Juxtaposed recently in @nytimes Consensus on Coffee’s Benefits v Caffeine…Poses Deadly Risks
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/12/upshot/more-consensus-on-coffees-benefits-than-you-might-think.html http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/05/18/caffeine-powder-poses-deadly-risks-2
Caffeine Powder Poses Deadly Risks
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/05/18/caffeine-powder-poses-deadly-risks-2/
Bright light outdoors is good — but stay in the shade to avoid skin cancer.
The #myopia boom http://www.nature.com/news/the-myopia-boom-1.17120 Was attributed to books; now epidemiological & lab evidence suggests not enough daylight for kids
QT:{{"
“Rose’s team tried to eliminate any other explanations for this link — for example, that children outdoors were engaged in more physical activity and that this was having the beneficial effect. But time engaged in indoor sports had no such protective association; and time outdoors did, whether children had played sports, attended picnics or simply read on the beach. And children who spent more time outside were not necessarily spending less time with books, screens and close work. “We had these children who were doing both activities at very high levels and they didn’t become myopic,” says Rose. Close work might still have some effect, but what seemed to matter most was the eye’s exposure to bright light.
See the light
Some researchers think that the data to support the link need to be more robust. Most epidemiological studies have estimated children’s time outdoors from questionnaires — but Christine Wildsoet, an optometrist at the University of California, Berkeley, says that such data should be treated with caution. In a small, pilot study of wearable light sensors, she found that people’s estimates often do not match up with their actual exposure. And Ian Flitcroft, a myopia specialist at Children’s University Hospital in Dublin, questions whether light is the key protective factor of being outdoors. He says that the greater viewing distances outside could affect myopia progression, too. “Light is not the only factor, and making it the explanation is a gross over-simplification of a complex process,” he says.
Yet animal experiments support the idea that light is protective. Researchers first demonstrated this in chicks, a common lab model for studying vision. By fitting chicks with goggles that alter the resolution and contrast of incoming images, it is possible to induce the development of myopia while raising the birds under controlled conditions in which only light intensity is changed. In 2009, Regan Ashby, Arne Ohlendorf and Frank Schaeffel from the University of Tübingen’s Institute for Ophthalmic Research in Germany showed that high illumination levels — comparable to those encountered outside — slowed the development of experimentally induced myopia in chicks by about 60% compared with normal indoor lighting conditions. Researchers elsewhere have found similar protective effects in tree shrews and rhesus monkeys.”
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Is Your Music Too Loud?
http://www.wsj.com/articles/is-your-music-too-loud-experts-say-yes-if-its-louder-than-a-microwaves-beep-1425921356 At max volume iPod w/ default white earbuds is 102 dB. Safe for 5′. Listen all day at 80dB
Blood, Simpler http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/12/15/blood-simpler
One woman’s drive to upend medical testing. No more filling vials at the doctors, just a finger prick
Great profile
Annals of Innovation DECEMBER 15, 2014 ISSUE
BY KEN AULETTA
The Excrement Experiment
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/12/01/excrement-experiment Fecal transplants have been successful against disease but should they be considered a #drug
Medical Dispatch DECEMBER 1, 2014 ISSUE
The Excrement Experiment
Treating disease with fecal transplants.
BY EMILY EAKIN
Ageing does not have to bring…frailty http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/11326136/Ageing-does-not-have-to-bring-poor-health-and-frailty-say-Kings-College-scientists.html Good #cyclists are as fit at 79 as 55 but how many are there at 79 HT @timjph
Do I Really Need Regular Checkups at the… Doctor?
http://lifehacker.com/do-i-really-need-regular-checkups-at-the-dentist-and-do-1491777950 Juxtaposed against the opposing view, viz:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/09/opinion/skip-your-annual-physical.html
Other article:
Skip Your Annual Physical – NYTimes.com
What Happens When We All Live to 100?
http://www.theatlantic.com/features/archive/2014/09/what-happens-when-we-all-live-to-100/379338 Will the 3month/yr increase in life expectancy plateau? Will it affect society?
QT:{{”
The university, a significant aspect of the contemporary economy, centuries ago was a place where the fresh-faced would be prepared for a short life; today the university is a place where adults watch children and grandchildren walk to Pomp and Circumstance. The university of the future may be one that serves all ages. Colleges will reposition themselves economically as offering just as much to the aging as to the adolescent: courses priced individually for later-life knowledge seekers; lots of campus events of interest to students, parents, and the community as a whole; a pleasant
college-town atmosphere to retire near. In decades to come, college professors may address students ranging from age 18 to 80.
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Cereal killer: Are you eating too much iron? http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22429980.500-cereal-killer-are-you-eating-too-much-iron.html Too much from vitamins is potentially linked to heart disease, cancer &c
On Amazon but reviews indicate that computer interface is a bit problematic
linkstream2 microblog 