Avian for Baby Boomers - Comment

NOTE : This is another drink your coffee, eat a donut or bowl of granola post and covers different things, somewhat hooked to Avian and a bit for the "older crowd" but certainly applicable to everyone in a sense.

Avian, Dengue, Malaria - and old age - too many variables.

In the "sixties?" there was the line to a song from the Who. Nope, not the World Health Organization, but a kick tush rock band. The song's name (long term memory loss - was - Talkin' About (My Generation). And the line was "Hope I die before I get old." The Beatles were singing "When I'm 64 - you'll be older too." Lennon died of course and so did George, and with Linda's death Paul is looking pretty unhappy, despite his experiment with a young bride. (I should talk-my young bride is pregnant-but I am glad it is so.). There is a point here though. You made it, those of you who share a cup of coffee with me this happy rainy miserable weather day in West Virginia while we wait for the icy roads to start, the snow to fall, and I am wondering today - how many grandchildren, animals, and worst of all choking, coughing, sick people will approach our house - just knock on the door (In West Virginia and I am sure other places; this is not like California or L.A.  -"We'll do lunch") people just show up.

We had been staying with mum-in-law - house sitting - because guess what? EVERYONE in the family is ill. Spooky. Like some S.K. novel. I looked out the window and almost no traffic. Even the hospitals instead of being jammed are strangely empty except for the ERs.

Role call - brother-in-law (heart attack), grandmother (heart attack), 17 people in the family down with "something". Some have fevers, some do not. Some are in hospitals - many are. A few nieces with "mumps". A guy looked at me yesterday with tears in his eyes (now we have a common bond which in West Virginia is truly a bond - a pregnant wife. Now the outsider Californian - I belong) and he said "I have been sick for days. It's some damn allergy or something - ragweed" but I have never had allergies before. I have been coughing and very ill for days."

So in this big mansion (as we call it) some old coal baron's idea of a place to live, I look out from a very upper story window and see a haze of God knows what in the air.  I stopped drinking the water since the great flood when bodies from graveyards were liberated and literally were floating down the streets. What coats your Teflon pans? We drink it.

(Siren sounding in the background). Happens a dozen times or more a day.) This place usually only hits the siren when someone is in serious distress. Someone's heart is either thumping its last or there has been another pile up on the interstate.

The house is empty. I guess in a Pandemic - something brutal out of some horror film, there would be bodies in the streets and a government truck creeping along say "everyone remain calm and stay in your houses - martial law is in effect." Not in Indonesia. They claim they are searching the houses for infected victims of bird flu- house to house. 200,000,000 birds, is a lot of birds to frisk.

Back to Avian and medical topics -

As we approach old age and medical care goes down the ...... and politicians and corporations and insurance companies scurry to find out ways to take the zillion dollars we put into SSI which is - gone and take care of us - how can we ferret out AVIAN from a legion of diseases, food pollution, and I will say the F word - Fat.

I can still get through the bedroom door. But I will not be basking in the California sun with a rock hard abdomen, the picture of health. The CDC recently declared a disaster in West Virginia. Was it Avian? Was it Malaria?
Was it bioterrorism? Nope - it was Fat. It would seem that some obscene % of people have been carefully trained with chemicals that affect your taste buds to love food. We are not talking like - we are talking love. We are talking a religious experience as some succulent favorite we all have as something kicks off the endorphins in our brains and with our new found bigness, we acquire a large host of diseases, heart problems, diabetes, and things we would never even think about being the by product of that last piece of pizza.

(major rant alert)

Point is - we have so many variables that Avian could sneak in our door quite easily and be mixed up with quite a number of diseases. I quit smoking years ago. I survived. But I loved it. I will tell you with no shame, from the first puff in the morning to the last puff at night - despite the fact it was wiping out my lungs and heart - it was a way of life. I loved smoking. At the job or lab (they have gotten militant now - they tried with alcohol, but we all know what happened with that) I had to quit. In ER, they were getting that little tube that goes up the groin into the heart, and (grandmother had this done last week) and I thought of the Who's words "Hope I die before I get old."

Well, 2006 - I say that a lot. Why? Because after 35 years working in the field of medicine it is clear to me our world is infested with disease. Yes it is. I talked with my wife last night concerning 100,000,000 infections of Dengue and I said - "So imagine, like in a rock concert, if they put them all on the Salt Flats in Utah and went up in a chopper and took a picture - it would make the big meetings in Vatican (I have been there) or the  extras in the Ten Commandments look like a low budget grade B movie. Sick people, as far as the eye can see, in every direction.  Problem. This is not Monk wiping his hands and being very neurotic. This is reality.

