Afib Linked to Silent Stroke

/ SupremeCmdr / Leave a comment

MRI indicated silent cerebral ischemia lesions in 89% patients with paroxysmal Afib and 92% with persistent Afib compared with 46% of controls, which wasn’t significantly different between the two types of Afib but was for both versus controls (P<0.01).

The number of these lesions averaged 41 in persistent Afib, 33 in paroxysmal Afib, and 12 in controls, which was significantly different for all three groups.

The high prevalence of these lesions in the control group compared with what has been reported in the general population may have reflected the moderate to high cardiovascular risk among these patients referred for cardiovascular prevention or treatment, the researchers suggested.

The lesions can have either ischemic and embolic origins, but the peculiar “spotted” distribution of “small sharply demarcated lesions, often in cluster, with bilateral distribution, prevalently in the frontal lobe” seen in 50% and 67% of the paroxysmal and persistent Afib patients, respectively, strongly supported an embolic mechanism, they noted.

via Afib Linked to Silent Stroke.

If these findings are replicated in future studies, the question for underwriters is should any Afib risk be Standard mortality?

Hi There – Just Wanted To Return This Pile Your Dog Left | IdeaFeed | Big Think

/ SupremeCmdr / Leave a comment

Tired of dealing with uncollected dog waste, the local council in the Spanish village of Brunete came up with an interesting and unconventional approach: They deployed 20 volunteers around town to watch for offending dog owners and, by striking up a casual conversation, get the dog’s name and breed. With this information, they then found the pet in the local registry, along with its owner’s name and address. Later, they personally hand-delivered the dog’s leavings to the owner, on the claim of returning “lost property.”

via Hi There…Just Wanted To Return This Pile Your Dog Left | IdeaFeed | Big Think.

TaskRabbit Confirms Layoffs – TechCrunch

/ SupremeCmdr / Leave a comment

The company started as a purely consumer-focused product to let regular people outsource their odd jobs and tasks to others, but it has indeed been increasing its focus on the enterprise space in recent months.

via TaskRabbit Confirms Layoffs As It Realigns To Focus On Mobile And Enterprise | TechCrunch.

https://www.taskrabbit.com/

Regular people don’t outsource errands and odd jobs.

Expense reduction will only postpone the inevitable.

Olmesartan Medoxomil – Watch for These Side Effects

/ SupremeCmdr / Leave a comment

FDA is warning that the blood pressure drug Olmesartan Medoxomil marketed as Benicar, Benicar HCT, Azor, Tribenzor, and generics can cause intestinal problems known as sprue-like enteropathy. Symptoms of sprue-like enteropathy include severe, chronic diarrhea with substantial weight loss. FDA has approved changes to the labels of these drugs to include this concern. Sprue-like enteropathy has not been detected with ARB drugs other than olmesartan

via Safety Alerts for Human Medical Products > Olmesartan Medoxomil: Drug Safety Communication – Label Changes To Include Intestinal Problems Sprue-Like Enteropathy.

Your Brand Follows the Work – Nilofer Merchant – HBR

/ SupremeCmdr / Leave a comment

Your Brand Is the Exhaust Fume of the Engine of Your Life – Nilofer Merchant – Harvard Business Review.

Focus on the work.  Your personal brand follows.  Don’t let the goofy title dissuade you from clicking the link and reading the post.  The author is thought provoking and absolutely spot on.

We talk about “reinventing your brand” when in reality the goal is to reinvent what you work on. We talk about the “brand called you” when we talk about being able to do more of the work you love to do. We talk about ways to “deliver on the impact equation” without asking first, “what is it you want to impact?” We are told by marketing gurus that “everyone now owns a media company!” — as if somehow this is, itself, the goal — rather than a means to an end. Marketing has become the default language — the lingua franca of the day — that we use to describe work, and it is distorting how we evaluate what matters.

What is it you care about? It takes courage to find and follow an individual path; finding our own path takes us off the path that others are following, in directions that can seem distinctly alone.

Employers May Reduce PT Hours – Insurance & Financial Advisor – IFAwebnews.com

/ SupremeCmdr / Leave a comment

Almost one in five large- and mid-sized U.S. companies plans to reduce the hours that part-time employees work in order to limit exposure to coverage mandates under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), according to a study by the Society for Human Resource Management.

Once employer mandates of the sweeping federal health reform laws begin going into effect in 2014, employers with at least 50 full-time workers (determined by ACA to be those working at least 30 hours per week) will be required to offer health benefit plans to 95% of qualifying employees or incur a $2,000 per employee tax penalty.

Two reports released by SHRM on the impending impact of the health care reform law indicate that 18% of companies with between 500 and 2,499 employees will reduce part-time schedules to less than 30 hours per week to mitigate costs related to the addition of new members to the plan. And approximately 19% of large firms with 2,500 to 24,999 employees plan to cut part-time employees’ hours.

On the other hand, the study found that smaller employers, those with fewer than 500 employees, were less likely to cut part-time employees’ hours. Just 5% of employers with fewer than 100 workers expect to reduce part-time hours.

via Employers may reduce part-timers’ hours as ACA approaches | Insurance & Financial Advisor I IFAwebnews.com.

Does anyone out there (besides me) believe company managements need to manage as if people mattered?

Vital Signs: Overdoses of Prescription Opioid Pain Relievers and Other Drugs Among Women — United States, 1999–2010

/ SupremeCmdr / Leave a comment

Between 1999 and 2010, OPR overdose deaths increased more than fivefold among women (a total of 47,935 OPR overdose deaths during that period).

via Vital Signs: Overdoses of Prescription Opioid Pain Relievers and Other Drugs Among Women — United States, 1999–2010.

This story was covered by all of the mainstream media outlets.  Read the source article from MMWR to grasp the significance of this health issue.  Scary stuff.