"influenza recap"

Another great blog post- http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/?p=3029 on H1N1.

Infant Feeding Surprise

One of my favorite blogs follows new developments in pediatric medicine pretty closely. I cannot recommend her too highly. At any rate she is reporting on a new study that goes against a bunch of the stuff we thought about food allergy development in young children. You can read her post at http://www.kidsdr.com/daily-dose/changes-are-coming-in-infant-feeding-recommendations. One study does not a law make, but the results if verified in other research will change practices a bit. Just thought someone would like to know.

Get-Mas

The so called "war on Christmas" drives me crazy. The e-mails are going around again whining about various organizations wishing "happy holidays" instead of the traditional "Merry Christmas." I see Christians sneer at those who say ''happy holidays" and I hear the snide response "I celebrate Christmas!" and cringe. Even those Christians who sweetly and gently respond make me cringe because they are exposing a poor understanding of history and theology. A catchy and meaningless cry of those who want to "defend" Christmas is "Jesus is the reason for the season." This strange statement assumes that Christmas was invented by or for Jesus. Another meaningless catchphrase is "keep Christ in Christmas" as if Christ was at the origin of Christmas.

Theologically this whole "war on Christmas" is a puzzle. If Christmas is a Christian holy day why do we even allow outsiders to participate much less force them to celebrate our way? Each God-ordained holiday in Scripture required cleansing form the heart out for even outsiders. On top of this, no celebration of Christ's birth is recommended in the Scripture or even referenced as practiced by the early believers, unlike the long-time celebration of Christ's resurrection. More interestingly birth dates have little importance in Scripture as commemoration times. Few people are celebrated for their births as compared to the those who were celebrated for what they did. To declare the common "Jesus is the reason for the season" is also a theological mistake because Jesus is not the reason for this season any more than Shakespeare is the reason for midsummer. Scripture identifies Jesus as one with God the Creator and as such He is not only the Creator of all seasons beyond Christmas, but He is the focus of all seasons. More on this in a moment

Historically Christmas as an important ancient Christian holy day is a legend. "Keep Christ in Christmas" is slightly more silly than insisting on "keep the Easter Bunny in Easter!" While the events of Christ's death and resurrection do somewhat coincide with pagan spring celebrations, it is almost certain that the events of Christ's birth almost certainly did not coincide with pagan winter celebrations. While we can place Christ's resurrection pretty accurately we question the time of Christ's birth, and so we must wonder why December 25th was chosen.

And [De Origine Festorum Christ.] Hospinian speaketh judiciously, when he
saith, that he doth not believe that they who first of all observed the Feast of
Christ’s Nativity in the latter end of December, did it as thinking that Christ
was born in that Month, but because the Heathens Saturnalia was at that time
kept in Rome, and they were willing to have those Pagan Holidays metamorphosed into Christian. Hence December was called Mensis Genialis, the Voluptuous Month.
Whilst the Saturnalian Days lasted, the observers of them were wont to send
Gifts one to another, which therefore Tertullian calls Saturnalitia, and Jerom
giveth them the Name of Saturnalium Sportulae. The like is done by many in
Christmas time. ~"A TESTIMONY Against several Prophane and Superstitious
CUSTOMS, Now Practised by some in New-England, The Evil whereof is evinced from the Holy Scriptures, and from the Writings both of Ancient and Modern Divines."
By Increase Mather, 1687

Rather than keeping Christ in Christmas it seems that Christians have been forever trying to put Christ into some sort of pagan winter celebration. He doesn't exactly fit. I have recently observed that Americans spend more time thinking about the gifts and celebrations that occur using Christ's name than in actually reflecting on the Savior- an indictment on myself and many others with whom I share genes and fellowship. My Wonderful countered that her Aunt Jane certainly did not fit that description, and she is correct, but Wonderful's Aunt Jane also represents the mindset I would want to embody- "Jesus is my reason to live every season."

