The Puttering Life

Keeping active between exercise sessions is just as important as the exercise itself in maintaining a healthy weight. University of Missouri researchers have found that participating in any activity other than sitting is beneficial.

The Anti-Science Left?

The Strenuous Life has long maintained that the ongoing debate over the use of embryos for scientific research was about much more than "cures." Today, Joseph Bottom from First Things dissects to the heart of the embryonic stem cell debate with laser beam precision in the Wall Street Journal.

“I have long suspected that science, in the context of the editorial page of the New York Times, was simply a stalking-horse for something else. In fact, for two something-elses: a chance to discredit America's religious believers, and an opportunity to put yet another hedge around the legalization of abortion. After all, if our very health depends on the death of embryos, and we live in a culture that routinely destroys early human life in the laboratory, no grounds could exist for objecting to abortion.”

Furthermore, now that the use of embryos is likely unnecessary for the production of pluripotent stem cells expect the secular left to cool considerably on the merit and promise of their use for alleviating human suffering. In other words, if the use of stem cells no longer serve the secular left’s primary objective their use will come under much more exacting scrutiny.

It Doesn't Always Need to be Strenuous to be Beneficial

Researchers from California and Minnesota recently analyzed 26 different studies that used pedometers (step counters) for improving physical activity and health outcomes. Their report indicated that the use of pedometers improved physical activity by over 2100 steps per day. The use of pedometers was also associated with decreased body mass index (an index of body fatness), and blood pressure. Pedometers are inexpensive, small and easy to use devices usually worn on a belt or waistband. Individuals looking for a simple tool to assist them in increasing their daily physical activity should consider picking up a pedometer from a sporting-goods, drug or variety store.

I usually recommend that a person wear the pedometer for a week or two without trying to change their walking activity. This way they can determine a starting point from which to build. Thereafter, every two weeks or so they should increase their daily target by 500 steps. For otherwise healthy adults building toward a daily target of 10,000 steps per day is recommended.

Stem Cell Turning Point

In response to the staggeringly important news from two separate research groups reporting that “embryonic-like” stem cells are possible without the destruction of human embryos National Review Online has run a series of articles lauding the researchers, President Bush, and the pro-ethical science community that made these results possible.

“Stem-Cell Success Story”
“Brave New Future”
“The Vindication of Rush H. Limbaugh”
“Harkin on Stem Cells”
“The Future Is Now”
“Bush Bears Fruit”

"This leaves the nation with a crucial lesson for what will certainly be many ethical quandaries to come as biotechnology advances: The answer to unethical science is not to give up on ethics, but rather to pursue ethical science." - NRO Editors

Human Embryonic Research Now Unnecessary as Well as Unethical

The future of stem cell research will not include human embryos stated Dr. Ian Wilmut whose research team cloned Dolly the sheep a decade ago. Wilmut recognizes that there are now better methods and more ethically acceptable paths than those requiring the creation of human embryos.

This is promising news and will go a long way toward putting legitimate science back on solid ethical ground. However, I expect there will continue to be renegade scientists who will not be satisfied until they have created human clones for cell and tissue harvesting, or just for the notoriety. There are also powerful political forces on the left and arrogant scientific humanists who will not give up this opportunity to thrust their utilitarian vision upon society.

The issues will shift but the battle for human dignity and ethical scientific endeavor will continue.

Sedentary Living is Inflammatory

It is well known that physical activity protects against cardiovascular disease, but exactly what are the factors that mediate this benefit? There are a number of candidates including changes in the way the body handles blood sugar, changes in cholesterol and other lipids, and changes in the amount and location of fat storage. Recently, investigators from Boston evaluated data from over 27,000 women in the Women’s Health Study. They calculated that changes in inflammation and hemostasis (blood clotting) were most closely associated with the beneficial effects of exercise on cardiovascular outcomes. While it has been recognized for some time that inflammation plays a role in cardiovascular disease, obesity, diabetes and other related chronic conditions these findings suggest it may be the dominant factor. Furthermore, sedentary living appears to be a pro-inflammatory condition, which is bad news for the cardiovascular system.

