Sunday, September 23rd, 2012
SY MUKHERJEE, - Think Progress
Stephan: One of the assumptions of our culture is that each generation will be healthier and live longer than the one before it. Now, for the first time in our history, this is not true, at least for religious, conservative, poorly educated whites, both men and women. This is another manifestation of the social values, social wellness argument I have been making (see: Social Values, Social Wellness in www.explorejournal.com/content/schwartz.)
White Americans without high school diplomas have seen their life expectancy fall by four years since 1990, according to results from a recent Health Affairs study. The New York Times reports that the drop was sharpest among less-educated white women, whose life expectancy dropped by five years, as opposed to a three year decline for less-educated men.
And the chasm between the most-educated and least-educated whites’ life expectancy is particularly striking. White men and women without high school diplomas now live an average of 67.5 years and 73.5 years respectively, while the most-educated white men and women – those with a college degree or more – live 80.4 years and 83.9 years respectively, a difference of over a decade for both genders.
Although the study does not provide definitive answers as to the cause for the decline, researchers believe that broad health trends and a general lack of access to health insurance are crucial underlying factors:
The reasons for the decline remain unclear, but researchers offered possible explanations, including a spike in prescription drug overdoses among young whites, higher rates of smoking among less educated white women, rising obesity, and a steady increase in the number of the least […]
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Saturday, September 22nd, 2012
KIRA COCHRANE, - The Raw Story/The Guardian (U.K.)
Stephan: A woman reader wrote to ask my advice about what to do, because her 16 year old daughter was photographed nude in a locker room by she thinks, but cannot prove, a jealous former friend, who posted the picture on the net. It made me think about this whole issue, of visual privacy in the age of the internet, not just for famous people, but ordinary citizens. So I went looking for something written about this and, synchronistically, today I found this. My counsel to her was that both she and her daughter might find it useful to talk this over in front of, and with, a professional therapist in order to meaningfully process what had happened. But that this was the shadow side of the net, and was but a part of the growing pervasiveness of survelliance in general. It is the world we have created and must now live in.
The row over topless pictures of the Duchess of Cambridge continues. But Kate is not alone. Young women everywhere – famous and non-famous – are increasingly becoming victims of voyeurism in our internet age
On the popular website Reddit, where users submit and share content, a member of a forum called ‘creepshots
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Saturday, September 22nd, 2012
Ling Ge, - Financial Times (U.K.)
Stephan: Once again the common wisdom about our beginnings as a species undergoes radical reassessment. This story grows ever more fascinating and complex.
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A new genetic study of a group of sub-Saharan peoples has challenged the prevailing view that modern humans emerged from one location in Africa before spreading out across the world.
An international research team found that the Khoe and San groups from southern Africa are descendants of the earliest diversification event in the history of modern humans – 100,000 years ago.
Instead of localising the origin of modern humans to a single geographic region in Africa, the researchers discovered a complex record of interbreeding and genetic stratification, challenging the view of evolution in one place. Details appear in the journal Science.
There are two main theories concerning the spread of humans out of Africa. The dominant view holds that modern humans began to leave Africa and colonise Europe and Asia about 60,000 years ago. The alternative ‘multiregional model
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Saturday, September 22nd, 2012
CASEY MICHEL, - Talking Points Memo
Stephan: This is the level of racist hate the pervades the Republican Party, particularly in the South. Those of us who believe and support a compassionate life-affirming vision for our country must stand against this poison. I see stories like this almost everyday but I choose to ignore them, not wishing to give them currency. However, I think I may be wrong. That the state leader of one of our major parties not only believes this vile nonsense, but propounds it publicly, should be a matter of concern to every citizen. It tells us something has seriously gone awry in our political system. It reminds me of The Protocols of Zion.
The head of the Alabama Republican Party this week threw his support behind one of the most far-fetched theories of the already bizarre birther movement.
Speaking to a group of GOP diehards on Wednesday in Fairhope, Ala., party Chair Bill Armistead raved about a film called ‘Dreams From My Real Father.
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Saturday, September 22nd, 2012
CRYSTAL PHEND, Senior Staff Writer - MedPage Today
Stephan: If you have high blood pressure you might consider adding yogurt to your diet. Talk it over with your physician.
Yogurt may help prevent hypertension as part of a healthy diet, an observational study suggested.
People who ate at least the equivalent of one serving every three days were 31% less likely to develop high blood pressure than those who ate no yogurt at all, Huifen Wang, PhD, of Tufts University in Boston, and colleagues found.
An even stronger effect was seen among individuals who were not taking antihypertensive drugs, according to their analysis of the Framingham Heart Study Offspring Cohort reported at the American Heart Association’s High Blood Pressure Research meeting in Washington, D.C.
‘Yogurt is a nutrient-dense, low-fat dairy product,’ the group noted. ‘Higher yogurt intake, as part of a healthy diet pattern, may be beneficial for blood pressure control and hypertension prevention.’
That finding reinforces the known role of low-fat dairy products in reducing blood pressure, Rachel Johnson, PhD, RD, chair of the AHA nutrition committee, commented in an interview with MedPage Today.
The association supports the DASH diet recommendation of two to three servings of low-fat dairy per day.
‘I would encourage my patients to choose fat-free or low-fat yogurt and to watch the amount of added sugars that are in the yogurt to keep the calories down,’ Johnson said. ‘
However, ‘when […]
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