Roger P. Freeman, D.D.S., Editor roger@iawareables.com
[Note: We mail this E-Borne newsletter 4x/year +/- to friends, colleagues and suspecting customers of record. If we have mistakenly included you in this mailing, or you wish to be removed from our subscriber list, please refer to end of the newsletter for instructions. We'll miss you, but we promise to honor your request.]
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Dear friends and colleagues,
 Spring breaks anew, as Mother Nature gets over her winter mischief. Meanwhile, we here in Southern California are busily digging out from our dozen or so days of rain. What, you say? Not sympathetic? No matter, whining is what we do best, as we greet the "change of seasons" with relish. Just like the Ides (anyone ever figure out what those are?), we March on!
Visit the IA Showroom: A very cool bird's eye view of the complete Awareables necktie and scarf collection, past and present: |
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1. AKA BED BUGS!
| C. lectularius, coming soon to a mattress near you - maybe there already (?)
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CDC / Janice Haney Carr
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These handsome little blood suckers are currently grabbing headlines and enjoying a worldwide resurgence. Little did you know your hotel reservation included an assembly of irritating arthropods looking to share your "dreamsleep," 750-thread counted bed. C. lect can interrupt the good life by injecting saliva into its host's (that would be YOU) blood stream, which can than cause intense itching and welts.
More on these increasingly pesticide-resistant buggers later this year but leave it to IA to take on the challenge of the impossible "makeover." We did it with Dust Mites, a perennial favorite. Can we do it again? Keep a watchful eye for this vivacious vector, anticipating a summer "breakout."
Also on the contagious calendar: HERPES - A RETURN VISIT. Or did it every really go away?
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2. PLACEBOS THAT ANNOUNCE THEMSELVES
| Huh?
As if we needed more proof on how far we have de-volved, there is a recent study indicating that a simple sugar pill, or placebo, may help treat disease - even if the patient is aware the pill is a fake! Follow this one...if you can. Researchers at Harvard Medical
School (!) tested whether administration of an "honest" placebo could still be effective, in spite of the fact that the patient knew the pill was medically useless. At the end of the study, 59% of the patients taking the outed placebo reported their symptoms (in this case, irritable bowel syndrome) had been adequately relieved - vs. 35% in the non-treatment group.
A cognitive scientist, who shall mercifully remain unnamed, described these results as a major step in better understanding the linkage between perception and science in treating patients.
Is your brain exploding yet?
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3. WORKING MOM?
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Communicable in the best sense! "Mommy Brings Home the Bacon" by Nikki Mark is a genuinely affecting children's book that explores the close, but complicated relationship between a young boy and his working mom. So many of our Awareables audience are working parents, all of whom must deal with the difficulties and anxieties in balancing work with parenting. Told from a young boy's perspective, this beautifully illustrated and child-friendly narrative presents an imaginative interpretation of why mommy goes to work, and the powerful bond that develops as a result. Here are a few reader comments: "Nikki Mark has written a children's book that every working mother with young kids needs to own. It's a great tool to help children understand and accept why Mommy works, and it is an incredible gift to mothers who experience similar pains of separation." - TJ (business owner) "Mommy Brings Home the Bacon addresses the topic of separation in a universal way that is just right and adaptable to many working moms. Early childhood teachers and caregivers would be able to benefit from reading it aloud to their students." - RS (teacher) Highly recommended, and soon to be featured on our website. You can learn more now at: www.mommybringshomethebacon.com/
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4. A PONDERABLE FOR GERM FREAKS
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And the answer IS.......?
OK, you infection preventionists, public health pros, medical cognoscenti: Have a stab at this question from recent "Ask Marilyn" column in Parade magazine: "Do I have more of a chance of catching a cold if I'm chewing gum and blowing bubbles? In other words, can airborne germs be caught by my bubble and then ingested after it has deflated and the gum is back in my mouth?
Well...can they?
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| 5. PLAYBOY MANSION: EXPOSURE OF ANOTHER KIND |
You have to wonder about that grotto thing   Public health officials have identified Legionella bacteria in a source of water, and possibly of an infectious outbreak, at the famed Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles (coincidentally located only a few miles from Infectious Awareables Central)! Hundreds of guests at a recent DOMAINfest fundraiser held at the mansion reported being sick with chills, coughs, fever and malaise, symptoms typical of a milder form of Legionnaire's Diseases, called Pontiac fever. As of Newsletter time, no further facts have been released. In the meantime, we may have to seriously curb our party habits for the short term. Alert: Legionella is much better tolerated on our Waterborne Six design - no cough, no malaise - just some serious Awareability.
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| 6. IN MEMORIUM: DR. ERNEST McCULLOCH, 1926 - 2011 | Pioneer in Stem Cell science and regenerative medicine
Dr. Ernest McCulloch, partnering with biophysicist James Till, was the first to isolate and identify what we commonly know today as a "stem cell," leading to revolutionary bone marrow transplant treatment, and ultimately altering the course of cancer research. The pair published their findings in 1961, discovered "accidentally" during observation of irradiated bone marrow behavior in mice. Two years later, after proving conclusively that three types of blood cells - red, white and platelets - were produced by a single stem cell, their results were published in the prestigious journal Nature.
Dr. McCulloch is another in the continuing tradition of real life heroes, unsung by mainstream, ignored by ET, but so influential in the course of human life.
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| 7. MEETING SCHEDULE 2011 | American Public Health Association (APHA), Washington D.C. Oct 28, 2011. For those of you who pined for our pathogens in Denver, we'll once again be onsite and on-point.
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* Alert: think IA when considering your Mothers and Fathers Day commitments (responsibilities, obligations et al.) - not to mention largess for that special Grad. *
Until May Day,
Awareably yours,
RPF
Roger P. Freeman, D.D.S. and the IA Team
Copyright 2011Infectious Awareables, Inc.
Please feel free to pass this Ezine along to your friends. All we ask is that you keep it intact and forward it in its entirety.
NOTICE: To subscribe to the IA newsletter: www.iawareables.com
Email: roger@iawareables.com
Phone: 818.990.6264
Web: www.iawareables.com |
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