Who Will Decide For You?

A practical follow-up from the recent Biotech Century: Facing Our Future event is now posted on CAP’s Arizona Citizen web-site. In a concise and useful document Peter Gentala summarizes the conference discussion on the necessity of preparation in the event that one is not able to make their own medical decisions. As a physician who frequently cares for patients in these difficult situations it cannot be stressed enough that a patient's interests are best served when an advocate who shares the patient's values, knows their wishes, and will reliably act upon those wishes is clearly identified.

Extra Weight Protective? Not So Fast

Investigators from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Cancer Institute report in this weeks’ Journal of the American Medical Association that being a few pounds overweight may not only be safe but protective…at least protective from an early death. But before you decide to lay back in your recliner with another bag of chips it is important to recognize several important factors. First, the study did not account for physical activity levels or dietary considerations. I suspect that the excess mortality identified in the present study, and other studies, is closely associated with physical activity levels. In other words you are better off being overweight and physically active than within the “normal weight” range and being a couch potato. Another major factor to consider is that this study was looking exclusively at mortality. However, a number of conditions associated with being overweight such as degenerative joint disease, sleep apnea, and gastro-esophageal reflux disease certainly impact a sense of well-being. Although we would all like to maximize the years in our life, there is something to be said for improving the life of one’s years. Finally, the additional health care costs that result from treating the above mentioned conditions as well as the extra diabetes and hypertension that accompany excess weight gain should be considered.

Biotech Century Review: Part 2

A couple of items struck me as particularly significant in the morning session of the Biotech Century: Facing Our Future Conference in Phoenix this past Saturday. One is the realization that the rapid advancements in technology that are occurring presently are coming at a very dangerous time in our history, that is while ethical standards are eroding. This creates an almost irresistible momentum towards attempting whatever is possible, without seriously considering whether the possibility should be attempted. Dr. Fred Chay from Phoenix Seminary emphasized that without a solid and reliable ethical standard there is nowhere to which an appeal can be made. If many scientific elitists had their way any ethical standards that impeded their ambitions or funding would be jettisoned.

The second point is related. It revolves around the worrisome trend that humans, particularly those at the beginning and end of life, are becoming commodities. They are being assigned value based on whether they are useful to someone else rather than having inherent worth and the self evident and unalienable rights enumerated in the Declaration of Independence. Paraphrasing Nikolas Nikas of the Bioethics Defense Fund, it is particularly hazardous for a weaker individual to be “useful” to more powerful individuals. Again, without a solid ethical foundation sacrificing the disabled, mentally ill, and other more vulnerable citizens “for the greater good” will become more palatable. Further, these trends will become harder and harder to reverse as they are embedded in the bedrock of the economy. A situation not unlike slavery in the early 19th century.

Brave New World Coming to Your Neighborhood Soon?

Thank you to the Center for Arizona Policy for organizing and presenting “The Biotech Century: Facing Our Future.” Once again Cathi Herrod and company brought an outstanding line up of speakers to the Phoenix area to inspire and inform. Among them, Wesley J. Smith stressed that the election in November 2008 will be the bioethics and biotechnology election. It is clear that there will be an uphill battle to convince people that the promise of scientific miracles and Utopian existence comes at a high price. Nothing less than the dignity of the human condition is at stake. Around the corner is great promise and great danger. The biomedical and biotechnology communities must not be allowed to operate in a moral vacuum.

More comments on The Biotech Century to come over the next few days.

VA Reverses Flag Folding Ceremony Blunder

God will not be banned from the sacred flag folding ceremony at military funerals after all. As a Department of Veterans Affairs employee I knew the move to ban the ceremony was not representative of the prevailing sentiments of veterans or their families. Apparently one hair-brained Washington bureaucrat thought he or she would circumvent the will of thousands in the name of "political correctness." This is typical beltway disdain for the people for whom they supposedly serve. Thankfully, nationwide uproars are remain effective.