Author: SupremeCmdr

OK Boomer

/ SupremeCmdr / Leave a comment

The workplace is evolving, too, with businesses increasingly seeking the experience and wisdom of senior talent. Currently, 19% of adults 65 and older are employed, compared to 11% in 1987, according to Pew Research. Moreover, individuals aged 65 and older constitute the most rapidly expanding group within the labor force. By 2032, it’s expected that one in every four U.S. workers will be 55 or older, with nearly one in 10 being 65 or older, showcasing the growing presence of seniors in the workplace.

Boomers are defying age norms and you are losing out – https://www.fastcompany.com/91116274/boomers-are-defying-age-norms-and-you-are-losing-out

I am finally on the cutting edge of something.

Flamethrower + Robot Dog = (fill in the blank)

/ SupremeCmdr / Leave a comment

Thermonator, the first “flamethrower-wielding robot dog,” is legal in 48 US states.

At first I thought this wasn’t real after reading this article but it is.

You can now buy a flame-throwing robot dog for under $10,000 — https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/04/you-can-now-buy-a-flame-throwing-robot-dog-for-under-10000/

I had to watch the video. I suggest sound off if you don’t want to poop in your pants.

YIKES

Another Reason to Exercise (your brain)

/ SupremeCmdr / Leave a comment

Group-based trajectory modeling identified four groups of distinct occupational cognitive demands according to the degree of routine tasks in the participants occupations during their 30s, 40s, 50s and 60s. The researchers analyzed the link between these trajectory groups and clinically diagnosed MCI and dementia in participants in the HUNT4 70+ Study (2017-19). Additionally, the researchers accounted for important dementia risk factors such as age, gender, educational level, income, overall health, and lifestyle habits from assessments made in 1984-86 and 1995-97.  Within age groupings the researchers looked at such occupations as primary school teacher, salesperson, nurse and caregiver, office cleaner, civil engineer, and mechanic, among others.

After adjusting for age, sex, and education, the group with low occupational cognitive demands (the high RTI group) had a 37 percent higher risk of dementia compared to the group with high occupational cognitive demands. Occupations That Are Cognitively Stimulating May Be Protective Against Later-life Dementia — https://www.publichealth.columbia.edu/news/occupations-are-cognitively-stimulating-may-be-protective-against-later-life-dementia

Link to the study abstract – https://www.neurology.org/doi/10.1212/WNL.0000000000209353

I hope my spouse doesn’t read this or she’ll never let me retire.

Sensational yet Obvious! Time Restricted Eating Works!

/ SupremeCmdr / Leave a comment
Photo by Tim Mossholder on Pexels.com

In a randomized-controlled trial, people who followed a time-restricted diet lost about the same amount of weight as people who ate the same diet without the time restriction, according to a study published Friday in Annals of Internal Medicine…nutrition experts Krista Varady and Vanessa Oddo of the University of Illinois wrote in an editorial accompanying the study. “Using a controlled feeding design, Maruthur and colleagues show that TRE is effective for weight loss, simply because it helps people eat less.” It’s cutting calories—not intermittent fasting—that drops weight — https://arstechnica.com/science/2024/04/its-cutting-calories-not-intermittent-fasting-that-drops-weight-study-suggests/

You learn something old every day.

Enough

/ SupremeCmdr / Leave a comment

In the pursuit of “fine” to “great,” we chase products. Through no fault of our own, we fall prey to messaging from social media users, algorithms, and expert marketers, urging us that this shampoo or this rug will shift the scales toward enoughness. “This is how the marketplace continues to work,” says Brooke Erin Duffy, an associate professor of communication at Cornell University, “which is by amplifying our inadequacies and insecurities.”

Baked into these social platforms is a natural ecosystem for comparison. In the past, people weighed themselves against celebrities in the media and those within their immediate social circles, Duffy says. Now, we can compare ourselves to the idealized version of millions of strangers online — who may be perpetuating an aesthetic trend inspiring us to buy in order to participate.

How to be enough
Our obsession with self-improvement is making us miserable. https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/24091379/how-to-be-enough-habituation-hedonic-treadmill-comparison

How to be enough.

How to have enough.

Know when enough is enough.

You’re welcome.

Cannabis Use Linked to Elevated Myocardial Infarction and Stroke Risk

/ SupremeCmdr / Leave a comment

Cannabis use may increase the risk of myocardial infarction and stroke independent of tobacco use, according to recent findings in the Journal of the American Heart Association. Compared with nonusers, daily cannabis consumers had 25% higher odds of myocardial infarction and 42% higher odds of stroke. More frequent use was associated with a greater possibility of adverse cardiovascular outcomes regardless of whether cannabis was smoked, eaten, or vaporized. AMA. 2024;331(14):1172. doi:10.1001/jama.2024.2075 — https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2816618

Statins Raise Diabetes Risk (but CV Benefit Outweighs the Risk)

/ SupremeCmdr / Leave a comment

Statins raise the risks for increased glucose levels and the development of type 2 diabetes among people who don’t have it at baseline, but those risks are outweighed by the cardiovascular benefit, new data suggested.

