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I befriended a young lady at the club I work out at.  Our conversation began because she brought to the club Kit Kat candy, which I spotted while she was on a treadmill.  I will refer to her as Dr. Kit Kat for the purpose of these reviews.  While at medical school at Ohio State University she contracted hepatitis.  She was given a shot to protect against hepatitis prior to coming down with the disease.  The shot failed to protect; she contracted a rare form of the disease and finally suffered kidney failure.  She goes to dialysis three times a week.  Her existence, due to this illness, has dumbed down to a simple restrictive regimen.  The food she is allowed to eat is heavily restricted.  She thus likes to watch the food channel on TV.  She cannot travel because she is tied to the dialysis machine.  She thus likes to watch the travel channel on TV.  After dialysis she feels terrible.  In an attempt to raise her spirits a bit, I have lent her DVD movies.    I love to buy really good $5 movies.  It is somewhat curious that the rating of movies for her and probably other dialysis patients are skewed differently.  Because they are undergoing such a powerful downward spiral medical procedure, parameters for these people change somewhat.  A movie must shout a bit more loudly with attributes that the rest of us mildly appreciate.  We will share with you her movie scores and out of her comments you might begin to see that movie scores do shift a bit.  When you see quotes around text, this typically is her precise review sent to us by Facebook or e-mail.  When you see no quotes, this means we attempted to describe her review by conversations we had with Dr. Kit Kat.

Note: This project started November 2009.  Each week we expect to add one or two reviews to this posting.

CURRENT TOP PICKS:

Basic 2003, Score: 9.  Dr. Kit Kat said this film was intelligent, action packed, multiple twists all contribute to this movie keeping one’s mind off of the drudge of the dialysis.  [Score Card found this quite interesting as this movie seems to have flown under a lot of radar screens].

Valkyrie Score 9  “This is an action-packed drama based on the true story of Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg’s plight to assassinate Adolf Hilter. Tom Cruise delivers depth and intensity of character while creating suspense and excitement throughout the story line. It was refreshing to view Tom Cruise’s multifaceted talent in this atypical role. Finally, a movie not needing superfluous special effects and indecent language to be entertaining! I rate this movie a 9 (mainly because I like Tom Cruise).”

——————–

Regular Move Reviews:

27 Dresses Score 6.  Dr. Kit Kat said that one could fall asleep any time and wake up and not loose a place in the action.

Under Suspicion Score: 6  Dr. Kit Kat did not like the subject matter of pedophile.  The ending was clever and raised the score a bit.

Walace & Gromit The Course Of The Were-Rabbit.  Score 3.  Dr. Kit Kat only gave this really clever and extremely well done animation a low score.  She was not into animation.

The facility where Dr. Kit Kat undergoes dialysis checked on the movie which she brought in, Red Dragon, and found it to have an R rating.  It seems that some time ago a patient complained of seeing an R rated movie being displayed on one of the TV screens.  This unfortunately has resulted in a “punish all”.  A “punish all” is when everyone must suffer because of an alleged screw up by, usually, one individual.  This type of “logic” typically defies common sense.  Its use is typically found in institutions that just love to make sweeping stupid policies and justify it, link it, to stupid simple mistakes by a one or a few individuals.   The “stupid”, in this case, is that these patients are undergoing a pretty dire procedure and you would think that any meaningful diversion would be welcome.  These people may need R ratings, not only PG!  Now you would think a company that is in the business of administering dialysis would get this line of reasoning but, allegedly, they have a disconnect in their logic, apparently incapable of compassion toward their customers.  The dialysis company did offered to show the move Flicka.

We are advising Dr. Kit Kat to take her laptop to dialysis and view the R rated movies on that device.  If this works for her, we will continue our movie reviews.

I met with Dr. Kit Kat November 15 at the health club where we both work out.  She came up with a terrific idea.  Why not put the R rated movie into a PG case?  That night I found an empty case, Because I Said So, a PG-13 movie, and will hand that over to Dr. Kit Kat and put Red Dragon inside.

I Robot “I rate it an 8. The movie plot and Will Smith provided consistent action, although I wish they would have developed the character Sunny more.  He was a likable robot.  There was some feeble yet worthwhile attempts of historic symbolism near the end of the movie, but nothing too profound.”

Bad Company Rate of 6  ” It was action-packed bad acting in part of Chris Rock. Although Chris Rock may be a good stand up comedian, his talent did not transfer to his acting ability. Will Smith or Eddie Murphy may have saved this movie. The movie’s plot was cliche and predictable, but lightly entertaining. I rate it a 6 (mainly because Chris Rock’s one-liner punch lines throughout the film were annoying).”