One in ten people (at least) it may be more like 4 or 5 - are sick right now. They hurt, they go to work sick, they suffer, from IBS, Arthritis, Diabetes, we have some list. And third world? My father used to point at my green beans and talk about the starving people in China. Let's talk, dying people in China. Let's talk - MASSIVE spreading disease and then they turn around and report 200 deaths.  Let's talk - decade long misreporting which we must clear up so we can prepare and deal with the problem.

I was in San Francisco during the coming of AIDS. I went to the "special hospital" to see AIDS patients. Is is worse than ever? Do we have more or less cases than ever. I know they were reporting 326 cases when there were actually 3,000,000+ infections of AIDS. Change the criteria for what is counted, and you will have very little to report.

So... I am wondering.. like some old song "It's nature's way of telling us, something is wrong." Something is. The house is empty (did I say that?) You know how it is - we 'forget' things. Then we read about types of Avian that  get into the brain and people start having a lot of problems.

So, here we are where they rarely test the air or water. I leave on journeys and sometimes I feel better - a lot of symptoms go away. My wife stops sneezing 8 times in a row and our unborn baby stops feeling like she is on a tilt-a-whirl ride.

We Baby Boomers are a little distraught. There have been fibs. Most of us worked hard, and now we have to stack up cans in the basement, huge 5 gallon water containers, and whatever else a Prepper does. Listens to non-Preppers tell them they are "unbalanced."

We worried about nuclear war. That one is not over. But now we face a world where the government may step back and say States - this is your party. You don't want the national guard invading your home turf; we don't have the resources to help you if it happens.

Yes, we are working on vaccines. You realize of course the first 15 million are spoken for. We stockpile Tamiflu and Relenza - and in the words of James Taylor "You can believe if it helps you to sleep.".

I will be a father in February. So, I don't get to run off somewhere and quit. My niece looks up at me and nephews... I am Uncle ..... and they ask me questions. They are not aware of Avian. Less than 1% of America is really really concerned about the Pandemic which most say will never even happen.

It appears the Pandemic will hit the young harder than many of the older ones who have weather worn immune systems "We who have seen many winters."

Just a moment of thought, like when you fish early in the morning and look across the lake and think "This is life.". There are no fish left in some lakes I fished in before. The last week I have not seen a single mosquito. In fact, whatever is in the air and water here, even the bugs are biting the dust.

Thank you all for helping. DO YOU KNOW? - I read this article and it said (and this not a Blog-I know that Albert) but WE are making a difference. It is true. 100%. Politicians, leaders, are being "made aware" of things on sites like this and it is simply too massive to ignore anymore. You are changing history.

Mothers, fathers, the salt of the earth - just posting your concerns and questions and demanding information - you are being heard - finally.
Your letters to congress may be primly answered with  form letters, but the information getting to the masses on the Internet and public outcry of "Pork" as in special projects and concerns about Avian, Dengue, Mumps, AIDS - you are being heard. Millions of hits here. People are reading. People are talking. People in high places are beginning to realize they might survive the newspapers, and the media, but not the Internet. When people come to know, they want to know.. Why? and then - a chill passes through the upper Pantheon of leaders - Who did what?

You are making a difference. So, the Baby Boomers wanted to change the world. And working with youth and the new almost forgotten generations, we can find the same young people we were then deep inside ourselves with hope and determination. I don't need a mirror to tell me who I am or what the real person inside can do to help others. I'm not dead yet.

Coffee's done. Our work has only begun. Keep posting. You would not believe how many and how powerful some of the people are who are reading what you say are.  Watch. People behind the scenes are and paying attention.

Interesting Medclinican.  It makes me wonder if what we do know is only a drop in the ocean to what we don't know. We would have thought it absurd five years ago to think that others in the human race could (or would) deliver such destruction. I'm not sure, even today, I can contemplate that much hatred for the fellow man....so what other monsters may be out there?  Nature, as bad as it can be, doesn't seem to be as destructive to mankind as mankind is to itself.  Can you imagine before 9/11 if you were sitting around...saying something like....what if someone learned to fly a plane....created by me to make a point a plan.....so on and so on?  They probably would have laughed at you, called you crazy for even thinking such a thing. Sorta like most of the reactions we get when we try to warn friends and family about a pandamic.   Then what would have been those same people's reaction after 9/11. Would they still think you crazy? (probably) or wonder why you didn't try to warn someone. What will be their reaction to you if a pandamic does happen and they have done nothing to prepare. Blame you for  not convincing them?  At this point, I would like to say nothing would surprise me about what is going on, what is out there, but it probably would.

