For The Union-Tribune
Alcohol causes cancer
In one of his final acts, Vivek Murthy, the outgoing U.S. surgeon general, said alcoholic beverages should carry an updated warning label that says consumption increases the risk of cancer. Murthy said most Americans have no idea.
Recent research underscores the point, finding that quitting or reducing alcohol consumption reduced the risk of a striking list of cancers.
Otis Brawley, a professor of oncology and epidemiology at Johns Hopkins University, agrees with Murthy.
There is “a high likelihood — and there’s good scientific correlation to suggest — that alcohol causes breast cancer, colon cancer, rectal cancer, esophageal cancer and liver cancer,” Brawley said.
“The precautionary principle is, if it might cause cancer, you should warn people that it might cause cancer. Now, this is not a ‘might cause cancer.’ This is ‘it does cause cancer.’ Therefore, many of us feel that we should be warning people.”
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(Adobe Stock)
Body of knowledge
The ratio of brain mass to body mass in humans is 1:40, comparable to mice.
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Get me that. Stat!
In 2021, 8.6 percent of people in the United States had no health insurance, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Texas has the highest percentage of uninsured people, at 18 percent. Massachusetts had the lowest, at 2.5 percent.
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Doc talk
Rales — Abnormal lung sounds that might be a sign of fluid buildup congestion in the lungs.
Mania of the week
Allodoxamania — an intense and irrational fear of other people’s opinions
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Never say diet
The Major League Eating speed-eating record for corned beef and cabbage is 10.63 pounds in 10 minutes, held by Patrick Bertoletti. No one is green with envy.
Best medicine
Ten Commandments for Seniors*
*Actually, these are the last five. The first five were last week. You remember last week, right?
6. “On time” is when you get there.
7. You’ve noticed people your age are much older than you.
8. Aging has slowed you down, but it hasn’t shut you up.
9. You still haven’t learned to act your age and you never will.
10. “One for the road” means peeing before you leave the house.
Observation
“I didn’t know the full facts of life until I was seventeen. My father never talked about his work.”
— Austrian lawyer (Jean) Martin Freud (1889-1967), eldest son of Sigmund
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Medical history
This week in 1894, the first bottles of Coca-Cola were sold. Coca-Cola was invented by Dr. John Pemberton, an Atlanta pharmacist who created the formula in a three-legged brass kettle in his backyard combining lime, cinnamon, coca leaves and the seeds of a Brazilian shrub to make the famous beverage. Carbonated water was introduced later. Coca-Cola was originally used as a nerve and brain tonic and a medical elixir.
Perishable publications
Many, if not most, published research papers have titles that defy comprehension. They use specialized jargon, complex words and opaque phrases like “nonlinear dynamics.” Sometimes they don’t, and yet they’re still hard to figure out. Here’s an actual title of actual published research study: “Blogs are Echo Chambers: Blogs are Echo Chambers.”
Published in the journal IEEE, the researchers deduced that blogs tend to be read by people who already agree with the blogger.
Epitaphs
Sooner Born
Sooner Bred
And Now I’m Sooner Dead.
— Michael Duane Batterson (1946-2005), who lived his entire life in Oklahoma
LaFee is vice president of communications for the Sanford Burnham Prebys research institute.