The meta-analysis of trials in the CTT Collaboration included individual participant data from 19 double-blind randomized, controlled trials with a median follow-up of 4.3 years comparing statins with placebo in a total of 123,940 participants, including 18% who had known type 2 diabetes at randomization. Also analyzed were another four double-blind trials of lower- vs higher-intensity statins involving a total of 30,724 participants followed for a median of 4.9 years, with 15% having diabetes at baseline.

In the 19 trials of low- or moderate-intensity statins vs placebo, statins resulted in a significant 10% increase in new-onset diabetes compared with placebo (rate ratio, 1.10), while high-intensity statins raised the risk by an also significant 36% (1.36). This translated to a mean absolute excess of 0.12% per year of treatment.

Compared with less intensive statin therapy, more intensive statin therapy resulted in a significant 10% proportional increase in new-onset diabetes (1.10), giving an absolute annual excess of 0.22%

In an accompanying editorial, Hertzel C. Gerstein, MD, and Marie Pigeyre, MD, PhD, both of McMaster University and Hamilton Health Sciences, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, noted that the decreased absolute annual incidence of life-threatening cardiovascular outcomes with statins in people at high risk for type 2 diabetes “clearly exceeds the 0.1%-1.3% per year increased absolute incidence of type 2 diabetes.”

Statins Raise Diabetes Risk, but CV Benefit Outweighs It – Medscape – April 09, 2024. — https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/statins-raise-diabetes-risk-cv-benefit-outweighs-it

Gut Bacteria Break Down Cholesterol

/ SupremeCmdr / 1 Comment

It has been established that the human gut microbiome affects cholesterol levels, and previous research has pointed to microbial enzymes that might be involved. A 2020 study2 identified a bacterial enzyme called ismA that can convert cholesterol into coprostanol, a lipid that is excreted instead of absorbed by the body. People whose gut bacteria made this enzyme had lower cholesterol levels in their blood than did those who did not. This study was published by the same research group — led by gastroenterologist and microbiologist Ramnik Xavier at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston — that is responsible for the new finding. Until now, it was not clear which bacteria produced enzymes that metabolize cholesterol.

For the current study, the researchers analysed microbial genomes in stool samples from 1,429 participants in a long-term study of risk factors for cardiovascular disease. The team found many gut-bacteria species, including those in the genus Oscillibacter, that were correlated with lower cholesterol levels. The researchers confirmed their results in participants in two independent studies.

Gut bacteria break down cholesterol — hinting at probiotic treatments – https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-00955-3

Not confirmed in animal models or clinical trials.

But an OTC supplement will arrive on store shelves before any scientific confirmation is achieved.

ATTENTION PARENTS – Social Media and Self-Diagnosis (scary charts too)

/ SupremeCmdr / 5 Comments

Image source – Technology and Student Well-Being: 10 Charts https://www.edweek.org/research-center/reports/technology-and-student-well-being-10-charts

In The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness, social psychologist and author Jonathan Haidt lays out his argument that smartphones and social media are the key driver of the decline in youth mental health seen in many countries since the early 2010s.

The early 2010s were crucial, Haidt argues, because that was when smartphones really began to transform childhood into something unrecognizable. In June 2010, Apple introduced its first front-facing camera, and a few months later Instagram launched on the App Store. For Haidt, this was a fateful combination. Children were suddenly always online, always on display, and connected in ways that were often detrimental to their well-being. The result was a “tidal wave” of anxiety, depression, and self-harm, mostly affecting young girls.In Haidt’s telling, though, smartphones are only part of the problem. He thinks that children in the West are prevented from developing healthily thanks to a culture of “safetyism” that keeps children indoors, shelters them from risks, and replaces rough-and-tumble free play with adult-directed organized sports or—even worse—video games. For evidence of safetyism in action, Haidt contrasts a picture of a 1970s playground merry-go-round, (“the greatest piece of playground equipment ever invented”) with a modern set of play equipment designed with safety in mind and, thus, giving children less opportunity to learn from risky play.

Screen Time for Kids Is Fine! Unless It’s Not — https://www.wired.com/story/pete-etchells-jonathan-haidt-smartphones/?utm_source=pocket_saves

Next steps? Go back online, find a venture capital backed mental health provider, take a quiz, get a diagnosis that confirms your self-diagnosis, have drugs sent to you in the mail.

The scourge of self-diagnosis.