The Health, Diet and Exercise Thread

[Painter]

On 1/19/2024 at 9:18 PM, Stillearly said:

Fairly pleased with myself ... weighed myself this morning and I'm 17st 9lbs (112kg ) .. was 20st 9lbs ( 131kg ) around 18 months ago ... progress has been very slow , treading water for a lot of that time ...but the pounds are coming off 😇

been to the gym four times this week , because it's too cold to enjoy walking for me  ..

off to Thailand in 11 days and I'm hoping to loose a bit there , all my hotels I've picked have good gyms and I'll be walking loads as usual ... just need to be sensible on the food and drink side of things ...  🙏

No idea how many kg I've lost since I've been here, despite the afternoon coffee and cake, but last night I forgot to put my belt on and ended up walking round with one hand holding my shorts to stop them falling round my ankles....

[lazarus]

5 minutes ago, Glasseye said:

Damn. I was hoping to have a good excuse for shoving a finger up my ass.

Go get an extra-special massage. Bring the photo from below. 

. . .

Doctors manually check the prostate gland for size and texture...

"During a prostate exam, a healthcare provider gently inserts a gloved, lubricated finger into the rectum. This allows them to check the prostate's size, shape, and texture. Healthcare providers use prostate exams to detect inflammation, infection, enlargement, and some types of prostate cancer, which is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in men.1 In fact, the average American male has an 11% chance of getting prostate cancer in their lifetime."

https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-cancer/tests-and-scans/examination-prostate#:~:text=During the examination&text=The doctor or nurse will put on gloves and then,it should for your age.

 

. . .

PSA test: https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-cancer/tests-and-scans/prostate-specific-antigen-psa-test

"There is no national screening programme for prostate cancer in the UK. This is because previous research showed that the PSA test isn’t a reliable test that can pick up prostate cancer that needs treatment. Research is going on to find a new test. Or to see if the current test is more effective if used in a different way."

. . .

 

[Glasseye]

4 minutes ago, Stillearly said:

That's for Bowel cancer screening, they still do that 

PSA is for prostate cancer

Ok. Thanks for the claritication. Both are relative easy to do.

 

Also dermatology exams.

 

[Painter]

2 minutes ago, lazarus said:

Go get an extra-special massage. Bring the photo from below. 

. . .

Doctors manually check the prostate gland for size and texture...

"During a prostate exam, a healthcare provider gently inserts a gloved, lubricated finger into the rectum. This allows them to check the prostate's size, shape, and texture. Healthcare providers use prostate exams to detect inflammation, infection, enlargement, and some types of prostate cancer, which is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in men.1 In fact, the average American male has an 11% chance of getting prostate cancer in their lifetime."

https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-cancer/tests-and-scans/examination-prostate#:~:text=During the examination&text=The doctor or nurse will put on gloves and then,it should for your age.

 

. . .

PSA test: https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-cancer/tests-and-scans/prostate-specific-antigen-psa-test

"There is no national screening programme for prostate cancer in the UK. This is because previous research showed that the PSA test isn’t a reliable test that can pick up prostate cancer that needs treatment. Research is going on to find a new test. Or to see if the current test is more effective if used in a different way."

. . .

 

When I had issues 10 months ago, the initial nurse I saw did an rectal exam... with her small, delicate fingers. No pain at all.

A month later, a Urology consultant did the same, and his fingers were much larger, and much more uncomfortable. After that, and I'll always remember his words, "I'm going to put the camera in now... it's only slightly bigger than my finger..." .... it felt like a baseball bat... he was trying to measure the size of my prostate...

When he did the same when I was under general aneasthetic he found my prostate to be larger than he expected. When I asked why, it was because patients, when awake, often squirm and wriggle as its uncomfortable, and so the image is blurred,  whereas when the patient is asleep, they are still....

[Krapow]

Am i the only one who puts weight on in Thailand?

Never done reading about people losing weight in Thailand, but i put it on.

I can't be bothered doing the gym, but no plenty scuba and walking.

Maybe the King Power breakfast buffet scrum and eat has a lot to answer for ...

[Stillearly]

6 minutes ago, Krapow said:

Am i the only one who puts weight on in Thailand?

Never done reading about people losing weight in Thailand, but i put it on.

