Saturday, October 15, 2011

Zestz for LAUGHS - Great Truths

Great Truths and Five Best Sentences

Disclaimer : The following is reprinted without Rewang’s permission and is intended purely for laughs. Any resemblance to real governments, current or past, is purely coincidental.

GREAT TRUTHS

1. In my many years I have come to a conclusion that one useless man is a shame, two is a law firm and three or more is the Government.

2. If you don't read the newspaper you are uninformed, if you do read the newspaper you are misinformed.

3. Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Parliament. But then I repeat myself.

4. I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.

5. A government which robs Abel to pay Kane can always depend on the support of Kane.

6. A liberal is someone who feels a great debt to his fellow man, which debt he proposes to pay off with your money.

7. Democracy must be something more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner.

8. Foreign aid might be defined as a transfer of money from poor people in rich countries to rich people in poor countries.

9. Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.

10. Government is the great fiction, through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else.

11. Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.

12. I don't make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts.

13. If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it's free!

14. In general, the art of government consists of taking as much money as possible from one party of the citizens to give to the other (after pocketing most of it).

15. Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn't mean politics won't take an interest in you!

16. No man's life, liberty, or property is safe while either the Parliament or the Kangaroo Court is in session.

17. Talk is cheap...except when Parliament does it.

18. The government is like a baby's alimentary canal, with a
happy appetite at one end and no responsibility at the other.

19. The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of the blessings. The inherent blessing of socialism is the equal sharing of misery.

20. The only difference between a tax man and a taxidermist is that the taxidermist leaves the skin.

21. The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools.

22. There is no distinctly criminal class.

23. What this country needs are more unemployed politicians.

24. A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have.

25. We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office.


FIVE BEST SENTENCES

1. You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealth out of prosperity.

2. What one person receives without working for...another person must work for without receiving.

3. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.

4. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it.

5. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work, because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work, because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that is the beginning of the end of any nation!

Can you think of a reason for not sharing this?

Vitamin E Supplement May Increase Prostate Cancer Risk

Updated Trial Data Show 17 Percent Increase in Cancer Risk

Men who take a daily vitamin E supplement – a regimen once thought to reduce cancer risk – face an increased risk of prostate cancer, according to results of a large national study.

The finding comes from a report summarizing the latest results of the Selenium and Vitamin E Cancer Prevention Trial (SELECT). Eric Klein, MD, chair of the Glickman Urological and Kidney Institute at Cleveland Clinic, is the lead author.

SELECT began in 2001 to test earlier research suggesting selenium and vitamin E supplements may reduce the risk of developing certain cancers. Some vitamin supplements containing enhanced levels of selenium and vitamin E were marketed to consumers during this time period with claims of reducing cancer risk.

400 IU of Vitamin E a day

The paper, which will appear in the October 12 edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association, found that a group of men taking a daily dose of 400 IU of vitamin E from 2001 to 2008 had 17 percent more cases of prostate cancer than men who took a placebo.

“For the typical man, there appears to be no benefit in taking vitamin E, and in fact, there may be some harm,” said Dr. Klein, an internationally renowned prostate cancer expert who served as the national study coordinator.

SELECT tracked more than 35,000 men at locations across the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico who took daily doses through the Fall of 2008. The trial was funded by the National Cancer Institute and administered by the Southwest Oncology Group (SWOG), an international network of research institutions with study sites in 400 locations across the U.S., Puerto Rico and Canada.

The men were divided into four groups: vitamin E and Selenium; vitamin E alone; selenium alone; and placebo. The group taking vitamin E was the only group shown to have a statistically significant increased risk of prostate cancer.

Prostate cancer is the most common non-skin cancer in American men with a current lifetime risk of 16 percent. For 2011 it is estimated 240,000 new cases and 33,000 deaths will result in the U.S.

Men who participated in the SELECT trail can find more information at www.SWOG.org.

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by The Zestzfulness Team) from materials provided by the Cleveland Clinic News Service of October 11, 2011

Journal Reference:

E. A. Klein, I. M. Thompson, C. M. Tangen, J. J. Crowley, M. S. Lucia, P. J. Goodman, L. Minasian, L. G. Ford, H. L. Parnes, J. M. Gaziano, D. D. Karp, M. M. Lieber, P. J. Walther, L. Klotz, J. K. Parsons, J. L. Chin, A. Darke, S. M. Lippman, G. E. Goodman, F. L. Meyskens, L. H. Baker. Vitamin E and the Risk of Prostate Cancer: Results of The Selenium and Vitamin E Cancer Prevention Trial (SELECT). JAMA, 2011; 306 (14): 1549-1556 DOI: 10.1001/jama.2011.1437


The Zestzfulness Team says:

Remember how you whinged about there being only 30units of Vitamin E in Surbex Zinc?

Vitamin E works synergistically together with Vitamin C enhancing each other so that only minimal amount is used for maximum benefit with no potential to do harm.

You are overstocked with Natopherol 400iu Vegecap and you worry about your prostate?

Two things you can do – hand over the goody to your old lady or space out your dose to once a week!

Find out what fats, broccoli and tomatoes have to do with your prostate by typing PROSTATE in the search box on the next column.

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Celebrating the PRESENT : No Wants To Die




Shariff sent us a quotation from Steve Jobs.

Steve Jobs, the "creative genius" who revolutionised modern-day life with inventions like the iPhone, iPod and the iPad, died at the age of 56 following years of ill-health.

“No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”

These two paragraphs are part of a prepared text of the Commencement address delivered by Steve Jobs on June 12, 2005 at Stanford University. You can read the full text HERE.

