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#we need more versions of the auto food dispenser
ktarsims · 1 year
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I also found a San Francisco Garter Snake tucked away in the front room with Dinak’s cat tower, toys, and food dispenser.
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stiitch · 5 months
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Adopting More Open-Minded Approaches to Databases
Recently, I was introduced to time series databases such as InfluxDB. It made me realize that I haven't really broadened my understanding on databases and available options too much at all since I learned SQL in college. I don't have an in-depth grasp on time series databases, but after playing with the open source version of InfluxDB I was pretty impressed.
Features
InfluxDB offers a fairly well thought out product. As a NoSQL database, it doesn't have standard tables. Instead, it stores datapoints at a specific timestamp. That timestamp identifies a point in any given data series. Your writes can choose how granular you want your timestamp to be (ie. attribute data to a minute, second, millisecond, etc.).
BUCKET - you can create multiple buckets to write data to
MEASUREMENT - you name what kind of measurement this is
Now, you could have multiple measurements happening at a single timestamp. In this case, you would have different tags separating your data.
Lets say you saw a litter of like 8 cats. They were really fucking cute and you weren't gonna let them just rot on the street. Alright, you bring them home and you gotta feed them. You make an auto-feeding IoT device. You suspect your hoodlum street cats of stealing from the source though. So, you log the food your device spits out. Suppose your device has cat detection too. Each time a cat comes, you can tell which cat it is.
You can have the tag name along with the measurement of how many kibbles dispensed. This might look like this:
food_dispensed,name=luna pellets=28 1434055562000000000
So the measurement is called "food_dispensed", the name tag is set to "luna", and the field "pellets" has a value of 28.
Limitations
Of course InfluxDB isn't perfect. There's rarely a one-size-fits-all solution in tech. InfluxDB offers create and retrieve operations that are very easy and nice to use along with your choice of many client libraries and 2 query language options. However, if you need to use Update and Destroy operations, you're out of luck. They're very optimized for speed so they offer none.
Another known issue is data with high cardinality. Luckily, there are other options to choose from such as TimescaleDB which offers promising benchmarks over InfluxDB with regard to cardinalty.
Polyglot Persistence
As more unique services come out more frequently then ever, it feels like applications need to start leveraging every small piece of innovation wherever they can. To this end, we see applications broken into smaller microservices so that different services can use different tools to improve the work they do. Why would databases be any different? I'm no the first person who thought of this and it's an idea that's been around for quite a while. The first I read about it was here on Martin Fowler's blog.
With developers using a lot of distributed systems, it makes sense that each part of the whole may have different databasing needs. I was genuinely subscribed to the idea that Postgresql was enough and I would be good. And Postgresql is powerful, but there are situations where NoSQL databases make sense even if it's just for convenience sake. Maintainability is also an issue to consider to ensure a longer lifetime for your app.
Although it may seem intimidating keeping services outputting to different databases, it's worth looking into message brokers. Many databases can integrate well with message brokers like Kafka in order to provide excellent data replication or near real-time updates between different systems.
Conclusion
So there's a lot out there to explore and understand better. As a developer, I'm trying to figure out where to best spend my time to improve my skillset. I don't want to get bogged down to the minute details but I also don't want to gloss over learning opportunities either. Seeing some of the things I've been looking into this week along with my own thoughts written out helps me get more perspective. If you stayed till the end of this, I hope that this helps you in some way.
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albanabennett · 3 years
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15 Best Air Fryer Toaster Oven Reviews in 2021 You Should Buy
An air fryer toaster oven is the best system to do everything, with the extra advantage of cutting calories simply by using less oil to fry our favorites. But, it’s actually difficult to think of the ideal choice when there are so various kinds of merchandise available on the marketplace. So, In the following guide, I’ll dive right into what I think are a few of the best air fryer toaster ovens in the marketplace nowadays, and I’ll also aid you on the best way to decide on the best air fryer toaster oven 2021. List of 15 Best Air Fryer Toaster Oven Reviews 1. Cuisinart TOA-65 Digital Convection Toaster Oven Airfryer Buy From Amazon Shaped like a miniature oven, as its name implies, the Cuisinart Toaster Ovens does not have the normal form of electric fryers. A bonus that lets you lay food level in its extensive, shallow basket. So more air moves through the meals for exceptionally even browning and crisping without dumping or vibrating the basket. In accordance with Cuisinart, the version is ideal for households, holding around 2 pounds of chips or 4-pounds of poultry. There’s not any need to preheat, as well as the controllers are devoid of buttons, so the air fryer toaster oven is simple to use. Only turn the dials to set the temperature and cooking time. All components, nevertheless, must be hand cleaned. Most countertop convection ovens at their price range are electronic, but this unit is still analog. It constitutes the gap by nixing the demand for extra appliances, consequently space efficiency. The preferences provide you the choice to inhale, inhale, air dispenser and toast your own favorites. Based on the way you feel, bake a 12-inch pizza, air fry 3-pounds of chicken wings, roast 4-pounds of fish, or toast six slices of bread simultaneously. If you do not have toaster ovens, then you get two big countertop appliances together with the flexibility of a single using these toaster ovens. If this fryer arrived initially, I was doubtful and wondering just how much power it might use and how much space it would take on the countertop. After making a few fried chips and wings to get a games night, we had been ignored, and everybody present set outside to purchase an air fryer. It’s an extensive array of warmth from 45 degrees to 450 degrees. Even though there’s some sound, it’s not quite as much it might perturb you. The window is amazing, and all elements of the air fryer are extremely easily washed. 2. Instant Pot Omni Plus 11-in-1 Toaster Oven – Air Fry Buy From Amazon The Instant Omni Plus Air Fryer Toaster Ovens are a go-to for anybody seeking to have a toaster oven with ample cooking capability. This kitchen appliance generates crispier, equally fried food which many air fryers on the market can not match. Essentially, this cooking appliance is a toaster oven comprising an air fryer combo, enabling users to enjoy the very best of both worlds. The Instant Omni Plus Air Fryer Toaster Ovens circulate heat evenly around the meals without drying your chips out. That is not all: that oven is great for dehydrating fresh fruits, baking biscuits, and preparing toast. It includes 11 preset functions to remove any downtime. Additionally, it’s easy to use thanks to the one-touch button layout on the controller panel. This item lets users adjust the cooking temperature and time-dependent on the recipe to make sure that an endless cooking potential. In comparison to other goods in its budget, the Instant Omni Plus Air Fryer Toaster Ovens work and provides better outcomes. Not only that, but it supplies a sizable 26-liter capacity which needs to be sufficient to hold 18 chicken wings, a 12-inch pizza, 2lbs of french fries, or even six toast pieces. Its large cooking capability accommodates two cooking trays once to permit you to cook a number of meals in 1 go and readily reach bigger cooking jobs. 3. Breville BOV900BSSUSC The Smart Toaster Oven Buy From Amazon The Breville Convection Toaster Oven Air Fryers are an all-rounder device with several presets, a strong engine, a superior heating system, and a smart user-friendly controller. Though the ovens are compact enough to match the countertop, it has a substantial one cubic feet capacity. It’s possible for you to match a 14-pound turkey, nine pieces of bread, and match a 12-cup muffin tray. What’s more, it provides you total flexibility in the kitchen. It’s 13 presets, including bake, toast, bagel, broil, warm, roast, pizza, reheat, biscuits, slow cook, dehydrate, evidence, and air dispenser. An LCD will give you smart, simple access to various functions, letting you place your desired presets as well as fever. Breville has also added handy oven lighting, which may even turn on automatically following every cook. Besides all this, its super convection technology contains a two-speed convection fan that provides an incredible temperature controller. You receive a larger quantity of airflow within the air fryer toaster oven, which can help disperse heat evenly on all corners and then reduce cooking time by 30%. Moreover, the Breville Convection Ovens include a PID temperature controller and an Element IQ. They utilize six separate quartz heating elements to give warmth were required the most, making certain you get equally cooked meals each moment. Last, the air fryer toaster oven has a non-stick coating, which makes it a lot easier to clean up. 4. Emeril Lagasse Power AirFryer 360 Better Than Convection Ovens Hot Air Fryer Oven Buy From Amazon The Emeril LagassePower Air 360 is an amazing air fryer and toaster ovens. It’s well made, feels as though it ought to be more costly than it is, and manages a lot of different cooking functions easily. In addition to all that, it is competitively priced and will not break your bank. From the box, I knew I was going to enjoy the Emeril Lagasse Power Air 360. It’s a user-friendly digital display, using a straightforward controller panel. The whole air fryer toaster oven feels just like a luxury part of cooking equipment, everything fits together nicely, and the outside consists of thicker gauge steel than I struck on additional machines. The brushed stainless steel exterior, bright interior lighting, and several oven rack places created this oven a pleasure to use. A few other versions just came with just one air fryer toaster oven rack place so that even in the event that you’ve got ample inner space, you will never be able to alter the space between the heating elements along with your meals. Not with the Emeril 360. Among the characteristics that make this air fryer stick out from the remainder of the listing is that the rotisserie oven operates. While most of the ovens on this listing may manage roasting a chicken and just a turkey sometimes, this was one of 2 versions to come equipped with a rotisserie that will be ideal not just for roasting chicken but for producing pork butt or prime rib. It took me a time to find out, however with the support of a wonderful video connection contained in the air fryer user’s guide; I received my chicken prepared and packed with little without situation. 5. COSORI CO130-AO Countertop Dehydrator for Chicken Buy From Amazon The COSORI CO130-AO 12-in-1 Air Fryer Toaster Oven Combo includes 12 preset choices, letting you produce healthy meals. It includes a stainless steel exterior with a double-layer glass doorway and a vast handlebar for simple access. The electronic display with four buttons and two knobs can be on the left side. Both knobs allow you to adjust the purpose and time/temperature, whereas the buttons signify fan, light, and begin choices. You are able to find three detachable metallic cooking racks which could easily be repositioned inside to match high food things. The four heating components are in charge of evenly disperse warm air around the food to ensure consistent cooking. It includes 12 essential cooking purposes, including toast, broil, bagel, roast, bake, keep heat, air fry, biscuits, pizza, ferment, rotisserie, and dehydrate. These multifunctional air fryer toaster ovens contain a cookbook, crumb tray, food tray, cable rack, fry basket, and rotisserie attachments. 