kapachino

Category: health

  • How Long Will You Live?

    I just took this quiz that estimates your life expectancy. Mine is 89 years! That’s pretty good, but I also found that I can:

    >Add 2 years to my life by lessening my sources of stress
    >Add 2 years to my life by taking 81 mg of aspirin every day
    >Add 4 years to my life by eliminating fast foods from my diet
    >Add 1/2 a year to my life by cutting out unhealthy snacks
    >Add 5 years to my life by increasing my exercise regimen to 6-7 days a week
    >Add 1/2 a year to my life by getting appropriate blood tests annually
    >Add 1/2 a year to my life by getting my blood sugar checked

    If I did all this I could live to be 103.5 years old! Then again, I could drop dead before the end of the day. Regardless, let’s analyze my situation:

    1. My current sources of stress are school and finances. In one year I’ll be done with school and I’ll be making the big bucks. Therefore I will have no more stress in my life.
    2. I don’t think the aspirin really pertains to me at 25 years old. Maybe when I reach 30 I’ll start taking it.
    3. I had McDonald’s last night. But! I had the apple dippers instead of fries and apple juice instead of Coke! So that’s something, right?
    4. Is 5 scoops of ice cream with chocolate syrup unhealthy?
    5. Well I can tell you right now that the 7 days a week suggestion is not going to happen. I’m exercising 3 days a week right now, so maybe I’ll just start with moving it up to 4. Two days with soccer games, and then a day of bike riding and a day of yoga should do it. Yoga totally counts.
    6-7. These two can be combined. I hate having my blood drawn, but I think I could handle it once a year.

    What’s your life expectancy? What’s the major way in which you could increase it?

  • Bird Flu Phase One

    So I got a lot of grief from some people for enrolling in the bird flu vaccination study. People were telling me that it was stupid for me to put myself at risk, no matter how small, of getting the bird flu. Well, I wasn’t worried. And today, I got vaccinated. I found out that there is absolutely NO risk of me contracting the bird flu because the virus they inject you with is killed. So that should put all the worriers at ease.

    I was nervous about the whole ordeal because I knew I would have to get two injections and have my blood drawn. When they took my blood pressure beforehand, it was a little high. My blood pressure is always high when I’m at the doctors’ office. I know that it’s probably because I’m tense and in a new place and not relaxed and all that, but I still worry that I’m going to end up with chronically high blood pressure.

    Oh! I also found out that I indeed am not pregnant. (We were required to submit a urine sample for them to test.) Not that I was particularly worried about that due to many reasons, but it’s still comforting to know that no miracles in the vein of Jesus’ birth will be happening in my life at the moment.

    The next step after the urine sample and the vital signs was the blood draw. I don’t know why but every time I have my blood drawn, even if it’s just a little bit, I feel weak. I can’t even watch it happening at all; I try to completely distract myself. But I made it through, only to have to get stuck two more times. These vaccines hurt going in, but they didn’t hurt much afterwards. The woman who gave them to me was apparently in training, because she had another lady talking her through the procedure the whole time. I have sympathy for her because I am in training too, but when you’re the subject it’s just not the most comforting thing to hear instructions being given to the one holding the needle.

    So the first visit is over with. If anyone is interested in participating in this study (remember it pays $400!), let me know and I can get you the details.

    Also, Baylor College of Medicine has other clinical studies going on requiring healthy volunteers, and the UT Health Science Center does as well. Check out their websites if you are interested. I have already signed up to participate in a study where you play computer games while having an MRI done. This may turn out to be my new part-time job!

  • The Extent To Which I Will Go For A Little Cash

    I go to school full-time and I support myself by loans, but I was not able to get enough loans to comfortably cover all my expenses. Thus, I got myself a part-time job but it pays $9/hour and I only work about 6-10 hours a week – not exactly enough to pay the rent. All of the money I have in my account at this time must last me until the end of August, and I have some expenses coming up (i.e. $150 for a dental visit due to my lack of dental insurance and $300+ for a plane ticket to Kansas for my best friend’s wedding) that are causing me concern. So when the following flier showed up in my mailbox at school, I jumped on it:

    ————————————————————————————————————–
    SUBJECTS NEEDED
    TO PARTICIPATE IN A BIRD FLU (INFLUENZA A/H5N1) VACCINE STUDY

    Eligible subjects are invited to participate in a research study being conducted at Baylor College of Medicine to determine reactions and antibody responses to an experimental vaccine against influenza A/H5N1 (‘bird flu’).

    Study requirements:
    -Healthy adults 18-49 years of age
    -No known allergies to flu vaccine
    -Available for study procedures for 7 months

    Study procedures:
    -Eight study visits
    -Two vaccination visits, one month apart
    -Collection of blood samples on 4 occasions
    -Complete a diary of symptoms and signs for 1 week after each vaccination

    Compensation: $400 for completing all procedures
    ————————————————————————————————————–

    Despite the fact that I HATE getting needles stuck in me, especially when they are taking my blood OUT of me, I am going to do this because that $400 looks pretty good. And anyway, it’s for a good cause. And I’m sure there’s only a slight chance of actually contracting the bird flu.