all worries about long term side effects become meaningless.
Will the new generation of psychiatrists come round to Lithium again? How many talented individuals could have been saved by lithium?
APA Nassir Ghaemi, MD MPH
- In psychiatry, our most effective drugs are the old drugs: ECT (1930s), lithium (1950s), MAOIs and TCAs (1950s and 1960s) and clozapine (1970s)
- We haven’t developed a drug that’s more effective than any other drug since the 1970’s
- All we have developed is safer drugs (less side effects), but not more effective
- Dose lithium only once a day, at night
- For patients with bipolar illness, you don’t need a reason to give lithium. You need a reason not to give lithium (Originally by Dr. Frederick K. Goodwin)
Lithium in Tap Water and Suicide Mortality in Japan.
Abstract: Lithium has been used as a mood-stabilizing drug in people with mood disorders. Previous studies have shown that highest levels of suicide mortality rate in Japan Aomori
"Many psychiatric residents have no or limited experience prescribing lithium, largely a reflection of the enormous focus on the newer drugs in educational programs supported by the pharmaceutical industry."
One might ask why there has been such a shift from Lithium.
Could it be the simplicity of the salt that is causing problems for the younger generation of psychiatrists brought up on various neuro-transmitters?
Could it be the fact that Lithium was discovered in Australia? Look at the time it took for Helicobacter pylori to be accepted.
Some felt it has to do with how little money is to be made from Lithium.
One might ask why there has been such a shift from Lithium.
Could it be the simplicity of the salt that is causing problems for the younger generation of psychiatrists brought up on various neuro-transmitters?
Could it be the fact that Lithium was discovered in Australia? Look at the time it took for Helicobacter pylori to be accepted.
Some felt it has to do with how little money is to be made from Lithium.
Related Posts:
Lithium Bipolar and Nanking
Bipolar Disorder in Children
Bipolar and ADHD: Boys and Breasts
Statins-Harvard-Roosevelt
Bipolar Disorder: Biederman Einstein God.
Antipsychotics: Really?
Bipolar and ADHD: Boys and Breasts
Grand Round: Medicine and War
Bipolar Disorder: Lithium-The Aspirin of Psychiatry?
Lithium Bipolar and Nanking
Bipolar Disorder in Children
Bipolar and ADHD: Boys and Breasts
Statins-Harvard-Roosevelt
Bipolar Disorder: Biederman Einstein God.
Antipsychotics: Really?
Bipolar and ADHD: Boys and Breasts
Grand Round: Medicine and War
Bipolar Disorder: Lithium-The Aspirin of Psychiatry?
Thursday, October 5, 2017
2017 Nobel Prize: Learning for Learning’s Sake
Jeffrey C Hall (L), Michael Rosbash (C), Michael W Young (R). (2013 AP file photo)
The
2017 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
Awarded jointly
to
Jeffrey C.
Hall, Michael Rosbash and Michael W. Young
for their discoveries
of molecular mechanisms controlling the circadian rhythm
This year’s prize, in
other words, is a kind of rebuke. Basic science is under siege, particularly in
the United States
But, as the Nobel
committee made clear this morning, the science that informs and occasionally
upends our understanding of human health and disease often comes from
unexpected places. Ohsumi used yeast cells to explore autophagy, but a similar
garbage-disposal system exists in you and me. Similarly, studies of the
circadian rhythm in flies have shed light on the genes and proteins that
synchronize our own bodies with the day; they may lead to treatments for a wide
range of maladies, from jet lag to obesity to heart disease. The joy of science
is to learn for learning’s sake; whatever wondrous insights emerge may then be
used to address the problems that we confront in our daily lives. The message
embedded in today’s Nobel Prize announcement couldn’t come at a better
moment—or a more fraught one.
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Aug 11, 2013 ... This year's Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine goes to Barry Marshall and Robin Warren, who with tenacity and a prepared mind ...
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Jul 26, 2009 ... He was the winner of the Nobel Prize for 2000. In his book In Search Of Memory, he remembered his arrival in New York in 1939 after a year ...
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Oct 5, 2015 ... Three scientists from Ireland , Japan and China have won the Nobel prize in medicine for discoveries that helped doctors fight malaria and ...
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Oct 9, 2008 ... The three winners of the Nobel Prize for chemistry are (from right) Roger Tsien of the University of California, San Diego; Osamu Shimomura, ...
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Mar 3, 2008 ... However, you may be too late to get the Nobel Prize. Rodney Porter in 1972 was awarded the NobelPrize in Medicine for his ground breaking ...
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Wednesday, October 4, 2017
Anorexia Nervosa: Hobson's Choice!
Another Chapter from The Cockroach Catcher. This one too has no reference to Anorexia Nervosa.
©2012 Am Ang Zhang
I
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am sure we all have been asked the great “what if…..” question. I was fortunate enough in my practice to have had some “lucky” breaks.
Given my interest in the very young, now and again we had some strange cases that tested our ingenuity to the limit. No amount of SSRI (Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) would be able to help. Often it was a clear battle of wills, a battle between the consultant and someone barely one sixth his age.
That this particular child had already beaten two adults with a combined age well over ten times hers should have been a clear warning to me on what I was to take on.
The contestant was a little girl nearing five years of age who had developed an addiction to Huggies. Yes, Huggies.
It could well be the success of advertising or it could be the future of the human race, I joked to the nursing staff as the desperate parents agreed that the girl should be admitted to the children’s ward for “nappy withdrawal”.
The problem was simply this. She needed to put on a disposable nappy in order to pass urine, or do No. 1, as she put it. At her age, she required the biggest size available. The cost had been piling up. As it seemed so trivial, the parents never sought help until now when school days were imminent. It would not be possible to contemplate her going to school with nappies.
With our enlightened staff, admission to the paediatric ward was no longer the traumatic experience it used to be. This little girl soon settled in and was promoted to be the No. 1 helper around the ward.
However, whenever she needed to, she helped herself to a nappy, and after performing, took it off and put it in the appropriate bin. She worked that one out in no time at all.
One nil.
I needed to come up with a battle plan quickly. The ward was fast running out of the giant nappies and I had no intention to make a special requisition.
“That is it. I HAVE AN IDEA.”
I found a large clean plastic bag and put all the nappies in it. There were three. I gave it to my opponent and said, “These are the last three and, when you have finished, there will be no more.
Unperturbed she snatched the bag from me as if to say, “Not a problem, doc.”
I went on with the rest of the morning round and went to the clinic.
After the day’s main clinics, I decided to have a peep.
“She used two of the nappies and is now down to the last. She carries it around with her. It is becoming quite a sight.” Sister told me.
Everybody knew I was not going to win this one, but were prepared to see it to the end.
By now she was quite urgent and you could see she was struggling a bit. Her last performance was over three hours ago.
She looked at her nappy, thought about it, and then something curious happened.
She went to her favourite nurse and took her by the hand, “Will you take me?”
She sat on the toilet and passed urine, still holding on to the nappy. There was a sudden cheer from all the mothers. My head was visibly doubling in size.
“Well done!”
Shortly after, Sister took me to the side and asked, “What if she did use the last nappy? What would you have done?”
“Sometimes there just is no what if. You have to do certain thing as if it were the only way.”
Her family went on their planned camping holiday in the South of France and from there they sent a post card.
“Yes! It is still working. We have truly cracked it or you have. Thanks a million. We are all having a lovely time.”
In early 2007, a female astronaut wore a nappy in order to drive non stop to threaten another woman, a rival in love.
No, she was not my patient.
The Cockroach Catcher on Amazon Kindle UK, Amazon Kindle US
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