6. Cuisinart TOA-60 Convection Toaster Oven Airfryer Buy From Amazon These large-capacity air fryer toaster ovens provide multiple attributes their peers do not. Just take the instance of its own pre-programmed functions. They allow you to bake bread, roast a whole grain, air fry French Fries, or cook a lasagna. Also available is an adjustable thermostat using a 60-min timer. Then there’s that auto-shutoff function. This feature keeps you protected by not permitting the cooking chamber’s pressure to exceed a safe limit. It does that via its built-in detector, which automatically shuts off the entire unit if something goes bankrupt. Equally deserving of your attention would be the dials that control its performance. The initial two dials on the left-hand let you trigger a timer and set temperature within the cooking chamber, respectively. It’s possible to rotate the next dial to roast, bake, broil, warm, toast, and air fry your meals. Cuisinart has loaded this version’s package with attachments. They comprise an air fryer rack, baking pan, along with a toaster rack. The America-based manufacturer provides this unit using a 3-year guarantee — the most extended guarantee you would get on almost any air fryer toaster oven presently in the marketplace. 7. Ninja SP101 Foodi 8-in-1 Digital Air Fry, Large Toaster Oven Buy From Amazon The next “candidate” on our record is your Ninja Foodi Digital Air Fryer Toaster Ovens , ideal for a small or moderate household. It’s a fairly slick and trendy air fryer with a brushed stainless steel exterior finish to match your kitchen inside. Additionally, Ninja is called a leader in technology and innovation in its own kitchen goods for decades. It has an electronic control panel on the ideal side, letting you run it effortlessly. Unlike conventional toasters, the handlebar is present on one side of this doorway. It is fairly uncommon, and it can take you some time to become accustomed to the new layout. The remarkable thing is you could consume 50 percent less space simply by turning up the air fryer toaster oven and off to wash and save. With large capacity together with 8-in-1 performance, it lets you air fry, air roast, air broil, bake, bagel, toast, dehydrate, and maintain warmth in one strong 1800-watt appliance. It’s a ponderable appliance with a special layout that boosts rate and even cooking results, such as 60-second preheat and family-sized foods in no more than 20 minutes. 8. Geek Chef Convection Air Fryer Toaster Oven Buy From Amazon Should you will need a budget-friendly strategy, this may just be the choice for you. This is roughly half of the cost as a number of the large brands on the market but includes a lot of high ratings and positive attributes too. If you are worried about paying too much, this is a fantastic option! This is exceptional as it’s developed to have a more compact design complete, but it’s a fairly large capacity dimension. These air fryer toaster ovens may hold around 10.5 quarts, which will be quite similar to other versions. The timer is flexible, and also the temperature warms up to 450 degrees. This operates on 1500 watts. It’s strong and durable overall. It’s also quite simple to operate with a few basic knobs, which are clearly indicated. This air fryer permits you to grill, air fry, toast, bake, and dehydrate, all into a very simple unit. It includes a basket, a wire rack, plus a skillet. The brand also makes bigger capacities too. 9. Cuisinart AFR-25, Airfryer Buy From Amazon Cuisinart does not typically create pocket-friendly appliances, but the AFR-25 demonstrates they can provide quality on a budget. The engine and fan with this unit are designed to operate in tandem and guide heated air exactly where it is required to receive your food fast and evenly cooked. Now, the ability is reasonable, and it is possible to consume up to 2.5 lbs of food in one session. The space-saving footprint takes up very little space on the countertops. It is possible to keep your eye on events throughout the window, although the durable stainless casing ensures you will receive an impressive lifespan though this air fryer is economical. You may think this powerful cooker could be noisy, but it runs surprisingly quietly. While we value you are not purchasing kitchenware primarily on appearances, the understated aesthetic of the air fryer belies the budget price point. If you’re searching for an excellent air fryer toaster oven combo that plays strongly across the board without breaking the ground, the Cuisinart AFR-25 is worth popping you’re shortlisted. 10. Yedi Total Package Air Fryer Oven XL Buy From Amazon Unlike the majority of the other people on our listing, the Yedi Total Package is much better as an air fryer than as a toaster oven. Should you make absolutely certain to throw or flip over food during cooking, then you receive fantastic air frying outcomes. Just like the majority of air fryers, frozen foods come out browner and crisper than those ready from scratch. While the Yedi includes a toast feature, it is not actually a toaster. It is essentially baking your bread, and it will this unevenly. After pressing on the Toast button, the machine enables you to lift or reduce the air fryer toaster oven temperature however does not permit you to decide on the number of pieces or occasions for various levels of doneness. You are going to need to work out for yourself just how long and at what temperature to bake your bread to have it toasted for your liking. Biscuits came out quite unevenly browned on top and hardly colored on the floor. After we baked a cake from a cake mix, it was nearly burnt with a massive dome and a lot of cracks. One of the huge benefits of this Yedi is the fact that it’s a rotisserie. As soon as it’s a little bit of a hassle to install, in only 40 minutes that the rotisserie delivered a moist chicken using a golden-brown crackling skin. Instead of it is broad, the Yedi does not occupy as much space as a normal toaster oven, but it is not so tall that it will not fit under a cupboard. It’s an electronic control panel, but it takes a number of actions to choose your setting. The manufacturer recommends hand washing each of the components, which is not simply thanks to plenty of cracks requiring some detail work to receive spotlessly. The sole exception is that the drip pan, which includes a nonstick finish. Together with the Yedi, along with an air blower basket and a baking dish, you also get two mesh trays such as dehydrating, an air skillet, a rotisserie, and contraptions for cooking beef and skewers. Meaning there are a whole lot of pieces, a number of them little, to shop for. Alas, the guide, which includes the Yedi, isn’t quite as useful as it might be. 11. Black+Decker TO3265XSSD Extra Wide Crisp ‘N Bake Air Fry Toaster Oven Buy From Amazon The TO3265XSSD is a cheap toaster oven with an integrated air fryer . That implies, beyond baking, broiling, and toasting, in addition, it enables you to air bake, even just a sizable 4-pound chicken, directly within the oven. For this affordable cost, the oven includes all you want to make healthily fried and baked recipes in the home. It is a choice that makes owning a flexible air fryer toaster oven easier for people with limited budgets. In comparison with the best selection, this device is a lot more affordable but still comprises essential capabilities. It is accompanied by an air fry basket, bake/broil pan, and stand, and an outside crumb tray that could slide in and out for simple cleaning. It preheats in moments; this way, you will have the ability to save time and reduce energy use. While its air skillet provides you with a deep-fried taste with no fat, the four additional purposes (bake, toast, broil, and keep heat ) should give you infinite cooking chances. It is 21.5 inches tall, 23 inches wide, and 11.2 inches deep. It is big enough to fit a 9″x13″ pan with packs, 8 pieces of bread, or even a 12″ pizza. It includes 1,000 watts of cooking power, which can be powerful enough to roast a whole grain. Its 60-minute timer is a traditional guide timer that may be used to get a vast array of cooking jobs. The timer is helpful, exact, and simple to use. There are not any instructions about the best way best to use this machine. They are not even on the business’s site, either. Many users claimed they needed a hell of a time getting the air skillet to operate correctly. 12. Instant Pot Vortex Plus 10 Quart 7-in-1 Multi-Use Air Fryer Buy From Amazon From the manufacturers of this Instant Pot, these air fryer toaster ovens are, in fact, the best of both worlds, condensing all of the best areas of the air fryers to a leading convection oven. With seven built-in smart apps, you can create numerous dishes simultaneously together with all the baking, broiling, and rotisserie preferences. It’s a whopping 10-quart capability, which lets you cook both trays simultaneously but may not be good if the counter area is an issue. But that is a small price to cover cook moment: with small to no preheating required; Instant Pot boasts you can whip up dinner at half the time of a traditional oven. It comes with a fairly nifty rotating rotisserie basket which you may utilize to”tumble-fry” or roast beef 360 degrees. The brightly lit touchscreen is slick and contemporary, offering 14 easy touch controls. The Instant Vortex also comprises Overheat Protection, which lessens the danger of you burning off the meal you worked hard (although not so difficult ) to create. The Instant Vortex Plus demonstrates that whatever your typical air fryer can perform, this toaster can perform better. 13. Ninja DT251 Foodi 10-in-1 Smart Air Fry Digital Countertop Convection Toaster Oven Buy From Amazon The Ninja DT251 Foodi is just another wise oven with approximately ten times the convection energy of a conventional oven to get succulent, crispy, and quicker results. Like our best option, this toaster oven provides impressive flexibility. With this countertop appliance, you are able to air roast, air fryer, bagel, dehydrate, toast, and pizza. This 1800-watt air fryer toaster oven cook using the ideal doneness. In addition, it includes an integrated meals smart thermometer to carry the guesswork out and make sure you are cooking at the exact temperature. It only takes approximately 90 minutes to preheat and cooks 30% quicker compared to a classic full-size convection oven — an ideal go-to for producing fast family meals. Additionally, its buttery cooking capability offers two degrees of cooking without needing spinning. This huge cooking area can accommodate a sheet pan of veggies, a 12-pound turkey, two 12-inch pizzas, plus 5 pounds of chicken. The Ninja DT251 Foodi promotes healthy cooking with less fat in comparison with a conventional skillet. 14. Chefman Air Fryer Toaster Oven Buy From Amazon The Chefman Air Fryer Toaster Ovens are an analog-style oven using a top-mounted control panel. It’s a front-loading door with two oven racks and will hold around 25l, placing it directly in the center of the pack concerning capacity. These ovens include 7 distinct modes and using a very simple analog port; it takes very little effort to get this up and running. One particularly wonderful feature about these ovens are the simple fact that the removable bits such as the oven rack and skillet are dishwasher safe. While I regularly recommend handwashing your accessories where the potential to prolong their useful lifetime, it’s wonderful to know that at a pinch, you can just throw them in the dishwasher and then walk off. Price-wise this version is slightly more affordable than a few of the versions on this listing, and if you’re interested in finding an easy, easy-to-use analog air fryer/toaster oven, then this is certainly the version for you. But if you’re searching for something a bit more appealing or full-featured, then among the other versions on this listing will likely work out somewhat better. 