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Happy Hearts-and-Flowers Day!
Feb. 14th, 2008 08:31 pmI know it's been a while. I could hardly let Valentine's Day pass without a heart post, though, could I?
My father-in-law passed away January 3. He was 93, and had inoperable lung cancer. We had expected it sometime this year - but June or July, not January! Anyway, we spent most of January down in Austin - my spouse is an only child, so all the estate stuff falls to him. We have to go back there again at the end of February, and then for a couple of weeks in April, and then maybe one more trip after that, to take care of selling everything. I am not looking forward to Texas in April again - it's usually already near 90 degrees by April 15. For that matter, I am not looking forward to still more flying. I've never liked flying - but flying with a device just adds another level of annoyance to things, since it necessitates hand-screening. Which always seems to be in a nice public spot where everyone who is on line can watch one being patted down. Bleah.
Speaking of device, next scheduled device check is March 7.
The February issue of Natural History magazine has an article about foxglove and about the eighteenth-century doctor who popularized digitalis as a heart remedy. The article mentions the old term "dropsy" that was used to refer to the edema that characterizes heart failure - if you've ever seen dropsy mentioned in some old novel, now you know. There are some great illustrations, too, including a copy of a cartoon from 1810, captioned "Dropsy Courting Consumption" (Heart Failure Courting Tuberculosis). The gist of the article is, is it necessarily a good thing that digitalis started being used to treat heart problems? And here's the last few paragraphs of the four-page article:
Goody.
On that note, I am going to promise to post more often - though not during the weeks I'm in Texas.
My father-in-law passed away January 3. He was 93, and had inoperable lung cancer. We had expected it sometime this year - but June or July, not January! Anyway, we spent most of January down in Austin - my spouse is an only child, so all the estate stuff falls to him. We have to go back there again at the end of February, and then for a couple of weeks in April, and then maybe one more trip after that, to take care of selling everything. I am not looking forward to Texas in April again - it's usually already near 90 degrees by April 15. For that matter, I am not looking forward to still more flying. I've never liked flying - but flying with a device just adds another level of annoyance to things, since it necessitates hand-screening. Which always seems to be in a nice public spot where everyone who is on line can watch one being patted down. Bleah.
Speaking of device, next scheduled device check is March 7.
The February issue of Natural History magazine has an article about foxglove and about the eighteenth-century doctor who popularized digitalis as a heart remedy. The article mentions the old term "dropsy" that was used to refer to the edema that characterizes heart failure - if you've ever seen dropsy mentioned in some old novel, now you know. There are some great illustrations, too, including a copy of a cartoon from 1810, captioned "Dropsy Courting Consumption" (Heart Failure Courting Tuberculosis). The gist of the article is, is it necessarily a good thing that digitalis started being used to treat heart problems? And here's the last few paragraphs of the four-page article:
...Withering correctly observed that digitalis made people feel better, yet could it have been killing them just the same?The final paragraph sums up by saying that at best, digitalis is modestly effective at improving quality of life. And that benefit may not be worth the harm that digitalis can do.
In 1997, nearly two centuries after Withering's death, a medical trial came back with the answer. Almost 7,000 people were randomly allocated to digitalis or a placebo for more than three years. The results: for every thirty-nine people taking digitalis for a year, one avoided a hospital admission. The effect on mortality? Zero. ...
Goody.
On that note, I am going to promise to post more often - though not during the weeks I'm in Texas.
