Holiday Cheer - Sharethis: Dark chocolate prevents wrinkles, skin cancer

Just in time for Christmas...MORE GOOD NEWS FROM THE CHOCOLATE FRONT!

Fear not that high quality, high cocoa solids chocolate is nowhere to be found. World Wide Chocolate is one online purveyor who will bring such Elysian delights to your house, your very abode as it were. They are an online business I recommend. I do business with them and have been very pleased with all transactions.

Right now, yea at this very moment, Callebaut Belgian dark chocolate batons boulangers are melting in my mouth, smooth as liquid black gold.  This particular baking formulation has only 44% cocoa solids but I've got chocolate with 80% cocoa solids in the cabinet.  HELL yeah I eat baking chocolate!  And every sort of bonbon and confection, bakery item and savory dish containing Theobroma cacao that I can think up or find.

There may be some who consume greater quantities of chocolate than I do but I'll put my Theobroma cacao tastes up there with the biggest eaters any day.

Want to know why I don't eat Hershey's kisses?  Scroll down to the blog entitled "The Sweet Life" and look for the entry dated Friday June 5, 2009.  Read the comments.  Yep, there's one from ME.  I recommend The Bee Folks.  They carry bulk and varietal honey, some nice beeswax products, and Lori had TRIPLET BOYS last Spring.  They're good people to do business with.  I go through a lot of honey.  Lori sells half gallons, gallons, and even larger sizes as well as 8 oz and a couple of 4 oz sizes of premium honeys.

I hope to pull together some Theobroma cacao recipes and projects for the next article.  Preview:  That last swallow of sediment coffee in the pot that no one wants?  Add cocoa powder and another couple of ingredients to make a nice scrub for stretch marks that will tickle your spouse's tongue as well.  Ohhhh...yeah...

Chocolate is a Migraine trigger for some people.  It appears it may have something to do with endothelial function and production of nitric oxide, which expands blood vessels.  [Disclaimer:  I have carefully recorded my physical responses to chocolate over the many years I've dealt with Migraine and found one correlation:  The craving for chocolate is a sure sign that Migraine attacks are imminent.  Eat chocolate, don't eat chocolate, no effect on whether attacks occur in me or their intensity.]  Read this interesting article from--Hershey's--about some of the nice things chocolate does for people.  The article includes citations but frankly, I'd consider Hershey's Chocolate an expert in chocolate in their own right.  They're not my chocolatiers but I'll count on their information any day.

Eat high quality, high cocoa solids chocolate.  And honey.  Every day.  The Sparkling Mother is glad it's good for you.  :D
 

Dark chocolate prevents wrinkles, skin cancer
Dark chocolate prevents wrinkles, skin cancer Source: presstv.ir
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Sharethis: Migraine Increases Likelihood of Stroke - US News and World Report

Heeheehee! Oh heck yeah, I'm a spoil-sport! An article about STROKE RISK on Thanksgiving!

Yeeebuddy, you got that right. When you're a walking stroke waiting to happen like I am, you don't get time off for holidays from vigilance.

The study appears to have missed the two most crucial bits of information that could have been gleaned had anyone thought to look for them: whether the stroke sufferers had taken any triptan therapy in the preceding 48 hours, and whether any were on Migraine prevention medication (or medication with Migraine preventative effects). I believe triptans may contribute to Migraine progression (including contributing to strokes) but without tracking it or mining it out of previous studies we won't know. All we'll have are the prescribing information warnings and contraindications from the drug manufacturers.

Hmmm...that might be a good project: to put links to all the triptan prescribing information here on this blog.

Full disclosure: I have prescribed for me a triptan called Axert, but not for Migraine. Triptans do not provide any Migraine relief for me. I've been diagnosed with cluster headaches for which Axert is a miracle and they're what the doc prescribed Axert for. I've needed fewer than 12 doses in the last 18 months, one of which I took this week. One Axert and the cluster cycle is busted. That is utterly amazing. Cluster headaches are also called "suicide headaches" because that's an apt description of how they affect some of us. I have no other triptans and they are not in the Migraine portion of my doctor-and-me-drawn-up management plan.

I'm not totally opposed to triptan usage. I believe it should not be the first rescue medication a person reaches for in an attack and I believe it should not be written into Migraine management plans that way. The much-maligned health insurance industry frequently limits the number of doses of triptans that they'll pay for in a month's time. I can't help but wonder if that's because triptans are not harmless.

Anyhow...eat turkey, or tofurduken if you're Weird Al, rest after dessert, take a nice long walk in the fresh air, and know that the Sparkling One is thankful that you read her thoughts.

