Risk Reduction Quotes

How are the negotiations progressing?” Halt asked. Selethen pursed his lips. “As all such things progress. My chamberlain is asking for a reduction of three-quarters of a percent on the duty to be charged for kafay. Your advocates,” he said, including Sapristi in the conversation, “are holding out for no more than five-eighths of a percent. I had to have a break from it all. Sometimes I think they do this because they simply like to argue.” Sapristi nodded. “It’s always the way. We soldiers risk our lives fighting while the lawyers quibble over fractions of a percentage point. And yet they look upon us as lesser beings.

Several medical professional organizations acknowledge the utility of opioid therapy and many case series and large surveys report satisfactory reductions in pain, improvement in function and minimal risk of addiction.

When you pay attention to a threat, you worry—and the decision weights reflect how much you worry. Because of the possibility effect, the worry is not proportional to the probability of the threat. Reducing or mitigating the risk is not adequate; to eliminate the worry the probability must be brought down to zero.

There's never an easy answer to the question "Should we do more testing?" because information can guide risk reduction, but doesn't necessarily do so.

Brain scans prove that patients who’ve sustained significant childhood trauma have brains that look different from people who haven’t. Traumatized brains tend to have an enlarged amygdala—a part of the brain that is generally associated with producing feelings of fear. Which makes sense. But it goes further than that: For survivors of emotional abuse, the part of their brain that is associated with self-awareness and self-evaluation is shrunken and thin. Women who’ve suffered childhood sexual abuse have smaller somatosensory cortices—the part of the brain that registers sensation in our bodies. Victims who were screamed at might have an altered response to sound. Traumatized brains can result in reductions in the parts of the brain that process semantics, emotion and memory retrieval, perceiving emotions in others, and attention and speech. Not getting enough sleep at night potentially affects developing brains’ plasticity and attention and increases the risk of emotional problems later in life. And the scariest factoid, for me anyway: Child abuse is often associated with reduced thickness in the prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain associated with moderation, decision-making, complex thought, and logical reasoning. Brains do have workarounds. There are people without amygdalae who don’t feel fear. There are people who have reduced prefrontal cortices who are very logical. And other parts of the brain can compensate, make up the lost parts in other ways. But overall, when I looked at the breadth of evidence, the results felt crushing. The fact that the brain’s cortical thickness is directly related to IQ was particularly threatening to me. Even if I wasn’t cool, or kind, or personable, I enjoyed the narrative that I was at least effective. Intelligent. What these papers seemed to tell me is that however smart I am, I’m not as smart as I could have been had this not happened to me. The questions arose again: Is this why my pitches didn’t go through? Is this why my boss never respected me? Is this why I was pushed to do grunt work in the back room?

Intermittent fasting was associated with more than a 40 percent reduction in heart disease risk in a study of 448 people published in the American Journal of Cardiology reporting that “most diseases, including cancer, diabetes and even neurodegenerative illnesses, are forestalled” by caloric reduction.

when people limit their eating window to ten hours and make no other dietary changes, they see reductions in inflammation levels, triglyceride levels, and cancer risk, along with improvements in sleep within weeks.

I think that the poet and scholar Kathleen Raine was correct in reminding us that life, like holiness, can be known only by being experienced. To experience it is not to "figure it out" or even to understand it, but to suffer it and rejoice in it as it is. In suffering it and rejoicing it as it is, we know that we do not and cannot understand it completely. We know, moreover, that we do not wish to have it appropriated by somebody's claim to have understood it. Though we have life, it is beyond us. We do not know how we have it, or why. We do not know what is going to happen to it, or to us. It is not predictable; though we can destroy it, we cannot make it. It cannot, except by reduction and the grave risk of damage, be controlled. It is, as Blake said, holy. To think otherwise is to enslave life, and to make, not humanity, but a few humans its predictably inept masters.

First, intelligence is indeed correlated with how long individuals live. One study found that each additional IQ point, such as 107 versus 106, was linked with a 1 percent reduction in the relative risk of death (O’Toole & Stankov, 1992). This means that having an IQ 15 points above average (115 as opposed to 100) would decrease your mortality risk by 15 percent. Second, IQ is also linked with sublethal injuries, which themselves can hurt an individual’s inclusive fitness. In the modern world, those with lower IQs are more likely to drown; get into bicycle, motorcycle, and car accidents; become injured through explosions, falling objects, and knives; and even be hit by lightning (Gottfredson, 2007). Although no individual cause, considered alone, is strongly linked with IQ, when you add them all up, they cumulate to an increased risk of injury and death.