I can't be bothered doing the gym, but no plenty scuba and walking.

Maybe the King Power breakfast buffet scrum and eat has a lot to answer for ...

On a two or three week holiday , yes I would always put weight on ... not the breakfast buffet for me , but three course meals in the evening and the booze ...  

but on longer trips , I am trying to get out of the holiday mentality ( difficult sometimes) and take a more sensible approach, especially with the alcohol .. 555  

Edited January 20 by Stillearly

[Krapow]

5 minutes ago, Stillearly said:

On a two or three week holiday , yes I would always put weight on ... not the breakfast buffet for me , but three course meals in the evening and the booze ...  

but on longer trips , I am trying to get out of the holiday mentality ( difficult sometimes) and take a more sensible approach, especially with the alcohol .. 555  

Yea, thinking about it, my downfall is crisps. I don't really eat a lot of cake or sweet, sugary stuff, except maybe a nice coffee cake which I like.

But I love crisps, and can be found browsing the many mental different flavours available in Thai supermarkets 🤣

[Stillearly]

6 minutes ago, Krapow said:

Yea, thinking about it, my downfall is crisps. I don't really eat a lot of cake or sweet, sugary stuff, except maybe a nice coffee cake which I like.

But I love crisps, and can be found browsing the many mental different flavours available in Thai supermarkets 🤣

[Krapow]

2 hours ago, Stillearly said:

You can get the krapow flavour ones over here at Asian supermarkets 

[Glasseye]

5 hours ago, Painter said:

No idea how many kg I've lost since I've been here, despite the afternoon coffee and cake, but last night I forgot to put my belt on and ended up walking round with one hand holding my shorts to stop them falling round my ankles....

I have been running into the same problem lately. I've relized the need to hold onto to some old clothes that I may have otherwised donated. In the event I one day begin to regain.

I am cetainly no example of a fashion style guy. Gal would probably bitch slap me if he ever saw me for wearing some of the things I still have.

My belts wear out fast as they are often soaked with sweat and salt deposits, but fortunately you can find a new belt around here for dang cheap. Luckily my feet size always remains the same and my dick size as well (always a shrivelled nub). But with all of the challenges I am still a happy man.

[Butch]

6 hours ago, Stillearly said:

My one vice when on holiday in Pattaya is 3 family packs of Lays crisps while watching a movie in my hotel room. Alone. Phone off, DND on the door, decent movie on TV and a bottle of diet coke.

I did make a bit of a mistake a few years ago though, I watched "Trainspotting 2" late one evening, it bloody depressed me so much I ended up going to Skyfall at midnight to cheer myself up!.

[richy65]

First run for 3 weeks after some back trouble, fairly happy with that 

[Zambo]

1 hour ago, richy65 said:

First run for 3 weeks after some back trouble, fairly happy with that 

 

Hope your back held up well, good idea to start with less distance than usual.

[coxyhog]

21 hours ago, Krapow said:

Am i the only one who puts weight on in Thailand?

Never done reading about people losing weight in Thailand, but i put it on.

I can't be bothered doing the gym, but no plenty scuba and walking.

Maybe the King Power breakfast buffet scrum and eat has a lot to answer for ...

I always try to get accommodation with a gym

[richy65]

31 minutes ago, Zambo said:

Hope your back held up well, good idea to start with less distance than usual.

Thanks Zambo, still a bit tight so I’ll have to build back up slowly 

[richy65]

22 hours ago, Krapow said:

Am i the only one who puts weight on in Thailand?

Never done reading about people losing weight in Thailand, but i put it on.

I can't be bothered doing the gym, but no plenty scuba and walking.

Maybe the King Power breakfast buffet scrum and eat has a lot to answer for ...

I put 7 pounds on over Christmas in Bangkok, much more boozing and less exercise 

[KhunDon]

My Sciatica pain has finally reduced over the last week. 🤗

Fucking pain started in May 23😟

Have an appointment with the Muscular Skeletal Specialist in a week or so to discuss possible spinal block, which obviously they won’t want to do if there’s been a decrease in pain. 😡

[Glasseye]

3 hours ago, KhunDon said:

My Sciatica pain has finally reduced over the last week. 🤗

Fucking pain started in May 23😟

Have an appointment with the Muscular Skeletal Specialist in a week or so to discuss possible spinal block, which obviously they won’t want to do if there’s been a decrease in pain. 😡

 

I started that probably a couple years back. Buldging disk, hurt like hell when it first came on.

