CBC News
Weakness in one side of the body is a warning sign for stroke. (Pablo Martinez Monsivais/Associated Press)
A new stroke prevention clinic in Ottawa is helping patients treated for mini-strokes from developing the full-blown version, doctors report. A transient ischemic attack, or TIA, is a mild stroke that causes stroke symptoms such as sudden numbness of the face, arm or leg. The symptoms last for less than 24 hours and then resolve on their own without disabling neurological effects, but it is a marker for early risk of stroke.
At the Ottawa Hospital Stroke Clinic, patients with TIA symptoms are quickly assessed in the emergency department (ED) and referred to the stroke clinic for brain imaging, medication adjustment, counselling about stroke risk factors and surgery in some cases. Dr. Mukul Sharma, deputy director of the Canadian Stroke Network, and his co-authors found that 3.2 per cent of people who experienced TIA at the stroke prevention clinic developed a full-blown stroke within 90 days, compared with about 10 per cent at other centres.
"The beauty of this is that we added very few staff," said Sharma, lead author of the study in the November issue of the journal Stroke, and director of The Ottawa Hospital Stroke Clinic.
A booking clerk was one of the few staff that was added as part of the program.
"It really is that ability to juggle bookings and the acuity of the visit that I think make this process work. I've likened it to getting an orchestra playing the same tune."
The study looked at 1,099 patients diagnosed with TIA, and 1,004 or 92 per cent of them were referred to the stroke clinic for assessment.
Stroke warning signs
• Weakness, numbness or tingling in face, arms or legs, especially on one side of the body.
• Trouble speaking or understanding speech.
• Sudden blurring, double vision or loss of vision.
• Sudden severe headache.
• Dizziness, loss of balance.
The hospital uses a triaging system to ensure patients with the highest stroke risk are seen as soon as possible.
"We believe that the reduced stroke rate can be attributed to the system of care that combines the ED care and the clinic process," the study's authors concluded.
Under the new system, staff in the emergency department tick off boxes on a checklist when diagnosing the TIA, order tests, and prescribe medications right away.
The checklist is faxed to the stroke clinic, where the investigations are quickly processed to confirm TIA and decide on the best treatment.
Shorter waits for clinic
The treatment includes lifestyle changes that evidence suggests have the same magnitude of benefits as medications that are prescribed, Sharma said.
The rate of admissions was less than two per cent under the new system, which helps both the patients and the health-care system, the researchers said.
Before the new process, it took four months to get patients into the clinic. Now the clinic aims to see patients considered at high risk in 48 hours and a week for those at low risk, Sharma said.
The researchers said one of the limitations of the study was that they lacked baseline MRI or CT information to tell whether early strokes were due to progression of initial symptoms or a new event.
The study's authors called for more studies with those images to explore their finding of a difference between the timing of stroke versus another TIA.
Almost one-third of the full strokes occurred within two days of the TIA, the study's authors found. In comparison, almost half of the recurrent TIAs occurred between 30 days and 90 days.
The study was funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Saturday, October 30, 2010
Stages of Alzheimer's disease
Most doctors identify three main stages of Alzheimer's disease -- mild, moderate, and severe. Because each stage of dementia can last for several years or more, it can also be helpful to understand whether your loved one seems to be in the early, middle, or late part of each stage. Changes in memory and other thinking skills are the most reliable way to track someone's progression through dementia, but other symptoms also help to indicate the stage.
Gain additional insight into your loved one's stage of dementia, along with expert guidance and community support, with Caring.com's Steps & Stages, a free customizable resource for family caregivers.
Mild-Stage Alzheimer's Disease
Early: You'll likely first notice an occasional repetition of stories, ideas, and questions -- or notice that appointments and errands go forgotten.
• More early-mild symptoms
• A Caregiver's Guide to Early Mild-Stage Dementia
Mid: Deteriorating immediate memory loss causes word-for-word repetition of comments and questions to become more noticeable and more frequent, though it may not happen every day.
• More mid-mild symptoms
• A Caregiver's Guide to Mid Mild-Stage Dementia
Late: The same stories are now repeated word for word at least several times a day; it's noticeable by strangers as well as family but doesn't yet happen continually.
• More late-mild symptoms
• A Caregiver's Guide to Late Mild-Stage Dementia
Moderate-Stage Alzheimer's Disease
Early: Stories and questions are repeated on very short loops, within minutes, continuously throughout the day.
• More early-moderate symptoms
• A Caregiver's Guide to Early Moderate-Stage Dementia
Mid: As recent memory erodes, your loved one will begin asking questions like, "Where are we?" or "Why are we here?" or "What am I supposed to be doing?"
• More mid-moderate symptoms
• A Caregiver's Guide to Mid Moderate-Stage Dementia
Late: Your loved one now views distant memories as recent (such as a deceased parent being referred to as alive) and sometimes can't accurately identify friends and some family members.
• More late-moderate symptoms
• A Caregiver's Guide to Late Moderate-Stage Dementia
Severe-Stage Alzheimer's Disease
Early: Even distant memories are harder to recall and are no longer mentioned; your loved one may not recognize close family or know names.
• More early-severe symptoms
• A Caregiver's Guide to Early Severe-Stage Dementia
Mid: Your loved one may not recognize even a primary caregiver and may talk little or use nonsense speech or singsong.
• More mid-severe symptoms
• A Caregiver's Guide to Mid Severe-Stage Dementia
Late: Your loved one is unlikely to speak more than a few words a day, can no longer sit up, and seems to stare right through you.
• More late-severe symptoms
• A Caregiver's Guide to Late Severe-Stage Dementia
Gain additional insight into your loved one's stage of dementia, along with expert guidance and community support, with Caring.com's Steps & Stages, a free customizable resource for family caregivers.
Mild-Stage Alzheimer's Disease
Early: You'll likely first notice an occasional repetition of stories, ideas, and questions -- or notice that appointments and errands go forgotten.
• More early-mild symptoms
• A Caregiver's Guide to Early Mild-Stage Dementia
Mid: Deteriorating immediate memory loss causes word-for-word repetition of comments and questions to become more noticeable and more frequent, though it may not happen every day.
• More mid-mild symptoms
• A Caregiver's Guide to Mid Mild-Stage Dementia
Late: The same stories are now repeated word for word at least several times a day; it's noticeable by strangers as well as family but doesn't yet happen continually.
• More late-mild symptoms
• A Caregiver's Guide to Late Mild-Stage Dementia
Moderate-Stage Alzheimer's Disease
Early: Stories and questions are repeated on very short loops, within minutes, continuously throughout the day.
• More early-moderate symptoms
• A Caregiver's Guide to Early Moderate-Stage Dementia
Mid: As recent memory erodes, your loved one will begin asking questions like, "Where are we?" or "Why are we here?" or "What am I supposed to be doing?"
• More mid-moderate symptoms
• A Caregiver's Guide to Mid Moderate-Stage Dementia
Late: Your loved one now views distant memories as recent (such as a deceased parent being referred to as alive) and sometimes can't accurately identify friends and some family members.
• More late-moderate symptoms
• A Caregiver's Guide to Late Moderate-Stage Dementia
Severe-Stage Alzheimer's Disease
Early: Even distant memories are harder to recall and are no longer mentioned; your loved one may not recognize close family or know names.
• More early-severe symptoms
• A Caregiver's Guide to Early Severe-Stage Dementia
Mid: Your loved one may not recognize even a primary caregiver and may talk little or use nonsense speech or singsong.
• More mid-severe symptoms
• A Caregiver's Guide to Mid Severe-Stage Dementia
Late: Your loved one is unlikely to speak more than a few words a day, can no longer sit up, and seems to stare right through you.
• More late-severe symptoms
• A Caregiver's Guide to Late Severe-Stage Dementia
Friday, October 29, 2010
Churchill chose to starve India
How Churchill 'starved' India
Soutik Biswas
15:50 UK time, Thursday, 28 October 2010
It is 1943, the peak of the Second World War. The place is London. The British War Cabinet is holding meetings on a famine sweeping its troubled colony, India. Millions of natives mainly in eastern Bengal, are starving. Leopold Amery, secretary of state for India, and Field Marshal Sir Archibald Wavell, soon to be appointed the new viceroy of India, are deliberating how to ship more food to the colony. But the irascible Prime Minister Winston Churchill is coming in their way.
