TRUMP’S FIRST 100 DAYS:WITHDRAW FROM TPP TRADE DEAL, INVESTIGATE FEDERAL WORKER VISAS

Going by the report from the CNN, it says President-elect Donald Trump has today, Monday unveiled plans for his first 100 days in office, including proposals related to immigration, trade deals and defense policy, using a video published online to briefly outline his proposals.

Trump promised to withdraw from negotiations on the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, cancel environmental restrictions put in place by President Barack Obama, ask his national security team to buttress against infrastructure attacks, have the Labor Department investigate federal worker visas and impose broad new bans on lobbying by government employees.

The six items Trump detailed Monday are all somewhat easy lifts inside Washington -- because they can be done with a simple signature by Trump and do not require congressional approval.

But Trump also left out his biggest campaign promises which include promises to build a wall along the Mexican border, establish a "deportation force," place new restrictions on immigration from some majority Muslim countries, repeal Obamacare and spend $1 trillion on infrastructure.

Unlike his items unveiled Monday, those measures would require the approval of Congress and are likely to take significantly more work.

Time and speed are very likely to be key factors as the new president looks for bigger, more durable wins in his first year. Republicans control the House and Senate, as well as the White House -- but Democrats struggled to pass key items, like Obamacare, when they were in a similar position eight years ago.

Republicans hold a firm majority in the House, but could struggle in the Senate, where Democrats will hold 48 seats next year, enough to blockade Trump measures.

"Whether it's producing steel, building cars, or curing disease, I want the next generation of production and innovation to happen right here, in our great homeland, America creating wealth and jobs for American workers," Trump said in the two-and-a-half-minute video statement. "As part of this plan, I've asked my transition team to develop a list of executive actions we can take on day one to restore our laws and bring back our jobs."

Among his first actions, the Republican said he would "issue our notification of intent to withdraw from the Transpacific Partnership" and replace it with negotiating "fair bilateral trade deals."

Trump campaigned on a promise to halt the progress of the TPP trade deal, an agreement President Barack Obama had hoped would be a part of his administration's trade legacy.

Some of the first international reaction came from Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe who during a press conference at the APEC summit in Peru on Monday according to a translator said "The TPP without the United States is meaningless. Renegotiation is possible, because the TPP without the United States will collapse the balance of the benefit. As for the policy of the new US government, I don't want to discuss with any assumption."

On immigration, Trump promised to "investigate all abuses of visa programs that undercut the American worker," but did not mention his signature campaign promise of building a wall along the US border with Mexico.

The items are all measures he broadly campaigned on, though Trump has begun moderating some of the toughest stances he took on the campaign trail. In an interview with "60 Minutes," he said that he would likely keep key portions of Obamacare.

And not long after his election win, his campaign took down the web page with his earlier promise to ban all Muslims from entering the country -- he has since moderated that view greatly, but left major questions on how precisely he would limit immigration.

WAS PRINCE AWARE HE WAS TAKING FENTANYL, THE BIGGEST PAINKILLER?

And so here I was, reading a post online CNN and then it occurred to me that maybe, just maybe Prince would be alive today if silly mistakes such as mislabeling of drugs were avoided. What a tragedy!

On a second thought, on reading further the reports from the CNN which revealed that a trusted source with knowledge of investigation on Prince’s death gave information to the Minneapolis Star Tribune that the pills which were seized from inside Prince's Paisley Park compound by investigators were as a matter of fact labeled as hydrocodone meanwhile they contained fentanyl which was the drug that reportedly led to the death of the singer, I had a nagging question in my head.

The question that went through my head was “did Prince know about this labeling or was there some sort of foul play”?

 

I didn’t need to read any further as there were speculations that what could have caused Prince’s overdose was “either a pharmaceutical manufacturer mislabeled the pills, or the pills were illegally manufactured and obtained illegally”.

Even though I like the idea of the investigators who have decided to work with the theory that the late Prince may not have known the pills contained fentanyl, I am still wondering why a lot of these celebrities dwell on painkillers. Was Prince also in some sort of pain like we heard about MJ the late “wacko Jacko”? What’s with celebrities and pains anyway?

So far, investigators have not established whether Prince consumed those pills or whether he was aware the pills contained fentanyl and still went ahead to ingest them even though many of us have the opinion that Prince loved life, to a large extent or so we thought.  I don’t think he would have taken that overdose if he knew they were not just hydrocodone -for whatever pains- but also contained fentanyl that became the death of him on the 21^st of April, 2016 as the said fentanyl is reported to be about a hundred times stronger than the popularly abused morphine and up to fifty times the potency of heroin

In our country today, we’ve heard stories of people dying as a result of initial wrong diagnosis as well as wrong medicine prescription/administration by supposed medical professionals. From this report, it means such mistakes are not just peculiar to our country hence the need for a wake-up call for doctors and other medical professionals around the world.

So the question is, “what is the way out of this”?

In as much as many loved Prince to a fault, let’s take an objective look at the issue and some common mistakes as well as other angles to the story as suggested by the report:

If the manufacturer mislabeled the pills, there would have likely been a recall, as fentanyl is an extremely potent opioid medication and a controlled substance. It would be a serious health hazard if a batch was mislabeled and given to the public.