They can heal over time. Mine has gotten much better, but still a little sore and stiff at times.

Strenthening back muscles and blood flow (regular walking, even when it hurts) is important for healing.

--------------------

I've gotten to the point where I accept some of the discomfort, try to manage it. The excercising has helped significantly.

[galenkia]

Had my PSA test yesterday afternoon. They do the urine test then if that is okay they take the blood. She said between one to two weeks for they send me the results.

Did 45 minutes on the treadmill at the gym after.

[Glasseye]

1 hour ago, galenkia said:

Had my PSA test yesterday afternoon. They do the urine test then if that is okay they take the blood. She said between one to two weeks for they send me the results.

Did 45 minutes on the treadmill at the gym after.

 

Good man. Getting right back on it mate !

[galenkia]

Just done an hour today on the treadmill. Usually do 45 minutes but fancied the full day hour today.

[lazarus]

14 hours ago, Glasseye said:

 

I started that probably a couple years back. Buldging disk, hurt like hell when it first came on.
They can heal over time. Mine has gotten much better, but still a little sore and stiff at times.
Strenthening back muscles and blood flow (regular walking, even when it hurts) is important for healing.
--------------------
I've gotten to the point where I accept some of the discomfort, try to manage it. The excercising has helped significantly.

Technology to the rescue. (I've had four back surgeries, btw)...

. . .

UCSF doctors fed a lower back MRI to an AI program. This is what it told them

https://www.sfchronicle.com/health/article/ai-mri-medical-scan-18599319.php

Artificial intelligence can already answer questions and produce fantastical images from a few short words. Now, increasingly, it is helping doctors analyze images from inside patients’ bodies to identify disease in new ways.

Researchers at UCSF are harnessing AI to read medical scans such as MRIs and help spot nuances or connections that even the most highly trained clinical professionals might miss. The software can more exactly quantify degradation, identify links between disparate symptoms, collect higher quality data, and even reduce the time patients have to spend inside claustrophobic scanners.

Practitioners like Dr. Sharmila Majumdar have worked on these efforts for years at UCSF’s Center for Intelligent Imaging, part of the university hospital’s Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging. She said AI’s processing power has sped up so quickly in recent years, “Our worry is keeping step with technology.”

Among the many potential applications of the technology, Dr. Majumdar has aimed AI’s computational firepower at studying lower back pain — one of humanity’s most common and vexing medical conditions — which is still surprisingly difficult to diagnose and treat.

MRI scans of the lower back produce huge amounts of data in the form of visual slices of a patient’s body. The meaning of the images can be read differently by different doctors, Dr. Majumdar said. But AI has now been trained on enough scans that it can very accurately grade afflictions like how badly a spinal disc has degraded or how much a patient’s spinal canal has narrowed.

Pain in the spine, muscles, nerves, or discs of the lower back is the single leading cause of disability worldwide, according to the World Health Organization, and the condition for which the greatest number of people may benefit from rehabilitation. Nearly a quarter of adults experience lower back pain in their lives, according to the National Institutes of Health.

The cause of that suffering is often opaque. For something like 90% of people worldwide, the pain is nonspecific, meaning doctors have a hard time tracking it to a particular treatable pathology.

That can create other problems, like over-prescription of opioids and the accompanying risk of addiction, in an effort to treat pain whose source can’t be pinned down, Dr. Majumdar said.

Using MRIs of the back, as well as brain imaging to look at connected pain sensations, Dr. Majumdar and her team are using AI to make the interpretation of imaging and, potentially diagnosis, more standardized down to the decimal point. Currently many lower back afflictions are characterized as only mild, moderate, or severe.

The program, referred to as the Back Pain Consortium, or BACPAC, is funded by the NIH and provides research grants to 14 organizations including universities and medical schools as part of a larger federal effort to fight opioid addiction.

The technology is not yet being used in the clinical setting, something which would require FDA approval, although UCSF doctors do use the technology as part of their imaging decision support.

Separate technology developed by UCSF that uses AI to look at chest X-rays is already in use in some hospitals and clinics.

