5 Worst States for All-Cause Mortality

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Differences between actual mortality and expected mortality range from a drop of about 36%, in Connecticut to an excess of 50%, in one state in the West. The median difference is an excess of 10.5%.

5 Worst States for All-Cause Mortality, Already — https://www.thinkadvisor.com/2021/12/02/5-worst-states-for-all-cause-mortality-already/

The slideshow for the five states didn’t work for me but the article also contains a data table for all 50 states.

I was surprised Oklahoma was not one of the five worst states.

Cryptocurrencies 101

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Cryptocurrencies are a social movement based on the belief that markings in a ledger on the internet have intrinsic value. The organizers of these ledgers call these markings Bitcoin, or Dogecoin, or offer other names based on the specific ledger. That’s really all a cryptocurrency is. There’s no magic. It’s not money, though it has money-like properties. It’s not anything except a set of markings. Sure, the technology behind the ledgers and how to create more of these markings is kind of neat. But crypto is a movement based on energetic storytellers who spin fables about the utopian future to come. In a lot of ways, cryptocurrencies are like Florida land that no one ever intends to use. It has value in the moment it is traded, but only because there’s a collective belief that it has some intrinsic worth.

Matt Stoller BIG newsletter 12.07.21 — https://mattstoller.substack.com/

TBH I never really understood crypto until I read Stoller’s descriptive paragraph.

Now I understand this is something I will never “invest” my money in. Not that I ever intended to do that before today.

Trends in Binge Drinking

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The study included 18,794 adults aged 65 years and older who participated in the 2015-2019 National Survey on Drug Use and Health. Binge drinking was defined as consuming 5 or more drinks on the same occasion for men and 4 or more drinks for women. Binge drinking among older men increased from 12.8% in 2015 to 15.7% in 2019 but remained stable among older women (7.6% to 7.3%). Having a college degree was associated with a higher risk of binge drinking among women but a lower risk among men. Men who were separated or divorced were also at higher risk, but women were not. Both men and women who reported use of tobacco or cannabis in the past month were at higher risks of binge drinking.

Wiley. “Trends in binge drinking among older men and women in the United States.” ScienceDaily. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/12/211208090023.htm (accessed December 8, 2021).

Are You Still Thinking About a Booster Shot?

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What worries me is that what we now know in the United States is even if you’ve been vaccinated against Covid, you can incubate and replicate these variants, or even perhaps the native virus, in your nose, because we have incomplete immunity in the nose in someone who’s been vaccinated fully against Covid.

Corey Casper is the CEO of the Infectious Disease Research Institute and a professor of medicine and global health at the University of Washington.

The science behind booster shots – https://www.opb.org/article/2021/08/24/the-science-behind-booster-shots/

Experts say “waning immunity” is concerning, but it isn’t as scary as it sounds. The vaccines still work, and for most people, still provide a high level of protection against severe disease. “It’s been a challenge,” says Mark Slifka, an immunologist at Oregon Health and Science University. “because some people will say, ‘well the vaccines aren’t working.’ And that’s a misconception. Vaccines are still providing 90 percent protection against mortality and hospitalization.” Breakthrough infections have increased but infections are still three times more likely in unvaccinated than vaccinated individuals. Of those infections, only 3.9 percent have led to hospitalization in vaccinated patients compared to 9 percent in those who remain unvaccinated.

Six Questions About Waning Immunity to Covid-19 Answered — https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/six-questions-about-waning-immunity-to-covid-19-answered-180979135/

No political agenda here, no conspiracy theories. I’m just sharing some informative articles and hope you find them helpful as you navigate the Never Ending Pandemic.

New House Construction Supply Chain Mess

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The inventory of new single-family houses that home builders put on the market for sale rose to 389,000 in October, the highest since September 2008, according to data from the Census Bureau.

Houses for Sale, Highest since 2008, as Construction Costs Spike Most in 42 Years, Projects Stall — https://wolfstreet.com/2021/11/27/whats-behind-the-huge-pile-up-of-new-houses-for-sale-highest-since-2008-as-construction-costs-spike-most-in-42-years-and-projects-stall
Does anyone else see a problem here?

