Odds and Ends

Has it indeed been another week! I have to say that I feel more grounded in my studies and caught up with my readings and such. It is a good feeling, except I keep thinking I must have forgotten something. That being said, I found time to read a little here and there and keep a sheet of notes for today, so let us have at it.

A Positive Consequence: One of the older diabetes drugs, i.e. not the one that the FDA has received calls to pull from the market, but metformin, may have another indication. This is popular drug is being studied by scientists at the National Cancer Institute. A preliminary finding in mice shows that those exposed to one of the tobacco specific nitrosamines, nicotine-derived nitrosamine ketone or NNK, associated with lung cancer, do not develop tumors when on this medication. However, I have to call out Reuters for saying in their headline that the diabetes drug may prevent smokers from getting lung cancer because the loudest headline should always be - Stopping Smoking Can Prevent Lung Cancer.

Allergan: Allergan is the company that makes botox and they just got in trouble for one of the things that I am often all in a tizzy over - misleading advertising and physician manipulation. They have agreed to settle and pay hundreds of millions of dollars in fines and or restitution for not only telling us that botox can help with migraines, pain, muscle spasms and cerebral palsy, but health care professionals too. Botox may be approved for additional uses now, but in the past it encouraged (maybe with money) doctors to use the medicine in ways it had not been approved. Off label use is legal but it cannot be marketed. I believe the fees are over 600 million bucks.

RD Club: My campus has a nutrition club and of course I signed up. This weekend I received an email about the first meeting and event. I cannot go to the meeting because of my classes, but the email included a notice that they would be having an ice cream social. Seriously? And you wonder where the freshman 15 come from!

With Regret: Yes, it is with regret that I add these few sentences because what I witnessed was at Walmart and that is where I prefer to shop because I have limited funds and because a lot of people work there and I want them to keep their jobs. This weekend though - darn it - I saw this and just sort of stood there stunned, staring, disappointed and fruitless - meaning - I didn't buy any fruit. I had been at the green beans and didn't get any because mixed into the big batch of them were moldy ones. I then went to the strawberries and grapes and a produce clerk was rearranging the strawberries. Now, it is ALWAYS a challenge to buy these berries, no matter the store. There is almost always containers with darkening or moldy fruit and they never seem to last long once you get them home. So the clerk was pulling the containers forward and making the display neat. I had already been looking for a clean batch and had come across several in very bad shape. To my dismay, they were NOT pulled from the shelf. It was like the person was there to arrange the shelf not to think. As I watched him, sort of dumbfounded, I noticed that he had places on his forearms that were scratched and bloodied. I just sort of stared as I said, and then walked away. Sadly, the next day I went to an upscale grocer and their strawberries and green beans were also turning bad.

Fitness: I think I wrote this word down on my list just to toot my own horn. I have my routine now. Running five days a week, 7-6-8-6-8 if possible, swimming two days, 30 laps but I think tomorrow I am ready to go back to 34, weight training two days and for transportation I am bicycling about 20 - 24 miles a week with a little walking too. I must say that in the last couple days I have started standing up and pedaling on the hills instead of lowering the gear and I am getting stronger. BTW, those spin classes that have you add resistance and stand up - they pay off!