15. Hamilton Beach Countertop Toaster Oven Buy From Amazon The Hamilton Beach countertop toaster oven has been designed with user convenience in mind. It’s possible to guess that on your own by taking a look in its cooking room. It stands lower compared to those of different versions within this review and so provides you simple access to your meals. Similar is true for its own door/viewing window. It moves upward and from the way of this room when you are putting into or taking food out from the air fryer toaster oven. This permits the door to steer well clear of drips and messy spills through the loading/unloading of meals. It is possible to use the 3 dials found on the side to bake, broil, and toast your meals. They also allow you to set the time that you would like to cook your foods and also the temperature where you would like to cook them. And also, the simple fact they’re contoured means that the dials are a breeze to move. Within the cooking room, you’ll be able to match six pieces of toast simultaneously. The compartment is spacious enough to maintain a 12-inches pizza or 9″ x 11″ bake pan. Hamilton Beach further sweetens the deal by creating this device’s crumb tray detachable for simple cleaning. How To Choose The Best Air Fryer Toaster Ovens Size & Capacity Generally, air fryer toaster ovens can be found in two standard sizes: large and medium. By experience, I will tell you that bigger toaster ovens are frequently more flexible due to the excess surface area they’ve. A medium-sized air fryer toaster oven can hold between four to six pieces of toast. A huge toaster oven may generally hold eight or longer. If you intend to mainly be cooking only for yourself or on the spouse/partner, a medium-sized air fryer oven ought to be adequate. For households or larger parties, a bigger-sized one is significantly preferable. Analog vs Digital controls Analog controls: There are 3 particular benefits in air fryers using analog controls. They’re available at a low price, are quite simple to use (even for the older ), and include a dial that lets you place their temperature and time. That’s the point. Since these devices don’t have LED displays, preset programs, and lots of cooking purposes, they’re not quite as intuitive to the consumer as electronic devices. Digital controls: The vast majority of the air toaster ovens you see in this review come equipped with electronic controls. You would like to know the reason why? Since only then are they in a position to offer you all the characteristics that the gastronomic enjoys. Examples of these attributes include touch controls which permit you to bake, bake, air-toast, toast, and inhale, and an LCD screen using a control panel using more cooking purposes than you can utilize. Accessories At a minimum, all toaster ovens must include a minimum of one rack and a single broiling/baking pan. Air fryer toaster ovens normally incorporate an extra basket or stand for air frying. The baskets typically sit the baking/broiling pan and supply secure cooking at high temperatures in addition to simple maneuverability and cleanup. If the basket can’t match on the bowl, a bowl can ordinarily be set in the place beneath the air skillet; this fashion makes it harder to take the air skillet out of the air fryer toaster oven to test meals or eliminate without dripping dirt everywhere. Some air fryer toaster ovens give a choice to buy more air fryer racks (which may also be utilized for dehydrating in the majority of instances ) to use in precisely the exact same time, and a few include a rotisserie attachment. Ease of Use For an appliance that is so flexible, you will want to know you are getting the most from it. Each of the automated presets might be fantastic, but you do not wish the educational guide or configurations to be this complex; you will not need to cook whatever. Clean-up can be important also so that your removable racks and baskets must be dishwasher-safe. Heat Distribution When you settle in an air fryer toaster oven, then you may want it to have even heat distribution. There’s nothing worse than seeing your things get dim and overcooked about the borders of the shelf while the items from the center are still chilly. Pay careful attention to the detail and also watch for things that provide even heat distribution so that you can hopefully prevent this matter with your new apparatus. Conclusion The continuing global pandemic means everybody is spending more time in your home. What better way to utilize that time compared to expand your cooking thing while at precisely the exact same time enjoying healthy meals? Having an air fryer toaster oven , you are able to certainly do that. Air fryer toaster ovens can certainly allow you to prevent excess weight reduction and make healthy eating habits. They can also save you a good deal of cooking time, effort, and energy intake, providing you a better approach to boost your culinary experience. Thus, we’ve reviewed the best air fryer toaster oven that will assist you in discovering the best one for your needs. Read More: https://montanastrailhouse.com/air-fryer-toaster-oven/ Website: https://montanastrailhouse.com
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waterworldcraze · 5 years
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What To Feed Guppies When Out Of Food?
What can you feed your guppies if you’re out of fish food? Guppies can survive without food for two weeks. If you run out of flake food there is a variety of other options to choose from.
Your children didn’t tell you they had used the last of the flake food yesterday, and now you have nothing on hand to feed your guppies? That’s okay, they will be alright for a few days. The next time you go to the grocery store, there are foods you can pick up to feed them.
What kinds of human foods can guppies eat?
Guppies will eat at the top of the tank. You’ll want to have food that can float or will not sink very quickly.
Homemade
Veggies
Guppies can eat a wide variety of vegetables if you run out of your regular flake food. That being said, there are a few things you’re going to want to keep in mind if that’s the route you’re going to take.
Leaving the food in the tank for longer than 12 hours if the guppy hasn’t eaten everything can contaminate your water. It could alter the PH level and make it dirty.
Food has to be small enough that the guppies can eat it. It’s recommended that you try to keep the bites of food about the size of their eye.
The jelly parts of fruit, like the insides of tomatoes or cucumbers, can contaminate the tank. Only feed your fish the solid bits of the vegetables.
If necessary, your guppies can survive off of the algae in their tank for a little bit. You have time for a grocery run.
Here are some suggestions for vegetables for your guppies:
Mustard Greens
Zucchini
Carrots
Bell Peppers
Lettuce
Shelled Peas
Spinach
There are some fruits you can give them, but it isn’t really recommended to be a large portion of their diet. The sugar is hard for the guppies to deal with, as they never had anything like that in the wild.
If you absolutely have to, you can chop up grapes or bananas. Just make sure it’s small enough that the guppies can easily consume it and that you remove it from the tank if the guppies aren’t eating it.
Human Proteins
About 20 percent of your guppies’ diet should be protein. But pay attention, proteins left too long in the tank can also cause serious consequences.
The excess foods will need to be removed from the tank three to four hours after feeding. Afterward, make sure you do a water 10 – 20 per cent water change to ensure clean water.
If necessary, your guppies can have some of the proteins you might prepare for yourself:
Raw Shrimp
Slivered Raw Beef
Slivered Raw Chicken
Slivered Raw Lamb
Cut up Boiled Egg Whites (Don’t use the yolk as it will disintegrate and the guppies can’t eat this).
Fish Proteins
It’s possible to create your own culture of brine shrimp, daphnia or micro-worms at home. It will require some effort, and some of these will be smelly setups. You can purchase kits to grow
Brine Shrimp (We recommend getting this Brine Shrimp Hatchery Dish here)
Vinegar Eels
Daphnia
Micro-worms
If you don’t want to purchase a kit, you can make a DIY version with the instructions in the video below.
youtube
Guppies can also eat fruit flies. So when fruit fly season comes around, capture those little suckers and use them to shore up your food supply.
Having a set up for food in your own home does require a bit of commitment. The creatures you are using to feed your fish will need to be looked after as well.
There is also the possibility that your hatcheries don’t survive. You’ll want to make sure that you have backup freeze dried food just in case.
Store-bought
There is always the standard fish flake food that you can get for your guppies. There are also a few alternatives for your little guys:
Freeze-dried brine shrimp
Freeze-dried bloodworms
Freeze-dried tubifex worms
Veggie pallets
Spirulina
The flake food has all of the vitamins and minerals your guppy will need, so it’s recommended that they eat this at least once a day.
That being said, you can help your fish live it up a bit by offering them a variety. Just make sure you read the instructions on how to feed them if you are using something that you’re not familiar with.
Fish flakes can be scattered over the top of the water. Everything else needs to be divided into portions with only a little being put in at a time.
It’s easy to overfeed your fish with some of the freeze-dried food.
What will happen if I don’t feed my guppies?
Adult guppies
Your guppies will be able to survive for a little bit without food, so don’t panic. You can run to the store tomorrow and they’ll still be okay. The adults can survive up to two weeks without food.
Ideally, your fish should eat up to three times per day. You’ll want to feed them small amounts that they can eat in under five minutes so the food doesn’t go foul.
If they don’t have food, guppies can also survive on the algae in the tank. This isn’t their ideal food source, but it will sustain them while you make the trip to the store.
Also, keep in mind, if there is no food and there are babies in the tank, your adult guppies will probably eat the fry.
Fry
If you are trying to breed guppies, don’t plan any long vacations. The fry, which are the baby guppies, will likely not survive more than three days without food.
Unlike their parents, the fry don’t have the energy reserves to fall back on when they are forced to fast.
There are solutions like an automatic feeder, though you’ll have to be careful. You’re relying on your auto feeder to keep your fish fed when you aren’t going to be there to check on them. If there is a failure, there could be severe consequences for your fish.
What kind of food can you use in an automatic feeder?
Your auto feeders will require flakes, pellets or crumbles. Anything that can be dispensed easily and will stay dry.
Pros and cons of an automatic fish feeder.
So you’re going on vacation and you’ve decided an automatic feeder is the way you’re going to go. That’s great, these feeders can be very helpful for fish owners.
Here are some things you can look forward to:
You can preset the amount of food your fish will have, as well as the number of times they will be fed every day.
There will be less food waste. If you leave someone who isn’t used to feeding fish in charge, there’s a chance they’ll overfeed to err on the side of caution.
With less food waste your tank will stay cleaner for a longer period of time. Meaning it won’t be such a chore to clean it when you get home.
There are, however, some things that you’ll have to keep in mind:
Even with an automatic feeder, you’re going to want someone to check on your fish every two to three days. If there is a power outage or your automatic feeder stops working you’ll want your fish to still have someone there.
It’s possible that the automatic feeder will malfunction and put out more food than is needed. In this case you’re going to have a very dirty tank when you come home. And possibly some sick fish.
I can’t get an auto feeder, now what?
If you can’t afford an automatic feeder you’ll want to make sure you have someone who can come check on your fish every couple of days. Preferably, it will be someone that you can trust who knows how to deal with fish.
You wouldn’t leave your dog with someone who hates animals, right?
Try to have your sitter over a few times to feed the fish while you are there. Training them in advance can assure you a restful time away and less stress for the person watching the little ones.