Diet-induced Alteration of Intestinal Stem Cell Function (in mice)

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“The first thing we noticed was that the small intestine increases greatly in size on the high-calorie diet,” says study leader Anika Böttcher. “Together with Fabian Theis’ team of computational biologists at Helmholtz Munich, we then profiled 27,000 intestinal cells from control diet and high fat/high sugar diet-fed mice. Using new machine learning techniques, we thus found that intestinal stem cells divide and differentiate significantly faster in the mice on an unhealthy diet.” The researchers hypothesize that this is due to an upregulation of the relevant signaling pathways, which is associated with an acceleration of tumor growth in many cancers. “This could be an important link: Diet influences metabolic signaling, which leads to excessive growth of intestinal stem cells and ultimately to an increased risk of gastrointestinal cancer,” says Böttcher.

Helmholtz Zentrum München – German Research Center for Environmental Health. “New link between diet, intestinal stem cells and disease discovered.” ScienceDaily. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/11/211119155604.htm (accessed November 27, 2021).

I wonder what Dr. Lustig would say about this study?

Dr. Robert Lustig – The Sugar Pandemic – 2012 Presentation at Yale University and Dr. Robert Lustig on Sugar.

Dead at Just 49 Years Old

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Get tested.

Because the birth-cohort effect in cancer suggests that exposures early in life, during childhood or young adulthood, may be crucial, some have begun looking closely at changes to the microbiome. “We know that diet and lifestyle significantly shape our microbiome. They also significantly shape our immune system, which we need to fight off the development of cancer. And so we are hypothesizing that it’s a complex interplay among the microbiome, diet, lifestyle and your immune system,” Ng says.

The Colon Cancer Conundrum — https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-03405-6

My cousin died from metastatic colon cancer at age 49.

Get tested.

You Want Fries With That?

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Yes I would like fries with my double bacon cheeseburger.

The findings are from an analysis of 8015 emerging adults aged 18-25 in the cross-sectional National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), including NHANES II (1976-1980), NHANES III (1988-1994), and the continuous NHANES cycles from 1999 through 2018. The prevalence of obesity (BMI 30.0 kg/m2 or higher) in the emerging adult age group soared from 6.2% between 1976-1980 to 32.7% in 2017-2018 (P = .007).

Obesity Rates Soar in Early Adulthood in the US – Medscape – Nov 23, 2021. — https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/963511?src=rss#vp_1

Original article – JAMA. Published online November 23, 2021. Abstract

I really need to finish writing my Future Best Seller.

The Myth of Retirement – 11.21.21

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Rising prices inevitably impact the economy as consumers adjust their buying habits. https://www.visualcapitalist.com/u-s-inflation-which-categories-have-been-hit-the-hardest/

I think a lot of Americans who are preparing to retire now are going to have to rethink their plans. Because there’s no way the money that they’ve saved and the income streams that they anticipate receiving are going to be sufficient given the much higher cost of living that we’re going to be experiencing. And this is not just going to be a few percent a year. We’re talking double-digit increases in the cost of living for many, many years in a row.

Peter Schiff, chief global strategist of Euro Pacific Capital

A hedge against inflation in retirement is to keep working. My patented solution is twofold: Build a nest egg while working, and work for as long as possible, either doing what you’ve been doing, or doing something new and interesting and fun. Full-time is great, but even a part-time gig is great, and for all kinds of reasons, not just money, and even if you have plenty of money and don’t need to work.

Wolf Richter

Retirement math now is simple. If you can, work longer and save more.

The SupremeCmdr – The Myth of Retirement

Remember The Lobsterwoman!

Colonoscopy – Just Do It (an almost forgotten post)

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I came across this post in my collection of unpublished drafts. I thought I posted this but obviously I didn’t. This article link was intended to be posted before Colorectal Cancer Rates Rising in Ages 50-54. Better late than never, I guess.

More than one quarter of colonoscopies carried out in Americans aged 30 to 49 years reveal some type of neoplasm, and slightly over 6% of these patients have advanced cancer, results of a nationally representative endoscopic registry show.

One Quarter of 30–49-Year-Olds Have Abnormal Colonoscopy Results – Medscape – Jun 07, 2021. — https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/952536?src=rss#vp_1
APL = Advanced Premalignant Lesions. CRC = Colorectal cancer.

Also see Study Finds Sharp Rise in Colon Cancer and Rectal Cancer Rates Among Young Adults and Diet and Colon Cancer Risk – CBS News.