So, am I going to attempt to outlaw in my home the giving of gifts and decorations that we enjoy this time of year? No. What I want to do is celebrate like my friends in Russia did on their quiet Christmas celebration January 7, 1996. I want to have a special day just for Christ where there is no Santa or reindeer or gifts to distract. I want to have a time for quiet reflection much like we have on Sunday's in our home or Veteran's Day in the US. I want to eventually move the gift-giving to New-Year's day where we can welcome the new year and celebrate the evidences of what God gave us in the old year. I don't know if this all will happen in our home, but this is my wish. Oh, and don't mention the war on Christmas to me. I don't hear "Christmas" anymore but it sounds like "Get-mas" in my ears.

Cancer Prevention

I have fought a constant battle with weight since I turned 21 because I feel that I am at high risk for lots of nasty things like diabetes, heart disease and cancer. Research in the recent past has led me to believe that being overweight is associated with increased risk of those things I mentioned above. One thing to think about is that just because two things happen together don't mean one caused the other. My favorite example of this is pickle toxicity- just about every American who died in a car crash last year ate at least one pickle in the prior 12 months. The pickle obviously had nothing to do with the risk of death but the above statement is still true. The pickle example illustrates the fact that just because two things happen together should not lead one to believe that they are related. A number of theories exist as to why obesity is associated with other problems, but given the complexities of the situation it is difficult to establish direct cause and effect. "Fat" people may be found to engage in other risky behaviors that have nothing to do with their weight. In fact some studies have suggested that if someone with excess body fat is otherwise in good physical shape their risk for other problems is lower than sedentary "normal" weight individuals.
In her series of New York Times articles on the battle against cancer http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/13/health/research/13prevent.html?_r=1 Gina Kolata details how this difficulty in defining causation adds to the confusion over how to prevent cancer. One major problem for those trying to find answers isthe vast amount of information out there. For every study that seems to point to a cause another seems to contradict it. Gina does a fine job of considering all the info and distilling it. Some of the advice that is now in question about behaviors that are thought to reduce cancer risk such as high fiber and low fat diets are still good ideas. All Americans would benefit from eating more vegetables and less junk food for reasons that have little to do with cancer. Interestingly the evidence seems to point to the fact that most of the dietary and lifestyle changes that reduce the risk of many cancers are actually effective when implemented during young childhood. This could mean that the die is cast after puberty or that the benefits are cumulative over a lifetime. In practice the result is the same- good diet and exercise need to be modeled by parents and taught to children as early as possible. I tend to think we have time to get my three kids online with healthy choices but the truth is we should have been more strict long ago. It is time for more low-fat cow's milk, less candy, less soda, more family walks, and better stress management for my wife and I to share wth our kids. This also means I that we need to consider what supplements and flllers are added to our processed foods. Just as adults need to limit their soy consumption we need to watch how much soy is used in the food our kids eat and drink. It's time to go- there are some labels I need to read and new trails to run!

The Joy of the Lord

I use videos I glean off Youtube for Wednesday nights with the kids at Church. While searching for a version of "The Joy of the Lord" I came across this video. I think you will find it touching.

A Nasty Preventative Option For Fighting Flu

Effect Measure is a blog I follow on health care issues. Today they posted excerpts from a report on how the common cold virus (rhinovirus) infection may prevent the development of influenza infection simply because there aren't cells available to infect. A few months ago I noted how crazy it is that some people were considering "swine flu parties" now I wonder how many parents are going to plan "rhinovirus parties". Just a thought.

PSA That Makes one think

I am often fascinated at how easily we are able to miss what is going on right in front of our eyes.

