From US News & World Report:

First, it’s shaky ground to compare U.S. infant mortality with reports from other countries. The United States counts all births as live if they show any sign of life, regardless of prematurity or size. This includes what many other countries report as stillbirths. In Austria and Germany, fetal weight must be at least 500 grams (1 pound) to count as a live birth; in other parts of Europe, such as Switzerland, the fetus must be at least 30 centimeters (12 inches) long. In Belgium and France, births at less than 26 weeks of pregnancy are registered as lifeless. And some countries don’t reliably register babies who die within the first 24 hours of birth. Thus, the United States is sure to report higher infant mortality rates. For this very reason, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which collects the European numbers, warns of head-to-head comparisons by country.

Infant mortality in developed countries is not about healthy babies dying of treatable conditions as in the past. Most of the infants we lose today are born critically ill, and 40 percent die within the first day of life. The major causes are low birth weight and prematurity, and congenital malformations. As Nicholas Eberstadt, a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, points out, Norway, which has one of the lowest infant mortality rates, shows no better infant survival than the United States when you factor in weight at birth.

Ever wondered more about the life supporting vitamins and minerals we depend on and never stop hearing about. This is definitely for the interested and/or nerdy.

Vitamins and minerals are nutrients required in very small amounts for essential metabolic reactions in the body. Some diseases caused by vitamin deficiencies, such as scurvy, have been recognized since antiquity, but it was only in the 20th century that systematic nutritional studies identified the chemical structures of many of these essential compounds. In 1913, Vitamin A was recognized for its importance in vision, and in 1932, Vitamin C was found to be necessary to prevent scurvy. The following paragraphs give some information about the most important vitamins and minerals.

MINERALS

The term “minerals” is applied to chemical elements present in the ash of calcined tissue. Dietary minerals may be present in inorganic salts, or as part of carbon-containing organic compounds. For example, magnesium is present in chlorophyll, the pigment that makes plants green. Six minerals are required by people in gram amounts: sodium (Na), potassium (K), calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), phosphorus (P), and chlorine (Cl). Daily requirements range from 0.3 to 2.0 grams per day. Nine trace minerals (microminerals) are required by people in minute amounts: chromium (Cr), copper (Cu), iodine (I), iron (Fe), fluorine (F), manganese (Mn), molybdenum (Mo), selenium (Se), and zinc (Zn). There are additional requirements for cobalt (Co), but these are generally expressed in terms of the cobalt-containing vitamin B12. All trace minerals are toxic at high levels.

The term Dietary Reference Intake (DRI) is used to represent daily dietary reference values such as Adequate Intake (AI), Tolerable Upper Intake Level (UL), Estimated Average Requirements (EAR), Nutrient Reference Value (NRV), and Recommended Dietary Allowance / Intake (RDA / RDI).

Calcium
Calcium (Ca) is the most abundant mineral in the human body. More than 99% of total body calcium is stored in the bones and teeth. Calcium is also found in body fluids where its function is to regulate contractions of blood vessels and muscles. The requirement for calcium is greatest from puberty to maturity, when the body grows very quickly. Milk and dairy products are good sources of calcium.

Age Calcium DRI (mg/day)
0-6 months 210
7-12 months 270
1-3 years 500
4-8 years 800
9-18 years 1300
19-50 years 1000
51+ years 1200

Fluorine
Most of the body’s fluorine (F) is contained in bones and teeth. The main source of fluoride is drinking water. Fluorine hardens tooth enamel and effectively prevents dental caries. Excessive fluorine in drinking water can accumulate in teeth and bones, causing fluorosis. Permanent teeth that develop during high fluorine intake have irregularly distributed chalky patches on the surface of the enamel which become stained yellow or brown, producing a characteristic mottled appearance.

Iodine
iodine (I) is primarily involved in the synthesis of two thyroid hormones, thyroxine and triiodothyronine. In adults, about 80% of the iodide absorbed is trapped by the thyroid gland.

Thyroxine
Most environmental iodine occurs in seawater. People living far from the sea are at particular risk of deficiency. Salt fortified with iodide (typically 70 μg/g) helps ensure adequate intake (100 μg/day). Deficiency is rare in areas where iodized salt is used but common worldwide. Iodine deficiency develops when iodide intake is less than 20 μg/day. In mild or moderate deficiency, the thyroid gland hypertrophies to concentrate iodide in itself, resulting in goiter which is an enlargement of the thyroid gland visible as a swelling of the front of the neck. Excessive iodine consumption can lead to thyrotoxicosis, a condition resulting from high concentrations of thyroid hormones in the body which can result from eating foods that have very high amounts of iodine, such as kombu-type kelp or seaweed.

Continue reading Chemical Structure of Vitamins and Minerals

This recent article in the New Yorker by Atul Gawande speaks to a central issue of the US Healthcare system which is broken at best – the overuse of medicine. And when it comes to your health in this case, more is definitely not better. The states with the most care ranked lowest in quality patient care.

In general surgery the gallbladder is known as the “golden thumb”. A quick, easy surgery that generates massive profits that is usually unneccesary with dietary changes and visceral manipulation to release the tension in the gallbladders compartment.

General surgeons are often asked to see patients with pain from gallstones. If there aren’t any complications—and there usually aren’t—the pain goes away on its own or with pain medication. With instruction on eating a lower-fat diet, most patients experience no further difficulties. But some have recurrent episodes, and need surgery to remove their gallbladder.
Seeing a patient who has had uncomplicated, first-time gallstone pain requires some judgment. A surgeon has to provide reassurance (people are often scared and want to go straight to surgery), some education about gallstone disease and diet, perhaps a prescription for pain; in a few weeks, the surgeon might follow up. But increasingly, I was told, McAllen surgeons simply operate. The patient wasn’t going to moderate her diet, they tell themselves. The pain was just going to come back. And by operating they happen to make an extra seven hundred dollars.

The New Yorker has published a comprehensive article on the effects of high-impact sports, particularly football, on the human brain. Penned by Malcolm Gladwell.

Upon closer analysis of brain plaques, particularly a trauma-induced scarring called tau, researchers have found considerable damage in the samples viewed. Only a post-mortem autopsy and proper staining can reveal the damage so the sample size is very small but the evidence is overwhelming.

Here are some notable quotes:

Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (C.T.E.), which is a progressive neurological disorder found in people who have suffered some kind of brain trauma. C.T.E. has many of the same manifestations as Alzheimer’s: it begins with behavioral and personality changes, followed by disinhibition and irritability, before moving on to dementia.

…a man who had been a linebacker for sixteen years, you could see, without the aid of magnification, that there was trouble: there was a shiny tan layer of scar tissue, right on the surface of the frontal lobe, where the brain had repeatedly slammed into the skull. It was the kind of scar you’d get only if you used your head as a battering ram.

Gladwell ties in Michael Vick and the aggressive nature of dogfighting and football. It’s a strange comparison that in the end reveals much about the will and fight in the football players to go beyond their pain and sacrifice themselves for the good of the team, or in this case the dog being loyal to its owner.

…data suggest that, in an average football season, a lineman could get struck in the head a thousand times, which means that a ten-year N.F.L. veteran, when you bring in his college and high-school playing days, could well have been hit in the head eighteen thousand times: that’s thousands of jarring blows that shake the brain from front to back and side to side, stretching and weakening and tearing the connections among nerve cells, and making the brain increasingly vulnerable to long-term damage.

A professor at the University of Chicago called it a “boy-killing, man-mutilating, money-making, education-prostituting, gladiatorial sport.” I can now agree with this statement wholeheartedly.