August 17, 2005
bwaahahahaHA *cough*
Day two without the need for an inhaler! Sweet.
When I feel cough-tastic, I drink water. The result is having to pee a lot but that's not a bad thing. Mm, water!
In response to Allen's comment in the previous entry, I don't have health insurance. I think. Yeah, OOPS. I have to admit, I haven't thought about it, but obviously it's my parent's decision. In response to this other thing:
Even if you decide not to take any of the vile modern medication, it still helps to know what is wrong in the first place. What's a visit to the doctor going to do?
A visit to the doctor will get me asthma medication. As for finding out what's wrong, I highly doubt I'd find out. That is, find out the actual cause of my asthma from when I was a baby since there are a bunch of different possible causes. A doctor could probably tell me how to make my asthma better or not make it worse, but I think that's general information I could find myself by doing a little research. Or maybe they'd just give me the prescription.
One thing that freaks me out about health (I'm interested in nutrition and medicine but I wouldn't want to go into either field) is the great amount of conflicting information. If I think one thing is truthful, I can find another opposing viewpoint. One of my course books last year, Taking Sides, is a compilation of opposing viewpoints on food related topics (very interesting, I'd recommend it).
Maybe there's no point in expressing my views on health and nutrition; you could easily find something that says I'm wrong. When I used to frequent raw food websites, I'd find forums and messages from people touting the benefits of raw food while other sites declared the diet unhealthy and dangerous. Macrobiotics and the raw food diet are oppositional in that macrobiotics largely recommends eating cooked food while the latter clearly doesn't. How can one be the absolute truth? (If you want my opinion, I'd lean more towards raw food than macrobiotics, but somewhere in the middle of the two would be nice.)
Is it safe to say that sometimes there just isn't a single rule that can be applied to everyone? And sometimes there is? How vague can I get? Would you like to see more question marks? YAY, EXCESSIVE QUESTION MARKS???
Good god, what am I talking about? Um. I'm going to go on a tangent of not necessarily well researched opinion... [TANGENT WARNING]
I'm skeptical of some alternative medicine, but for the most part I think it is/can be less harmful than conventional medicine. However, unless someone ponies up massive buckets of money, not enough research can be done to give alternative medicine enough credibility to, say, make it less alternative. I'm not saying all alternative medicine works, but surely some of it can help people in better, less costly ways than conventional medicine. I know our society/economy depends on sick people (health industry = a gazillion $$$; you can look it up) but healthy productive people must be beneficial too. Just not so much for drug companies.
I think Drug companies could do great things with the power and money they have. Same thing with Monsanto (wow, their website looks so peachy and bright). I'm not saying that drug companies or Monsanto have done nothing to help society, but in the end, who do they answer to? Sick people? Shareholders? ATTACK OF THE QUESTION MARKS??? LOOK HOW BIASED I AM?
This is just a blog entry so I'm not going to spent a week writing an essay. I'm just spurting out random junk and trying to look at things from different angles. So to clarify, THIS IS BRAIN GOO and I'm not looking out to pick a fight about medical and health related issues.
...I don't like Monsanto. How many people do? For fun I googled "I love Monsanto" and came up with an anti-Monsanto post. Haha.
Something interesting I came across: HonestFoodGuide.org. I don't agree with ALL of it, but most of it is irrefutable (donuts are bad, doh!). I don't agree that red meat necessarily equates to DISEASE and that soy protein will make you a raw of healthy sunshine. Also, I can tell you that I would NOT be happy if I had to exclude all added sugars from my diet. Although being unhealthy will probably result in not-super-happiness, being healthy doesn't necessarily result in happiness either. SUCKS, EH?
YOU JUST CAN'T WIN! HEEHEE!
I'm not sure what to think of the Health Ranger. I mean, the name makes me laugh a little. Interesting website, some good points, a reasonable way to make money ("Now of course, Truth Publishing does have bills to pay, as do I. So there are some things for sale: books and information"). I don't agree with everything but I thought I'd point it out.
It'd be cool if there were a website about nutrition and health issues like Adbusters is about...everything. (I used to be a cover-to-cover reader of Adbusters but after a while I felt like I was reading the same thing over and over again. The most interesting parts were usually letters from readers, in my opinion.) Or is there one as big as Adbusters? (I guess it'd be hard to be as big as Adbusters since Adbusters incorporates all kinds of issues, including those related to health, food, etc.)
Another website I came across today: Quackwatch. The website is a mess to navigate, but you can search for specific things. It debunks issues related to alternative medicine, dieting, drugs with no scientific backing, etc. Interesting to poke around.
For some fun, here are INSANELY cute illustrated Korean food photos. [via Drawn!]
An interesting blog: The Angry Asthma Mama. My asthma is NOTHING compared to this woman's son and it was never that bad when I was his age. I wish the best of health to her son.
Unrelated cuteness: BUBBLES THE BEANIE BUDDY, I love youuu!
This entry took approximately five gazillion hours to write. Dammit!
Oh, I didn't talk about what I ate yet. Lunch consisted of 8 ounces of plain yogurt (yup, it's a lot) sweetened with raw honey, a pluot, a peach, and a quarter of a 3.5 ounce bar of 40% Valrhona chocolate (mm, I love good milk chocolate...and any chocolate for that matter). For dinner I made some funky potato, onion and scrambled egg mess (it was supposed to be an omelette but it stuck to the pan), a peach, and another quarter of the chocolate bar (I LIKE MY SUGAR, alright?). It was a lot of food for one day considering I spent the entire day at home with almost no physical movement. Seriously, I didn't even change out of my pjs. NJ is dangerous to my health.
I'm going to Minado tomorrow. Even though their selling point is sushi, their vegetables are amazin'. THAT'S WHAT I WAAANT.
Time for bed.
Posted by roboppy at 1:56 AM
Comments (5)
I think the best part about the Health Ranger is that he even became a "super learning machine"! Whoah!
Posted by: molly at August 17, 2005 1:35 PM [#]
While there's a lot of anti-Monsanto sentiment out there, I think your quick judgement of them is misplaced. Monsanto use to be a bulk chemical manufacturer. In the 90's they've began to slowly move to biotech, but mostly in terms of seed production. Monsanto was never a speciality type of company like Merck or Baxter. They'll always mass produce. That's their way.
If you have some grips about the current pharmaceutical industry, you should look up other companies like Amgen or Genetech.
BTW, as for a raw food diet, what's your daily protein intake? How are you able to suppliment that? With nuts/beans? But isn't roasted nuts/legumes essentally "cooked". Only raw protein intake I could think of was sushi or protein shakes. But that could get expensive fast.
Sorry for the long comment, but usually your blogs are about food, not the industry that I know a bit about. =)
Posted by: Wei-yang Wu at August 17, 2005 2:42 PM [#]
Wow, this is actually more informative than I would have ever expected.
Well, I guess if that's the case, I guess just do whatever you think is best.
Posted by: Allen Wong at August 17, 2005 11:47 PM [#]
advair, its all about advair.
Posted by: josh at August 19, 2005 1:02 AM [#]
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If you comment under your business's name, I will unpublish your comment. I'll unpublish anything that looks overly self-promotional or doesn't appear to be from a real human. This only applies to 0.5% of you guys; as for the rest of you, stay awesome.
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I'm like you in that my asthma has a thousand and one triggers. Whether it be dust, new environment, extreme temperatures, chocolate (the best!) or even a mild albeit brief panic attack - I'm just glad to know several things. Always have water on hand, that'll help filter out the ickies, steam helps, and if all else fails self-medicate!
Good luck, like your blog!
Posted by: mare at August 17, 2005 12:13 PM [#]