So I will attempt to have little to do with politics today. It makes my blood boil. and I think it raises my blood pressure. I get frustrated and I really don’t enjoy it. I love every minute of it but not the kind of love that causes me to go eat tacos because I love them, it’s more that kind of love that brings you back for one more beating.
I will try and fail drastically to stay away from the statist mutterings of the Republicrats, but I will once again fail. I need a 12 step program. Just as any politican needs a 12 step program for their gluttony, dishonesty, and megalomania, I need one also. Watching these guys laugh when we question why they are so greedy and corrupt profiting off the citizens just pisses me off even more (click here).
So I am now forming Political Junkies Anonymous (PJA). Contact me if you are interested in starting a local chapter in your area.
The idea should be for all political junkies, libertarian, statist, left, right and everything in between. Now the only question is how to have it turn into something more than a battle royal. The Recovering Republicans & Recovering Democrats will hijack the place and force the rest of us to pay dues. We will never agree on what exactly the 12 steps mean or stand for, or how to implement them. We will create a micro-Congress right there in our PJA meeting.
There’s a scientific basis for the winter blahs.(Originated from Knight-Ridder Newspapers)
Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service December 19, 1997 | Isaacs, Barbara Is it any wonder that most of us crave the dazzling twinkle of holiday lights, the flicker of candles and fireplaces? Sunday, the winter solstice, is the darkest day of the year _ we get just a skimpy 9{ hours of daylight.
Light is crucial to our well-being, as vital as food and water. Among other things, sunlight lifts our mood, regulates our sex drive, strengthens our immune system and helps us produce Vitamin D, a key for maintaining teeth and bone.
Light therapy is used to treat everything from psoriasis and eczema, jaundice in newborns, seasonal depression, even certain types of lymphoma and leukemia.
“People feel it, but I don’t think they’re always aware of it,” said Don Giles, about the importance of light. Giles is proprietor of The Medicine Wheel, a Lexington alternative-wellness center. “But prolonged durations without normal sunlight causes a lot of harm to people.” Ancient peoples understood and used some of the healing properties of the sun.
“Egyptians used it to treat vitiligo, in which a person’s skin has patchy white spots,” said Dr. Robert Schosser, chief of dermatology at the University of Kentucky. “That was many years before the birth of Christ.” But photobiology _ how light affects people _ is still being explored by mainstream and alternative practitioners. see here jaundice in newborns
“Ultraviolet light effects the immune system,” Schosser said. “But we’re just beginning to unlock the photobiology of how these things work.” For instance, even though people have long understood the concept of “cabin fever,” it’s only been since the 1980s researchers at the National Institutes of Mental Health documented a strong relationship between latitude and seasonal affective disorder.
What researchers found is the farther north you live in the United States, the more problems arise with SAD and its milder relative, the “winter blues.” It’s estimated 1 percent of South Floridians experience SAD and 7 percent feel the winter blues. Farther north, in Kentucky, 6 percent experience SAD, nearly 14 percent feel winter blues. Highest were North Dakota and Montana, where an estimated 10 percent have SAD and 20 percent feel a milder version.
SAD’s symptoms include feelings of depression, carbohydrate food cravings and longer sleep sessions. In many areas of the United States, there’s a six-hour light difference from the longest day of the year to the shortest.
Dr. John R. Neill, a University of Kentucky psychiatrist, said some people mistakenly think they have SAD because it has been so well publicized.
A week’s trial with a light box can help nail down a diagnosis. Known as full-spectrum bright-light boxes, they radiate non-ultraviolet light. Studies have shown 80 percent of people with SAD respond within four days to treatments of at least a half-hour a day. Users sit about a foot away from the boxes. go to web site jaundice in newborns
SAD is depression solely related to lack of sunlight. Neill said probably more common are people with mild or moderate depression year ’round that worsens a bit in winter.
“The disappearance of sunlight has a tremendous impact on mood and energy,” Neill said.
Some people bypass the doctor altogether and buy light boxes from health-care supply stores or through catalogs.
“There’s no danger in using a light box yourself,” Neill said.
Winter doesn’t have to get far under way before people are looking for the light.
“We’re already getting a lot of calls about them,” said Steve Joyce, home health-care manager for Grogan’s Healthcare Supply of Lexington. They carry two types of light boxes; they cost $425 and $230. Neill said that some insurance companies will reimburse the cost if SAD is diagnosed.
An even lower-cost alternative is to regularly take a daytime walk for 30 to 60 minutes, often the first prescription doctors make to those who feel winter blues. There are benefits even on overcast days, Neill said. Avoid sunglasses or tinted contacts to get the full benefit; 98 percent of sun absorption is through the eyes; 2 percent comes through the skin.
Very fair-skinned people may want to wear a light sunscreen on their faces to avoid sun damage, Schosser said. Also, people who take medications or supplements that heighten sun sensitivity _ St. John’s Wort, diabetes medications, some antibiotics and others _ should use caution.
Light has become a popular treatment for various illnesses.
To treat psoriasis, a disease that causes excess skin and scaling, Schosser uses the medication psoralen in combination with timed ultraviolet-A exposure.
“People take the drug to sensitize them to UVA,” he said. Timed ultraviolet light treatments are also sometimes used to treat severe eczema and other skin diseases.
Babies can benefit. About 15 percent of newborns have jaundice, a temporary, abnormal liver-functioning that causes yellow skin. Short-term light therapy is commonly used; the light rays break down the bilirubin _ the red blood cells’ waste product that causes the yellow color _ from the tissues so the liver can process it.
There’s even a very daunting name for one process _ called “extracorporeal photopheresis” _ in which the body’s blood is run through an ultraviolet light machine. It’s sometimes used on a specific type of lymphoma, Schosser said.
That’s just a few of the uses. Alternative therapies include light use in chiropractic, optometry and more.
In 1990, Jim Concotelli, executive director of the Lexington Wellness Center, even tried “colorpuncture.” That’s where the healing art of acupuncture is combined with the use of colored lights.
“It was more relaxing and soothing,” Concotelli said. “It’s sort of like taking a bath in a well-lit bathroom, it has to do with the ambience that’s provided.” It’s not routinely done in Lexington, but colorpuncturists can be found in larger cities.
Concotelli also teaches and uses color meditation in which each organ or body system has a specific color, which is then visualized and focused on. “A lot of people find it very calming,” he said.
Neill said although such uses of light haven’t been scientifically proved, that doesn’t mean that they have no benefits _ or that they won’t someday be validated in studies. “People want to have a sense of control over their own health,” Neill said. “And we’ve seen a tremendous boom in therapies of all different kinds.” PHOTO will be available from KRT Photo Service, 202-383-6099.
ARCHIVE GRAPHICS (from KRT Graphics Library, 202-383-6064):
ARCHIVE GRAPHICS (from KRT Graphics Library, 202-383-6064):
12/23 E WINTER DEPRESSION 108 x 140 Illustration of the effects of darkness on mood 12/10 WINTER MOOD DISORDER 2X5.5 Explains Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), symptoms; graphs of men and women affected, percentages in northern and southern states.
Distributed by Knight-Ridder/Tribune Information Services.
Isaacs, Barbara
We must admit to God and ourselves that we are powerless over Politics and Statist Tyrants. We must admit that despite our vision for a free society there are megalomaniacs who would rape your grandma for a buck and tell you they did it for compassion.
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