Wednesday, January 14, 2009

The Science of Stupidity

I am sure that anyone who reads this blog is already painfully aware of the utter idiocy of some journalists who have recently published articles about how their theories of science support nothing but their own Science of Stupidity. I get it that they were trying to be funny and sarcastic and witty (I know all about these things) by playing the nut card, but jeez, not so funny and witty when it discredits and calls into question a documented medical illness. Now lets have a chuckle about kids with Diabetes, Cancer and AIDS. Wow, good times....

So, instead of calling attention to the stupid journalists, I thought I would try and to compile all of the really great responses I could find. The one good thing to come out of others stupidity is that a discussion has been created and many great bloggers and journalists have given well informed, heartfelt rebuttals. Instead I choose to celebrate them. Read on....

Louise on the Left
Nut Allergies- A Yuppie Invention - As If


The Nut Free Mom
Shedding Some Light On the Nut Allergy Backlash


Strollerderby
Peanut Allergies, Peanut Smallergies


MaMaPoP
LA Times Writer Gets My Irish Up


Food Allergy Mama
Edward R. Murrow Would Be Rolling Over in His Grave


Rational Jenn
I Am Not an Attention-Seeking Psycho


Paging Dr. Gupta
Food Allergies: Not So Nuts After All


Sure Foods Living
What Some (Ignorant) People Think About Food Allergies


Noted and Blogged
Forget the Epi-Pen, It's All In Your Head. Not Mine Though, I Can't Keep Anything In There.


And Now It's All This
Joel Stein is an Asshole

Please let me know if I have missed any other worth responses..

Monday, January 12, 2009

Anaphalyxis Grading Charts


Those totally awesome people over at the Food Allergy Support Boards have done it again. I think I previously wrote about their resources page that contains tons and tons of great and useful information before. At the bottom of this general page they have added a link to two great things.


The first is an Anaphalyxis Grading Chart. These are charts that help you figure out when you should give the epi-pen. They have even put up two versions of it, the Medical Professionals Chart, and the Average Joe Chart. These charts help assign a grade level to the anaphalyxis based on the symptoms of 5 different body systems, such as cardiovascular and respiratory. They also bold face the symptoms that they feel make an epi-pen necessary.


The second piece of great info is a link entitled Top Ten Mistakes People Make When Using an Epi-Pen. These are some really useful tips to think about now, and not in an emergency situation.