Grab Bag Fix-Its:

Here are 10 great fix-it tips from Lifehacker.com:

10. Use cola and foil to polish chrome

Chrome looks great when it’s new, and rather sad when it’s accumulated dirt and discoloration. Chemical-filled and wallet-lightening cleaners aren’t necessary, though. Apply a little cola—Coke, Pepsi, or whatever generic you’ve got handy—and rub down your shiny surface with aluminum foil, and you’ll retain the eye-catching shine to your antique bar, Harley, or whatever else has a glint to it.

9. Use baking soda and vinegar to fix funky towels

Over time, and with many washes, your bath towels will build up detergent and fabric softener residue, leaving them both unable to absorb as much water and smelling kinda funky when they do. Rather than give Target another lump sum, run them through the wash once with hot water and a cup of vinegar, then again with hot water and a half-cup of baking soda. That strips the residue from them, leaves them smelling fairly fresh again, and makes your post-shower experience a dryer one, at that.

8. Use salt to wipe up spilled egg

Even if you happen to have paper towels handy, spilled eggs tend to leave everything they touch feeling slimy and not-quite-hygienic. Sprinkle a good dose of table salt on the egg, wait about 10 minutes, and you’ll have a semi-solid mass that’s easy to pick up, and won’t leave your towel or broom a sticky mess.

7. Pour Coke into a dirty toilet

Out of Soft Scrub or other toilet-scaling potions? wikiHow recommends pouring a can of Coke into the bowl, letting it sit in the bowl for an hour or more, and then scrubbing the bowl clean. It doesn’t save you the manual effort, but your bowl will eerily get clean—and your soda habit may possibly diminish. The cola color should flush away, but if you’ve got soda water on hand, that might do the trick just as well.

6. DIY Drano for plugged pipes

Some landlords explicitly forbid tenants from using Drano, and some folks don’t love the idea of pouring it down the same sinks they drink and shower from. Reach instead into your cupboard and pull out some—yeah, you probably guessed it—baking soda and vinegar, and match in the amounts prescribed by the Bonzai Aphrodite blog, along with some very hot water. That should agitate and gently dissolve anything that’s not too greasy or stone-solid in your plumbing. If your problem specifically involves some stuff that’s, ah, stuck in the toilet, try grabbing some dishwasher detergent.

5. Use Kool-Aid lemonade to clean a dishwasher

Cleaning a dishwasher seems weird and unnecessary from a glance—doesn’t the thing fill itself with soapy water all the time? Over time, though, iron will stain the surfaces and lime deposits build up on the surfaces of your dishwasher, leaving it a place you don’t want to stash the plates you eat from. Real Simple finds a solution in unsweetened, lemonade-flavored Kool-Aid packets. Load a packet into your dishwasher’s detergent cup, run it empty through a normal cycle, and the citric acid in everyone’s favorite bug juice de-gunks the surfaces it would be a pain to reach.

4. Clean and de-scratch an LCD monitor

The basics of cleaning any LCD monitor start with avoiding alcohol—cleaning with it, at least. Turn off the monitor, dampen a soft, lint-free cloth with water, and wipe. If it’s one of those fancy high-gloss monitors, there’s just a footnote of using a micro-fiber cloth and cleaning in small sections. The since-defunct Hackosis once offered tips on fixing a scratched LCD monitor, including using petroleum jelly to temporarily smooth and visually restore scratches and re-lacquering screens with notable scratches. If you’ve got something small, you’re in luck—the pencil eraser method might work.

3. Get rid of underarm stains

We know you use deodorant. We know you wash your clothes. Perspiration stains still somehow work their way into your lighter-colored clothes. Men’s Flair runs down the best sweat-cleaning methods, such as citrus and baking soda/Borax combos, and we can also recommend an aspirin-based solution. What this guide also teaches, though, is that drying clothes in the sun helps to whiten them more than a dryer.

2. Clean a DSLR lens

Unlike with LCD screens, a little alcohol solution is actually a good idea when you’re cleaning your DSLR lens—just not too much. Digital Photography School lays out the best tools, including cleaning cloths, blowers, UV/skylight filters, and a few other items. One of the cheaper items you can supplement your camera bag with is found in all kinds of boxes: silica gel packets. Stashing them in your bag keeps moisture away from the lens, which in turn requires less time for cleaning, which frees you up to actually, you know, shoot pictures.

1. Get marker off any surface

We know how to get accidental permanent marker off a dry-erase board—write over it with a dry-erase marker, then wipe away both layers. If you or a youngster managed to run a Sharpie on something else, Public Realty Blog suggests baking soda toothpaste. Maybe it’s a ringing endorsement for its ability to remove plaque and grime from your teeth. Even if not, keeping a spare tube handy seems like a good idea, as evidenced by the video demonstration.

