Press Release: SEC Releases Report of the Life Settlements Task Force; 2010-129; July 22, 2010
This link takes you to the SEC website where the report can be downloaded.
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Richard Lehman’s Journal Blog July 19, 2010
BMJ Group blogs: BMJ » Blog Archive » Richard Lehman’s journal blog, 19 July 2010
You don’t want to miss Richard’s comments on obstetric anal sphincter injury.
And Yet Another Reason Why The War in Mexico Bothers Me
Gunmen Kill 17 at Party in Mexico – NYTimes.com
Across northern Mexico, there have been increasing reports of mass shootings at parties, bars and rehab clinics.
In the worst such massacre this year, gunmen raided a drug-rehab center in the northern city of Chihuahua and killed 19 people last month. In January, gunmen barged into a private party in the border city of Ciudad Juarez and killed 15, many of them high school or university students. Relatives say the January attack was a case of mistaken identity, while state officials claim someone at the party was targeted, although they have not said who it was.
The killings in Torreon came three days after the first successful car bombing by drug cartels, an attack that introduced a new threat to Mexico’s raging drug war.
War Dead Nearly 25,000 in Mexico
Mexico car bomb: ‘Colombianization’ of Mexico nearly complete – CSMonitor.com
Mexico had already overtaken Colombia in terms of kidnappings. The public has long gotten accustomed to a censored press, threats to politicians, and grisly violence that includes decapitation and bodies hanging from highway overpasses. Now, it appears, Mexico has moved even closer to the kind of violence that plagued the South American nation in its darkest days.
A well-orchestrated car bomb exploded in Ciudad Juarez late Thursday, across from El Paso, Texas, killing at least three and sparking panic among the Mexican population. It is the first known use of a car bomb against authorities and the local population, and marks a troubling new level of violence as traffickers seeking to control the drug trade battle one another and Mexican authorities.
Low Vitamin D = Higher Parkinson’s Risk
In the first longitudinal study to explore this possible connection, Knekt and colleagues analyzed data from the Mini-Finland Health Survey, which was carried out between 1978 and 1980.
Participants provided information on socioeconomic background, medical history, and lifestyle; serum levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D were determined by radioimmunoassay.
Among the 3,173 participants included in the analysis, there were 50 incident cases of Parkinson’s disease during a 29-year follow-up.
A significant inverse association was seen between age- and sex-adjusted levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D and Parkinson’s disease, with the relative risk between the highest and lowest quartiles of serum concentration of the vitamin being 0.35 (95% CI 0.15 to 0.81, P for trend=0.006).
The association persisted after adjustment for body mass index, leisure-time physical activity, month of blood draw, education, marital status, smoking, and alcohol consumption.
Participants whose serum concentration of the vitamin was at least 50 nmol/L had a 65% lower risk than those whose levels were below 25 nmol/L.
Low Vitamin D = Cognitive Decline
Low levels of vitamin D appear to be associated with an increased risk of cognitive decline among older people, according to researchers.
In an observational study conducted among more than 800 Italians ages 65 and older, severe vitamin D deficiency was associated with a 60% increase in the risk of substantial cognitive decline (by a standard measure), according to David Llewellyn, PhD, of the University of Exeter in Exeter, England, and colleagues.
The findings — if confirmed by further studies and randomized clinical trials — “open up important new possibilities for treatment and prevention,” Llewellyn and colleagues wrote in the July 12 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.
Time to Rethink HOS Void Times in T2DM
The study showed that measuring albumin:creatinine ratio from a first-void urine sample is more accurate for predicting progression of kidney disease in type 2 diabetics than are other commonly used measures.
Richard Lehman’s Journal Blog – 7/12/2010
BMJ Group blogs: BMJ » Blog Archive » Richard Lehman’s journal blog, 12 July 2010
Again, I remain surprised at the fact this RSS feed is working again in my reader.
Lehman writes well, has a dry sense of humor, and covers the medical journals quite nicely.
Death by Fishing
Commercial Fishing Deaths — United States, 2000–2009
Commercial fishing is one of the most dangerous occupations in the United States (1). During 1992–2008, an annual average of 58 reported deaths occurred (128 deaths per 100,000 workers) (1), compared with an average of 5,894 deaths (four per 100,000 workers) among all U.S. workers. During the 1990s, safety interventions addressing specific hazards identified in Alaska resulted in a significant decline in the state’s commercial fishing fatality rate (2). During 2007–2010, CDC expanded surveillance of commercial fishing fatalities to the rest of the country’s fishing areas. To review the hazards and risk factors for occupational mortality in the U.S. commercial fishing industry, and to explore how hazards and risk factors differ among fisheries and locations, CDC collected and analyzed data on each fatality reported during 2000–2009. This report summarizes the results, which showed that, among the 504 U.S. commercial fishing deaths, the majority occurred after a vessel disaster (261 deaths, 52%) or a fall overboard (155 deaths, 31%). By region, 133 (26%) deaths occurred off the coast of Alaska, 124 (25%) in the Northeast, 116 (23%) in the Gulf of Mexico, 83 (16%) off the West Coast, and 41 (8%) in the Mid- and South Atlantic. Type of fishing was known in 478 deaths; shellfish (226, 47%) was the most common, followed by groundfish (144, 30%) and pelagic fish (97, 20%). To reduce fatalities in this industry, additional prevention measures tailored to specific high-risk fisheries and focusing on prevention of vessel disasters and falls overboard are needed.
Vitamins D & E = Healthy Brains
Vitamins D, E Might Help Maintain Brain Health
In one trial, British researchers tied low levels of vitamin D to higher odds of developing dementia, while a Dutch study found that people with diets rich in vitamin E had a lower risk of developing dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease.
Finally, a study released by Finnish researchers linked high blood levels of vitamin D to a lower risk of Parkinson’s disease.
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