2009-12-31

the state of psychiatry on scifri.com

12.18: news.psy/the state of psychiatry on scifri.com:

. the most painful part of the job being the intake or
triage psychiatrist at a major city's mental hospital
was rooting out malingerers (sharks)
Malingering is a medical term that refers to exaggerating
the symptoms of mental or physical disorders
for a variety of "secondary gain" motives,
which may include financial compensation (often tied to fraud);
avoiding school, work or military service;
obtaining drugs; getting lighter criminal sentences;
or simply to attract attention or sympathy.
Legally, it is often referred to as fabricated mental illness
or feigned madness .
-- very common as homelessness or struggles increase .
very bad for patients ? is that a tele'bullying thing?
or just the fact they need to be tight with services?

. one assistant caller noticed that m'illness was catchy,
. when m'ill are packed together they can feed off each other's illnesses
(not a shark-specific problem);
the ref' was to why the doctor needed a break ?
. in her last interview she said she had to break because
of taking care of small children;
at the time I first heard that,
I got the idea her problem was that
she would have this tele'relation with patients
that seemed to follow her to her children's relationship .
. she did have to admit her profession was an ill bunch:
they always have m'ill in self or close relative .

. mdma (ecstasy) may help talk therapy,
and as 1st-line defense in schiz'ic crisis .
. pot and shrooms, too, may have medical potential,
but she points out that the laws affecting rec'drugs
are also inhibiting scientific experimentation
that could disprove these drugs have no medical value .
. the laws are definitely more a fear of the supernatural-religious
than any scientific-medical basis .

. pot could help schiz'ia?
that does mesh well with other data:
things that help a symptom
will tend to cause that symptom during withdrawal .
. often schiz'ic onset occurs shortly after
making a commitment to avoid one's prior life
as are situations of trying to change social class
(esp'ly from a lower to a higher status) .

. what's the best way to get into psych'?
psy.D takes 7yrs, but md with psychopharm specialty takes only 4 .
. another way is medical assistant .

the final prophet

12.20: relig/Islam/the final prophet:
. think it funny for a prophet to claim
he's been told he'll be the final prophet?
after all,
the bible that the prophet respects does record a string of them!
. perhaps the main point was that
the new world really needs only one message:
it seems obvious the first big new message (given by christ)
was that real promises of justice are not mocked;
and then when "(Christians) turn this message
into a cultish military machine
then the final message (given by Islam's Prophet)
is to guide us in the meaning the new message .
. Christ's main concern was not about whether Christ is a god!
rather, it was about getting real justice:
not abusing women, borrowers, or the poor
(children, possessed, mutilated, diseased,
prostituting, tax collecting, ...) .

the statutory rape birth

12.20: rn.relig/christianity/virgin birth:
. skeptics point out that virgin means young girl,
but preacher counters:
the way the term was used then,
young girl implied virgin, as in too young for marriage .
. my counter to the preacher's point
was that the skeptic still has the same result:
virgin implied too young for legal
rather than succeeding at staying legal .
. that, of course, would still be a minor point,
since the glaring delusion of christianity
is to think that something is so just because there are
some authentic writings of people believing it was so .
. who are these believers?
can we cross-examine them now? conveniently not!
. but, of course,
that is a minor point to the central issue:
christian's have a lot of material
that would prove existence of the supernatural,
and of psychological solution to many of our problems;
why are they insisting on fundamentalist
concrete interpretations of the bible
when the symbolic ones are just as useful ?
. why are they making an issue about
god being in the form of man?
. the catholic vision of a one-world religion is
commendable as an approach to world-wide peace,
but tacking on every sort of superstition
just to make everyone feel at home
is hardly doing justice to christ's intended message .

the twisted revelation you were warned about


legumes that are lectin-compatible with your blood type

12.30: web.health/legumes that are lectin-compatible with your blood type:
. mercola keeps referencing the diets that are specific to blood type,
but the theory is honked as a scam by many:
. I found a brief on it:
eg,
. The new blood on the [evolutionary] block,
Type AB combines most of the strengths and weaknesses
of both Type A and Type B.
Chicken and corn has lectins that may render Type Bs
even more susceptible to slow-grow nerve-damaging viruses .
. the lectins of some beans interfere with insulin production:
lentils, garbanzos, pintos and black-eyed peas .

drip-feeding protein along with glucose

12.5: news.health/hormonics/drip-feeding protein along with glucose:
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/50275/title/Amino_acid_recipe_could_be_right_for_long_life
. the addition of essential amino acids to the low-calorie diet
restored egg-laying capacity; but, it also reduced lifespan in the flies.
. adding just the essential amino acid methionine
restored egg-laying without reducing lifespan .
Previously, other researchers had found that reducing methionine
in a normal diet could extend lifespan.
ÒThere's a sort of asymmetry in the relationshipÓ
between methionine levels and calorie counts, Piper says.
ÒWhen food is low, lots of methionine is OK.
When food is high, reducing methionine can lengthen lifespan.Ó
But other researchers who study aging and calorie restriction
aren't so sure that balancing amino acids will have the same effect
in humans and other mammals.
. it really is calorie content that matters for lengthening lifespan .
. previous findings about human response to protein
was that cutting protein could reduce levels of IGF-1, involved in aging
(SN: 10/25/08, p. 17).
. it would be a nearly impossible to experimentally find
the correct amino acid balance for humans,
but human cell investigations are hopeful .

constitutions promoting consensus

12.13: pol/constitution/promoting consensus:
[. we should divide states not only by the constitution one prefers,
but also by issues, so that the states that want a war on
{drugs, christians supporting israel} can themselves pay for such wars;
. this would be a virtual tax state,
whereas the constitutional state would require city-wide approval,
and gated communities would esp'ly be constitution-specific
while cities could have charters that define the range of permitted constitutions .
. the fed constitution would basically say how states define constitution;
with no laws at all .
. what did become fed law -- without constitutional backing --
would simply be the things people could obviously alll agree on,
like the infrastructure projects:
roads, phone, net, finance, and homeland(only) defense .
. that still leaves open
bizarre diff's like slavery and abortion .
. if the fed was designed around negotiation rather than majority
we could have pulled a plan for actually
paying for the slaves we freed .
. abortion is much more subtle and difficult:
there's also a lot of confusion about privacy
the root of most evils -- which both sides cling to .
. we could admit that doctors are not juries,
and every baby deserves a trial by jury;
women deserve a right to health,
and babies deserve euthanasias free from pain .
]

jury duty in the age of internet

rn.pol/jury for misdemeaner is a waste:
. one writer laments how expensive the jury system,
being used even for petty misdemeaners ?
. we need to get all people involved by internet
for easier access to many opinions of those interested in jury duty .
[12.7:
. doing it by internet would let people stay home,
and interact in the process they way they wanted to .
. many people don't listen well,
and they need to have a recording they can replay,
or have it transcribed to text for reading .
. they have some unbelievable fairness rules,
vaguely recall they said not to write any notes down,
as it was important to memorize all the reams of junk they throw at you
and not let notes bias against what you might hear later .
. the jury system I saw reminded of sports
continuing to use umpires when we now have video
. and what kind of justice is served with circumstancial evidence?
this place is planet of the apes .
]