Finally, there was the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI), a trial that enrolled 49,000 women in 1993 with the expectation that when the results came back, the benefits of a low-fat diet would be validated once and for all. But after a decade of eating more fruits, vegetables, and whole grains while cutting back on meat and fat, these women not only failed to lose weight, but they also did not see any significant reduction in their risk for either heart disease or cancer of any major kind. WHI was the largest and longest trial ever of the low-fat diet, and the results indicated that the diet had quite simply failed.

If you want to live long, sleep more and eat less. ... Intermittent fasting was associated with more than a 40 percent reduction in heart disease risk in a study of 448 people published in the American Journal of Cardiology reporting that 'most diseases, including cancer, diabetes and even neurodegenerative illnesses, are forstalled' by caloric reduction.

Brain scans prove that patients who’ve sustained significant childhood trauma have brains that look different from those of people who haven’t.[8] Traumatized brains tend to have an enlarged amygdala—a part of the brain that is generally associated with producing feelings of fear. Which makes sense. But it goes further than that: For survivors of emotional abuse, the part of their brain that is associated with self-awareness and self-evaluation is shrunken and thin. Women who’ve suffered childhood sexual abuse have smaller somatosensory cortices—the part of the brain that registers sensation in our bodies. Victims who were screamed at might have an altered response to sound. Trauma can result in reductions in the parts of the brain that process semantics, emotion and memory retrieval, perceiving emotions in others, and attention and speech. Not getting enough sleep at night potentially affects developing brains’ plasticity and attention and increases the risk of emotional problems later in life. And the scariest factoid, for me anyway: Child abuse is often associated with reduced thickness in the prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain associated with moderation, decision-making, complex thought, and logical reasoning.

By posing climate change as a battle between capitalism and the planet, I am not saying anything that we don't already know. the battle is already under way, but right now capitalism is winning hands down. it wins every time the need for economic growth is used as the excuse for putting off climate action yet again, of for breaking emission reduction commitments already made. it wins when Greeks are told that their only path out of economic crises is to open up their beautiful seas to high-risk oil and gas drilling. it wins when Canadians are told our only hope of not ending unlike Greece is to allow our boreal forests to be flayed so we can access the semisolid bitumen from the Alberta tar sands . it wins when a park in Istanbul is slotted for demolition to make way for yet another shopping mall. it wins when parents in Beijing are told that sending their wheezing kids to school in pollution masks decorated to look like cute cartoon characters is an acceptable price for economic progress. it wins every time we accept that we have only bad choices available to us: austerity or extraction, poisoning or poverty.

Perhaps what matters,” Sunstein muses, “is not whether people are right on the facts, but whether they are frightened.” And people do seem to be frightened. We are locking our doors and pulling our children out of public school and buying guns and ritually sanitizing our hands to allay a wide range of fears, most of which are essentially fears of other people. All the while we are also, in our way, reckless. We get intoxicated, from the Latin “to poison,” for fun. This contradiction leads Sunstein to worry that regulatory laws based on the priorities of the general public maybe prone to a pattern of “paranoia and neglect.” Too much attention may be spent on minimal risks, while too little is paid to pressing threats. Paranoia, the theorist Eve Sedgwick observes, tends to be contagious. She calls it a “strong theory,” meaning a wide-ranging, reductive theory that displaces other ways of thinking. And paranoia very frequently passes for intelligence. As Sedgwick observes, “to theorize out of anything but a paranoid critical stance has come to seem naïve, pious, or complaisant.” She does not believe that paranoid thinking is necessarily delusional or wrong, but only that there is value to approaches that are less rooted in suspicion. “Paranoia,” Sedgwick writes, “knows some things well and others poorly.

