No more coffee

During the summer I started drinking coffee again. Before then, I only drank coffee 3-4 times a year (for medicinal purposes only...when I was under the weather). I ended up getting very hooked on coffee. Every Saturday, I got a severe headache at around 11:00 AM because I didn't get my caffeine fix.

Pepsi or other caffeinated drinks didn't help at all. The headache lasted until 30 minutes after drinking a cup of coffee. After about 3 months of this, I decided to wean myself of coffee. Unfortunately, there were no weaning methods that I could find. If I drank even 3/4 of the cup of coffee, my headache came back.

I eventually just toughed it out dealt with a headache for an entire week while I detoxed my body of this horrible drink.

I'm proud to announce that I have not drank coffee in 5 weeks.

YouTube popularity

I was in a meeting yesterday and learned that YouTube is actually the second most popular "search engine."

I did not know YouTube qualified as a search engine. Apparently, if people want information they would rather watch a video about it instead of having to read. Interestingly, After searching for something on google, I usually look things up on YouTube as well. But that's because I have a very limited attention span and I don't like reading.

By the way, Google is still the most popular search engine.

I'm back...I think

Someone convinced me to start blogging again. I think I'll give it another shot. I haven't posted in almost a year. A lot has happened since. I'll keep you posted...

Rock gym

Usman always talks about the benefits of exercise. As a healthcare professional I completely agree with him. Exercise is very important since it reduces the risk of heart disease, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, depression, anxiety, and almost any other serious ailments.

I've been trying very hard to get into a regular exercise routine, but could never stick with it. I got a bike, and I went on some really cool bike trips, but I wasn't getting the workout that I was looking for.

It was even more disturbing when I realized that I was gaining a lot of weight. So I had to do something. Ali got me and a few friends into a rock gym. I was immediately hooked. However, I thought this was just a fad and I would get over it in a month. That wasn't true. The rock gym was actually fun, and I got a workout. It was also great that I was able to go myself and still enjoy myself.

I've been a member of the New Jersey Rock Gym for about 5 months now, and there's no end in sight. I've taken many people with me to check it out, and everyone has said that indoor rock climbing is amazing.

So I invite all of you to come with me to the rock gym. As a first time guest, your admission will be free, and you'll only have to rent the gear, which is pretty inexpensive.

More on rock gyms in the next post.

Ski season

Its almost time to start skiing. Both Camelback and Mountain Creek are offering great deals on life tickets, and in about a month, Camelback will be open for skiing.

Some more good news...looks like Mountain Creek is opening up a few new trails this year which have not been open to other skiers in the past.

Helmets in Connecticut

I was driving through Connecticut this weekend, and saw lots of motorcyclists on the road. After passing up a few motorcyclists, I began noticing something strange. Not a single person was wearing a helmet. I must have passed up at least 20 people on motorcycles while there, and no one was wearing their helmet? There was even a point where a cop passed up a motorcyclist without pulling the person over for not wearing a helmet.

Well apparently, its not required to wear a helmet in Connecticut, unless you're less than 18 years old. Strange. Here's some more information about that:

STATUTE:

Title 14. Motor Vehicles. Use of the Highway by Vehicles. Section 14-249. Protective headgear for motorcyclists and passengers under eighteen years old.

"(a) On and after January 1, 1990, no person under eighteen years of age may operate a motorcycle, as defined in section 14-1, and no person under the age of eighteen may be a passenger on a motorcycle, unless such person is wearing protective headgear of a type which conforms to the minimum specifications established by regulations adopted under subsection (b) of this section. (See "Standards" below.)

(c) . . . Any operator or passenger of a motorcycle or motor-driven cycle who is under eighteen years of age shall at all times, while operating or riding on such motorcycle or motor-driven cycle, wear a protective helmet on his head in an appropriate manner safely secured."

Also, after looking into this a little more, helmets were required in Connecticut prior to 1975. Apparently, "helmets are dangerous in many situations, in that in addition to all the commonly accepted problems, such as vision and hearing impairment, heat retention, and others, the weight and design of most of the traditionally accepted helmet styles make them a serious threat to the neck."

