by ProfKeith on May 19, 2012
Every now and again I report on what seems like a total, mindless waste of money. Like this study. 13 years and 15,000 people interviewed and tracked, at Gawd knows what cost. And the results?
A pot belly makes you more likely to have a heart attack and die a sudden death! What a breakthrough eh?
Still, if you haven’t got the message, it’s jolly well time you did. Belly fat kills!
A large waist-to-hip ratio matters even more than body-mass index (BMI). In fact with BMI, top athlete Michael Jordan is technically obese! So BMI means little. But shape does. If your guts are fatter than your hips, you are at serious risk.
You are more likely to get heart disease, hypertensions, stroke etc. You need to take off that excess circle of fat round the middle. Fat in the abdomen spews inflammatory substances. Inflammation is linked with heart problems, aging and an early death.
Sudden death is not nice. Sudden death is defined as death within one hour of initial symptoms. There is no warning, no time to say goodbye. No time to get on that diet and fitness program you always promised yourself. Boom, 60 minutes (or less) and you are out of here.
Need I say more?
[Heart Rhythm Society, annual meeting, May 9, 2012, Boston]
by ProfKeith on May 19, 2012
Yet again, the counter-intuitive idea that coffee is good for you is given a boost!
It’s known that coffee drinkers are less likely to get dementia, stroke, diabetes and Parkinson’s disease. Several studies have shown that.
Now a new and pretty large study has shown that coffee drinkers are 10- 15% less likely to die from all causes. That’s big!
However—a warning. These were adjusted figures, meaning other factors were written out. In truth coffee drinkers are more likely to smoke and therefore, truly, coffee drinkers didn’t do so well when all factors were taken into account. But it’s because of the smoking, not the coffee.
In any case, nobody has proved that coffee is beneficial. Only that coffee drinkers are different in some way. It may not be the coffee but something else they do, like work out more in the gym.
It reminds me of a food allergy patient of mine back in the 1980s. He got migraines every time he drank whisky. Case closed? No! It was the peanuts he ate along with the whisky!! [click to continue…]
by ProfKeith on May 11, 2012
Those who are new to this list may not follow my joke: I Told ‘Em! is one of those stories where I was saying it over 30 years ago and is has just recently been “discovered”! Often I was scolded or derided at the time–and then science came around to prove that what I was saying is true–and was true, all along.
This time we are back to how bad milk is for us humans: yes, even raw milk, which many folks can’t get their head round. They just LOVE the raw milk propaganda and cannot be swayed by mere facts.
In this instance, I have pointed out in just about every book I wrote since 1985 that milk causes osteoporosis. It’s simple, if you ask the right questions: US women have the highest intake of dairy produce in the world; they also have the highest rate of hip fractures (more women die of fracture of the neck of femur than die of breast cancer!) Chinese women do not drink milk and the disease osteoporosis is virtually unknown.
The sad truth is that milk actually causes malabsorption. It LOWERS calcium levels and leads to osteoporosis. [click to continue…]
by ProfKeith on May 11, 2012
In the UK it’s pussy, in Spain conejo (rabbit) and in the USA beaver (apologies if you didn’t know all that and you are embarrassed—but on my websites we don’t do coy). All references to a woman’s exterior genitalia seem to suggest a small furry animal.
The vulva-vagina is the prize for many a man’s dream (and I suppose, these days, one has to say for those who bat for the other team too).
Vaginal health is little talked about; probably less than vaginal disease even.
A new study called my attention to an interesting fact. Apparently vaginal flora can change quite significantly over time. This is issue is almost as important as intestinal flora and the subject of dysbiosis. [click to continue…]
by ProfKeith on May 11, 2012
Student fights flesh-eating bacteria after zip line fall
[Updated at 3:57 p.m. ET] A University of West Georgia graduate psychology student is fighting for her life with flesh-eating bacteria after falling off a homemade zip line and cutting her leg, CNN affiliates WSB report and WXIA report.
Aimee Copeland, 24, fell off a homemade zip line near a friend’s home in Carroll County, Georgia, on May 1. Doctors at a hospital in Augusta were forced to amputate most of her right leg on Friday after the bacteria destroyed her leg muscles and moved into other parts of her body. She stopped breathing and one point and had to be resuscitated, her father, Andy Copeland, told WSB.
On Thursday, Andy Copeland told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that her hands and her remaining foot also will have to be amputated.
But he said she was showing improvement at a hospital in Augusta and was “extremely responsive, coherent and alert” on Thursday, the AJC reported.
Aimee Copeland contracted Aeromonas hydrophila (not MRSA) in the deep gash in her leg after the zip line broke.
I’m sure people think I’m exaggerating when I announce the end of the Golden Age Of Antibiotics. But stories like this illustrate just how precarious our relationship with bacteria really is.
It makes it VITAL, as I keep saying, that everyone get educated NOW about antibiotic alternatives. Googling for options when disaster strikes is TOO LATE. Get wise. Read up on the topic: you need my expert review “How To Survive In A World Without Antibiotics”. I bet Aimee’s Mum and Dad wish they had read it, long ago. Go here to read about it:
MRSA Hotline
