Here's my weight loss chart as of June 1, 2010.

My daughter, Catrina, has been working on more of her fantastic portrait drawings. You can see some of them, including her more recent works, on her gallery.

Oh, and in case you didn't know, we've been using her portrait of Norma Jeane Baker (AKA Marilyn Monroe) for the site logo for a while now... As you can see, Catrina has an affinity for classic movie stars and starlets.

Is it ethical for a doctor to talk up a drug in exchange for payments from drug companies?

You may be unaware of a practice that is considered 'ethical' conduct between drug companies and doctors. Doctors are offered compensation to give talks to other doctors about the benefits of certain drugs.

Here's an interesting story from a doctor on the receiving end of drug company 'incentives'. The story begins:

On a blustery fall New England day in 2001, a friendly representative from Wyeth Pharmaceuticals came into my office in Newburyport, Mass., and made me an offer I found hard to refuse. He asked me if I’d like to give talks to other doctors about using Effexor XR for treating depression. He told me that I would go around to doctors’ offices during lunchtime and talk about some of the features of Effexor. It would be pretty easy. Wyeth would provide a set of slides and even pay for me to attend a speaker’s training session, and he quickly floated some numbers. I would be paid $500 for one-hour “Lunch and Learn” talks at local doctors’ offices, or $750 if I had to drive an hour. I would be flown to New York for a “faculty-development program,” where I would be pampered in a Midtown hotel for two nights and would be paid an additional “honorarium.”

Dr. Michael Eades (www.proteinpower.com) uses the terms Lipophobe and Statinator to describe the seemingly single-mindedness of some in the medical establishment, often sounding like broken records... "Cut the fat!" "Reduce Cholesterol!"

His posts are a usually lengthy but well worth the read. Go on over and check them out!

i have a confession to make. yesterday morning started off pretty well. had 2 eggs and water for breakfast and planned to have coleslaw, fried chicken and a slice of apple pie for my lunch reward meal. but things didn't go as planned!

sent son for class at 12noon and was supposed to be back in the office by 1, have lunch between 1.15 to 2 then attend a meeting at 2.30. managed to reach office only 2pm only and was dying for lunch so decided to have my reward meal anyway.

planned menu of coleslaw, fried chicken and a slice of apple pie flew out of the window and ate whatever was available at the office cafe. Practically inhaled 1 bowl of curry mee ( too much mee with bits and pieces of chicken and veggie only) and 1 tuna sandwich with mayo and slices of cucumber and tomato.

Today marks the 24th day of my CALP diet. I can't believe it's been 24 days already since Dec 28, 2009 and i had only cheated once and that was only because i was at in law's place and she had gone to all the touble to cook a wonderful meal and i didn't have the heart to dissappoint that poor dear by not eating anything!

my clothes feel looser already and i have never felf more wonderful... i feel that i am doing this for me and need not to answer to anyone as to why i am eating this way because i know that i am finally doing the right thing! Hooray for me!

Here is my latest weight loss chart. The green star marker at 11/2009 indicates the date I started my Callanetics 10 Years Younger in 10 Hours exercise program and adjusted my portion sizes to fit my new body size.

As you can see, there is a noticeable acceleration of weight loss starting around the same time. Coincidence? I think not.

Wow, it is almost 2010. For the last 2-3 years of my life I have been searching and battling for a way to lose excess weight and maintain the loss with ease, without being deprived. Through my reading and research (and I have read many many diet/nutrition books) I have come to believe in controlled carbohydrate living. I don't believe anyone but God could change my mind about the benefits of a low-carb lifestyle. I am not afraid of fat, saturated fat, or living without grains and starches.

The problem is that I have a hard time being consistent. I can start a plan and follow it for a few weeks and then I fade. So, I've had to change my attitude.

I have lost quite a bit of weight and just now realized that I am eating too much for my new body size. My portion sizes are still what they were when I began following this program, so I have been cutting them down the last couple of days.

I have always known that eating again is as easy as grabbing another CM, but I always felt as if I needed to eat enough to hold me over until my next meal. Since I started this way of eating to lose weight and get myself into better shape, I have decided that changes need to be made. I will now be eating portions relative to my new size!

I will also be making another change to my program, since I feel as if I am in complete control of my sweet tooth now.

Aspirin, the wonder drug...

Here's yet another news item describing an apparent beneficial side-effect of aspirin use:

Aspirin Seen Aiding Colorectal Cancer Patients

It has long been known that people who took aspirin regularly were less likely to develop tumors of the colon, and now a study has found that even after a diagnosis of colorectal cancer, patients who took aspirin had a much better chance of surviving than non-users.
...
The paper was based on an observational study that followed 1,279 men and women with nonmetastatic colorectal cancer, and thus was not the kind of randomized controlled clinical trial considered the gold standard for determining the course of treatment in medicine.

What lends credence to the results is that doctors understand the biological mechanism by which aspirin may prevent the growth and slow the spread of colon cancer, since most colorectal cancer tumors are positive for cyclooxygenase-2, or COX-2, an enzyme that is not expressed in a healthy colon but flares up under certain circumstances, and aspirin is a COX-2 inhibitor.

Link

So, it's not quite conclusive... but it's still interesting, isn't it?