Aviva Confirms Additional 326 Planned Layoffs – Des Moines Register Staff Blogs

The planned job eliminations mean that about 780 of the 1,800 people employed at Aviva USA on May 1 have either left or been told their jobs are being eliminated. That’s 43 percent of the workforce at a time when states are spending millions to battle one another for jobs.

via Aviva confirms additional 326 planned layoffs | Des Moines Register Staff Blogs.

Athene Letter

MetLife Begins Layoffs

MetLife (NYSE: MET) has begun its layoffs in the Northeast for jobs that are moving to North Carolina this fall, per its agreement to the state in March to create 2,600 jobs in Cary and in Charlotte in return for more than $100 million in economic development incentives.

via MetLife begins layoffs to prep for Cary entrance – Triangle Business Journal.

What Profession Has The Highest Suicide Rate?

Physicians have the highest suicide rate of any profession.

via What I’ve learned from saving physicians from suicide.

Update 09.19.14

Suicide and the Young Physician – The Atlantic.

One might expect that older physicians, after years in an emotionally and often physically taxing profession, bear the burden of an increased suicide risk. But it is really a phenomenon of young physicians. Suicide accounts for 26 percent of deaths among physicians aged 25 to 39, as compared to 11 percent of deaths in the same age group in the general population.

N-Terminal Probrain Natriuretic Peptide Is a Stronger Predictor of Cardiovascular Mortality Than C-Reactive Protein and Albumin Excretion Rate in Elderly Patients With Type 2 Diabetes

NT-proBNP is a strong independent predictor of short-term CV mortality risk in elderly people with type 2 diabetes, including those without preexisting CVD. This association is evident even in people with slightly increased values, is not modified by CRP, and is additive to that provided by AER.

via N-Terminal Probrain Natriuretic Peptide Is a Stronger Predictor of Cardiovascular Mortality Than C-Reactive Protein and Albumin Excretion Rate in Elderly Patients With Type 2 Diabetes.

Cardiovascular Biomarkers, Cardiac Dysfunction, and Outcomes in Patients With Type 2 Diabetes: A Prospective, Multicenter Study

We report a lack of association between echocardiographic variables and laboratory biomarkers in a large population of type 2 diabetes patients without overt cardiac disease and mild alterations in LV function. The only laboratory marker found to predict 2-year outcomes in these patients was HbA1c. Neither the other laboratory markers (NT-proBNP, hsCRP, and UACR) nor echocardiographic markers provided independent prognostic information. The role of HbA1c as a guide for the appropriateness of treatment of patients with type 2 diabetes is supported by these findings.

via Cardiovascular Biomarkers, Cardiac Dysfunction, and Outcomes in Patients With Type 2 Diabetes: A Prospective, Multicenter Study.

Notes from the Field: Acetyl Fentanyl Overdose Fatalities — Rhode Island, March–May 2013

The GC/MS toxicology results for 10 of the 12 decedents showed, in addition to acetyl fentanyl, various mixtures of other drugs, including cocaine (58%), other opioids (33%), ethanol (25%), and benzodiazepines (17%).

via Notes from the Field: Acetyl Fentanyl Overdose Fatalities — Rhode Island, March–May 2013.

So what do you do when you see a script for Naloxone prescribed by an EM specialist?

 

Low Glycemic Load Diet Lowers Diabetes Risk

Eating a low glycemic load diet that also follows the principles of the traditional Mediterranean diet can lower type 2 diabetes risk, new research suggested.

People in the study whose eating patterns most closely adhered to the principles of the Mediterranean diet and the low glycemic load diet were 20% less likely to develop diabetes than people who least closely followed the two diets, Carlo La Vecchia, MD, of the Mario Negri Institute of Pharmacological Research in Milan, and colleagues, wrote online in the journal Diabetologia.

via Low Glycemic Load Diet Lowers Diabetes Risk.

I have a very strong family history of diabetes.  A long time ago I told one of the leading endocrinologists in Dallas about my family history and asked what I could do to minimize my risk of developing the disease.

Stay as thin as you can for as long as you can.

Several years ago I adopted a Mediterranean style diet.  When I learned about the glycemic index I started avoiding most foods with a high glycemic index.

Sixty is on the horizon and I’m still not diabetic.