Maggots and Diabetic Foot Ulcers: Gross, but Kinda Cool, Too

You can read the full article here, but then you'd have to see the picture. (Which is actually fascinating, and just as icky as you might expect). But in case you're eating or something, we'll play it safe here and just go with the quote:

"University of Manchester researchers are ridding diabetic patients of the superbug MRSA - by treating their foot ulcers with maggots. Professor Andrew Boulton and his team used green bottle fly larvae to treat 13 diabetic patients whose foot ulcers were contaminated with MRSA and found all but one were cured within a mean period of three weeks, much quicker than the 28-week duration for the conventional treatment."

This seems like good, if weird, news. "Superbugs" are super-deadly, because they're resistant to antibiotics. You can read more about the whole problem of overuse of antibiotics here, but talking about maggots is much more fun.

"Maggots are the world's smallest surgeons. In fact they are better than surgeons - they are much cheaper and work 24 hours a day," Professor Boulton said.

Yay maggots!

Cinco de Mayo

So it's Cinco de Mayo today, which Crabby had forgotten about until she went to Gillian's informative site about food and food history. Crabby then decided she'd steal Gillian's idea for a topic, and even plagiarize her own ramblings over there and recycle them here. Crabby was thus spared any further thought or research. Ole!

So here is Crabby's Very Own Cinco de Mayo recipe:

Laze around all day.

Go out to neighborhood Mexican restaurant and notice its awfully crowded. Remember again that it's Cinco de Mayo.

Come back home, open a can of refried beans.

Make Famous Guacamole. (Mashed avocado, already-made salsa, and garlic salt to taste. That's it.)

Shred whatever cheese is in the fridge, (cutting away mold first, or at least most of it) and sprinkle over stale tortilla chips. Stick in the toaster oven.

Make gigantic margaritas!

Smell burning odor.

Repeat nacho preparation with new cheese and chips.

More gigantic margaritas!

Consume nachos with guacamole and beans. Not half bad!

Happy Cinco de Mayo, all.

Health and Beauty

Warning: this is a particularly cranky post, but at least it's short. Crabby will be back soon with a posting that is much more upbeat.


So we know that health and physical attractivenss can sometimes go hand in hand: people who are strong, well-nourished and rested look, on the whole, way more attractive than people who don't exercise, eat crap, and never sleep.

However, standards of feminine beauty are sometimes arbitrary and even vicious. Here are two recent examples:

Take a look at the feet of this poor old woman (spotted by Apostropher).

And read here about the force-feeding of Mauritanian girls and women.

Crabby thinks there are also examples here at home, too, (maybe this?) but these first two struck her as particularly disturbing since "choice" didn't seem to be part of the picture.

This stuff makes Crabby so sad and angry she just wants to crawl into a nice little crabhole in the sand and hibernate.

Okay, enough with the infuriating depressing stuff. Back soon with something cheerier.

Crabby's Ten Health Commandments

Don't worry, these aren't the bossy kind of Commandments. Loyal readers are not being exhorted (yet, anyway) to do or not do any of these things.

Rather, this is a list presented simply to let all of you know what Crabby tries to do in her own life. Having scrounged around all kinds of interesting back alleys of the internet in search of readers, Crabby realizes you all come here with your own unique perspective on health.

Among you are writers, scientists, feminists, hard-core dieters, natural-foods aficionados, cream-filled apple donut addicts, environmentalists, fitness board fanatics, mammary-googlers, triathletes, and who knows who all else. Crabby loves this diversity and also knows that it means many of you will find this list annoying in one way or another.

Be that as it may, these are Crabby's Ten Health Commandments (to herself).

Thou shalt:

1. Do some sort of exercise every day (aiming for about 400 calories worth--4 miles walking or jogging for those of average weight).

2. Make sure that at least every other day (but optimally 4-5 times a week), said exercise is aerobic.

3. Perform some Unpleasant Strength Training 2-3 times week.

4. Stretch most days in order to get out of bed without moaning.

5. Eat enough Virtuous Healthy Food (about 85-90% of total calories) to as not to feel guilty about eating Complete Crap for the remaining 10-15%. Virtuous healthy foods include lean protein, whole grains, legumes, fruits, vegetables and "good" fats. (There are lots more specifics here which Crabby will bore you with in future posts).

6. Seek variety and hedonistic pleasure in Virtuous Healthy Foods so as to encourage the consumption of them. (This is made easier by the news that red wine, coffee, chocolate, cheese, nuts, avocados, honey, and even beer have all now been redefined as Virtuous Healthy Foods).

6. Watch portion sizes even of Virtuous Healthy Food so as not to Consume more calories than are Expended.

7. Endeavor to do some sort of breathing/relaxation activity if signs of stress become apparent.

8. Appreciate the consistent wonderfulness of spouse, and take time to enjoy family, friends, and cat.

9. Appreciate great music, the outdoors, fine art, literature, and even the Big Ass HDTV if something good is on.

10. Do a bunch of other Important Things that Crabby can't remember right off the top of her head (that would in any event keep the list from being a nice even 10).

Please readers, feel free to share any Good Health Commandments you live by too. Or trash Crabby's (nicely). Either way is good.

Quickies

Martha over at Thatsfit, (whom we like very much not only because she has sensible advice, but because she comes over here and visits us sometimes), has heard us whining recently about how tiresome it is to lift weights. Unlike Crabby, who basically said "get over yourself and do it anyway," Martha has actually come up with some alternative suggestions.

And Crabby couldn't help saying "WTF" at this perplexing advertisement for Breast Implants, via BitchPhD and Stay Free! Daily. Crabby is too chicken to copy the ad photo here, so she'll let one of those fine blogs do the heavy lifting.