Thanks to http://unreasonablefaith.com/

Halloween

Since both Christmas and All Saints Day are originally pagan holidays that Christianity is still trying to influence I think there is a place in both Christmas and Halloween for Christians to add to the potential cultural shifts. I have memories from youth about the fear that was created around this time because many of my Church influences focused on how Satan was honored in Halloween. While this may be the case in limited situations, the holiday is generally benign in our culture. For this reason I and my wife have allowed limited involvement in trick-or-treating (in fun and not scary costume), and carving of pumpkins. Our goal is to avoid the fear that even those in God's house feel during this time, and also to add to the cultural shift to fun at Halloween and not pagan mischief. As my children develop a higher awareness of their history I want to take full advantage of the history that the Christian Church has remembered on the sunset of the 31st of October and continue to teach it to our children. We don't spend enough time telling the stories of Corrie ten Boom, Martin Luther, and Eric Liddell in between stories of Moses, Noah, and Paul. Instead of hiding from Halloween, let's use it for the purpose our Church fathers and mothers intended.

Who I Really Am

On my facebook account I recently engaged in a conversation with an old friend who knew me as a teenager and young adult. She wasn't aware that I had left my family business nine years ago and that I had changed my stance on healthcare. My friend was apparently quite surprised when I took up for a modality that was quite opposite my former practice. I have also been directly and indirectly accused of taking up only for conventional medicine while summarily rejecting anything that smacks of alternative or complementary "medicine". In an effort to show that I am a bit more complex than this let me tell a little about how "Josh Mather, Nurse" came to be.

The most important people in this story are my parents. When I was very young they generally followed the pediatrician's advice, even taking us to the clinic with cartoons on the wall for the horror of childhood vaccines. My parents were strict in the sense that they made rules and expected us to follow them, but our home was a very loving home where both parents passionately loved each other and their children. This is important because some have suggested that I left my father's Naturopathic practice in a reaction to how strictly he raised us. My parents could certainly have done some things better, but I honestly felt that I was loved and even sometimes suspected that I was loved more than my three siblings. To this day I feel lucky to have parents that love each other and their children without condition or reserve.

I was about six years old when the doctors told my parents that Mom was not going to see us open our Christmas gifts even with aggressive treatment with chemotherapy. The new protocols for treating Hodgkin's disease hadn't been adequately used to develop an accurate prediction for its effectiveness in the early 1980s when Mom found she was covered by cancer. When the medical system seemed a failure my parents turned alternative "medicine" for hope. Mom eventually did receive chemotherapy that turned out to be effective even for her advanced form of the disease, but by the time conventional medicine came to the rescue my parents had convinced themselves that conventional medicine may provide temporary help, but no matter what appeared to occur alternative "medicine" would provide the permanent success.

I was six when everything fell apart but I was about ten when Mom finally came back to being an active part of my life. In the intervening years I saw Mom reduced to sitting in a recliner weakly kissing us goodbye as we went to school in the morning and often being in a hospital unexpectedly when we came home to be met at the door by a neighbor who fed us supper at her house. The anemic insurance we had would not pay for Mom's treatments so my siblings and I wore hand-me-downs left on our porch in garbage bags while money for clothes was spent on herbs and medical bills. We all sacrificed to see that Mom survived, and after she finally recovered from her chemotherapy Mom started to slowly have more good days than bad until she made her first family meal since she was sick. I remember our joy at having her in our pew at church, and no one could keep tears at bay when Mom's beautiful voice filled the church singing and weeping through "I thank you Lord" in her first vocal solo since becoming bedridden.

I know the story so far seems to be a sob story, but for a bulk of my childhood every member of the family was somehow engaged in Mom's fight for survival. We all bought into the plan of alternative "medicine" with a little conventional medicine. We all dealt in some degree with the disapproval from conventional medicine for how my parents chose to treat Mom's case. One doctor even went so far as to accuse my father of trying kill my mother by brainwashing her. My family used the emotions of the controversy to rally around my parents' choice of alternative, and our closeness as a family was partly built on our common bond in the midst of controversy. Our choices as individuals in healthcare have been partly guided by this strong emotion still evoked when discussing these things. This is why my initial choice to practice naturopathic "medicine" makes sense. It was more than family background, it was emotional identification with "the cause" that made it an easy choice to follow my father's footsteps into alternative "medicine" which I did without reserve.