Star Trek 2009  Score 7  “The new movie release of “Star Trek” is a prologue of many more “trekkie” sequels to come. It presents an updated and refreshing cast of the original Star Trek characters as well as a cameo of Leanard Nemoy playing an older Mr. Spock. The movie starts from the very beginning with the birth of Captain Kirk and the evolution of the union of the Enterprise crew. Although the plot and the ultimate ending were predictable, the action scenes and special effects were lightly entertaining. If I were a “Trekkie” I would rate this an 8, since it’s enjoying the movie’s journey rather than the destiny that counts. Being a non-”Trekkie ” I rate this a 7.

Valkyrie Score 9  “This is an action-packed drama based on the true story of Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg’s plight to assassinate Adolf Hilter. Tom Cruise delivers depth and intensity of character while creating suspense and excitement throughout the story line. It was refreshing to view Tom Cruise’s multifaceted talent in this atypical role. Finally, a movie not needing superfluous special effects and indecent language to be entertaining! I rate this movie a 9 (mainly because I like Tom Cruise).”

Wild Wild West Score 1  “with Will Smith and Kevin Kline was Real Real Bad!  The remake of the popular 1970′s TV drama was a disappointing and sleeper attempt to revive the characters, action, and comedy of the original show.  The best part of the movie was the ending–that is , the movie was finally over!  It is not even recommended for background noise.  I had to read my medical journals during the movie in order to get through it!  I generously rate it 1.”

Score Card:  I found this move to be a delight.  For the life of me I find it difficult why Dr. Kit Kat did not like this movie.  Dr. Kit Kat likes intellectual entertainment and this movie has very little of that component.  I would rate it a 5.

Written by Farrah Hassen.

I. Introduction

A 2001 poll taken by the Washington D.C. National Sleep Foundation (NSF) reports that 63 percent of American adults don’t receive the recommended 8 hours of sleep necessary for good health, safety and optimum performance.[1] Fatigue’s consequences include higher instances of motor vehicle accidents, work-related accidents, decreased productivity and adverse health effects. Daniel O’Hearn, a Johns Hopkins University sleep disorders specialist observed, “People don’t respect sleep enough. They feel they can do more – have more time for work and family – by allowing themselves less time for sleep.”[2]

II. Sleep Deprivation and Safety Effects

Sleep deprivation instigates serious industrial accidents. “Sleep deprivation can reduce attention and vigilance by 50 percent, decision-making ability by 5 0percent, communication skills by 30 percent, and memory by 20 percent, says Mark Rosekind, board member of the NSF and president and chief scientist at Alertness Solutions.[3]

Consider the following accidents where fatigue has played a decisive role:

a.) On January 28, 1986, NASA managers preparing the space shuttle Challenger “had been working over 20-hour shifts before making the critical decision on whether or not to go and their knowledge about the O-rings.” The O-rings failed and caused the explosion, provoked by the managers’ fatigue, notes Rosekind.[4]

b.) The National Transportation Safety Board has traced the 1989 Exxon Va/dez Alaskan oil spill to the severe fatigue of the tanker’s sleep-deprived third mate (he’d slept for only six hours of the previous 48). The first mate on the Valdez had been working 30 hours, according to Mark Rosekind.[5]

c.) After completing an exhaustive 19-hour workday on the film Pleasantville, assistant camera operator Brent Hershman fell asleep at the wheel while driving home, resulting in his immediate death on March 6, 1997. Since his death, his co-workers have drafted the petition, “Brent’s Rule,” asking for a 14-hour shooting limit on film and television sets.[6]

d.) On October 23,2001, the National Transportation Safety Board concluded that mistakes by a fatigued cockpit crew caused the 1999 crash of an American Airlines jetliner in Little Rock Ark, killing 11 and injuring 105 passengers. Studies by NASA and the Battelle Memorial Institute have concurred with pilot unions that a pilot should not be on duty more than 12 hours. Incidentally, by the time the ill-fated plane neared Little Rock, the crew had been on duty for about 13 1/2 hours.[7]

1.) Shift Workers, Fatigue and Safety:

a.) Shift workers and fatigue: Over 22 million Americans are shift workers, performing important functions in hospitals, on polices forces and in transportation and manufacturing industries. Although, shift workers are not immune to fatigue, especially when their shifts fall during the 11 pm-7 am period. The worker is forced to fight the natural wake-sleep pattern and is prone to less sleep, ultimately needed to help restore and rejuvenate the brain and body.[8] In a 2001 NSF poll, more than 38 percent of Americans report working 50 hours or more, with those who work more sleeping less.[9]
b.) Commercial truck drivers: According to the NSF, deregulation of the trucking industry has led to increased competition and an upsurge in the number of small carriers. Consequently, more commercial drivers are required to travel during the night, fighting the biological clock, in order to avoid increasing daytime traffic and meet the pressing demands of a 24-hour society. Figures suggest that driver fatigue contributes to 30 to 40 percent of all heavy truck accidents. Many truck drivers can’t recognize the point that their bodies are tired enough for them to fall asleep.[10]

