by Glenn Mollette, Guest Commentator
Reports are pointing to an 8.9% raise for Social Security recipients. While it won’t feel like enough, it may buy you a sack of groceries or a tank of gasoline. This is a big maybe on the gasoline as California reports prices of over $8 per gallon.
Some of our government leadership is crying because Saudi Arabia is cutting their oil production by 2 million barrels a day. This means less oil for everyone in the grand oil supply pool. I don’t understand why anyone in our government would want to do business with the Saudis.
Buying oil from Saudi Arabia, Venezuela or any foreign entity is crazy. Why don’t we use our own oil? I’m all for green energy but we aren’t quite there yet. Make electric cars and drive them. Utilize solar energy and else anything that we can to help preserve this planet and its resources. Regardless, our country still needs oil. As long as we need oil, it would be wiser and much more cost effective to use our own oil. Put Americans back to work drilling our oil and selling it to foreign countries.
Our government has been draining our own oil reserve to try to keep the price of gasoline down. This doesn’t seem to be working very well. Plus, it puts our country at risk. When China and Russia decide to attack us, we need to be able to put fuel in our jets and ships. That would not be a good time to have to go back to Saudi Arabia and beg for oil.
We should utilize a full arsenal of energy from electric cars and a grid to supply the power. Utilize our oil, wind, natural gas and coal. Once our country can do everything without oil or coal, then we can move on from those resources. Being dependent on getting them from foreign nations doesn’t make sense, especially when we have the resources.
A loaf of bread will eventually cost Americans their 8.9% Social Security increase. Ukraine has been one of the world’s leading providers of wheat. Having Russia in control of Ukraine, a major source of the bread supply, along with their major supply of natural gas is bad news for the world.
The Crimea bridge that was recently bombed between Russia and Ukraine should have been bombed on day one by Ukrainians. Ukraine must do whatever it takes to thwart Russia’s ongoing destruction of their country. The news has been filled with fear that Russia will go nuclear in their efforts. When the nations start hurling nuclear bombs you won’t need to worry about gas, groceries and cost of living adjustments because this planet can only take so much.
Keep in mind there is still something you can do to make a difference – vote. Clear your calendar for voting. If you don’t vote then don’t complain about our government, inflation, rising interest rates, gasoline prices and more. I know it doesn’t feel like your one vote matters, but it truly counts. The only way you can bring about change is to clear your schedule, take the time, and vote.
Dr. Glenn Mollette is a syndicated American columnist and author of Grandpa's Store, American Issues, and ten other books. He is read in all 50 states. The views expressed are those of the author and are not necessarily representative of any other group or organization.
This article is the sole opinions of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of The Sentinel. We welcome comments and views from our readers. Submit your letters to the editor or commentary on a current event 24/7 to editor@oursentinel.com.
StatePoint Media -- As the leaves turn more colorful and tempertures begin to drop. Little critters are going to be looking for somewhere warmer to avoid the fall chill. If you hate the idea of bugs in your home, you’re in fine company -- 1 in 3 Americans have seriously considered burning down their own home after experiencing a bug infestation, according to a new survey.
The study, commissioned by Zevo and conducted by OnePoll, found that 66% of respondents are willing to do “nearly anything” to get rid of bugs at home -- including fumigating their entire home (51%), throwing the nearest thing at it, no matter what that nearest thing is (43%) and even DIYing a flamethrower (35%). Others have changed their diet and lifestyle to avoid sightings at home, with 59% saying they will even refrain from keeping fresh fruit in their homes or buying houseplants out of fear that it will attract flying insects.
Photo:Pexels/Francisco Sanchez
In fact, some people would rather just leave it all behind and start over somewhere new. More than half of respondents (52%) have considered moving because of bug infestations, and of those who considered that option, 69% actually followed through and packed up their things.
When it comes to putting up with bugs, there are a number of home woes people would prefer to live with, including broken appliances (29%), creaky floors (26%), broken windows (26%), not having television connections (25%) and even rodents (24%).
