Dr. Peter Breggin: Benzos and Other Sleep Medications: Deadly and Unnecessary
My most recent HuffPost blog, "Xanax Facts and Whitney Houston," looked at how the benzodiazepine Xanax (alprazolam) might have contributed to the singer's death, and reviews many of the hazards of this group of drugs. Since then, a new study has added more warnings about the life-threatening risks of benzodiazepines and closely-related sleep aids. The article in BMJ's Open Access Journal studied the effects of hypnotics on mortality and also specifically on the risk of cancer. The study found that patients receiving any of these drugs for sleep compared to non-users suffered "substantially elevated hazards of dying compared to those with equivalent comorbidity who took no hypnotics." In addition to the increased death rate, there was "an overall cancer increase of 35% among those prescribed high doses." There are always problems in interpreting epidemiological studies, but the data seem valid. The authors drew no firm conclusions about how the medications cause increased mortality.
Evolution -- Charles Darwin &A. R. Wallace
La Promesa de la Serpiente (o la Perturbadora Verdad sobre los Psicodélicos I/II
“Los brujos dicen que la muerte es el único adversario digno que tenemos… la muerte es nuestro retador… La vida es un proceso a través del cual la muerte nos reta… La muerte es la fuerza activa en nosotros. La vida es el escenario. Y en ese escenario hay dos contendientes en todo momento: uno mismo y la muerte… Somos pasivos… Si nos movemos, es sólo cuando sentimos la presión de la muerte.” —Carlos Castaneda, The Power of Silence Cualquiera que haya fumado DMT sabe por qué Terence Mckenna decía que pone los “nudillos blancos”. Lo que sigue en este artículo no está basado en la ciencia dura o en hechos aceptados sobre nuestra química cerebral o corporal y los enteógenos. Como “partículas condensadas de la muerte”, entonces, los enteógenos atacan el sistema nervioso, apuntando a neuronas específicas, no solo del cerebro sino del cuerpo entero, dentro del cual cada vez más sistemas neurológicos están siendo descubiertos (como el corazón y los intestinos). ¿La Revancha Secreta de Gaia?
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
Diagnosis Children mature at different rates and have different personalities, temperaments, and energy levels. Most children get distracted, act impulsively, and struggle to concentrate at one time or another. No single test can diagnose a child as having ADHD. Between them, the referring pediatrician and specialist will determine if a child: Is experiencing undetected seizures that could be associated with other medical conditionsHas a middle ear infection that is causing hearing problemsHas any undetected hearing or vision problemsHas any medical problems that affect thinking and behaviorHas any learning disabilitiesHas anxiety or depression, or other psychiatric problems that might cause ADHD-like symptomsHas been affected by a significant and sudden change, such as the death of a family member, a divorce, or parent's job loss. The specialist also will ask: Are the behaviors excessive and long-term, and do they affect all aspects of the child's life? A learning disability. Treatments
Chocolate Chip Lava Cookies
I am so in love with these darn chocolate lava cookies! What is it about a warm, gooey chocolate chip cookie stuffed with decadent, rich, melted chocolate that makes it so irresistible?? Especially when topped with vanilla ice cream. These are one of Kev’s favorite homemade treats, and he usually asks me to make them at least once a week. All you really need for these fabulous cookies is your favorite cookie dough and a bag of chocolate chips. Since these cookies are absolutely gushing with delicious rich chocolate, my favorite chocolate chips for this recipe are the Hersey’s Milk Chocolate chips. Now let’s make some chocolate lava cookies! Place the flattened cookie dough in the bottom of a well-greased standard sized muffin tin. Now for our gooey, rich milk chocolate filling. Lay the Ziploc bag flat in the microwave, spreading out the chocolate chips in a single layer. Cut a small tip off the Ziploc bag and layer over the cookies. Heaven help me. Now here’s how I like my cookies. 1.
Consciousness
1. History of the issue Questions about the nature of conscious awareness have likely been asked for as long as there have been humans. Nonetheless, some have argued that consciousness as we know it today is a relatively recent historical development that arose sometime after the Homeric era (Jaynes 1974). Although the words “conscious” and “conscience” are used quite differently today, it is likely that the Reformation emphasis on the latter as an inner source of truth played some role in the inward turn so characteristic of the modern reflective view of self. By the beginning of the early modern era in the seventeenth century, consciousness had come full center in thinking about the mind. By the word ‘thought’ (‘pensée’) I understand all that of which we are conscious as operating in us. Later, toward the end of the 17th century, John Locke offered a similar if slightly more qualified claim in An Essay on Human Understanding (1688), Locke's contemporary G.W. 2. Sentience. Wakefulness.
Cranial Nerves
Can't remember the names of the cranial nerves? Here is a handy-dandy mnemonic for you: On Old Olympus Towering Top AFamous Vocal German Viewed Some Hops. The bold letters stand for: olfactory, optic, oculomotor, trochlear, trigeminal, abducens, facial, vestibulocochlear, glossopharyngeal, vagus, spinal accessory, hypoglossal. Still can't remember the cranial nerves?
Error de la base de datos
“And is not He who cures the soul, which is more than the body, greater?” -Paracelsus En español se hace una marcada diferencia entre medicamentos y drogas. Por costumbre las drogas tienen una connotación negativa, más allá de generalmente estar prohíbidas. Los medicamentos en cambio son sustancias cuyo uso es justificado y aceptado, en el supuesto de que si son administrados adecuadamente pueden producir un “bien” para el cuerpo. Las razones que da un organismo como el Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) para clasificar una sustancia como controlada son fundamentalmente dos: que no tiene una aplicación médica y que produce daños a la salud. A veces la etimología nos otorga epifanías —como si hubiera un orden mágico en el origen de las palabras. Empecemos a esbozar una teoría. Si consideramos que el cuerpo y el espíritu (o la mente) son condensaciones indisociables de una misma entidad, entonces debemos reformular nuestra definición de salud. MDMA en Pijama Surf