2.) Drivers, Fatigue and Safety: Studies have affirmed that sleep-deprived drivers are just as dangerous as drunk drivers. A study by the British journal, Occupational and Environmental Medicine, found that people who drive after being awake for 17 to 19 hours performed worse than those with a blood alcohol level of .05 percent.[11]

a.) A study sponsored by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety looked at 1,403 North Carolina drivers and found that among those who got into automobile accidents, half had slept less than 6 hours before the crash. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, roughly 100,000 crashes – 3 to 4 percent of accidents – occur each year as a result of drivers falling asleep, causing 76,000 injuries and approximately 1,500 deaths. [12]

b.) Furthermore, during the period 1989-1993, an estimated 56,000 crashes occurred annually on U.S. highways in which drowsiness/fatigue was cited on the Police Accident Report. During the same five-year period, drowsiness/fatigue was cited as a factor in an annual average of 1357 fatal crashes, resulting in 1544 fatalities. Based on these statistics, reducing the extent of the sleep-deprived driver problem is certainly crucial to improving the safety of U.S. highways.[13]

c.) In a test of reaction times, people who were tired because of disrupted sleep performed about as poorly as the legally drunk subjects, new Stanford research reports. While alcohol’s well-documented slowing effects on reaction time has lead society to aggressively demand that airline pilots, truck drivers, train engineers – those responsible for others’ safety – limit their alcohol consumption, the same vigilance can’t be said about fatigue’s harmful impacts.[14]
Herein is the crux of the problem related to fatigue and the workplace: the lack of public awareness and consequential actions taken by industry leaders to address sleep deprivation’s serious effects on safety, health and in tandem, the overall quality of life.

III. Sleep Deprivation and Health Effects

A 2001 NSF survey draws attention to several medical conditions linked directly to sleep deprivation, including depression (83 percent), nighttime heartburn (82 percent), diabetes (81 percent), hypertension (79 percent), and heart disease (78 percent). In addition, sleep deprivation can accelerate the aging process, lead to obesity and increase the risk of memory loss. The British Medical Association also reaffirms the higher levels of stress, anxiety and depression among the sleep-deprived. [15]

Recent findings in other fatigue-related health effects include the following:

1.) Decreased Brain Activity: According to the military’s leading sleep expert, Colonel
Gregory Belenky, his research indicates that “brain function is degraded by prolonged waking.” Belenky’s high-tech brain images illustrate that sleep debt decreases the entire brain’s ability to function – most importantly impairing the brain’s areas responsible for attention, complex planning and mental operations and judgment. Even more ominous is the brain’s difficulty to recover from sleep deprivation; after 48 recovery hours of sleep, Belenky’s research subjects were still performing more errors than when they started.[16]
UCSD School of Medicine researchers posit that the brain is adversely affected by sleep deprivation because certain patterns of electrical and chemical activity that typically occur during sleep are interrupted, thus impeding the brain’s ability to function normally.[17] Certainly, impaired judgment stemming from decreased brain activity would pose direct safety hazards to industrial workers, drivers and others performing high-risk activities.

2.) Diabetes: As a testimony to sleep deprivation’s direct effects on health, researchers at the American Diabetes Association reported in 2001 that getting too little sleep may in fact increase the risk of developing diabetes. In a test undertaken by 27 healthy, non-obese adults ages 23-42, the results demonstrated that chronic sleep deprivation in otherwise healthy young adults indeed impairs the ability of insulin (40 percent) to do its job.[18]

3.) Night Shifts and Breast Cancer: In a 2001 study by researchers at Seattle’s Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and at Harvard Medical Center, women exposed to a large amount of light at night appeared to have a higher risk of breast cancer. This finding adds concurrence to the notion that shift-work poses health risks by disrupting the brain’s day-night clock and throwing hormone levels out of balance. Also noteworthy, women who reported not sleeping through one or more nights per week had a higher cancer risk – 14 percent for each sleepless night.[19]

