Healing Through Humor: Laughter Therapy is an Effective Pain Reducer

by Darisse Smith:
If you are a pain sufferer like me, having a good laugh isn’t always easy. But it sure can make you feel better.
Recently, I gave a presentation about Laughter Therapy for the North Carolina Therapeutic Recreation Association.  In preparing for the presentation, I had to think a lot about how I have survived the daily toil of chronic pain. I have had some form of pain in my back and left leg since February 2005. Experiencing pain for a long time is just a small part of the battle, though it is enough to drive a person to sadness, insanity and mild violence. For me (and probably for many of you), the greatest source of bitterness is that with the proper medical treatment at the time of injury I could be pain free. Instead, doctors dismissed my complaints and then grossly mistreated my injury. If they had just taken me seriously from the beginning and listened, I would most likely have had months of discomfort instead of years.
I figured something out recently—holding onto to that bitterness was actually hurting me–bringing me down mentally and providing excuses for me to remain severely unhappy. So I decided to remember what I already knew—it’s good to laugh...Continue reading....

Marx Brothers: Duck Soup Movie Clip 

Cats vs Dogs: Which Pet Is Better? - Freshpet

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Freshpet:For the second time, shelter pets from the Humane Society of Utah have been featured in a Freshpet video to highlight shelter and rescue pets in a positive manner and help reduce the stigma of shelter animals as unwanted or less than perfect pets. In the video released online March 30, 2015, “Cats vs Dogs: Which Pet Is Better?” the question regarding which is the better pet is approached in a humorously deductive manner...Continue reading...

Freshpet:

ISIS Dying: Where Bombs May Fail, Flesh Eating Disease May Succeed

Leishmaniasis

Posted By: Brian
ISIS is now facing off against perhaps its deadliest enemy yet a flesh eating disease spread by sand flies. The disease, called http://www.valuewalk.com/2015/04/isis-dying/, is estimated to cause about 2 million infections per year, and somewhere between 20,000 to 50,000 deaths.
As recently as last year Doctors Without Borders was working in Syria to prevent the spread of the disease, but as the Islamic State advanced, doctors were forced to essentially evacuate. Now all medical care is being left to local doctors and medics, but supplies are scare and it’s estimated that about 64% of Syrian hospitals have been damaged, destroyed, or abandoned.

ISIS: Poor hygiene conditions

Poor hygiene conditions, and the fact that many if ISIS’s soldiers have essentially refused treatment is allowing the disease to spread at a rapid rate. Add in the fact that ISIS’s ground troopers are often forced into cramp and tight living conditions, and it’s a perfect recipe for a medical disaster.

Of course, one’s disaster could turn out to be another’s miracle. If the flesh eating disease is able to even slow down ISIS, it could prove to be a tipping point in the battle against the extremist group. Bombs and advances from competing armies have pushed the group back, but so for the Islamic State has proven to be difficult to outright defeat...Continue reading...

"Lumber Jack Song" Michael Palin - repost

This was an old post, published a couple years ago. I had to fix & repost. www.youtube.com/watch?v=QuT87kW7i1o

                                      Michael Palin. Photo: Wolter Peeters

Cats vs Cancer: Oskar the Blind Cat

Oskar the Blind Cat won Cats vs Cancer’s inaugural March Meowdness thanks to over 29,000 votes! 
...Oskar loves food, and often steals “people food.” His favorites are cheese, eggs, kale, and cilantro! His message is simply that animals with –what we call– disabilities can thrive if given a chance. Oskar loves to play and climb the tallest things he can find.  He has two big cat trees which he climbs daily, and one is over six feet tall. He’s also very brave, adventurous, and loves going outdoors (on a harness) and even rides a skateboard!...

Cats vs Cancer

"Big Yellow Taxi " Joni Mitchell

http://www.cbc.ca/books/2014/09/the-10-joni-mitchell-songs-everyone-should-know.html

                                                                            Joni Mitchell's battle with Morgellons disease

Giving - Ad from Thailand

TrueMoveHhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7s22HX18wDY

She & Him 'Stay Awhile' from CANADA on Vimeo.

www.allmusic.com

She & Him 'Stay Awhile' from CANADA on Vimeo.

http://www.sheandhim.com/

A Palestinian State: Why Not?