Grab Bag Nutrition Mission:

I often hear people say that they try to lose weight and they can’t… that they just don’t know (or don’t want to know?) where they are going wrong. Or they just want to eat healthier because they know it is better for their long-term health, but they can’t resist all the goodies they hate to love. SO many factors go into how and what we eat. Here’s a great summary of our complicated issues with food from Nicki Collins’ nutrition blog:

Ever wondered “why do we eat”?

We eat for many reasons, primarily because it is an essential function of life, but there are other reasons as well which include:

• Physiological need – hunger, satiety, metabolism
• Sensory appeal – smell, appearance
• Habit – social norm, timing, availability, peer pressure

Food habits refer to:

• Timing of meals
• Size of meals
• Number of meals
• Method of preparation
• People with whom meals are eaten

What we eat is strongly influenced by factors such as:

• Health belief
• Nutritional knowledge 
• Food availability
• Culture
• Religion
• Income
• Taste and texture of food
• Education
• Childhood experience

Nicki brings up some great points. And given all those variables, it’s important to understand what baggage each of us brings to the (dinner) table.

If you have issues that are truly holding you back from making the changes you want to make, research shows that Group Therapy for eating issues has some of the best results. 

OK… but for the majority of eaters… acknowledge your inner child, your needs, your whatever, and then move on… get healthy. Nothing in the list above is a valid reason for eating yourself into perilous health. 

Here are some tips to work towards that I have seen or developed in my own eating habits that have been helpful…

Healthy Eating Tips

 1. You NEED TO eat every 3-4 hours. Especially around 4:00PM. THIS IS KEY… and… most importantly… you need to think ahead 4 hours every time you eat. If you remind yourself you will be eating something again in 4 hours, you will be much more likely to stop eating at a reasonable point.

2. Eat a healthy breakfast every day. This sets a psychological and physiological eating pattern for the remainder of the day.

3. Most of your carbs should be eaten by lunchtime.

 

4. Cut normal portions in HALF (at a restaurant, ask the waiter to do this BEFORE it is brought to the table, and to put the other half in a box to go, so you can eat it at another meal).

5. Each time you eat you NEED TO take in some protein along with clean fats and/or complex carbohydrates.

6. You should try to avoid white flour whenever possible, striving for only whole wheat (bread, pasta,etc.), and not a whole lot at that.

 

7. If weight loss is a goal, alcohol needs to be ELIMINATED for the time being, and later add a glass of wine and see how your system tolerates the empty calories.

8. Try not to ingest ANY sugar substitutes.

9. Drink green tea every day (if made fairly weak, drink up to 8 cups daily) along with water between each time you eat.

10. Keep your food choices fairly narrow. An overly adventuresome palate can take you down roads you did not intend to go.

 

11. Try to avoid commercial soft drinks (duh) and fruit juices -fresh or not! … and here’s my theory… how many oranges would you have to eat to get the equivalent amount of juice in your morning OJ? Would you eat that many oranges for breakfast? I didn’t think so. The rush of blood sugar from most juices (it’s what they often give people threatening a diabetic coma, for God’s sake) sets up an equal and opposite insulin reaction that is just not good for you AT ALL. On top of that, many people drink OJ on an empty stomach, first thing in the morning, with NO fat or protein to slow that insulin reaction. AND… they do it EVERY day. YIKES!! 

12. Drink water!

13. Try not to eat after 8PM.

And here are some suggestions of good guys and bad guys:

Healthy proteins:

NO MORE THAN 4ozs. at a time of: • Fish, chicken, turkey, eggs (remove half the yolks) almonds, hazelnuts, filet mignon or other lean beef, low or non-fat plain yogurt, low-fat cottage cheese, organic almond butter (limited), organic peanut butter (limited)… explore and read about others.

Healthy fats:

• Olive oil • nuts • avocados • Full or low-fat (not non-fat) cottage cheese and greek yogurt • Organic almond and peanut butter (limited) 

Healthy Carbs:

• Whole grain/whole wheat bread (½ or one slice at meal time, with olive oil on it) • 100% rye bread  (one slice)  • All veggies (except corn, carrots, beets, acorn squash, butternut squash and potatoes) • Low-glycemic fruits (list to follow) • Whole grain pasta (LIMITED AMOUNT) • Ak-Mak crackers (2 per serving) • soybeans (edamame) • Steel-cut oatmeal

Some of your BEST Friends:

• All berries (no more than 3/4 of a cup at a time…. preferably 1/2 a cup), 1/2 an apple, 1/2 a peach, cantaloupe, cherries, plums, GRAPEFRUIT • Cinnamon (put this on anything… helps keep blood sugar levels stable) • Veggies • Low-fat/non-fat dairy • Turkey • Egg whites • Black Pepper

Some of your WORST Enemies:

• Potatoes, rice, WHITE BREAD • SUGAR • Most sauces • Most cuts of red meat • Salt • PRACTICALLY ANYTHING OUT OF A PACKAGE • Please consider ANYTHING fried as if it was a cigarette. Really. Would you ever? 