"Apparently it is more important to save the Greeks and liberated countries than the Indians and there is reluctance either to provide shipping or to reduce stocks in this country," writes Sir Wavell in his account of the meetings. Mr Amery is more direct. "Winston may be right in saying that the starvation of anyhow under-fed Bengalis is less serious than sturdy Greeks, but he makes no sufficient allowance for the sense of Empire responsibility in this country," he writes.
Some three million Indians died in the famine of 1943. The majority of the deaths were in Bengal. In a shocking new book, Churchill's Secret War, journalist Madhusree Mukherjee blames Mr Churchill's policies for being largely responsible for one of the worst famines in India's history. It is a gripping and scholarly investigation into what must count as one of the most shameful chapters in the history of the Empire.
The scarcity, Mukherjee writes, was caused by large-scale exports of food from India for use in the war theatres and consumption in Britain - India exported more than 70,000 tonnes of rice between January and July 1943, even as the famine set in. This would have kept nearly 400,000 people alive for a full year. Mr Churchill turned down fervent pleas to export food to India citing a shortage of ships - this when shiploads of Australian wheat, for example, would pass by India to be stored for future consumption in Europe. As imports dropped, prices shot up and hoarders made a killing. Mr Churchill also pushed a scorched earth policy - which went by the sinister name of Denial Policy - in coastal Bengal where the colonisers feared the Japanese would land. So authorities removed boats (the lifeline of the region) and the police destroyed and seized rice stocks.
Mukherjee tracks down some of the survivors of the famine and paints a chilling tale of the effects of hunger and deprivation. Parents dumped their starving children into rivers and wells. Many took their lives by throwing themselves in front of trains. Starving people begged for the starchy water in which rice had been boiled. Children ate leaves and vines, yam stems and grass. People were too weak even to cremate their loved ones. "No one had the strength to perform rites," a survivor tells Mukherjee. Dogs and jackals feasted on piles of dead bodies in Bengal's villages. The ones who got away were men who migrated to Calcutta for jobs and women who turned to prostitution to feed their families. "Mothers had turned into murderers, village belles into whores, fathers into traffickers of daughters," writes Mukherjee.
The famine ended at the end of the year when survivors harvested their rice crop. The first shipments of barley and wheat reached those in need only in November, by which time tens of thousands had already perished. Throughout the autumn of 1943, the United Kingdom's food and raw materials stockpile for its 47 million people - 14 million fewer than that of Bengal - swelled to 18.5m tonnes.
In the end, Mukherjee writes eloquently, it was "not so much racism as the imbalance of power inherent in the social Darwinian pyramid that explains why famine could be tolerated in India while bread rationing was regarded as an intolerable deprivation in wartime Britain". For colonial apologists, the book is essential reading. It is a terrifying account of how colonial rule is direly exploitative and, in this case, made worse by a man who made no bones of his contempt for India and its people.
Soutik Biswas
15:50 UK time, Thursday, 28 October 2010
It is 1943, the peak of the Second World War. The place is London. The British War Cabinet is holding meetings on a famine sweeping its troubled colony, India. Millions of natives mainly in eastern Bengal, are starving. Leopold Amery, secretary of state for India, and Field Marshal Sir Archibald Wavell, soon to be appointed the new viceroy of India, are deliberating how to ship more food to the colony. But the irascible Prime Minister Winston Churchill is coming in their way.
"Apparently it is more important to save the Greeks and liberated countries than the Indians and there is reluctance either to provide shipping or to reduce stocks in this country," writes Sir Wavell in his account of the meetings. Mr Amery is more direct. "Winston may be right in saying that the starvation of anyhow under-fed Bengalis is less serious than sturdy Greeks, but he makes no sufficient allowance for the sense of Empire responsibility in this country," he writes.
Some three million Indians died in the famine of 1943. The majority of the deaths were in Bengal. In a shocking new book, Churchill's Secret War, journalist Madhusree Mukherjee blames Mr Churchill's policies for being largely responsible for one of the worst famines in India's history. It is a gripping and scholarly investigation into what must count as one of the most shameful chapters in the history of the Empire.
The scarcity, Mukherjee writes, was caused by large-scale exports of food from India for use in the war theatres and consumption in Britain - India exported more than 70,000 tonnes of rice between January and July 1943, even as the famine set in. This would have kept nearly 400,000 people alive for a full year. Mr Churchill turned down fervent pleas to export food to India citing a shortage of ships - this when shiploads of Australian wheat, for example, would pass by India to be stored for future consumption in Europe. As imports dropped, prices shot up and hoarders made a killing. Mr Churchill also pushed a scorched earth policy - which went by the sinister name of Denial Policy - in coastal Bengal where the colonisers feared the Japanese would land. So authorities removed boats (the lifeline of the region) and the police destroyed and seized rice stocks.
Mukherjee tracks down some of the survivors of the famine and paints a chilling tale of the effects of hunger and deprivation. Parents dumped their starving children into rivers and wells. Many took their lives by throwing themselves in front of trains. Starving people begged for the starchy water in which rice had been boiled. Children ate leaves and vines, yam stems and grass. People were too weak even to cremate their loved ones. "No one had the strength to perform rites," a survivor tells Mukherjee. Dogs and jackals feasted on piles of dead bodies in Bengal's villages. The ones who got away were men who migrated to Calcutta for jobs and women who turned to prostitution to feed their families. "Mothers had turned into murderers, village belles into whores, fathers into traffickers of daughters," writes Mukherjee.
The famine ended at the end of the year when survivors harvested their rice crop. The first shipments of barley and wheat reached those in need only in November, by which time tens of thousands had already perished. Throughout the autumn of 1943, the United Kingdom's food and raw materials stockpile for its 47 million people - 14 million fewer than that of Bengal - swelled to 18.5m tonnes.
In the end, Mukherjee writes eloquently, it was "not so much racism as the imbalance of power inherent in the social Darwinian pyramid that explains why famine could be tolerated in India while bread rationing was regarded as an intolerable deprivation in wartime Britain". For colonial apologists, the book is essential reading. It is a terrifying account of how colonial rule is direly exploitative and, in this case, made worse by a man who made no bones of his contempt for India and its people.
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Monday, October 25, 2010
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Friday, October 22, 2010
Thursday, October 21, 2010
India malaria deaths hugely underestimated
By Ania Lichtarowicz Health reporter, BBC News
Malaria can be cured easily if diagnosed and treated quickly.The number of people dying from malaria in India has been hugely underestimated, according to new research.The data, published in the Lancet, suggests there are 13 times more malaria deaths in India than the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates. The authors conclude that more than 200,000 deaths per year are caused by malaria.The WHO said the estimate produced by this study appears too high. The research was funded by the US National Institutes of Health, the Canadian Institute of Health Research and the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute.The new figures raise doubts over the total number of malaria deaths worldwide.
Difficult diagnosis
Calculating how many people die from malaria is extremely difficult. Most cases that are diagnosed and treated do not result in fatalities.People who die of extremely high fevers in the community can be misdiagnosed and the cause of death can be attributed to other diseases and vice versa.As most deaths in India occur at home, without medical intervention, cause of death is seldom medically certified.There are about 1.3 million deaths from infectious diseases, where acute fever is the main symptom in rural areas in India.
In this study, trained field workers interviewed families, asking them to describe how their relative died. Two doctors then reviewed each description and decided if the death was caused by malaria. This method is called verbal autopsy.Some 122,000 premature deaths between 2001 and 2003 were investigated. The data suggests that 205,000 deaths before the age of 70, mainly in rural areas, are caused by malaria each year.
'Serious doubts'
The WHO estimated that malaria caused between 10,000-21,000 deaths in India in 2006.Malaria kills not just children but adults too in surprisingly large numbers.” Professor Prabhat Jha Centre for Global Health Research
The UN health agency welcomed new efforts to estimate the number of malaria deaths.
Dr Robert Newman, the director of its global malaria programme, said: "It is vital to evaluate cause of death correctly because different diseases require different strategies for control."He concedes that WHO current evaluation methods have their limitations, but has serious doubts about the high estimates from this study.Verbal autopsy, he said, was not a trustworthy method for counting malaria deaths because the symptoms of malaria are shared with many other common causes of acute fever.This, he said, along with what the WHO called "implausibly high case incidence rates", indicates that the findings of this study cannot be accepted without further validation.He added that the WHO is working closely with the Indian government in the fight against the disease.