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By DANIEL DORON: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently noted that with the Middle East in chaos, it may not be a good time to establish another rogue state, Palestine, which would likely be taken over by Iran’s proxy, Hamas, which would then launch a bloody war against Israel. The Prime Minister’s declaration was greeted with alarm among the commentariat, because the belief that establishing a Palestinian state will lead to peace has become an article of faith immune to fact or reason.
   The Palestinian Authority is utterly dysfunctional. It’s a clan-based coalition made up of murderous political mafias. It deprives the Palestinians of even the most elementary rights, robs them of billions in aid from the U.S. and Europe, keeps most of them in penury and misery, oppresses women, gays and lesbians, and all who aren’t Muslims. It foments rage against Israel by incessant incitement that calls on even small children to kill Jews everywhere. Is granting it statehood really the path to peace?
   How can anyone who cherishes human rights, who claims that they care for the oppressed Palestinians, believe that subjecting them to greater oppression is justified just so that they can enjoy a putative political “self-determination,” - the kind enjoyed by the citizens of Saudi Arabia, Libya, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Pakistan, or Iran? Israel sinned against the Palestinians when, in the Oslo Agreements, it agreed that a terrorist organization, Arafat’s PLO, should rule them. The idea was that the PLO would take on Hamas; instead, Israel got two terrorist organizations competing over which one will destroy Israel first...Continue reading...

The Limits of Tylenol for Pain Relief

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By Nicholas Bakalar:

Acetaminophen (Tylenol) is widely recommended for the relief of back pain and the pain of knee and hip arthritis. But a systematic review of randomized trials has found that it works no better than a placebo.

Australian researchers reviewed three randomized trials that compared acetaminophen with a placebo for the relief of spinal pain, and 10 trials that compared their use for easing the pain of osteoarthritis. All together, the analysis included 5,366 patients. Acetaminophen was given orally in doses between 3,000 and 4,000 milligrams a day, except for one study in which a dose of 1,000 milligrams was administered intravenously.

The review, published online in BMJ, found high quality evidence that Tylenol is ineffective in treating low back pain or disability. It also found evidence that the drug quadruples the risk of an abnormal liver function test, but the clinical significance of that finding is unclear.

The studies of pain from knee and hip arthritis found a small but clinically insignificant short-term pain-relief effect for acetaminophen compared with a placebo...Continue reading...

Saskatchewan covers cost of new hepatitis C drugs at a cost of up to $10 million

By The Canadian Press:

The Saskatchewan government says it will now provide new drug coverage for hepatitis C — a viral disease that affects the liver.

Photograph by: Yvonne berg , CNW

REGINA - The Saskatchewan government says it will now provide new drug coverage for hepatitis C — a viral disease that affects the liver.
Health Minister Dustin Duncan says the new drugs, Harvoni and Sovaldi, are better tolerated by patients than other therapies.
The drugs are said to cure 90 to 98 per cent of patients in as little as eight to 12 weeks.
The government expects to provide coverage for about 1,100 patients over the next three years who meet the criteria for these therapies.
The cost will be up to $10 million in the first year.
Dr. Stephen Sanche of the Royal University Hospital praised the government's decision.
“These medications will offer our patients a substantially greater chance of cure with fewer side effects and shorter treatment courses," he said in a release Wednesday.
The healthy ministry says the effects of the virus range in severity from a mild illness to a serious, chronic illness, including liver scarring and liver cancer.
The disease is spread primarily through contact with the blood of an infected person. http://www.thestarphoenix.com/health/Saskatchewan+covers+cost+hepatitis+drugs+cost+million/10938057/story.html

Ali Fontaine "Ignorance"

STRONGFRONT.tv

alifontaine.com/

OPPOSING OR QUESTIONING ISLAM: Is That A Racist Act?

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by Audrey Russo  “Islam is an ideology. It’s not a race.” ~Ibrahim Hooper, CAIR spokesperson
If you care about truth in today’s world culture…you’re going against the flow. Truth is the new “hate speech”, especially if that speech is about the new Leftist/Marxist victim of the moment: Islam. According to the Left…taking its lead from Islam (Sharia Islamic Law)…if you even question Islam, you are committing a hate crime and are branded a racist. But there is a wee bit of a problem with this premise: Islam…is NOT a race, hence the racist label is void!...Continue reading....                      

Islam is not a race.  Muslims are not a race.  Islam is an ideology that should be open to critical examination.  Muslims, however, are individuals who should be protected from harm or harassment in the same way and for the same reasons as anyone else. thereligionofpeace.com                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Richard Dawkins, "If Islam is a race, then socialism is a race, birdwatching is a race, femaleness is a race.":  https://twitter.com/richarddawkins/status/528454775604797440

Social media, microchip solve lost dog mystery

By Betty Ann Adam, The StarPhoenix: [photo]

A woman who was reunited with her stolen dog has become a great proponent of microchips for pets.
“I most definitely recommend them for anybody with animals. The first thing you should do is get them microchipped,” Brandy Mitchell said Wednesday.
Mitchell feared she would never see her beloved Bella again after the Yorkie-Chihuahua disappeared four months ago during an incident outside Market Mall.
“I was completely devastated. I was heartbroken every day until I got her back,” she said.
Bella has gone pretty much everywhere with Mitchell since she adopted the dog from the SPCA six years ago...Continue reading, video...

Miranda Lambert "Somethin' Bad" ft. Carrie Underwood

www.worth1000.com

                                                           last.fm/music Miranda Lambert

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

CarrieUnderwoodofficial.com/