If the symbolic father is often lurking behind the boss--which is why one speaks of 'paternalism' in various kinds of enterprises--there also often is, in a most concrete fashion, a boss or hierarchic superior behind the real father. In the unconscious, paternal functions are inseparable from the socio-professional and cultural involvements which sustain them. Behind the mother, whether real or symbolic, a certain type of feminine condition exists, in a socially defined imaginary context. Must I point out that children do not grow up cut off from the world, even within the family womb? The family is permeable to environmental forces and exterior influences. Collective infrastructures, like the media and advertising, never cease to interfere with the most intimate levels of subjective life. The unconscious is not something that exists by itself to be gotten hold of through intimate discourse. In fact, it is only a rhizome of machinic interactions, a link to power systems and power relations that surround us. As such, unconscious processes cannot be analyzed in terms of specific content or structural syntax, but rather in terms of enunciation, of collective enunciative arrangements, which, by definition, correspond neither to biological individuals nor to structural paradigms... The customary psychoanalytical family-based reductions of the unconscious are not 'errors.' They correspond to a particular kind of collective enunciative arrangement. In relation to unconscious formation, they proceed from the particular micropolitics of capitalistic societal organization. An overly diversified, overly creative machinic unconscious would exceed the limits of 'good behavior' within the relations of production founded upon social exploitation and segregation. This is why our societies grant a special position to those who specialize in recentering the unconscious onto the individuated subject, onto partially reified objects, where methods of containment prevent its expansion beyond dominant realities and significations. The impact of the scientific aspirations of techniques like psychoanalysis and family therapy should be considered as a gigantic industry for the normalization, adaption and organized division of the socius. The workings of the social division of labor, the assignment of individuals to particular productive tasks, no longer depend solely on means of direct coercion, or capitalistic systems of semiotization (the monetary remuneration based on profit, etc.). They depend just as fundamentally on techniques modeling the unconscious through social infrastructures, the mass media, and different psychological and behavioral devices...Even the outcome of the class struggle of the oppressed--the fact that they constantly risk being sucked into relations of domination--appears to be linked to such a perspective.

Routinely sleeping less than six or seven hours a night demolishes your immune system, more than doubling your risk of cancer. Insufficient sleep is a key lifestyle factor determining whether or not you will develop Alzheimer’s disease. Inadequate sleep—even moderate reductions for just one week—disrupts blood sugar levels so profoundly that you would be classified as pre-diabetic. Short sleeping increases the likelihood of your coronary arteries becoming blocked and brittle, setting you on a path toward cardiovascular disease, stroke, and congestive heart failure. Fitting Charlotte Brontë’s prophetic wisdom that “a ruffled mind makes a restless pillow,” sleep disruption further contributes to all major psychiatric conditions, including depression, anxiety, and suicidality.

Mostly because, of all the major cancers, colorectal cancer is one of the easiest to detect, with the greatest payoff in terms of risk reduction. It remains one of the top five deadliest cancers in the United States, behind lung (#1) and breast/prostate (#2 for women/men), and just ahead of pancreas (#4) and liver (#5) cancers. Of these five, though, CRC is the one we have the best shot at catching early.

What is the transition from adolescence to adulthood when some of us will experience the effects of puberty twice: once against our will when we are younger and a second time with our consent when we are older? And whether or not we choose to pursue transition by a medical means, how are we served by a narrative of maturity equivalent to a reduction in risk when simply being trans in a transphobic culture is risky behavior?

Chemically induced joy comes at a cost. That cost can be high. Very, very high. So high that you’re going to think twice after reading what science has to say about drug use. One study found that adolescents who smoke just a couple of joints of marijuana show changes in their brains. That’s not a couple of years of smoking or the decades that some adults rack up. It’s just two joints. A research team led by Dr. Gabriella Gobbi, a professor and psychiatrist at the McGill University Health Center in Montreal, discovered that teenagers using cannabis had a nearly 40% greater risk of depression and a 50% greater risk of suicidal ideation in adulthood. Dr. Gobbi stated that “given the large number of adolescents who smoke cannabis, the risk in the population becomes very big. About 7% of depression is probably linked to the use of cannabis in adolescence, which translates into more than 400,000 cases.” The research that revealed these startling numbers was not just a single study of adolescent marijuana use. It was a meta-analysis and review of 11 studies with a total of 23,317 teenage subjects followed through young adulthood. Further, Gobbi’s team only reviewed studies that provided information on depression in the subjects prior to their cannabis use. “We considered only studies that controlled for [preexisting] depression,” said Dr. Gobbi. “They were not depressed before using marijuana, so they probably weren’t using it to self-medicate.” Marijuana use preceded depression. The specific findings of Gobbi’s research include: The risk of depression associated with marijuana use in teens below age 18 is 1.4 times higher than among nonusers. The risk of suicidal thoughts is 1.5 times higher. The likelihood that teen marijuana users will attempt suicide is 3.46 times greater. In adults with prolonged marijuana use, the wiring of the brain degrades. Areas affected include the hippocampus (learning and memory), insula (compassion), and prefrontal cortex (executive functions). The authors of one study stated that “regular cannabis use is associated with gray matter volume reduction in the medial temporal cortex, temporal pole, parahippocampal gyrus, insula, and orbitofrontal cortex; these regions are rich in cannabinoid CB1 receptors and functionally associated with motivational, emotional, and affective processing. Furthermore, these changes correlate with the frequency of cannabis use . . . [while the] . . . age of onset of drug use also influences the magnitude of these changes.” A large number of studies show that cannabis use both increases anxiety and depression and leads to worse health. Key parts of your brain shrink more, based on how early you began smoking weed, and how often you smoke it. That’s a “high” price to pay.