Work needed
The authors say these figures, as well as global estimates, require urgent revision.Professor Prabhat Jha, director of the Centre for Global Health Research in Toronto, Canada, is one of the study's lead authors.He told BBC News: "Malaria kills not just children, but adults too in surprisingly large numbers."India is the most populous country where malaria is common, and it is a surprisingly common cause of death."He added that there is a real need to reconsider how malaria deaths are calculated and that similar analysis needs to be done in other highly populated malaria endemic countries.There may also be considerable under-reporting of malaria deaths in other highly populated countries like Bangladesh, Pakistan and Indonesia.
The authors say that aggressive malaria control programmes are needed, as well as scaling up treatment - particularly in adult rural populations.
Malaria can be cured easily if diagnosed and treated quickly.The number of people dying from malaria in India has been hugely underestimated, according to new research.The data, published in the Lancet, suggests there are 13 times more malaria deaths in India than the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates. The authors conclude that more than 200,000 deaths per year are caused by malaria.The WHO said the estimate produced by this study appears too high. The research was funded by the US National Institutes of Health, the Canadian Institute of Health Research and the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute.The new figures raise doubts over the total number of malaria deaths worldwide.
Difficult diagnosis
Calculating how many people die from malaria is extremely difficult. Most cases that are diagnosed and treated do not result in fatalities.People who die of extremely high fevers in the community can be misdiagnosed and the cause of death can be attributed to other diseases and vice versa.As most deaths in India occur at home, without medical intervention, cause of death is seldom medically certified.There are about 1.3 million deaths from infectious diseases, where acute fever is the main symptom in rural areas in India.
In this study, trained field workers interviewed families, asking them to describe how their relative died. Two doctors then reviewed each description and decided if the death was caused by malaria. This method is called verbal autopsy.Some 122,000 premature deaths between 2001 and 2003 were investigated. The data suggests that 205,000 deaths before the age of 70, mainly in rural areas, are caused by malaria each year.
'Serious doubts'
The WHO estimated that malaria caused between 10,000-21,000 deaths in India in 2006.Malaria kills not just children but adults too in surprisingly large numbers.” Professor Prabhat Jha Centre for Global Health Research
The UN health agency welcomed new efforts to estimate the number of malaria deaths.
Dr Robert Newman, the director of its global malaria programme, said: "It is vital to evaluate cause of death correctly because different diseases require different strategies for control."He concedes that WHO current evaluation methods have their limitations, but has serious doubts about the high estimates from this study.Verbal autopsy, he said, was not a trustworthy method for counting malaria deaths because the symptoms of malaria are shared with many other common causes of acute fever.This, he said, along with what the WHO called "implausibly high case incidence rates", indicates that the findings of this study cannot be accepted without further validation.He added that the WHO is working closely with the Indian government in the fight against the disease.
Work needed
The authors say these figures, as well as global estimates, require urgent revision.Professor Prabhat Jha, director of the Centre for Global Health Research in Toronto, Canada, is one of the study's lead authors.He told BBC News: "Malaria kills not just children, but adults too in surprisingly large numbers."India is the most populous country where malaria is common, and it is a surprisingly common cause of death."He added that there is a real need to reconsider how malaria deaths are calculated and that similar analysis needs to be done in other highly populated malaria endemic countries.There may also be considerable under-reporting of malaria deaths in other highly populated countries like Bangladesh, Pakistan and Indonesia.
The authors say that aggressive malaria control programmes are needed, as well as scaling up treatment - particularly in adult rural populations.
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Distorted Self Image in Obese People
Study: Many Obese People Think They Look Great the Way They Are
By Meredith Melnick Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Getting obese patients to lose weight is tricky to begin with, but doctors may have a bigger battle than they thought: many clinically obese men and women think they're already at a healthy weight.
In a study of 2,056 obese people in Dallas County (all participants had a body mass index, or BMI, of 30 or higher), researchers asked each participant to look at nine illustrations of bodies, from very thin to very obese. The volunteers were asked to pick their ideal shape along with the one that most closely resembled their own body. About 165 people, or 8% of the group, chose ideal body shapes that were the same or bigger than their own, suggesting a misunderstanding of healthy weight. (More on Time.com: Study: Obese Workers Cost Employers $73 Billion Per Year).
Level of education or money had no bearing on people's self-assessments, but race did: 14% of black participants had distorted body image, preferring an obese form, compared with 11% of Hispanics and just 2% of white respondents.
People who thought they looked good also said they felt good and were unconcerned about their health. Reuters reports:
People who misperceived their body size were happier with their health, and felt healthier, than those who did recognize their obesity; they were also more likely to think they were at low risk of developing high blood pressure or diabetes or having a heart attack during their lifetimes. In fact, two-thirds of people with body size misperception thought they were at low risk of becoming obese.
The study "points to really a lack of understanding about the effects of obesity," [Dr. Tiffany M.] Powell [of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center] told Reuters Health. At the same time, she added, "you walk a fine line, because you don't want people to necessarily have an unhealthy body image, but you also want people to understand that they need to lose weight."
A healthy acceptance of one's own body is undoubtedly critical to good self-esteem. But a lack of awareness of one's own obesity can lead to undiagnosed obesity-related conditions including sleep apnea, high blood pressure and diabetes. (More on Time.com: Do Parents Discriminate Against Their Own Chubby Children?).
The findings bring to mind a famous 2007 study by Dr. Nicholas Christakis, a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, and James Fowler, a political scientist at University of California, San Diego, that found that the more exposure a person had to obesity — in the form of fat friends — the more likely that person was to become obese himself or herself. The researchers called it a "contagion effect," and found that obesity spread more efficiently through networks of friends than through family members or neighbors. TIME reported:
The obvious question is, Why? Spouses share meals and a backyard, but the researchers found a much smaller risk of gaining weight — a 37% increase — when one spouse became obese. Siblings share genes, but their influence, too, was much smaller, increasing each other's risk 40%. Fowler believes the effect has much more to do with social norms: whom we look to when considering appropriate social behavior. Having fat friends makes being fat seem more acceptable. "Your spouse may not be the person you look to when you're deciding what kind of body image is appropriate, how much to eat or how much to exercise," Fowler says. Nor do we necessarily compare ourselves to our siblings. "We get to choose our friends," says. "We don't get to choose our families."
Similarly, the author of the new Texas study theorized that the high rate of obesity in the U.S., where two-thirds of adults are overweight or obese, has helped normalize obesity in the public's perception. Powell told Reuters: "There is this tendency that if everyone around you looks a certain way, you either want to look that way or you're comfortable looking the way you are." (More on Time.com: Explaining the Gender Gap: Obesity Costs Women a Lot More Than Men).
The good news, from a public-health perspective, is that if the contagion effect holds true for weight gain, it may also work in the opposite direction, helping networks of friends lose weight and get healthy.
Read more: http://healthland.time.com/2010/10/19/study-many-obese-people-think-they-look-great-the-way-they-are/?hpt=C2#ixzz12qjJb8OX
By Meredith Melnick Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Getting obese patients to lose weight is tricky to begin with, but doctors may have a bigger battle than they thought: many clinically obese men and women think they're already at a healthy weight.
In a study of 2,056 obese people in Dallas County (all participants had a body mass index, or BMI, of 30 or higher), researchers asked each participant to look at nine illustrations of bodies, from very thin to very obese. The volunteers were asked to pick their ideal shape along with the one that most closely resembled their own body. About 165 people, or 8% of the group, chose ideal body shapes that were the same or bigger than their own, suggesting a misunderstanding of healthy weight. (More on Time.com: Study: Obese Workers Cost Employers $73 Billion Per Year).
Level of education or money had no bearing on people's self-assessments, but race did: 14% of black participants had distorted body image, preferring an obese form, compared with 11% of Hispanics and just 2% of white respondents.
People who thought they looked good also said they felt good and were unconcerned about their health. Reuters reports:
People who misperceived their body size were happier with their health, and felt healthier, than those who did recognize their obesity; they were also more likely to think they were at low risk of developing high blood pressure or diabetes or having a heart attack during their lifetimes. In fact, two-thirds of people with body size misperception thought they were at low risk of becoming obese.
The study "points to really a lack of understanding about the effects of obesity," [Dr. Tiffany M.] Powell [of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center] told Reuters Health. At the same time, she added, "you walk a fine line, because you don't want people to necessarily have an unhealthy body image, but you also want people to understand that they need to lose weight."
