This is an interesting item i found of the drug Ketamine. Apparently, scientists have found a link between ketamine use and memory loss. This is really scary to me because 5 of the 6 times i broke bones in highschool the doctor used ketamine as an anesthetic when he reset my bones. The first time i was given it i was in 6th grade after i broke my arm rollerblading. typically they only administer ketamine to young children but the following 4 times i broke bones in my body i asked the doctor to give me Ketamine just because i was sure that it would make me not feel the pain like it had done the previous times. The doctor was hesitant at first but after my parents permission he gave it to me before each time my bones were set. the reason they do not give it to children oer the age of 14 is because it has hallucinogenic effects on the person takin it, and i noticed this the last couple times i did this. The article says that it has become a hot new club drug in the UK and i cant seem to understand why this is. When i was under the effects of it in the doctor’s office it basically just knocked me out for a short period of time. When i spent time in south africa we used it as an anaesthetic for monkeys that we would have to do operations on as well. It seemed to work the same on them as they all just passed out from it as well for about an hour.

I hope that as i grow older i dont feel the memory loss effects that they speak about. I feel pretty confident that i wont because most things like that have to be done continuously over a long period of time to have the negative kinds of effects. The point of me writing about this topic is to solidify the idea that a lot of times the drugs that doctors are giving us can have adverse side affects that are unknown to them. I try my best not to take any medication that i dont desperately need. I do not trust the pharmaceutical industry.

I found this interesting article on a new underage drinking law in New Providence. The new law allows for underage drinkers from between the ages of 18 and 21 to be allowed to drink on private property without being arrested. It is still illegal for drinkers under the age of twenty on to drink in public though. The idea behind this is that if children are able to drink udner the supervision of adults they would be less likely to illegally drink in places where there is no supervision and the possibility for alcohol poisoning or other alcohol related issues. people in support of the idea believe that teenagers tend to make better decision when they are given the benefit of the doubt. I think that this is a great idea and takes in the best of both world. Underage drinking is going to happen whether or not it is allowed. In my opinion the ability for people between the ages of 18 and 21 to drink legally would actually lower the amount and frequency that underage drinkers would drink. For one, it takes away the rebellious side of it, something that always drove me to want to drink more. When underage drinkers finally find a place to drink where they wont get in trouble they tend to go all out and drink a very large amount because they don’t know when the next time they will be able tod rink is. It makes the ability to drink into much more of a fun event. I know that since i have turned twenty one i feel the need to drink less than i did before i turned twenty. I also drink more responsibly now that i am twenty one. I feel like because i have been given the right to drink i have to respect it in a way and conduct myself in a way that does not make the age of 21 seem like too young to drink. I believe that when given responsibility, teenagers are more likely to make responsible decisions than in a situation when they are trying to fight the system. I use to think to myself  “well if they say i cant drink what can i do to combat that most?”. The answer that usually crossed my mind was to get as drunk as possible, evidently rebelling against the system to the fullest extreme. I think these kinds of laws with also allow parents to drink with their children while they are still at home and in high school. parents can teach their children how to drink responsibly. I see way to many kids who go off to college and need to to learn how to drink responsibly on their own for the first time. This often leads to disaster.

This article brings to light that even though president Obama cut abstinence only education from his health care reform plan the government has passed an amendment to a lot 50 million dollars to support and provide abstinence only education.  I can understand why some uneducated and uniformed people may believe that abstinence only education is actually doing something good for our youth but what i cannot for the life of me understand is how people these uneducated and uniformed people can actually be voted into our government. The amendment was proposed by Utah senator Orrin Hatch and was somehow passed. As the author of this article states, “there’s a mounting body of evidence that abstinence-only education is a categorical failure”. I’m sitting here trying to figure out how these people who run our country can be so F%*$ing stupid and what pops into my mind is that they cant, there must be some other issue here. The only issue i can possibly think of is a religious one so i looked into it.  What i found is that Senator Orrin Hatch is a mormon and that Mormons strongly believe in abstinence before marriage. Sound familiar? It does to me, it sounds like the strict beliefs catholics hold. The fact that this issue has a religious meaning behind it really, as Peter Griffin would say, “grinds my gears”. Our government claims to have a separation of church and state yet we have religious zealots running around claiming that abstinence only education works despite all of the evidence that claims it does not. Some of this evidence is available in the article posted in my blog.

