The Mimi Lenox Interview

The Queen of Memes herself is coming to visit the Doctor Anonymous Show on Thursday, October 25th, 2007 starting at 10pm Eastern Time. What time will it be where you're at? Well, click here and find out so you can tune in.

As you know, Mimi is the Founder of the Peace Globe Movement and will be having the Blogblast for Peace coming up on Wednesday, November 7th, 2007 (only two weeks away now). We'll be talking about this and a lot more on the upcoming show.

I encourage you to check out her post from Thursday, October 12, 2006 as kind of an insight on how this entire idea started. In addition, Mimi's own post from Tuesday, November 7, 2006 - the first peace globe day. Here's my post as well.

If you haven't already, get your 2007 peace globe right here and place it on your blog - place it on your sidebar - place it anywhere and everywhere. Do it now, before you forget. Tell you friends about it. 

And, while you are personalizing your peace globe, don't forget to join Mimi on the Doctor Anonymous Show on October 25th. We'll be LIVE on internet radio and will be taking your phone calls. Check here tomorrow for more details....

Vibrate to lose weight

I know this probably sounds like an exercise DVD with Jenna Jameson, but I assure you, this real science here. And, no, I'm not an investment partner in the equipment featured above in this youtube link. What am I talking about?

Well, now that the disclaimer is out of the way, here is an article from National Geographic (really). Researchers in New York placed mice on a vibrating platform for 15 minutes a day. The result? These mice developed 28 percent less fat than the mice not receiving this intervention.

Scientists theorize that as the mice developed, the vibrations mimicked muscle activity and induced their stem cells to develop into bone or muscle cells rather than fat cells.

"We're not burning fat or taking fat mice and making them skinny," said lead author Clinton Rubin, a biomedical engineer at the State University of New York, Stony Brook. "We're taking mice who are growing and ... influencing the decision of stem cells [so that they don't] become fat cells."

Uh, yeah. Likely story. I don't believe that. Finally, a way to avoid the gym, eat what I want, and still lose the weight. This sounds too good to be true! Oh yeah, that means it is probably too good to be true. Oh well....

Grand Rounds

Grand Rounds 4.05 is now up and running at PalliMed: A Hospice & Palliative Medicine Blog. The writers of the blog are Drew Rosielle, MD, Christian Sinclair, MD, and Thomas Quinn, APRN, CHPN. This is an interesting blog. I encourage you to check it out.

The theme for this week's GR is "Prognostication." If you don't know what Grand Rounds is, it is a weekly compilation of the best posts from the medical blogosphere that moves to different sites each week. And, who doesn't like reading about medicine and science? Next week, GR moves to Running a Hospital.

Breathalyzer for smokers

Are you a secret smoker? Have you been fooling your family and co-workers into thinking that you're smoke free? Well, your days of secrecy are coming to an end - because of a science project. Yes, that's right, a high school science project.

Ashray Reddy, a sophomore high school student, and his father Dr. S. Reedy presented data at the American College of Chest Physicians meeting in Chicago on Monday. They took a pulse cooximeter, a machine used to identify carbon monoxide in patients and firefighters, to identify if the study subject was a smoker (HealthDay News).

The device, which Reddy said costs $4,000-$5,000, measures the level of carbon monoxide in hemoglobin. It accurately spotted up 95 percent of all smokers when Reddy looked only at those who had a 6 percent or higher level of carbon monoxide.

It will be interesting to see if these results are able to be repeated. If they are, then the ramifications of this are huge. I can see insurance companies using this to see how high your premiums will be if you're identified as a smoker. I see other entities like schools and employers utilizing this machine for their own purposes. Who knew a high school science project could have such wide ranging implications? (image credit)

Professor/Student Love Contract

Now, when I was in college, I always wished that I could date the hot female professor. Isn't that the dream of most male and some female college students? Of course this was taboo and of course it was against the rules. This was part of the thrill of the whole thing, right?

Well, now there is a UCLA professor who is standing up for the professor/student romantic relationship. That's right, boys and girls. Psychology professor Paul R. Abramson, 57, currently on his fourth marriage, in a new book, argues that consenting adults (meaning professors and students) should be able to have a romantic relationship. (LA Times) So much so, that he advocates this:

To allay legal fears, he suggests an alternative: All faculty and students would read and sign a release (a "love contract") that would warn about the power differences and favoritism that can arise from faculty-student dating. They then would promise, as in a medical release, not to hold the school responsible if the romance goes sour.

Uh, yeah. Like that would really work. This "policy" would be in place for about half a semester until the first allegation of rape took place. Universities always like dealing with rape allegations (see: Duke University).

As far as concepts and policies similar to this idea, one only has to look here to the Antioch College Sexual Offense Prevention Policy. Yup, that worked so well it was parodied on SNL (although I couldn't find it on youtube, but it was hilarious!)

