CONTENTS: (BLUE indicates recently posted)
1. Higher Cancer Rates
2. What Apocalypse Looks Like (link to video below)
3. A Million Half-Hours Left to Live
4. Your Body at 70+
5. Older Brain More Vulnerable to Fraud
6. Ig Nobel Prizes
7. Don't be Just a Taker - Sea of Galilee & Dead Sea
8. April Fool's Day Tsunami
9. Stronger Hurricanes Fueled by Heat
10. Deadly Rain, Climate Diseases, Deadly Drought
11. When Being Ugly was a Criminal Offense
12. Alcohol and Cancer
13. The Real James Bond, 007
14. Dail Dinwiddie's Disappearance
15. Heat
16. Type O Lowest Heart Disease Risk
17. Amazing Deals - you can't find prices like this anywhere else
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Higher Cancer Rates
I subscribe to MDedge which reported, data show people under 50 are experiencing higher rates of cancer than any generation before them. According to the American Cancer society, recent findings reveal incidence of at least 17 of 34 cancer types is rising among Generation X and Millennials. This article also appeared on Medscape.com
For some additional information, click the “Dangers” tab above, near the top of this blog and read, “Higher Cancer Rates Than Any Previous Generation.”
What Apocalypse Looks Like (link to video below)
I subscribe to Newsweek. Michael D. Carroll, Newsweek breaking news editor, reported the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded this year to Nohon Hidankyo, in recognition of its decades-long activism against nuclear weapons. He said, “In a year marked by global conflict, there was speculation that the Norwegian Nobel Committee might decide not to award a peace prize at all this year. However, the committee continued its tradition of honoring those who work for peace."
I subscribe to NY Times. Hannah Beech, Hisako Ueno, and Kiuko Notoya reported Nihon Hidankyo, a collective of Japanese atomic bomb survivors, was awarded the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize for its decades-long campaign to rid the world of nuclear weapons. “The atomic bombs dropped by the United States on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki showed the world what an apocalypse looks like.” Approximately120,000 people were killed directly by the bombs. “A similar number died from burns, injuries, and radiation-induced diseases in the months and years that followed.”
Jørgen Watne Frydnes, chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee said, “The Nobel committee wishes to honor all survivors who, despite physical suffering and painful memories, have chosen to use their costly experience to cultivate hope and engagement for peace.” The survivors “help us to describe the indescribable, to think the unthinkable, and to somehow grasp the incomprehensible pain and suffering caused by nuclear weapons.”
The NY Times reported, “Today, nine countries are considered nuclear powers: the United States, Russia, France, China, Britain, Pakistan, India, Israel, and North Korea. There are nearly 13,000 weapons in the global nuclear stockpile, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists. . . . Nuclear powers are modernizing their arsenals and other countries are trying to join the nuclear club.”
“For many in Japan---and in the United States---the hibakusha [atomic bomb survivors] represented something that they didn't want to see.” Nihon Hidankyo was formed in 1958. It's founding declaration described the stigma. “We have survived until now in silence, with our heads down.”
Akiko Takakura was in a building in Hiroshima 300 yards from ground zero when the bomb dropped. Listen to her story in her own voice on YouTube, depicted in animation. It's a haunting and sadly beautiful story that may touch your heart. 14 minutes. Click link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M64VRRiBhYI If this link does not work for you, copy it and put it in the URL slot on another browser [cut & paste].
A Million Half-Hours Left to Live
I was a Slate subscriber. The following information is from an article in Slate. The article was excerpted from the book, The Norm Chronicles: Stories and Numbers about Danger and Death, by Michael Blastland and David Spiegelhalter. Title of the article was “You Have a Million Half-Hours Left to Live---Unless You Had a Burger Today.”
The article said the hazards of life can be instant, like violence or accidents, but lifestyle is a more sinister threat. It's another type of mortal hazard with slower effects that go stealthily into the blood one cancerous bacon sandwich or one unhealthy drink at a time, potential killers by degrees that can catch up with us later in life. To quantify daily effects of chronic risks, they created the MicroLife (ML) by dividing adult life into one million equal parts based on the idea that young adults have about one million half hours left to live on average. A MicroLife is 30 minutes. 48 MLs in a day. Just time passing uses 48 MLs a day.