You can either provide fish flakes for your sitter or have them use homemade food for your pets. It’s probably best to only ask experienced fish owners to look after any cultures you have in your home. That will require more work.
Post a list of all of the foods your fish can eat and what the portions should be if the guppies are having homemade food. Any easy reference or guide will mean far less mistakes.
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artsoccupychi · 7 years
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9 Surprising Reasons People Don’t Get Well, Or Stay Well
In the 25 years since I learned how to get healthy, and then did it–I’ve never stopped researching.
I even went on a global investigative tour of 19 holistic wellness clinics. And I continue to write about what I learned about how people get well.
In that research tour, and my 450-city, 6-year speaking tour, I met a lot of people who are very ill.
Almost always, they immediately want to tell me all the things they’ve done, to try to solve their health problems. They are looking for answers.
The more I research the scientific literature, and talk to people who are happy, and people who are miserable, the more I uncover surprising, powerful reasons why we’re sick. Addressing them can be key, to get well.
In this blog post, I share with you 9 significant but often-overlooked reasons I believe people get sick, and stay sick.
1.  Addictions have you by the throat.
It’s not your fault you’re addicted to…well, everything.
Big food manufacturers like Pepsi and Frito Lay organize focus groups to test the “sweet spot” for exactly how much refined sugar, refined salt, and even neurotoxic seasonings like aspartame and monosodium glutamate, provoke people to eat maximum amounts of their product.
Big food manufacturers test the “sweet spot” for exactly how much refined sugar, refined salt, and even neurotoxic seasonings provoke people to eat and drink maximum amounts of their product.
Literally, millions of dollars are spent to figure out how to get you to eat more.
But even though it’s not your fault they have your number—only you can get yourself free of the addictions.
You’re the only motivated party, in that relationship you have with the processed food–or alcohol, tobacco, or painkiller–industries.
One very hopeful fact is that your ancestors ate virtually no processed sugar, until the past few generations—and your body is actually programmed to resonate with the higher-frequency foods, such as colorful fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts and seeds.
When you go completely cold turkey off all sugars and refined salt, for even four days—I’m talking about all processed food—while those first four days can be very difficult, what happens next is very exciting.
In my favorite book I’ve ever authored, The Adventures of Junk Food Dude, we explore how our tastes completely change, in just four days off sugar.
Are you open to story time? I read a story, from a children’s book, to over 100 adult audiences, on my lecture tour, and they loved it.
In my favorite book of the 15 titles I’ve authored, The Adventures of Junk Food Dude, we explore how our tastes completely change, in just four days off sugar.
Does that seem too simple, to possibly be truthful?
It’s not. Sugar, according to several animal studies, is more addictive than cocaine. (In animal studies, unlike human studies, ethically, you can put both cocaine and sugar in a dispenser, and let the rats go for it.)
And, once you’ve been pressing the lever, for a dopamine rush of sugar (or fried foods, or alcohol), you’re far more likely to press it again, and again. And again.
But your neurological system regains control, in a surprisingly short period of time. My informal research has led me to this surprising fact:
Most people have never, not once in their lives, gone four days without refined sugar.
In fact, most people don’t even know when they’re eating foods full of sugar, and salt.
Why? Food is so easy, these days, that there’s little effort to get it, little effort to eat it—and we expend correspondingly little effort to be mindful of what’s in it.
Try it. Go off all sugar for four days. Let the magic happen.
If you’re up for a full 26 days without sugar, eating only whole foods, to completely reset your metabolic system, check out my free detox video masterclass.
It’s a shortcut, to my 20 years of research in how to get our energy back, lose weight effortlessly, and rebalance the hormonal, immune, and digestive systems.
2. You’re taking advice from the “sick care” specialists, instead of the wellness experts.
“My doctor says…” is how I’ve found most people start a conversation about their health.
A small but growing minority of health care practitioners are moving into “functional medicine,” a movement to diagnose, and then treat, the root cause of disease. Functional doctors treat a patient holistically, and preventatively, with treatments that do no harm.
With treatments that resolve problems, rather than masking symptoms.
But the vast majority of the billions of dollars we spend on health care, these days, goes to the complex of M.D.’s who are trained in sick care. That is, if your body is in auto-immune crisis, rather than find out why your thyroid or adrenals are failing–they give you a drug to mask the symptoms.
If you have a tumor, they’ll direct radioactive rays to burn it. Or they’ll inject chemicals in your veins, to poison it—and hope the rest of your body survives the treatment.
What they don’t do is examine why your immune system stopped metabolizing cancer cells in the first place. Or how exposure to toxicity may have caused a serious weakness in the organ where cancer started.
While you might feel better in the short term, if you’re taking the prescriptions from the medical complex run by M.D.’s, you still have a problem.
Masking the symptoms with drugs is like putting duct tape over the engine light signal in the dashboard of your car. You can’t see it any more—but your engine is still in jeopardy.
Masking the symptoms with drugs is like putting duct tape over the engine light signal in the dashboard of your car. You can’t see it any more—but your engine is still in jeopardy.
I don’t mean to disparage doctors, because they’re great at what they were trained in.
They might do the same surgery, three times a day, for 20 years—and they’re the right person for the job, if you need a triple bypass, or a Lasik procedure, or a joint replacement.
They won’t be able to help you recover your cardiovascular health, or stop losing your eyesight, or rebuild connective tissue. They don’t know anything about nutrition, or how to be healthy. Medical school didn’t cover any of that.
They may know their diabetic meds, and be able to teach you how to monitor your blood sugar levels, and adjust your insulin.
What they don’t know how to do, is heal your endocrine system.
So, the best person to have in the driver’s seat of your car, is you.
Getting educated from the best books about human health, and being guided by a very experienced functional-medicine practitioner, is a great idea.
3. You think the latest fad diet will save you. (Because you’re confused about what ‘eating healthy’ really means.)
When one of my readers talks to me about their diet, in growing numbers, they tell me what diet fad they follow. This trend is alarming to me.
Ditch the diets. Don’t be afraid of carbohydrates. (Eat the complex, whole-foods versions, like fruits, whole grains, and legumes.)
“I eat Paleo,” they’ll say, or “I’ve been doing the Ketogenic diet, the past several months.”
If you think that “eating Paleo” or “eating Keto” means “good nutrition,” you’re not alone. Today’s generations have followed so many diets, that they don’t know that a healthy diet doesn’t require them to count their grams of carbohydrates, or avoid some of the food classes people have been eating for literally millions of years.
Ditch the diets. Don’t be afraid of carbohydrates. (Eat the complex, whole-foods versions, like fruits, whole grains, and legumes.)
Don’t buy into the silly idea that “protein” is found only in animal foods, or that you have to maximize your protein intake.
Stop counting calories. Don’t avoid healthy fats found in whole foods—and don’t overeat them, either.
When I opted out of the medical complex, the meat-and-dairy complex, and the processed-food complex—three of the wealthiest industries in the history of the world—I got my health back.
And the hundreds of books and research papers I studied, gave me clarity that has helped me steer clear of confusing my body, disrupting normal metabolic processes, yo-yo dieting and radical changes of diet, year after year.
I feel like I literally got off the roller coaster. The Cliff’s Notes of what I learned can be found in my 12 Steps to Whole Foods Video Masterclass, which I now share with you, for free.
4. You rely on supplements, and underestimate the power of your dietary choices.
So many of us think that health is found through taking supplements. If you’re new on the journey, you may be looking to nutritional supplements, rather than to pharmaceutical drugs. That’s an important first step. Being aware of the destructive effects of chemical drugs, and realizing that they don’t solve underlying health problems.
But too many of us are refusing to address the very foundation of our diet. No handfuls of supplements can cover for a deficient diet.
You see, while I may be able to make a synthetic version of one of the amino acids that could help you see better, or may play a role in a mood disorder, no scientist has been able to put, in any pill, what is found in the magical, synergistic foods that grow on trees, and in the ground.
(When people ate those, we didn’t have an epidemic of depression and anxiety. Or diabetes, obesity, and cancer.)
These types of food have soluble and insoluble fiber, that is stripped out, when a supplement company makes it into a pill.
Any given nutrient works in concert, with potentially hundreds of other nutritional compounds, for optimal human health. Science has less information than you may think, about the elegant way that whole foods support slow aging, living without symptoms and disease, and enjoying energy from early till late, every day.
If you’re taking a lot of pills (of any kind) and not getting well, ask yourself if the foundation of your diet (90 percent of it or more) consists of greens, vegetables, fruits, legumes, whole grains, nuts and seeds.
These are the foods that human beings ate, before the epidemic of cancer, heart disease, and auto-immune conditions.
I take supplements. Vitamin D, for instance, is very hard to come by, where I live–where the sun doesn’t shine long enough, or it’s too cold to go outside, for six months of the year. And low Vitamin D levels may be more correlated to high cancer risk, than any other factor.
I also take fulvic and humic acid, found in ancient plant deposits–the most bioavailable source of all 90+ minerals needed, for every transaction in the human body, in a world where soils are depleted.
And I experiment with supplements, for various reasons, on a regular basis. I do so after carefully educating myself, because you can overdose on many supplements, and you can do harm, with the wrong dosing or the wrong supplement.
Science is exploding with natural antibiotics, natural anti-inflammatories, and more. They can be powerful.
Use supplements, but don’t buy into the mindset that with supplements, your diet doesn’t matter. Nothing could be further than the truth.
5. You underestimate the effect of your “natural emotional state” on being physically healthy.
One of the most important findings, in functional medicine in recent decades, is the fact that unmetabolized, low-vibration emotions can seem to “play on a loop” for those affected by anxiety and depression.
Being “stuck” emotionally can affect our ability to get well and stay well.
Being “stuck” emotionally can affect our ability to get well and stay well.
Pretend we’re sitting at your kitchen table, and I’m asking you a question. Answer the truth.
Don’t think about it, just answer:
“What is your natural, default emotional state?”
If “happy” (or something like it) wasn’t your quick answer, the good news is, there’s much you can do, to turn that around.
Tapping the higher vibrations, to stay out of a funk, regardless of circumstances, is the subject of my most recent book, Vibe: Unlock the Energetic Frequencies of Limitless Health, Love & Success.
