Dietary Cholesterol

Breaking news! If you are concerned about your cholesterol blood levels, you can eat a cholesterol rich food without harm.

The food in question is shrimp.  Shrimp is loaded with cholesterol.  But its version of cholesterol is not absorbed by your body.  It passes through the digestive system untouched, leaving you unaffected.

As always, take this factoid in moderation.  What often accompanies shrimp, (the butter scampi, batter breading), those ARE easily absorbed saturated fats and will increase your cholesterol levels.

But it has me wondering about what I believe to now be antiquated Nutrition Facts.  What if this phenomena extends to other nutrients? It would no longer be sufficient to see how much nutrient a food contains; we'd need to know how much of that will be absorbed.  

Another example that illustrates this difference: Omega-3 Fatty Acids.  They are helpful to the body and are found in both seafood and flaxseed.  But the form that is in flaxseed is poorly absorbed, making seafood the better option.  

Why should Yo-Yo Ma have all the fun?

A message to the extraordinary

If you consider yourself to be one in a million, guess what? The world doesn't need you.  The lofty abilities you offer are neither dependable nor consistent.  The system will continue without you because it never factored you in.

Even if you are merely a modest 1/100, the position you are destined to fill is designed to be occupied on chance alone.  Whatever organization, sports team, or business you are involved in, if there are few suitable candidates, there will be fewer positions. Your chances are effectively the same.

Yes, as always, play the hand you've been dealt to its fullest.  But remember that whatever you hold was given to you.  Give thanks, avoid hubris.

Swim - Jack's Mannequin

Walking away

A fitting metaphor to describe recent events:

Even if your favorite hand is pocket fours, you don't call if your opponent makes a huge raise, preflop.

You fold.  It's the smart thing to do.  The payout might be great but it's the chances that should be dictating your decision.  Too often, in risk vs reward analyses, we allow the latter to cloud our judgement and obscure our understanding of the true costs involved.

That being said, it wasn't easy to make the decision, nor was it easy to reconcile.  During the entire drive home, curiosity gnawed persistently until I started picturing alternate outcomes.  I wanted to play that hand! If only to see how it would have ended, or even how it started.  It could have gone my way. 

But in a way, I knew how it would end.  I would step forward cautiously, get some false hope from those initial cards.  Bets would be placed, I would be drawn in.  Ultimately, I'd reach a point of no return and commit to the ending.  And when the cards fall, I would lose.  I knew how it would end.

I knew how it would end, ~80% of the time.  I will never know what would actually have happened. 

I don't need to know anymore.  No longer will I charge in pursuit of pipedreams.

From the inside out

Preachers and politicians lose a lot of respect and power when we hear the gossip about their personal lives.  We see scandals and judge them as unfitting leaders because, hey, if they can't take care of their families, how can we expect them to take care of us?

I think physicians should be held to a similar standard, assessed by the health of their social circles.  I personally would harshly judge a cardiologist if he allowed his brother to live with high blood pressure.  A pulmonologist should ensure that his children's asthma is treated.  And so on, and so forth.

The easiest place to start for us aspiring physicians?  Our parents.  They are a template for over 60% of the patients that we are expected to see when we graduate.

...oh....and also because we love them!

Phlebotomy

Venipuncture Lab: Advancing a needle into an arm on a vein you can't see, you can only feel.  Feeling for the slight resistance, then give, that signals entry into a vein.  Reaching for a vacuumed tube that seems so far away.  The lancet starts to quiver under the skin as you fumble to attach the receiving container. You finally manage to secure the container, yet no blood emerges.  Questions arise: the needle must have moved! or the container is not yet on.  Did it go too deep? Not deep enough?  The patient is grimacing.  The pressure is on.  Despair starts creeping in, daring you to pull out and make it stop. 
 
I was actually sweating and light headed after the lab.  What a rush!

Exercise reveals all

I'm assigning gym exercises to quantify how much I'm affected by unfortunate events.

Start with a daily baseline of 2 miles, before and after weights.
 Did I have to eat out yesterday because I didn't have time to cook? +1 mile.
 Did I have a tough test that day, spending the entire time oscillating between two questions and four choices? +2 miles.
Bad experience with the unfriendly optometrist, who ironically failed to make eye contact through the entire exam?  Pshhh...I only need an extra pullup to get over that.

Sometimes, things happen that I think would bother me more. Other times, I space out so much and look up to find that I'm on mile six.  Going to the gym helps me confirm how deep or shallow these annoyances truly go.

Unwinding

Thanks to my older sister Kimberly for introducing me to this song.