Electric catfish therapy

Improbable research discusses electric fish therapy.

Aristotle, Pliny, and Plutarch recognized the numbing effect of electricity when referring to the application of the torpedo fish to the body. Scribonius Largus advocated the use of piscine electrotherapy for the relief of pain associated with gout, headache, arthritis, and hemorrhoids. Various means of providing electrical current were developed, including the use of the electric ray or great Nile catfish.“

more here about the great Nile catfish here. 

The Egyptians reputedly used the electric shock from them when treating arthritis pain.[9] They would use only smaller fish, as a large fish may generate an electric shock from 300 to 400 volts. The Egyptians have depicted the fish in their mural paintings and elsewhere;[8] the first known depiction of an electric catfish is on a slate palette of the predynastic Egyptian ruler, Narmer, about 3100 BC.[7] It was suitably called "angry catfish" in ancient Egyptian. An account of its electric properties was given by an Arab physician of the 12th century; then as now, the fish was known by the suggestive name of raad, abo el raash, el raad or raash, which means "thunder"[8] (literally "trembler" or "shaker").

but beware the electric eels, whose shocks are more dangerous.


giving electric stimulation for pain is used in rehabilitation: And arthritis responds to this (probably in the same way that linaments and other irritants help wih the pain).

WAPO article on athlete who uses electric patches for his arthritis.

 The Arthritis foundation discusses here.

medical analysis of electrical stimulation for Rheumatoid Arthritis.

The results showed that ES had significant benefit when compared to a control no treatment group in terms of muscle strength and fatigue resistance of the first dorsal interosseous. Most favourable results were obtained by using a patterned stimulation derived from a fatigued motor unit of the first dorsal interosseous in a normal hand rather than a fixed 10 Hz stimulation frequency. Side effects of the ES application were not reported.

Homones and trans

I had to take hormones for endometriosis.

the pill made me depressed.

The stronger medicine with androgenic properties made me "fat hairy and horny"... luckily I couldn't afford the full dosage or I would have gone manic and started to attack men.

The final medicine I took turned off my hormones and made me severely depressed. I cried all the time.

(So when I had men with prostate cancer who were put on this hormone, I warned them. I wonder how many of them ended up committing suicide? Or drinking for depression etc)

The emotional side effects of birth control pills are rarely discussed, but then as a woman with ovarian problems, I can tell you my own hormones did the same thing. PMS anyone?

I could tell my period was due when I would cry over nothing.

In the good old days, men with prostate cancer often were placed on estrogen: Cheap and efficient. Why did we stop using this? Because a double blind study showed the death rate on estrogen was higher for men: Not from cancer, where the death rate was lower, but from cardiovascular disease.

So this article (Via Virtueonline, an Episcopal webpage) notes the dirty little secret that no one wants to discuss, lest they enrage the twittermob or lose their job:

Hormones for transsexuals have side effects.

The US study compared medical records of over 5,000 transgender people against more than 97,000 others. It also suggested that men who took hormones for more than six years were ten times more likely to have a stroke caused by a blood clot than the general population. 'Risks' The study concluded: "These results may indicate the need for increasing vigilance in identifying long-term vascular side effects of oestrogen therapy". Senior author Michael Goodman of Emory University's Rollins School of Public Health said the findings could be "taken into consideration when planning follow-up and evaluation of patients". "The confirmation of this risk is good to have so patients can be warned", added fellow author Dr Joshua Safer.

this, presumably, was in adults.

The problem of giving various hormones and puberty blocking hormones to young teens with "gender dysphoria" is a bigger problem, because not only do many if not most of these kids have merely a transient wish to change sexes, and change their mind later, but the long term health problems are not clear.

and not in the article:

the lowering sperm count is back in the news.

NYTimes article.

it discusses the drop in sperm count over the last 40 years, but actually it has been decreasing since the 1930's.

Estrogen in the water supply? Including phyto estrogens from plastics and herbicides and plants?

Chinese generic medicines and fake/counterfeit drug dangers

this is a big problem here: generics are cheaper but you don't know if they work.

Usually, if it is a major infection or something important, I buy brand names or brand name generics at Mercury drug store, which checks on their generics.

The cheaper generics? I use when not so important.

Once Lolo had an infection that didn't get better with generic cephalexin, and our niece said to get the brand name, and the infection promptly resolved. Since he had CLL and a poor immune system, this could have mean a life threatening infection: but the generic was not completely fake, so it merely kept the infection under control with a suboptimal dosage.

The art of medicine

from SD:

doctors often rely on "gut feelings" when treating patients.

