I GOTTA See This Movie!!

World Tai Chi Day

Today is World Tai Chi and Qigong Day

I'd like to offer my thanks to Dr. Robert Bates, Lee and Karen Holden, Garri and Daisy Garripoli, Thich Nhat Hanh, and, believe it or not, David Carradine, who sparked my interest in the gentle martial arts many, many decades ago.

Bye, Annette

She's up there singing and dancing with the angels now. 

My condolences to her family, but at least she finally has some rest from her ills.

I FINALLY Understand Poetry!

Thanks, Richard Thompson!

Declining Life Span In Women Confuses Scientists - Not Me

I just saw this news report this morning and just shook my head in disbelief:

Study shows declining life span for some US women
Mar 4, 4:07 PM (ET)
By MIKE STOBBE

NEW YORK (AP) - A new study offers more compelling evidence that life expectancy for some  U.S. women is actually falling, a disturbing trend that experts can't explain.

The latest research found that women age 75 and younger are dying at higher rates than previous years in nearly half of the nation's counties - many of them rural and in the South and West. Curiously, for men, life expectancy has held steady or improved in nearly all counties.

The study is the latest to spot this pattern, especially among disadvantaged white women. Some leading theories blame higher smoking rates, obesity and less education, but several experts said they simply don't know why.

I know why, and so does any fat woman in America today. There's a whole blog out there describing the treatment we get when we go to doctors with our medical complaints.  Everything is blamed on our fat. If we are above the "normal" BMI we're not taken seriously, and the treatment for our complaints is always "lose weight," whether we present with a broken arm or chest pains. 

Read the blog First, Do No Harm if you don't believe me. "Normies" will be aghast at the treatment those people received at the hands of their doctors while fat people will nod their heads and say, "Yep, that happened to me, many times." I can add a few stories of my own if I wanted to, most notably the cardiologist who told me I had a heart attack when I didn't because, he admitted, he thought hearing that would scare me into losing weight. Nice, especially when the cardiac problem I DID have was the result of the extreme stress I had in my life at the time. He didn't think the fat lady would have copies of all the tests he ran that showed what I did or didn't have so he couldn't bullshit me. He got mad at me when I refused to see his friend, the head of the bariatric surgery department of the hospital, for a consultation. And even though I had the lab work in my hands that proved it, he didn't believe I was following a very low fat, whole foods, plant based food plan prior to my hospitalization, because "vegans aren't fat."

These people in the study didn't die of obesity but of neglect and malpractice. There are thousands of doctors out there like that cardiologist.

People like those doctors make women afraid to see a doctor when something really is wrong. Women have died of heart attacks and ruptured aneurysms, ruptured appendices, various cancers, etc., because they were afraid to see their doctor when they had pain, because they knew it would be blamed on their weight and not given any diagnosis or treatment, so they lived with the symptoms. Until they didn't.

And what about the fat people who believe what their doctors tell them, that their fat is the cause of their ills, and go through desperate measures to get rid of the fat and die as the result? Women who take unsafe over-the-counter stimulants to "boost their metabolism." Women who over exercise and undereat and overstress their bodies which may lead to sudden death from heart attacks or electrolyte imbalances. Women who ingest tapeworm tablets. Women who have their healthy intestines and stomachs amputated in hopes that less digestion leads to weight loss. You know, weight loss surgeries. These procedures rob the body of needed nutrients, which lead to all sorts of medical problems, and for many, early death, earlier than if they just stayed fat in the first place. And don't forget those who die on the operating table or within the first 48 hours. Those are the only deaths counted as caused by the surgery itself. Statistics aren't kept on those who die months or a few years later from all the complications even if they're from the surgical procedure, such as ruptured suture lines, infections at the suture site that never healed because the body doesn't have the nutrition to defend itself, leaking of gastric material into the abdominal cavity from internal sutures or staples that weren't done right or ripped, etc. Those deaths are attributed to the person's fat, not the surgery.

On the opposite end of the weight spectrum are the anorexics and other women with eating disorders. The treatment failure rate is high, and many times leads to unnecessary deaths, all because they feared getting fat.

And let's not forget the young Type 1 diabetics who skip their insulin, not because they're tired of injecting themselves or have a death wish, but because they know insulin improves the metabolism of the food they eat, which leads to weight gain, so if they don't take their insulin they'll lose weight. 

Some women will do anything to lose a few pounds, even risk death. And scientists wonder why the death rate is going up in "certain" women, especially obese ones! Just look at how society treats us and they'll know why!

Richard Simmons Project H.O.P.E.

 
I've been so busy with the funeral for hubby's aunt that I missed all the infomercials and announcement of the release of Richard's new program, Project H.O.P.E.! If anyone knows where the full-length infomercial can be found on-line (Not on YouTube as of this morning), please let me know in the comments.

Not only does it include new exercise videos on 3 DVD's but it comes with an electronic version of the Foodmover. I like how the exercises come in different fitness levels, too.

Richard Simmons New Products

I thought these new DVD's (and computer programs?) we supposed to come out in January but here it is, the 25th, and still no sign of them. That's okay, because one they do appear I'm sure they'll be advertised everywhere for a while and we'll get sick of looking at them.