I wrote the book, after 50 years of finding my way out of a childhood of abuse, and many difficult circumstances, including divorce after 20 years, and several big failures—and achieving a life that by any standards, is really wonderful.
But if you’re happy, naturally, but sometimes struggle? Becoming mindful, and finding ways out of that state, quickly, can completely transform your health—both physical and emotional.
Women who “stuff” their emotions are more prone to breast cancer.
People who are angry or fearful, regularly, are more likely to have heart attacks and strokes. People who cannot forgive, and hold grudges, have mysterious physical symptoms, that often resolve, when that “stuck energy” is released.
While this way of thinking isn’t particularly mechanistic, and not easily decoded, we are holistic beings, and our physical health affects our emotional state, and vice versa.
Thirty years ago, the “helping professions” used mostly talk therapy, to get to the root of your misery, anxiety, depression, fear, anger, and inability to forgive.
The psychological interventions, from Freud to Gestalt to Behaviorism, weren’t particularly effective. Insurance companies even refused to pay for most of it, due to lack of efficacy of most talk therapy.
Most people in therapy didn’t get better, although the patient became more aware, and couples started communicating, with an intermediary–which can start a change process for many.
Now bioenergetic interventions and neurofeedback training, EMDR interventions even in mainstream psychotherapy, and various forms of “energy healing” are having remarkable results in allowing us to emotionally heal, which facilitates physical healing.
If you eat a clean, disciplined diet, but you’re stuck on “replay” with your childhood of abuse or trauma, or can’t release resentments from how others have wronged you, I hope you’ll consider whether this is an area to focus on, in recovering from a physical illness.
After all, there really is no clear distinction between our spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical health.
6. You don’t stick to your plan long enough.
The half-life of a new diet, a new cure-all, a lifestyle change, has never been shorter. As soon as you read Guru X’s book, Doctor Y comes along, publishing a competing philosophy.
In the age of media-24/7, you’ve got a lot of noise, competing for your attention–and we’ve all developed a bit of Attention Deficit Disorder.
You’re on to the next fad, quickly, not seeing the healing process through, that takes place from committed dietary and lifestyle changes.
How many programs or ideas resonated with you, but after some quick wins for a few days or weeks, you fell off the wagon, and didn’t get back on again?
It takes time, to learn new recipes, new shopping habits, and truly commit to a whole-foods program. This is required, to get you out of a life dominated by symptoms and fear. Each recipe you discover, that is delicious to you, as well as healthy, is an important step on the journey.
It took you a long time, to end up with poor health, and the “long play” of getting your health back means that you must stay in your program, until it becomes habit, and sustainable.
Even “two steps forward, one step back” is true progress. (No one’s perfect, and even if you decide to eat a 95 percent whole-foods, mostly plant-based diet, you might slip, now and then.) But don’t let that be a reason to quit.
Have a vision in mind of how health is rebuilt–one habit, one recipe, at a time. Replacing 10 dishes you currently eat, with 10 new, healthier dishes, can be a totally game changer.
You start with the first one. Then the second one is easier, and the third is easier still. Remember that old principle of physics you learned in high school:
Bodies in motion tends to stay in motion.
It’s never too late to make small changes that lead to big wins, for your health.
7. You don’t break a sweat every day.
Everyone knows that exercising, for the sake of your cardiovascular health, and disease risk, is critically important.
What you may not know, in the age of Crossfit and ultra-marathons, is that more evidence is coming to light that more isn’t necessarily better.
Even going for a 30-minute brisk walk, six days a week, is powerful, in lowering your disease risk. And pushing the body through “extreme” sports such as marathons, comes with its own set of health risks.
Even slightly overweight people who exercise regularly, may have lower morbidity rates, according to new research, than thin people who don’t exercise.
So, don’t hold the bar so high that you think that if you don’t have time for an hour on the Stairmaster, you might as well not do anything.
For some, with stressed adrenals, regular yoga classes may be just the right type and amount of exercise.
Listen to your body, and do what you can. But whatever you do, don’t be sedentary. Your spine compresses, and combined with the stress many of us face, in our work and our lives, you put yourself at unnecessary risk.
Going for a walk lets you breathe clean air (oxygen!), get some sunshine on your skin (Vitamin D!), and lifts your spirits, in addition to increasing your fitness level.
And for those who aren’t able to be mobile, an infrared sauna can passively achieve many of the benefits of exercise.
Or a vibrational plate you stand on, for 15 minutes a day, can cause trillions of muscle fibers to fire, and raise your vibration in many ways—you’ll notice the difference, after doing any of these easy habits for just a few days.
Small bursts of exercise increase oxygen to the brain, which makes you sharper and more productive.
Get up from your desk, once every 60 minutes, and do 20 sit-ups, jumping jacks, pushups, or squats—because small bursts of exercise increase oxygen to the brain, which makes you sharper and more productive.
Some evidence suggests doing this for a total of 20 minutes a day, in short increments, may outweigh the benefits of a 60-minute jog!
We are the only people, in the history of the world, who go entire days with very little movement. It’s unnatural, it’s a big contributor to the anxiety and depression epidemic, and the solutions are easy, and varied.
8. You haven’t learned a healthier way of being “in relationship” with others.
The old schools of psychology held that an emotionally healthy human being was one who was “independent” of others, and didn’t rely on parental figures, friendships, and intimate relationships.
The newer science of attachment theory has yielded dozens of published papers proving that nothing could be further from the truth. We “bond” with our mothers not just because they provide us nourishment, but because we are fundamentally, innately tribal creatures who need companionship and love from those around us.
Needing others doesn’t make us “needy”–it makes us human.
And when our closest relationships are “toxic,” trapped in cycles of criticism, shaming, neglect, or silence, we suffer. Walling ourselves off from the pain of difficult relationships isn’t the answer.
Yes, babies who can “self soothe” are happier babies. But babies without human touch, eye contact, and affection, have poor outcomes as older children and adults. In orphanages, they sometimes die.
Many of us default into the unhealthy patterns we observed in our parents, and the “dysfunctional family” may describe many or even most of our early-life experiences. But research shows that even having a flawed family is better than having no family.
Many studies now document that those with furry pets have lower blood pressure and fewer heart attacks.
Relationships with pets can help fill the void, for people who have few relationships. I work fulltime from home, the past 10 years, and my last child is about to fly the coop. Having my cat in my lap, while I work, and someone to talk to, when my “virtual” relationships aren’t enough, gives me energetic connection to living beings that helps me feel grounded and connected–until “girls’ night out” on the weekends, or my next work or vacation trip with friends or family.
Many studies now document that those with furry pets have lower blood pressure and fewer heart attacks.
Physical touch is important, and if you aren’t in an intimate relationship, the energy exchange from a professional massage can also help fill the bill. We literally exchange electrons with any kind of positive physical touch. So, hug people more often—the big, long, bear-hug type of embrace.
Seeking out group experiences, and new friendships, can be difficult in mid-life, or when we’re feeling socially isolated—and many of us do, in the digital age when most of our interaction with others is online.
But it’s also a part of whether we’re physically healthy, or not.
Join Meetup, and you’ll find a group in your town based on almost any interest you might have. A face-to-face interaction with another person is far healthier than a text thread.
And above all, solve, or eliminate, relationships that cause you chronic suffering. It’s okay to limit contact with a relative you’ve sought resolution with, but cannot achieve despite your best efforts.
(Owning your part in relationship troubles is also highly beneficial to your health. After all, when you’re accountable, you’re also empowered, and change is possible. You can’t change their behavior and feelings, but you can change yours.)
And seeking out, and spending time with, people who inspire and encourage you in your goals, is one of the most important things you can do, as you seek a healthier life.
The best way to learn if someone is an encourager, the type who can be “wind under your wings?” Make a concerted effort to be the wind under theirs.
These are three proven keys to healthy relationships:
A. Set boundaries. Boundaries don’t have to be ten-foot brick walls. Some healthy boundaries are semi-permeable.
I go to family events with a parent who was abusive and destructive to my self-concept, for the earlier decades of my life. I honor her for giving me life, I’m polite to her, and I do not engage in arguments or conflict—but that doesn’t mean I have to have sleepovers or invite her out with my girlfriends.
Setting boundaries I am comfortable with has led to peaceful co-existence with others, because some people I spend a lot of time with, some people I spend a little time with, and some people, I give myself permission to spend no time with.
B. Communicate clearly and effectively. No one knows your needs, unless you express them.
What your family member or friend does, with that information, is their prerogative, but finding a neutral tone to express how you feel, in “I” language, rather than provocative “you” language, just might help you feel understood, and turn a corner in the relationship.
Expressing yourself when you’re angry, isn’t effective, and can cause additional damage to a strained relationship. When you can revisit an issue, when you’re feeling calm and clear, however, can lead to breakthroughs in even very difficult relationships.
C. Be willing to end toxic relationships.
People trapped in “toxic” relationships are also at higher risk for many diseases.
Amy Poehler’s autiobiography says, “I don’t consider a ten-year marriage to be a failure.” While many would take issue with that, and our culture highly values marriages that last “till death do us part,” some relationships have a natural end.
This can apply to friendships, as well. All relationships can be instructive. And since we are only one of two parties in any relationship, we can’t always control whether they continue, or end.
When we find the gift and learning opportunity in every relationship, then the end of a relationship can be an opportunity to forge new ones, and move forward in peace.
No one maintains every relationship they’ve ever built–and while working through problems is highly valuable, in some cases, “letting go” is the right thing to do, for the sake of your health.
9. You don’t have meaningful work, giving you “life purpose.”
Many people think of work as a chore, and something you just plow through, till quitting time—then, and only then, can you be happy. “Happy hour” starting at 5 p.m. was built on this concept!
But the happiest and healthiest people are those who have meaningful work. And over 80 percent of Americans report that they don’t have their “dream job,” or even particularly enjoy their work.
You don’t have to be a doctor, psychotherapist, kindergarten teacher, or a mother of babies, to love your work.
You do have to feel like your creativity and contribution is valued, you are compensated fairly for your work, and you look forward to doing it.
“Flow states” have been studied, for several decades, as one of the highest-vibration states of the human being. This is where you may lose track of time, a crowbar couldn’t separate you from the task you’re immersed in, and you have extraordinary satisfaction not just in the paycheck or work product—but in the process itself.