 That was a beautiful, sort of stream of conciousness, "essay" that I really enjoyed reading. Thanks![/QUOTE]

I went to the "special hospital" to see AIDS patients. Is is worse than ever? Do we have more or less cases than ever. I know they were reporting 326 cases when there were actually 3,000,000+ infections of AIDS. Change the criteria for what is counted, and you will have very little to report.
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Medclinician,

Dear Med have a question , in the Vietnam thread  a news article states the Vietnam airports to temp test you and if your over 38 deg your to walk off with them for testing  so had a girlfriend visiting , she'd just come back from Bali and is having Menopausal hot flashes , big time , she was sweating feeling faint etc , well the question is if a baby boomer is off overseas , which many are and just at that right time starts hot flushing at the airports what do you think may happen re their testing , I just can't see how we could scream its only my hormones , move along nothing to see here and get away with it . Am I just being hormonal or should I mention this to friends before they leave on their travels. ?  heres a little on it for the guys and too young to know .

Symptoms of hot flushes

Hot flushes (or hot flashes) are a sudden feeling of intense heat over your face and upper body, which is sometimes accompanied by reddening of the skin and sweating. At menopause, when the estrogen is not forthcoming, areas of your brain that regulate your body temperature by controlling the dilation and constriction of blood vessels go haywire. The result are hot flushes. Eight of ten American women experience hot flushes at menopause. Hot flushes tend to occur more often late in the day, after you eat or drink something hot, in hot weather, or at any time of the day when you are tense. For most women, the frequency and intensity of the hot flushes tend to diminish within three to four years. When hot flushes occur during sleep they cause night sweats. These night sweats can be so severe that the bedding can be soaked.

Hot flushes and Asian woman

But here's a really interesting fact: Asian woman are typically one-third is likely as American women to report symptoms and there appears to be an actual difference in the severity and incidence of symptoms. The Japanese language doesn't even have a word for hot flushes. At the very least, this suggests either that hot flushes don't happen in Japan or that they are an extremely mild event.

crystal wrote: MC- you should be a writer! Or, let me correct that - you ARE a writer! That was a beautiful, sort of stream of conciousness, "essay" that I really enjoyed reading. Thanks!

Thanks Crystal and nice to "meet" you. There is data in there, but sometimes I'd rather post it as a "me to you" to the readers here. I enjoy your posts as well, and will write some as I have more time.

mom24kids wrote:  That was a beautiful, sort of stream of conciousness, "essay" that I really enjoyed reading. Thanks!

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Nice to see you on AFF. Thanks for surviving my extra long post.

steve 101 wrote: Medclinician thankyou. very thought provoking and glad someone else can see what i see. Do you have any chemical plants near you?

Up in Ohio we have the mother of all Teflon plants - or a serious one. An entire area was told not to drink the water, bathe in it, cook with it - and there are serious issues with water and environment.

These are complex issues outside the scope of here. I assume there are agencies working on monitoring and enforcing these problems. For the moment, all we medical people can do are treat the causalties.

vstr wrote: Med, I hate to add to your list my friend, but I dont think we can cross nuclear bombs off the list yet. There is Iran, N Korea, and of course the ever talked about suitcase bomb.

In the 60s, I was in high school (I believe) when the Cuban missile crisis hit the news. We waited, listening to the TV, wondering if what we worried about would finally happen.

The ships turned around.

There were no preparations (very little) where I grew up for that kind of war. It was because it was a "this has to remain to horrific for any nation to do" that it will never be done.

Worded cautiously here, it is unfortunate that we now have leaders and groups who after 9/11 we know are capable of using whatever they feel can hurt us. For here, I focus on the disease possibilities. Ironically, to me, that is one we should give as much or more attention than the others.

Thanks med  , was concerned over elevated temp for the blessed hormonial crew , now I can relax knowing they won't be venting the thunder from downunder at international airports as they pass thru , the screening areas. Cheers from Candles