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Have you ever read or seen anything
that would make you so shocked or amazed that your only reaction is “ohmygawd?”
Well, that’s what this
column is about. It’s usually stuff that’s out of the norm, and there
seems to be a lot of that lately. But you know what? I kind of like it.
Some of it is useless trivia and some is very useful information. So
let’s get to it.
Remember last month’s
column on SARS? Now that the war is wound down, it’s hopped up into one
of the top stories on the news every day, and it’s more serious now.
It’s about to hit the U.S. as predicted. As of now, the cities of
Buffalo and Detroit are on alert for SARS carriers from Canada. It seems
Toronto (their close neighbor) was hit particularly hard with the virus,
and now our border patrols are on special alert. SARS is devastating the
economies of China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and
others —where the cost is in the billions of dollars. This is very
serious. Even the Far East’s largest airline, Cathay Pacific, is in
danger of going bankrupt due to lost business. And the list of casualties
keeps growing.
We’ll keep you updated
on the latest in future columns.
Here’s a very
interesting piece of info that will make your jaw drop. It comes from Time
magazine’s “numbers column” of facts. Did you know that the time it
took to identify the virus that causes SARS was 8 days, but it took 3
years to identify HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. That’s one to really
make you think.
And while we’re talking
about viruses and epidemics, this jaw dropper comes from the Wall Street
Journal. A story out of the Netherlands describes the investigation by
Dutch health officials into the death of a 57 year old veterinarian.
It’s believed that he is the first human victim of a current bird flu
epidemic that is devastating the bird and poultry industry in Europe. As
many as 50 million chickens and turkeys have been slaughtered since the
avian flu struck the region in late February. Officials said that there is
a small possibility the disease could mutate and jump to humans…Do you
think? The Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta has declined to comment.
And now to the lighter
side of “ohmygawd.” CNN had a story that stated that many common
surgeries were really not necessary. I guess it’s the reverse of the old
saying, “when in doubt, take it out.” Not so, anymore.
It seems that some
surgeries, like sinus operations, can do more harm than good. And that
even slicing into the back can speed up the onset of arthritis. Often an
organ that is injured will recover on its own. So instead of having a
kidney removed after a car accident, it’s much better to leave it alone
to recover by itself. The same goes for the liver.
A study at Johns Hopkins
in Baltimore studied 3,000 patients with severe leg and back pain for 2
years. The usual approved treatment would be to give the patients 2 weeks
to feel better, or else face an operation. But in 86% of the injured
patients, they got better on their own. Now it took a much longer time
(1-3 months) to recover, but they did recover. In fact, the longer the
injured person waited, the better. Instead of back or leg surgery, the
patients elected to do exercises to build up strength. The same could be
said for arthritic knees. Anti-inflammatory medicines, weight loss (if
overweight) and exercise help a lot. Surgery is not the only alternative.
Why the big breakthrough? Well, doctors now have such advanced technology
like the CT scan and ultrasound to help monitor the patient much more
closely without resorting to surgery. I bet the insurance companies are
loving this.
From WBOC news in
Salisbury, I learned that obesity is out of control in Delaware. Really?
Take a look around at the shopping malls, grocery stores, restaurants, and
outlets. What do you see? Yes, it ain’t pretty. In fact, years ago I
wrote several columns on the predicament of being overweight or obese in
this state and county. And what are we doing to correct it? Not much,
I’m afraid. We still super-size our meals.
An article in Weight
Watchers magazine stated that our portion sizes just keep growing and
growing. And that keeps us growing and growing. For example, they
described what happened at a little league baseball game. There were angry
coffee customers who were outraged that they were being served their
coffee in 8 oz. cups. Now that’s a standard size serving, folks. These
people were used to their Starbucks 16 or 20 oz. cups. The concession
stand staff was verbally abused by almost everyone for “cheating” them
out of their usual size serving. Like I said, the FDA actually considers 8
fluid ounces of water, coffee, milk, soda, and other beverages as a
standard serving size.
In a study published in
the Journal of the American Medical Association, researchers found that
between 1977 and 1998, the average portion size increased for most of the
popular foods studied, including desserts, salty snacks, soft drinks,
fruit drinks, French fries (Freedom fries!) burgers, tacos and burritos.
And now we have something we call “portion distortion.” Want some
examples? A brownie recipe that appeared in the 1975 edition of Joy of
Cooking yielded 30 servings. The same recipe today yields only 16
servings.
More proof? A 1984 toll
house cookie recipe yielded 100 servings. The same recipe today calls for
60 servings. In 1954, Burger King restaurants offered a burger that
weighed 3.9 oz.—the only size they had. Today, Burger King Whoppers
weigh a whopping 9.9 oz. And Coca Cola doesn’t get off that easily,
either. The only size Coke offered back in 1910 was 6.5 oz. Today, you can
get a Coke that is 34 oz. In 1955, McDonald’s regular (and only) size
fries weighed 2.4 oz. Today the “supersize” fries weigh 7.1 oz.
Are you adding this up?
When we hear the news reports that Delaware—and for that matter the
entire U.S.—is obese, is it any wonder? We eat too much of the wrong
things, and we don’t get enough exercise. The next time you go to the
beach, count how many people are overweight, then count how many are in
shape. Which category do you fit into?
“Ohmygawd.”
Rick
Moore is a personal trainer certified by the American Fitness
Professionals & Associates. Visit him at www.ricksfitness.net,
or call 302-684-0316.
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