Fever is good

To sell Tylenol/Crocin/Paracetamol  we were brain washed with TV ads telling all how doctors used it in hospitals for fever most commonly. These ads ran for  decades in the 70's, 80's and some in the 90's.

They were very effective, both for the lay public and nurses and doctors.

I tried over many years to break the automatic Tylenol for fever habit but it was too ingrained in all health care providers. Nobody gave it any thought. If they had it would have been natural to question how a mechanism present throughout the human and animal kingdoms was anything but not protective. If they had given it thought it would be easy to believe that fever was good.

That is how holistic practitioners think.

Scientists want proof. Nurses and doctors are supposed to be scientific .

Well proof is evident in the whole animal kingdom as shown in multiple elegant experiments. In humans and animals everything that fights infection works better when our temperature goes up.

Fever is beneficial. It also guides us better than blood tests if we are getting better, and convinces us to stay in bed as our body goes about its job to get us well. Once we lower our fever we are fooled into thinking we are well and rush to take on the world. Till the fever comes back, after all we are still sick.

The elderly infirm and infants tolerate high fever poorly and controlling it in just those circumstances are warranted.

Otherwise let fever alone, rest, stay warm, drink fluids. It will come down over a few hours. It may go up again. Fever most often is highest late at night. I always asked my patients to keep track of their highest fever at night over time as a way to assess improvement over days.

If you just have fever and muscle aches but otherwise feel ok, the above approach is ok. Seek medical care if you have pain anywhere and fever, cough and fever, bad headache and fever, vomiting or diarrhea and fever. Especially if symptoms other than fever progresses.  Height of fever does not help much once beyond 101F.

Cough and chest pain on the side, go in for a chest x ray. Single joint pain and fever go in, Burning in  urine, abdominal pain and fever also needs an evaluation.  Check your symptoms on Google, also to see what is going on in the community for flu activity. And remember live at peace with your bacteria in your colon. Avoid antibiotics if you can. Wait it out, paying attention to symptoms, appetite and just how you feel. Do not be afraid of fever. Wait it out. Hopefully someone is there to pamper you.

Tylenol is toxic, more than most health care practitioners understand.

It should be a no brainer to let fever, a God given natural defense mechanism do its work.

But once we are brain washed we follow without thought.

I know I have tried to change colleagues.

Now trying once again!

Maybe you can spread the word.

Vinod

Tylenol/Crocin, Liver failure, Alcohol, Medication interactions

Fever fights infection. In all species and humans fever is the First line of defence and lowering fever increases mortality.

Frustrating to see how marketing is used to blitz the people of the devloping world from the famous brand names of the corporate world. Be it sugar laden Coke or liver toxic Tylenol/Crocin.

We travelled to Sri Lanka for the first time this winter. it was lovely.
It was sad to see that almost every small shop in the marketplace had a sign selling Crocin. The technique is also rampant in India. The brand du jour pays for the sign and the small shop gets to also display their own name.

Crocin is Tylenol in N America. Acetaminophen and paracetamol are other names. It is sold worldwide.

This commonly used drug is toxic especially when combined with other drugs or alcohol. It's toxicity has been underestimated. Unfortunately most people, doctors being no exception, just assume it is safe and that it can be taken with impunity. The truth is acetaminophen would never be approved by the FDA in the 21 st century.

Few years ago, 4 grams per day was listed in every hospitalized patient s  chart as the safe daily upper limit. Concern of liver toxicity was the reason. Then a few years ago the maximum daily dose in hospital was reduced to 2 grams per day. The maximum dosage is confusing. Read the FDA advisory here. FDA also wants to get rid of Extra Strength 500 mg pills and limit largest Crocin/Tylenol to 325mg. The seller however likes to sell more!

There is real concern for liver toxicity if patients take doses just slightly more than recommended or for more than just a few days. Chronic use depletes glutathione in the liver, essential to our liver's detoxification system.