Your body can age faster or slower by how you treat it, depending on chronic-risk exposures. “If your lifestyle is chronically unhealthy, you'll probably burn up your allotted MLs that much quicker, and die sooner, on average.” Even if chronic risks do not kill you directly, they tend to kill you sooner than if you avoided them. A body tends to age faster when bad stuff is done to it. Smoking 20 cigarettes daily burns up an extra 10 MLs a day, on average, making the smoker 29 hours older in 24 hours, moving toward death five hours faster every day.
Your Body at 70+
As an AARP member, I receive AARP the Magazine. In the article “The Weight Issue,” Jessica Migala reported, “If you notice that you're starting to drop pounds unintentionally, be aware that this downtrend may indicate muscle loss.” Dr. Kristen DeCarlo, geriatrician who practices in the areas of endocrinology, diabetes, and metabolism at UI Health in Chicago said, “Once you're over 70, we worry about rapid weight loss, being underweight, and sarcopenia [age-related muscle loss].” Muscle loss is accelerating. Dr. Gitanjali Srivastava, medical director of Vanderbilt Obesity Medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville said, “As we get older, we may become frailer. Not doing any weight training in your 50s or 60s leads to a lot of muscle mass loss that may be noticeable now.” Migala reported, “By the time you reach your eighth (70s) or ninth (80s) decade, half of your muscle mass may have vanished.” According to the National Institute on Aging, nearly one-third of adults over age 70 struggle with walking, getting out of a chair, or climbing stairs. Dr. Srivastava said, “You want to keep good muscle strength as you get older.”
“Visceral fat can be toxic.” Dr. Jean-Pierre Després, leading body fat and health researcher and professor at Université Laval in Quebec City, Quebec said, “Visceral fat releases fatty molecules into the blood. And it's invaded with immune cells called macrophages that create low levels of chronic inflammation in the body.” Dr. Ian J. Neeland, MD, co-director of the Center for Integrated and Novel Approaches in Vascular-Metabolic Disease at University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center said, “Visceral fat can wrap around your heart and kidneys and infiltrate your liver, boosting risk for diabetes by interfering with your body's ability to absorb blood sugar. It's a big driver for cardiovascular disease.” Dr. Laura Haynes, professor of immunology at the UConn Center on Aging in Farmington, Connecticut said our immune system gradually declines from our 40s into our 70s, and then begins a precipitous drop in our 80s. She said, “The other thing that happens with age is an increase in systemic inflammation, which may be driven by increased body fat. The more fat your have, the more inflammation.” Dr. David Bartlett, adjunct assistant professor of medicine at Duke University, said a combination of aerobic and strength training is the answer. He said, “A fair amount of observational data shows that if you're physically active, you can improve your immune system, even if you start later in life.”
Older Brain More Vulnerable to Fraud
Ig Nobel Prize
My favorite awards ceremony is the Ig Nobel Prizes. If you never heard of it, here's a short description from Wikipedia: “The Ig Nobel Prize is a satiric prize awarded annually since 1991 to celebrate ten unusual or trivial achievements in scientific research. Its aim is to 'honor achievements that first make people laugh, and then make them think.'” The prizes are presented by real Nobel laureates. Winners receive money, one banknote in the amount of 100 trillion Zimbabwe dollars, about 40 cents in American money.
Here are a few of the winners from this year, the 34th Annual Ig Nobel Prizes (2024). Medicine Prize. Researchers in Switzerland, Germany, Belgium demonstrated fake medicine that causes painful side-effects can be more effective than fake medicine that does not cause painful side-effects. Published in Brain: “How Side Effects Can Improve Treatment Efficacy: A Randomized Trial”
Physiology Prize. Researchers in Japan, USA found many mammals are capable of breathing through their anus. Published in Med: “Mammalian Enteral Ventilation Ameliorates Respiratory Failure”
From the 32nd Annual Ig Nobel Prizes (2022). Applied Cardiology Prize. Researchers in Czech Republic, Netherlands, UK, Sweden, Aruba found evidence that when new romantic partners meet for the first time, and feel attracted to each other, their heart rates synchronize. Published in Nature Human Behaviour: “Physiological Synchrony is Associated with Attraction in a Blind Date Setting”
Medicine Prize. Researchers in Poland showed that when patients undergo some forms of toxic chemotherapy, they suffer fewer harmful side effects when ice cream replaces one traditional component of the procedure. Published in Scientific Reports: “Ice-Cream Used as Cryotherapy During High-Dose Melphalan Conditioning Reduces Oral Mucositis After Autologous Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation”
Economics Prize. Researchers in Italy showed mathematically, why success most often goes not to the most talented people, but to the luckiest. Published in Advances in Complex Systems: “Talent vs. Luck: Role of Randomness in Success and Failure”
From the 2021 Ig Nobel Prizes. Economics Prize. Researchers in France, Switzerland, Australia, Austria, Czech Republic, UK found obesity of a country's politicians may be a good indicator of that country's corruption. Published in Economic of Transition and Institutional Change: “Obesity of Politicians and Corruption in Post-Soviet Countries”
Don't be Just a Taker - Sea of Galilee & Dead Sea
The Sea of Galilee receives and gives water. Water flows in and flows out. Meyers said the Dead Sea “hoards its water---it keeps every drop it receives.”