Grab Bag Lyin’ with Lions:

Not new, but lovely interaction between Kevin Richardson, a lioness and her cubs:

Grab Bag Brain Game:

Take the Full Civic Liberty Exam. They say average score is 49%. College professors averaged 55%. Bahahaha… I got 75% and my sis Tally got 85%… so take that, college profs!

Grab Bag Funny Stuff:

If animals could talk.

 

Grab Bag Salt Shaker:

Consumer Reports points out that reducing your sodium intake (which most Americans should do, especially those that eat anything from a package, and who doesn’t, really?) is harder than just ruling out the obvious offenders.

Take this quiz to test your salt savvy as to where hidden caches of sodium may be lurking:

Grab Bag Jean Jacker:

You finally find the right pair of jeans, but lo and behold, they were cut long enough to double as slippers when you walk around, and the store wants an arm and a leg to “do the hem right”. What does that mean? It means the  finished “jeans” hem will look the same, not a regular turned hem.

Here’s a GREAT tutorial on how to shorten your jeans yourself and keep the original hem. If you don’t have a machine of your own, lay all the ground work and find a friend who does… it will take about 10-15 minutes on the sewing machine, MAX.

Click the picture for the full, short tutorial:

Grab Bag Leverage Your Levis:

So your old jeans are the right length, but you’re over them. WAIT! Jeans are just too good to get rid of. And denim doesn’t go away too easily in a land fill, so recycle!

Check out these suggestions from WiseBread.com via SavvySugar.com (comments and suggestions, unless specifically indicated, are not mine):

16 Things to Do With Old Jeans

(It was 25, but 9 of them sucked. -LK)

• Pot holders  In my opinion, these look far better out of used denim than the new stuff. And you can incorporate your own style via choice of trim or a patch stitched to the outside. Here’s a link to some tips for making your own.
• Cool quilts. You can do this in many forms. Different shades of denim patchwork options abound and are certainly sturdy and fun.
• Hanging sleeves for storing plastic bags and cleaning rags This is an idea I came up when trying to find a workable solution for giving up paper towels. I needed something convenient to store my cleaning rags in and made several out of the legs of old blue jeans.
• Purses and backpacks. These are tons of fun as beach bags and particularly popular with the younger crowd. Easily jazzed up with pins various bits of clip on “flair”. Here are one and two separate links for various sets of project directions.
• Patches. Note from LK: The best look I have accomplished (back in the day for me, and now for my son) is to patch holes from the inside with fabric you want to show through hole for a design emphasis. My son likes bandanas, but any cotton fabric will do… I just pin a larger-than-necessary patch into place from the inside and sew around the existing hole from the outside, well back from the frayed edge, then trim the excess patching fabric away.
• Pimp the heck out of them. (Note from LK – this is sounding pretty solidly 90′s, but I will give a nod to any bling that still looks good…. just haven’t seen any lately. I’m just sayin’…) Options abound here. Pimp My Jeans is a great site to look for inspiration when jazzing up old jeans. They also have a great idea pictured there for a way hip fabric grocery bag of pieced together old denim. You’ll be strolling to your favorite New York grocery in style with that one. Here is an additional link for airbrushing designs on your denim. My favorite though, is this way cool how to video from Threadbanger that shows you how to get a vintage tint as well as providing some easy fabric distressing techniques.
• Make a 3-pocket electric gadget protector.  I found this set of directions on Instructables.
• Journal, photo album and school book covers.  Say what? I found this neat online project for a jean-covered journal or album held closed with a funky belt. Really fun.
• Coffee cozies.  Love these! As with some of the other projects, you can really put your own spin on them. I found several blog posts on doing your own. This first one is quite similar to the one pictured below. The second? Slightly different with a button closure. Still cute though. If I had my sewing machine out of storage, I’d seriously be looking into making a few of these for Christmas package tuck-ins.
• Custom camera bag.  Here’s a set of directions for a denim camera bag. Personal verdict? Pretty neat idea.
• Unusual covered gift box. I thought this one was particularly out of the norm. Should make a fun package for a teen present, don’t you think? Here’s a link.
• Reusable lunch sacks.  This one  is simply made from a leg that’s been sewn closed.
• This one was decorated with primary colored embellishments because it was designed for children. But I think you could be as individual here as with some of the jazz-up-your-jeans ideas listed above (patches, airbrushing, crystals). It’s made from a pant leg. How cool!
• Blue jean table.  Pretty darned unusual, I must say. This is another item that is shown with more of a children’s room look. But I think you could pull this off with leather accents in a wild west art gallery or with silver studs and tears for a more urban feel. A bit quirky, but if you like that sort of thing . . .
• Christmas stockings.  Here’s a set of directions for making stockings out of old blue jeans(PDF). Use whatever trim and lining ideas you want.
• Knee pads for gardening.  Here’s a set of directions for knee pads. You might need to use an old denim skirt or jumper for this one, but I still think it has merit, if you happen to have the time.
• Beer cozies. Check out this homemade deep pocket cold beverage cozy. There aren’t detailed directions, but there are pictures from several angles. So if you sew, you can probably get the idea.