A healthy acceptance of one's own body is undoubtedly critical to good self-esteem. But a lack of awareness of one's own obesity can lead to undiagnosed obesity-related conditions including sleep apnea, high blood pressure and diabetes. (More on Time.com: Do Parents Discriminate Against Their Own Chubby Children?).
The findings bring to mind a famous 2007 study by Dr. Nicholas Christakis, a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, and James Fowler, a political scientist at University of California, San Diego, that found that the more exposure a person had to obesity — in the form of fat friends — the more likely that person was to become obese himself or herself. The researchers called it a "contagion effect," and found that obesity spread more efficiently through networks of friends than through family members or neighbors. TIME reported:
The obvious question is, Why? Spouses share meals and a backyard, but the researchers found a much smaller risk of gaining weight — a 37% increase — when one spouse became obese. Siblings share genes, but their influence, too, was much smaller, increasing each other's risk 40%. Fowler believes the effect has much more to do with social norms: whom we look to when considering appropriate social behavior. Having fat friends makes being fat seem more acceptable. "Your spouse may not be the person you look to when you're deciding what kind of body image is appropriate, how much to eat or how much to exercise," Fowler says. Nor do we necessarily compare ourselves to our siblings. "We get to choose our friends," says. "We don't get to choose our families."
Similarly, the author of the new Texas study theorized that the high rate of obesity in the U.S., where two-thirds of adults are overweight or obese, has helped normalize obesity in the public's perception. Powell told Reuters: "There is this tendency that if everyone around you looks a certain way, you either want to look that way or you're comfortable looking the way you are." (More on Time.com: Explaining the Gender Gap: Obesity Costs Women a Lot More Than Men).
The good news, from a public-health perspective, is that if the contagion effect holds true for weight gain, it may also work in the opposite direction, helping networks of friends lose weight and get healthy.
Read more: http://healthland.time.com/2010/10/19/study-many-obese-people-think-they-look-great-the-way-they-are/?hpt=C2#ixzz12qjJb8OX
Monday, October 18, 2010
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Friday, October 15, 2010
China's future leader?
China’s leaders
Beijing, China (CNN) -- When the Communist Party's elite meet in Beijing this weekend for the Central Committee's 5th plenary session, all eyes will be on China's Vice President Xi Jinping.
Xi, 57, is expected to assume the presidency when Hu Jintao steps down after his second and final term in 2012.
But whether Xi is on track to succeed Hu will depend on whether the plenum elects him vice chairman of the Central Military Commission, a powerful group that oversees the 2 million-strong People's Liberation Army (PLA).
The post is important symbolically and practically. Without it, Xi will remain an outsider in military affairs. If appointed, it will follow an old tradition --- Hu was also promoted to the position years before he got the party's top job.
But who is Xi Jinping (pronounced Shee Jeen Ping) and what kind of leader would he be?
Little is known about Xi's political views. Analysts say he appears to be market-friendly but cautious on political reform and that he shares concerns about maintaining the rule of the Communist Party and the need to keep social stability.
"The general impression of Xi Jinping is, he is a very circumspect person," said Gao Zhikai, a political commentator in Beijing. "In public he is very careful, very prudent. He is not a very emotional person, at least in public."
Xi's detractors say he lacks charisma. He is portly and far from being a household name. In fact, he is better known in China because of his wife, Peng Lijuan, a popular folk singer in the 1980s.
However, Xi boasts an impeccable political pedigree. He comes from an elite group known as the "princelings," the children of powerful officials. His father was a revolutionary hero who served as vice premier and vice chairman of China's legislature.
See more of CNN's special coverage of China
In the late 1960s, when his father was purged during the Cultural Revolution, Xi worked on a farming commune in the countryside.
He went on to become a local party chief and, in 1975, enrolled at Beijing's prestigious Tsinghua University --- Hu's alma mater -- and he has earned chemical engineering and law degrees. He is known to have served in the PLA, but only briefly.
With his political background and technocratic education, he would be what the Chinese call "you hong you zhuan" (both red --- or communist -- and expert).
Like other Chinese leaders of his generation, Xi spent more than a decade working his way up the party ladder. He pushed for market reforms and headed a special economic zone in Fujian, a booming coastal province facing Taiwan.
In 2002, he was appointed party chief of Zhejiang province, a breeding ground of private enterprises in China. In September 2006, he was abruptly transferred to Shanghai to replace Chen Liangyu, the local party chief who was sacked over alleged corruption. His task: clean up the mess.
Xi has been Hu's understudy since October 2007, when he was appointed a member of the nine-man Politburo Standing Committee, the most powerful policy-making body in the People's Republic.
A year later, he was elected vice president of China. Since then, he has taken up important portfolios, serving as China's point-man during the Olympic Games in 2008. He has traveled overseas many times, bringing a retinue of business executives and signing multi-million-dollar trade deals.
In his dealings with others, Xi is said to be calm and unemotional. One rare exception was when he criticized foreigners while visiting Mexico last year. Speaking to Mexico's Chinese community, Xi was caught in a video clip chastising foreign critics.
"Some foreigners who are bored and have nothing better to do than point their fingers at our affairs," he said, according to Chinese-language media in Hong Kong. "(But) China does not, first, export revolution, second, export poverty and hunger, and third, cause unnecessary trouble for them. What else is there to say?"
The bi-annual meeting of the Communist Party's 300-member Central Committee will try to reach a consensus on how the handover of power will play out in 2012.
Xi is expected to come out of it with an additional title of vice chairman of the military commission.
"This way, Xi will have two years in training before taking over from Hu," said Wenran Jiang, professor of political science at the University of Alberta. "Not to promote him now may leave more speculation on whether or not the transfer of power is going smoothly."
The policy-making body is also expected to discuss China's next five-year plan. Sources say it will put forward the goal of "inclusive growth," spreading the wealth generated by economic growth among all sectors and to achieve balance in economic and social progress -- as recently expounded upon by Hu.
The blueprint, Chinese media reports say, will call for development of strategic industries, including information technology, biotech and energy-saving technologies.
Despite 30 years of astonishing economic growth, China today faces a host of intractable challenges -- a growing gap between the rich and poor, rising unemployment, environmental issues and corruption. Xi and his comrades, the so-called Fifth Generation of leaders, are going to inherit them, and more.
The country's leaders are also currently under political pressure. Supporters of jailed dissident Liu Xiaobo are agitating for his release after he was awarded this year's Nobel Peace Prize. Earlier, a group of prominent Chinese intellectuals published a strongly-worded open letter, calling for freedom of speech.
The number of "mass incidents" -- large demonstrations, labor strikes, farmer protests -- are on the rise, too. Often, they deteriorate into violence, disorder and greater repression. China grapples with growing labor discontent
But corruption will remain one of the toughest challenges for China's next leader. Corruption drains the public coffers. It also undermines the legitimacy of the Communist Party and fuels social unrest.
The party leaders are discussing measures -- it's not clear if they will finalize them at their upcoming meeting -- to improve "good governance" that will help curb corruption. By setting such goals, Hu and Xi intend to reinforce Communist Party control by adapting to the changing times.
Beijing, China (CNN) -- When the Communist Party's elite meet in Beijing this weekend for the Central Committee's 5th plenary session, all eyes will be on China's Vice President Xi Jinping.
Xi, 57, is expected to assume the presidency when Hu Jintao steps down after his second and final term in 2012.
But whether Xi is on track to succeed Hu will depend on whether the plenum elects him vice chairman of the Central Military Commission, a powerful group that oversees the 2 million-strong People's Liberation Army (PLA).
The post is important symbolically and practically. Without it, Xi will remain an outsider in military affairs. If appointed, it will follow an old tradition --- Hu was also promoted to the position years before he got the party's top job.
But who is Xi Jinping (pronounced Shee Jeen Ping) and what kind of leader would he be?
Little is known about Xi's political views. Analysts say he appears to be market-friendly but cautious on political reform and that he shares concerns about maintaining the rule of the Communist Party and the need to keep social stability.
"The general impression of Xi Jinping is, he is a very circumspect person," said Gao Zhikai, a political commentator in Beijing. "In public he is very careful, very prudent. He is not a very emotional person, at least in public."
Xi's detractors say he lacks charisma. He is portly and far from being a household name. In fact, he is better known in China because of his wife, Peng Lijuan, a popular folk singer in the 1980s.
