Posts by dyan campbell

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  • Hard News: The drugs don't (always) work,

    I am only a layperson, not a doctor, but it would seem to me that the first approach to depression should be attention to the state of the person's endocrine function, nutritional status and look for obvious underlying biochemical states in the body that will affect biochemical states in the brain.

    A huge number of women and children and some men are deficient in iron, and one of the first sypmtoms of iron deficiency is tiredness and depression. The prediabetic state of insulin resistance (which is shockingly common, there are going to be a lot of people with type 2 diabetes in a few years) also has depression as one of the first symptoms. Deficiency in various B vitamins (also common in the population) also shows up as tiredness and depression.

    Then there's the HPA axis (hypothalamus, pituatary, adrenals) and it's a kind of biochemical Catch-22 where the abdominal fat acts as a kind of sinister pancreas, as the stress hormones will cause the accumulation ofabdominal fat, and the abdominal fat will in turn manufacture biochemicals that cause depression.

    If you have too thick a layer of abdominal fat, that fat doesn't just remain a static set of fat cells, it is constantly secreting harmful cytokines that will cause anxiety and depression. That stress will in turn cause your abdomen to store yet more body fat.

    Then there is Parkinson's disease, hepatitis, angina, also congestive heart failure, thyroid disease... all of these are often heralded by depression before the underlying disease is discovered.

    Depression is the first symptom of almost every vitamin and mineral defiency you can name. Also a symptom of estrogen dominance or low testosterone levels, again affected by nutritional status.

    My point is that when a person goes to see a GP for depression the first response should be a thorough physical and biochemical examination. Once the biochemical imbalances of the body and the attending endocrine misery is addressed, then it should be a concern that the brain chemistry is not all it should be. But an approach using nutrition, congnitive therapy and movement (exercise is not to be underestimated in its power to combat depression) should be tried before messing with the brain chemistry. Except in extreme cases of depression of course, where self harm is clearly a danger.

    auckland • Since Dec 2006 • 595 posts Report

  • Hard News: 202.22.18.241,

    After reflecting on my comment last night and the bit about Trudeau, I think I stand by my original comment with a bit of a caveat.

    I interpret Trudeau's statement as saying "if the needs of my country come into conflict with the values of my religion, I must choose the needs of my country". Too right, the country elected him after all. Power to him for understanding the basis of a secular society. The opposite, to my way of thinking, is "the needs of my country can never come into conflict with the values of my church".

    It seems to me the separation of powers makes it very hard for a US president to govern in that way, no matter how Bush has tried.

    Heh, it's not that I think Trudeau's thinking was in any way typical, I was just holding the example up as a curiousity, like those fish that live in live underwater volcanos. I actually agree with your generalisation, generally. He was a deeply flawed but highly entertaining Prime Minister. I especially liked the time he stormed out of a meeting with Ronald Reagan declaring "The man's a senile moron, I'm not going to try to discuss anything with him!"

    He was certainly never afraid of offending anyone, he had that eccentric arrogance that comes from being incredibly good at everything you do and incredibly wealthy since birth. Once when acting as host for the Queen, while the cameras were rolling, when she turned her back during a stoll around the grounds, he did an impromtu (and technically perfect) piroette, returning to his leisurely walking pace the moment she turned back to look at him. It was really quite funny.

    auckland • Since Dec 2006 • 595 posts Report

  • Hard News: 202.22.18.241,

    Quite. I don't care if an MP says "this is my religion and it has an impact on how I see the world and how I want to change it". I'd be fucking amazed to hear one say "I'm a Catholic but I leave that at the doors of Parliament" (That person would be a bloody liar).