April Fool's Day Tsunami
On April 1, 1946 Hilo was hit by the most devastating tsunami in Hawaii's modern history. Death toll was 158. The tsunami was triggered by a 7.4-magnitude earthquake off the coast of Alaska. Some experts now say it was closer to 8.5-magnitude. The tsunami reached Hawaii in less than five hours.
The massive tsunami arrived as high as a 3-story building. Maximum height recorded in Haena was 45 feet. James DS Barros, administrator of the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency said, “Tsunamis can strike with very little warning and cause enormous destruction.” He said, “We observe Tsunami Awareness Month every year in Hawaii, starting on the anniversary of the deadly April Fools' Day Tsunami that caused so much sorrow and damage . . .”
Hawaii Emergency Management Agency defines a tsunami as a series of ocean wave masses generated primarily by earthquakes or underwater volcanic eruptions and landslides. Tsunamis can strike any time of the year and any time, day or night. Dr. Laura Kong, director of the International Tsunami information center said, “We don't know when and where the next big one will occur, so we need to be prepared.”
For more information and 14+ photos from the tsunami aftermath, click this link: https://docdeetipsforyourhealth.blogspot.com/p/april-fools-day-tsunami.html
Stronger Hurricanes Fueled by Heat
EarthWeek: Diary of a Changing World by Steve Newman reported a new study found hurricanes are 50% more likely to undergo rapid intensification during ocean heat waves. “Fast intensifications were clearly evident as hurricanes Helene and Milton exploded over the Gulf in the past month with disastrous consequences.” These storms are expected “to become more frequent and stronger due to global warming.” Ocean heat causes more ocean water to evaporate, fueling intensification of storms.
Deadly Rain, Deadly Drought
An earlier EarthWeek reported , “It is no longer safe to drink rainwater anywhere on the planet, even in the most remote areas.” Stockholm University and ETH Zurich researchers found rainwater is contaminated with PFAS which accumulates in our body and can cause cancer. Contamination of rain water greatly exceeds safety levels everywhere on Earth. Researcher, Dr. Ian Cousins at Stockholm University said, “I'm not saying that we're all going to die of these effects. But we're in a place now where you can't live anywhere on the planet and be sure that the environment is safe.”
EarthWeek: Climate Diseases. “More than half of diseases that infect humans from pathogens such as viruses and bacteria have been made worse by the deepening climate emergency” according to a report in Nature Climate Change by researchers at the University of Hawaii. They reviewed more than 70,000 studies of all known infections and diseases caused by pathogens “that have ever affected humanity, and looked at how global heating has affected them.” They said diseases like malaria, dengue, even COVID-19 “have been made more severe to humans by climate-related events such as extreme rainfall, floods, drought, heat waves and wildfires.”
EarthWeek: Deadly Drought. A new report in The Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change said nearly a third of the world experienced extreme drought at least three months in 2023, compared to an average of 5% of the world 40 years ago. Since the 1980s climate change tripled the areas of the world with extreme drought, causing “unprecedented damage to human health.” “151 million more people faced food shortages last year (2023) compared to the 1990s.” Climate change is causing more severe drought in some places and more extreme rainfall in other areas of the world.
Ugly Laws – being ugly was a criminal offense
As a National Geographic subscriber, I get Exclusive Content, not available to non-subscribers. This is from exclusive content. Ainsley Hawthorn reported, “From the mid-19th to the mid-20th century, so-called 'ugly laws' banned 'unsightly' people from public places across the United States.” In 1867 San Francisco was the first city to make it a crime for “any person who is diseased, maimed, mutilated, or in any way deformed so as to be an unsightly or disgusting object” to “expose himself or herself to public view.”
