Diagnosing America's Cancer

File Under:  It Is In Our Hands

V22.2, how many of you know what that is?  Can you guess?

To many of my compatriots in the health industry, you will recognize what that is immediately.  That is the ICD-9 diagnostic code for "Pregnant state, incidental."  In laymen's terms that is: a normal pregnancy, without complications.  This is what a doctor would put in your medical chart or on an insurance claim to denote that the patient is pregnant.  Why is this important? It is important because:

You only diagnose diseases.

If you look at pregnancy as a disease, it makes an ironic sort of sense: everyone who has ever been diagnosed with pregnancy has died.  Making children the most lethal disease to ever afflict humankind.  That might bring a chuckle to some of you with children, but therein is the problem with abortion, women's health rights, and the debate surrounding the two.  In the modern world children are considered, and thus treated like, a disease.  Children are suffered not cherished; they are something to be avoided, medicated, or destroyed.  We have already, however grudgingly, conceded that everyone has a right to suitable healthcare.  How dare someone dictate to someone else what is appropriate healthcare, or more precisely what they should do about a disease that is infecting their own body?

Conservatives have latched onto the very valid point that unborn children are not diseases without human rights, and they are using it as a cudgel to bludgeon Liberals.  Liberals, with their ideology threatened, have hidden behind the shield of women's health rights and freedom of choice and are firing back.  What has essentially happened is that the issue of sanctioned murder has metastasized itself onto women's health like a cancer, rendering it inoperable because Liberals will not sacrifice the cancer to save the host.  In this stalemate millions of unborn children continue to die, healthcare reform suffers, women suffer, and the country suffers from divisive politics and a lack of leadership.

If you have a defective heart valve, a chemical imbalance, a stroke, underdeveloped lungs, a calcium deficiency, a traumatic head injury, amenorrhea, or any number of other illnesses, these are all valid illnesses with definable root causes inside the body and mind.  Everyone deserves access to technologies which alleviate the suffering from these diseases.  However, to address unborn children, ovarian cysts, amenorrhea, and erectile dysfunction with one policy, so as to say that they are one-in-the-same is morally, ethically, scientifically, and spiritually bankrupt.

Some 40% of pregnancies are unplanned, and of those perhaps 50% are unwanted.  According to scientists, humanity was unplanned, and judging form all the species that once existed but now do not or all the species, in all the galaxies that never existed at all -- one could say the Universe probably doesn't want us.  And yet, here we remain -- unaborted.  Without question both men and women deserve access to comprehensive healthcare for all their bodily systems.  That care does not have to be sacrificed in order for us to redress this Nation's position on medically unnecessary abortions.  To do so, all we must do is put down our cudgels and shields, and divorce the issue of women's health from the cancer of abortion.

"Waiting Between Worlds" by Zack Hemsey from The Way released 2011 on Zack Hemsey Publishing

#BargainNinja: That's Not My Granddaddy's Bucket of Lard!

I have frequently posed the mostly unscientific question of how did my great-grandfather who on a daily basis probably consumed very high calorie, fat, and carbohydrate meals (some featuring foods cooked in lard) not only not die of a heart attack, stroke, or complications from diabetes, but live into his 90s to pass away peacefully with a hale mind and body.  The usual response is that: well back in those days they lived a simpler life and worked 16-hour days.  To a degree this makes a great deal of sense, although I would question how did working 16-hour days, in the conditions he did, for most of his life not destroy his physical body.  The truth of the matter is he beat the life expectancy of someone born circa the turn of the century by almost 6 decades.  In fact, he beat the life expectancy a child born in the last 10 years by more than 2 decades.

Saturated fats, Hydrogenated fatty-acids, BHA, and propyl gallate are all known carcinogens and/or contributors to obesity and coronary disease.  Definitely not my great-grandfather's tub o' lard.

In actuality the life expectancy for someone like him has risen 115%, since the era in which he was born.  If you reason that a marked shifting (for the better) in dietary habits has occurred in the last 20-25 years, you could also theorize that the rate at which the life expectancy has increased would have responded by beginning to rise sharply.  However, it has not.  From 1900-1981 the average net increase of life expectancy was 1.26% per year.  This rate no doubt was influenced by many factors including, but not limited to: societal climate, environment, occupational trends, economic trends, crime, periods of war/peace, advances in medicine and other technological  educational opportunities, and general increase in knowledge.  In contrast from 1990-2004 life expectancy has improved by a rate of only 0.3% per year.

This begs the very scientific question:  what the ham sandwich man?!  No doubt advances in science, technology, and healthcare of the early to mid-twentieth century helped.  And of course, migrating from the south to the north and the Civil Rights Movement significantly improved the life outlook of black males, as when you compare the same data for white males the early century increase was much less dramatic (+0.65% per year) and the latter day increase is actually greater (+0.04% per year).  Nevertheless, why has the improvement in life expectancy tapered off so sharply?  Has science and technology stagnated?  Are we not dieting and exercising hardcore enough?  Or is there something more nefarious afoot?

I checked my life expectancy, and it was an abysmal 56.69 years.  I'm on a diet of water and food that tastes like dirt and I am to die before I am 60, that's just peachy.  In fact, if I were to give up all sexual activity, stop driving, and start drinking again I could increase my life expectancy my a whopping 3.35 years.  A lifetime of boredom and drinking alone for 3.35 extra years of life -- that's a tough call.  What other factors would improve my chances?  If I mitigated teh stressors in my life, did more conditioning exercise, ate a more balanced diet, and got a good 7 hours of solid, restful sleep per night I could potentially live to see 70.  While it is well shy (by 5 years) of the best life expectancy, I would have just barely beaten (by 1 year) the average for males life myself born in the same year as me.