“Hopefully it will allow us to quantify certain thresholds,” for conditions and associated pain for those kinds of conditions, said UCSF Dr. Cynthia Chin, a radiologist who works on the project.

As part of the study, doctors ask the patients they scan about the pain they are experiencing and then assess it before and after interventions such as injections.

The technology works by first segmenting different parts of the back and spine in the images. A recent scan of a person with lower back pain showed disks, vertebrae, muscles and nerves all circled automatically in different colorful outlines by the AI program. The technology was built in part with recent open-source advancements, such as tech giant Meta’s “Segment Anything” program, Dr. Mujumdar said.

That done, the program applies different lenses to different parts of the back, looking for potential issues such as the height and hydration of disks, assigning them colors from bluish green to alarming reddish yellow depending on their state of desiccation.

Taller, more hydrated disks are healthy, while dehydrated shrunken ones are not. But normal MRI scans rendered in greyscale can make it difficult to say exactly how far along the path to shrinkage the disks may be.

As good as the technology has become, “I don’t want it to be an automated tool,” said Dr. Mujumdar. She said a better fit is supporting radiologists like Dr. Chin in making diagnosis and treatment decisions. Still, “I feel our algorithms could be in the clinic and ready for decision support right now,” she said.

AI algorithms can also be trained to take the raw data from an MRI, called the k-space, before it is converted into an image and “clean” the often-redundant data.

By feeding large amounts of this kind of data into an algorithm, the program gets better at identifying and deleting those repeated chunks of data.

“You essentially make the images less noisy,” which means less data has to be collected and means “people can be in the box for less time,” Dr. Mujumdar said.

. . .

UCSF doctors have been working with imaging and artificial intelligence for years as part of a study that may one day help better diagnose complex conditions like lower back pain. Here, Dr. Sharmila Majumdar points to details revealed by automatic segmentation in an MRI scan.

Images showing manual segmentation, upper right, and automatic segmentation, lower right, and the original unprocessed source images, left, on a screen in Dr. Sharmila Majumdar’s office.

[Glasseye]

5 hours ago, lazarus said:

Technology to the rescue. (I've had four back surgeries, btw)...

. . .

UCSF doctors fed a lower back MRI to an AI program. This is what it told them

https://www.sfchronicle.com/health/article/ai-mri-medical-scan-18599319.php

Artificial intelligence can already answer questions and produce fantastical images from a few short words. Now, increasingly, it is helping doctors analyze images from inside patients’ bodies to identify disease in new ways.

Researchers at UCSF are harnessing AI to read medical scans such as MRIs and help spot nuances or connections that even the most highly trained clinical professionals might miss. The software can more exactly quantify degradation, identify links between disparate symptoms, collect higher quality data, and even reduce the time patients have to spend inside claustrophobic scanners.

Practitioners like Dr. Sharmila Majumdar have worked on these efforts for years at UCSF’s Center for Intelligent Imaging, part of the university hospital’s Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging. She said AI’s processing power has sped up so quickly in recent years, “Our worry is keeping step with technology.”

Among the many potential applications of the technology, Dr. Majumdar has aimed AI’s computational firepower at studying lower back pain — one of humanity’s most common and vexing medical conditions — which is still surprisingly difficult to diagnose and treat.

MRI scans of the lower back produce huge amounts of data in the form of visual slices of a patient’s body. The meaning of the images can be read differently by different doctors, Dr. Majumdar said. But AI has now been trained on enough scans that it can very accurately grade afflictions like how badly a spinal disc has degraded or how much a patient’s spinal canal has narrowed.

Pain in the spine, muscles, nerves, or discs of the lower back is the single leading cause of disability worldwide, according to the World Health Organization, and the condition for which the greatest number of people may benefit from rehabilitation. Nearly a quarter of adults experience lower back pain in their lives, according to the National Institutes of Health.

The cause of that suffering is often opaque. For something like 90% of people worldwide, the pain is nonspecific, meaning doctors have a hard time tracking it to a particular treatable pathology.

That can create other problems, like over-prescription of opioids and the accompanying risk of addiction, in an effort to treat pain whose source can’t be pinned down, Dr. Majumdar said.

