Being Overweight or Obese Makes You More Likely to Get Covid-19
Elderly individuals are more susceptible to dying from a variety of causes. These days it has become common knowledge that they are more likely than younger people to die from the Covid-19. But people of all ages who are overweight or obese have a greater chance of getting ill, and dying, from Covid-19.
The USA has become too dependent on the cheap products it gets from China. In the face of the high volumes of people stricken by CoronaVirus it was not able to supply enough face masks. In particular, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has in the past provided temporary shelters (e.g., trailers) and other products to victims of natural disasters, but the nature of the supplies needed to deal with the CoronaVirus was so different that potential suppliers were unprepared to provide sufficient quantities of appropriate items. To make matters worse, President Trump and 3M were feuding because he used the United States’ Defense Production Act to prevent shipments of US-made face masks to Canada or other countries. Fortunately, Trump and 3M changed their minds, though Canada and other countries might not be happy because they would be getting the less-effective face masks made by 3M whereas Americans would get the more-effective models imported from China.
Grocery stores, in particular, deserve a lot of praise these days for their quick response to the challenges caused by the CoronaVirus. We personally experienced this in the case of using Instacart at our local Safeway. We actually were in touch with the staffer who was picking items from their shelves, and we could answer questions regarding the items he was choosing and make decisions in real-time
A half-page article in my newspaper (The Mercury News (part of the Bay Area News Group)) on March 24, 2020 is headlined “New Bladder Control Pill Sales May Surpass Adult Diapers By 2021”. These fake news stories appear regularly in many daily newspapers. It had the byline T.J. Roberts; possibly a fictitious person, since a Google search reveals no science journalist with that name. And it quotes Keith Graham, Manager of Call Center Operations for BladderMax, saying how it has exceeded their expectations. One would expect a quote from a noted urologist rather than the head of a “boiler room” telephone bank. fortunately, there are other watchers who are alert, such as Science Based Medicine. And there are legitimate bladder control pills, such as Myrbetriq and SagaPro (at a price one-tenth that of Myrbetriq). One wonders why a reputable newspaper would publish such an advertisement.
Even if you eat in upscale restaurants in the U.S. or most other high-income countries, you normally are served meals with considerably more calories than you need. If you want to maintain a “Normal” BMI (Body Mass Index) you need to eat only a portion of the meal and take the rest home. It is even worse if you either (1) eat in downscale restaurants or (2) eat at fancy restaurants with 10-course “tasting menus. And if you eat enough to weigh 100 pounds or more too much you can expect to die 14 years younger than a person with normal BMI.
It is not surprising that a hearing aid company like Beltone would praise the value of improved hearing to reduce the likelihood of a person’s contracting Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. Beltone referred to a number of studies, which may have included the one by Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the National Institute on Aging.
With millions of people affected by Alzheimer’s disease, there is a lot of interest by drug companies to come up with a cure. But that interest has thus far not translated into drugs that work. Two companies—Pfizer, Inc. and Axovant Sciences Ltd.—have recently exited the business, but others are continuing their research, and new ones are starting. Curiously, new research indicates that drugs used to treat diabetes may work for Alzheimer’s too … at least in mice.
The brain needs vitamin B1 (thiamine) to make acetylcholine as Alzheimer’s sufferers are deficient in it.
And another possible way to avoid, or at least delay, Alzheimer’s is to floss your teeth religiously.
Even famous cookbook author Julia Child needed help in the early days of cooking shows on television. So unless you have a personal food shopper with access to world-class farmers markets and a personal prep chef (the person who does all the slicing and dicing) there is no way that you can come close to turning out a gourmet meal in 30 minutes or less or getting a “weeknight” meal on your family’s table before your family perishes of hunger. Some men enjoy cooking as a relaxing analog counterpoint to their stressful digital days, but it is not fair to them to make them salivate over recipes from professional chefs who DO have prep chefs and MAY have assistants rounding up the ingredients (or perhaps they personally do the shopping but don’t count that in the short time claimed in the recipes).
A particularly egregious example appeared in the May 6 Wall Street Journal, promising a meager 20-minute stint. We were immediately suspicious when we noted that there were 12 ingredients (not counting the Parmesan cheese, a critical addition that makes most every pasta dish tasty). We have a pretty decent farmers market, but none of the sellers had any garlic “scapes” (none of them had even HEARD of these scapes). To be fair, the chef-author mentioned that he would omit the scapes because of his kids, but readers could substitute scallions (AKA green onions), ramps (equally arcane and probably at least as unavailable as scapes), or plain old dependable garlic (maybe his kids are used to that). Beyond this, the capers (not a common household item) needed to be rinsed and chopped, a fussy and time-consuming task.
The bottom line: 40 minutes would be a lot more accurate. And doubling the time might be a good rule-of-thumb when you see recipes that promise fast gourmet meals.
According to a number of research studies, including one conducted at Stanford University, men often exaggerate their height and strength. We ran across this after reading a couple of Lee Child’s novels, whose hero is six-foot-five Jack Reacher, that have been made into movies starring five-foot-seven (or five-foot-eight) Tom Cruise. Personally, we have a lot more issues with what Hollywood has done to the plots than the differences in sizes of the fictious hero and the movie one, because Tom Cruise has a lot of derring-do and his own attitude (plus a lot of acting skill) that comes through loud and clear.
Shorter men may not be as happy as their taller male friends or idols, but research studies in Hawaii among Japanese-American men and in San Diego among American veterans has shown that they live longer.
It may be that “Music hath charms to soothe the savage beast”, but it also may reward musicians with longer lives and better hearing, depending on when and how long those musicians were engaged in music training. Northwestern University’s Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory has studied how music affects the human brain for some years, and released their latest study in late 2011.
These results have not apparently led to a big increase in sales of instruments nor music lessons during the last five years, but should have been motivating, or at least interesting to those who contemplate their own mortality. But there are some caveats. Apparently it is best if one has learned music in childhood and continued to play an instrument for at least 10 years, even if there has been a gap of several decades between then and when s/he starts to play again. Another caveat is that the modest number of research studies, none with sample sizes exceeding 100, may not be statistically significant.
On the positive side, however, a musician’s being able to pick out other musicians’ notes helps him/her hear better because of being able to hear a conversation in a noisy environment. Better hearing means that one is less isolated from society, which helps one age more gracefully. And musical activity improves memory, again a defense against aging.
Most of the research focuses on instrumentalists, but an elusive Harvard/Yale study found that vocalists benefit similarly, apparently even more so if they sing with a group.
One simple aspect that seems to have been mostly ignored is the cardiovascular exercise that accompanies musical efforts. This has been most noted in the case of conductors, but some instrumentalists like drummers and all members of marching bands get considerable exercise.