Medicine

As a youngster growing up in the little town of Westford, Mass., with a mother who had Parkinson’s Disease but who could function pretty well because she was young, I was afraid of death and told my mother I would invent a magic pill that would keep me alive forever. So I decided to major in chemistry at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute. But after a couple months of frustrations in my Quantitative Analysis class — I just didn’t have the patience to carry out the measurements plus the instructor was horrible — I said “To heck with this!” and switched to physics. After all, physics had been getting a lot of media play, what with the atom bomb and all, and might satisfy another craving I had which was to understand the universe. ha ha Well, I actually ended up as a physicist back in the 1950’s but as the years went on I gradually switched over to more mundane engineering work such as computer simulations of solid state transistors. My childhood dream of a pill to extend life forever had become a long forgotten and silly youthful fantasy.

But wait! Just recently I read where red wine can extend the lifespan of mice dosed with resveratrol, an ingredient of some red wines. In fact the report states that some scientists are already taking resveratrol in capsule form. The report also states that serious scientists have long derided the idea of life-extending elixirs. However, quoting from the report, “the door may now have been opened to drugs that exploit an ancient biological survival mechanism, that of switching the body’s resources from fertility to tissue maintenance. The improved tissue maintenance seems to extend life by cutting down on the degenerative diseases of aging”.

OK, is there still hope for me? And I didn’t even have to work on the magic pill project! ha ha

Today I had a minor operation. I am prone to seborrheic keratoses. Here’s a picture of one. Yuk.

This is not a picture of one of mine which are usually darker and bumpier. I’ve had one above and to the left of my left eye for the last several weeks, and my family physician felt it ought to be “looked at”.

From the Wiki, “The main danger associated with seborrheic keratoses lies in their resemblance to malignant melanomas, which has sometimes led to a misdiagnosis of the cancerous lesions.” The Doc felt a biopsy was in order for this one, and also I felt why not remove the whole thing, for “cosmetic reasons”? Since I take the blood thinner, Coumadin, he recommended that the procedure be done in the hospital, so today at 8am I went into the Stephens Memorial Hospital in Norway, Maine, accompanied by Cynthia, for my minor operation.

It took them an hour to “prep me” which wasn’t that bad even though I had not been allowed to consume any food or water after midnight. The nurse was very pleasant and attractive, and it was good to have Cynthia there with me for chatting and extra care. Finally, the hour for the operation arrived, another nurse appeared and gave me some “happy juice” as a mild sedation, and I was wheeled off to the operating room. It was over in a flash, or so it seemed, and I was wheeled back, given a sweet roll and some coffee, and sent on my way with a list of instructions. Cynthia did the driving even though I felt fine. The stitches come out in four days and soon after that, if not before, I should learn that the keratosis was benign…….

UPDATE: 2/16/2008 Actually the stitches don’t come out until the 22nd. The dressing came off in four days, namely, today. Now an inch and a half long scar with black stitches is visible beside my left eye. Perhaps a black patch would do?

Only this time it’s not a metaphysical mind-body, like I have been wont to talk about in the past, it’s a physical mind-body. The Benson-Henry Institute (BHI) for Mind Body Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital offers their relaxation response for quieting our mind and reducing our stress. Tangible benefits such as reduced blood pressure result. Well, this is all well known. There’s also NCCAM, the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine. But getting back to BHI why don’t I try that relaxation response? Yeah, why don’t I?

I found an interesting science-based discussion of the placebo effect with 18 comments on an interesting blog called Science-Based Medicine. The Q-Ray Ionized Bracelet, claimed to be a cure for chronic pain via the placebo effect, did not impress a judge who threw out the maker’s appeal of the Federal Trade Commission’s finding that the claim of a cure was fraudulent. The author of the article defends the judge’s ruling and goes on to give a pretty thorough discussion of the placebo effect. The comments are quite interesting too.