Using MRIs of the back, as well as brain imaging to look at connected pain sensations, Dr. Majumdar and her team are using AI to make the interpretation of imaging and, potentially diagnosis, more standardized down to the decimal point. Currently many lower back afflictions are characterized as only mild, moderate, or severe.

The program, referred to as the Back Pain Consortium, or BACPAC, is funded by the NIH and provides research grants to 14 organizations including universities and medical schools as part of a larger federal effort to fight opioid addiction.

The technology is not yet being used in the clinical setting, something which would require FDA approval, although UCSF doctors do use the technology as part of their imaging decision support.

Separate technology developed by UCSF that uses AI to look at chest X-rays is already in use in some hospitals and clinics.

“Hopefully it will allow us to quantify certain thresholds,” for conditions and associated pain for those kinds of conditions, said UCSF Dr. Cynthia Chin, a radiologist who works on the project.

As part of the study, doctors ask the patients they scan about the pain they are experiencing and then assess it before and after interventions such as injections.

The technology works by first segmenting different parts of the back and spine in the images. A recent scan of a person with lower back pain showed disks, vertebrae, muscles and nerves all circled automatically in different colorful outlines by the AI program. The technology was built in part with recent open-source advancements, such as tech giant Meta’s “Segment Anything” program, Dr. Mujumdar said.

That done, the program applies different lenses to different parts of the back, looking for potential issues such as the height and hydration of disks, assigning them colors from bluish green to alarming reddish yellow depending on their state of desiccation.

Taller, more hydrated disks are healthy, while dehydrated shrunken ones are not. But normal MRI scans rendered in greyscale can make it difficult to say exactly how far along the path to shrinkage the disks may be.

As good as the technology has become, “I don’t want it to be an automated tool,” said Dr. Mujumdar. She said a better fit is supporting radiologists like Dr. Chin in making diagnosis and treatment decisions. Still, “I feel our algorithms could be in the clinic and ready for decision support right now,” she said.

AI algorithms can also be trained to take the raw data from an MRI, called the k-space, before it is converted into an image and “clean” the often-redundant data.

By feeding large amounts of this kind of data into an algorithm, the program gets better at identifying and deleting those repeated chunks of data.

“You essentially make the images less noisy,” which means less data has to be collected and means “people can be in the box for less time,” Dr. Mujumdar said.

. . .

UCSF doctors have been working with imaging and artificial intelligence for years as part of a study that may one day help better diagnose complex conditions like lower back pain. Here, Dr. Sharmila Majumdar points to details revealed by automatic segmentation in an MRI scan.

Images showing manual segmentation, upper right, and automatic segmentation, lower right, and the original unprocessed source images, left, on a screen in Dr. Sharmila Majumdar’s office.

 

Great piece Laz. I had a lower back MRI prior to coming over here. But, the waiting time for the procedure was too long, the pain has since been managable (especially since I've lost weight and increased regular execising). If at some points the pain were to again be intolerable I will meet with a local specialist, have the MRI results sent over and go from there,

For now, focus on proper posture, keep weight down, and regular excercise (with occassional) Tylenol should do the trick. 

But, it is nice to learn that AI is having some positive benefits for some medical treatments and procedures. Still remains incredibly expensive and often very unfortunate waiting times for most, other than the very wealthy.

[Zambo]

6 hours ago, lazarus said:

Technology to the rescue. (I've had four back surgeries, btw)...

. . .

UCSF doctors fed a lower back MRI to an AI program. This is what it told them

https://www.sfchronicle.com/health/article/ai-mri-medical-scan-18599319.php

Artificial intelligence can already answer questions and produce fantastical images from a few short words. Now, increasingly, it is helping doctors analyze images from inside patients’ bodies to identify disease in new ways.

Researchers at UCSF are harnessing AI to read medical scans such as MRIs and help spot nuances or connections that even the most highly trained clinical professionals might miss. The software can more exactly quantify degradation, identify links between disparate symptoms, collect higher quality data, and even reduce the time patients have to spend inside claustrophobic scanners.

Practitioners like Dr. Sharmila Majumdar have worked on these efforts for years at UCSF’s Center for Intelligent Imaging, part of the university hospital’s Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging. She said AI’s processing power has sped up so quickly in recent years, “Our worry is keeping step with technology.”

