That paralyzing thing called smoking.

I used to smoke. I loved it. I still do. I still smoke every now and again. Never around my children, hell, seldom at home...but I indulge. More often than not, I bum a smoke from a student at school. And it is DELICIOUS. Like chocolate cake...only better, because I won't get fat from it.

But I might get dead...so - alas...I have to quit for real. Probably. Okay, maybe not. I'll probably always be the woman bumming a smoke from a stranger on a bad day. But my avid anti-smoker husband and my dear friend who lost a grandparent to lung cancer don't shame me and so I don't expect you to either, dear reader. What I DO expect from you is that you read on.

In our respiratory tract are cells, teeny, tiny little cells that secrete mucous and have teeny tiny little arms called cilia. These cilia are designed to beat, like fingers waving all in one direction - up....up.....up.......wave.....wave.....wave....
Their function is to catch all the foreign matter we breathe in every day, trap it in the mucous, then push it back up to our mouth through coughing so that we can swallow it and all those nasties can be digested. Harmless. Effective. Sick.

"What does this have to do with anything?"

It so happens that those delicious cigarettes do something pretty ugly to the cilia in the respiratory tract: they paralyze them. Specifically, for several hours. And over time, the chemicals in the smoke destroy the cilia all together.

"So what? I have more."

True, you do. But not for long. Follow me: The average smoker has a cigarette every hour or so - each one of those cigarettes paralyzes quite a few cilia for several hours. This nasty cycle continues for the whole day until the smoker decides it's time for bed. The cilia get a break from all the chemicals (assuming the smoker doesn't smoke in his/her bedroom) and they start to work again....what happens?!? Well, all the particulates, mucous, and general gunk that has been inhaled all day long gets pushed back up to the top of the respiratory tract where it waits for the person to awaken. Guess what happens then??? Smoker's cough!! That's right. You've recovered just enough to get some of that stuff up. Let me ask you, what happens when your cilia can't recover any more? Your cells won't regenerate forever, folks. And when that happens, and make no mistake, it will....that's COPD and emphysema. No bueno.

So do yourself a favor and quit - or at least cut back. Your blood pressure and your teeny tiny friends in your lungs will thank you.

XOXO

Roots

I am often accused of being an elitist. I get it from all sides: my family sometimes (justifiably)questions my burning desire to abandon all the trappings of my childhood. My friends from my bartending years question my desire for a big house and a cushy car and 2 kids and a dog and a homemade pie in the oven. My husband questions my need for drama and pain and poetry and manic scribbling in leather journals I'll never show anyone. In short, I'm constantly seeking something.

I've touched on this before, when I wrote about my friend Vicki telling me I live in the superlative.

I digress.

I have never truly wanted to be away or different from any of the things I've listed above. I have always merely wanted to engage in the world and bring new facets of what I see around me into me. It's like trying to experience everything at one time...and because I so desire new experiences, I appear to always be leaving someone or something behind.

And that's okay. I am a collector of memories. On my deathbed, hopefully many many years from now, I hope to have a rich cache of memories that will distract me from my demise. I sometimes have panic attacks centered around the fact that I love my life so much, I want hundreds of years more to keep living it. I have been so blessed - due in large part to the folks who raised me.

There has always been a burning need inside me to get away from Dwight Mission Road in Sallisaw, Oklahoma. To get the hell out of the place where red clay punctuates farmland and streams are called "branches" and cows and chickens were my playmates. A place where we ground our own corn to make meal - shelled beans on the front porch - watched sunsets, chopped wood, didn't mind the silence. A place where my great grandmother slept with a pistol in her headboard to shoot men or coyotes that threatened her herd. It was a weird, and...I discover, a wonderful life. I miss it.

I NEVER thought I would.

But the stuff I'm made of, the stuff of gardens and prayers and independence and naiveté. The stuff of hell fire and brimstone. The stuff of skinned knees and endless fields of hay. The stuff of women. And babies. And muscadine grapes that I would hide under the vine and eat until my fingers were stained and my belly ached. That's the stuff I miss. And now, the older I get...it's the stuff I so desperately want to show my children.

The crux of the problem is this: the life my husband and I have carved out for ourselves is a life of theater and concrete and museums and art. It's such an amazing life. I cannot figure out how to return to what I was without abandoning what I have become. Because I couldn't have made it here without them, those naive, kind, simple, wonderful people...but I would never want to return for good. Call it elitist if you want, but I will continue collecting my memories.

Why Darwinism Makes Sense

It is likely not a surprise for you to hear that I grew up in an unorthodox way. One of the most grating things about growing up on The Farm was the indoctrination of the people I love. The members of my childhood memories accepted what their pastor and their favorite Right-Wing Fundy politician and their local wise-man said about just about anything. Feeling tired? Try chelation! Don't like paying taxes? No one should have to! Evolution? Blasphemous!

Now, I believe that everyone has a right to his/her own beliefs and that it's important to seek out people who feel and think differently than you do so that your opinions are always well informed and well rounded. In point of fact, I have tons of right wing friends, I listen to Rush Radio, and I spend a good amount of time listening to Fox news...just to make sure that I'm not up to my eyeballs in propaganda and missing the other side of the things I believe in. It's important to be educated.

