Sometimes morning blog reading brings several things together that don’t initially seem related. Initially I encountered a hatchet job on bioidentical hormones and HGH replacement over at MSNBC. I subsequently encounter this piece at Psychology Today that reiterates what anyone who has ever taken a philosophy class already knows: Logical fallacies lead to muddy thinking.
Archive for the ‘stuff’ Category
Weight Loss Could Even Cut Health Care Costs
On July - 27 - 2009Comments Off on Weight Loss Could Even Cut Health Care Costs
As the national debate rages about how best to change healthcare funding to serve the greatest number of people with the greatest benefit, the public health journal Health Affairs has published a study that examines the costs of healthcare related to obesity. For those that familiar with the health effects of obesity, the results are no surprise. What follows is a little wonky but interesting.
Fewer Americans Living Healthy Lifestyles
On July - 20 - 2009Comments Off on Fewer Americans Living Healthy Lifestyles
The American Journal of Medicine reports that compared to 18 years ago, fewer American adults are engaging in 5 key things known to promote long and healthy lives: eating enough fruits and vegetables; exercising regularly; maintaining a healthy body weight; moderate alcohol consumption; and not smoking. Interestingly enough, Forbes managed to report the complete opposite of the findings demonstrating why it’s often useful to be skeptical of media coverage of medical studies.
Not engaging in healthy lifestyles is a sure fire way to age with the machine, not against it.
Holy ****! Cursing Reduces Pain!
On July - 13 - 2009Comments Off on Holy ****! Cursing Reduces Pain!
It turns out that our instinct to say something profane when we experience pain may be good medicine. A small study covered in the journal NeuroReport found that:
Swearing increased pain tolerance, increased heart rate and decreased perceived pain compared with not swearing. However, swearing did not increase pain tolerance in males with a tendency to catastrophise [think that a situation is worse than it really is]. The observed pain-lessening (hypoalgesic) effect may occur because swearing induces a fight-or-flight response and nullifies the link between fear of pain and pain perception.
Better Language Skills May Mean Less Dementia
On July - 10 - 2009Comments Off on Better Language Skills May Mean Less Dementia
The latest news from research known as The Nun Study indicates that women who displayed better language skills in their 20s had lower incidence of Alzheimer’s Disease and other types of dementia. And the important part is that this even held true even when their brains showed signs of Alzheimer’s at autopsy.