Anyway, here is the New Jersey Law:

STATUTE:

Title 39. Motor Vehicles and Traffic Regulations. Subtitle 1. motor Vehicle and Traffic Laws. Chapter 3. Motor Vehicles. Article 3. Equipment. Section 39:3-76.7. Protective Helmet of Proper Size To Be Worn By Operator and Passenger . . . :

"a. No person shall operate or ride upon a motorcycle unless he wears a securely fitted protective helmet of a size proper for that person and of a type approved by the director. . . ."

Musicogenic epilepsy

I recently learned about musicogenic epilepsy. Pretty interesting form of epilepsy.

Background: Epilepsy is a neurological condition that affects the nervous system. It is also known as a seizure disorder. Other terms often associated with epilepsy are convulsions or convulsive disorders. Epilepsy is usually diagnosed after a person has had at least two seizures that were NOT caused by some known medical condition.

Musicogenic epilepsy is a form of reflex or affective epilepsy, and involves autonomic, behavioral, cognitive, and emotional reactions to selected musical stimuli.

Autonomic - convulsions, eyes rolling back, etc.
Behavioral - feeling sleepy, daydreaming, etc.
Cognitive - experiencing déjà vu
Emotional - feeling unusually sad, angry, etc.

One interesting case I was reading about, was about a girl who starting convulsing whenever she listened to one specific song by Sean Paul. Other songs didn't trigger it, but only that one. She recently underwent surgery and for now, it looks like this issue has resolved.

Epilepsy is a very debilitating disorder, and a disorder that is not fully understood by the medical community. There are lots of treatments for this product on the market, and lots of people have to resort to surgery.

Losing weight with Alli

There's a product that is over the counter (OTC) called Alli. The generic name is orlistat. The campaign for this product is to take Alli along with making some lifestyle changes, which include eating right and talking to your doctor about beginning an exercise program that is right for you. That's good advice....but is Alli right for you?

Orlistat used to be a prescription only item, which makes Alli the only FDA approved OTC weight loss product. The problem I have with this drug is because of its mechanism of action, which results directly in its main side effect.

Alli (like prescription orlistat - Xenical) is supposed to be taken before a meal. It works by...well...I suppose the best way to describe the way it works is to quote the Alli website directly:
"The active ingredient in alli attaches to some of the natural enzymes in the digestive system, preventing them from breaking down about a quarter of the fat you eat."

That doesn't sound so bad. But wait, there's more:
"Undigested fat cannot be absorbed and passes through the body naturally."

So basically, your body doesn't digest/absorb the fat, and you pass it out next time you go to the bathroom. You may be thinking: "SO??? That's not so bad???" But wait...there's more:
"The excess fat is not harmful. In fact, you may recognize it in the toilet as something that looks like the oil on top of a pizza."

WOW!!! That's great advertising.

Also, the main side effect of this product is, oily, fatty stools. And this doesn't happen in a small population. It happens in almost everyone since the fat needs to go somewhere.

Hybrid fuel economy on a non-hybrid car?

Since Usman got is new car, he’s been talking about the amazing fuel efficiency he’s been getting. He credits it to a new driving strategy he learned which puts less strain on his car and therefore uses less fuel.

To measure the his car’s fuel efficiency, he’s relying on the in-dash fuel economy indicator of his car. It got me thinking…I don’t think Usman’s car is really that efficient. It’s performing like the hybrid version of his car would do (which, by the way, costs about $10K more than the non-hybrid version).

So, I started reading about the accuracy of these MPG indicators in the car, and I recommend that Usman do a test to make sure that it is indeed giving the right reading. I doubt VERY much that there is any indicator that will accurately tell you what the actually fuel consumption over a period of time is.

So here’s what I recommend for his next drive to Maryland:
1. Stop at a gas station on the highway when you know you have a nice stretch ahead of you
2. Fill up the tank
3. Reset the trip odometer
4. Drive about 100 miles
5. Fill up the tank again
6. Divide how many gallons you filled up in step 5 into how many miles driven
7. As an extra check for accuracy, use GPS to double check odometer accuracy (which may be off as well)

Let’s see if these results show the same fuel efficiency as Usman claims.