IV. Sleep Deprivation and the Quality of Life

The NSF’s 2000 Sleep in America Omnibus Poll of 1,154 adults 18 years and older found that on average adults sleep just under 7 hours during the work week. One-third of adults only sleep 6.5 hours or less nightly.[20]
Negative consequences to safety, health and work performance stemming from fatigue are inevitable, considering that it’s between the seventh and eight hour when a person receives almost an hour of REM (rapid eye movement) sleep – the crucial period when the mind repairs itself, grows new connections and puts itself back together. The periods of REM only increase as the night progresses, so a six-hour sleeper – for example – is deprived of the opportunity to repair and prepare for the next day.[21]

1.) Work Performance: With respect to sleepiness and the workplace, findings of the NSF poll included the following: 51 percent of the American workplace reports that sleepiness on the job interferes with the amount of work they get done; 68 percent of adults say that sleepiness interferes with their concentration and makes handling stress (66 percent) on the job more difficult; 68 percent of shift workers report problems sleeping.[22]

2.) Economic ramifications: According to Cornell University psychologist and sleep
expert James Maas, sleep deprivation and sleep disorders cost the American economy at least $150 billion a year, as a result of decreased job productivity and fatigue-related accidents.[23]

3.) Personal effects and overall impact on society: Because fatigue is linked with irritability, impatience, anxiety and depression, such problems can directly jeopardize job and family relationships and upset social activities. The ultimate costs of time-pressured societies, where fatigue plays a constant role, include “declining health, industrial accidents, splintered families, delinquency, depression. inadequate learning, and tired and weakened communities.”[24]

V. Conclusion

Sleep is the only way to beat fatigue, complimented by a greater educational emphasis on recognizing the signs of being gravely sleep-deprived. In a 24-hour-a-day society that places productivity on the highest pedestal, the correlated safety, health and personal costs of fatigue are easily overlooked.
National Sleep Foundation polls have consistently pointed to a majority number of sleep-deprived Americans. They are truck-drivers, doctors, university students, camera operators and entertainment-industry workers, cops, pilots and other shift-workers. The Challenger explosion. Exxon Valdez oil spill, tragic death of camera operator Brent Hershman and the recent American Airlines Arkansas crash represented a varied spectrum of the labor force. Nevertheless, they all shared the same destructive contributing factor of fatigue.
The question remains how much more devastation to human life will it take before industry leaders respond to the ever-present seriousness and reality of fatigue’s detrimental effects in the workplace?

[1] National Sleep Foundation “Less Fun, Less Sleep, More Work: An American Portrait.” Mar. 27,2001. www.sleepfoundation.org.
[2] FDA Consumer Magazine. “Sleepless Society,” July-August 1998
[3] Carvalko, Debbie. “Sleep Deprivation: ‘Public Enemy Number 1′ for Cops.” Medscape Health, July 2001
[4] ibid
[5] Wald, Matthew L. “The Costs of Sleeping on the Job.”
[6] Masters, Kim. “The Longest Day.” Time. April 21, 1997.
[7] Malnic, Eric. “Crew Fatigue Cited in Fatal 1999 Crash of Jetliner in Ark.” Los Angeles Times. Oct.24, 2001, A28.
[8] National Sleep Foundation www.sIeepfoundation.org/about.html
[9] National Sleep Foundation. “Less Fun, Less Sleep, More Work: An American Portrait.” Mar. 27, 2001. www.sleepfoundation.org
[10] “Lack of Sleep America’s Top Health Problem, Doctors Say.” CNN Health. March 17, 1997. www.cnn.com/HEALTH.
[11] “Sleep Deprivation as Bad as Alcohol Impairment, Study Suggests.” CNN Health. Sept. 20,2000. www.cnn.com/2000/HEALTH.
[12] Greenberg, Bridgette. “Drowsy Drivers a Danger.” ABCNEWS.COM. Dec. 21, 2000. www.abcnews.go.com
[13] Peters, Robert D. and Esther Kloeppel. “Effects of Partial and Total Sleep Deprivation on Driving Performance.” Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center. www.tfhrc.gov/humanfac/sleep/sleepweb.htm.
[14] “Sleep Deprivation shown to have as much impact on reaction time as alcohol.” Sept 28, 1999. www.med.stanford.edu.
[15] “Sleep Deprivation as Bad as Alcohol Impairment, Study Suggests.” CNN Health. Sept 20, 2000. www.cnn.com/2000/HEALTH.
[16] “Risks of Sleeping Short.” 20/20: Sleep Debt. 2001.http:/fmy.abcnews.go.com
[17] “Brain Activity is Visibly Altered Following Sleep Deprivation.” Feb. 9. 2000. http://health.ucsd.edu/news/2000.
[18] “Getting Your ZZZ’s to Help Avoid Diabetes.” CNN Health. June 26, 2001. www.cnn.com/HEALTH.
[19] Hall, Carl T.”Night Work Adds to Breast Cancer Risk, Studies Say.” Santa Barbara News-Press. Oct, 2001.
[20] National Sleep Foundation. “National Sleep Foundation Releases New Statistics on ‘Sleep in America.’” Mar. 3, 2000 www.sleepfoundation.org.
[21] “National (sleep) Debt is Killing Americans and Hurting Economy, Cornell Psychologist Says.” Jan. 19, 1998. www.news.cornell.edu/releases/Jan98/sleep_dep.hrs.html.
[22] National Sleep Foundation. “National Sleep Foundation releases new statistics on ‘sleep in America.’” Mar. 28, 2000. www.sleepfoundation.org.
[23] “National (sleep) Debt is Killing Americans and Hurting Economy, Cornell Psychologist Says.” Jan. 19, 1998. www.news.cornell.edu/releases/Jan98/sleep_dep.hrs.htm1.
[24] Running Out of Time. Dir. Johnde Graaf. Oregon Public Broadcasting. KCTS/Seattle, 1994.