Rather than simply following the typical apprenticeship model of learning that my father did in developing his alternative "medicine" practice after Mom's recovery I was encouraged to take a more formal education and take some advanced science classes taught from the conventional medicine view. Dad hoped that I would develop a well-rounded view of healthcare and be able to approach our joint practice from a fresh perspective to bring further advancement to alternative "medicine". The approach worked, and for more than a year we worked as an effective team. We envisioned me as the primary caregiver in the office while Dad transitioned into a more educational role teaching classes and writing books. Near the end of this year together problems developed as my intellectual involvement overtook my emotional involvement. The following link details how some aspects of this change developed. http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/confessions.html

More to come.

Air Sanitizer

Asthma is a disease in which tubes in the lungs overreact to certain situations. Sometimes allergies to particles in the air cause asthma, but our daughter has a problem primarily with upper respiratory tract infections and ozone-related pollution. For example when summer days here in Birmingham, Alabama cause smog to descend heavily on the city my sweet little girl often has trouble breathing. When looking into air purifiers for our home we found that there is a lot of misinformation about what is offered to those who need good air cleaning at a reasonable price. One good option is to get a big unit with advanced filters (HEPA type) that moves a lot of air. The downside of this method is that it can be expensive in power bills and filter replacement.
 
Another option that has been advertised very aggressively is the air ionizer. As opposed to an air filter which pushes air through some sort of filter that catches particles and keeps them from going back into the air- an ionizer modifies molecules in the air. My first memory of ionizers was the "ozone generator" which was advertized to make air as clean as after a thunderstorm. The idea was that lightning produces charged molecules of the gas ozone (O3) which is healthier than contaminated air. In theory ozone generators can decontaminate the air from certain particles because the ions produced by ozone generators act as a kind of magnet that forces certain particles in the air to stick to solid objects such as the fibers in the carpet, drapes, or metal plates within the ozone generator. Sadly for the producers of ozone generators the EPA has the belief that ozone is a harmful gas that needs to limited. When it was revealed that ozone generators generally produce harmful levels of ozone in enclosed spaces some state and local governments moved to regulate the sale of the devices. The ozone generator manufacturers changed the name of their devices. Now some are sold as air sanitizers.
 
I recently was offered the use of one such air sanitizer called the "Boomerang". I asked if it was a filter and was informed that it was "much better". The person offering me the "Boomerang" told me that it worked like an ozone generator but without the ozone. On the company website I found that the device generates "hydroxyl ions, hydro peroxide ions, and ozonide ions" which act as oxidizers to sanitize air and surfaces. What is ozonide? The molecular formula is O3−. It should look familiar because it is ozone with a negative charge. Release ozonide into room air and I suspect you would find that it would act much like ozone. In other words the Boomerang is essentially an ozone generator by another name.
 
The person who told me about this Boomerang described that one customer found it to be so good that all the spiders left their home because their were no bugs to find in the "clean" air. I countered that it was probably due to the fact that the air became too toxic. The fact is that ozone and the compounds that result from its reaction with surrounding molecules are powerful oxidizers just like the website for the device stated. This, however, is not a good thing. When reading the word "oxidizer" it helps to think another catch-word from not too long ago- "free-radical". Oxidizers are ions that "look" for electrons to "steal" from other molecules and these ions can cause cell damage or death if they contact a vulnerable molecule in the cell. This explains why ozone causes such significant irritation in my daughter's lungs. While toxic doses of ozone will kill bacteria and fungus the ions produced by devices such as the boomerang more often cause these particles to attach themselves to the floor and other solid objects around the room. Think of how having an ionizer in the bathroom influences this process. All those particles aerosalized by flushing will be encouraged by the air ionizer to settle on door handles, counter surfaces, and other such areas. Not such a nice thought.