However, Xi boasts an impeccable political pedigree. He comes from an elite group known as the "princelings," the children of powerful officials. His father was a revolutionary hero who served as vice premier and vice chairman of China's legislature.
See more of CNN's special coverage of China
In the late 1960s, when his father was purged during the Cultural Revolution, Xi worked on a farming commune in the countryside.
He went on to become a local party chief and, in 1975, enrolled at Beijing's prestigious Tsinghua University --- Hu's alma mater -- and he has earned chemical engineering and law degrees. He is known to have served in the PLA, but only briefly.
With his political background and technocratic education, he would be what the Chinese call "you hong you zhuan" (both red --- or communist -- and expert).
Like other Chinese leaders of his generation, Xi spent more than a decade working his way up the party ladder. He pushed for market reforms and headed a special economic zone in Fujian, a booming coastal province facing Taiwan.
In 2002, he was appointed party chief of Zhejiang province, a breeding ground of private enterprises in China. In September 2006, he was abruptly transferred to Shanghai to replace Chen Liangyu, the local party chief who was sacked over alleged corruption. His task: clean up the mess.
Xi has been Hu's understudy since October 2007, when he was appointed a member of the nine-man Politburo Standing Committee, the most powerful policy-making body in the People's Republic.
A year later, he was elected vice president of China. Since then, he has taken up important portfolios, serving as China's point-man during the Olympic Games in 2008. He has traveled overseas many times, bringing a retinue of business executives and signing multi-million-dollar trade deals.
In his dealings with others, Xi is said to be calm and unemotional. One rare exception was when he criticized foreigners while visiting Mexico last year. Speaking to Mexico's Chinese community, Xi was caught in a video clip chastising foreign critics.
"Some foreigners who are bored and have nothing better to do than point their fingers at our affairs," he said, according to Chinese-language media in Hong Kong. "(But) China does not, first, export revolution, second, export poverty and hunger, and third, cause unnecessary trouble for them. What else is there to say?"
The bi-annual meeting of the Communist Party's 300-member Central Committee will try to reach a consensus on how the handover of power will play out in 2012.
Xi is expected to come out of it with an additional title of vice chairman of the military commission.
"This way, Xi will have two years in training before taking over from Hu," said Wenran Jiang, professor of political science at the University of Alberta. "Not to promote him now may leave more speculation on whether or not the transfer of power is going smoothly."
The policy-making body is also expected to discuss China's next five-year plan. Sources say it will put forward the goal of "inclusive growth," spreading the wealth generated by economic growth among all sectors and to achieve balance in economic and social progress -- as recently expounded upon by Hu.
The blueprint, Chinese media reports say, will call for development of strategic industries, including information technology, biotech and energy-saving technologies.
Despite 30 years of astonishing economic growth, China today faces a host of intractable challenges -- a growing gap between the rich and poor, rising unemployment, environmental issues and corruption. Xi and his comrades, the so-called Fifth Generation of leaders, are going to inherit them, and more.
The country's leaders are also currently under political pressure. Supporters of jailed dissident Liu Xiaobo are agitating for his release after he was awarded this year's Nobel Peace Prize. Earlier, a group of prominent Chinese intellectuals published a strongly-worded open letter, calling for freedom of speech.
The number of "mass incidents" -- large demonstrations, labor strikes, farmer protests -- are on the rise, too. Often, they deteriorate into violence, disorder and greater repression. China grapples with growing labor discontent
But corruption will remain one of the toughest challenges for China's next leader. Corruption drains the public coffers. It also undermines the legitimacy of the Communist Party and fuels social unrest.
The party leaders are discussing measures -- it's not clear if they will finalize them at their upcoming meeting -- to improve "good governance" that will help curb corruption. By setting such goals, Hu and Xi intend to reinforce Communist Party control by adapting to the changing times.
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Sigmund's perspective of civilization
The first human who hurled an insult instead of a stone was the founder of civilization.
Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Intensive care crisis looms
Experts believe there will not be more intensive care beds as health budgets shrink The relatively low number of intensive care beds in UK hospitals means it is poorly prepared for major disasters, a report in the Lancet says.
Critical care experts say there may be as few as 3.5 intensive care beds per 100,000 people in the UK, compared with more than 24 per 100,000 in Germany.
The experts from Canada also said demand for intensive care was likely to rise with an ageing population.
A Department of Health spokesman said the number of beds was rising. Dr Gordon Rubenfeld, from Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto, said that huge investment would be needed to keep pace with the growing demand for intensive care services. One figure suggests that by 2030, the incidence of acute lung injury will have risen 50%, driven by pneumonia cases in older people. Dr Rubenfeld analysed the availability of critical care beds in various countries, and while conceding that the figure of 3.5 per 100,000 might under-represent the true position, he concluded that, at present levels, the UK would not be in a good position to deal with the extra demands of a disaster.
He said: "It is clear that the UK is at the low end of ICU bed capacity, and thus would have decreased ability to cope with a large-scale disaster with many critically injured casualties." "If we have a pandemic of normal winter flu we would be stretched to the limit” Dr Kevin Gunning Addenbrooke's Hospital
Currently, an intensive care bed costs the NHS about £1,500 a day, and Professor Mervyn Singer, from University College London, said it was unrealistic to expect a significant expansion of intensive care at a time when health budgets were shrinking in real terms. He said: "We are clearly in a worse position than some other countries because there is no spare capacity in the system, with many units running at 100% capacity, or close to it."While it would be nice to have extra wards and staff ready in the event of a disaster, it is not a particularly pragmatic expectation.
"There are things you can do in the event of a disaster, such as cancelling surgery, which frees up beds, but it is very much a 'make do and mend' approach in these circumstances."
Dr Kevin Gunning, a consultant in intensive care at Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge, and a spokesman for the Intensive Care Society, said that in the event of a major pandemic or other disaster, the true determinant of intensive care capacity would be staff such as trained nurses rather than beds or equipment.While there had been significant improvements since the year 2000, when a severe outbreak of winter flu caused problems across the NHS, he said the UK was still relatively poorly resourced compared with much of western Europe.
He said: "It's fair to say that we would have struggled with a flu pandemic of the scale some were predicting last year. "If we have a pandemic of normal winter flu we would be stretched to the limit."A Department of Health spokesman said: "The number of beds has increased and continues to increase but more does need to be done in some areas."However, international comparisons are difficult because there is no internationally agreed or clearly accepted definition of a 'critical care bed' or in the way that services are configured and delivered.
"It is for local healthcare commissioners and providers to assess the number of critical care beds needed locally to meet the demands of their population."
Critical care experts say there may be as few as 3.5 intensive care beds per 100,000 people in the UK, compared with more than 24 per 100,000 in Germany.
The experts from Canada also said demand for intensive care was likely to rise with an ageing population.
A Department of Health spokesman said the number of beds was rising. Dr Gordon Rubenfeld, from Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto, said that huge investment would be needed to keep pace with the growing demand for intensive care services. One figure suggests that by 2030, the incidence of acute lung injury will have risen 50%, driven by pneumonia cases in older people. Dr Rubenfeld analysed the availability of critical care beds in various countries, and while conceding that the figure of 3.5 per 100,000 might under-represent the true position, he concluded that, at present levels, the UK would not be in a good position to deal with the extra demands of a disaster.
He said: "It is clear that the UK is at the low end of ICU bed capacity, and thus would have decreased ability to cope with a large-scale disaster with many critically injured casualties." "If we have a pandemic of normal winter flu we would be stretched to the limit” Dr Kevin Gunning Addenbrooke's Hospital
Currently, an intensive care bed costs the NHS about £1,500 a day, and Professor Mervyn Singer, from University College London, said it was unrealistic to expect a significant expansion of intensive care at a time when health budgets were shrinking in real terms. He said: "We are clearly in a worse position than some other countries because there is no spare capacity in the system, with many units running at 100% capacity, or close to it."While it would be nice to have extra wards and staff ready in the event of a disaster, it is not a particularly pragmatic expectation.
"There are things you can do in the event of a disaster, such as cancelling surgery, which frees up beds, but it is very much a 'make do and mend' approach in these circumstances."
Dr Kevin Gunning, a consultant in intensive care at Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge, and a spokesman for the Intensive Care Society, said that in the event of a major pandemic or other disaster, the true determinant of intensive care capacity would be staff such as trained nurses rather than beds or equipment.While there had been significant improvements since the year 2000, when a severe outbreak of winter flu caused problems across the NHS, he said the UK was still relatively poorly resourced compared with much of western Europe.