I told you that to tell you this: Contrary to my upbringing, I have discovered: Evolution is irrefutable (EVOLUTION). And it is ABSOLUTELY NOT IN ANY WAY TIED INTO THEOLOGY. Period. You CAN believe in God and evolution at the same time.

Evolution is defined as the process by which genes in our genome change over time, and is typically applied to entire populations, not individuals. Some of those changes give rise to characteristics that make us better able to survive. When we live longer, we have more kids that have our genes and THEY are better able to survive. Common sense, right?

Here's the problem. We don't live according to Darwin's (Charles Darwin) rules any more. We live in an over-medicated society. Follow me:

Mom A was born with diabetes, slight mental retardation, and a cleft palate.
Dad A was born normal and healthy, but acquired a wicked methamphetamines habit in his late teens.

Mom A stays fat and happy due to our exceptional health care system. She and Dad A meet, have 4 kids who are overweight, constantly exposed to carcinogens, and have sub-standard IQs. They go on to have more kids with other kids who are disadvantaged both socioeconomically and genetically.

Two hundred years ago, hell, a hundred years ago, this wouldn't have happened because Mom A would have 1. died early due to diabetes or 2. been institutionalized for the retardation and prevented from ever meeting Dad A and the 20 some children who are disadvantaged would never have been born.

Now, I'm not advocating genetic cleansing. What I'm trying to point out is that our society isn't giving people the right tools to prevent this sort of thing. Why are we not telling people on state assistance that we will give them help in caring for themselves, but not children and HERE'S SOME FREE BIRTH CONTROL AND A VOUCHER FOR STERILIZATION IF YOU CHOOSE. If they'd like to adopt one of the million children in social services right now, they can do that for free, given that they prove they are fit. It's a two birds with one stone sort of thing. Now, there are problems with this scenario, but they could be worked out.

When I see people with obvious genetic defects, the basest and most clinical side of me PRAYS they'll never procreate. It's just so irresponsible! I know how much people want children. How joyful it is to see your eyes in another...but we have got to start helping people make better choices and meting out consequences for those who don't or our gene pool will continue getting more and more shallow.

Fever

One of my very favorite lessons to teach is the one about general immunology and my favorite rules for keeping you and your family healthy.

It goes like this: When we're born, we have a big juicy set of organs that are full of cells that are REALLY special. These cells are designed to remember all the bad things they encounter. Which brings me to my first set of rules.

1. Let your children get dirty. Not to the point DHS is going to come a'knocking...but grubby. All the memory you're going to make happens in roughly the first ten or so years of life. Hence all those pesky injections. Which brings me to:
2. Jenny McCarthy is a MOTHERFUCKING IDIOT. She makes me twitch. Autism is not caused by vaccines. Period. And if you'd like to see the impact this silicone enhanced twit has incurred click HERE. And if you'd like to watch a slightly less biased video - click HERE.
3. Get your flu shots. They can't hurt, you know? Unless you have an egg allergy, and especially if you're around little ones, get it done.

Now, we all know that memory immunity is all well and good and that pertussis is nasty and we should remember that immunizations only work if greater than 80% of the population get them. What you may not realize is that your immune system wages war in your body every day. Every swollen lymph node is a soldier who has quarantined rogue cells in your body and is seeking out the good cells (the white blood cells) that are perfectly equipped to destroy them. Along that line, your body is also probably releasing some very potent chemicals that cause you to drop an atomic bomb on these bugs that have infiltrated you. That bomb is FEVER.

4. Fever is not the enemy. Microbes grow at the temperature of your body. Elevating that temperature even slightly is tantamount to napalming the germs that are making you sick. If you dose your kid every time he gets a fever with naproxen or acetominophen, you're crippling his body. A good rule of thumb is this: Keep it below 103. Tylenol lowers a temperature by approximately 2-3 degrees. If the fever is at 100 or 101, leave it alone. Push fluids and rest. If it goes above that, dose him/her. If it won't respond to meds, call the doc (a real one, not me, I'm a science type).
5. Keep your ass out of the Emergency Room. That place is full of sick people. Eeep. If your kid or you are having trouble breathing, moving, speaking, or keeping down fluids for more than a day, by all means, go... but fever, as scary as it can be, is not a reason to go to the ER.

That's all for today. I plan on doing more of these. If you like them, let me know. And by the way: I know that I've got some readers who are anti-vaccines. I respect your decision to do with your own body what you will...but I want you to watch the Vaccine War video posted above and look at the baby with pertussis. That child was too young to get vaccinated and contracted the illness from someone who didn't immunize. Is THAT your choice? Really? Just think about it.

You've gotta admire the dedication...

of my friend Lindsey. She's far more organized than I about blogging, and generally has a sunnier disposition. You should follow her: here

Stop by and let her put you in a good mood. I guarantee you'll be a better person for putting her into your life.

Dr. S