The issue behind abstinence only education seems to be a pretty bad one but then i sit back and realize that this is the least of our issues. We actually have people like Pope Benedict running around the world claiming that condoms do not protect against AIDS in countries like SOuth Africa where people are already confused and dying because no one seems to be able to teach them legitimate education. We also have women like Sarah Palin, who was actually being considered to be the vice president of our country, running around telling people that contraception is bad. Hmmmm, doesnt seem quite as ironic anymore that her daughter is pregnant before marriage. What does seem ironic is that her daughter is now a front-runner in an orginization that is preaching abstinence only education. Clearly she enjoyed having sex or she would not have continued to do it untill she got pregnant. Has her mother ever thought that maybe the use of condoms and other contraception can help us get the best of both worlds; sex, that feels amazing and can be an incredible bond between people, and not having children which i would have to imagine is preferable to most teenage girls. What the hell is wrong with our world??? When will we get rid of these archaic religious beliefs and start to look at the world in a realistic way?? unfortunately my guess is never, especially because the people who are put in charge to run our country are these misinformed uneducated cavemen.

I found this article to be interesting being as we are in a school that encourages healthy lifestyles but yet seems to do it in the right ways.  As far as I am aware we do not have any of the calorie count cards that the article talks about and i think that is a good thing for alot of people.  I myself am underweight and do not eat nearly as much food as i should be eating each day and i feel that if those cards or calorie counters were being thrown in my face all day that i would probobly feel even more uncomfortable with the types and amount of food I am eating. I feel like what i was eating would constantly be on my mind and that i wouldn’t be able to focus on anything else as much.

I appreciate the fact that UNCA gives us the option to eat a somewhat healthy meal in the cafeteria. I have visited a couple other universities and have noticed that their cafeterias do not offer the same kind of homecooked meals that our school does. Most school offer a cafeteria that is equip with only fast food restaurants that have little to no vegetarian of vegan options. they have the occasional salad bar and the option to get cheese pizza but for the most part the selection is limited to a wide array of processed food.

In my opinion, instead 0f schools providing you with calorie cards so you can gage what you are eating, they should provide you with healthy food instead of processed food.  I’m rather confused as to why Yale would do it the way the article claims.  Why cant they just cut out the horrible processed food that is so bad for you??

I’ll have to admit that I am myself a smoker. I dont want to be but i find it hard to find suffiecient reason to make me want to quit. As of late i have really badly wanted to quit and a mixture of other reasons and this article have really made me want to do it. I knew it was bad for you but to be honest I avoided information and statistics about its effects because, as horrible and unlike me it sounds, I would rather be ignorant than to know what I’m really doing to my body. I decided for this blog to look at some differnt statistics and really find out what smoking really does to my body. I couldn’t believe that smoking so few cigarettes as three is almost as bad for your heart than smoking a whole pack. I always assumed that cutting down was alot better for me when in reality only smoking a few a day greatly increases your chance of heart disease. I always made the common assumption that smoking was only really bad for your lungs and that the rest of my body could easily deal with it. I was clearly wrong. In moving to Asheville one of my goals was to become a healthier person and take full advantage of the environment around us to spend time doing all the amazing outdoor activities that the blue ridge parkway have to offer. So for this blog i would like to say thank you for giving me that little push to examine info about the real effects of smoking.  I have a new motivation to quit, I want to experience everything life has to offer and with an increased rate of heart disease of 68% I know that will not be possible if I continue to smoke cigarettes.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/14/health/14sleep.html

This is an article on some of the side affects of taking Ambien, a sleep medication. I first heard about people doing weird things on Ambien when my friend came to the conclusion that his Ambien was making him smoke cigarettes in his bed at night. He actually burned a hole in his sheets. He couldn’t figure out why he was doing it until he made the connection hat it was only happening on nights when he was unable to sleep and needed to take his Ambien. I searched the internet for other weird things that people do while on it and i found out that some people actually have gotten in their car and driven while on it. Others just eat very weird things. I also read that sleep smoking was one of the reasons cigarette company’s were required to make fire safe cigarettes. They have not been able to figure out exactly why Ambien makes people do things like this and i am not sure why it is still on the market if that is true. What is it going to take before they fix the problem, someone to burn their house down or drive their car off of a cliff??