Serendipita

“Laut einem Bericht der Weltgesundheitsorganisation zählt unter den chronischen Krankheiten, die das Leben stark beeinträchtigen, Migräne zu den ersten vier. Die Volkswirtschaft kostet das Leiden Unsummen – von den Arbeitsausfällen bis hin zur Frühinvalidität. Allein die Behandlung verschlingt in Deutschland jährlich 500 Millionen Euro, die Folgekosten schätzungsweise das Zehnfache. Nach einer anderen Berechnung kostet Migräne in der EU im Jahr mindestens 27 Milliarden Euro und gilt als die teuerste neurologische Störung.”

Diese Aussage fand ich in einem Artikel der letzten Ausgabe von Spektrum der Wissenschaft: Migräne – leider keine Einbildung von David W. Dodick und J. Jay Gargus.

Zum Glück sind meine Migräneattacken meistens relativ milde, und Naratriptan wirkt ganz gut dagegen. Frustrierend finde ich allerdings, dass die Krankheit bzw. ihre Auslöser bisher so wenig verstanden werden und es daher schwierig ist, sie medikamentös zu behandeln. Wünschenswert wäre ja eine Prophylaxe statt einer Tablette, die man erst nehmen darf, wenn die Schmerzen bereits begonnn haben.

By the way, if you prefer to read the article in the original version (in English), you can find it in Scientific American: Why Migraines Strike. The illustrations seem to be missing, but you can get the whole article by clicking on “Print”. You can buy the full version here or as an audio book.

New York Times: Trail of E. Coli Shows Flaws in Inspection of Ground Beef. (Link via dangerousmeta!)

Just reading the description of how hamburger meat is manufactured makes me sick to my stomach. And that’s just a metaphor; for Stephanie Smith, the E. coli infection with a very dangerous strain called O157:H7 was life-threatening, and she will likely be in a wheelchair for the rest of her life.

The rules for processing meat might be a little tighter in the European Union or Germany, but the danger of contamination still remains high if meat from several sources is combined for grinding. The companies combine sources for hamburger in order to save money, but personally I don’t mind paying a bit more for safer meat.

We are lucky to have a good butcher in town: Each week they put up a notice stating where the animals they slaughtered were bred (all farms in a 30 mile radius), and if you want to buy ground meat, they always prepare it fresh and right before your eyes, and they use only meat, no fillers. It might be a little more expensive than pre-packaged groud meat from the supermarket, but it’s safer and tastes better.

Update: There’s a MetaFilter thread now as well: Welcome to the jungle.

A couple of weeks ago I had to get an MRI scan of my head because of my frequent headaches. I wasn’t so much worried about the results as curious about the procedure because I’ve studied MRI and other medical imaging technology at university in theory and was interested in seeing an MRI scanner in real life. As it turns out, I was right, and everything is perfectly fine inside my head (I can now prove that I’ve got a brain!), and the scan was an interesting experience.

I was told beforehand that it was going to be very, very loud inside the scanner, so I was prepared for it to be very, very loud. Fortunately, I was given ear muffs, and the noise wasn’t really that bad. I had heard it being described as loud knocking or banging sounds, but found that it didn’t sound like knocking at all. It rather sounded like an electronic beat or an electronic bass guitar and reminded me of the beginning of this song by Bily Joel, which is among my favourites since I played it in our highschool Big Band. (In that version, I actually played the bass part on the piano, so I know it very well.)

All of this is just a long-winded introduction to this link: What does an MRI scanner sound like? which I found over at LaLaGirl today. You can listen to MRI sounds there without actually having to go into a scanner. Just imagine the sounds to be quite a bit louder and all around you.

P.S.: I had tickets to a Billy Joel and Elton John concert when they did their “Face 2 Face” tour in Germany. Unfortunately, Billy Joel had an inflammation of the vocal chords and was unable to perform, so Elton did the show all by himself. Since then I’ve been hoping that they will be doing another concert together somewhere in Germany. I hear there’s another tour scheduled for 2009, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

P.P.S.: auf Deutsch gibt es natürlich auch eine Seite bei Wikipedia zur Magnetresonanztomographie bzw. Kernspintomographie: MRT.