    Pierre Trudeau, while Canadian PM did just that, famously declaring that if he were forced to choose between the interests of Canada and its religiously diverse population, or his religion's doctrine (Catholic, educated in the Jesuit tradition), he would choose in the former. He was true to this and legalised abortion during his time in office, and despite this being in exact opposition to his personal beliefs. He frequently expressed the opinion that no one in pubic office had the right to allow their personal religion influence the way they served their religiously diverse constituents.

    auckland • Since Dec 2006 • 595 posts Report

  • Hard News: Networking takes a back seat,

    Henry was a happy, lucky family pet. Whoever stayed,was generally there because they wanted to be there... Perhaps I shouldv'e told the "filming wildlife with my cousin" story: )

    Henry sounds really wonderful, I would have loved to have met him.

    You have probably seen Bringing Up Baby, but on the off-chance you have somehow missed it, you really should check out this Cary Grant - Katherine Hepburn film. Grant's genuine terror of the leopard and Hepburn's affection for the animal and complete lack of fear really makes this film great.

    auckland • Since Dec 2006 • 595 posts Report

  • Hard News: What the people want to hear,

    Ummmm, you can remember who your currency shark hero is but not if you helped in the trade that made him famous?

    Is there anything you can remember Mr Key?

    Do you remember how he said he couldn't remember which way his loyalties went with the Springbok/apartheid thing? He said he couldn't remember his opinion on the whole issue that polarised NZ, or so I am led to believe, reading about the history of that period.

    I remember thinking either Key was either bizarrely ignorant of and disengaged from his own society at the time, or he is just plain lying.

    auckland • Since Dec 2006 • 595 posts Report

  • Hard News: Make you crazy like datura,

    I think that for some people their dream may actually be to live in a city with an abundance of quality shared spaces. They may actually dream about dwelling in a well designed inner city apartment, it may also be better for the environment (urban and ecological) if people aspire to living this way rather than letting urban sprawl and a nostalgia for the quarter acre section limit our national conversation about how we want to live.

    I don't want to minimise the importance of livable spaces for families but we don't all want to live on a quarter acre.

    Excellent points, and speaking as someone who has been involved in two sci/med conferences on obesity (one at AUT the other at SOPH) the importance of providing urban spaces that are not "obesogenic environments" is becoming more essential by the day.

    Urban inner city spaces and recreatonal spaces for families should not be mutually exclusive, if developers can be required to made to make specific provisions.

    I am not sure if this is true, but I am told in Vancouver developers are required to provide for 1) green space/gardens/unimpeded pedestrian access 2) public art 3) drinking water fountains 4) playground/recreation facilities 5) protect at least a corridor of views for other buildings 6) not take up more than a percentage of the actual space they occupy, i.e. make provisions for open space to remain on the site, rather than allowing the footprint of the entire development to take up the whole site.

    Recreation space is essential in a city, and whether you have children or not, the presence of facilities that are aimed at families are a good thing for society in general.

    Certainly in Vancouver there seems to be a more effortless blend of public access/recreational facilities/art etc than in Auckland.

    I have been trying (for more than a year, gosh they're busy) to get someone at Auckland City Council, North Shore City Council and SPARC to have a look at some of the photographs/running costs of the incredibly popular water parks that are studded around Vancouver (both the city and the suburbs).

    These are free, safe, relatively cheap to run and encourage a fair amount of physical activity. They would also make a hell of a lot more sense here in Auckland where it is hot sometime, as in Vancouver they have to be closed most of the year.

    Canada being Canada (i.e. freezing even in summer sometimes) there is even a huge "kid dryer" at the big Lumbermans' Arch Water Park so that soaked children can be blow dried before the chilly walk home along the sea wall. All of this is provided for free by the city.

    The parks usually involve equipment that reqires a fair investment of energy in return for a highly charged water cannon, sprinkler pumping roundabouts, sensor activated jets etc.

    There is one water park that doubles as a public art/fountain on the swanky Coal Harbour sea wall, and it is positioned so that the adults can have a coffee or a beer at a cafe and admire both the North Shore Mountains and the harbour, while keeping an eye on their kids playing in the sensor-activated fountain. There are grassy lawns with dogs playing frisbee and a huge number of pieces of art, walkways and playground equipment that is in a setting that is not some dusty suburban reserve, but a more successful and green version of what the Viaduct tried (and failed miserably) to be.