This kind of legislation “quickly spread to other cities and states.” It was justified as a public health measure. Some people believed seeing people with a disability could make healthy people sick. Disabled street vendors were forced out of work. Some good people tried to help. A man with clubbed hands and feet had to stop selling newspapers because of the law. A drug store owner allowed him to sell his papers from the store's front stoop which was private property. Some mayors issued peddling permits to people with disabilities to help them to continue earning a living. Some people intervened when police tried to arrest the disabled. For example a Chicago police officer tried to arrest a Black man who had only one leg, kicking his good leg out from under him. Four white men confronted the policeman and others rallied around them.
These ugly laws no longer exist. The last recorded arrest was in 1974. Hawthorn reported the ugly laws had a positive outcome. “Disability advocates in the 1970s used the laws as a shocking example of discrimination that demonstrated their need for civil rights protections.” This led to the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990.
Alcohol & Cancer
I subscribe to Wired. This information is from an article by Justin Stebbing that was republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Stebbing reported, “as scientific research advances, we're gaining a clearer picture of alcohol's effect on health, especially regarding cancer.” A new report from the American Association for Cancer Research estimates “40% of all cancer cases are associated with modifiable risk factors” and alcohol consumption is “prominent among them.”
Alcohol consumption is linked to 6 types of cancer: head & neck, esophageal, liver, breast, colorectal, stomach. “Research consistently shows a link between frequent and regular drinking in early and mid-adulthood and higher risk of colon and rectal cancers later in life.” Even light to moderate drinking is linked to increased risk for some cancers, particularly breast cancer.
Alcohol can damage our DNA and lead to mutations which can cause cancer. Smoking amplifies the cancer risk of alcohol. The type of alcoholic beverage (beer, wine, or spirits) does not significantly alter cancer risk. “It's the ethanol (the chemical name for alcohol) itself that's carcinogenic (cancer-causing).”
The Real James Bond, 007
Women want to be with him, men want to be him. Maria Cheng reported for Associated Press, “He may have a license to kill, but is he sober enough to shoot straight?” Real-life British doctors studied author Ian Fleming's James Bond novels and published their research in a lighthearted Christmas edition of BMJ (British Medical Journal). They analyzed 14 James Bond books, documenting every drink Bond drank. They found he drank about 92 units of alcohol a week. One unit is about 8 grams of pure alcohol. (A large glass of wine has 3 units of alcohol.)
The doctors said Bond's drinking put him at high risk for numerous alcohol-related diseases and an early alcohol-related death. They concluded, “The level of functioning as displayed in the books is inconsistent with the physical, mental and indeed sexual functioning expected from someone drinking this much alcohol.”
James Gallagher, for BBC News, in the article titled, “James Bond is an 'impotent drunk'” wrote, “Her Majesty's top secret agent's love of the bottle would leave him impotent . . .” He reported, “Doctors analysing the Ian Fleming novels show James Bond polishes off the equivalent of one and a half bottles of wine every day.” One of the researchers, Dr. Patrick Davies, a consultant in pediatric intensive care at Nottingham University Hospitals in the UK told the BBC, “You wouldn't want this person defusing a nuclear bomb.” Dr. Davies said, Bond is “a very glamorous person, he gets all the girls and that's totally incompatible with the lifestyle of an alcoholic, which he is.” Bond would be at high risk for liver damage, early death, and impotence.
Steve Mirsky reported for Scientific American, “Bond imbibed so much alcohol that he would be at high risk for malignancies (cancers), depression, hypertension, and cirrhosis, according to the report in BMJ.”
The other researchers were emergency physician, Dr. Graham Johnson and hepatologist Dr. Indra Neil Guha, both in the UK. They referred to another paper, “Sexual Dysfunction in Male Alcohol Addicts: Prevalence and Treatment” as additional evidence Bond should be experiencing erectile dysfunction. With his history of sexual activity, he also had many opportunities for sexually transmitted diseases.