Answer to previous post

In the previous post, I asked if anyone knew why side effect rates were generally higher for patients in the United States vs. patients outside the United States. I got a few interesting reasons why, including this one:

"The U.S. has stricter reporting guidelines, allowing you devils [pharmaceutical companies] to cover-up 'adverse events' in other places?"

This may be hard for Americans to swallow, but the real reason why the rate of reported adverse events is higher is because Americans are complainers. We complain about every little thing, whether its related to the drug treatment or not. Americans always want something to blame for everything and we aren't as tolerant at people outside the United States.

Side effects: US vs. non-US

I was reviewing a few pharmaceutical promotional pieces and noticed that adverse events (side effects) in the patient prescribing information (package insert) were broken out by regions. For a certain side effect, the rates were the following:

United States: 11.7%
Europe/Israel: 2.2%
Europe/South America: 2.7%

Something seemed a little odd. Why were the side effects for this product higher in the US (much higher, in fact) vs. outside the US. I figured that there were perhaps some genotype reasons for this. For instance, certain blood pressure and cholesterol lowering agents are less effective in Japanese men because of a certain genetic component. Or, certain drugs are metabolized differently by Askenazi Jews because they lack a certain protein in their bodies. So, I figured this might have been what happened with the side effects reported.

But then I started looking at side effect rates for other products when broken out by regions and noticed that in the United States the side effects were more often higher (significantly higher) vs. any other part of the world. That was REALLY strange.

So, I checked with a physician and statistician about why they thought this was the case, and they very quickly told me the answer for it.

Any guesses?

California wildfires on google maps

This is a cool feature on Google Maps. You can track the California wildfire that they've been talking about on the news.

Thanks to Fawad for pointing this out.

How much time left before sunset?

I tried this technique and it was pretty accurate in determining how much time there was left before sunset.

Here's what to do:
Find the location of the sun, without looking directly at it.

Place your hand out

Stand sideways on to the sun, raise your arm, then place your hand out as far as you can parallel to the ground.

Count each hand each time you flip (the lines denote hand flip levels)

Start with your hand positioned underneath the horizon.

Count the number of times you have to flip your hand upwards before you see that your hand is sitting just beneath the sun. Each hand width represents about one hour until the sun sets.

Swap to using fingers if there is less than one hour until sunset. Each finger typically represents around 15 minutes.

So, it got me thinking...if it can fairly accurately (within 5 minutes) tell me how much time is left before sunset, can I do the reverse, and tell what time it is just looking at the position of the sun in the sky?

I probably should have posted this AFTER I tested it out. Anyway, if I know what time Maghrib is every day, I should be able to use the same technique, and then subtract the times to find out what the current time is. It makes sense...but only if the sun isn't too high up. I'll test it out this week and post a comment.

iPhones: bad for the environment

Apparently Apple is under fire because the iPhone contains potentially hazardous ingredients. I doubt there is any risk to people by simply using an iPhone. However, I suppose if it was ever to catch fire and the substances inside the iPhone burned up, they may pose some sort of minor risk.

"Greenpeace has disassembled an iPhone to find out what's inside, and claims to have uncovered two types of hazardous substances, some of which: "Have already been eliminated by other mobile phone makers," the organization said.

This analysis claims the iPhone contains toxic brominated compounds (indicating the presence of brominated flame retardants) and hazardous PVC."

Excellent steak spice

I made some lamb chops using Emeril's All Natural Steak Rub (pictured above). I'm going to try it on steak this week. I added a little EVOO, and a good amount of the steak rub and it tasted amazing. I highly recommnend it. I only left the spice on the meat for about 1 hour (in the fridge) and it was long enough for it to give a nice strong flavor.

My only recommendation is to not add any salt (or anything else for that matter, besides the EVOO). The taste is even good if you're desi. So give it a try!