Simvastatin (and Other Statins?) May Block Response to Exercise Training

Posted on June 25, 2013 | 1 comment

…according to an article in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. In addition, mitochondrial content fell by 4.5% over the 12-week course of exercise. Mitochondria are the power plants of our body cells. 

h/t David Mendosa

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QOTD: Are You Sure You Don’t Have Anything to Hide?

Posted on June 24, 2013 | Comments Off on QOTD: Are You Sure You Don’t Have Anything to Hide?

“The Heritage Foundation recently launched an informational campaign to raise awareness of overprosecution and regulatory overreach, appropriately called “USA vs. You” (www.heritage.org/usavsyou). Heritage reports there are now more than 4,500 federal criminal laws on the books, and a whopping 300,000 federal criminal regulations. Throw in state statutes and local ordinances, and our governments have criminalized everyday life to the point that everyone is breakin’ the law — and subject to egregious abuses of authority.

Take the 2011 case of 11-year-old Virginia resident Skylar Capo. She rescued a baby woodpecker from a cat and brought the bird inside a home improvement store, so it wouldn’t suffer in the heat of her mother’s car. A U.S. Fish and Wildlife agent also was at the store, Heritage reported, and read the riot act to Ms. Capo and her mother for violating the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. The Capos released the bird upon returning home and notified the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Yet that same agent, with a Virginia state trooper as backup, showed up at their house two weeks later to serve notice of a $535 federal fine and possible jail time. Public backlash led to all charges being rescinded.

—Editorial at Las Vegas Review-Journal

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Posted in Quote of the Day, Uncategorized

Fans of Flip Flops Fall and Fracture

Posted on June 20, 2013 | 1 comment

Whitecoat has the details, calling flip flops the orthopedist’s favorite footwear. They’re good for business.

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Wonder Why Healthcare Costs So Much in the U.S.?

Posted on June 20, 2013 | Comments Off on Wonder Why Healthcare Costs So Much in the U.S.?

Nathaniel Givens explains nearly all of it in a blog post.

Imagine if grocery shopping worked like health insurance.  Let’s call it “food insurance”.

First of all, you’d better hope that you’re not self-employed or unemployed. You see, way back in World War II the United States created strict wage controls as part of theStabilization Act of 1942. Since employers still wanted to compete for the best employees–even in wartime–they had to get creative. Instead of offering higher salaries (which was now illegal), they began to offer fringe benefits. The most important of these was healthcare insurance. Let’s pretend that food insurance started in the same way. That would mean that, today, if you get your food insurance through an employer-provided plan you not only get a nice tax advantage on your own premiums, but you can also rely on the employer to pay some of your costs as a matter of traditional expectations. But if you’re self-employed, you not only lose the tax-advantage, but also the ability to get the lower rates that come with buying insurance for bigger groups.

Now let’s imagine what actually shopping for groceries would look like.

One thing Nathaniel left out is the cost of our legal system, which is significant. Adopting the “English Rule” (loser pays legal fees) would be a major step in the right direction.

Read the rest.

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Posted in Economics, Healthcare Reform

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Is Strength Training Good or Bad for Blood Pressure?

Posted on June 20, 2013 | Comments Off on Is Strength Training Good or Bad for Blood Pressure?
Trainer Sean Preuss has a new post on the issue. Well worth a read. For example:
The nine studies analyzed included 341 people between the ages of 20 and 72 years old. The studies ranged from six to 26 weeks long. The average blood pressure reduction was 3.2/3.5 mmHg.
Those reductions have value but are not life-altering. However, these studies were mostly performed with healthy people with desired blood pressure numbers. In general, people with less room to improve will do just that: improve to a smaller degree. Men and women with hypertension are likely to see greater improvements.

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Posted in High Blood Pressure

QOTD: Mark Steyn on the Militarization of the IRS

Posted on June 17, 2013 | Comments Off on QOTD: Mark Steyn on the Militarization of the IRS

A bureaucracy is bad. A politicized bureaucracy is worse. A paramilitary politicized bureaucracy is nuts. And, in fact, evil. There is no reason in a civilized society why the Deputy Assistant Commissioner of Paperwork should have his own SEAL Team Six.

—Mark Steyn

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QOTD: Are You SURE You Don’t Have Something to Hide?

Posted on June 16, 2013 | Comments Off on QOTD: Are You SURE You Don’t Have Something to Hide?

Estimates of the current size of the body of federal criminal law vary. It has been reported that the Congressional Research Service cannot even count the current number of federal crimes. These laws are scattered in over 50 titles of the United States Code, encompassing roughly 27,000 pages. Worse yet, the statutory code sections often incorporate, by reference, the provisions and sanctions of administrative regulations promulgated by various regulatory agencies under congressional authorization. Estimates of how many such regulations exist are even less well settled, but the ABA thinks there are ”nearly 10,000.”

—James Duane, law school professor

(Note that state, county, and city laws and regulations are not included here.)

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Mediterranean Diet Among The Best For Type 2 Diabetes

Posted on June 16, 2013 | 1 comment

…announces an article at Reuters.  An excerpt:

Ajala and her colleagues reviewed the results of 20 studies comparing the effect of seven popular diets on adults with type 2 diabetes. Mediterranean diets, low-carb diets, high-protein diets and low glycemic index diets – which rank foods by how quickly their carbs turn into glucose – all lowered participants’ blood sugar.

After following the diet for at least six months, the people on a Mediterranean eating plan also lost an average of 4 pounds. No other diet had a significant impact on weight, according to the findings published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

“We were quite surprised by the Mediterranean diet in particular,” Ajala said. “I would have thought that low-carb would have been the best for losing weight, but Mediterranean seems to be better.”

Beautiful woman smiling as she is wine tasting on a summer day.Here’s the traditional healthy Mediterranean diet.

The researchers also found that HDL cholesterol (“good cholesterol) and triglycerides improved on the Mediterranean diet, low-carb diets, and low glycemic index diets.  Those moves tend to protect against heart disease.

Steve Parker, M.D.

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Posted in Diabetes, Low-Carb Mediterranean Diet

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QOTD: Robert Morris on Computer Security

Posted on June 15, 2013 | Comments Off on QOTD: Robert Morris on Computer Security

“The three golden rules to ensure computer security are: do not own a computer; do not power it on; and do not use it.”

—Robert Morris Sr., a computer security expert who worked at NSA for many years

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European Expert Panel Simplifies Blood Pressure Goals

Posted on June 15, 2013 | Comments Off on European Expert Panel Simplifies Blood Pressure Goals

Details are at Forbes: 

Perhaps the biggest single change in the new document is the adoption of a single systolic blood pressure target for almost all patients: 140 mmHg, This replaces the previous, more complicated target, which included both systolic and diastolic recommendations for different levels of risk (140/90 mmHg for moderate to low risk patients and 130/80 mmHg target for high risk patients).  One of the authors, Robert Fagard, commented: “there was not enough evidence to justify two targets.”

Thirty or 40% of Europeans have high blood pressure, a risk factor for heart attacks, strokes, kidney failure, and premature death.

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