Wait...that doesn't sound exactly the way I mean it...some people do read thoughts...never mind, the dressing's getting cold. XD

[Article at least number 1,801 Editorial note] Migraine Increases Likelihood of Stroke
Migraine Increases Likelihood of Stroke - US News and World Report Source: health.usnews.com
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Sharethis: Justice Department "Ten Employment Myths" video

This should be excellent.

I thought about waiting until the video was up on the U. S. government's website www.ada.gov but I still don't see it. If it's available now please somebody holler.

If your employer needs educating about YOUR rights and responsibilities as an employee with a disabling condition, don't wait. Find out on your own like I did and pass along what you learn!

Justice Department Releases ADA Employment Video: Ten Employment Myths: Information about the Americans with Disabilities Act
Welcome to the United States Department of Justice Source: justice.gov
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Sharethis: Spirit Daily - Nun Who Attacked Vaccine...Raises Questions

Simul-posting

********************************************************************

The author of the attached article, Michael H. Brown, is an investigative journalist. Until a rather dramatic personal experience at Medjugorje, Ukraine (where the Blessed Virgin Mary is said to have been appearing daily to certain seers since 1981) which moved him to return to the Catholic Church, he was best known for the intense investigative work in which he exposed the Love Canal environmental contamination disaster. He wrote a best-selling book about Love Canal and the human misery and deaths directly attributed the still-unresolved disaster. He is reliable, thorough, non-sensational, and trustworthy in his investigative reporting. His opinion about the nun (about whose video I blogged myself), as he explains in the article, refers to her personal opinions on certain women's issues and not her credibility.

Please read the article. Please take your time. It is tedious in places and took all the concentration my poor disabled foggy brain could gin up to get through it once. Be aware that the article is deeply steeped in belief-system references. None of the belief system references has anything to do with the specific issues around the safety of the H1N1 vaccine.

Navigating through and fully understanding everything he has to say will have to come another day for me when my eyes can focus and my brain can line up thoughts orderly. This blog column has taken me two hours to write. I'm out of useful minutes for today.

To anyone who so desires to comment, I certainly would appreciate the discussion. This is an extremely important subject and the work on it absolutely must continue.

Nun-Physician Who Attacked Vaccine has Controversial Past but Raises Questions
Spirit Daily - Daily spiritual news from around the world Source: spiritdaily.com
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Sharethis: Flu vaccine questions linger | The Citizen Online

Simul-posting. And taking a few days off.

********************************************************************

The article's author, Ben Nelms, says later on not to take anything in his piece as "gospel truth". I make the same recommendation.

I too spent a while yesterday, time I should have been resting my left arm (connected to that displaced C-6 vertebra), coming to the same conclusions that Ben Nelms did.

When I had read through many articles including a monastery website in Spanish, comparing English subtitles to audio on an hour-long Spanish video made by an M.D. & PhD Benedictine nun and attempting to locate documents many documents including on the World Health Organization's website (which would not load), I had to stop.

I was too horrified to go further.

Ben Nelms wrote the attached Sharethis article that the section below is quoted from. I did not write it.

"...All this brings up another point. Respected medical researcher Len Horowitz along with Austrian journalist Jane Burgermeister (you won’t find any reference to these folks in the major U.S. media) have recently filed lengthy affidavits claiming a conscious effort by the U.N., World Health Organization, some international bankers, the U.S. government and some big pharma companies to intentionally corrupt the novel H1N1 vaccine with components that would have killed untold millions of people worldwide.

As outrageous as this sounds, the claims by Burgermeister and Horowitz came after it was verified earlier this year that a shipment of 72 kilograms (158.4 pounds) of vaccine component material sent by a Baxter lab in Austria to a lab in the Czech Republic for inclusion in the H1N1 vaccine contained live H5N1 avian flu virus (H5N1 has a current death rate of 63.5 percent, as opposed to the less than one-half of one percent rate from H1N1).

Fortunately the “mistake” was caught by a Czech lab technician. This potentially catastrophic “mistake” was covered extensively by the European media, but not here. Fox and CNN were virtually silent. Naturally.

So, Baxter potentially contaminates the vaccine, WHO a couple of months later turns around and gives the company manufacturing rights, then issues a Level 6 pandemic that triggers law-enforceable protocols with nearly every nation on the planet (including the U.S.)..."

According to the video made by the Benedictine nun, it was an absolute quirk of fate that the Czech lab even double-checked the vaccine. There was no requirement nor even a standard practice for the double-check to be done. She explained the testing that was done and why the results were astounding.

