My Facebook Feed is Annoying Me

I keep my mouth shut about a lot of things that show up in my feed, but I'm feeling opinionated and feel the need to express it so here goes. It's completely okay if you disagree, I can be friends with people that don't agree with me. I don't really want to argue though, I'm more or less venting,

GMO food products are safe. They have saved millions from starvation and there is no evidence that GMO foods currently available are dangerous. Avoiding all GMO foods because there might be one developed that is unhealthy at some point would be like automatically avoiding all medications despite a need for them.

Essential oils are a marketing and profit-driven situation and they don't work as advertised.

Homeopathy isn't science. Any healing obtained is probably something that would have happened anyway or caused by the power of the mind, AKA the placebo effect. You may as well just drink water and convince yourself it's a cure because watering down active ingredients until there isn't enough of them to do the job is basically the same thing.

Multi-level marketing might work for you or somebody you know, but it won't work for me. I have to much social anxiety to be successful with sales or building down-lines. There have been multiple instances of companies making loads of money off the backs of participants by pushing motivational material and events at high costs without providing them with any direct or needed benefit to their business. Companies and key individuals made loads of money off of speaking events and motivational material sales but weren't really drawing in money from actual effective multi-level marketing. It was a sham. Any of you Amway folks remember Quixtar? That was a spectacular failure for people trying to build businesses online.

I have said it before and I'll say it again. I don't believe that gluten sensitivity even exists and I don't think it's the absence or reduction of gluten in your new diet that made you feel better. It was more likely the overall reduction of refined carbs and sugars that did the trick. Celiac disease is real, and certain wheat type allergies are very real but rare. Eliminating gluten from your diet if you have an actual allergy problem or have Celiac disease makes sense, but the rest of you have been swept up by a marketing fad fueled by book authors and food manufacturers that just want your money.

Vaccines are safe and absolutely necessary. Anti-vaxxers are effectively Pro-Plague. The study that started their whole movement was a fraud to begin with but that hasn't stopped them. Some lessons in basic high school chemistry should be enough to disprove most of the claims of dangerous chemicals in vaccines. Vaccines are medications and of course, there are instances where they are not safe or appropriate for certain people. There aren't enough problems for enough people for people to be avoiding all vaccines all the time though. Some people don't react well to specific blood pressure or heart medications. It doesn't mean that everyone should avoid all blood pressure and heart medications all the time. Pro Plaguers drive me nuts.

Essential Oil Fad

If you are considering using essential oils for medical reasons please consider a few things first. The only real data thus far shows that they may be useful as a supportive therapy. One example would be aroma therapy for cancer. There isn't real evidence as yet that they can cure things like cancer and should not be considered as a replacement for proven medical treatments like radiation or chemotherapy. Please read the following links for more information:

• dōTERRA: Multilevel Marketing of Essential Oils

• https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/treatment/cam/hp/aromatherapy-pdq

Invisible Illness

I am one of those people with illness and disability that isn't all that visible by just looking at me. It isn't my fault but I'm treated like it is.First I get the "You don't look sick" comments. Others try to blame my weight, Then they try to blame me for the diabetes until they find out it's type 1. Some assume that I am doing it to myself and that I am currently engaged in bad habits to cause my problems. I'm not, and that is just rude.

Wikipedia has this to say on invisible illness:

Invisible disabilities are chronic illnesses and conditions that significantly impair normal activities of daily living. In the United States, 96% of people with chronic medical conditions show no outward signs of their illness, and 10% experience symptoms that are considered disabling

I have gotten weight loss lectures and the managing type 2 diabetes speeches from people that don't bother to get the whole story more times than I count. Doctors and nurses that stop reading my chart at my weight and diabetes are the worse offenders. They don't realize I'm type 1 and they don't look at the rest of the history before talking to me. They think they have their answer because I'm a fat diabetic and just proceed to the lectures. They don't ask questions and find out that I'm active and eating healthy before they judge and lecture.
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Others are prior co-workers or friends that pipe in with advice when they don't get it. They only know what they see in pop culture and news health reports by ignorant reporters. The colloquial attitudes that dictate diabetes is all the same and caused by eating sugar is what they believe. Here is a clue, I was sick before I was fat, and type 1 isn't the same as 2. It is not preventable or caused by lifestyle issues. Your dietary advice isn't going to cure me and I already exercise more than you.

Putting the fork down and losing weight isn't going to cure my destroyed back that has been through 3 surgeries and is getting worse because I had to have a disc removed., It isn't going to fix my leg after multiple surgeries for a muscle infection. It isn't going to cure the anxiety or depression I have struggled with since I was a skinny active child. It isn't going to cure the fibromyalgia, the wrecked left knee, the degenerative disc disease, the congestive heart failure caused by antibiotics, or the congenital conditions I have. It wont reverse Type 1 Diabetes. I put the damn fork down and got off my butt a long time ago. It helps, but I'm still sick.