He said: "It's fair to say that we would have struggled with a flu pandemic of the scale some were predicting last year. "If we have a pandemic of normal winter flu we would be stretched to the limit."A Department of Health spokesman said: "The number of beds has increased and continues to increase but more does need to be done in some areas."However, international comparisons are difficult because there is no internationally agreed or clearly accepted definition of a 'critical care bed' or in the way that services are configured and delivered.
"It is for local healthcare commissioners and providers to assess the number of critical care beds needed locally to meet the demands of their population."
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Monday, October 11, 2010
Thanks Giving
There are times when it is harder to make a gratitude list. When that happens, I find it helpful to remember all of the blessings that I have had in my life especially at times when I was happier. The first Christmas after my divorce when the kids were not with me and I was devastated, I flew out to have Christmas with a maternal aunt. I was struggling to find perspective and a hopeful vision for my future but all I could see in the grey days leading up to a BC Christmas was what I had lost. Then, the Sunday before Christmas some light broke through my clouded mind and I was able to reflect on how many wonderful Christmases I had experienced in my married life- and there were many- even the Christmas I got out of the hospital on Christmas Eve after my cancer surgery was magical. Remembering how many, many Christmases I had savoured and celebrated - the gleeming eyes of joyful children, the Christmas Eves spent with the man I loved in preparation for the mornings of ecstatic squeals, the stockings, the excitement of unselfish children watching with shining hope as a sibling unwrapped the gift that they had chosen for them, made me remember how many people never have a great Christmas and I felt somehow restored. In realizing that we can never have everything and that when the balance sheet reads on the positive side I should be grateful was helpful to me. It changed my attitude and I felt better.
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Saturday, October 9, 2010
Friday, October 8, 2010
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Life in colour
Life is a great big canvas, and you should throw all the paint on it you can.
Danny Kaye
Danny Kaye
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Climate change talks in China
Climate change talks open in China
Last Updated: Monday, October 4, 2010
5:41 AM ET
The Associated Press
The United Nations climate chief urged countries Monday to identify achievable goals for fighting climate change ahead of a year-end meeting in Mexico, after last year's Copenhagen summit failed to produce binding limits on greenhouse gas.
Christiana Figueres told 3,000 delegates at the opening of a six-day conference in China — the world's biggest carbon emitter — that they must "accelerate the search for common ground" ahead of December talks in Cancun to make progress toward securing a global climate change treaty.
"As governments, you can continue to stand still or move forward. Now is the time to make that choice," she told delegates in the northern port of Tianjin. "If you want a tangible outcome in December, now is the time to clarify what could constitute an achievable and politically balanced package for Cancun, and what could be subject to further work after Cancun," she said.
Last year's UN climate summit in Copenhagen disappointed many environmentalists and political leaders when it failed to produce a global and legally binding treaty on curbing the greenhouse gases that cause global warming. Instead, nations agreed to a non-binding political declaration on fighting climate change.The talks are meant to produce a replacement for the Kyoto Protocol, whose relatively modest emissions reductions expire in 2012.
This year, expectations have been downsized as it has become obvious that countries remain deadlocked over the same issues. Distrust has only deepened between developed and developing countries over how to cut the greenhouse gas emissions. As the host, China will seek to reduce those differences, said State Counselor Dai Bingguo, the country's top foreign policy official, who urged countries to renew efforts in order to "hammer out a binding agreement at an early date."
With a single climate package deal unlikely, the focus has turned to finding areas of agreement on essential components, including financing and transfer of clean technology and ways of reducing deforestation. Much of what needs to happen in Tianjin is the less tangible task of restoring trust and some momentum in order to "set the stage for what's realistically possible in Cancun," said Jake Schmidt, International Climate Policy Director for the U.S.-based Natural Resources Defence Council.
Two of the key pieces will be financing and transparency, he said. At Copenhagen, rich countries had pledged to give $30 billion over three years in climate funding to poor nations, rising to a total of $100 billion dollars annually by 2020, but little money has materialized so far.
"It's critical that countries move on really delivering the 'prompt-start' funding and show those commitments are real. We have a long history of developed countries promised a lot of money and not committing so it's a chance for developed countries to prove this time is different," he said. With China playing host to the climate talks for the first time, it has the opportunity to highlight its own commitment to clean energy, said Deborah Seligsohn, a Beijing-based adviser with the World Resources Institute.
Last year, China pledged it would cut its carbon intensity — emissions per unit of GDP — by 40 to 45 per cent by 2020 from the 2005 level. Nationwide efforts have also been made to reach the goal of improving energy efficiency by 20 per cent from 2005 to 2010.
Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2010/10/04/china-climate-conference.html#ixzz11WgAsXE5
Last Updated: Monday, October 4, 2010
5:41 AM ET
The Associated Press
The United Nations climate chief urged countries Monday to identify achievable goals for fighting climate change ahead of a year-end meeting in Mexico, after last year's Copenhagen summit failed to produce binding limits on greenhouse gas.
Christiana Figueres told 3,000 delegates at the opening of a six-day conference in China — the world's biggest carbon emitter — that they must "accelerate the search for common ground" ahead of December talks in Cancun to make progress toward securing a global climate change treaty.
"As governments, you can continue to stand still or move forward. Now is the time to make that choice," she told delegates in the northern port of Tianjin. "If you want a tangible outcome in December, now is the time to clarify what could constitute an achievable and politically balanced package for Cancun, and what could be subject to further work after Cancun," she said.
Last year's UN climate summit in Copenhagen disappointed many environmentalists and political leaders when it failed to produce a global and legally binding treaty on curbing the greenhouse gases that cause global warming. Instead, nations agreed to a non-binding political declaration on fighting climate change.The talks are meant to produce a replacement for the Kyoto Protocol, whose relatively modest emissions reductions expire in 2012.
This year, expectations have been downsized as it has become obvious that countries remain deadlocked over the same issues. Distrust has only deepened between developed and developing countries over how to cut the greenhouse gas emissions. As the host, China will seek to reduce those differences, said State Counselor Dai Bingguo, the country's top foreign policy official, who urged countries to renew efforts in order to "hammer out a binding agreement at an early date."
With a single climate package deal unlikely, the focus has turned to finding areas of agreement on essential components, including financing and transfer of clean technology and ways of reducing deforestation. Much of what needs to happen in Tianjin is the less tangible task of restoring trust and some momentum in order to "set the stage for what's realistically possible in Cancun," said Jake Schmidt, International Climate Policy Director for the U.S.-based Natural Resources Defence Council.
Two of the key pieces will be financing and transparency, he said. At Copenhagen, rich countries had pledged to give $30 billion over three years in climate funding to poor nations, rising to a total of $100 billion dollars annually by 2020, but little money has materialized so far.
"It's critical that countries move on really delivering the 'prompt-start' funding and show those commitments are real. We have a long history of developed countries promised a lot of money and not committing so it's a chance for developed countries to prove this time is different," he said. With China playing host to the climate talks for the first time, it has the opportunity to highlight its own commitment to clean energy, said Deborah Seligsohn, a Beijing-based adviser with the World Resources Institute.
Last year, China pledged it would cut its carbon intensity — emissions per unit of GDP — by 40 to 45 per cent by 2020 from the 2005 level. Nationwide efforts have also been made to reach the goal of improving energy efficiency by 20 per cent from 2005 to 2010.
Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2010/10/04/china-climate-conference.html#ixzz11WgAsXE5
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Vitamin D
Recent research into the preventive benefits of vitamin D has raised hopes that the sunshine vitamin, which is produced naturally in the body through exposure to the sun's ultraviolet rays, could extend and improve people's lives.
In September 2007, an analysis of 18 randomized controlled trials involving people over the age of 50 found that people who took at least 500 international units (IU) of vitamin D daily had a seven per cent lower risk of death compared with those given a placebo.
Lead researcher Dr. Philippe Autier said it was not clear how the supplements lowered risks of mortality, but he suggested that vitamin D may block cancer cell proliferation or improve blood vessel and immune system functions. The study, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, reviewed research involving 57,311 participants.
The findings are part of a growing body of research regarding vitamin D's benefits. In June 2007, the Canadian Cancer Society said that based on current research adults should consider increasing their daily dosage of vitamin D. The society said Canadians should now consume 1,000 IU of vitamin D daily during the fall and winter months, in consultation with a health-care provider.