    At the Auckland Viaduct here was a Buzzy Bee therre for a while, and it had a sign on it saying "DO NOT CLIMB ON THIS STRUCTURE" ... I saw at least 2 full-scale toddler and parent melt-downs a propos of this. Honestly, if you are going to put a Buzzy Bee in the middle of what must be a kind of Toddler Hell, it just seems gratutiously cruel (to both toddler and parent) to make it off limits....

    auckland • Since Dec 2006 • 595 posts Report

  • Hard News: Wellington, you win,

    ... hey, wait a minute... February not March? Not my birthday after all... could someone play a great gig a month later?

    Dimmer? David Kilgour? Bailterspace?

    auckland • Since Dec 2006 • 595 posts Report

  • Hard News: Wellington, you win,

    By the way Lawrence Arabia AKA James Milne has been playing out of his skin since he returned to NZ and the Zoo show will be the last chance to catch him in his semi-hometown of Auckland. He is playing some south island shows and has added an extra Wellington date after the last two sold out. Lawrence will play with Conan Moccasin Friday the 29th of Feb at the Front Room.

    Sorry to post such spammy info. This is not myspace afterall.

    Not spammy at all - valuable information that I usually hear long after someone has played, thank you for that. My birthday too...

    auckland • Since Dec 2006 • 595 posts Report

  • Hard News: About a Cat,

    she'd lie back down on her chest and tuck her paws under again, watching his face the whole time.

    So she never got to eat him then?

    No, no, the cat that comforted my boss was one of those unusual helpful cats, like the one that rescued Sonjia Davies a few years back, when she fell and broke her hip.

    Most cats - and dogs - are, as the French writer Gabrielle Colette described her animals - are "completely lacking in sympathy" and not only did they fail to provide faithful companionship, both her cat and dog would absent themselves immediately if she ever showed any sign of pain. She said that her cat looked disgusted and her dog embarrassed as they avoided her eye and briskly left the room whenever she was in any form of distress.

    This was in the context of a newspaper article she was writing about the dogs used by the Red Cross (in WW1) that would go out to no-man's-land and nose around the corpses and alert the ambulance crews to which men were still alive, so they could dash out and rescue them. She was interviewing a dog-handler (and his dog) just after the war. Her point was the animals used at the front were made of more noble stuff than her pets.

    But I have been the cowed owner of a cat who'd eat you as soon as look at you. I inherited him from an elderly guy who couldn't take him to the rest home to which he was headed - and Spotty (__Bert__ the pensioner named him) was one tough cat.

    Once, when my friends were all going on about what cute thing their cat would say if they could talk, I said mine would say "__JUST PUT THE FOOD IN MY DISH YOU STUPID WOMAN__. He would claw your ankle to signal it was dinner time. Once, in mid-wash, Spotty leaned over casually and bit my husband's bare toe with considerable force, sneezed, and ignoring Paul's scream of pain, continued washing his own foot.

    He bit every vet he ever knew. Our neighbour's dog was terrified of him. He was like Horse, in Footrot Flats.

    Spotty was the coolest, iif one of the most violent, animals I have ever known. We rarely saw anything he killed, but often he would leave a gruesome crime scene in the laundry room - splatters of blood where some animal's head (species unknown) hit the washing machine, spraying blood 3 feet up the wall, and bloody pawprints leading away from the crime scene to our room. No body, no feathers, no fur. We did wonder.

    auckland • Since Dec 2006 • 595 posts Report

  • Southerly: January 2008 Will be a Bad…,

    Geminis tend to be physically very tall or very short -- although many Geminis are also of average height.

    That is just spookily accurate about every single Gemini I know.

    auckland • Since Dec 2006 • 595 posts Report

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