June 9, 2017 better living through hyperlinks: alcohol and your hippocampus, eating late is bad for you, and stop it with the hCG

Even moderate alcohol consumption is associated with atrophy of the hippocampus, the part of your brain that consolidates short-term memories into long-term memories.

More evidence that eating (instead of sleeping) late in the day is bad for you.

Small, small study, and data not available in a peer-reviewed publication yet, but "After controlling for sleep duration, the laboratory study involving healthy volunteers found that compared to eating during the daytime, prolonged eating that began at noon and went as late as 11 p.m. was associated with weight gain, increases in insulin and cholesterol levels, and impaired fat metabolism." My previous warnings about data presented only at conferences applies here, but considering the apparent care put into the study, and its funder (NIH), this'll probably end up published. 

For God's sake, stop taking hCG for weight loss.

It's been shown time and time again not to work, and it's expensive and weird. Stop it. 

Spring link 5-pack April 26, 2017

What are Americans dying of? Spoiler alert: obesity. Second spoiler alert: complications of diabetes.

Artificial sweeteners may be associated with stroke and dementia risk. I've mostly given up artificial sweeteners, but not because of this paper. I'm making a bit of a Pascal's wager on artificial sweeteners: they're surely not good for us, even though they may not be as bad as sugar itself. So I take steps to avoid them, just like I take steps to avoid sugar itself. The fact that this paper didn't show any risk associated with sugar-sweetened beverages makes me a little suspicious of its results. Maybe the editorialists' note that people sometimes switch to diet soft drinks after they are flagged as "high risk" by their doctors is right. They're on their way to a stroke one way or the other, and they just happen to have switched to a diet drink beforehand.

Garden City, Kansas voted to raise the legal age for the purchase of tobacco or e-cigarettes to 21 years. The decision "grew from a request made by a group of Garden City High School students earlier this year." Garden City is the fifteenth (!) city in Kansas to make such a decision.

Exercise may help cognition (that's the thinking part) in the elderly. Seemingly if you work moderately hard for at least 45 minutes. What is moderate? According the ACSM guideline they used, it is hard enough to use "40%-60% heart rate reserve." That means halfway between your normal resting heart rate and your maximum heart rate, which is usually calculated by subtracting your age from 220. So if your normal heart rate is 70 and you're 50 years old, you have a maximum heart rate of ~170, so using 50% of your heart rate reserve would mean getting your heart rate to ~120. Confused? Well, "moderate" intensity is also about a 5 or 6 out of 10 in perceived exertion. There. 

The FDA is warning (again) about bogus internet cancer treatments. A couple observations here: 1) I can't believe it's only 65 products. That must barely scratch the surface. 2) I don't know if the fact that so many of the products are co-marketed for cats and dogs is a good sign or a bad sign. 3) Even a casual observer must be astonished that we know so much about how to prevent cancer, and it's not complicated, and it's generally cheap or even money-positive (don't smoke, get a little exercise, eat fruits and vegetables, wear sunscreen)

But yet we as a society are so much more interested in giving our money to snake-oil salesmen for untested bunk.

Have a linkboy, not a poolboy April 10, 2017

Most of us eat chocolate bunnies ears-first. Better to not eat them at all, but...

The FDA has given clearance to 23andMe to perform genetic testing for ten diseases. The links are theirs, not mine:

• Parkinson’s disease,
• Alzheimer’s disease,
• Celiac disease, a disorder resulting in the inability to digest gluten that everyone thinks they have; maybe this will set their minds at ease,
• Alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency, a disorder that causes your lungs and liver to literally digest themselves,
• Early-onset primary dystonia, a movement disorder,
• Factor XI deficiency, a blood clotting disorder,
• Gaucher disease type 1, an organ and tissue disorder in which white blood cells get abnormal sphingolipid deposits,
• Glucose-6-Phosphate Dehydrogenase deficiency, also known as G6PD, a condition that makes red blood cells fragile,
• Hereditary hemochromatosis, a disorder of iron metabolism that leads to excess iron build-up,
• Hereditary thrombophilia, a blood clotting disorder

Vitamin D supplementation probably doesn't prevent heart disease. After all the vitamin D promise (hype?) in the oughts, it's one negative trial after another nowadays.

Big swings in weight may be associated with increased risk of heart attack and stroke. I'm skeptical of the result, but if true, this is yet another way you can improve your chances of a long, healthy life. Eat good foods, get yourself around under human power, get some sleep, and watch your weight hit a natural level for your body. If you're very heavy or having complications of your extra weight, think about bariatric surgery. No need to have your weight swing back and forth 50 pounds a year for the rest of your life.