FRIDAY FAST ONES

1.)  What is your Food Spirit Animal?  Mine is Sriracha:

Just like Sriracha, you are spicy, exotic, and sassy. You likely have a sarcastic sense of humor, and are well-cultured. The only think you like better than traveling the world is going on crazy adventures along the way.

Check out the quiz for yours here.

2.)  According to a Public Policy Polling survey, 29 percent of Louisiana Republicans say President Obama is more to blame for the botched executive branch response to Hurricane Katrina while just 28 percent blamed George W. Bush. A plurality of 44 percent said they were unsure who was more responsible, even though Hurricane Katrina occurred over three years before Obama entered the presidency when he was still a freshman Senator.

Sigh.

3.)  New research finds that copper in amounts readily found in our drinking water, the foods we eat and the vitamin supplements we take likely plays a key role in initiating and fueling the abnormal protein build-up and brain inflammation that are hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease.

The LA times article  outlines the study and findings.  I can't help but recall that in the late 1990's everyone was getting rid of their aluminum pots and pans, not buying deodorant,  baking soda and other products which had aluminum in them because the scientist thought aluminum was the culprit behind Alzheimer's.

Another article I read today said poor food choices caused the disease.  

Sometimes I think these studies should not be reported while still in progress.

DRUGS OR THE NEEDLE

I chose the needle.  The option to deal with the pain gone wild through my lower back, down and round my leg causing  one or a number of simultaneous combinations of:   numbness, tingling, pins and needles and shooting, searing pain.  

For nearly 2 weeks I have been drugged with little or no effect.  The muscle relaxer I was told to take only at night because it caused drowsiness did not cause drowsiness, nor did it relax my muscles.  If my dose of Vicodin is what "Dr. House" takes I can understand why he pops them so frequently because it did nothing to dull my pain. The fact that I could get high dosage Advil for a 5 buck co-pay was a good buy, though.

I rested 5 days, went to work for 3 and was back to bed for 4 more days.  The nest step was prednisone but the side-effects freaked me out and it would take days for it to knock down the pain.  The other option was the epidural cortisone injection. 

One shot, back to work the next day.  Not healed - I will still have to be careful and rest and do my back exercises.  If this whole drama doesn't get me back to the gym regularly, nothing ever will.

FRIDAY FAST ONES

1.)  Between the time Ally was accepted to SFSU and the time we pay her first tuition payment next month, the tuition has gone up 22%.

2.)  Zac will be coming home this weekend to attend a wedding - the first of their high school crowd to tie the knot.  His old friend will be staying at the hotel for their honeymoon night, so I will get to see the newlyweds when they check-in.

3.)  Ally and her friends have had their tickets for the midnight showing of the last Harry Potter movie for weeks.  Did that stop them from going to the theater and waiting in line for 15 hours?  No it did not. 

4.)  When we got our health insurance back, I changed doctors.  The new doc asked me to do some blood work which I was putting off until this week.  I was worried that it might be bad, so imagine my surprise to see that all the results were really positive.  Next up -  a mammogram.

5.)  I know I say this every season it is on, but if you are not watching "So You Think You Can Dance" you are really missing out on a great show.  I have it on TIVO since it airs when I work - and it is even better when you can skip through the commercials!

6.) I was at the checkout in the grocery store and saw this:

Note Christina Hendricks on the top right photo.

Now this is the photo I had seen elsewhere obviously taken the same day:

Pretty obvious that  photoshopping has been done to make her look much bigger.  It sure makes the point that you can't believe anything you see anymore.  If they can subtract - then they can add.  Whatever it takes to make their point.

Enjoy the weekend and hope the photographers are kind!

DOES OPTIMISM MAKE YOU HEALTHY?

A few weeks ago I bookmarked a post about optimism and health. There has been some bad mouthing of looking at the bright side and positive thinking, which I don't really see as the same thing as optimism, anyway.

For instance, I don't think visualizing or making a scrapbook of things I want will bring them my way. I don't think the circumstances around leaving my job last year were "for the best" or for "a higher purpose." It was all pretty crappy and unhappy. On the other hand, I have a husband who supported me in the decision and who has worked even harder to keep us from moving into a tent city.

While I do believe that having a positive outlook is beneficial to ones health, I don't think you can fight cancer with positive thoughts or cause illness with negative ones.

That said, this latest study is interesting to me because I can answer one of their key questions. I will just quote the article here:


Study author Hilary Tindle, "On the one hand it seems intuitively obvious, but we're not there yet in terms of the evidence we need in order to say optimism causes better health outcomes. All we can say now is that optimism is associated with better health outcomes, but without following people over a lifetime, we can't say which came first." It may seem "intuitively obvious" that positive thinking makes you healthier, but it's also pretty obvious that being healthy — or at least responding well to treatment — makes you happier. Some researchers may have figured out how to separate these effects, but it does seem that many studies of positive thinking and illness would suffer from the same problem: wouldn't people who start to get better naturally feel more positive? And, in a more general way, might people who have good jobs, stable finances, and happy relationships feel more optimistic? Might optimism be the result of a good life, not the cause?

I am not going to suggest that I have had a bad life. I have overcome some challenges and I struggle, still, with others. I have never in my life had financial stability and defiantly not in the past 7 years or so. I have been married for 25 years but it has not been an especially happy one, my husband is not an easy guy to live with. My kids are great. We don't have a social life at all so I get lonely. I am overweight and working at being more healthy, a lifelong issue.

I am also a very optimistic person. I believe things will work out. When my daughter had to go to the ER, I knew it would be okay. We just had to go through the tests and see what was going on and it would be fine, and it was. When I have had health issues, I approach them the same way. No fear. No cynicism. Ask questions. Do my own research if I need to.

I can always see the upside to something because it is always there. Our lives, emotions and connections are too complex for everything to be just one thing. As awful as the destruction is in Haiti, I believe the homes and buildings in the country will be rebuilt more safely and that new industry will go in to provide better conditions and living wages because a spotlight has been shown on the country and the amazingly resilient people there.

I disagree that it takes having a "good life" in the terms laid out by this study to be happy and optimistic. I think it comes from inside a person. And if that makes a person heathier - great.

THE PLAN FOR THE NEW YEAR

I have been thinking about the new year coming. I have made decisions - not resolutions, but decisions about how I will make changes. Change is the operative word in the country and for me.

I have started a new blog which can be reached from the sidebar - under the title Feeling Fine in 2009. I am currently laying out my plan and will post follow up entries of my progress - and, if necessary, failures.

If you want to join in - we will make it a group effort!