Star Tribune sources said Prince's toxicology report, which has not been released, also revealed the presence of lidocaine, alprazolam and Percocet in his system.

CNN's Dr. Drew Pinsky said the combination of fentanyl, (which is an opioid based drug), and alprazolam (which is a benzodiazepine) could be the key to why Prince died.

"It is all too common for people to overdose if they are taking a combination of a benzodiazepine and an opioid," Pinsky said. "This is what I've been warning was a likely possibility."

At the beginning of the investigation into Prince's death, sources told CNN that painkillers were found inside his Paisley Park compound and they could not find a valid prescription for the medication. The Star Tribune now reports that their source said no prescription for fentanyl has been found in the months since Prince's death. So, a burning question remains. How did Prince acquire the drug?

Fentanyl, the most powerful painkiller on the market, is normally prescribed to cancer patients in extreme pain. It's also used to ease the pain of someone who is dying or as part of anesthesia during surgery.

But illegally manufactured fentanyl pills are readily available across America.

Just last month, the Drug Enforcement Administration published a report saying counterfeit pills are fueling the fentanyl and heroin/opioid crisis in the United States, which has become an epidemic. The DEA issued a national health alert over the rise in fentanyl overdoses in 2015.

That year, the DEA said its National Forensic Laboratory Information System showed "there were approximately eight times as many fentanyl exhibits (confiscated drugs that tested positive for fentanyl) in 2015 as there were during the 2006 fentanyl crisis, clearly demonstrating the unprecedented threat and expansion of the fentanyl market."

Prince's death at 57 years old shocked the world. For months fans mourned the musical genius by showing up by the hundreds to pay their respects. Many left purple mementos on the fence that surrounds the Paisley Park Compound where Prince died.

He was discovered dead inside of an elevator in the complex.

Officials never revealed the amount of fentanyl that was in Prince's system. But the Star Tribune reported that a source said the amount of fentanyl in his system was so high it would have killed anyone, no matter their size.

It has been four months since Prince died and the investigation into his death is still ongoing. The DEA began working the case alongside the Carver County Sheriff's Office from the very early stages. But no one knows exactly why Prince was taking strong painkillers or how he obtained them.

Hmm! Now you have it.

After reading up, I guess you still have that nagging question of “what’s with celebrities and pain(killers)?

Lastly, medical professionals around the world should really wake up and sit up because these drugs don’t just grow legs and walk into the hands of people who use them. They are still given by persons legally and illegally so such persons need to have a rethink given the number of damages reported so far.

KEEP THAT SPERM HEALTHY! ENHANCE FERTILITY!!

Infertility will continue to be a big issue as long as you have couples who stay several years trying for a child to no avail. 

It breaks every couple when they try conception for several years, yet medical consultants keep trying to find out the underlying problems even as the couples are most times declared healthy yet the problem of infertility still persists. It grieves the heart greatly.

I stumbled on a site recently and what caught my attention was the number one way out of the six ways mentioned about how men diminish the quality of their sperm and so deemed it fit to share hoping that it may help a couple of people out there if they stumble on my page.

According to what was gathered from the report, it is recommended that everyman should avoid stress as much as possible and maintain a healthy lifestyle all the time as being unhealthy, coupled with fatigue and stress could have adverse effect on the quality of sperm which is one of the reasons for infertility.

Also part of staying healthy includes keeping the testicles cool, when I say ‘cool’ it means at least 4 degrees cooler than the rest of the body as the sperm count would be affected if the temperature becomes too high.

Now for all those men who drink too many bottles of alcohol per day, it is a ‘no-no’ as that would be too much for the sperm to handle even as smoking is also a ‘no-no’ if you want very good quality sperm. Smoking according to health experts causes erectile dysfunction and a decrease in the flow of blood to the privates and as a guy smokes his chances of experiencing such dysfunctions increases.

  

One very interesting one is the caution against the habit of men who keep their phones in their front pockets. It is advised that since the radiation and vibrations from the phones can decrease sperm count up to 9%, hence the phones should be kept away.

The most informative was the number one caution for the avoidance of plastic bottles and cans that contain Bisphenol A, which would hereafter be referred to as BPA.

Some people may be wondering what is BPA and how does it affect *on a lighter note* “the price of fish”?

It does affect in a lot of ways, if you asked me.

Now take a seat for the very SHORT eye opener on BPA.

BPA according to PLOS Genetics acts as an endocrine disruptor thus men should avoid bottles and cans that contain the ‘disruptor’.

BPA is a common chemical used to harden plastics by manufacturers. Unfortunately, as harmful as they say it is, it is found in nearly everything we use on a daily basis by professionals and nonprofessionals alike. It is found in items within and outside the homes including offices and market places. Just name it, from baby feeding bottles, medical devices, entertainment devices and even the lining of canned foods and drinks and many more products that come our way on a daily basis.

Worrisome, isn’t it? 

From all indications, it seems everyone has got some level of BPA in them as long as you use any of the aforementioned products.

Before the year 2010, the United States Food and Drug Administration had held that BPA was safe until it expressed the concerns after some studies that BPA could have negative effects on the brain, behavior, and prostate glands in fetuses, infants and young children.

Now how does that affect you?

Now you know better.

Let’s avoid BPA as much as possible as we can. Make deliberate efforts!