Of the food factors investigated, the only one found to have a consistent and significant association with a longer lifespan across the board was intake of legumes, whether it was Swedes eating their brown beans and peas, Japanese eating their soy, or Greeks eating their lentils, chickpeas, and white beans. The researchers identified an 8 percent reduction in risk of death for every 20 g increase in legumes consumed each day,2404 which is just about two tablespoons’ worth.2405

The absolute risk reduction is only 1 percent, so for every hundred people who take a drug like Lipitor for a few years, only one person averts a heart attack.3603 However, in order to take a cholesterol-lowering drug every day, most say they want an absolute risk reduction at least about twenty-five times higher than that. So, the dirty little secret is if patients knew the truth, if they knew how little these drugs actually worked, nearly no one would agree to take them.

Weder and Egan concluded, “The potentially adverse impact of dietary salt restriction on the risk factor profile for cardiovascular disease suggests that further studies are necessary before a reduction in dietary salt intake can be prescribed for the general population.”125 This was in 1991, over twenty-five years ago.

Among older adults, there may be a similar relative risk reduction—from 6 percent down to 2.4 percent—but since the risk is higher and the consequences greater, the absolute benefits are greater, too.4671

COFFEE AND TEA Recent research suggests that both coffee and tea consumption are associated with a lower incidence of dementia. Particularly interesting is the finding that those who drink two or three cups of coffee and the same amount of tea showed the greatest reduction, according to the figures released in November 2021 by the UK Biobank. This study analyzed coffee and tea consumption as related to stroke and dementia risk. Among the 365,682 participants, those who drank two to three cups of coffee per day and two to three cups of tea per day lowered their dementia risk by 28 percent.

Over the last ten years, more than a billion iPhones have been made in Chinese manufacturing plants powered by coal. Exporting our green guilt to China while simultaneously harming job prospects in the Rust Belt, creating an uneven playing field for American companies, makes little sense. It’s an unsustainable path with significant political ramifications. Although carbon reduction goals are commendable, meeting them will be impossible without China playing a more active and constructive role.

Research also shows that a less stressful life doesn’t make people nearly as happy as they think it will. Although most people predict they would be happier if they were less busy, the opposite turns out to be true. People are happier when they are busier, even when forced to take on more than they would choose. A dramatic decrease in busyness may explain why retirement can increase the risk of developing depression by 40 percent. A lack of meaningful stress may even be bad for your health. In one large epidemiological study, middle-aged men who reported higher levels of boredom were more than twice as likely to die of a heart attack over the next twenty years. In contrast, many studies show that people who have a sense of purpose live longer. For example, in a study that followed over nine thousand adults in the U.K. for ten years, those who reported highly meaningful lives had a 30 percent reduction in mortality. This reduced risk held even after controlling for factors including education, wealth, depression, and health behaviors such as smoking, exercise, and drinking.

QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER Are your people trying to achieve excellence or just to avoid making mistakes? Has your organization become action-averse because taking action sometimes results in errors? Have you let error-reduction programs sap the lifeblood out of initiative and risk taking? Do you spend more time critiquing errors than celebrating success? Are you able to identify the symptoms of avoiding errors in your workplace? When you ask people what their jobs are, do they answer in terms of reducing errors?

Routinely sleeping less than six hours a night weakens your immune system, substantially increasing your risk of certain forms of cancer. Insufficient sleep appears to be a key lifestyle factor linked to your risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. Inadequate sleep—even moderate reductions for just one week—disrupts blood sugar levels so profoundly that you would be classified as pre-diabetic.

By posing climate change as a battle between capitalism and the planet, I am not saying anything that we don’t already know. The battle is already under way, but right now capitalism is winning hands down. It wins every time the need for economic growth is used as the excuse for putting off climate action yet again, or for breaking emission reduction commitments already made. It wins when Greeks are told that their only path out of economic crisis is to open up their beautiful seas to high-risk oil and gas drilling. It wins when Canadians are told our only hope of not ending up like Greece is to allow our boreal forests to be flayed so we can access the semisolid bitumen from the Alberta tar sands. It wins when a park in Istanbul is slotted for demolition to make way for yet another shopping mall. It wins when parents in Beijing are told that sending their wheezing kids to school in pollution masks decorated to look like cute cartoon characters is an acceptable price for economic progress. It wins every time we accept that we have only bad choices available to us: austerity or extraction, poisoning or poverty.

