More Americans than ever are obese: CDC

Seen here:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Americans are getting heavier than ever, with more than 26 percent of the population now fully obese, the U.S. government reported on Wednesday.

On the surface, it’s likely a lack of exercise and overeating that has super-sized us. I still shake my head when I see a line of cars dropping off/picking up children at school. On really nice days. No exercise there.

Looking deeper, I see this as part of our society wide increasing time preference – “I want it now” vs. delayed gratification. Choosing to eat right, get a bit of exercise, etc. looks at the long term benefit of being healthy. Over eating because it tastes/feels good right in the moment while disregarding the negative effects is short term thinking. It’s the same process as not saving money, running up credit card balances, and squandering home equity.

Increasing time preference is part of the process of decivilization. Here’s a rather dense link: http://books.google.com/books?id=GbuqsrqKU5kC&pg=PA1&lpg=PA1&dq=decivilization+time+preference+hoppe&source=bl&ots=3MouWmrYGH&sig=VPVti4lgFn8iX2qpeF7v7LmCxc0&hl=en&ei=mRtWSvmvCobqsQPhh630AQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1

Allergy Easy in Science Daily

I’m an allergy sufferer, and I’ve been writing occasionally on my experience with an allery treatment called Allergy Easy. Here’s an article in Science Daily about this kind of allergy treatment, called Sublingual immunotherapy.

Swine Flu: Another Problem with Uncontrolled Borders

I’ve seen a lot of media hand wringing over the latest Thing We All Must Fear, swine flu. Seems like it is coming into the US from Mexico – yet another pathology resulting from this uncontrolled border. From Yahoo News:

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Governments around the world rushed on Sunday to check the spread of a new type of swine flu that has killed up to 81 people in Mexico and infected around a dozen in the United States.

Mexicans huddled in their homes while U.S. hospitals tracked patients with flu symptoms and other countries imposed health checks at airports as the World Health Organization warned the virus had the potential to become a pandemic.

In New Zealand, 10 pupils from an Auckland school party that had returned from Mexico were being treated for influenza symptoms in what health authorities said was a likely case of swine flu, although they added none was seriously ill.

And a rather interesting point:

The new flu strain, a mixture of various swine, bird and human viruses, poses the biggest risk of a large-scale pandemic since avian flu surfaced in 1997, killing several hundred people. A 1968 “Hong Kong” flu pandemic killed about 1 million people globally.

When I read “a mixture of various swine, bird and human viruses“, the paranoid in me wonders if this new virus has been engineered in a lab. Now this would be something to panic about.

And here is a story saying this virus may have sickened children in a New York City school.

Seems this virus spreads fom person to person like seasonal flu. Uncontrolled borders result in movement of people who may be carrying this, and/or other diseases. Not Good.

Prescott – The Worst Place for Allergies

The Daily Courier reports:

Hang onto your hats, folks. The wicked wind isn’t just whipping your hair around, it’s slamming tiny grains of pollen up your nose and making spring allergies even worse than they usually are here in Prescott.

Perched as it is at the junction of three different eco-systems – the Southwest Desert, the Western High Plains and the Western Rocky Mountains – the Prescott area has the dubious distinction of being the worst place in the United States for allergies.

“It’s the worst place, period, (without any) qualifications,” agreed Dr. Richard Zeschke, a Prescott allergist.

I still like it here. While my allergies are bad, I am having less asthma problems here than I did in the Phoenix area as there’s less dust and particulate pollution here. Better to sneeze than to wheeze.

Allergies and My Latest Attempt to Control Them

I’m fortunate to be in pretty good health. My biggest challenge is, and has been, really bad allergies. These are most troublesome in the spring when plants do their sex thing via pollen. I bear them no ill will, they are just doing what their DNA is programmed to do.

In the mid 80’s I had allergy testing done and I took allergy shots for about two years. An inconvenient process involving going to the doctor’s office weekly, getting 2 shots in each arm, and having to wait there 45 minutes after the shots to make sure there’s no bad reaction. These did help quite a bit. After 2 years the benefit plateaued so I discontinued the treatment.

I recently became aware of another option, called Allergy Easy (http://www.allergyeasy.com but this site is almost content free).  In this system the serum is taken orally instead of by injection and one does this at home. Instead of testing with hundreds of allergens and formulating a custom serum for each person, Allergy Easy gives everyone all the allergens. The ones you are allergic to you get desensitized to, the others don’t affect you. Quite a simplification, and as William of Occam said, the simplest solution is the best one. This is much less costly too.

Today I went for my 3 shot test. The nurse gave me 3 injections of the 170 allergen material of varying strengths. As soon as she finished she said “You really are allergic!”. Yes, I knew that. The spots got red and itchy. The doctor measured them after 20 minutes and determined what my starting dose of the serum should be. I went home with 4 bottles, each 5 times stronger than the previous one. I go back to the doctor for a follow up in late February.

I’ll keep readers updated on my experience with Allergy Easy.