Good flavor. Excellent price. Enjoyable in all respects.

I am the canary in the coal mine. If there is any chemical additive in meat, I will get a headache. This is also some times true with wine. I can not figure out why I get headaches with wine. I do not think additives are the cause, but I am not sure of that. This wine created no headache the next morning.

My doctor told me to drink wine as it might help my symptoms from my blood thickening. In order to get the same benefits from drinking wine, I try to take Longevinex but the cost is close to $1 a pill. I love to sip wine and write this blog. I do not get headaches from Longevinex but some times it is just more fun to sip the wine instead of popping a pill.

After we had our cat, Whiskers, put to sleep, my wife and I had time to reflect upon our decisions. It was not pretty. We totaled up out costs and they amounted, on paper, to be $9,931.56 and we ended up with a dead cat.

• Critical Care unit charges: $6,276.56. Housing the cat, x-rays, medications, evaluations, etc..

• Surgery charges: $3,655.00

Also the time involved was significant. I had to feed, give medications and a shot every four hours a day.

Whiskers would have accidents from time to time and I had to clean up those. We are still suffering from cat urine smell in our down stairs bathroom. I actually decided to skip the 2 am slot by working around the schedule of mediations and just did not give the cat any food for that slot of time. The feeding could take a half hour or more and at five feedings this amounted to using up two to three hours a day for a cat. The reason for this long feeding schedule is I had to mix the medications up. Pills had to be ground and blended with water and put into small syringes.

I had to blend the food with water in a blender so I could get the food into large syringes.

Previously blended food came from the refrigerator and thus had to be heated in the microwave. I had to move the cat into the feeding space. When I sat down beside the cat, I draped towels around me as the PEG tube some times would explode (it had two ports). I had to pull out stomach contents from the cat to see how much he had left in the stomach using the PEG tube. Pushing the food into the PEG tube could take 10 minutes or more. A few times I had to take a shower and clean a room up after the PEG tube exploded. Not calculated in the total cost was the significant drive time to and from the Critical Care unit, a half hour drive one way. Another cost was the special food diet. It took me half a day to find the correct food because our prescription was wrong and the food listed did not exist. Finally, I guess our first mistake was allowing a teenager to decide on the fate of the cat. If my daughter had paid half or more of the cost, I think the decision would have been different.

Added charges of gas costs running too and from the Critical Care facility and buying special prescription cat food probably made this the ten thousand dollar cat.

We paid for an autopsy on Whiskers in an effort to help progress the understanding of this type of problem. The report came back stating that the surgeon had left a small sponge inside the cat. When the surgeon found out about this, he gave me a call to tell me his mistake and apologize. We both decided that this had NO effect upon Whiskers.

Recommendation: The surgery group told us that their track record was 80 percent success. The Internet gave the odds well below 50. There are a LOT of cats needing a home and throwing almost ten thousand dollars to save a cat now seems a bit ridiculous. It is somewhat cruel to say this but although Whiskers was part of the family, we should have let go.

Today after feeding Whiskers, I returned to the laundry room to find him laying on his side and panting in short breaths.   I called to my wife and she took one look a the cat and said that we had to get him to the Critical Care unit right away.  We took the cat to this facility and they took a look at the cat quite quickly as I called to let them know we were coming and tried to describe the problem.  They took another X-ray and found a significant amount of fluid in the lungs.  We had a consultation with the doctor and we all agreed that the cat was not getting any better.  His quality of life was most assuredly not going to improve.  We decided to put the cat to sleep.