The car trip that never ends and a PSA

[jebbypal]

Or at least so it seems since I've only not been in a car one day out of the six that I've been here. Back to Muskogee today for errands...and if I work myself up to it, returning something I bought in error at Walmart. *dreads* The walmart here is now bigger than most Sam's Club stores. It's monstrous. And last time I almost got into a knockdown drag out w/ some woman who was annoyed that I didn't stop in busy area in front of cash registers to let her in out of the clothing section. That place needs traffic signs inside!

I've been neglecting this due to the various catastrophes and emergencies we've had here in RL, but I do want to wish my flist (and LJ) a happy holidays. My flist is soo patient with all my venting, I really don't know what I'd do without you guys. And the larger LJ hivemind offers me much entertainment and feedback, so thanks;)

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Um, that's about it. I did see that poisontaster received a fic for serenity_santa so at least her drought of never receiving a ficathon gift is over;) Didn't have time to read it, but I hope it's good. And am very sad that I'm missing out on the vids and soundtracks. Hopefully some of you all and dutifully downloading the good stuff for me;)

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PSA PSA PSA

I did educate one of my mother's friends today about the evils of carbonation and nicotine to bones. I'm beginning to think a PSA campaign is called for. Really, is it that unknown that carbonation sucks out the calcium of your bones? Think back to chemistry, ladies, carbonic acid must be neutralized and the only way to do that in the closed system of your body is to convert it to calcium carbonate. If you drink more soda than milk, that calcium will come from your bones. And nicotine reduces your circulation which causes changes to your bone-making cells in your bones and makes them softer. Each of which adds up to increased risk of osteoporosis.

This woman already has osteoporosis and apparently has been neglected to be told this. Or she's like my mom and is having selective hearing. *rolls eyes*.

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Tried a different tack w/ my mom on the smoking issue---reminded her of my recently aquired anxiety issues w/ caffeine and gently asked if maybe the reason she gets so weepy when she quits smoking is because she's sucking down caffeine all day long and w/out nicotine to calm her, she's having near constant levels of panic. She appeared to have listened to my arguement. We'll see if she tries to reduce it or not. I swear though, I feel like a dope dealer every time she asks me to refill her pop cup.

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Well, I'm done w/ lunch, mother is napping, guess I'd better go out and fight the holiday traffic. In case I don't get on before then, I hope everyone has a safe and happy New Year's.

Comments

[azuremonkey.livejournal.com]

You're wonderful! I get so tired of preaching the no soda and no smoking thing. My best friend lives on Coke and it drives me batty. When we go hiking or whatnot, so insists on backing a Nutra-Grain bar and a couple cans of Coke. I've tried explaining how bad soda is, but she won't listen. I've stopped trying. But you should keep right on doing it. We need to get people to understand the evils of such things.

You'll be back on LJ before the New Year. BUT, if not, then Happy New Year's to you, also.

[arthurfrdent.livejournal.com]

[mmm, friendsurfing in from themonkeycabal]

RE, your PSA, I have a couple questions... Since you obviously are quite passionate about this maybe you are the person to find an answer if you don't know it. I did some light research on the calcium loss issue, and what I found was the sum total of confusion, which tends to make me wary of the 'rightness' of anyone's claims. I can't figure out how MUCH cabonic acid should be in the body, and what causes it to be too much... From Wiki, where I go to find links to more in depth stuff, Carbonic Acid (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbonic_acid) it sounds as though the volume of carbonic acid in a soda for instance is actually low, relatively speaking... My question is, "well, how much would cause noticeable loss?" The chemistry conversions are obviously happening but the SCALE of them is not apparent to me. It sounds as though a catalyst is required to make the carbonic acid happen, and our body makes Carbonic Anhydrase to do that... In addition this sentence in a liked site caught my eye >> "Carbon dioxide diffuses out of cells and is transported in blood in a few different ways ­ less than 10% dissolves in the blood plasma, about 20% binds to hemoglobin, while the majority of it (70%) is converted to carbonic acid to be carried to the lungs." << Carbonic Anhydrase (http://www.rcsb.org/pdb/molecules/pdb49_1.html)

Unless I read all that wrong, carbonic acid appears to be the prime mechanism for moving CO2 from the body... so even if you didn't have anything with carbonation, your blood is full of it on purpose. This is where the scale thing always gets me... If I drank a pepsi and the level of carbonic acid in my bloodstream increased exponentially, and we could link that to a sudden increase in the leaching on a bone, I could dig that. On the other claw, if drinking a pop, increases the carbonic level by .001%, well then maybe I'm not seeing the link.

Another interesting take on Milk itself and too much animal protein is an older one [fully linked though] Here (http://www.slate.com/id/32621)
Here is another that thinks we get way too much Animal Protein, and that's Whole Health Excerpt (http://www.gentlebirth.org/nwnm.org/Diet_Prevents_Osteoporosis.htm)
Here is one that say's that "calcium-leaching foods (including soy "milk," tofu, coffee, soda pop, alcohol, white flour products, processed meats, nutritional yeast, and bran)." HERE (http://www.botanical.com/site/column_susun/susun_better_bones.html)

perhaps you begin to see my problem about carbonation being evil... not only is it not apparent how much is good/bad but other people think that it's not the main problem at all... :shrug: So if you have some insight about all this, I'm all ears. Smoking on the other hand, is a baddie, but with 163,000 people in the US dying from it this YEAR... I believe that the leaching of calcium from bone is the least of a smokers worries... 90% of lung cancer is caused by smoking, and women are 3X more likely to get it that way then men. Sometimes you dodge the bullet, my grandmother made it to 87 years old and smoked for about 60 of those [17~77] and didn't get it, but lung cancer kill more women the breast cancer... far more...

So anyway, please don't feel like I am attacking your PSA. Really, there is just so much info out there, that it's hard to find all the right stuff. I have been told many times on many subjects that this, or that, or something else is bad. I know someone that refuses to fly, because you can get killed that way. :shrug: the fact that it is FAR, FAR more likely to get killed driving to work, doesn't seem to mean much to them. So, I guess I am wondering, what is the cause of the largest percentage of osteoporosis because it would seem that it is THAT thing it would do the most good to change...

Thanks ;)
AFD