Do you experience it, on a regular basis? After reading Mihali Csikszentmihalyi’s book, Flow, over 20 years ago, I began to tune into when I tap that state of high-frequency creation and productivity.
Playing tennis is one of my “flow states,” so it’s one of the activities that I seek out as often as I can.
I find flow states in my life most often, doing three things: (1) when I’m writing or speaking (most of what I do, in my job), (2) when I’m playing tennis (my favorite hobby), and (3) when I’m deep in a conversation with someone I connect with.
So, I now seek those activities out. While I run a business with 22 employees, and some tasks (such as reviewing spreadsheets) do not light up all the pleasure centers, I find ways that research and writing can benefit my influence with others, and my business in general. Because I love it.
If you aren’t in a career that meets these objectives and give you a sense of purpose, remember:
People change careers several times, in a lifetime. It’s not impossible. Create an intention to watch for– and act on–opportunities. Verbalize your career hopes, to those around you. Ask boldly for opportunities. Sometimes the answer will be yes.
And magic will begin to happen.
Remember, people with life purpose are happy, healthy people.
–Robyn Openshaw, MSW, is the founder of GreenSmoothieGirl.com, and the author of the USA Today and Amazon #1 Bestseller Vibe: Unlock the Energetic Frequencies of Limitless Health, Love & Success.
  Disclosure: This post may contain Affiliate links that help support the GSG mission without costing you extra. I recommend only companies and products that I use myself. 
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roinaochieng-blog · 7 years
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Google I/O Highlights
Ever had those mental trips when you’re watching a YouTube videos, especially the festival and event highlights and you picture yourself there? In crazy details, I mean what you’d pack, how you’d feel in the plane en route, the pictures, the people, the experiences? I had that moment a while back in my second year about Google I/O after attending Google I/O Extended at my university.  Watching Sundar and all the updates was great but seeing all the developers coming from all over the world coming together, united in their passion for technology took my heart. I got the ticket came in confirming my attendance in April, major déjà vu hit  me (I’m totally underplaying how excited I was here). I’ll definitely update you more in-depth on the more technical aspects of the sessions that I attended during I/O however this post is simply a first timer’s perspective on the event and all the mind blowing moments I had. Hoping this gives all my readers perspective on the event if you’re planning on attending and are wondering, “Is it all it’s pegged out to be? Is it worth the trip to San Francisco?
How to get there?
First thing’s first, tickets!
It’s always great to be on the lookout for the release of I/O tickets anytime from early April, the range for a couple of hundreds to a thousand dollars. This year’s tickets went for around $700 to $1200. It’s a three day event so when you get the dates, go ahead and sort out accommodation. This year’s was at Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View, so your best bet is to get a hotel in Mountain View or San Jose to avoid the commute you’d take if you were staying in San Francisco, it’s a pretty long drive. Besides, you have plenty of accommodation options, spend some time on Air BnB checking out shared living options especially if you’re on a budget. I’ll be putting up a separate post on finding a great space on Air BnB and the hostel options and experience.
Up, up and Away!
I’d say that simply put, for any developer, enthusiast or designer, Google I/O is our version of the pilgrimage to Mecca, except it’s mountain view. It’s a 8 to 9 hour trip to Amsterdam, Schipol Airport from Nairobi, Kenya for a 2 hour layover  (you already know how essential a neck pillow and a good playlist and book is for this type of trip). It’s a super busy airport so making your way to the other gates is a trip in itself especially if you have to pick up your luggage before the next flight. Then you hop on a flight from Amsterdam to San Francisco for 4 hours. There’s a whooping 10 hour difference between Nairobi and SFO so brace yourself my friend, THE JET LAG IS SO REAL.  Coming from a pretty predominantly hot country, the wind weather was calm but pretty chilly, have a light jumper in your carry on bag just to be safe.
Views at dusk or dawn from NBO to AMS.
Over the antarctic en route San Francisco from Amsterdam.
Checking In.
I was super blessed to have traveled with a large group of my friends and colleagues in the  developer ecosystem in Nairobi and Sub Saharan Africa. We got there two days prior to the main event because of the Global  Google Developer Summit which was luckily at the same hotel that we were staying at. The hotel was electric with hundreds of developers pumped up about the summit and I/O. That aside, checking in for Google I/O is pretty simple, you’re required to get to Shoreline Amphitheater with some form of identification. They give your tag which is NFC enabled. The tag gets you into practically everything. For the keynote, your sitting rows are on your tag and they’re actually super strict at the entrance, but only from the keynote (unless you have great friends like Anie does 🙂 *inside joke). To check in, you’ll need a form of official identification or the ticket that the send you a couple of weeks before the event.
Pro-tip: There’s a whole bunch of events on the night before I/O officially begins, so keep an eye out on email groups for them. Lots of great opportunities to mingle and network.
That Key Note though!
We happened to sit really really close to the main stage as GDG Leads so we had a really great view of the keynote. My biggest highlight had to be the animation before Sundar’s speech, the idea. An amazing story about collaboration, hard work and determination in making ideas happen. Super motivational, like Life of Pi kind of motivation. It set the tone for the rest of the day for me.
Biggest highlights from Sundar’s speech for me were:
There are over 2 billion Android users as at the day of the conference and the numbers are growing rapidly
He emphasized the use of machine learning in products such as street-view and smart replies in Google Allo. He announced the release of smart reply on Google Search and Gmail too for over 1 billion users. This was great to hear especially because a lot of local tech communities have redirected their efforts towards machine learning. In Nairobi, the Nairobi Women in Machine Learning and Data Science go all out on interactive sessions in the field. It’s exciting to think how they can use the current libraries and come up with other innovative uses of machine learning to solve African problems.
The improvement of the accuracy of voice recognition even in noisy environments. The use of deep learning to recognize multiple different sounds on Google home. This allows us to create very minimal infrastructure to have very accurate results even in Google photos.
He announce Google Lens, an epic feature on Google Photos and Assistant. It’s a computational vision based functionality that understands what you are looking at and allows you to make decisions on that information. So here’s how it works, let’s say you go to the dog show and see an interesting breed of dog that you don’t know. You can simply point your phone at it and it’ll be able to give you information on what it is and more! I couldn’t help but think how deep learning can be such a useful tool for developers to build accessibility functions and learning tools for communities. The potential is truly limitless.
Here’s the entire keynote, let me know what your favorite part was.
Codelabs.
For anyone who’s been to the Google Developers website, you know that codelabs are step by step tutorial on how to use certain functionalities on different Google technologies. Day 1 is definitely not the best day to do codelabs because the lines are outrageously long. I’d advice to go for office hours sessions and talks on day 1 then go for codelabs on day 2. Office hours are sessions where the amazing Googlers who work on specific technologies, take time to give you feedback on your projects and help on how you can make them better.
The best codelabs for me were the Android things codelab which after completing two, you would get a pico maker kit. The tensorflow codelab was also great. The best part about these codelab sessions is that even if you don’t attend all the ones you wanted to, you can access all of them on the codelabs website. You’d want to attend the codelabs that need special hardware or software to access. It’s also great to go for codelabs because you have professionals who can help you when you’re stuck.
Office Hours and Sandbox sessions.
I’d have to say my favorite sandbox was the Android Auto one and the IoT drink serving robot. There was a real life-sized and functioning car at the Android Auto sandbox where you could go and experience first hand the future of the automobile industry. There was also really nifty robots that used IoT and Machine Learning to make and dispense beverages. I got really inspired by on of the office hours sessions during the second day, thus the birth of my start-up Hypo. If you’re working on a project, you should definitely check out the office hours sessions for help and perspective.
Pro-tip. Download the I/O app on Playstore and the IoS Appstore and make sure your register for the sessions that you want to attend. Most of the talks have really long lines so if you want to be on the fast-tracked line, register in advance. They will turn you away if the sessions are absolutely full, which they are in most cases.
The Freebies.
You’ll have to be up super early if you want to beat the traffic on both days of I/O. Trust me the line can be super long. But worry not, breakfast is covered. There’s loads of coffees and teas when you get to the amphitheater, plus massive amounts of pastries and snacks. During the day, there’s snack stations all over the place so there’s really not a moment that you’ll be starving. Make sure you have your tag at all times. This year, we had NFC enabled tags that they scan when you pick you your freebies. Look at me getting ahead of myself with food when I was supposed to be talking about freebies, smh.
So this year, all attendees got a Google home, a nifty little bag and a steel water bottle. You might want to take your freebies towards the end of day one because it can be bulky carrying it around all day when you’re up and down in sessions.
Back to the food, hehe, if you’re a really picky and healthy eater, I’d advice you to sign up for the kosher meals. The breakfasts are super nutritious and healthy but the list is specific for people who are listed. So  pay attention to the regular emails and sign up for that list.
If you have some extra cash on you, you can bag cool merch there too. There’s a whole lot of other freebies on offer so keep an eye out. There was an Android Pay Givaway where you could get Android bot dolls and so much more.
Fun and Games.
There’s something for everybody at I/O. You’ll probably be exhausted after a long day but a great way to unwind is to stay for the after hours stuff. I can tell you for sure it’s completely worth it. You’ll get to play amazing games at the arcade, dance parties, concerts, live performances and drinks galore. It’s a great place to mingle with people across all fields and it’s just the right atmosphere to make friends for life.
The concert this year was by LCD Sound System and it was so mind blowing some people cried! Tears of joy guys, it was awesome!
Tips for new attendees.
Here’s everything I wish someone told me before Google I/O.
Uber and Lyft don’t take debit cards so either carry a credit card or buy a prepaid card. I used the American Express pre-paid card which was great fro the rest of my trip.
Never leave your valuables in the car. My friends and I had an incident on Folsom Street in San Francisco during a Google Launchpad event. We parked on the street and someone busted out the windows of the car and took my bag that had all my travel documents. Trust me, having to take a trip to the police station in the middle of the night isn’t a great start to the trip. It all turned out well in the end. But that’s a post for another day.
Bright and early. Be up at around 7 am and out by 7:30 am on day 1. I can tell you the traffic will be insane all the way to Shoreline. You can grab breakfast when you get to the venue.
Bring business cards! I had a whole stack of business cards but I left them at the hotel. Big mistake because I was stuck writing down my emails on peoples phones Smh.
