There is no doubt about it. Drinkers live longer than non-drinkers. Even though heavy drinking is associated with higher risk for cirrhosis and several types of cancer (particularly cancers in the mouth and esophagus), heavy drinkers are less likely to die than people who have never drunk. One important reason is that alcohol lubricates so [...]
Posts Tagged ‘health’
Drinkers live longer
Posted: 30th August 2010 by Brant in culture, scienceTags: Alcohol, Alcoholic beverage, health, Mood
Breakthrough in AIDS research
Posted: 8th July 2010 by Brant in culture, scienceTags: AIDS, health, medicine, science
Big news today on the AIDS vaccine front.
I first of the so-called “pine mouth” phenomenon a few weeks ago. Pretty sad if true in that I love pine nuts. Now it seems to be everywhere, including this story from this morning’s Morning Edition from NPR.
Another reason to drop Facebook (updated)
Posted: 21st May 2010 by Brant in techTags: Facebook, health, Internet, privacy
The Wall Street Journal’s All Things Digital website is reporting a major privacy hole in both Facebook and MySpace. Facebook, MySpace and several other social-networking sites have been sending data to advertising companies that could be used to find consumers’ names and other personal details, despite promises they don’t share such information without consent. The [...]
An effective response to Republican death panel allegations
Posted: 23rd August 2009 by Dave in politicsTags: health, healthcare, Obama, TV
Americans United for Change have produced this effective response to the Republican death panel allegations by bringing the real death panels in America out into the open.
Matt Taibbi: Healthcare reform is dead
Posted: 29th July 2009 by Brant in politicsTags: Democrats, health, Obama administration
Matt Taibbi eulogizes real healthcare reform. Money quote: It won’t get done, because that’s not the way our government works. Our government doesn’t exist to protect voters from interests, it exists to protect interests from voters. The situation we have here is an angry and desperate population that at long last has voted in a [...]
Qualify the moon-landing celebration
Posted: 18th July 2009 by Brant in politics, science, techTags: health, justice, music, space
(h/t William Gibson)
Q. Turning to your flight, what is your strongest memory of Apollo 11? A. Looking back at Earth from a great distance. I really believe that if the political leaders of the world could see their planet from a distance of 100,000 miles their outlook could be fundamentally changed. That all-important border would be invisible, [...]
AMA backs House healthcare overhaul
Posted: 16th July 2009 by Brant in politicsTags: AMA, Democrats, health
According to Reuters. “This legislation includes a broad range of provisions that are key to effective, comprehensive health system reform,” AMA executive vice president Michael Maves wrote to the House committee leaders.
The current issue of The New Yorker features an article by Elizabet Kolbert chronicling the enormous and rapid weight gains of Americans. The claimed reasons for the problem are many, but no one is entirely certain of all the causes but it could be an amalgam of evolution, cheaper foods, engineered foods and, of course, [...]
The has to the absolute epitome of chutzpa. Guess which party had the gall to put out a statement against the Democrats plan to reform health care? [t]he federal government would run a health care system–or a public plan option–with the compassion of the IRS, the efficiency of the post office, and the incompetence of [...]
Now this is very good news for our rapidly aging population (including me). US scientists say they have successfully reversed the effects of Alzheimer’s with experimental drugs. The drugs target and boost the function of a newly pinpointed gene involved in the brain’s memory formation. In mice, the treatment helped restore long-term memory and improve [...]
Now this is very good news for our rapidly aging population (including me). \ US scientists say they have successfully reversed the effects of Alzheimer’s with experimental drugs. The drugs target and boost the function of a newly pinpointed gene involved in the brain’s memory formation. In mice, the treatment helped restore long-term memory and [...]
(h/t BoingBoing)
Swine flu horror Targets commentator
Posted: 2nd May 2009 by Brant in culture, funTags: fun, health, swine flu
A bit of levity in the H1N1 worry, from Ken Layne at True/Slant: I kept a safe distance of six or eight feet behind each shopping party, and when an obese woman began coughing I abandoned my cart and sprinted away. I wanted to yell, Why are you trying to kill me? But then my [...]