On the Cutting Edge on the Left Coast

We visited Costco today, our favorite big box store and the only one of that size that we frequent, and picked up some organic pomegranate juice. As we weaved through the aisles, I spotted a Buddhist monk in a red robe. I have a curiosity about the various flavors of Buddhism and wanted to speak to him, but couldn't think what to say, so I gave up on the idea and headed for the check-out aisle.

While inching forward in line, I thought to look behind me and found that the monk had joined the line behind me. Without thinking about it, I turned and asked if he was a Tibetan monk. When he affirmed my suspicion I told him of my interest in Buddhism and he told me that one group of Buddhists have a hospice and a center for the treatment of cancer in Santa Cruz County. This was news to me and I know where I'll go if I ever get cancer.

He was friendly and very approachable. I wondered about which Buddhists are vegetarians and learned that Tibetans are not because, in Tibet, they can't grow enough produce. He says that the Dalai Lama tried a vegetarian diet, but his doctor felt that it wasn't right for him. He still wants to be a vegetarian though and is persisting. I can understand how a truly compassionate person would prefer to not eat meat.

Most religions are rife with hypocrisy, but Buddhists are sincere in their attempts to live up to the teachings of the Buddha and they embody compassion for all life forms in their daily activities. If only we had more Buddhists, the Earth might survive the mass extinction currently underway.

Other than Buddhists who quietly raise the level of consciousness on the planet through their daily meditations, there may be some hope for us in the world of finance. (Nope, that was not a typo - read on.)

John Doerr, venture capitalist, made a fortune on his foresight by investing in the future of high tech; he helped launch Sun Microsystems, Google and Amazon, and so it is significant that he now expresses pessimism about the future of our planet.

According to BusinessWeek Online, Doerr recently addressed an audience at the annual Technology Entertainment, Design (TED) Conference in San Francisco, saying that he fears that global climate change is irreversible and that the planet is doomed.

He asked his fellow financiers to invest heavily in alternative energy and green technologies and many already have.

Venture capitalists invested $727 million in 39 alternative energy start-ups last year, up from $195 million in 18 start-ups in 2005, but Doerr believes that these efforts are inadequate and that the world's economy must make a radical shift from greenhouse-gas-producing fossil fuels. He worries that the shift may come too late.

"I'm really scared. I don't think we're going to make it," Doerr said.

Chickadee in the House

A downy woodpecker spent some nights in our birdhouse so we put some sawdust in there to make him more comfortable. Apparently he moved on, because a chickadee carried the sawdust out and built a nest in there. It's hard to be certain, because male and female chickadees look alike, but I think only one bird built the nest. We never did see two at the house at the same time. We didn't want to disturb the feathered architect so we stayed away from the house until the activity ceased and then I peeked in to find a beautiful nest constructed of moss from our old growth oak trees and lined with tiny, soft feathers.

I searched the web to find out about the nesting habits of chickadees and learned that the female builds the nest. Either she hasn't located a mate yet, because the house remains empty or it's a dummy nest. According to a web site, chickadees have been known to build dummy nests and abandon them. Yesterday, a chickadee visited the birdhouse and then left again.

Meanwhile, some chickadees in the area already have fledglings. We've seen a young one waiting on a nearby branch, chirping and fluttering its wings while the parents came to retrieve seeds from our feeders and deliver food to it.

We're hoping someone uses the birdhouse before the season is over.

Last year a titmouse pair built a nest in the birdhouse, but the 4 baby birds died in the nest. We don't know what happened to them - perhaps it was West Nile Virus.

By the way, that bag hanging off the side of the birdhouse is filled with nest building materials, none of which were used by the chickadees. We save cat fur and make it available to the birds in the front yard where our cats are not allowed to roam.

We recently purchased a birdhouse with a camera in it, but had to send it back because our wireless network connection caused interference with the image projected by the camera.

The Truth about POM Wonderful (Hint: POM Is Not So Wonderful)

My October 2006 issue of "Activate", a newletter published by the American Anti-Vivesection Society revealed the dirty secret behind the pomegranate juice maker, POM Wonderful. The Los Angeles Business Journal reported that Lynda and Steve Resnick, owners of POM Wonderful, funded $15 million in research to investigate the health benefits of pomegranate juice.