My family opted for HEPA air filters placed throughout the home when we anticipate the need for increased air purification. Not only will our air be cleaner and the ozone be much less, but our surfaces will be cleaner and need less dusting. When it comes to adopting "new" technology it often pays to ignore the hype and look into the basic mechanics involved.

Cultural religiousity

This morning during Sunday school our teacher spoke about the church of Smyrna that was being persecuted viciously. Our teacher noted that if the church was American they would still have endured persecution because they chose to obey God rather than to be integrated in the culture. We were rebuked for being too much like our culture and so avoiding persecutuion. I must admit that I disagree with his assesment of why American Christians are not generally persecuted. Practicing Muslims stick out more and suffer less persecution here in the USA than do the most timid Christians in most of the world. Americans are sensitive to those who stick out so that skin colors and religious practices that do not fit with cultural expectations are noted and made to feel uncomfortable outside their cultural context. American Christians who strictly adhere to certain dictates that they find in Scripture will miss out on certain opportunities such as Sunday sports and social gatherings that involve alcohol, but they cannot begin to call this persecution. Those who are vocal about things such as sexual perversions and abortion will find themselves further shunned, and perhaps targetted for mistreatment, but this I not the result of general obedience to Scripture but the living out of a personal sense of calling.

While I don't think the lack of persecution is reason for American Christians to feel like failures the fact that American Christians do follow the lead of culture in what parts of Scripture they obey should be cause for concern. The fact that Christians do not treat their Sunday as a Sabbath, do not keep women from speaking in the assembly, and no longer advocate slavery is not the result of persecution, but responses to a sense of cultural inconvenience. Doctrine in Scripture has not changed in the last two thousand years, but how we apply it often the outcome of cultural pressures. This fact makes me wonder how much I really appear to be a true Christian in comparison to men like Peter, Paul, and Stephen. I find myself constantly re-examining why I do what I do and believe what I believe.

ants go marching

Since my wife and I both graduated from high school home-schooled (in different schools of course!) I am often asked by friends if we think about home-schooling our three children. My answer is that we do home-school, but our children also attend conventional school. My point is that while we do not home-school our children in the typical sense we still have the belief that we are responsible for their education. This means that we use many of the techniques our parent's used to cram as much education into one day as we can. Yesterday was a case in point.

My son and I were at the pool when I noticed a thick line of ants going into the trash can poolside. I tossed some garbage into the can and put the top back on realizing that it hadn't been closed correctly some time before allowing the ants to find a way into the can and find some food that had been left inside. I adjusted the lid and it fell tightly into place cutting off the access point for the ants and even forcing some ants to scramble away down the side of the can in a defensive maneuver. As I stepped back away from the garbage can I noticed the column of ants continued along the path of the ants who had been going into the can even though the lid was too tight to get in. I figured the column would simply continue around the lid until the group would fall onto the original column. Out of curiosity I watched the ants, but instead of bumbling along the ants gathered in groups around the area where the path led into the road block caused by the closed lid. Antennae touched antennae after antennae until one by one ants started to follow the invisible trail back down. As the ants traveled down away from the closed lid they touched antennae with the up-going ants and it didn't seem like anything happened. The up-going ants continued moving the same direction until after meeting with the fifth or sixth down-going ant they abruptly would turn around and follow the trail downward. Within a minute almost the whole column had completely reversed course with a few stragglers still meandering about.

At this point I called my son over and showed him what was going on. We watched as the column slowly turned around as ant after ant met with the turned around ants and finally changed course. Returning to the apartment we discussed how people tend to follow the crowd and how even if we don't seem to change one person's mind about something our voice added to the group of voices may be enough to eventually make a change one person at a time. Arriving at the apartment my son and I told our story of the ants and after dinner found us all gathered around the computer screen watching Youtube as an "ant researcher" showed his study process of using one ant to leave a scent trail for other ants to follow to some food that was left out. I remember my father using events like this to create teaching moments to both teach his children about science and the importance of standing by our deeply held beliefs in the face of pressure. I hope that tomorrow morning I can teach my kids about the scientific method and carry out a simple experiment to see if we can "validate" the researcher's method of proving ant's communication by scent trails.