Adding alcohol to chronic use makes Tylenol much more dangerous. Few know this. Just 2-3 drinks and some Tylenol for a headache could kill you. Destroy your liver.

Besides alcohol other interactions with medications are also dangerous. Thus statins which millions take for cholesterol phobia, the Azoles taken for candida and other fungal infections, and the hidden Tylenol in many pain and fever and sleep aids all make Tylenol the most dangerous liver destroyer for humanity. The numbers are astounding.

Tylenol and asthma is associated!

I avoid Tylenol or limit it to 1 gram a day, never more than 7 days.

And never for fever.
On importance of fever more next week.

E Coli, She coli, He coli, NO ME COLI

Bleach your kitchen counters. Kill all microbes. Is that wise? Let us understand the risks.

Cases of food poisoning have increased since the 70’s. Strawberries, sprouts and now spinach. And green onions. All from mega producers and consumers of millions of pounds yearly of the products.

"In the spring and summer of 1982, McDonald's held a special promotion -- two burgers for the price of one -- that led to the first reported outbreak of E Coli a food-borne bacterial infection that now sweeps the nation with some regularity." McDonald's, Jack in the Box, Schwan, Taco Bell, Taco John ...the beat goes on and on!

Concentration in agriculture processes of meat, dairy and vegetable production and increasing importation of fruits and vegetables from countries with poor hygiene is likely the major reason. "Billions of farm animals are overcrowded in stressful, unsanitary sheds, pens, cages and stalls; no wonder we are increasingly plagued with infectious food-borne diseases. Animal factories are a public health threat. We shouldn't have to cook the crap out of our food." Michael Greger, M.D in the Wall Street Journal.

A second reason is increased use of medicines that shut off the stomach acid. With acid shut off our God given food sterilizer, our strongly acid stomachs, cannot work. Food contaminated with smaller numbers of food poisoning bacteria thus causes disease.

A third reason, especially for the dramatic 500% increase in outbreaks at restaurants, is the poorly
paid workforce at franchise restaurants. This results in rapid turnover, low morale and inadequate training.

The fourth reason is clearly non intuitive. Use of plastic gloves has been pushed at street fairs, restaurants and cafeterias in schools and hospitals,.Our hands have oils on them with natural antibacterial activity. Gloves, machine made, have no such activity. Actually the increased moisture and warmth under the gloves provides a perfect incubator allowing bacteria to thrive. People wearing gloves contaminate them more over time - they itch and scratch the same places that contaminate our ungloved hands. Don't believe me just stand afar and see for yourself.. Gloves give a false sense of security so hand washing is a low priority.

The Solution lies in having a two tier system of regulation in agriculture, food and meat production. One should be for the small scale producer and one for the corporate.mega producer of the same. In
biological systems small mistakes are magnified.

Large scale production should be actively discouraged. ..."half the nation's states now have reported cases of human E. coli 0157:H7 infection,"

Mistakes by small producers have limited impact. Small producers sell locally . Their customers know them. Small producers are directly accountable to the people. Neither the government nor the courts are needed. The small have a healthy regard for power. Large corporations, with their public relation machines and lawyers, do not and have become increasingly unaccountable to the people, their government and the courts.

More regulations have been proposed. "Officials Consider Spinach Labeling Plan"
Regulations only drive the small producer out. In biological systems that is courting disaster.
E.F. Schumacher, Nobel Prize winning author, has written a beautiful book “Small is Beautiful, Economics as if People Mattered"

In the case of food, small indeed is beautiful.
Small has less pesticides,
Small has less antibiotics,
Small has less hormones,
Small is actually cheaper
Small uses less energy..
It is local. It is safer.

Please eat food we know, from people we know.

And handwashing with solid soap and water is all that is needed. The CDC also has other thoughts

Do not get caught up in this media frenzy.
Understand the risks. Read "Eat Your Spinach" by Marc Siegel in the Wall Street Journal Sept 18th.