Apple, the company Steve Jobs co-founded with Steve Wozniak in 1976, posted a tribute message on its website and called on fans to share their "thoughts, memories, and condolences" by emailing them at rememberingsteve@apple.com.


Higher HDL Lowers Cardiovascular Risk in Type 2

Increasing levels of high-density lipoproteins, better known as HDL or "good" cholesterol, reduced the risk for heart attack and stroke among patients with diabetes, according to a new study.

The observational study, one of the largest of its kind, examined the medical records of more than 30,000 patients with diabetes and also found that patients whose HDL levels decreased had more heart attacks and strokes.

Researchers studied patients with diabetes because they are more prone to heart disease with a lifetime risk as high as 87 percent.

While there is considerable evidence that reducing the amount of low-density lipoprotein, also known as LDL or "bad" cholesterol, can reduce the risk of heart disease, the relationship between HDL cholesterol and heart disease is less clear.

"Our study adds to the growing body of evidence that raising HDL levels may be an important strategy for reducing heart attack risk," said study lead author Gregory Nichols, PhD, senior investigator with the Kaiser Permanente Centre for Health Research in Portland, Ore.

The study included 30,067 patients who entered Kaiser Permanente diabetes registries in Oregon, Washington and Georgia between 2001 and 2006. These patients had at least two HDL cholesterol measurements between 6 and 24 months apart.

After obtaining the cholesterol measurement, researchers followed the patients for up to 8 years to see if they were hospitalized for a heart attack or stroke.

Most patients (61 percent) had no significant change in HDL levels; in 22 percent of patients, HDL levels increased by at least 6.5 mg/dl (milligrams per deciliter of blood); in 17 percent of patients, HDL levels decreased by at least that same amount.

The study found that patients whose HDL levels increased had 8 percent fewer heart attacks and strokes than patients whose HDL levels remained the same, while patients whose HDL levels decreased had 11 percent more heart attacks and strokes.

Journal Reference:

Gregory A. Nichols, Suma Vupputuri, A. Gabriela Rosales. Change in High-Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol and Risk of Subsequent Hospitalization for Coronary Artery Disease or Stroke Among Patients With Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus. The American Journal of Cardiology, Volume 108, Issue 8, 15 October 2011, Pages 1124-1128 DOI: 10.1016/j.amjcard.2011.05.047


Zestz for LAUGHS - At The Pharmacy





Gillian of Penang sent this for a good laugh:

Betty, JoAnn and Cicely are outside their nursing home, having a drink and a smoke, when it starts to rain Betty pulls out a condom, cuts off the end, puts it over her cigarette, and continues smoking.
JoAnn: What in the hell is that?!
Betty: A condom. This way my cigarette doesn't get wet.
JoAnn: Where did you get it?
Betty: You can get them at any pharmacy.
The next day, JoAnn hobbles into the local pharmacy and announces to the pharmacist that she wants a box of condoms.
The pharmacist, obviously embarrassed, looks at her kind of strangely (she is after all, over 80 years of age), but very delicately asks what brand of condom she prefers.
'Doesn't matter Sonny, as long as it fits on a Camel.'
The pharmacist fainted.

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Health Tip: Understanding Breast Cancer in Men

Picture credit: http://www.virtualmedicalcentre.com


Learn about its risk factors

While breast cancer may be most common in women, it can also affect men.

The National Cancer Institute mentions these common risk factors for male breast cancer:

  • Being aged 60 to 70.
  • Having been exposed to radiation.
  • Being diagnosed with a condition that raises estrogen levels, such as liver disease (cirrhosis).
  • Having a family history of breast cancer, especially cases caused by a gene (BRCA2) mutation.

Exercise Just as Good as Drugs at Preventing Migraines


Picture credit: http://healthclub.info-ebazaar.com


Although exercise is often prescribed as a treatment for migraine, there has not previously been sufficient scientific evidence that it really works. However, research from the Sahlgrenska Academy has now shown that exercise is just as good as drugs at preventing migraines.

Doctors use a variety of different methods to prevent migraines these days: on the pharmaceutical side a drug based on the substance topiramate has proved effective, while non-medical treatments with well-documented effects include relaxation exercises.

No Previous Evidence

Exercise is also frequently recommended as a treatment, though there has not been sufficient scientific evidence that it really has any effect on migraine patients.

In a randomized controlled study researchers from the University of Gothenburg's Sahlgrenska Academy have now analysed how well exercise works as a preventative treatment for migraines relative to relaxation exercises and topiramate.

40 Minutes of Exercise

Published in the journal Cephalalgia, the study involved 91 migraine patients, a third of whom were asked to exercise for 40 minutes three times a week under the supervision of a physiotherapist, with another third doing relaxation exercises, and the final third given topiramate. The study lasted for a total of three months, during which the patients' migraine status, quality of life, aerobic capacity and level of phyical activity were evaluated before, during and after their treatment. Follow-ups were then carried out after three and six months.

Exercise Just As Effective

The results show that the number of migraines fell in all three groups. Interestingly, there was no difference in the preventative effect between the three treatments.

"Our conclusion is that exercise can act as an alternative to relaxations and topiramate when it comes to preventing migraines, and is particularly appropriate for patients who are unwilling or unable to take preventative medicines, says Emma Varkey, the physiotherapist and doctoral student at the Sahlgrenska Academy who carried out the study," says Emma Varkey, the physiotherapist and doctoral student at the Sahlgrenska Academy who carried out the study.


Story Source:

The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by The Zestzfulness Team) from the September news release by University of Gothenburg.

Journal Reference:

E. Varkey, A. Cider, J. Carlsson, M. Linde. Exercise as migraine prophylaxis: A randomized study using relaxation and topiramate as controls. Cephalalgia, 2011; DOI: 10.1177/0333102411419681