The answer is no my kids don't exclusively home school, but I hope that my kids will be able to say that they were certainly educated at home.

fin

Just so you know, I am officially done with my preparations for my nursing practice. Now I am officially a nurse in the Great State of Alabama. Last Saturday I received my license and next week I will complete my hospital orientation as a nurse nine years after Brookwood hired me to learn how to work as a surgical technician. I cannot express my gratefulness to the hospital and family members who made this long journey possible, but we are all glad to see this fruit. My wife is especially relieved to have me home more. I have been taking my kids to the pool almost every day after work and spending more time just sitting next to my wife on the couch after the kids are in bed. The late nights at work are now overtime instead of desperate attempts at getting enough hours to meet my family's needs. It is a good feeling. :-)

Graduate Nurse

I just accessed my transcript, the unofficial one, at school and even they admit that I am nursing school graduate. That is, unofficially. Still, it looks good to me. Even the 3.11 looks good to me. Sort-of.

I am now waiting to complete the paperwork to get my temporary license and be allowed to take the nursing boards. So fun. Not really. I am not one for waiting. More details as they come.

Pictures of ballet girls and others

Once again I have posted pictures to my flickr site- http://www.flickr.com/photos/themathers/

New Pictures!

Just so you know that we have new pictures from our awesome weekend! http://www.flickr.com/photos/themathers/

Wanted: A Voice

As you know if you have been around me this week it seems very probable that I have a ruptured blood vessel in my vocal cords. My communication has been mostly by light whispering and typing on my pocket computer. It sure complicates things. I have not had the time to get a scope of my vocal cords so I don't have absolute proof of the diagnosis, but the fact that I went from a full voice to no voice in the period of minutes while singing makes it a pretty sure thing. I have never lost my voice for so long, and if I ever recover my full voice no one knows at this point if I will be able to sing again. All this since singing on praise team last Sunday. This, of course, could end up being a short hyphen in my life story, but the fact that I may lose the voice I know has really shaken me.
Now for funny stuff.
The first assumption when people hear me speak is that I am sick with respiratory virus. I have been asked to step back, and even asked to leave the room during surgery. The next thing I hear quite often is "That will be especially hard for you, Josh." My mother-in-law has been the sweetest about it- "Will you still be able to explain things?" She knows that I love to teach, and wanted me to know that she valued that. One of my co-workers has made it point to thank God that I still can't talk every time he hears me whispering. It seems that I needed to give the world a break from my voice anyway.
I hope to get some voice back next week. In the meantime I hope to learn how to listen better and talk less.

Back When...

Elizabeth and I scanned in some old photos that we borrowed from her family. You can see them in our Flickr set "Back When..." http://www.flickr.com/photos/themathers/sets/72157614030976140/
I hope you enjoy them.

5:30

Some of the cheesiest aspects of my life involve necessary habits. One habit is a daily one that I share with many Americans and which helps anchor me. It is a ritual that defines the beginning of the day. I grind my dark roast coffee beans (Trader Joe French Roast is my favorite), brew a dark cup in my steam espresso (I know it is not REALLY espresso, but it works for this purpose), and drink the result in a cup that means something to me. This morning it is a Starbucks cup that one of the kiddos gave me for Christmas this last time. In the picture above is my cup on the couch next to my coat and grey scarf my wife made for me. I anticipate being cold this morning when I walk Milo.

New Pictures of the New Year

New pictures have been posted to our flickr account- http://www.flickr.com/photos/themathers/sets/72157612075590767/