Grab Bag Grab:

‘Atta girl…..

Grab Bag Brain Game:

OK… I DARE you to dive back into this little knee-deep puddle of an algebra game. It’s good for you…

Grab Bag Funny Stuff:

Jobs in Heaven

Grab Bag Breast Buddy Advice:

The Breast Cancer Fund has a specific mission: to help expose and eliminate environmental sources that contribute to breast cancer. For those who are cancer survivors, their Tips for Prevention are of paramount importance, as they should be for all women.

You will find dedicated sections there, explaining the hazards that may be found in:

 • Air and Water

 • Food

 • Plastics

 • Health Care

 • Household Products

 • Cosmetics

In focusing on the last category, of note is their list of harmful chemicals to avoid in cosmetics, which are often found in:

• - Hair dyes, especially dark permanent dyes.
• - Liquid hand soaps with triclosan/triclocarban.
• - Nail polish and removers with formaldehyde, DBP or toluene (which can be contaminated with benzene).
• - Skin lighteners with hydroquinone.
• - Heavily scented products.
• - Moisturizers, ointments and skin creams with petrolatum (which can be contaminated with PAHs).
• - Fungicides, shaving creams, hair gels and hair coloring containing nonylphenol.
• - Hair spray, gel, mousse or shaving cream that contains isobutane, that can be contaminated with 1,3-butadiene.
• - Sunscreens with UV filters that mimic estrogen.

And very worthy of your careful consideration is this advice:

• - Avoid fragrance, which can include hundreds of toxic ingredients.
• - Use truly natural products and avoid empty claims of “natural” or “organic.”
• - Read labels completely, avoiding words you do not recognize and can not pronounce.
• - Follow your nose when choosing a nail or hair salon, ensure they are using proper ventilation.

Please familiarize yourself with all the Tips for Prevention from the Breast Cancer Fund. I want to be clear that I do not believe that eliminating toxins from your environment will give anyone immunity from breast cancer. But these steps certainly cannot harm you, and are very worth taking if you wish to maximize your health and minimize your risk of cancer. So… why WOULDN’T you?

Grab Bag View to Your Heart:

Your eyes may have a lot to say when it comes to your cardiac health picture. If you notice yellowish lumps on the lids above or below the eye, an increased risk of dangerous high cholesterol may be indicated, and certainly needs to be checked. But with these eyelid lumps, even if your numbers are normal, a long-term Danish study showed increased risk of heart attack. Maximizing your lifestyle choices for optimal heart health would surely be your best defense to begin with. The earlier the bumps appear, the higher the heart risk. Keep an eye out for these

In addition, look deep into your eyes … if you see a white ring forming around the outer border of the iris, this “arcus” may be an indication of potential heart disease as well.

Grab Bag Hands-Only CPR:

Last year I mentioned that CPR recommendations were changing, although mouth-to-mouth was still being taught in many classes. Now these new guidelines are available online, as well as a downloadable app for your mobile device.

Hopefully this will be less intimidating for people to consider if confronted with a life-or-death situation. The old standard of 30 compressions and 2 breaths is not necessarily wrong, but the new recommendations recognize that the fast and nearly uninterrupted chest compressions of roughly 100 per minute are the most important.

Traditional CPR with mouth-to-mouth breathing should be applied in the following scenarios:

• All infants (see below)

• Children (up to age 8)

• Adults found already unconscious and not breathing normally

• Victims of drowning, drug over-dose or collapse due to breathing problems

If an infant needs CPR (best determined by estimating if a baby’s head + torso fits on your forearm ) follow this simple video:

Links to the videos above can be found under the Health/Medical section on the right side of every page here.