Giving how bugged by insects people are, it’s no wonder that they have come up with some pretty creative and expensive ways to try to deal with the problem, with 48% of survey respondents having turned to DIY “hacks” and the average person spending $177 on creating homemade methods to deal with bugs. Some of the methods mentioned by respondents include using cinnamon, coffee grounds and even maple syrup to get rid of bugs. One person even recalled pouring gasoline on bugs to drown them.
Of course, many of these homemade solutions produce iffy results at best or are downright dangerous. The bug biology and behavior experts at Zevo say that if you want to rid your home of pests, there are much easier and more effective ways to go about it that don’t involve putting your home on the market and relocating. Here’s an effective two-pronged approach you can try for killing bugs and preventing future infestations:
1. Go worry-free. Most traditional insect sprays on the market today use synthetic pyrethroids as their active ingredients, which can have a noxious smell and make a room uninhabitable after spraying. For a solution that’s safe for people and pets when used as directed, check out Zevo Instant Action Sprays, which rely on essential oil to target and shut down biological pathways found in insects. The brand carries four different sprays to target everything from cockroaches and ants to yellowjackets and crickets.
2. Safeguard entry points. Pests enter the home most typically through windows, doors and the garage. Check screen doors and windows for tears, and patch or replace them. You can also plug Zevo Flying Insect Traps into outlets in areas where bugs typically gather in your home, like kitchens, bathrooms, garages and entryways. The traps use a combination of UVC and blue light to attract and trap flying insects, offering continuous defense for up to 45 days or until the trap is full.
To learn more about defending your home against insects, visit zevoinsect.com.
The next time you spot bugs, put down the gasoline can and the flamethrower. Simple, worry-free solutions exist that can help you maintain a bug-free home and your sanity.
Sleeping on your back contributes to snoring and blockages, especially as you age and the muscles in the throat become looser. Sleeping on your side could help improve your sleep quality.
by Jay Hancock Kaiser Health News
I woke up in a strange bedroom with 24 electrodes glued all over my body and a
plastic mask attached to a hose covering my face.
The lab technician who watched me all night via video feed told me that I had
“wicked sleep apnea” and that it was “central sleep apnea” — a type that
originates in the brain and fails to tell the muscles to inhale.
As a journalist — and one terrified by the diagnosis — I set out to do my own
research. After a few weeks of sleuthing and interviewing experts, I reached
two important conclusions.
First, I had moderate apnea, if that, and it could be treated without the
elaborate machines, mouthpieces, or other devices that specialists who had
consulted on my care were talking about.
Second, the American health care system has joined with commercial partners to
define a medical condition — in this case, sleep apnea — in a way that allows
both parties to generate revenue from a multitude of pricey diagnostic
studies, equipment sales, and questionable treatments. I was on a conveyor
belt.
As a journalist who spent years covering the business of health care, I found
there was more motivating my expensive testing cascade than concerns about my
health.
It all began with a desire for answers: I had been feeling drowsy during the
day, and my wife told me I snored. Both can mean obstructive sleep apnea. With
obstructive sleep apnea, the mouth and throat relax when a person is
unconscious, sometimes blocking or narrowing the airway. That interrupts
breathing, as well as sleep. Without treatment, the resulting disruption in
oxygen flow might increase the risk of developing certain cardiovascular
diseases.
So I contacted a sleep-treatment center, and doctors gave me an at-home test
($365). Two weeks later, they told me I had “high-moderate” sleep apnea and
needed to acquire a continuous positive airway pressure, or CPAP, machine, at
a cost of about $600.
Though I had hoped to get the equipment and adjust the settings to see what
worked best, my doctors said I had to come to the sleep lab for an overnight
test ($1,900) to have them “titrate” the optimal CPAP air pressure.
“How do you treat central sleep apnea?” I worriedly asked the technician after
that first overnight stay. She said something about an ASV (adaptive
servo-ventilation) machine ($4,000). And one pricey lab sleepover wasn’t
enough, she said. I needed to come back for another.
(Most procedures and devices mentioned in this article were covered or would
have been covered by insurance — in my case, Medicare, plus a supplemental
plan. Unnecessary care is a big reason Americans’ insurance costs — premiums,
copays, and deductibles — tend to rise year after year.)