This used to be called the "art" of medicine.

some of this is observation (small clues, ala Sherlock Holmes, or of body language), and knowledge of the patient's background/history/culture.



and some of it is sensing emotions in the patient (so the teenager coming in for a cold seems a bit worried, and yes she is pregnant).

Breast is best

We always encouraged our moms to breast feed, and one problem was when milk formula companies peddled their products to poor women.

But as the kids got older, the parents couldn't afford formula, so watered it down and the kids ended up malnourished and often vulnerable to die from infections.

So when I read the headlines claiming Trumpieboy opposed breast feeding, I thought "WTF?"

No, not because I suspected fake news (I am used to nuances being twisted by the MSM against Trumpieboy), but because public health docs have pushed to stop this for years at the local level.

So making it a UN resolution means lots of money for UN bureaucrats to push their weight around, but not much else.

and my other question was: This issue has been around for years (we opposed this in the early 1970s) so why did it come up now, at a time when people in third world countries are a lot richer, and there are a lot more women who need to work outside the home and use formula because they can't breastfeed?

This is what I found back in the 1970s: breastfeeding was universal in rural Zimbabwe, where babies often were not weaned until 2 years old, but in urban Liberia, the patients and nurses pointed out that these women needed to work and so needed formula to feed their babies.

Nowadays, here in the Philippines, they often breast feed for up to a year, but again often supplement the child's feeding with formula.

TV ads here for formula often only are about older kids, and do insist that breast feeding is better.

what has changed in the last 40 years is that people are now richer.

Yes, there are poor people, especially in war torn countries, but as a whole, there is a lot less poverty around.

And insisting on breast feeding until one year of age means women would not be able to hold a job outside the family. Back to the good old days!

Hmmm... this is the real "Handmaiden's tale".

The Federalist has the backstory and indeed it is "fake news".

“The Trump Administration believes it’s a public health priority that women and their families have all the information to decide how to appropriately deliver nutrition to their children, whether it is via breastfeeding or other methods,” an HHS spokesman said. The agency pointed out that the United States has a long history of supporting breastfeeding and breastfeeding programs, and is the largest bilateral donor of foreign assistance programs in this area. Exclusive breastfeeding rates have doubled across 20 of countries where these programs have focused between 1990 and 2014, they say. The U.S. also supports complementary feeding programs and accurate description of the same as a matter of long-standing policy. The original resolution would have made that policy goal difficult, officials said.

infectious disease update

StrategyPage on Central Africa notes that there is a polio epidemic, thanks to BokoHarum, a small Ebola outbreak, and lots of refugees fleeing political infighting. Sigh.

 they also note China's investments there in mining for copper and cobalt, but that China is getting shafted and may have second thoughts on the deal.

but there is some good news: Volkswagon is making cars in Rwanda...
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Measles outbreak in Brazil originated in cases imported from Venzuela.

measles outbreak in Portland Oregon. No report on it's origin.

other recent measles outbreaks include Taiwan, Ukraine, Greece, Serbia, and Minnesota.

this disease is very infectious person to person: and it can kill, especially those with malnutrition or immune problems.

But more disturbing are diseases that are being spread by mosquitoes: such as Yellow Fever (in Brazil and Nigeria).

Brazil is fighting with vaccine, but there is a vaccine shortage. 
But habitat clean up is most needed (as in "drain the swamp" and use insecticides). The article blames people for moving into the jungle. Dang those poor people trying to make a living. But it is spreading to the cities, so maybe it is the lack of sewers to drain the rain and the failure of the gov't to spray high risk areas.

There was an epidemic in Angola back in 2916, that spread to the Congo and even to China, but they did manage to clean up the place and give out enough vaccines to stop it:

that was good news, because the same mosquito that carries dengue fever, which is endemic in East and south Asia, also could spread yellow fever.

And no, this moquito spread disease is not from global warming: Ask Dr Rush about the 1793 epidemic in Philadelphia.

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speaking of dengue: The newfangled anti Dengue vaccine that they gave out to stop the local epidemic here was found to make things worse.

Now they are checking if corruption/bribes led to the introduction of the vaccine prematurely.

Duterte, so far, is keeping his mouth shut, because it's not clear if it was corruption, or merely ignorance (and a coverup by the vaccine manufacturer about possible problems) that encouraged the government to buy and use the vaccine, which was originally tested and found to work in Brazil...

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related item: I put a few drops of medicine on my dogs to keep them free from ticks.

Time notes that this could work in humans, not just for ticks but for mosquitoes. (headup Instapundit.)

in the past, moms would put animal flea collars on their kids, but this is discouraged because they are toxic if the collar gets chewed on or even if it gets wet.

DEET works best, but the "natural" method is citronella of course: or eat Marmite.

it does't work very well, but better than nothing.

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essay crossposted from my main blog.