Grab Bag Stuck Like Glue:

Ever try to glue something and have multiple failed attempts? A lot of people keep Super Glue handy and pull it out for nearly everything… and it often fails. Why? Here’s a good explanation from a Lifehacker forum participant about the limits of the little bottle of sticky stuff:

Super glue made mostly of Cyanoacrylate ( [en.wikipedia.org] ), a quick bonding acrylic resin (read: brittle) chemical that start to form when come in contact with water or just moisture. There are many brands of super glue, each with different compound to make the glue stay liquid and gel-like or to strengthen it, but they doesn’t last well in the long run. This stuff is easily affected by head and moisture, when the outside areas expose to air for a long time, they start to become brittle and weak, eventually they form cracks and destroy the whole glue patch. Also, sometime when the glue blob is to thick, the glue just couldn’t harden inside of the blob, since the area around it has become a solid trap, separate the inside glue with moisture outside. That’s why super glue works better in filling small area, since there are not much area to form cracks. But on flat, smooth surface, it is likely to begin breaking as soon as it is dried.

There are a few ways to fix this issue. One is using a fine powder to fill the surface, such as sawdust or baking soda. Baking soda can also work as an accelerator, so the glue will harden quicker than normal. Two is to apply the super glue into both sides of a paper towel or plastic net (as I often do), then place it between the surfaces you want to fix. The second method also works very well to make a strong protective cover/wrapping.

DO NOT USE SUPER GLUE WITH ANY COTTON OR WOOL MATERIALS. THEY WILL GIVE OF A LOT OF HEAT AND COULD BURN.

Speaking from experience: You can remove super glue by using Acetone (Nail polish remover), but be careful since Acetone is very strong, it could destroy any plastic, acrylic materials. Instead, use Nitromethane, which can be found in gasolie can also be used and easier to obtain.

[Here's another tip: If you ever need to fill gaps in plastics, metals, wood, or stone that will be painted later, apply Super Glue, then sprinkle a liberal amount of baking soda on, let dry for a few seconds, remove excess baking soda (do NOT get this mixture on your skin) and sand smooth.]

To help get it right the first time, check out this chart of which glue to use for what application. Click on the chart to link to a full explanation of what each adhesive is good at and why, as well as how long each glue takes to dry, and to cure. For future reference, this link can be found in the Fix It section in the right column of every page here.

* These glues are not ideal for adhering the material but can be sufficient if the project is small and lightweight, and non-functional (craft only). When using hot glue for styrofoam projects, choose a low-temperature glue gun only. High-temperature hot glue will most likely refuse to bond and melt the plastic, which gives off harmful fumes. Also note that only waterproof glues should be used on ceramics such as mugs, dishware and vases. Lastly, if your paper projects involve fine artwork (or anything you’d like to keep for a very long time) you should use archival adhesives instead of the standard glues above.

Grab Bag Passport:

Ever seen the Sistine Chapel? Want to see it again? The last and only time I was inside, scaffolding was covering about ⅓ of the interior. So I really enjoyed this amazing, rotational, zoomable view, which is SO much better than being there because:

1. You can zoom in far closer than your eyes can take you in real life.

2. There are no other people blocking your views, talking, bumping into you and smelling weird.

3. You didn’t have to wait 20 minutes in line, in 87°  temperature for this.

4. You didn’t have to fly a dozen hours to get there… just click on the picture below.

Ciao…. drop us a line when you get there.

Grab Bag Brain Game:

Here are some memory challenges in four different categories from National Geographic. Select a category (animals, landscapes, numbers and letters), view the position of 9 images in a 3 x 3 grid for 10 seconds, and when they are removed from the grid, drag them back into the correct position as quickly as possible. Each category tests a slightly different set of memory skills… go for it

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MEMORY GAME

  

Grab Bag Funny Stuff:

THE GYNECOLOGIST WHO BECAME A MECHANIC

 

 A gynecologist had become fed up with malpractice insurance and HMO paperwork, and was burned out.

Hoping to try another career where skillful hands would be beneficial, he decided to become a  mechanic. He went to the local technical college, signed up for evening classes, attended diligently, and learned all he could.

When the time of the practical exam approached, the gynecologist prepared carefully for weeks, and completed the exam with tremendous skill. When the results came back, he was surprised to find that he had obtained a score of 150%.

Fearing an error, he called the instructor, saying, “I don’t want to appear ungrateful for such an outstanding result, but I wonder if there is an error in the grade?”

The instructor said, “During the exam, you took the engine apart perfectly, which was worth 50% of the total mark. You put the engine back together again perfectly, which is also worth 50% of the mark.”

After a pause, the instructor added, “I gave you an extra 50% because you did it all through the muffler, which I’ve never seen done in my entire career”.

Thanks to my very dignified mom for sending this

very dignified story awhile ago.