These people need to stop judging. I track log and control everything I eat and I am in the gym 3 to 5 times a week when I'm not in a hospital bed. I doubt they could say the same.

Next time you encounter somebody with invisible illness or disability don't judge. It doesn't matter if they look fine, they are not. They didn't do it to themselves so spare the lectures and comments. Have some respect for a change.

Contrary to popular opinion, some things are still dangerous, stupid, and unlawful.

A few days ago my wife noticed a car that reeked of pot when she walked by a man getting out of the car. There was also a woman and a small child in the vehicle. I'm guessing the man and the woman were the parents, but I do not know this for sure. All the windows in the car were rolled up, and the odor of the marijuana was noticeable because the man had opened the door to get out.

I didn't get up and say anything even though I should have and I don't feel very good about that decision to be honest. I have called 911 about the exact same thing before for a different occurrence and been made to feel like I was wasting their time. In the past confronting people that engage in this kind of behavior only results in profanity and exclamations of the supposed legality of marijuana use in my state. This isn't even the issue, but it is irritating nonetheless because it isn't true.

It isn't legal anywhere in the USA period. Federal law supersedes state and local law. A failure to enforce the law or choosing to ignore localities attempting to contradict it is not the same as it being legal. Various states have decided to exercise authority in the matter that they do not actually have. Changes in elected leaders or appointed personnel at the federal level could easily change federal response to the matter. Until marijuana is reclassified as something other than a schedule one substance it will continue to be unlawful to use or sell anywhere in the USA for any reason.

Anyway, back to the point. The problem was the fact that they were smoking a drug in a vehicle that they had been driving with a child in the car and all the windows rolled up. Ignore for a moment the quasi-legal status of marijuana use in Washington State, there are so many other things wrong with what they were doing without even getting to that piece of things that it is just crazy.

Smoking, of any type, in a car with children ought to be a crime. It is child abuse for the sake of convenience and is just wrong. Smoking a narcotic just makes the matter worse.

How about being under the influence while driving? That is illegal here. It's called DUI and the man driving deserved to be charged for it. It is bad enough that they were risking their lives and those of others on the road, but they were doing it with a child in their care.

In the past I have called authorities, I have confronted individuals, I have alerted business owners of it happening on their property. It usually didn't seem to result in anything good. I should have taken down the plate number and called 911 anyway and when something like this happens again I will. 

People have such a dismissive attitude towards marijuana in Washington state that they ignore all the problems relating to it out of hand. If that had been beer or crack cocaine I'm willing to bet that a call too the police would have carried more weight than one for marijuana. 

Wisdom in curiosity

We didn't have much in the way of snow this winter, but 3 or 4 days before it did snow Owen told me it was going to. I discounted it because the sky was clear, it was to warm for it to stick, and I had heard no mention of it on the weather report. Also, if I'm to be honest, he is only 4 and I assumed he just wanted it to snow. Owen was right though, we got some snow. Owen had probably caught a bit of a report I missed or heard something from his friends or teachers. At any rate he knew something I didn't and I discounted it because he is a kid.

When I was a child we were learning about resting heart rates from our PE teacher in elementary school. I don't remember what grade I was in or what my heart rate was before and after activity, I just remember it was the highest in the class. I told my father about it and instead of checking or showing concern he expressed frustration with my PE teacher and told me that my PE teacher wasn't a doctor and wasn't qualified to be teaching us about such things.

Now that I am an adult I know that you don't need to be a doctor or have a medical degree to understand such a basic indicator of our overall health. I suffer from tachycardia and from other heart related issues that are being treated properly, but the tachycardia that my father didn't want to hear about from a child or a teacher could have been addressed years ago.

Regardless of the topic, be it weather, health or anything in between we should at the very least try to listen to and understand our children without discounting what they say based solely on their age. Sometimes children are asking questions that need to be asked that adults don't consider. Children have a unique perspective that can be very useful in addressing a wide variety of issues.

Supplements

On a more personal note I would like to say something about supplements. I have a myriad of complex and serious health issues. Friends, family, and strangers frequently try to advise that I use various supplements to be healthy. I usually try to politely dodge or ignore this kind of advice for a few simple reasons:

• Supplements do not go through the same process with the FDA as medications. 
• Unless a doctor prescribes one they are better left alone. 
• In many cases, such as vitamin supplements, it is a waste of money and just creates expensive urine. 
• In other cases, such as medicinal supplements, it is easy to dose wrong or take something that interferes with other medications. 
• People confuse the word supplement with natural and they confuse the word natural with safe. 
• A chemical is a chemical is a chemical. 
• If you are going to use a medicinal supplement it is no different than using a prescription drug when it comes to the precautions that should be taken.

That said, there are supplements I use that are a net gain for my health. They have been suggested and or prescribed by a doctor. Supplements for all intents and purposes are drugs and should be treated in the same manner. I don't think there is anything wrong with using them as part of a routine to maintain health, I just believe it is better to consult somebody with the proper education on the matter before taking them.