“[Abstract] At least 60% of stroke, 40% of dementia and 35% of late-life depression (LLD) are attributable to modifiable risk factors, with great overlap due to shared pathophysiology. [..] Identified risk factors included alcohol (normalised β-coefficient highest category: −34), blood pressure (130), body mass index (70), fasting plasma glucose (94), total cholesterol (22), leisure time cognitive activity (−91), depressive symptoms (57), diet (51), hearing loss (60), kidney function (101), pain (42), physical activity (−56), purpose in life (−50), sleep (76), smoking (91), social engagement (53) and stress (55). [article’s Discussion section] When assessing individual components, hypertension emerged as the factor … Read More
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“most people don’t simply want to live until 110. They want to extend the amount of time they live free of serious disease, a concept known as health span. That’s why the most sensible approach is to reduce the toll of three major age-related diseases: cancer, heart disease and neurodegenerative disorders, such as Alzheimer’s disease. It may be less flashy, but it’s more attainable than ever. It’s estimated that at least 80 percent of cardiovascular disease cases, 40 percent of cancer cases and 45 percent of Alzheimer’s cases are preventable. Even with a long lag — these diseases can each … Read More
“What exactly does it mean to know yourself? For neuroscientists, the answer is straightforward enough: Self-knowledge is the combination of two forms of information, direct appraisals (your own self-beliefs) and reflected appraisals (your perception of how others view you). The first generally employs the parts of the brain associated with a first-person perspective, such as the posterior cingulate; the second with regions associated with emotion and memory, such as the insula, orbitofrontal, and temporal cortex. [..] they [oracles at the Temple of Apollo at Delphi] no doubt meant “Know thyself accurately.” That is a much taller order, requiring a huge … Read More
“Many countries and 10 U.S. states allow voluntary assisted dying for those who are terminally ill. In some jurisdictions, assistance is also permitted for those who have an incurable condition that causes them unbearable suffering. But allowing relatively healthy people to end their lives because they see their lives as completed is more controversial. Professor Kahneman traveled to Switzerland because it allows competent adults with a firm wish to die to legally receive assistance in dying, whether or not they are residents. [..] “Other people happen to respect it [Kahneman’s work] and say that this is for the benefit of … Read More
“In her tightly argued essay “Online Gambling and the Problem of Sin Markets,” [Rachel] Lu confronts a dilemma over the regulation of the market for so-called vices—sex, drugs, and gambling, with a primary focus on the latter. The obvious inclination—and the trend that seems to be the dominant one in the twenty-first century United States—dictates that pleasurable activities should be basically unchecked, subject entirely to the whims of the market. But, Lu argues, unchecked sin markets provide too many incentives for sellers to prey on and exploit vulnerable or addicted users. An unfettered marketplace ultimately creates negative externalities that will … Read More
“[Introduction] Nearly 10% of cardiovascular events are attributed to type 2 diabetes (T2D). [..] Prior large RCTs [randomized controlled trials], including Look AHEAD (Action for Health in Diabetes), DIRECT, and the Diabetes Prevention Program, attempted to investigate the cardiovascular benefits of weight loss and increased PA [physical activity] volume among individuals with prediabetes or T2D, but no relationship between lifestyle-induced weight loss and cardiovascular benefits has been reported. [..] this study evaluates the interactions of weight loss and PA volumes in association with the risk of cardiovascular events by conducting a post hoc secondary analysis of the Look AHEAD trial … Read More
“I had to learn over and over again that extreme conviction requires extraordinary evidence, and the evidence we have is usually far from extraordinary. For instance, our frontline anti-depression drugs are supposed to work by changing serotonin levels in the brain, but a review published last year found that there’s no consistent evidence that serotonin has much to do with depression at all. (Maybe that’s why antidepressants don’t seem to work that well, especially in the long term.) It seems obvious that sunscreen should protect you from skin cancer, but a 2018 meta-analysis could not confirm that this is true … Read More
“Some meatfluencers stress that human beings are animals and maintain that, if allowed to eat according to our animal instincts, we will favor a meaty menu. But the biologists David Raubenheimer and Stephen J. Simpson have been investigating animal alimentation for more than thirty years, and their new book, “Eat Like the Animals,” suggests that the meatfluencers have it all wrong. The authors started collaborating at Oxford, studying the eating preferences of locusts (grasshoppers, basically). First, they found that locusts preferred a certain ratio of carbohydrates to protein. When forced to live on foods higher in carbs and lower in … Read More
“In his telling, Medicine 2.0 is oriented toward addressing the four chronic diseases of aging that will probably be the cause of most of our deaths, but only after they become problems. (Those chronic diseases are heart disease, cancer, Alzheimer’s and related neurodegenerative diseases and Type 2 diabetes and related metabolic dysfunction.) Medicine 3.0, though, aims to proactively prevent those things for as long as possible and allow us to maintain better health deeper into old age. How exactly? Not through any techno-fantasies of biohacking or wonder-drug supplements but largely with highly rigorous, detailed and personalized monitoring and treatment of our nutrition, … Read More
“Transparency has always been seen as a hallmark of honesty and integrity. The logic is familiar: democracies aspire to be transparent, but dictatorships are opaque; faithful spouses are guileless, while philanderers lie; reputable businesses operate in the open, but shady operations literally draw the shades. Collectively, we’ve embraced Louis Brandeis’s dictum that sunlight is the best disinfectant. We demand transparency in government, charitable institutions, nutrition labels, and middle-school grading rubrics. The medical record should be no different. [..] In 2008, Ethan Bernstein, an associate professor at Harvard Business School, travelled with a team of students to a vast mobile-phone-manufacturing plant … Read More