grow older better

Author: Lynn Dorman, Ph.D.

  • Arctic Winds and Burst Pipes!

    For the last few days I have had frozen pipes which of course burst yesterday. So no water and no fun. I realized how much we rely on running water for our comfort. Luckily I have good friends as neighbors and one left me keys so I could take a hot shower this morning.

    I filled pots with water before we shut off my main water supply and had to heat it for washing dishes and my hands. I tried to reframe all this as being on a camping trip when ones turn to wash dishes was a real treat – hot water! wow!

    But that did not work as my brain kept saying “this isn’t a camping trip.”

    The outdoor temperature rose just enough for the broken pipes to be capped and the glue to hold [I hope]. Floating homes are plumbed with cut and glue plastic piping…not hard to fix but when your hands are an inch or so above a very cold river – no fun … the person who did the fixing is a friend’s son and works with the owner of our moorage .. He’s also young and he was able to reframe this as a fun puzzle as he figured out how to do the fix [ah youth :D].

    I’ll have him do a permanent re-plumbing this summer. That is not a winter activity.

    I now have water only in my bathroom but I have water and can take a hot shower..

    Hope all of you are toasty warm with both hot and cold running water – and electricity.. We really are spoiled – we don’t appreciate what we have until it stops working for us!

    glyconutrients, healthy aging, growing older, aging, nutrition, exercise, eating properly,

  • Drugs and Ghost Writers

    From the New York Times

    Wyeth’s Use of Medical Ghostwriters Questioned
    By DUFF WILSON

    Wyeth, the pharmaceutical company, paid ghostwriters to produce medical journal articles favorable to its hormone replacement therapy Prempro, according to Congressional letters seeking more information about the company’s involvement in medical ghostwriting. At least one article was published even after a federal study found the drug raised the risk of breast cancer.

    Full article: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/13/business/13wyeth.html?ref=business&pagewanted=print

    I won’t belabor my anti-big pharma feelings but let’s say I am not the least surprised by this. Pay someone to write nice stuff – hmmm…good idea – except this is not some Hollywood star using a ghost writer but a company whose products can [and do] KILL you…and in fact they used a ghost writer after knowing that an HRT drug increased the risk of breast cancer.

    Nice people these suits at Wyeth – “profits above all” is the motto for most corporations..

    Message to users of the products? “We don’t care about you at all – except for – buy buy buy our stuff – we only like your wallet.”

    glyconutrients, healthy aging, growing older, aging, nutrition, exercise, eating properly,

  • Oh Boy – Did I Forget An Important Winter Task

    Totally forgot to leave water dripping last night and now have some frozen pipes. As tonight is to be much much much colder- there may be a major problem when the temps go back above freezing 🙁 [it’s called burst pipes]

    How I forgot is beyond me – I’m the one that lived in cold New England areas lots of my adult life and know to do this !

    Not sure if they are frozen inside or near the river – but I suspect it’s both – and they won’t defrost until it warms up and then – pipe replacement time.

    So – a word of advice if it’s cold near you – and you have an arctic air mass over you – leave water dripping in sinks or showers all the time.

    glyconutrients, healthy aging, growing older, aging, nutrition, exercise, eating properly,

  • Random Thoughts on a Snowy Day

    Watching the dogs and cats in our moorage I came to a conclusion that dogs walk the middle while cats live on the edge.

    The dogs here all walk up the ramp or on the decks staying pretty centered..except that when the ramp is slippery mine uses the footholds nearer an edge…

    But the cats? They walk on the very edge of the decks, the ramp and the railings….some, including mine, walk on the tubing that carry the utility wires and water to the moorage. Cats are not supposed to like water so why do they tempt fate by staying so close to edges that any off balance move has a good chance of sending them into the Columbia River?

    We know they can all swim as all have come home at times head-to-paws soaking wet – but they came home :D.

    Is it the nine lives and curiosity thing? Or are cats just more willing to live lives on the edges?

    Thoughts to contemplate while we get snowed and iced in this week…right now the snow is coming down sideways…..it’s that windy….next comes the sub-freezing temps making the decks a tad bit tricky – especially when the ice forms on one side and it tips…

    glyconutrients, healthy aging, growing older, aging, nutrition, exercise, eating properly,

  • Self Promotion 😀

    If you like this blog and find it useful – consider voting for me for people’s health blogger by clicking on the badge to the right…and thank you

    glyconutrients, healthy aging, growing older, aging, nutrition, exercise, eating properly,