My maternal grandfather died in his 70s and my father's father died in his 60s, of cardiac arrest caused by kidney failure and massive heart attack respectively.  They were decades short of the mark for longevity set by their fathers.  To my mother's father's credit he had been on a decades long journey of health and wellness that included: not drinking, not smoking, and a low sodium diet.  He retired back to his childhood home, lived a simple agrarian life and walked about a mile or so every day.  My other grandfather, did not and failings of the inept medical establishment that allowed my maternal grandfather to develop such a serious condition unnoticed, those decisions he made no doubt gave him the extra years my dad's dad did not get.  There are similar decisions we can make to improve our chances as well:

• Move - The vast majority of us have sedentary jobs and lead sedentary lives.  Moving enough to elevate your heart rate for 20 minutes per day can significantly improve your health and wellness.  Working up to an intense workout 3-5 times per week that includes calorie-burning by getting to your target heart rate for at least 15 minutes and muscle conditioning, well add years to your life.

• Simplify - Stress is critical to the function of the body, and survival; but bad stress, especially when left unchecked, is a killer.  Cut out the unnecessary things or people in your life that induce this bad stress.  When unavoidable stressors like death, unemployment, or illness occur: be balanced in what you take upon yourself, recognize your signs of not coping well, and get help -- professional if needed.

• Detoxify - Our world is much more polluted than our great-grandparents'.  Air pollution, water pollution, chemicals in our food, electromagnetic radiation (EMR), and tons of free-radicals bombard us from all sides.  Buying certified organic food, consuming more antioxidants (i.e. Vitamins A, C, E), purifying your water, and reducing your exposure to EMR (Cellular devices, Wi-Fi, relevision, radio, computer screens, microwaves, etc.) could all provide dramatic boosts to your health, wellness, and longevity.

• Just Say: "No!" - Give yourself a real chance, say no to tobacco products, excessive drinking, the extra piece of cake, unnecessary drugs of any kind, and reckless behavior.  Whatever does not kill you immediately will gang up on you later in life to take you out long before your time.

Source: American Cancer Society

The truth is our lifestyle is killing us.  Science and technology are making strides in the quest to extend quality years of life and one day eradicate illness and death.  However, those efforts are stymied by what we do as individuals and a society  We need to get that life expectancy average climbing sharply again.  In order to do that we are going to have to make some personal commitments and social changes.  We have to put the kibosh on environmental pollution of all sources and start living simpler, more natural, and more active lives less saturated with technology.  In so doing we will create a society of individuals who remain vital and strong longer.  This is important not simply because vital, strong people live longer, but more importantly because vital, strong people advance civilization and lay the foundation for vital, strong, and long-lasting societies.

The Apple Has Fallen Far From The Tree

File Under:  Holy WTF People?!?!?

American was once a symbol of hope, justice, prosperity, and liberty.  What do we symbolize today?

Ok.  I am not going to even begin to politicize this post in the area of  firearms or the Second Amendment.  This is not even remotely close to being about that.  So this is the last time you will hear it brought up, in turn  please refrain from asinine rhetoric on guns.  What I do have to ask is: what the hell is wrong with California or America that "at least six" warm-blooded, One-nation-under-God-with-liberty-and-justice-for-all citizens of the greatest democratic republic in modern history could watch one man accost another, pull him out of his vehicle, drag him to the curb, and cold-blooded execute him in broad daylight right on main street?  I ask because that is exactly what happened today in Tustin, California.


When did Americans become that sheepish, that callous, that cold-hearted, and that weak.  When did we lose our lust for justice, morality, and honor and instead doing nothing became part of the "American Way?"  How is it that a grown man can slap someone else's crying toddler and, call that child a racial epithet on an airplane full of mothers and fathers, and still have the physical capacity to walk off that plane under his own power?  How can a a Good Samaritan save another citizen from an apparent mugging, only to be left bleeding to death by not only the would-be victim he saved, but numerous passers-by who gawked at his body and took pictures?  Once pride and courage burned in our American veins; now cowardice, apathy and lethargy rots us from the inside out like cancer.  We won't stand up to our banks, we won't stand up to the corporations, we won't stand up to the media, we won't stand up to our government, we won't stand up for the innocent, and we won't stand up for the poor/oppressed/downtrodden.  What is left of the America our forefathers spilled blood for in the Revolution and the Civil War?  How is it that as a people we have the intestinal fortitude to send unmanned planes all over the world blowing children and democracy to hell, but we cannot stand up to one murderer spreading actual terror right here in front of our eyes?  What great ideals are we spreading across the world behind our tanks and our drones and our bombs?


For goodness' sake, this will continue to happen until the American public stands up and says "enough, is enough."   And that is no symbolic, rhetorical gesture.  We are going on nearly a century of amplified violence, lawlessness, unethical behavior, and amorality all because at some point those who no longer wished to play by the rules realized they could do whatever the hell they wanted because nobody cared.  They knew people could be cowed, doped, fooled, or distracted into ignoring their reckless behavior as it devoured our once glorious republic like a plague.  The few who don't ignore it they are demonized, ostracized, disgraced, and silenced in whatever manner is most expedient because the masses still are not paying attention.  Stop letting the media tell you what to think and believe.  Stop kneeling at the feeding trough of the corporations begging for succor only to eat the scraps of your own blood, sweat, and tears.  Stop allowing the government to tell you what you will do and instead start telling the government what we will do.  Our grandparents and great grandparents are looking down upon the legacy they left, they gaze upon how we have ruined it, and they weep.  They weep for America, and their tears flood down upon us.  It is time for us to retrieve our collective heads from whatever dark, cavernous hole in which it is currently hidden, stand up like men and women of the strongest moral character, and be American again.

"What the Fuck Is Wrong With You" by Combichrist from What the Fuck Is Wrong With You People? released 2007 on Metropolis Records