Guide to Veganism

As friends of mine know, I have changed my diet to “near” vegan for about 6 months now, based on reading and review of data that I had not seen before (but actually has been around for a while).  Since so many people have asked me, and then want some place to go, I’m creating this post so I can refer people later.

Documentary:

“Forks over Knives”

This is available as a Netflix stream and plenty of places.  Kinda low budget but interviews and involves the real stalwarts/academics in this field Carl Esselstyn and Colin Campbell.

– there is also a book, which has recipes and a very rough summary of the documentary.  Personally I didn’t find it too worthwhile.  Does have a good set of recipes, though.

Books:

Engine 2 Diet –

http://engine2diet.com/

– A good place to get started, with recipes, shopping lists, and strategies in restaurants.  Particularly good place to start for people who are younger, reasonably healthy and do not have any major medical problems (yet).

Esselstyn’s book:

http://www.heartattackproof.com/

Has clinical experience of decades of controlling many of the heart attack and stroke risks in patient after their first heart attack.

Colin Campbell’s Book:

http://www.thechinastudy.com/

– A real review of the science of nutrition, and talks extensively about the association of Meat based proteins (particularly milk) and cancer.  This is probably the “bible” of nutrition, with some 400+ reference from peer reviewed journal articles.  I have heard that it is still very readable, but I can’t vouch for it since I have a background in epidemiology.  That said, I will say that the material is very well grounded.

What I do:

Based on data outlined in a number of the above books, I am, “mostly vegan,” which means I eat meat/dairy/fish in my meals once a week.  I also make a reasonable effort to avoid, but don’t sweat the small amount of non-vegan products found in most breads and baked goods.  (cakes and such are not healthy, whether vegan or not!).  This meets my goal of staying “less than 5%” animal protein.  I also take B12 vitamins on occasion (generally about once or twice a week when I remember), which I think should be more than enough since I am not strictly vegan anyway.

Hope this helps someone out in the interwebs!

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Surviving the Winter – Colds, Flu, and other Virii

Yup, I finally made a page. I got tired to saying the same things over and over again during the winter time.

Patient Instructions for Viral Infections

Other References:

• Uptodate – Patient Info: Colds in Adults
• Uptodate – Patient Info: Colds in Children
• WebMD – Cold and Flu Center

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Lipozene

 Lipozene is making TV commerical rounds lately.  Personally, I get annoyed with all the consumer marketing, even for legit drugs from legit companies (who then market it for a bit more than pure legit purpose).

The Lipozene commericals have all the trappings of a consumer trap.  “It’s Easy,”  “Weight Loss Breakthrough!”

I was going to start doing a background search on it, and as it turns out, someone has already done so, and has done a pretty darn good job, so here’s me giving props to James’ Blog and his very on target rant on lipozene.

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Google VP on the state of Medical Informatics

Adam Bosworth, VP of Google recently has posted a few items on their blog regarding health care and the poor information transfer withiin the field.  I can only imagine that Health Informatics must seem truly backwards when one comes from a place like Google.

His first post is here:
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/11/health-care-information-matters.html

And there is a second post, including a link to a transcript of a keynote address regarding this very issue.

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/12/thoughts-on-health-care-continued.html

There are a number of obstacles to overcome, and the technical limitations are only a part of them. The bigger problem is that people working in the field are so fearful of litigation from a privacy breach, especially when it gets released to the “net.”  Some of this is because people are afraid of increased insurance rates, and many of these concerns are legitimate because information is just SO easy to duplicate a million times over once it is digitized.

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NYT: Exercise = Weight Loss, Except When It Doesn’t

A good article in the New York Times regarding exercise and the not-so-simple health effects. I’ll post it for now and comment on it when I get a little more free time…

But for many, whether they say so or not, a desire to lose or control weight is a major motivation. Deciding if exercise is an effective method, though, can be a challenge.

On one hand, you may have heard that exercise is not very useful for knocking off extra pounds, though it helps to maintain weight. Or you may have heard that only weight-bearing exercise — like jogging or brisk walking — can help you lose those unwanted pounds, while activities like swimming and cycling are not helpful as far as weight goes.

At other times you may have wondered why, after you took up activities that were supposed to burn 500 calories a day, you failed to lose that pound a week.

Click More for Complete Article

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Reuters: Stressed? Try singing

A number of people asked me how to beat stress on a recent entry, well I always like to find answers that don’t require much more than common sense.  Medications have their role when indicated as well. 🙂

Singing can certainly relieve stress, but I do wonder what it does to the banker’s co-workers….

From Reuters below:

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How does heat kill you?

Slate’s explainer podcasts are among my favorites, and occasionally including those with medically related questions. This one is on heatstroke. The link to the mp3 can be found here.

The parts directly related to what doctors worry about is here:

Once your core gets above about 104 degrees, you’re in serious danger. High internal temperatures lead to increased pressure in your skull and decreased blood flow to your brain. (Doctors diagnose “heatstroke” when the heat starts to affect your central nervous system.) Damaged tissue may also enter your bloodstream and lead to kidney failure. Very high internal temperatures—like 120 degrees—can destroy the cells in your body through direct heat damage.

The other parts are good too. Listen or Read!

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Watch out for the Heat!

Heat Index reached 102 degrees today, so stay hydrated!

For you crazies who are still trying to work out, check out some tips here from Lifehacker. How to Exercise in the Heat.

For example, don’t go drinking alcohol until you pass out somewhere that is unprotected from the sun during the day.

You might end up in Elmhurst Hospital ER with a temperature of 108.

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Healthy Ice Cream?

From our friends at the New York Times:

(Given that links sometimes die, i’m posting a copy of the entire article).

p.s. I will vouch for the fact that the slow churned ice cream is excellent.

The article is reproduced below:

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