It appears that the pharmaceutical company Baxter says that the 72 kilograms of vaccine shipped from a Baxter facility in Austria to the Czech Republic were not intended for human consumption. But the shipment was for HN1N human vaccine. The nun carefully explains what the contamination was and why it would have created the world-wide catastrophe that we now do not have in November 2009 had it been injected into people as it was labled. The shipment-testing event occurred in February of this year.

Yeah, an hour long video of a nun giving a class, in effect.

Would that I was qualified to get the New England Journal of Medicine so I could read their articles about the flu vaccine contamination situation. That publication has done reputable reporting, according to what I was able to find.

My biggest problem with Jane Burgermeister is her website. Nothing wrong with wanting help to carry forward her lawsuits. Many posted articles are full of numbered foot- or end-notes but there is no way to determine foot or end because the notes are nowhere to be found. The feeling I got from her site was that it had been designed for maximum sensation. That's perplexing because she apparently has evidence on her side anyway.

I plan to write to my Congresspersons. I want to know what they have to say about all this.

And yeah, I'll pay a fine or go to prison if necessary because I will not take this H1N1 flu vaccine. I may never take another vaccine again.

My mother and I were discussing this. She put it succinctly: "Who can you trust anymore?"

I now must crash with Mineral Ice on my neck and back.

Flu vaccine questions linger
Flu vaccine questions linger | The Citizen Online Source: thecitizen.com
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11/4 Edit - Sharethis: Thimerosal Suspension for H1N1 (swine flu) Vaccine - Immunization Program - Washington State Department of Health

11/4 Edit: Here's a link to another good discussion of the thimerosal issue in the H1N1 vaccine.

10/13 Edit: Good discussion going in the Comments.

********************************************************************

This is troubling news. The U. S. Department of Health has suspended the allowable level of thimerosal for the H1N1 vaccine. Troubling because thimerosal is a mercury substance.

Generally, I'm in favor of vaccinations and inoculations. I'm in the age group with scars on our shoulders from smallpox inoculations. Down here in Alabama, tetanus is a problem. Inoculations and vaccinations are important for public health.

I am NOT in favor of unrestricted thimerosal levels in anything. Pregnant women are advised to avoid fish so they (and their babies) won't be exposed to mercury--yet pregnant women have been labeled as high-risk for H1N1 problems and should be amongst the first to get the unrestricted thimerosal vaccine? What's wrong with this picture??

I do not plan to get the H1N1 vaccine. There is simply no good reason to do so.

Please read the article listed on the U. S. Department of Health website. Read all you can from sources you trust so that you can make an informed decision.

Consider not getting the H1N1 vaccine. To suspend the restrictions on thimerosal levels is insane, in my opinion.

Thimerosal [mercury level] Suspension for H1N1 Vaccine
Thimerosal Suspension for H1N1 (swine flu) Vaccine - Immunization Program - Washington State Department of Health Source: doh.wa.gov
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Pruning social networking friends/follower/following lists again. Don't take it personally. Gotta keep the bigotry out.

Taking a break

Gonna grab a break before observing the Vigil of All Saint's Day. See y'all soon!



Copyright 2008-2009 Parin Stormlaughter, Sparkling With Crystals, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. I do not grant reprint permission. Use the ShareThis link if you want to share this. And remember that if my work gets published anywhere else without proper citation, I'll pray for you. And perhaps take legal action. Rest assured, prayer is far more effective.

Sharethis: Cancer Society, in Shift, Has Concerns on Screenings - NYTimes.com

It appears that a major, major shift in general public recommendations is ahead.

Cancer screenings "overpromised"
Cancer Society, in Shift, Has Concerns on Screenings - NYTimes.com Source: nytimes.com
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Egads, world, I just joined ping.fm
But that may be the limit of my useful brain power for today. Natural gas oven, Windex=Migraine & asthma

Sharethis: FTC: Bloggers must disclose payments for reviews - EarthLink - Technology News

And...there's another issue to consider: are remunerated bloggers correctly reporting this on their income tax returns? None of my business and I couldn't care less but it did cross my mind.

I do not and have never received any remuneration for either of my blogs--nope, not even an single penny or item. I have no financial interest in anything that's not in the Thrift Savings Plan (about whose investments I have no information nor could get any). Certainly nothing wrong with remuneration for blogging mentions, nothing at all. Sort of like personal testimonials and probably should be given the same weight.

I would be extremely interested in knowing whether doctors, therapists, advocates, bloggers--anyone from whom I receive information--have financial interests in anything they prescribe, mention, or recommend. My now-famously-former-not-to-be-mentioned Migraine speck told me, during an office visit, that he had not made enough money from his work on a med that he had shared with me in a prior office visit he had invented. He said this in the context of an attempt to persuade me to accept a prescription for it, as he was noting a contraindication for the med in my chart.

