Gradual onset of pain in joints

Morning stiffness for 20 - 40 minutes

Pain after using joints, yet improves with rest

Pain most of the day and at night

Swelling in joints , lots of flexibility and strength

Creaking in joints when you move them

Best to see your doctor or medical care provider if symptoms last longer than two weeks

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      Achy joints ?   Osteoarthritis is one of the most common types and varieties of arthritis - said to affect one of ten ( 1/ 10th ) of adults.  Anyone can get osteoarthritis.  However it does not just come out of the blue.   Usually osteoarthritis starts in a person’s 4 ‘ th or 5 ‘th decade ( 40 - 50 years of age).  It can start earlier in a person’s life.  As people age its prevalence increases.

Osteoarthritis is the degenerative form of the arthritic disease family .   Arthritis itself is said to be the breakdown of cartilage , the tough elastic material that covers and protects the ends of the bones .   When the joint degenerates and degrades , the cartilage generally becomes rough and begins to wear away,  and the bone underneath thickens.

Thus in this manner the disease of Osteoarthritis starts and begins its progression eating away at the skeleton’s joints and a person’s ability to function independently

New Tactics Take
A Bite Out of Bedbugs

By SARA SCHAEFER MUÑOZ
March 20, 2008; Page D1

Several years after Americans woke up to a bedbug problem, the pest-control industry is rolling out an arsenal of methods that promise an easy yet thorough assault on the bloodthirsty pests.

Bedbugs, which can be difficult to spot, are becoming even tougher to eradicate as they spread and their resistance to some pesticides grows. In response, pest-control companies are adopting new tactics.

Stern Environmental Group LLC, a Secaucus, N.J., company that serves the New York City area, recently started using a technology that sprays the bugs with icy carbon dioxide to kill them. ThermaPure Inc., of Ventura, Calif., uses devices similar to giant hair dryers to heat up a room and bake the bugs to death. Bedbugs & Beyond LLC in New York will remove people’s furniture from their homes and fumigate it with a poisonous gas. Another method uses specially trained dogs to track down tiny bedbugs and their eggs, helping exterminators target spraying. Meanwhile, researchers at the University of Minnesota are studying bedbugs’ behavior in an attempt to develop a trap that simulates a typical victim — a sleeping human.

Professional treatments, including many of the conventional methods still being used, can start at about several hundred dollars and reach into the thousands.

A simple solution to rid a home of the common bedbug, or Cimex lectularius, has proven elusive since the brown, wingless creatures made a resurgence in the U.S. about five years ago. Both entomologists and the pest-control industry say they have seen a rise in infestations of homes and hotels; Steven Jacobs, an urban entomologist at Penn State University who identifies insects for homeowners and pesticide companies, says he now receives about 30 bedbug specimens a year, compared with almost none about five or six years ago.

Wilson Oquendo of Stern Environmental demonstrates a spray used to kill bedbugs.

Bedbugs are slightly smaller than an apple seed and hide in the folds and seams of mattresses and other furniture, emerging at night to feed on a warm-blooded host. Part of what makes bedbugs so tricky to eradicate is that the insects aren’t confined to the bed. They live in drapes, behind wall hangings, in the cracks of wall plaster — and even in light fixtures and electronics. Further complicating matters, a female can deposit the tiny eggs around a room. The bugs are transported from one location to another in luggage or clothing; pest experts say the bugs likely accompany travelers home from hotels or enter a house on secondhand furniture.

Entomologists say it is unclear why the pests have made a comeback, but theories include a more restrained use of other pesticides that in the past might have helped to nab bedbugs, and an upswing in international travel.

Bedbug bites can produce itching welts, but the bugs aren’t known to carry disease. Still, they can be quite a nuisance and take a powerful psychological toll. Some people don’t sleep well for months, worrying that every itch is a bug on them, and many feel ashamed to tell their relatives or neighbors about the problem.

Bedbugs typically have been treated with a class of chemicals known as pyrethroids. Yet entomologists who study bedbug control say the insects have developed some resistance to these chemicals. Other chemicals are more effective but can take longer to work. Mattress encasements may be successful in eliminating bugs — but only from the mattresses.

Companies pitching the latest eradication methods — such as heat or icy sprays — say they are more effective as well as more palatable for people worried about using pesticides. Yet entomologists caution there still are drawbacks: The cold spray might not reach every bug; dogs can miss hiding places high up in a room; and heating might cause bugs to flee to a cooler place in the home. Except for heating, the latest methods usually require the homeowner to go through the onerous process of clearing out rooms, drawers and closets, and washing or dry cleaning all clothing and linens.

“We don’t have any easy method of elimination,” says Michael Potter, a professor of entomology at the University of Kentucky who has observed an increase in bedbugs through his research and work with pest-control companies. “We are looking for the silver bullet.”

While visiting her father’s home over Christmas, Chance Fechtor developed 40 bites on her body that doctors suspected were from bedbugs. Convinced she had brought the bugs home with her, Ms. Fechtor took apart her bed and went though her clothes looking for them. She even starting waking up in the middle of the night and donning a headlamp in hopes of nabbing them.

After doing some research, she came across Advanced K9 Detectives in Milford, Conn., which trains dogs to spot bedbugs. A dog found some bugs in the mattress, the carpet, a drawer and behind a radiator. The house was sprayed with pesticides, and Ms. Fechtor says her Boston-area home has since remained pest-free.

“It was very stressful,” she says. “The idea that there were I don’t how many bugs on me while I was sleeping completely grossed me out.”

Pest-control experts and researchers say dogs can indeed be helpful for finding bedbugs humans might miss or to confirm a treatment has gotten rid of all the bugs. Pepe Peruyero, who last year started training bedbug-sniffing dogs for pest control companies at his J & K Canine Academy in High Springs, Fla., says the cost can be about $200 an hour, depending on home size and travel time.