Among the many potential applications of the technology, Dr. Majumdar has aimed AI’s computational firepower at studying lower back pain — one of humanity’s most common and vexing medical conditions — which is still surprisingly difficult to diagnose and treat.

MRI scans of the lower back produce huge amounts of data in the form of visual slices of a patient’s body. The meaning of the images can be read differently by different doctors, Dr. Majumdar said. But AI has now been trained on enough scans that it can very accurately grade afflictions like how badly a spinal disc has degraded or how much a patient’s spinal canal has narrowed.

Pain in the spine, muscles, nerves, or discs of the lower back is the single leading cause of disability worldwide, according to the World Health Organization, and the condition for which the greatest number of people may benefit from rehabilitation. Nearly a quarter of adults experience lower back pain in their lives, according to the National Institutes of Health.

The cause of that suffering is often opaque. For something like 90% of people worldwide, the pain is nonspecific, meaning doctors have a hard time tracking it to a particular treatable pathology.

That can create other problems, like over-prescription of opioids and the accompanying risk of addiction, in an effort to treat pain whose source can’t be pinned down, Dr. Majumdar said.

Using MRIs of the back, as well as brain imaging to look at connected pain sensations, Dr. Majumdar and her team are using AI to make the interpretation of imaging and, potentially diagnosis, more standardized down to the decimal point. Currently many lower back afflictions are characterized as only mild, moderate, or severe.

The program, referred to as the Back Pain Consortium, or BACPAC, is funded by the NIH and provides research grants to 14 organizations including universities and medical schools as part of a larger federal effort to fight opioid addiction.

The technology is not yet being used in the clinical setting, something which would require FDA approval, although UCSF doctors do use the technology as part of their imaging decision support.

Separate technology developed by UCSF that uses AI to look at chest X-rays is already in use in some hospitals and clinics.

“Hopefully it will allow us to quantify certain thresholds,” for conditions and associated pain for those kinds of conditions, said UCSF Dr. Cynthia Chin, a radiologist who works on the project.

As part of the study, doctors ask the patients they scan about the pain they are experiencing and then assess it before and after interventions such as injections.

The technology works by first segmenting different parts of the back and spine in the images. A recent scan of a person with lower back pain showed disks, vertebrae, muscles and nerves all circled automatically in different colorful outlines by the AI program. The technology was built in part with recent open-source advancements, such as tech giant Meta’s “Segment Anything” program, Dr. Mujumdar said.

That done, the program applies different lenses to different parts of the back, looking for potential issues such as the height and hydration of disks, assigning them colors from bluish green to alarming reddish yellow depending on their state of desiccation.

Taller, more hydrated disks are healthy, while dehydrated shrunken ones are not. But normal MRI scans rendered in greyscale can make it difficult to say exactly how far along the path to shrinkage the disks may be.

As good as the technology has become, “I don’t want it to be an automated tool,” said Dr. Mujumdar. She said a better fit is supporting radiologists like Dr. Chin in making diagnosis and treatment decisions. Still, “I feel our algorithms could be in the clinic and ready for decision support right now,” she said.

AI algorithms can also be trained to take the raw data from an MRI, called the k-space, before it is converted into an image and “clean” the often-redundant data.

By feeding large amounts of this kind of data into an algorithm, the program gets better at identifying and deleting those repeated chunks of data.

“You essentially make the images less noisy,” which means less data has to be collected and means “people can be in the box for less time,” Dr. Mujumdar said.

. . .

UCSF doctors have been working with imaging and artificial intelligence for years as part of a study that may one day help better diagnose complex conditions like lower back pain. Here, Dr. Sharmila Majumdar points to details revealed by automatic segmentation in an MRI scan.

Images showing manual segmentation, upper right, and automatic segmentation, lower right, and the original unprocessed source images, left, on a screen in Dr. Sharmila Majumdar’s office.

The AI analysis could be extremely accurate if they have enough data. They need scans from 100s of thousands of backs, but also the time progression scans to see the development of the back injury over time. If the back was an engineering structure such as a bridge strain guages and deflection monitors could be used to monitor the use. Perhaps in the case of backs the data for use has to be taken from descriptions by the patient.

[Glasseye]

Getting close to 80-85 % of where I want to me. Feels pretty damn good.