all-cause mortality

Massive Fish Kill Reported in LA

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Houston...we have a problemI know dead fish in the Gulf is not exactly a life mortality risk issue.  Well, not yet.  I am thinking in terms of human consumption.  What if people are eating this seafood thinking that it is safe to eat?  I have also been monitoring sporadic reports of blood chemistry abnormalities in some residents of the Gulf shore region.  No definite conclusions yet, but this may eventually become a mortality risk issue.  Stay tuned.

Massive fish kill reported in Louisiana | The Upshot Yahoo! News – Yahoo! News

Thought for Today – 08.08.10

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Sauna endurance finalist collapses and dies in 110C – Telegraph

Ossi Arvela, the head of the sauna-sitting competition, said in a statement: “The Russian competitor has died in the sauna world championships.”

Hopefully this “sport” will not develop a large following.

By the way, 110 C = 230 F.

HT to Yves Smith at http://www.nakedcapitalism.com

Strong Social Relationships and Mortality

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Medical News: Social Ties May Enhance Survival – in Psychiatry, General Psychiatry from MedPage Today

Maintaining strong social relationships may help slow the approach of death, a meta-analysis showed.

In a pooled analysis of 148 studies, having strong social relationships was associated with a 50% greater likelihood of surviving through follow-up (OR 1.50, 95% CI 1.42 to 1.59), according to Julianne Holt-Lunstad, PhD, of Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, and colleagues.

The magnitude of the association puts social relationships on a par with quitting smoking and beyond obesity and physical inactivity in terms of relationship with mortality, the researchers reported in the July issue of PLoS Medicine.

Insomnia and Mortality Risk

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Medical News: APSS: Insomnia Raises Mortality Risk Threefold – in Meeting Coverage, APSS from MedPage Today

Insomnia should be considered a condition with potentially lethal consequences, not simply a bothersome fact of life that people must live with, a researcher said here.

Among participants in the Wisconsin Sleep Cohort Study, chronic insomnia was associated with a threefold risk of all-cause mortality (HR 2.9, 95% CI 1.4 to 5.8), Laurel Finn, MS, of the University of Wisconsin Madison, and colleagues reported in a poster presentation at the annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies.

Lp-PLA2 Predicts Non-Vascular Death

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Medical News: Lp-PLA2 Predicts Non-Vascular Death – in Cardiovascular, Atherosclerosis from MedPage Today

High levels of lipoprotein-associated phospholipase A2 (Lp-PLA2) were an independent risk factor for non-vascular mortality as well as for cardiovascular death, stroke, and coronary heart disease in a large meta-analysis.

For each standard deviation above the mean for Lp-PLA2 among nearly 80,000 participants in 32 prospective studies, the risk of non-vascular death increased by 10% after adjusting for conventional risk factors, reported Alexander Thompson, of the University of Cambridge in England, and 14 other members of the Lp-PLA2 Studies Collaboration in the May 1 Lancet.

Mild Hyperparathyroidism = Higher All Cause Mortality

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Medical News: BES: ‘Mild’ Parathyroid Disease Poses Mortality Risk – in Meeting Coverage, BES from MedPage Today

Compared with the general population, the relative risk of all-cause mortality in patients with clinically minimal hyperparathyroidism was 2.62 (95% CI 2.39 to 2.86) in a population-based study, according to Graham Leese, MD, of the University of Dundee in Scotland.