East ‘Meats’ West: Diabetes on Rise in China

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The Chinese people are eating more food per serving, have more money to buy and eat food — particularly junk food — when they’re not hungry, and engage in less physical activity, Xiaohui said.

He said that many people still eat a traditional Chinese meal, but along with rice and veggies will be more meat, and portions will be bigger as well. In addition, fast-food restaurants such as Kentucky Fried Chicken and McDonald’s are enjoying success at the price of a growing obesity epidemic among children and teens, he said.

via Medical News: East ‘Meats’ West: Diabetes on Rise in China – in Meeting Coverage, AACE from MedPage Today.

Traditional ethnic diets are preferable for your particular ethnicity.  You want fries with that?

Heart Deaths in Diabetes Plummet

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Data from the National Health Interview Survey found that both cardiovascular and all-cause mortality rates for diabetics fell substantially when 2003-2004 information was compared to 1997-1998.

via Medical News: Heart Deaths in Diabetes Plummet – in Cardiovascular, Diabetes from MedPage Today.

You Are Not A Computer – HBR

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The Internet, and all it has come to include, is the most powerful interruption technology ever invented. It slices and dices our focus, fractures and distracts it, gives us less and less of more and more. It prompts us to skim, scan, and skip rather than immerse ourselves in any one thing.

Technology has no business setting our agenda, but it has turned into our dominatrix. Masochistically — but all too willingly — we submit to it. Emailing, texting and tweeting, searching Google, checking Facebook, and surfing websites not only consumes our time and energy, it also diminishes our capacity to pay attention to anything for very long — or to resist the next digital temptation.

via You Are Not A Computer (Try As You May) – Tony Schwartz – Harvard Business Review.

Fugu or Not to Fugu?

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Tetrodotoxin poisoning

  • Numbness around the mouth followed by paralysis and death by respiratory failure – the victim remaining conscious throughout
  • First recorded case found in the logs of Captain Cook in 1774, after crew members ate the fish
  • Tetrodotoxin is named after the Tetraodontiformes order of fish, which includes blowfish
  • It is also found in blue-ringed octopuses, some toads, newts and other animals

via BBC News – Dicing death: The fish more poisonous than cyanide.

I refuse to eat sushi in Oklahoma.  I doubt I’ll ever eat Fugu.

Asthma Cases Reach New High

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Asthma prevalence reached its highest level ever in 2010 — 8.4% of the population, up from 7.3% in 2001, according to the CDC.

That translates into 18.7 million adults and 7 million children who had been diagnosed with asthma and still had the condition in 2010, the agency said in a report called Asthma’s Impact on the Nation.

On the other hand, the agency reported, deaths from the disease have been declining from 2001 through 2009, as have visits for asthma to physician offices and hospital outpatient departments.

via Medical News: Asthma Cases Reach New High – in Allergy & Immunology, Asthma from MedPage Today.

Why So Many Ph.D.s Are On Food Stamps : NPR

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Tony Yang received his Ph.D. in history from the University of California, Riverside in 2009. Since then, he’s worked on and off as a history lecturer, but has had to depend on unemployment and food stamps to get by.

In his best year since getting his Ph.D., Yang says he made about $32,000; in his worst, about $10,000. He says there’s a perception that if you have a doctorate, you automatically walk into a high-paying job.

“I have the prestige of holding a Ph.D., but that [isn’t] paying the bills,” he says.

via Why So Many Ph.D.s Are On Food Stamps : NPR.

FDA Panel Says Yes to Home HIV Test

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If marketed, the test would likely be sold in a similar manner to some cough medicines, according to a company spokesman. At checkout, the cashier would ask to see the purchaser’s ID to confirm he or she is at least 17.

via Medical News: FDA Panel Says Yes to Home HIV Test – in HIV/AIDS, HIV/AIDS from MedPage Today.

Might be time to review your application and exam question.

I’d take a hard look at my non-medical limits too.