10,000 people have died in rollovers accidents EACH year for the last 10 as SUV's became popular. That is what we need to regulate not spinach!

E Coli, She coli, He coli, NO ME COLI.

Why we become deaf

I used to love going to India.

But progress came rapidly. Now I go because my family is there. And like others leave the city every chance I get.

Motors,  electric and gasoline took over all aspects of life. Everyone wanted to do everything faster and quiet was owned in common by all so like our clean air was free for all to plunder.

And each year the horns got more in number as well as loudness. The honk of the car became a scream. As noise ( link to noise and health) increased the noise makers became noisier

The old bus horns became the ear splitting air horns.

 The old train whistles became louder. And people became angry?

And more, And more became deaf. WHY. Read this link also.

And a long article in Hindi that I wrote for Rajasthan Patrika when the train whistle at night first got

to me in 2006! Available by email only.

Horn bajaana Gaali dena!

Exercise the bane of modernity

To save knees, bend them & stand while brushing teeth

They are falling. And getting hurt, seriously.

Two did, not too long ago. In Jaipur.

One in the bathroom. One, I believe, on one of the non existent sidewalks common to most of urban India. Others have fallen, too, family and friends, and broken bones.

Those that fall are younger.
Our world may be too flat. Maybe there is too much asphalt, concrete, carpet. Maybe we have forgotten how to balance ourselves. Some have deficiency of B12 our balance vitamin, a problem due to decreased absorption after age 60.

Knee replacements nowadays also are common at 50. We are not as strong. We sit. Every chance we get. But not on the floor. In the car, at work, on the toilet we sit comfortably. Even at prayer meetings, disregarding tradition, more sit on chairs as getting up is too difficult.

The problem likely is that the quadriceps or quads for short, the muscles in the front of our thighs that critically support and protect the knee, are weak. The knees bear more stress and wear out. Vitamin D deficiency may be a problem, more on that another day.

We walk. Some. But walking alone is not enough to make quads and knees strong. Though it does help balance, especially if we walk on uneven ground. Safely.

Momma walked daily all her life, in the park near our ancestral home, till her knees just hurt too much. At 84 she wanted new knees! Papa lived to 92. He loved his garden. Every morning 2 hours on his haunches, hand spading the ground up and down as he moved around. This was his morning till he was 80. His knees strong till he died 12 years later.

For strong quads bend your knees while standing.
Bend your knees as you brush your teeth.
Bend your knees while you shave.
Bend your knees waiting for the train, the bus, the plane.
Bend your knees, supporting your weight. As often as you can.
Bend slightly, gorilla like, holding your weight, slightly spreading the legs might help with balance, and tense your quads. Do this many times a day.

Our quads are our knees. Strong quads save knees. From the surgeon.

As you get stronger quads, in 6 weeks, or 12 if you are older, bend deeper, and hold. Comfortably.
Next walk down steps for 6 weeks, adding more flights weekly. As comfortable, walk up steps.  

The more you do the more you can do.
Use it or loose it.

Remember to bend your knees in prayer.
Faithfully.

Go anywhere everywhere.

They go anywhere. Often they have to as they have no where to go. I am talking about toilets or the lack thereof in India and shit. There must be amazing amounts of shit in the soil, air and water in India.

Did you know that toilets on trains in India drop shit directly down to the open ground below the running train. Billions of Indians shit a gazillion microbes traveling in trains.  And the trains disseminate them widely throughout the land! India has the largest passenger train system in the world.

What about those fancy western style toilets in cities used to flush shit out of site.  Most of that likely goes as untreated sewage into open drains thence to streams and rivers. Everywhere!

Maybe this shit everywhere is the hidden attraction of trips to India. Could it be that subconsciously we want to be exposed to this vast microbial cocktail.

Next time you eat a green leafy salad in India, think of shit.

Because its likely there.