bookofjoe

BehindTheMedspeak: What should you do if you get an abnormal test result?

Recently a relative went to the doctor and learned that a number of her blood tests came back abnormal, so much so that the doctor diagnosed insulin resistance and prediabetes and put her on a strict diet to try to get things back on track.

No family history for two generations on either side of diabetes or any related problems.

I was quite disturbed about the rush to treatment for a 39-year-old woman in great physical shape who serves as a volunteer firefighter and achieved the top fitness test scores at her station recently.

She's unhappy as well with all the new dietary restrictions, things like it's OK to eat green apples but not red ones.

Her doctor's no doofus: a board-certified endocrinologist who knows better than any other specialty about insulin resistance and its potentially serious sequelae.

But here's the thing: why the rush to treatment?

I recommended she get the whole blood test panel repeated in two weeks, BEFORE changing anything: test results are often wrong.

Where's the harm in making sure you're on the right track before setting off in a new direction potentially making life more difficult?

This happens all too often: one test, one x-ray, one MRI, one CT scan sets off a whole cascade of treatments.

Much better to repeat the work-up first.

Perseverance's Mastcam-Z Views Ingenuity's 47th Takeoff

YouTube description:

NASA's Ingenuity Mars Helicopter is seen here at the starting point of its 47th flight on Mars.

This video shows the dust initially kicked up by the helicopter's spinning rotors, as well as Ingenuity taking off, hovering, and beginning its 1,444-foot (440-meter) journey to the southwest.

The rotorcraft landed — off camera — at Airfield "Iota."

The video was captured by the Mastcam-Z imager aboard NASA's Perseverance rover on March 9, 2023.

At the time the video was taken, the rover was about 394 feet (120 meters) from the helicopter.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which is managed for NASA by Caltech in Pasadena, California, built and manages operations of the Perseverance rover.

Arizona State University leads the operations of the Mastcam-Z instrument, working in collaboration with Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego, on the design, fabrication, testing, and operation of the cameras, and in collaboration with the Niels Bohr Institute of the University of Copenhagen on the design, fabrication, and testing of the calibration targets.

The Ingenuity Mars Helicopter was built by JPL, which manages the project for NASA Headquarters.

It is supported by NASA's Science Mission Directorate.

NASA's Ames Research Center in California's Silicon Valley and NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, provided significant flight performance analysis and technical assistance during Ingenuity's development.

AeroVironment Inc., Qualcomm, and SolAero also provided design assistance and major vehicle components.

Lockheed Martin Space designed and manufactured the Mars Helicopter Delivery System.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS

More from Mashable:

NASA is regularly flying a robotic helicopter around Mars while a car-sized rover below zaps rocks with a laser as it searches for potential signs of past life.

The space agency recently celebrated the Ingenuity helicopter's 50th flight over the Martian desert, as it flew well over 1,000 feet and reached an altitude of nearly 60 feet.

"Just as the Wright brothers continued their experiments well after that momentous day at Kitty Hawk in 1903, the Ingenuity team continues to pursue and learn from the flight operations of the first aircraft on another world," Lori Glaze, director of NASA's Planetary Science Division, said in a statement.

While announcing the landmark flight, NASA also included recent footage of Ingenuity's 47th flight (top).

Lifestyle Organizers

Made by Nakabayashi, a Japanese company that started in 1951.

Wrote Rain Noe on Core77:

Desktop Storage Disguised as Binders, for Desks Without Drawers

It's currently trendy for desks to no longer have drawers, creating a market for desktop objects that can store odds and ends.

Japanese stationery company Nakabayashi thus makes these Lifestyle File organizers out of sturdy paperboard.

Sized like binders in A4 and B5 sizes, they're essentially little desktop lockers.

$11.43-$40.33.