Curiouser and Curiouser! on health

Serious bugs

Tue, 09 Jul 2002 19:23:12 +0100

MEDLINEplus: Nightmare scenario of antibiotic resistance has arrived, experts say.

Quote: "Medical experts have long described it as the nightmare scenario of antibiotic resistance: the day when staphylococcus aureus, cause of some of the most common and troublesome infections to afflict man, becomes resistant to the antibiotic arsenal's weapon of last resort, vancomycin.

The nightmare scenario has arrived."

Comment: Off-topic, but important.

[Serious Instructional Technology]

» Being pretty uninformed in these matters it is not clear to me why new antibiotic agents can't be found. Is there an arbitrary limit to the number of antibiotic drugs? Or is the just no money in the research.

I guess there may be money if people start dying in large numbers.

Can you say

Tue, 24 Sep 2002 09:44:09 +0100

Twinkie, Twinkie, Little Star.

Forget Mars Bars, Twinkies Now the Deep-fried Treat

His fish-and-chips restaurant was already serving up deep-fried Mars, Snickers and other chocolate bars -- treats that originated in Scotland and have since become a staple at U.S. fairgrounds -- when his general manager suggested he toss a Twinkie into the vat of oil. Just to see.

How bad are they for your health? After deep-frying, a Twinkie packs an estimated 400 calories and 28 grams of fat." [The Globe and Mail, via Boing Boing Blog]

Gloria first told us about them sometime this summer. Apparently they were a big hit at the Illinois State Fair. I've always hated Twinkies because there's no chocolate outer coating, but this I would try!

[The Shifted Librarian]

» So let's see 400 kcal and 28g fat. Doesn't say how much of that is saturated but a good estimate is 50%. That's comes to about 9 Weight Watchers points or about 1/3 my daily allowance, i.e. the ammount I would expect to get from a substantial daily meal.

I wouldn't eat too many of those...

The signs of Ragnarok -- part #1

Tue, 14 Jun 2005 19:24:49 +0100

Okay the people who know me well should try not to get too freaked out by this, but I've started going to a gym.

This has been on the cards for some time as I've acquired a spare tyre I'd like to get rid of and, anyway, I lead such a sedentary life that I surely must be a candidate for heart problems.

The funny thing is that, iPod enabled (Chemical Brothers is my current workout music), I find I quite like it. Oh my body is screaming blue murder, but I'm looking forward to going again on Thursday.

Sickly

Tue, 20 Jun 2006 19:34:54 +0100

Malcolm Gladwell talks about a study conducted by a group of epidemiologists at University College London looking at the relative health of the US and UK. Here's what they came up with:

The first conclusion is that Americans are really, really sick compared to the British. In every socio-economic group, for instance, the prevalence of diabetes is roughly double in the United States than it is in the United Kingdom. Rates of hypertension, heart disease, heart attacks, stroke, lung disease and cancer are also all higher in the United States. And not just a little big higher. Much higher. So, for example, 2.3 percent of the English have had a stroke, versus 3.8 percent of the Americans.

There's a lot of juggling going on in how the studying was conducted and how the results should be interpreted, but:

The study’s author did a statistical exercise, where they assumed that the British group had exactly the same lifestyle risk factors as their American counterparts. The result? Nothing much changes. Americans were still far sicker than the British.

The conclusion they reach (and Gladwell supports) is that it comes down to this:

Krugman argues that this is evidence of how much more stressful living in America is than living in England.

I think it would be interesting to see work done to identify the significant stressors and then follow up with studies in other countries to see whether this is supported. Now I'm going to relax with a big glass of wine and a bowl of Ben & Jerry's.