Mood...

 

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Although the mental health benefits associated with use of combined hormonal contraceptives (CHCs) outweigh the harms, CHCs might increase risk of dysphoric mood & interact w/ psychiatric meds.

This review & consensus statement based on CDC criteria for contraceptive use addresses the full range of contraceptive choices, including long-acting reversible implants (<1 pregnancy/100 women/year); progestin-only contraceptives or CHCs via injection, pill, patch, or ring; & barrier methods.

Authors discuss PO contraceptives’ variable impact on mood. Some studies of adolescents reported increase depression & suicidal behavior during the 1st few months of PO contraceptive use, but most studies reported little effect on mood or actual benefits, especially premenstrually. 

Among women w/ major depression, CHCs were associated with few ill effects, vs no use of hormone contraceptives. Adherence was problematic in some patients populations. 

Infrequent major drug interactions included higher levels of clozapine w/ CHCs & lower levels of lamotrigine & valproic acid w/ PO CHCs. 
Carbamazepine & oxcarbazepine can decrease contraceptives’ hormone levels & thus effectiveness, possibly leading to unintended pregnancy.

Immune...

If you're conscious of hitting recommended activity targets, walking definitely counts towards this.

There are lots of health benefits to walking, such as improved immune function and reduced risk of coronary heart disease.  

Keeping active over the course of the day and little bursts of movement can have huge benefits.

The most important thing to consider, however, is what you enjoy doing.

CD. See...

 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Saturday issued a new guidance.

The CDC explained that people with weakened immune systems due to other illnesses or medication may also receive a COVID-19 vaccine, but they should be aware that limited safety data is available on the effects of the vaccines on these individuals.   

The CDC also stated in its guidance that individuals with autoimmune conditions may take the vaccine, although there is no data currently available for the safety of the vaccine in this demographic.  

Those who have experienced Guillain-Barré syndrome - a condition in which the body begins to attack parts of its own nervous system - may also receive the vaccine doses. The guidance adds that following vaccination during clinical trials, there have been no instances of the syndrome.  

Those who have previously experienced Bell's palsy - a condition that causes muscle weakness in one side of the face - may also receive a vaccine. Some participants during clinical trials did develop Bell's palsy following vaccination, but it did not occur at a rate above that expected in the general population. 

Lonely...

 

Police released chilling details about the moments before the bomb detonated on Second Street about 6:30 a.m. on Friday, adding to an eerie portrait of a man in an RV who blared evacuation warnings before the explosion demolished a city block.

While acquaintances described Tony Warner as a self-employed computer guru — and a homebody who tended to his pets and kept to himself, police officers on the scene before the bomb exploded recalled a strange recording emanating from the RV.

In between a digitized female voice giving warnings to evacuate the area, there was music, the officers said.

Downtown," a wistful 1964 song by Petula Clark, echoed down Second Avenue just before the blast.

“When you're alone and life is making you lonely you can always go downtown,” blared Clark’s voice through the speakers. “When you've got worries, all the noise and the hurry seems to help, I know.”

Gibberish...

 

Governor Andrew Cuomo is sounding the alarm that the United States, via New York airports, could soon be grappling with the new variant of COVID-19 present in southern England believed to be 70% more infectious.

Highlighting the unfettered travel from the United Kingdom to New York, unlike other countries who have restricted airfare from Britain, Cuomo said Americans in the northeast are as vulnerable to this variant as they were leading up to the initial COVID-19 outbreak in March.

“Right now, this variant in the UK is getting on a plane and flying to JFK right now today,” Cuomo said.

According to Cuomo, the federal government needs to take begin requiring tests for travelers or bans on visitors traveling through the UK as the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has little authority in this matter.

Can the Governor of New York State do... Something?  Just a thought.

Mia Culpa...

 

Jen O’Malley Dillon, President-elect Joe Biden’s campaign manager and incoming White House deputy chief of staff, walked back comments she made in a recent interview suggesting that congressional Republicans were “a bunch of f---ers.”

The mea culpa came in a virtual conversation Thursday with veteran Democratic operatives Stephanie Cutter and Teddy Goff, during which O’Malley Dillon acknowledged she “used some words that I probably could have chosen better” when speaking with author Glennon Doyle for a Glamour magazine interview published Tuesday.

Good Start.  Just a thought.

Cell...

 

Dozens of journalists at Al-Jazeera, the Qatari state-owned media company, have been targeted by advanced spyware in an attack likely linked to the governments of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, a cybersecurity watchdog reported on Sunday.

Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto said it traced malware that infected the personal phones of 36 journalists, producers, anchors and executives at Al-Jazeera back to the Israel-based NSO Group, which has been widely condemned for selling spyware to repressive governments.

The coordinated attacks on Qatari-funded Al-Jazeera, which Citizen Lab described as the largest concentration of phone hacks targeting a single organization, occurred in July, just weeks before the Trump administration announced the normalization of ties between Israel and the UAE, the archival to Qatar. 

The breakthrough deal took public what had been a long-secret alliance. Analysts say normalization likely will lead to stronger cooperation in digital surveillance between Israel and Persian Gulf sheikhdoms.

Who is spying on who?  Just a thought.

Not Forgotten...

 

Attorney General William Barr announced the indictment of the suspected maker of the bomb that brought down Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, during a press conference at the Justice Department on Monday

A criminal complaint affidavit stated that Masud worked with Megrahi and Fhimah to carry out the plot, allegedly at the orders of Libyan intelligence at the time. The affidavit claimed that Qaddafi thanked Masud for the attack. 

Additionally, Masud was tied to the 1986 bombing of the LaBelle Discotheque in Berlin, West Germany, which killed two American service members and a Turkish woman. Libyan authorities provided a copy of the interview to law enforcement. 

Model...

 

Since the late 1990s, new models of sexual consent have been proposed. Specifically, the development of "yes means yes" and affirmative models, such as Hall's definition: "the voluntary approval of what is done or proposed by another; permission; agreement in opinion or sentiment."^[6] 

Hickman and Muehlenhard state that consent should be "free verbal or nonverbal communication of a feeling of willingness' to engage in these activity."   Affirmative consent may still be limited since the underlying, individual circumstances surrounding the consent cannot always be acknowledged in the "yes means yes", or in the "no means no", model

How someone feels about what happened in an encounter is very much up to interpretation and two people can see the same events very differently, each from their own perspective.       

 People can also have very different memories of what happened, how, in what order, and by who, all of which makes it really difficult to agree afterwards. Even though both people were in the same room, that doesn’t mean they had the same experience.

Hope...

 

Merry Christmas to all.