The society noted, however, that more research on appropriate dosage levels is needed and said it would update its recommendations as new studies are released.
How much vitamin D do you need to reach healthy levels if you are deficient?
While most researchers are recommending people take in 1,000 IU of vitamin D every day, it's estimated that people with low levels of vitamin D in their blood would need to take in 3,000 IU to raise their levels.
Osteoporosis Canada says people who need high doses to reach optimal vitamin D levels can take in up to 2,000 IU without medical supervision, but monitoring may be needed if higher doses are required.
It takes about 18 minutes of midday sun exposure for your body to absorb that much vitamin D — or three times the daily recommended dosage in supplements, when sun is not an option.
Promising research
A study published in the June 2007 issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found a 60 to 77 per cent decrease in cancer rates in postmenopausal women who took a daily dose of 1,100 IU of vitamin D combined with calcium over women who were given a placebo or calcium alone. The double-blind clinical study, conducted over four years, tested healthy women over the age of 55 living in rural Nebraska. Critics of the study cautioned that a larger study would have yielded more reliable and conclusive results.
But Reinhold Vieth, a nutritional scientist at the University of Toronto, said the study is the last piece of evidence for which many in the field have been waiting. Vieth said that many cells in the body use vitamin D to produce a signaling molecule that allows the cells to communicate with each other.
"Those signals do things like helping cells to differentiate to recognize what kind of cell they should be becoming or they can signal cells to stop proliferating and those are good things in terms of cancer, you want differentiation so they become good well-behaved cells and you don't want them to keep replicating all the time," he said.
Other researchers have begun studying how the sunshine vitamin affects other forms of cancer.
Researchers at the University of California, San Diego, suggested in the March 2007 issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine that taking 2,000 IU of vitamin D daily along with 10 to 15 minutes in the sun and a healthy diet could reduce the incidence of colorectal cancer by two-thirds. The same authors found that breast cancer rates were 50 per cent lower in people with high levels of vitamin D in their blood, and suggested that the average person could maintain those levels by taking 2,000 IU of vitamin D daily and spending 10 to 15 minutes in the sun.
Recent studies indicate that vitamin D, which is produced naturally in the body through exposure to the sun's ultraviolet rays, can extend and improve people's lives. (David Longstreath/Associated Press)Similarly, a December 2006 study in more than seven million people found that white members of the U.S. military who had high blood levels of vitamin D were 62 per cent less likely to develop multiple sclerosis than those with the lowest levels of the vitamin. Researchers noted the findings were still too preliminary to suggest that a lack of vitamin D could trigger the nerve disorder.
A study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine on May 28, 2007, suggested that women who consume higher amounts of calcium and vitamin D may have a lower risk of developing breast cancer before menopause. The study followed more than 31,000 women aged 45 and older for 10 years. It found that intake of calcium and vitamin D was moderately associated with a lower risk of breast cancer before — but not after — menopause.
But not a panacea
How much is too much vitamin D?
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration says "excessive amounts of vitamin D can be harmful to infants, and may be characterized by nausea and vomiting, loss of appetite, excessive thirst, frequent urination, constipation, abdominal pain, muscle weakness, muscle and joint aches, confusion, and fatigue, as well as more serious consequences such as kidney damage."
The FDA recommends no more than 400 IU of vitamin D a day for children. Health Canada says half that is adequate for people under the age of 50.
The FDA and Health Canada say 2,000 IU of vitamin D is the "tolerable upper intake level." If you take in much more than that, you could develop some of the symptoms described above.
However another study suggested the cancer-fighting properties of vitamin D may be not be universal. The study, published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, found that a higher level of vitamin D in men is not associated with a lower risk of developing prostate cancer. And in some cases, it may be linked to a higher risk of developing a more aggressive form of the disease.
Meanwhile, a study published in the June 9, 2008, issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine found that men with low levels of vitamin D may have an increased risk of heart attack. The study followed the medical records and blood samples of 454 men who had non-fatal heart attacks or fatal heart disease from January 1993 and January 2004. They compared the data from those men with records and blood samples of 900 living men who had no history of cardiovascular disease. The researchers also recorded diet and lifestyle factors.
The researchers found that after adjusting for several factors — including family history of heart trouble, body mass index, alcohol consumption, physical activity and hypertension — men with low levels of vitamin D (less than 15 nanograms per millilitre of blood) had a higher risk for developing heart disease than men with sufficient levels of vitamin D (30 nanograms per millilitre of blood or more).
In September 2007, an analysis of 18 randomized controlled trials involving people over the age of 50 found that people who took at least 500 international units (IU) of vitamin D daily had a seven per cent lower risk of death compared with those given a placebo.
Lead researcher Dr. Philippe Autier said it was not clear how the supplements lowered risks of mortality, but he suggested that vitamin D may block cancer cell proliferation or improve blood vessel and immune system functions. The study, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, reviewed research involving 57,311 participants.
The findings are part of a growing body of research regarding vitamin D's benefits. In June 2007, the Canadian Cancer Society said that based on current research adults should consider increasing their daily dosage of vitamin D. The society said Canadians should now consume 1,000 IU of vitamin D daily during the fall and winter months, in consultation with a health-care provider.
The society noted, however, that more research on appropriate dosage levels is needed and said it would update its recommendations as new studies are released.
How much vitamin D do you need to reach healthy levels if you are deficient?
While most researchers are recommending people take in 1,000 IU of vitamin D every day, it's estimated that people with low levels of vitamin D in their blood would need to take in 3,000 IU to raise their levels.
Osteoporosis Canada says people who need high doses to reach optimal vitamin D levels can take in up to 2,000 IU without medical supervision, but monitoring may be needed if higher doses are required.
It takes about 18 minutes of midday sun exposure for your body to absorb that much vitamin D — or three times the daily recommended dosage in supplements, when sun is not an option.
Promising research
A study published in the June 2007 issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found a 60 to 77 per cent decrease in cancer rates in postmenopausal women who took a daily dose of 1,100 IU of vitamin D combined with calcium over women who were given a placebo or calcium alone. The double-blind clinical study, conducted over four years, tested healthy women over the age of 55 living in rural Nebraska. Critics of the study cautioned that a larger study would have yielded more reliable and conclusive results.
But Reinhold Vieth, a nutritional scientist at the University of Toronto, said the study is the last piece of evidence for which many in the field have been waiting. Vieth said that many cells in the body use vitamin D to produce a signaling molecule that allows the cells to communicate with each other.
"Those signals do things like helping cells to differentiate to recognize what kind of cell they should be becoming or they can signal cells to stop proliferating and those are good things in terms of cancer, you want differentiation so they become good well-behaved cells and you don't want them to keep replicating all the time," he said.
Other researchers have begun studying how the sunshine vitamin affects other forms of cancer.
Researchers at the University of California, San Diego, suggested in the March 2007 issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine that taking 2,000 IU of vitamin D daily along with 10 to 15 minutes in the sun and a healthy diet could reduce the incidence of colorectal cancer by two-thirds. The same authors found that breast cancer rates were 50 per cent lower in people with high levels of vitamin D in their blood, and suggested that the average person could maintain those levels by taking 2,000 IU of vitamin D daily and spending 10 to 15 minutes in the sun.
Recent studies indicate that vitamin D, which is produced naturally in the body through exposure to the sun's ultraviolet rays, can extend and improve people's lives. (David Longstreath/Associated Press)Similarly, a December 2006 study in more than seven million people found that white members of the U.S. military who had high blood levels of vitamin D were 62 per cent less likely to develop multiple sclerosis than those with the lowest levels of the vitamin. Researchers noted the findings were still too preliminary to suggest that a lack of vitamin D could trigger the nerve disorder.
A study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine on May 28, 2007, suggested that women who consume higher amounts of calcium and vitamin D may have a lower risk of developing breast cancer before menopause. The study followed more than 31,000 women aged 45 and older for 10 years. It found that intake of calcium and vitamin D was moderately associated with a lower risk of breast cancer before — but not after — menopause.
But not a panacea
How much is too much vitamin D?
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration says "excessive amounts of vitamin D can be harmful to infants, and may be characterized by nausea and vomiting, loss of appetite, excessive thirst, frequent urination, constipation, abdominal pain, muscle weakness, muscle and joint aches, confusion, and fatigue, as well as more serious consequences such as kidney damage."