Grab Bag Medical Microscope:

Science-Based Medicine is a site that prides itself in a scientific approach to assessing (and debunking) medical claims, advice, associations and reports. Its stated mission is:

dedicated to evaluating medical treatments and products of interest to the public in a scientific light, and promoting the highest standards and traditions of science in health care. Online information about alternative medicine is overwhelmingly credulous and uncritical, and even mainstream media and some medical schools have bought into the hype and failed to ask the hard questions.

We provide a much needed “alternative” perspective — the scientific perspective.

Good science is the best and only way to determine which treatments and products are truly safe and effective. That idea is already formalized in a movement known as evidence-based medicine (EBM). EBM is a vital and positive influence on the practice of medicine, but it has limitations and problems in practice: it often overemphasizes the value of evidence from clinical trials alone, with some unintended consequences, such as taxpayer dollars spent on “more research” of questionable value. The idea of SBM is not to compete with EBM, but a call to enhance it with a broader view: to answer the question “what works?” we must give more importance to our cumulative scientific knowledge from all relevant disciplines.

SBM’s authors are all medically trained and have spent years writing for the public about science and medicine, tirelessly advocating for high scientific standards in health care.

I must say up front, on early reading, that this site appears to be entirely dismissive of most (or maybe all) alternative therapies, any anecdotal evidence, and pretty much anything that hasn’t been scoped, cut or drugged under a highly selective set of criteria –  a position with which I disagree, as it invalidates the individual in favor of crunching scientific data EVERY TIME. But they are there to serve this specific criteria, and to help maintain a focus designed for a very narrow depth of field.

I’m not sure it helps their cause that they often write in a highly sarcastic style in doing so.

The site also slams Dr. Oz for promoting “quackery“, decrying the media-darling’s propensity for offering alternative health options. While I agree that many useless and ineffective alternative ”remedies” have been successfully marketed to millions, it again seems like throwing out the baby with the bathwater.

My take: The time to try alternative, “scientifically unproven” methods is when:

A) a failure would not be catastrophic to your health

B) all other options you are willing to consider have failed

On the flip side, I think this site has a voice that should be heard, and that it should be one of a number of resources consulted when exploring medical issues. For example, there is a good piece on examining the current popularity of “gluten-free” diets, opining that the candida problem of years ago has morphed into the gluten sensitivities now “diagnosed” in hoards today.

So…. WTF (no….. silly…..What Therapy First)? Between last week’s post on questioning the possible bias in reviewing medical studies at The Cochrane Review, and this week’s offering of Science-Based Medicine and it’s seemingly narrow window of acceptability, where are we to go with this?

It’s really not that much different from the current political race. Each side extolls their own views and criticizes the others. I just don’t think we’ll ever get a lot of distance from that.

Bottom line… both sides are attempting to provide information and advice for the majority who are interested.

Read. Take what seems right. Leave the rest. Keep searching.

In the process of researching this post I have run across what appears to be a well-rated book on the topic of alternative therapies… I might give this a read when I have the time… click to read the reviews on Amazon:

Grab Bag Trivia:

OK… enough of the heavy stuff… here’s a little cocktail conversation tidbit:

Grab Bag Hipster:

Copied from RealAge.com (run by none other than Dr. Oz, that monger of medical alternatives… and I love him for it!), this article on hip/joint pain also links to an interesting quiz you can take to assess how your joints stack up for your age:

A sore hip makes everything more difficult — from sleeping to walking up stairs. But you could keep those hips of yours feeling fine if you’re a lover of garlic and onions.

About 15 percent of older adults regularly deal with hip pain. But in a recent study of women, those who tended to eat lots of produce — particularly herbs from the allium family, such as onions and garlic — showed fewer signs of hip osteoarthritis in x-ray tests.

Arthritis-Fighting Allium
The study analyzed the diets of a large group of middle-aged adult twins, most of whom did not have symptoms of arthritis when the study started. Eating lots of allium herbs correlated with less arthritis in the hip. And in a separate lab analysis, researchers also found that diallyl disulphide — a substance found in the allium family — appeared to help inhibit enzymes that can cause damage to joint-protective cartilage. (Store your onions this way to increase their cancer-fighting powers.)

Culinary Cartilage Protection
Garlic and onions are probably the widest known allium produce. But there are also leeks, shallots, scallions, and chives to consider. Each adds its own unique flavor to savory dishes. Try topping baked potatoes with chives, slip some roasted garlic on top of that pizza, put some onions on your sandwiches, and give vegetable dishes extra herb flare with roasted leeks and shallots. (Find out what other foods help keep joints healthy.)

Are your hips lying? Take the JointAge Quiz to find out how old your hips — and knees and hands — really are.