So no, he's not my doc anymore; however, the parting of ways wasn't until after I was "outed" to his staff. The parting letter was just as it should be, not a thing untoward about me or him either, nothing that would prejudice anyone who read it. No need for me to reproduce it here.

Other than my two most Excellent Assistant Offspring (who dealt with my disability issues and who still drive me and help me), only one person in the world knew his identity and my connection to him. I did not volunteer to tell this person his name. It was requested of me in an email. Very shortly thereafter, he and I were individually living happily ever after.

Be aware that NOTHING YOU PUT ON THE INTERNET IS PRIVATE, EVEN INFORMATION IN AN EMAIL. Nothing you tell anyone, no matter who you tell what to, will be kept private. Don't trust anyone asking for information who swears to have disinterest in anyone or anything: that person has his or her own best interest in mind, only and always. And perhaps a vested interest at that and man, wouldn't I like to know...

I have absolutely no concerns about sharing the boorish behaviour of this doctor. I will most assuredly never again share his identity with anyone.

You never know anyone that you don't know. And unless you travel with the unknown person, you won't truly know him or her as the old advice goes.

For another story of how the internet can work, check out this story. No joke, to me this doctor is yellow-bellied for not commenting on the post she didn't like. Of course, this is just from my point of view: I love a good argument even if I don't win.

FTC: Bloggers, disclose remuneration for reviews
FTC: Bloggers must disclose payments for reviews - EarthLink - Technology News Source: enews.earthlink.net
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When You Have Only Two Pennies Left

When you have only two pennies left in the world, buy a loaf of bread with one, and a lily with the other. -Chinese Proverb


Grow lilies. Bake bread. :)

Copyright 2008-2009 Parin Stormlaughter, Sparkling With Crystals, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. I do not grant reprint permission. Use the ShareThis link if you want to share this. And remember that if my work gets published anywhere else without proper citation, I'll pray for you. And perhaps take legal action. Rest assured, prayer is far more effective.

Sharethis: Cocoa May be Beneficial for Migraines , Headache & Migraine

What marvelous news for Migraineurs!

Some years ago I discovered that neither chocolate nor cocoa were Migraine triggers for me; however, craving chocolate was invariably a signal of impending Migraine attack. Whether I indulged my craving and ate any chocolate or not, it had no effect on the timing, frequency, or intensity of the attack.

Glad to see good news on the chocolate front.

Here's a very nice chocolate sauce that does have plenty of cocoa solids.


Rich Chocolate Sauce

2 squares unsweetened baking chocolate
6 tbs water
1/2 cup granulated sugar
dash salt (important for flavor)
1/4 tsp vanilla
4 tbs butter

Heat chocolate and water over low heat, or microwave on high for 30-60 seconds at a time, whisking until smooth.

Add sugar and salt. Continue heating and whisking until sugar is dissolved and sauce is slightly thickened.

Stir in vanilla and butter. Serve any way you like including in a dish by itself. Makes 1 cup.

Theobroma cacao good for Migraine pain
Cocoa May be Beneficial for Migraines , Headache & Migraine Source: emaxhealth.com
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IMPORTANT Sharethis: FDA requires strong amputation warning on sedative - EarthLink - Health News

9/21 Edit: for tyops. I shouldn't try to write when I can't.


***Simulposting***

I imagine this will be of interest to people who need emergency room and urgent care for situations such as, say, Migraine attacks.

This story is full of emotion for me. I'm a musician, was professional for a number of years. To lose one of my arms would have been the end of my career, as it was for the woman here.

This med is one I have had prescribed off and on in oral capsules for years with success. There is no amputation warning for oral administration, the way I read the article.

Phenergan is also a component of oral combination drugs such as Mepergan which I've also taken with success. Those of us who take it by mouth are not the people this new labeling requirement will affect, it appears.

PLEASE read the article. If your doctor administers Phenergan by injection (or directs that you receive it by that route) then you need to know this information.

Phenergan "amputation" warning now required labeling
FDA requires strong amputation warning on sedative - EarthLink - Health News Source: enews.earthlink.net
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Parin Stormlaughter has shared: Studies: Swine flu spreads long after fever stops - EarthLink - Health News

Explains why the doctor told Aikichik and Libchik to isolate themselves through Saturday. Their fevers are gone but they're still coughing like sixty.

Read the good article.

Coughing is better sign that you can still spread H1N1 than fever
Studies: Swine flu spreads long after fever stops - EarthLink - Health News Source: enews.earthlink.net
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