Another solution is killing the bugs and their eggs by heating a room to between 120 and 140 degrees Fahrenheit for several hours. ThermaPure uses infrared heaters to uniformly heat the room, says President and Chief Executive David Hedman. Treatment costs between $500 and $1,000 per room. (Easily melted items like candles and lipstick must first be removed.)

At the opposite end of the temperature spectrum, Cryonite, made by CTS Technologies, a unit of Venteco PLC in London, aims to eradicate the bugs by dousing them with a snowy spray of carbon dioxide. A drawback: Some bugs can survive if they aren’t directly hit by the spray. Treatments cost between $600 to $700 per room, or as much as 50% more than a conventional chemical treatment, says Douglas Stern, managing partner of Stern Environmental, one of the companies using the method.

Meanwhile, desperate homeowners who don’t want to pay hundreds of dollars are taking matters into their own hands, putting sticky tape on or near their beds to snare the bugs, vacuuming compulsively or ordering do-it-yourself solutions online. Entomologists say tape and vacuuming aren’t likely to eliminate the bugs and over-the-counter products might kill only the bugs that people can see.

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England has been dealing with the ill effects of coal pollution for centuries. In 1306 King Edward had even banned the burning of coal with little in the way of results.

After the industrial revolution there was even more air pollution. With all that coal smoke and industrial pollution in one city something was bound to happen, and of course it did. On the 26th of January, 1880 a thick, slow-moving fog rolled over the city.

This wasn’t the first time a heavy fog had swamped the city. In 1813 a week long fog swept over the English capital, limiting visibility to the point that even the most experienced of London travellers were lost. The Prince Regent himself attempted to move to another of his official residences, but was forced to turn back. In 1873, a fog that was said to reek of coal tar filled parts of London, allegedly making the death rate rise 40%.

Then the 1880 fog came. The thick, soupy fog was a mix of pollution from coal burned to heat homes and pollution from factories. They came together to create a toxic mix of sulphur dioxide and combustion particles.

This choking smog was extremely deadly. For three days it hung over London, and by the time it cleared irreparable damage had been done to many in the city. The young, elderly, and those with respiratory problems suffered most. Far more than just those groups died however.

When it was all over an estimated 11,776 people were killed by the fog according to the Open University- some, however, say the figure was much lower, more like 2,200. The East End, with its higher concentration of factories and low-lying areas that made it hard for fog to escape, was affected the worst.

While the fog horrified London, very little was done about its source. Several more fogs in February 1882, December 1891, December 1892 and November 1948 killed thousands, but it wasn’t until 1952 that people began to think about air pollution in a more modern way.

How World War I and II played a big part in the development of pesticides.

Insecticides were first developed in the 1930’s by the German scientist Gerhard Schrader. Early experiments noted dimmed vision and ‘a choking sensation’ on exposure to these chemicals. (Organophosphates.)

The Nazi government saw the potential for a new weapon in World War II. They put Schrader in charge developing the first chemical warfare gases using organophosphates. They called this Nerve Gas.

The British also developed their own nerve gases using organochlorides in the 1950’s.

After World War II, the Americans got hold of Schrader’s lab reports. They then used them to develop pesticides and insecticides. The first on the market was Parathion. Others followed. These pesticides became even more popular after insecticides like DDT and heptachlor were banned in the 1970’s.

These banned insecticides used organochlorides. They proved to be cancer causing. They were also dangerous because they stuck around. They didn’t break down in the earth and they accumulated in people and animals as well.

A famous book ‘The Silent Spring’ written in that time the story of one lady who noticed that all the robins had disappeared. An investigation lead to the conclusion they had all died due DDT disrupting their life cycles. This book is credited with helping to launch the environmental movement in the West.

So organophosphates became the pesticides of choice. Research has shown they degrade rapidly on exposure to water, air and soil. However they were originally used as nerve toxins. This makes them more toxic to people immediately if they are exposed.

According to the world health organization, thousands of farm workers die each year from exposure to pesticides. This occurs in the USA and in the developing world.

Small quantities of organophosphate toxins are now also being found in water supplies. This suggests that they don’t break down as completely as people first thought they did.

OTC ear drops can damage the eardrum

And the hits just keep on coming. While you’re carefully avoiding kids’ cough and cold meds, be sure you also stay the heck away from over-the-counter ear drops. A new study led by researchers from The Montreal Children’s Hospital (MCH) has discovered that some ear drops designed to soften ear wax can cause inflammation that’s so extreme that it could damage the eardrum and the inner ear.

Did you hear that?

One of the drops studied – a product called Cerumenex – is actually toxic to the cells of the ear! And in spite of the fact that these kinds of results were found in animal tests, these drops are available WITHOUT A PRESCRIPTION. It boggles the mind.

Incredibly, the doctors who did this research drew this conclusion: “Overall, our findings suggest that Cerumenex has a toxic potential and should be used with caution.” USED WITH CAUTION!? If this stuff has a “toxic potential,” is it wise to be using it at all? There are times when I’m not sure who’s to blame – Big Pharma or the doctors. Or should I blame the lawyers? After all, it’s the lawyers who prevent the MCH researchers from telling everyone that they shouldn’t use Cerumenex under any circumstances.

All of these over-the-counter stories should send a shudder through you. In spite of the veneer of safety that covers so many OTC medicines, there are a frightening number of cases where both the effectiveness and safety of the products are incredibly suspect. And the fact that I’ve just told you about two kinds of products FOR CHILDREN that fall into this category, well…I’ll hope you’ll stay away from the drug store next time you hear the little ones sniffle.

Saying over-and-out to over-the-counter kids meds,

William Campbell Douglass II, M.D.

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