Finally, why the picture from The Graduate? (image credit) I don't know. It really doesn't fit with this post. But, oh well. This movie just came to my mind when I was writing this....

Update: Thanks to The Guardian for linking to this post. I really appreciate it!

Another blogger, Dr Anonymous, cheekily included an image of the actor Dustin Hoffman's most famous academic moment, as if to ask, "Are you trying to seduce me, Mr Abramson?"

Mind over matter: Not for cancer?

With illness, we've all heard that if you stay positive and optimistic, that the mind can do powerful things. "Mind Over Matter" is the mantra (image credit). Each of us knows someone or has a story of someone who seemed to "beat the odds," by staying positive and optimistic.

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania released data today about patients with head and neck cancer. Contrary to what is currently believed, the data showed that people who are depressed about their cancer are no more likely to die than people who keep a positive outlook. (Reuters)

The analysis showed that emotional status was not associated with survival rate. A person's emotions were not associated with survival even after taking into account other factors, such as gender, tumor site or disease stage, Coyne and colleagues report in the journal Cancer.

Now don't get me wrong, being optimistic and having a positive attitude has many benefits - particularly for cancer patients. However, unfortunately, given this data, I can no longer give the opinion that I think that antidepressants and psychotherapy have a chance of improving survival or even extending life. Hopefully, further research on this topic will prove otherwise.

The Dashing MD Interview

I'd like to thank the Dashing MD for joining me on Doctor Anonymous Show #10 this evening. He has a great podcast that started during his surgery residency and now he is completing a research fellowship. Following the fellowship, his goal is to become a pediatric surgeon. We also talked briefly talked about the hot topic of MRSA in the news currently, how it was to be in a movie, and his recent trip to New Orleans.

No, that's not the Dashing MD's picture, but thought it may get your attention - Did it? I encourage you to check out his podcast. Don't forget later this week on Thursday, October 25, 2007 at 10pm eastern time. Our guest will be Mimi Lenox and she'll be talking about her Blogblast For Peace. Thanks so much for supporting the show. I really appreciate it!

Epilogue: Dr. A Live #9

The live chat room is really the show within the show. For some reason, the chat room was focused on the Halloween theme - with psychiatrists, no doubt. Pretty funny. Thanks to those of you who made the chat room so much fun! You can either listen to the show via my sidebar, or you can click here to listen through my Dr. A show site.

Thanks so much for all three shrinks from the Shrink Rap blog and My Three Shrinks podcast for calling into the show. That was a pleasant surprise. Clink is even at South Beach right now at a conference and she called us from her hotel balcony (at least that's what she said).

Thanks also to Ladyk73 and Turnbaby for calling into the show. According to the stats, this show had the most live listeners of all the shows that I have done so far. I really appreciate the support that so many people have given the show. Tell your friends; tell your neighbors; tell everybody about the show!

Sunday night, October 21st at 9pm eastern time, there will be a special Sunday edition of the show. Our guest? It will be the one and only Dashing MD from the Dashing MD podcast.

Then in the usual Thursday night timeslot at 10pm eastern - on October 26th - will be Mimi Lenox. The Blogblast for Peace is quickly approaching. We'll be talking about that and other stuff. Have a great weekend, everybody!

Tonight! Dr. A LIVE

Thursday, October 18, 2007 at 10:00pm Eastern Time

Show Link - Chat Room Link - Archive Link

I'm happy to welcome Roy from the My Three Shrinks podcast and the Shrink Rap blog to Doctor Anonymous Live tonight. Read here for more information.

I'm going to try things a little different tonight for the show. I've actually blocked off 60 minutes, so we'll see how that goes. Roy and I will chat for a bit and then I will welcome your phone calls - for questions for Roy, or to talk about anything you like.

The chat room is always "the show within the show." I'll also be distracted by the Indians/Red Sox game tonight. Will I be able to focus? Will the technical problems be able to stay away for this show? How will the sleep deprivation affect me tonight? You'll have to tune in to find out.

Forget stretching

Finally! A study whose results I can get behind. I hate streching. Stretching is for the birds. I hate those people in their ivory exercise towers who preach to me that for a proper workout, one needs to stretch before and after a session.

That's rubbish! And, now there is data to prove this. Researchers at the University of Sydney reviewed ten studies that tried to answer this question. The results have just been published in the prestigious Cochrane database. (WebMD)

The Australian researchers focused only on the ability of stretching to reduce soreness. And if your only reason to stretch is to avoid soreness, [researcher] de Noronha says the review proves "you don't need to go through the hassle because it does not actually work."

All right, I'm going to the gym and telling all those annoyingly perfectly physically fit people out there that I do not need to stretch to avoid soreness. Pshaw! Another myth exposed. But, to really avoid soreness, I just don't exercise? But, if I don't exercise, won't that lead to obesity? Apparently not! Read here.....