Grab Bag Better Than Average Joes:

I couldn’t find a 2011 list, but many of the products from this 2010 list of Top Products at Trader Joe’s are still available. I’ld love to hear from readers… are YOUR favorites here? Let’s hear what they are.

1. Frozen Mandarin Orange Chicken (a list topper year after year)
2. Triple Ginger Snap Cookies
3. Hummus
4. Frozen Gyoza
5. Frozen Croissants (Chocolate & Mini)
6. 19 ¢ Bananas
7. Charles Shaw Wines
8. Greek Yogurt
9. Whole Wheat/Multigrain English Muffins
10. Frozen Roasted Chicken Burgers
11. Chocolate Covered Almonds
12. Candy Cane Joe Joe’s*
13. Vanilla Joe Joe’s
14. All Natural Brined Turkeys*
15. Pumpkin Bread & Muffin Mix*
16. Olive Oils
17. Sourdough Bread
18. Pumpkin Butter*
19. Brussels Sprouts on the Stalk*
20. Almond Butter with Flax
21. 21 Seasoning Salute
22. Uncured Turkey Bacon
23. Pumpkin Cream Cheese Spread*
24. Cranberry Orange Relish*
25. Frozen Pumpkin Ice Cream*
26. Frozen Joe’s Diner Mac ‘n Cheese
27. Sour Morello Cherries
28. Peanut Butter Pretzels
29. Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups
30. Frozen Pumpkin Soufflés*
31. Dark Chocolate Sea Salt Caramels*
32. Organic Tomato & Roasted Red Pepper Soup
33. Frozen Sweet Potato Fries
34. Frozen Steel Cut Oatmeal
35. Spiced Apple Cider*
36. Pita Bite Crackers
37. Organic Olive Oil Popcorn
38. Frozen Mahi Mahi
39. Lemon Curd
40. Lavender Dryer Bag
41. Goat Cheese with Honey
42. Dried Pitted Tart Montmorency Cherries
43. Garden Patch Vegetable Juice
44. Instant Spiced Chai
45. Bruschetta
46. Frozen Seeded Rolls
47. Frozen Chicken Tikka Masala
48. Blue Granite Jack Cheese Slices
49. The Trader Joe’s Crew not for sale—priceless.
50. Sparkling Water
51. Frozen Vegetable Masala Burgers

* seasonal products

Grab Bag Brain Game:

Are you left or right brained? Click here to find out:

Grab Bag Funny Stuff:

Perspective is important….

To add emphasis on importance and reduce distraction, I have chosen to post just two topics this week (but there’s still a Brain Game and some Funny Stuff!).

By necessity, both of them are longer than those usually found here. I hope you thave the time to read them both …. I feel they each have some theoretical value as well as practical application.

Happy discovering……

Grab Bag Renaissance Rule:

For those who haven’t noticed a single thread of consistency in this “Grab Bag” of stuff I throw out each week, I say, “Ya…. and your point?“. But… if you pull back and squint your eyes and look at it JUUUUSSST right… you can see that there truly IS a theme lurking here:

Do It Yourself

And by that, I mean I hope to find the best information, the best resources to assist in fixing, changing and improving things in life that need attention.

It’s about taking charge, mastering destiny and assuming responsibility…. and that sounds very grandiose, doesn’t it?

• But it starts in making daily health choices.  (Do I exercise or don’t I? Do I eat this or eat that?)

• It starts in an organized closet. (Do I need this or not? Where should it go?)

• It starts in trying to make/bake something instead of buying it. (Can I make this?)

• It starts in fixing something you would normally call somebody else to fix. (What’s there to lose? It’s already broken.)

It’s about the living the fundamentals of Renaissance humanism, which:

considers humans empowered, limitless in their capacities for development, and leads to the notion that people should embrace all knowledge and develop their capacities as fully as possible.

Our developing cultural has spun us into a socio-economic existence that fairly demands we specialize in order to have a contribution of value. But there is an undesirable side-affect – we have convinced ourselves that, without expertise, we have no worthy input. We have become complacent with handing over responsibility to others, and in doing so we suffer a disconnect of our own potential to support and improve our daily lives.

I say humbug (an 18th century term for “bullshit”). There isn’t a whole lot in our daily lives that approaches brain surgery or rocket science or even major auto repair. For those, I’d call an expert. But even then, I would hope I could be an educated member of a team that together makes decisions on my issue.

We need to be “polymaths“… those who possess multiple talents. When we can gain understanding about our environment, we feel capable and secure. It’s good for us!

We are all capable of gaining knowledge, and that is truly the first step in mastering everything from changing windshield wipers to building a house to guiding our healthcare choices. 