As a journalist who spent years covering the business of health care, I found
there was more motivating my expensive testing cascade than concerns about my
health.
The American Academy of Sleep Medicine, or AASM, a nonprofit based near
Chicago, decides what is sleep apnea and how to treat it. Working with sleep
societies around the world, it publishes the International Classification of
Sleep Disorders, relied on by doctors everywhere to diagnose and categorize
disease.
But behind that effort lie considerable conflicts of interest. Like so much of
U.S. health care, sleep medicine turns out to be a thriving industry. AASM
finances its operations in part with payments from CPAP machine manufacturers
and other companies that stand to profit from expensive treatments and
expansive definitions of apnea and other sleep disorders.
Corporate sponsors for Sleep 2022,
a convention AASM put on in Charlotte, North Carolina, with other professional
societies, included many of those companies, plus
Philips Respironics
and ResMed, two of the biggest
CPAP machine makers.
In a statement, AASM spokesperson Jennifer Gibson said a conflict-of-interest
policy and a non-interference pledge from industry funders protect the
integrity of the academy’s work. Industry donations account for about $170,000
of AASM’s annual revenue of about $15 million, she said. Other revenue comes
from educational materials and membership and accreditation fees.
Here’s what else I found. Almost everybody breathes irregularly sometime at
night, especially during REM sleep, characterized by rapid eye movement and
dreams. Blood oxygen levels also fluctuate slightly.
But recent European studies have shown that standards under the International
Classification of Sleep Disorders would doom huge portions of the general
population to a sleep apnea diagnosis — whether or not people had complaints
of daytime tiredness or other sleep problems.
A
study in the Swiss city of Lausanne
showed that 50% of local men and 23% of the women 40 or older were positive
for sleep apnea under such criteria.
Such rates of disease are “extraordinarily high,” “astronomical,” and
“implausible,” Dr. Dirk Pevernagie, a scientist at Belgium’s Ghent University
Hospital,
wrote with colleagues two years ago
in a comprehensive study in the Journal of Sleep Research.
“Right now, there is no real evidence for the criteria that have been put
forward to diagnose obstructive sleep apnea and rate its severity,” he said in
an interview.
Likewise, 19% of middle-aged subjects in a
2016 Icelandic study
appeared to have moderate to severe “apnea” under one definition in the
International Classification of Sleep Disorders even though many reported no
drowsiness.
“Most of them were really surprised,” said Erna Sif Arnardóttir, who led the
study and is running a
large European program to
refine detection and treatment of apnea.
Nevertheless, the official
AASM journal recommends
extremely broad screening for sleep apnea, looking for patients who have what
it defines as illness. Everybody 18 and older should be screened every year
for apnea if they have diabetes, obesity, untreated high blood pressure, or
heart disease —
even if they have never complained
about sleep problems, the group says.
AASM “continually evaluates the definitions, criteria and recommendations used
in the identification of sleep apnea and other sleep disorders,” Gibson said
in the statement. Meanwhile, routine screening by primary care doctors “is a
simple way” of gauging whether a high-risk patient may have obstructive sleep
apnea, the statement said.
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, an authoritative body that reviews
the effectiveness of preventive care, takes a conservative view, more like
that of the European researchers, concluding there is
“insufficient” evidence
to support widespread screening among patients with no symptoms.
After all my reporting, I concluded that my apnea is real, though moderate. My
alarming reading in the overnight lab — diagnosed quickly as central sleep
apnea — was a byproduct of the testing machinery itself. That’s a
well-described phenomenon that occurs
in 5% to 15% of patients.
And when I looked closely at the results of my at-home diagnostic test, I had
an epiphany: My overall score was 26 breathing interruptions and blood-oxygen
level declines, on average, per hour — enough to put me in the “high-moderate”
category for apnea. But when I looked at the data sorted according to sleeping
positions, I saw that I scored much better when I slept on my side: only 10
interruptions in an hour.
So I did a little experiment: I bought a $25 pulse oximeter with a smartphone
app that records oxygen dips and breathing interruptions. When I slept on my
side, there were hardly any.
