Japanese suffering

The news outlets are all loaded with the recent 8.9 earthquake followed with a tsunami that hit the northeast of Japan. My condolences and prayers go out to those poor people caught up in this horrendous disaster. There is nothing good to come of this mess. The media is focusing on the nuclear reactor problems Japan is having, but I believe that the problems with meltdown are overblown and the government should worry about other much more severe problems at hand.

Nuclear reactor issues at Fukushima have caused quite a stir. Some of the buildings had explosions and several fires have erupted. The fear is of a reactor meltdown releasing a significant amount of radioactive material into the atmosphere may occur if officials can not cool down a couple of the reactors. Fear of a meltdown is real. Radiation in the local area has been measured at a magnitude or greater than background. Long term exposure to this level is unhealthy, but could mitigated. If meltdown does commence, the release would be devastating to local regions up to 50 miles from the plant. Anyone present when a meltdown release occurs would be exposed to a large quantity of toxic materials potentially resulting in all sorts of radiation sickness and future cancer. Very bad! Beyond the local region, I do not see effects from radiation or radioactive materials hurting people. Even with winds blowing materials.

What should be of concern are more mundane, yet destructive problems that could occur from the disaster. The ability to deliver clean water and food has been wiped out by the disaster. Transportation methods are all disabled. Millions of people are also homeless in the aftermath. If these people do quickly get water and food, they will face dehydration or starvation. This requires only a few days without basics, so this threat is imminent. Getting in the necessary supplies into the area is difficult when roads, railways, airports and shipping are all wiped out. The secondary threat is from water-born disease. Cholera and typhoid easily spread with stagnate water loaded full of dirty debris including sewage and various animal/human corps. Dealing with a health epidemic inside a natural disaster would only add to the woes. If either problem previously described in this paragraph take hold, tens of thousand of people could unnecessarily perish.

I guess our media has to hype the politically sensitive issues even though they are the least threatening. No one wants to tune into hear the standard starvation/disease monologue which occurs routinely. Nuclear meltdowns occur once in a decade and make sensational stories. When watching media stories, remember this.

Dwarfs will rule the world!

Well, no, dwarfs may not rule the world. There is a good chance a certain group will outlive their contemporaries though. This recent study out of the University of Southern California studied a group of dwarfs who have Laron syndrome in Ecuador and worldwide. Laron syndrome is genetic and effects how growth is regulated in the body.

The individuals have Laron syndrome, a rare disease that causes stunted growth in about 250 people worldwide. Scientists have known the syndrome results from a mutation in a gene that regulates how cells grow and divide.

The dwarfism cause is also a barrier to cancer and diabetes. The disease limiting culprit in Laron's cases appears to be an insulin producing protein that binds with human growth hormone, insulin-like growth factor 1 or IGF1.

High levels of IGF1 have been implicated in cancer and diabetes in previous studies, and low levels have been found to cause increased longevity in everything from yeast and worms to mice.

"In worms, we don't see diabetes or cancer or anything — once we establish this potential [to extend life] in worms, we moved to mice," said Felipe Sierra, director of the Division of Aging Biology at the National Institute on Aging. "We do see similar things in this study [of humans], and it validates everything we do."

Sure enough, in the short-statured Ecuadorean group, the study revealed that deficient growth hormone receptor led to low levels of IGF1, and this was associated with the disease-resistance.

The final intention is development of a drug that will mimic reduced IGF1 in healthy individuals reducing cancer and diabetes.

Interesting concept, but I would guess other negative side effects would appear besides the positive reduction in cancer rates and diabetes. Wikipedia states one of the disease's symptoms in men puts fear in almost any healthy male,

.....a very small penis.

Spenditis the Disease

Today folks, I am going to talk about a disease that seems to permeate our society, Spenditis. You may ask what is Spenditis? To put it simply as spending every penny one makes plus future earnings through taking on mountains of unnecessary debt. It amazes me how many people I know buy an over sized (too expensive) house, several luxury vehicles, have several maxed out credit cards and a student loan (or loans if married) to boot. Folks, you are never going to pay this back. The problems will begin when economic trouble hits, i.e. job loss, sudden illness. At that point, you fall behind on payments and it will all vanish in a heartbeat.

I am not arguing against buying things that pertain to hobbies, travel or other nice items as long as it is within your economic means. We have our interests and that is one thing employment supports. Our interests should not enslave us though.

What is the cause of Spenditis? I am not sure. Things that contribute to this misdiagnosed malady are feelings of entitlement, narcissism, keeping up with the Joneses and our consumer culture. Personally, one factor that contributes heavily to those want-to-be high rollers is the inability to distinguish between a want and a need. Needs are the basics like food, clothing, shelter, medical care and other society factors like education. In most cases, if an item is a luxury purchase it fits into a want. The best want example is Imelda Marcos' 2700 pairs of shoes. For the 99 % of people who are not extraordinarily wealthy, this would bankrupt them. To her, being president of the Philippines, the want did not permanently damage her economic standing.

Please avoid Spenditis. You will appreciate it when the hard times come, and they will come. The best analogy is The Ant and Grasshopper fable from ancient times.