Good rule to consider: If failure will be catastrophic, consult a pro If failure can be tolerated, go for it!

To that end, my Renaissance friends, here is a list of links filled with resourcefulness and empowerment for your daily existence:

• HowStuffWorks.com - Answering useful as well as totally-superfluous-but-fun-to-know queries

• iFixit.com - Free tutorials and do-it-yourself repair guides for personal electronics, vehicles, appliances, cameras and computers.

• Homerepair.about.com - Great resource for home maintenance and repair. Knowledge is power… so even if you don’t attempt it yourself (which I know you COULD), read up before the plumber/electrician/carpenter shows up.

• Manualsonline.com - Everybody misplaces their manuals now and then (Tip: dedicate a box, file, drawer or binder to ALL manuals, and PUT THEM THERE!)… find over 300,000 from 5,000 brands here online, for laptops, power tools, cameras, refrigerators, lawn mowers, TVs, cell phones, sewing machines, scanners, thermostats, clock radios, ovens, printers and washing machines.

• Repairclinic.com - Free clinics and advice and a huge replacement parts inventory for household appliances and outdoor power equipment.

• SearsPartsDirect.com - SEARiously big database for over 7 million parts that you might need for any brand Sears carries.

• GoVacuum.com - Parts and accessories for that one appliance that seems to be the needy child of the bunch.

Grab Bag Medical Helper or Manipulator?:

I HAD been preparing this post to offer of The Cochrane Reviews as a resource in matters of health choices both minor and major. In sharing my discovery of this entity, an M.D. friend of mine expressed dismay at the methods of review, and conclusions offered, by this organization.

The criticism was directed at the reviews of the studies on mammography, the limited and selective results the Cochrane Reviews chose to consider, and the conclusions they offered based on those parameters. 

So this post is first a reminder that the nuggets of “results” and “statistics” we get handed each evening on the nightly news – those that engender our fears or buoy our confidence – can be and often are skewed to represent the opinions or interests of those who coalesce such information. It is a reminder to all that one resource alone is a dangerous concept on which to rely.

We must remember that ANY source of information may have motivating factors behind it that skew the findings. Data can be pre-selected to show a result in line with the opinion of the controller. In addition, varying statistics and conclusions can be drawn even within the same data. So we need to take all conclusions and consider the context and source. My friend is an outstanding MD, with years of hard work and leadership in cutting edge medical technology to show for it, so I defer to that perspective and opinion over this website. It’s all about weighing the evidence.

But I’m not one to throw out the baby with the bath water. While their conclusions may be suspect in mammography, they may have value on other areas, if they are one of numerous sources considered on any topic. I think there is still a place for their input, if carefully weighed in perspective.

To illustrate that point, here is a quote about a Cochrane Review on statin drugs from Dr. Steven Novella, a Yale-trained MD who himself is the founder of a site (which is a good one I will cover next week) which profiles controversy in science and medecine:

This does make for an interesting science-based medicine conversation. In this case the two sides largely agree on the data, but differ in terms of how to apply that data to the practice of medicine. This, I feel, can be a very constructive controversy. This is exactly the kind of question that should be agonized over by experts. While I think the Cochrane reviewers are displaying a negative bias against statins, they do provide balance to the pro-statin bias of pharmaceutical companies who sell statins. In the end, the data is out there and practitioners and patients will be better informed in making decisions about statin use. I am concerned about media reporting of this issue. It is easy to oversimplify the take-home message as “statins do not work” and I have already read commentaries quoting this study to support that position.

So… now that we comfortably sit with the discomforting realization that data is often manipulated, let’s move on to our personal needs…

Ever wonder if that glucosamine you’re taking is REALLY helping your joints? Where can you find a straight answer? Tough to know. Or… if the day should arrive when a concerning health diagnosis is delivered to you or a loved one, be prepared to wade into a deep pool of treatment options and protocols. There are so many new developments every year for so many diseases that the options become overwhelming. If you seek second and third opinions (which I feel one should), the clouds may get thicker as the opinions on treatment can be diverse.

Even treatments for things like colds and flu can be controversial. What’s a patient to believe? How does one weigh the touted benefits of one treatment over another?

The Cochrane Reviews coalesce and review the quality of medical studies and deliver a conclusion (or, perhaps, an “opinion”), when possible, based on their findings.

Here are just a few of the recent interesting Cochrane reviews on research: Use of antibiotics for sinus infections, Epidurals for pain relief in labor, Glucosamine for osteoarthritis, and Cognitive stimulation for people with dementia.

This site, among others, may be just one resource you consider when weighing treatments for whatever ails you.

More analysis on medical reviews and information to come next week.

Grab Bag Brain Game:

Grab Bag Funny Stuff:

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