Now I sleep on my side. I snore less. I wake up refreshed. I’m not daytime
drowsy.
None of my specialists mentioned turning on to my side — known in medical
parlance as “positional therapy” — though the intervention is recognized as effective by many researchers.
“Positional patients … can sleep in the lateral position and sleep quite
well,” said Arie Oksenberg, a sleep researcher formerly at Loewenstein
Hospital in Israel.
But it’s not easy to find this in
the official AASM treatment guidelines, which instead go right to the money-making options like CPAP machines,
surgery, central apnea, and mouth appliances.
“Positional therapy is an effective treatment option for some patients,” said
the AASM’s Gibson. But she said there are concerns about whether patients will
sleep on their sides long term and whether trying to stay in one position
might cause sleep interruptions itself.
It’s true that And it often takes
practice. (Some people tape a tennis ball to their pajamas to keep them off
their backs.) Even conservative sleep doctors say CPAP machines are the best
solution for many patients.
But there is a largely overlooked alternative.
“Are we missing a simple treatment for most adult sleep apnea patients?” was
the name of a
2013 paper
that Oksenberg and a colleague wrote about positional therapy.
In my case, the answer was “yes.”
Jay Hancock is a former KHN senior correspondent.
KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a
national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues.
Together with Policy Analysis and Polling, KHN is one of the three major
operating programs at KFF (Kaiser
Family Foundation). KFF is an endowed nonprofit organization providing
information on health issues to the nation.
PONTIAC - People everywhere are conquering their cabin fever and are enjoying the great outdoors after a long, bitter winter. But before you head out for that hike, health care experts remind you to take precautions to avoid tick bites. Read more . . .
CHICAGO - An Illinois law professor is weighing in on what she called a "very public and open test of due process" for immigrants being deported from the United States without court hearings. Read more . . .
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Reports are pointing to an 8.9% raise for Social Security recipients. While it won’t feel like enough, it may buy you a sack of groceries or a tank of gasoline. This is a big maybe on the gasoline as California reports prices of over $8 per gallon.
Some of our government leadership is crying because Saudi Arabia is cutting their oil production by 2 million barrels a day. This means less oil for everyone in the grand oil supply pool. I don’t understand why anyone in our government would want to do business with the Saudis.
Buying oil from Saudi Arabia, Venezuela or any foreign entity is crazy. Why don’t we use our own oil? I’m all for green energy but we aren’t quite there yet. Make electric cars and drive them. Utilize solar energy and else anything that we can to help preserve this planet and its resources. Regardless, our country still needs oil. As long as we need oil, it would be wiser and much more cost effective to use our own oil. Put Americans back to work drilling our oil and selling it to foreign countries.
Our government has been draining our own oil reserve to try to keep the price of gasoline down. This doesn’t seem to be working very well. Plus, it puts our country at risk. When China and Russia decide to attack us, we need to be able to put fuel in our jets and ships. That would not be a good time to have to go back to Saudi Arabia and beg for oil.
We should utilize a full arsenal of energy from electric cars and a grid to supply the power. Utilize our oil, wind, natural gas and coal. Once our country can do everything without oil or coal, then we can move on from those resources. Being dependent on getting them from foreign nations doesn’t make sense, especially when we have the resources.
A loaf of bread will eventually cost Americans their 8.9% Social Security increase. Ukraine has been one of the world’s leading providers of wheat. Having Russia in control of Ukraine, a major source of the bread supply, along with their major supply of natural gas is bad news for the world.
The Crimea bridge that was recently bombed between Russia and Ukraine should have been bombed on day one by Ukrainians. Ukraine must do whatever it takes to thwart Russia’s ongoing destruction of their country. The news has been filled with fear that Russia will go nuclear in their efforts. When the nations start hurling nuclear bombs you won’t need to worry about gas, groceries and cost of living adjustments because this planet can only take so much.
Keep in mind there is still something you can do to make a difference – vote. Clear your calendar for voting. If you don’t vote then don’t complain about our government, inflation, rising interest rates, gasoline prices and more. I know it doesn’t feel like your one vote matters, but it truly counts. The only way you can bring about change is to clear your schedule, take the time, and vote.