The FDA recommends no more than 400 IU of vitamin D a day for children. Health Canada says half that is adequate for people under the age of 50.
The FDA and Health Canada say 2,000 IU of vitamin D is the "tolerable upper intake level." If you take in much more than that, you could develop some of the symptoms described above.
However another study suggested the cancer-fighting properties of vitamin D may be not be universal. The study, published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, found that a higher level of vitamin D in men is not associated with a lower risk of developing prostate cancer. And in some cases, it may be linked to a higher risk of developing a more aggressive form of the disease.
Meanwhile, a study published in the June 9, 2008, issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine found that men with low levels of vitamin D may have an increased risk of heart attack. The study followed the medical records and blood samples of 454 men who had non-fatal heart attacks or fatal heart disease from January 1993 and January 2004. They compared the data from those men with records and blood samples of 900 living men who had no history of cardiovascular disease. The researchers also recorded diet and lifestyle factors.
The researchers found that after adjusting for several factors — including family history of heart trouble, body mass index, alcohol consumption, physical activity and hypertension — men with low levels of vitamin D (less than 15 nanograms per millilitre of blood) had a higher risk for developing heart disease than men with sufficient levels of vitamin D (30 nanograms per millilitre of blood or more).
Monday, October 4, 2010
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Friday, October 1, 2010
Productive discussion groups
The people
Good perspectives. Good thinkers. Good energy. That's what comes to mind when I think of the people I'd willing converse with on just about any topic. I know spending time with them, regardless of what we're talking about, will be a worthwhile investment of my time and energy. When planning meetings we need to convene conversations (and help participants do so) that allow individuals to easily connect with the people they find compelling ... because it will make their conversation more compelling.
For staff or team meetings, this means allowing smaller sets of individuals to convene, connect, and converse and then integrate their thinking with that form other small groups. For conferences this means making it easy for participants to find their desired conversation partners and then providing ample informal spaces where they can talk.
The topic
Even the most interesting participants can fall into routine thinking, so framing the topic in a compelling way may be required for the conversation itself to be compelling. This can be accomplished by:
Forcing participants to examine a question through new lenses. Give them a provocative quote or innovative example from another source and have them discuss its implications and applications for the topic at hand. TED Talks can be a great source for quick inspiration from big thinkers.
Crafting better questions that will unearth new thinking. This can be as simple as shifting the orientation of a questions. Instead of answering "how can we get more people to attend our programs?" spend time exploring "Where are there already a lot of people and how could we bring our programs to them?" Use language that challenges existing norms or requires looking at an issue from a new angle.
Applying personas to the problem under consideration. Marketing firms, television execs, and others create personas or detailed profiles representing the different demographics they are trying to reach. Paula is a 40-year old divorced mother of two living in a New Urban townhouse on the outskirts of a major city. They then examine ideas under consideration from the perspective of this persona: why would Paula watch this show, buy this product? We can do the same in our own conversations, adopting the persona of a member or stakeholder and exploring how they would respond to the program or service being discussed.
Changing how and where the conversations occur. If you need fresh thinking, you might need a fresh space or a fresh process for producing it. Sameness begets sameness. Have a conversation field trip and go a new site that will cause people to engage differently. Or make the time a Walk and Talk with small groups of individuals walking and talking about an assigned topic or question and then reporting back to the large group. Research shows our brain engages differently when our body is involved in nominal activity.
The output
I believe that the process often is the product, but I also appreciate that many people need to feel a sense of accomplishment beyond "just talk." Creating time for conference participants to reflect on conversations and identify actions they will take and offering a follow-up accountability check-in is one way to meet this need. If you attended a summer leadership workshop as a student, you may have addressed a letter to yourself that the workshop leaders mailed many months later to refresh the energy and inspiration you had "in the moment."
At conferences some content stays at a somewhat general level because of the diversity of the audience. As a result the conversation is not going to be completely compelling because it isn't specific enough. Create opportunities for individuals to gather with like-minded colleagues and discuss the "so what? now what?" connections of the more general ideas to which they have been exposed: i.e., after a general session offer breakouts where individuals with the same job functions can gather and converse.
Dwelling longer in possibilities, not probabilities. In his book The Design of Business, author Roger Martin talks about how some innovative ideas can't necessarily be initially supported by data. Turning our conversation too quickly to what we know will work means we will resort to thinking anchored in the past and present as opposed to what might be possible in the future. Having facilitation or an agenda that hols people in "What if?" thinking is required for compelling conversation.
Reviewing group decisions and next steps at the end of a team meeting helps fuel a sense of accomplishment as does identifying simple strategies for keeping the conversation alive: adding a few questions to your team discussion boards, posting them on flipchart paper in the break area where additional ideas can be shared, generating a mantra that can inform your mission and the daily actions in which individual engage, or the formal leadership refreshing the conversations regularly in their interactions with others.
Good perspectives. Good thinkers. Good energy. That's what comes to mind when I think of the people I'd willing converse with on just about any topic. I know spending time with them, regardless of what we're talking about, will be a worthwhile investment of my time and energy. When planning meetings we need to convene conversations (and help participants do so) that allow individuals to easily connect with the people they find compelling ... because it will make their conversation more compelling.
For staff or team meetings, this means allowing smaller sets of individuals to convene, connect, and converse and then integrate their thinking with that form other small groups. For conferences this means making it easy for participants to find their desired conversation partners and then providing ample informal spaces where they can talk.
The topic
Even the most interesting participants can fall into routine thinking, so framing the topic in a compelling way may be required for the conversation itself to be compelling. This can be accomplished by:
Forcing participants to examine a question through new lenses. Give them a provocative quote or innovative example from another source and have them discuss its implications and applications for the topic at hand. TED Talks can be a great source for quick inspiration from big thinkers.
Crafting better questions that will unearth new thinking. This can be as simple as shifting the orientation of a questions. Instead of answering "how can we get more people to attend our programs?" spend time exploring "Where are there already a lot of people and how could we bring our programs to them?" Use language that challenges existing norms or requires looking at an issue from a new angle.
Applying personas to the problem under consideration. Marketing firms, television execs, and others create personas or detailed profiles representing the different demographics they are trying to reach. Paula is a 40-year old divorced mother of two living in a New Urban townhouse on the outskirts of a major city. They then examine ideas under consideration from the perspective of this persona: why would Paula watch this show, buy this product? We can do the same in our own conversations, adopting the persona of a member or stakeholder and exploring how they would respond to the program or service being discussed.
Changing how and where the conversations occur. If you need fresh thinking, you might need a fresh space or a fresh process for producing it. Sameness begets sameness. Have a conversation field trip and go a new site that will cause people to engage differently. Or make the time a Walk and Talk with small groups of individuals walking and talking about an assigned topic or question and then reporting back to the large group. Research shows our brain engages differently when our body is involved in nominal activity.
The output
I believe that the process often is the product, but I also appreciate that many people need to feel a sense of accomplishment beyond "just talk." Creating time for conference participants to reflect on conversations and identify actions they will take and offering a follow-up accountability check-in is one way to meet this need. If you attended a summer leadership workshop as a student, you may have addressed a letter to yourself that the workshop leaders mailed many months later to refresh the energy and inspiration you had "in the moment."
At conferences some content stays at a somewhat general level because of the diversity of the audience. As a result the conversation is not going to be completely compelling because it isn't specific enough. Create opportunities for individuals to gather with like-minded colleagues and discuss the "so what? now what?" connections of the more general ideas to which they have been exposed: i.e., after a general session offer breakouts where individuals with the same job functions can gather and converse.
Dwelling longer in possibilities, not probabilities. In his book The Design of Business, author Roger Martin talks about how some innovative ideas can't necessarily be initially supported by data. Turning our conversation too quickly to what we know will work means we will resort to thinking anchored in the past and present as opposed to what might be possible in the future. Having facilitation or an agenda that hols people in "What if?" thinking is required for compelling conversation.
Reviewing group decisions and next steps at the end of a team meeting helps fuel a sense of accomplishment as does identifying simple strategies for keeping the conversation alive: adding a few questions to your team discussion boards, posting them on flipchart paper in the break area where additional ideas can be shared, generating a mantra that can inform your mission and the daily actions in which individual engage, or the formal leadership refreshing the conversations regularly in their interactions with others.
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