You might think, as I did, that the research would follow the health of people who drink the juice, but you'd be wrong, as I was.

They decided to torture animals by lowering the oxygen levels in newborn mice causing brain damage and then their mothers were forced to drink water mixed with pomegranate concentrate.

I took my copy of the newsletter when we went grocery shopping so I could ask the buyer to discontinue selling POM Wonderful, but it had already been removed from the shelves of our local natural food store. This is the same store where I buy cruelty-free body care products.

It's unnecessary to cause suffering in animals to prove the benefits of drinking juice. They should be testing on humans anyway, not animals.

Feel free to express your opinion on the subject to Matthew Tupper, President of POM [Less Than] Wonderful, 11444 West Olympic Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90064

Telephone: 310-966-5800

Email: customerservice@pomwonderful.com

Cardiac Catheter Ablation

One person requested more information about catheter ablation, so I thought I'd add include more information about my experience here.

My diagnosis was atrial flutter. If I understand correctly, the electrical activity in the upper right chamber of my heart was short-circuiting. This caused tachycardia (rapid heart rate), fatigue and light-headedness. Other types of arrhythmias or dysrhythmias occur in the upper left chamber or lower chambers of the heart.

I found an interesting recount of an ablation for atial-fibrillation here. This web site includes a number of interesting links for more information. Although this man is a resident of San Francisco, his procedure was performed at Stanford Hospital also which makes me think that Stanford may be the only hospital in this area with the technology and expertise for the procedure.

On Janurary 8th of this year, I experienced a prolonged episode of tachycardia and took an ride to the emergency room in an ambulance. Dr. Neil Sawhney, a cardiologist, examined me there and diagnosed atrial flutter. He used drugs to restore a normal heart rhythm and prescribed a beta blocker to prevent tachycardia in the future. He urged me to have a catheter ablation.

I experienced unpleasant side effects from the beta blocker (asthma, fatigue, insomnia, an itchy rash) and was eager to schedule the ablation procedure as quickly as possible. The procedure has a 90 to 98% success rate.

The doctor who performed my procedure at Stanford is Dr. Sung Chun who is in private practice in Palo Alto. He's reputed to be one of the best and I have no argument with that characterization.

Anyone who would like additional information can contact me personally at kittylover at gmail dot com or post a message to this blog.

Note: If you are a woman, doctors may dismiss your symptoms. As noted on Michael Roeder's web site:

Why does my doctor keep telling me it’s just in my head?
How can I put this? Bluntly. It’s probably because you’re a woman and your doctor doesn’t take you seriously. I know that sounds mean, and it is an outrage. I don’t think it’s in your head. I noticed a disturbing trend in the e-mails I’ve received in the first few years after I started this web site. Women were always telling me the
same story: The doctor says it’s all in your head so don’t worry about it. Several ended up in the emergency room with tachycardia before anyone believed them. I’ve talked to women at work and they concur that this treatment of women is a serious and widespread problem in our culture’s health system. (In Europe, Australia, and in North America.) Sad to say, our medical culture treats women as overly sensitive children ruled by their emotions. I don’t know what can be done about it, except to try to articulate your symptoms accurately. Lately things seem to have gotten a little better: Maybe doctors are getting the message and taking women's symptoms as seriously as men's.

Good health to you all.

Victim of Religious Discrimination

Kathy Freston wrote an interesting and thought-provoking article for AlerterNet's EnviroHealth Newsletter, March 19th, 2007: You Call Yourself a Progressive -- But You Still Eat Meat?

Eating a plant-based diet is an easy, cheap way to end animal cruelty and clean up the environment Being part of the solution can be a whole lot simpler -- and cheaper -- than going out and buying a new hybrid. We can make a huge difference in the environment simply by eating a plant-based diet instead of an animal-based one.

Factory farming pollutes our air and water, reduces the rain forest, and goes a long way to create global warming. Yet for some environmentalists, the idea of giving up those chicken nuggets is still hard to swallow.

She also points out that ingesting meat contributes to an inflammatory condition that causes plaque to build up in our arteries. Heart disease is the number one killer of both women and men and vegetarians have lower rates blood cholesterol levels, lower blood pressure, lower rates of hypertension, lower rates of type 2 diabetes and lower amounts of prostate and colon cancer.