Embrace cultural liquidity. It was my first time in such a big conference. I learned so much just by allowing myself to be curious about others careers, cultures and challenges. It’s a great thing to be able to do that in a selfless way, without thinking, “what’s in it for me?”.
Hope this article helps anyone getting ready to attend Google I/O in coming years. I know it’ll be changing every year but I’m hoping it’ll give you perspective.
Check out more highlights.
Thanks for reading.
  This has been on my drafts for quite a while. Hope it helps anyone thinking of attending I/O/ Ever had those mental trips when you're watching a YouTube videos, especially the festival and event highlights and you picture yourself there?
0 notes
Your Personal Study Has Actually Revealed That Drinking Chard Juice Will Be Able To Increase Muscle Strength.
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Part of the issue here was the timing of the tweet, which arrived mere hours after Princes death was confirmed. With fans still in disbelief, the perception was that Cheerios was hopping on the bandwagon to align itself with the artist. Few were probably aware that Cheerios was based in Prince's hometown, so folks inside the company may have felt the loss just as keenly as his biggest fans, but that didn't help perceptions. To the brands credit, when it had become apparent that the Twittersphere was upset over the post, Cheerios quickly removed it and released a statement explaining that the company had only wanted to "acknowledge the loss of a musical legend in its hometown." Attempting to capitalize on a high-profile celebritys death rarely puts a brand in a positive lightits usually deemed tasteless. By that time, the damage was done; enough people had screencapped the image to repost with their displeasure. The bottom line is that when it comes to a national loss or tragedy, a brand is better off either expressing sympathy without incorporating any kind of commercial message, or just avoiding it altogether. Samsung Pays The Price For Downplaying The Crisis In mid-September, mere weeks after the release of its flagship Galaxy Note 7, Samsung began receiving reports of the smartphones catching fire while charging. Initial analysis pointed to overheating batteries, so the South Korean company suggested owners return the phone to where they purchased it for an exchange or refund, extending the crisis to carriers like Verizon and AT&T. When reports of fires continued even with the replacement devices, the brand decided to recall all Galaxy Note 7s and to cease production. To be fair, that was a manufacturing crisis first and a PR crisis second, but the two became progressively intertwined as the mishap unfolded. While the tech company was relatively quick to respond to the situation, it made mistakes along the way, seemingly underestimating the scale of the problem.
For the original version including any supplementary images or video, visit https://www.fastcompany.com/3066458/lessons-learned/lessons-from-three-of-2016s-biggest-pr-fails?partner=rss
Fish and Boat Commission. Mike Depew, fisheries biologist with the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission, holds a 48-inch muskie found earlier this month while biologists were checking the Allegheny River near Harmar for asian carp. Email Newsletters Sign up for one of our email newsletters. Decimating native fish populations and jumping up to 3 feet out the water en masse, Asian carp are working their way toward the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers and state environmental agencies are bracing for the onslaught. Two species of the invasive carp silver and bighead can make their way to the Pittsburgh area via the Ohio River within the Minneapolis next 10 years, according to experts. A monster of a fish, the carp can weigh up to 40 pounds. Recently, the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission combed the river bottom for Asian carp in prospective wintering grounds in the Allegheny River near Harmar and the Montgomery pool of the Ohio River, five miles down river from Beaver. They came up empty this time. Although, the fish isn't officially in the state, its DNA has been found in the Montgomery pool and a small population was eradicated from a pay-to-fish lake in Eighty Four this year, according to Rick Lorson, area fisheries manager for the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission. Bighead carp have been found as close as the Wheeling area near the Pennsylvania state line and the silver carp in Eureka, Ohio, about 240 miles from the state line, according to U.S.
For the original version including any supplementary images or video, visit http://triblive.com/local/valleynewsdispatch/11652335-74/carp-fish-river
youtube
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viralhottopics · 8 years
Text
This Pharmacy Chain Now Stocks An EpiPen Rival That’s 83 Percent Less
Families who rely on an epinephrine auto-injector to prevent life-threatening allergic reactions now have a more cost-effective option.
CVS, the national pharmacy chain, will begin widely stocking the authorized generic version of Adrenaclick, an auto-injector that dispenses epinephrine. The package of two pens costs $109.99. Thats significantly cheaper than the controversial EpiPen, which now costs $649.99 for a two-pack and $339.99 for a generic version of the EpiPen two-pack.
People who qualify can get the CVS auto-injector price reduced even further if they use a coupon from Impax Laboratories (the creator of Adrenaclick), which offers a $100 discount per packfor up to three packs.
CVS splashy news is just one of many signs that the health care industry is beginning to self-regulate as outrage over costs mount. Some pharmaceutical companies are pledging to limit annual price increases to under 10 percent, while a handful of state Medicaid programs are dropping coverage of brand-name epinephrine auto-injectors like EpiPen and Adrenaclick unless a patient gets authorization first.
Five months ago, there was uproar over EpiPens 500 percent price hike, when it rose from $100 for a two-pack in 2009 to more than $600 in 2016. The public reaction forced manufacturer Mylan Pharmaceuticals to expand its coupon program and launch itsfirst-ever generic version of the pen injector.
EpiPen is based on a century-old drug and a 40-year-old auto-injection technology, and theres no reason it should cost $600 or even $300-plus, said Peter Maybarduk, director of the Access to Medicines program at the consumer advocacy organization Public Citizen.
Maybarduk praised CVS for its decision to stock a low-cost competitor to the EpiPen and said it was an example of the power of market competition to reduce drug prices.
The most effective way of bringing prices down is through competition, he said. We need players like CVS and others to step in and work with alternatives to provide countervailing pressure on price through competition.
Indeed, one of the EpiPens main competitors, the Auvi-Q, was recalled over inaccurate dosage issues in October 2015, which helped cement EpiPens place as one of the only options for people with life-threatening allergies.
During his first news conference as president-elect, Donald Trump expressed a similar viewpoint, promising to take aim at pharmaceutical companies by creating new bidding procedures. This could mean allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices directly with companies. Medicare is currently barred from doing this.
Not everyone will be able to make the switch
While the wide availability of the Adrenaclick generic could mean a huge discount for the more than 4 million Americans who need to keep an injectable source of epinephrine with them at all times, its important to note that not everyone may be able to make the switch.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration does not consider differing brands of epinephrine auto-injectors to be therapeutically equivalent to each other, despite the fact that they administer the same active ingredients in the same doses. This is because some, like the EpiPen and Adrenaclick, have injectors that work in slightly different ways from each other. Because of this classification, patients cant easily substitute a cheaper pen for the brand they are prescribed unless they live in astate that has changed its own regulationsto allow it. Alan Sager, professor of health law, policy and management at the Boston University School of Public Health, criticized the FDAs drug classifications on this matter, calling the protections anti-competitive.
Because of this regulatory wrinkle, CVS is letting doctors know that the Adrenaclick generic is newly available at their pharmacies. Doctors can either write a prescription for an epinephrine auto-injector so patients can have access to the cheaper pen, explained a CVS spokeswoman, or CVS can reach out to a patients doctor to ask for permission to change the prescription if the patient requests it.
CVS Pharmacy said it made this decision partlyin response to public outcryover the skyrocketing cost of the EpiPen, but USA Today notes that the move could also be a sign of CVS expanding clout in negotiations with drugmakers, all in an effort to maintain competitive drug pricing compared with other national pharmacy chains.
This is just one drop in the bucket
Sager was much more skeptical about the move. Sager praised CVS decision to stock epinephrine auto-injectors that were much cheaper than the industry standard, but he also called it a drop in the bucket and said that, on the whole, the promise of market competition to lower drug prices is hollow.
Weve been hearing about market forces pushing down drug prices for decades. Anybody see much progress? Sager asked. This one action will help some companies public relations, but it doesnt signal more affordable meds.
Soaring drug prices, coupled with the proliferation of high-deductible health insurance plans, are an increasing financial burden on the American people. Americans pay more for prescription drugs than people in any other country, and costs are continuing to rise. The reasons for this are complex, but one oft-stated reason is that U.S. pharmaceutical companies rely on the profits they earn from American patients to invest in the research and development of more drugs. President Barack Obama discussed this issue in a recent interview with Voxs Ezra Klein and Sarah Kliff in which he called other countries who benefit from U.S. pharmaceutical innovationfree riders on a system that American patients subsidize.
About eight in 10 Americans think that prescription drug prices are unreasonable, according to a September poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation. The survey respondents supported various cost-cutting measures, including drug importation, independent oversight and price regulation, to reduce costs.
Sager is one of those Americans. To address the free rider problem, as Obama put it, Sager is in favor of a cost-sharing scheme among middle- and high-income democracies to more fairly distribute the burden of pharmaceutical research. He also hopes that the U.S. can start to enforce many of the other levers that other rich countries use to keep costs down, such as price caps on medicine.
There are so many millions of Americans who continue to suffer, worry and even die prematurely because they cant afford the meds their doctors prescribe, Sager concluded. Its an intolerable tragedy, and we need to move on that very, very quickly.
This reporting is brought to you by HuffPosts health and science platform, The Scope. Like us onFacebookandTwitterand tell us your story:[email protected].
Read more: http://huff.to/2jsciA6
from This Pharmacy Chain Now Stocks An EpiPen Rival That’s 83 Percent Less
0 notes
yes-dal456 · 8 years
Text
CVS Boosts Access To EpiPen Rival That's 83 Percent Less
Families who rely on an epinephrine auto-injector to prevent life-threatening allergic reactions now have a more cost-effective option.
CVS, the national pharmacy chain, will begin widely stocking the authorized generic version of Adrenaclick, an auto-injector that dispenses epinephrine. The package of two pens costs $109.99. That’s significantly cheaper than the controversial EpiPen, which now costs $649.99 for a two-pack and $339.99 for a generic version of the EpiPen two-pack.
People who qualify can get the CVS auto-injector price reduced even further if they use a coupon from Impax Laboratories (the creator of Adrenaclick), which offers a $100 discount per pack for up to three packs. 
CVS’ splashy news is just one of many signs that the health care industry is beginning to self-regulate as outrage over costs mount. Some pharmaceutical companies are pledging to limit annual price increases to under 10 percent, while a handful of state Medicaid programs are dropping coverage of brand-name epinephrine auto-injectors like EpiPen and Adrenaclick unless a patient gets authorization first. 