Dail Dinwiddie's Disappearance
Washington Post columnist, Kathleen Parker's article in Star-Advertiser is about Dail Dinwiddie's “mysterious disappearance” more than 32 years ago in September 1992 when she “vanished from the face of the Earth.” Parker wrote, “How does someone disappear from a busy nighttime gathering spot, known as Five Points?” Walking distance from the University of South Carolina, it's “a popular hub of shops, restaurants and watering holes that stay open until vendors reopen in the morning.” Hundreds of young people, including Dail and about a dozen friends left a U2 concert and migrated to Five Points. Dail became separated from her friends, went looking for them, and “she was never seen again.” One of the more plausible theories was by an FBI agent in 1992. He said “sex traffickers consider concerts to be hunting grounds. Inevitably, there will be a straggler – a girl or young woman separated from friends and/or too tipsy or drugged to resist capture.” Dail fit the profile: petite, blond, pretty and alone.
HEAT!
People expect Hawaii to be hot because it's in the tropics, but the ocean and the trade winds help moderate the temperatures, more so than many places on the continental U.S., even at higher latitudes. Years ago I was talking to a guy from Florida and I said I heard Florida is humid like Hawaii. He said, “Hawaii is not humid.” He meant, compared to Florida, Hawaii is not humid.
I subscribe to The Atlantic. In the July/August 2024 issue, “America – A Dispatch from the Near Future,” George Packer writes a Pulitzer Prize worthy article, “The Valley” (pages 52 to 93). This is how he described Phoenix, Arizona. “Last summer---when the temperature reached at least 110 degrees on 55 days . . . heat officially helped kill 644 people in Maricopa County. They were the elderly, the sick, the mentally ill, the isolated, the homeless, the addicted . . . and those too poor to own or fix or pay for air-conditioning, without which a dwelling can become unlivable within an hour. Even touching the pavement is dangerous . . . A woman . . . [showed] me a large patch of pink skin on her calf---the scar of a second-degree burn from a fall she'd taken during a heart attack in high heat . . .
Dr. Aneesh Narang at the emergency department of Banner-University Medical Center . . . had already lost four or five patients to heatstroke over the summer . . . 'Patients coming in at 108, 109 degrees--- they've been in the heat for hours, they're pretty much dead. We try to cool them down as fast as we can.' The method is to strip off their clothes and immerse them in ice and tap water inside a disposable cadaver bag to get their temperature down to 100 degrees within 15 to 20 minutes. But even those who survive heatstroke risk organ failure and years of neurological problems. . . . A scientific study published in May 2023 projected that a blackout [no air conditioning] during a 5-day heat wave would kill nearly 1% of Phoenix's population---about 13,000 people---and send 800,000 to emergency rooms.”
Blood Type O Lowest Heart Disease Risk
People with type O blood may have lower risk of developing heart disease than people with type A, B, or AB. Dr. Lu Qui, at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health analyzed heart disease risk in two large, multi-decade health studies involving 62,073 women and 27,428 men. After adjusting for heart disease risk factors such as diet, diabetes, gender, race, the researchers found participants with Type AB had the largest heart disease risk, 20% greater, than people with type O. Type B had 11% greater risk. Type A had 8% greater risk. This research was published in the journal Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology.
When the researchers compared their results with several other population studies, across seven studies, increased risk for non-O types continued to be higher compared to people with type O. Rh factor was not correlated with difference in heart disease risk.
People who are not type O have higher levels of two proteins involved in clotting and atherosclerosis. People with type A blood have higher levels of serum total cholesterol and LDL (bad) cholesterol. People with type O blood should not be complacent. Other factors contribute to heart disease and merely having type O blood is likely not enough, by itself, to prevent heart disease. People who do not have type O blood should not despair, just as other factors can contribute to heart disease, other factors can also help you prevent heart disease. Take care of your health and your health will take care of you.
Amazing Deals you can't find prices like this anywhere else
Sale
Rose Quartz – (not used) $30 - sold (thank you to L.P.)
Lapis - (gently used & used only a very short time) $25 - sold (thank you to S.T.)
Rose Quartz necklace – 32 inches length $20
The rose quartz medallion & the necklace are more pink than seen in the photo. They look pink like the rose quartz heart at bottom right of this photo. (These hearts not sold here.)
If interested in medallions or necklace, call 808-628-8784 and leave name and phone number. The person who answers at this number knows nothing about this offer and will not be able to answer your questions. If you leave your phone number I will call you to answer your questions.
Win $25 Down-To-Earth gift card