Citing Dr. Andrew Weil, M.D.:

there is something called arachidonic acid, or AA, in animal flesh that causes inflammation. AA is a pro-inflammatory fatty acid. He explains that "heart disease and Alzheimer's -- among many other diseases -- begin as inflammatory processes. The same hormonal imbalance that increases inflammation increases cell proliferation and the risk of malignant transformation." They are finding out that inflammation is key in so many of the diseases that plague us. So when you eat meat, you ingest AA, which causes inflammation, which fires up the disease process. It doesn't matter if the chicken is free range or the beef is grass-fed because the fatty acid is natural and inherent in the meat

I've been a vegetarian for most of my adult life and I've enjoyed good health until last January when I found myself in the emergency room with a cardiac arrhythmia. I thought I was having a heart attack, but my cardiologist said that my heart problem wasn't a lifestyle issue. While in the local hospital I requested and received vegetarian meals.

Last week I underwent a cardiac catheter ablation to fix the arrhythmia at Stanford Medical Center in Palo Alto. While recovering in the cardiac ward, I requested vegetarian meals and was refused because they couldn't reach my doctor to get his permission! Except for caffeine, my doctor had left no restrictions on my diet and yet they refused my request for a meatless meal.

A new patient was placed in my room later and they provided him with a vegetarian meal because he's Hindu. I made a sudden conversion to Hinduism, but that didn't work either and they wouldn't accept my argument that as a Pastafarian, I am entitled to meat-free pasta meals. In spite of all my efforts, they delivered a meal of chicken, broccoli and rice. I ate the veggies, returned the tray and requested more broccoli and rice.

Keeping in mind that I was recovering in the cardiac unit, you might be surprised to learn that for breakfast they served bacon and eggs and Kellogg's Corn Flakes. I don't eat dry cereals, but I read the ingredients out of curiosity and learned that high fructose corn syrup was the third ingredient. In addition, they had given me a packet of sugar for my cereal. High fructose syrup is in many processed foods and is probably a major contributor to the epidemic of obesity. It was added to many foods in the 1970s and look at our waistlines now!

Shortly after I arrived home, the chickens heard my voice from inside the house and began to squawk until I went out to greet them. I picked one up and nuzzled her and in return she gently touched her beak to my cheek and opened and closed it a few times. It certainly seemed like a gesture of affection, but I can't be sure why she did that. Recently I left the back door open while taking the laundry out to hang on the clothesline and the chickies walked right into the house. They are so cute.

Catheter ablation is a marvel of modern medicine and I recommend it to anyone with an arrhythmia. The doctor worked on the inside of my heart and I came home the next day with a band aid! I feel great.

Return of the Finches

We saw no finches last year, apparently they were wiped out by West Nile Virus just as they were nesting. This year we've seen one pair so far.

Bumper Sticker Sightings

Bad Government! Down!

The Best Country in the World

A right-wing cousin who thinks Gee Dubya Bush is wonderful, likes to say we live in the best country in the world. This seems to be a popular slogan among the GOP and the CTC (critically-thinking challenged).

The Economist chose Ireland as the best country in the year 2005. Norway and Canada have been named.

Would the best country in the world allow the death of 6-year-old boy because his family couldn't afford to provide him with life-saving health care?

Next time one of those wing-nuts parrots that phrase to me about how the United States is the best country in the world, I'll require proof.

Hypocritic Oaf - Christian Taliban

Doctors take an oath to do no harm in the practice of medicine, but Dr. Gary Merrill's religious beliefs inspired him to refuse treatment of a baby girl whose parents offended the doctor's Christian morals by *gasp* adorning their bodies with tattoos and body piercings.

Dr. Merrill also refuses to treat anyone chewing gum.

Tasha Childress whose body is adorned with tattoos and piercings, took her young daughter to be treated for an ear infection, because of a referral by her health insurance company. The child remained untreated until the next day when the parents found a doctor who'd taken the Hippocratic (rather than the hypocritic) oath.

According to the Bible, Jesus said:

Suffer the little children to come unto me and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of God. Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein. And he took them up in his arms, put his hands upon them, and blessed them.

Dr. Merrill apparently took the cliff notes version of the Bible, "Suffer the little children".