Five months ago, there was uproar over EpiPen’s 500 percent price hike, when it rose from $100 for a two-pack in 2009 to more than $600 in 2016. The public reaction forced manufacturer Mylan Pharmaceuticals to expand its coupon program and launch its first-ever generic version of the pen injector. 
“EpiPen is based on a century-old drug and a 40-year-old auto-injection technology, and there’s no reason it should cost $600 or even $300-plus,” said Peter Maybarduk, director of the Access to Medicines program at the consumer advocacy organization Public Citizen. 
Maybarduk praised CVS for its decision to stock a low-cost competitor to the EpiPen and said it was an example of the power of market competition to reduce drug prices.
“The most effective way of bringing prices down is through competition,” he said. “We need players like CVS and others to step in and work with alternatives to provide countervailing pressure on price through competition.”
Indeed, one of the EpiPen’s main competitors, the Auvi-Q, was recalled over inaccurate dosage issues in October 2015, which helped cement EpiPen’s place as one of the only options for people with life-threatening allergies. 
During his first news conference as president-elect, Donald Trump expressed a similar viewpoint, promising to take aim at pharmaceutical companies by creating “new bidding procedures.” This could mean allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices directly with companies. Medicare is currently barred from doing this.
Not everyone will be able to make the switch 
While the wide availability of the Adrenaclick generic could mean a huge discount for the more than 4 million Americans who need to keep an injectable source of epinephrine with them at all times, it’s important to note that not everyone may be able to make the switch. 
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration does not consider differing brands of epinephrine auto-injectors to be therapeutically equivalent to each other, despite the fact that they administer the same active ingredients in the same doses. This is because some, like the EpiPen and Adrenaclick, have injectors that work in slightly different ways from each other. Because of this classification, patients can’t easily substitute a cheaper pen for the brand they are prescribed unless they live in a state that has changed its own regulations to allow it. Alan Sager, professor of health law, policy and management at the Boston University School of Public Health, criticized the FDA’s drug classifications on this matter, calling the protections “anti-competitive.”
Because of this regulatory wrinkle, CVS is letting doctors know that the Adrenaclick generic is newly available at their pharmacies. Doctors can either write a prescription for an “epinephrine auto-injector” so patients can have access to the cheaper pen, explained a CVS spokeswoman, or CVS can reach out to a patient’s doctor to ask for permission to change the prescription if the patient requests it. 
CVS Pharmacy said it made this decision partly in response to public outcry over the skyrocketing cost of the EpiPen, but USA Today notes that the move could also be a sign of CVS’ expanding clout in negotiations with drugmakers, all in an effort to maintain competitive drug pricing compared with other national pharmacy chains. 
This is just one ‘drop in the bucket’  
Sager was much more skeptical about the move. Sager praised CVS’ decision to stock epinephrine auto-injectors that were much cheaper than the industry standard, but he also called it a “drop in the bucket” and said that, on the whole, the promise of market competition to lower drug prices is hollow.  
“We’ve been hearing about market forces pushing down drug prices for decades. Anybody see much progress?” Sager asked. “This one action will help some companies’ public relations, but it doesn’t signal more affordable meds.”
Soaring drug prices, coupled with the proliferation of high-deductible health insurance plans, are an increasing financial burden on the American people. Americans pay more for prescription drugs than people in any other country, and costs are continuing to rise. The reasons for this are complex, but one oft-stated reason is that U.S. pharmaceutical companies rely on the profits they earn from American patients to invest in the research and development of more drugs. President Barack Obama discussed this issue in a recent interview with Vox’s Ezra Klein and Sarah Kliff in which he called other countries who benefit from U.S. pharmaceutical innovation “free riders” on a system that American patients subsidize.
About eight in 10 Americans think that prescription drug prices are unreasonable, according to a September poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation. The survey respondents supported various cost-cutting measures, including drug importation, independent oversight and price regulation, to reduce costs. 
Sager is one of those Americans. To address the “free rider” problem, as Obama put it, Sager is in favor of a cost-sharing scheme among middle- and high-income democracies to more fairly distribute the burden of pharmaceutical research. He also hopes that the U.S. can start to enforce many of the other levers that other rich countries use to keep costs down, such as price caps on medicine.
“There are so many millions of Americans who continue to suffer, worry and even die prematurely because they can’t afford the meds their doctors prescribe,” Sager concluded. “It’s an intolerable tragedy, and we need to move on that very, very quickly.”
This reporting is brought to you by HuffPost’s health and science platform, The Scope. Like us on Facebook and Twitter and tell us your story: [email protected]
  -- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
from http://ift.tt/2iq8scl from Blogger http://ift.tt/2jK75Hd
0 notes
imreviewblog · 8 years
Text
CVS Boosts Access To EpiPen Rival That's 83 Percent Less
Families who rely on an epinephrine auto-injector to prevent life-threatening allergic reactions now have a more cost-effective option.
CVS, the national pharmacy chain, will begin widely stocking the authorized generic version of Adrenaclick, an auto-injector that dispenses epinephrine. The package of two pens costs $109.99. That’s significantly cheaper than the controversial EpiPen, which now costs $649.99 for a two-pack and $339.99 for a generic version of the EpiPen two-pack.
People who qualify can get the CVS auto-injector price reduced even further if they use a coupon from Impax Laboratories (the creator of Adrenaclick), which offers a $100 discount per pack for up to three packs. 
CVS’ splashy news is just one of many signs that the health care industry is beginning to self-regulate as outrage over costs mount. Some pharmaceutical companies are pledging to limit annual price increases to under 10 percent, while a handful of state Medicaid programs are dropping coverage of brand-name epinephrine auto-injectors like EpiPen and Adrenaclick unless a patient gets authorization first. 
Five months ago, there was uproar over EpiPen’s 500 percent price hike, when it rose from $100 for a two-pack in 2009 to more than $600 in 2016. The public reaction forced manufacturer Mylan Pharmaceuticals to expand its coupon program and launch its first-ever generic version of the pen injector. 
“EpiPen is based on a century-old drug and a 40-year-old auto-injection technology, and there’s no reason it should cost $600 or even $300-plus,” said Peter Maybarduk, director of the Access to Medicines program at the consumer advocacy organization Public Citizen. 
Maybarduk praised CVS for its decision to stock a low-cost competitor to the EpiPen and said it was an example of the power of market competition to reduce drug prices.
“The most effective way of bringing prices down is through competition,” he said. “We need players like CVS and others to step in and work with alternatives to provide countervailing pressure on price through competition.”
Indeed, one of the EpiPen’s main competitors, the Auvi-Q, was recalled over inaccurate dosage issues in October 2015, which helped cement EpiPen’s place as one of the only options for people with life-threatening allergies. 
During his first news conference as president-elect, Donald Trump expressed a similar viewpoint, promising to take aim at pharmaceutical companies by creating “new bidding procedures.” This could mean allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices directly with companies. Medicare is currently barred from doing this.
Not everyone will be able to make the switch 
While the wide availability of the Adrenaclick generic could mean a huge discount for the more than 4 million Americans who need to keep an injectable source of epinephrine with them at all times, it’s important to note that not everyone may be able to make the switch. 
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration does not consider differing brands of epinephrine auto-injectors to be therapeutically equivalent to each other, despite the fact that they administer the same active ingredients in the same doses. This is because some, like the EpiPen and Adrenaclick, have injectors that work in slightly different ways from each other. Because of this classification, patients can’t easily substitute a cheaper pen for the brand they are prescribed unless they live in a state that has changed its own regulations to allow it. Alan Sager, professor of health law, policy and management at the Boston University School of Public Health, criticized the FDA’s drug classifications on this matter, calling the protections “anti-competitive.”
Because of this regulatory wrinkle, CVS is letting doctors know that the Adrenaclick generic is newly available at their pharmacies. Doctors can either write a prescription for an “epinephrine auto-injector” so patients can have access to the cheaper pen, explained a CVS spokeswoman, or CVS can reach out to a patient’s doctor to ask for permission to change the prescription if the patient requests it. 
CVS Pharmacy said it made this decision partly in response to public outcry over the skyrocketing cost of the EpiPen, but USA Today notes that the move could also be a sign of CVS’ expanding clout in negotiations with drugmakers, all in an effort to maintain competitive drug pricing compared with other national pharmacy chains. 
This is just one ‘drop in the bucket’  
Sager was much more skeptical about the move. Sager praised CVS’ decision to stock epinephrine auto-injectors that were much cheaper than the industry standard, but he also called it a “drop in the bucket” and said that, on the whole, the promise of market competition to lower drug prices is hollow.  
“We’ve been hearing about market forces pushing down drug prices for decades. Anybody see much progress?” Sager asked. “This one action will help some companies’ public relations, but it doesn’t signal more affordable meds.”
Soaring drug prices, coupled with the proliferation of high-deductible health insurance plans, are an increasing financial burden on the American people. Americans pay more for prescription drugs than people in any other country, and costs are continuing to rise. The reasons for this are complex, but one oft-stated reason is that U.S. pharmaceutical companies rely on the profits they earn from American patients to invest in the research and development of more drugs. President Barack Obama discussed this issue in a recent interview with Vox’s Ezra Klein and Sarah Kliff in which he called other countries who benefit from U.S. pharmaceutical innovation “free riders” on a system that American patients subsidize.
About eight in 10 Americans think that prescription drug prices are unreasonable, according to a September poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation. The survey respondents supported various cost-cutting measures, including drug importation, independent oversight and price regulation, to reduce costs. 
Sager is one of those Americans. To address the “free rider” problem, as Obama put it, Sager is in favor of a cost-sharing scheme among middle- and high-income democracies to more fairly distribute the burden of pharmaceutical research. He also hopes that the U.S. can start to enforce many of the other levers that other rich countries use to keep costs down, such as price caps on medicine.
“There are so many millions of Americans who continue to suffer, worry and even die prematurely because they can’t afford the meds their doctors prescribe,” Sager concluded. “It’s an intolerable tragedy, and we need to move on that very, very quickly.”
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from Healthy Living - The Huffington Post http://huff.to/2iNrK9e
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