Symptoms of Systemic Inflammation Symptoms are far ranging, including everything from general fatigue to weight gain.44 Even if you are less concerned about overall health and more worried about your banged-up knees and elbows, pay close attention to this. Studies show low-grade systemic inflammation makes you more susceptible to tendinopathy and joint pain.45 While most people have one or two of these symptoms, you should seek medical guidance if several of these describe you: Weight gain (especially around the midsection) Fatigue, brain fog, general lethargy, insomnia Joint and muscle pain, spasms, muscle cramps Depressed mood and anxiety Digestive discomfort (gas, diarrhea, constipation, stomach cramps and pains) Skin disorders, including easily irritated skin, persistent redness or puffiness, eczema, and psoriasis Frequent infections, colds, and illnesses Frequent allergic reactions and allergy symptoms Symptoms of local chronic inflammation (in a specific region of the body) are more specific: Pain, swelling, irritation, or redness lasting longer than six weeks Progressive muscle weakness Progressive reductions in range of motion Causes and Risk Factors for Chronic Inflammation While some of these are out of your control—like genetics and age—you can influence most of these risk factors:

What About Alcohol? Alcohol is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, some studies show that a drink or two a day can reduce the risk of heart disease, but on the other, we know that alcohol inhibits fat burning. Moreover, alcohol can boost estrogen levels in women, and may increase the risk of breast cancer. I’ve given the alcohol issue a great deal of thought, and I’ve reached the conclusion that alcohol is probably helpful to people who are very stressed out, but by no means essential for health. Alcohol lowers blood pressure and has a relaxing effect on the body, which may be beneficial to people who have difficulty winding down. A better way to reduce stress, I believe, is to practice yoga or other stress-reduction techniques. Please keep in mind that more than one or two drinks daily has been shown to be harmful to your health. If you do drink, avoid sweet mixed drinks, and stick to red wine, low carb beer, or pure spirits. There are some new low carb beers on the market that are actually quite good and are a good compromise.

one of the most astonishing things I learned over the course of my research was that for thirty years after the low-fat diet had been officially recommended and we were taking its supposed benefits for granted, it had not been subjected to a large-scale, formal scientific trial. Finally, there was the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI), a trial that enrolled 49,000 women in 1993 with the expectation that when the results came back, the benefits of a low-fat diet would be validated once and for all. But after a decade of eating more fruits, vegetables, and whole grains while cutting back on meat and fat, these women not only failed to lose weight, but they also did not see any significant reduction in their risk for either heart disease or cancer of any major kind. WHI was the largest and longest trial ever of the low-fat diet, and the results indicated that the diet had quite simply failed.

Stomach stapling or intestinal reduction surgery is invasive, you run the risk of infection, and you will probably suffer reflux the rest of your life. You could even die from complications of diabetes.

Intriguingly, several studies indicate that lowering concerns about the risk of infection—for example, by vaccinating subjects—can effectively shut down the behavioral immune system, suppressing prejudicial feelings that would otherwise arise when the threat of contagious disease is made salient. In one notable experiment, being allowed to use an antibacterial wipe to disinfect hands when reminded that the flu was going around decreased negative attitudes toward a variety of perceived outgroups, including illegal immigrants, Muslims, the obese, and the disabled—and the reduction was most dramatic in the germaphobic. Ackerman, one of the experimenters, aptly refers to this phenomenon as “washing away prejudice.” Political

Such creativity with statistics is by no means an isolated incident, as revealed by The Climate Change Performance Index[20] published by Germanwatch and Climate Action Network Europe in 2014. Again, the wrong countries were at risk of becoming the top performers, and again, the situation was fixed with creative carbon accounting for nuclear. This particular index went even further than WWF did and declared nuclear electricity to have the same emissions as the dirtiest mainstream electricity, coal power. Given that this was an especially climate oriented index, it is interesting to note that a country could improve its score by replacing nearly emission-free nuclear with practically any mix of fossil fuels. One really cannot make this stuff up. We are sure that similar creative ”indices” are already in preparation somewhere. Using deliberately falsified indices and reports for actual, sensible real world policy is of course impossible, as they simply seek to distort the reality to conform to an ideologically preconceived position. We believe that environmental organizations are in fact never going to tell us which countries have historically cut their carbon emissions the fastest and the most. The leaders in this game are those countries that built a lot of nuclear in the 1980s, like France and Sweden. It is worth noting that these cuts were accomplished with technology from the 1970s, and were achieved completely by accident, as a by-product of energy policy enacted for completely different reasons. There was no active climate policy, but the results were many times better than what Germany has managed with its Energiewende since the early 2000s. It is worth imagining what an active and evidence-based climate policy that pushed aggressively for renewables, energy savings and nuclear could therefore achieve. Image 10 - The best ten years of emissions reductions in four countries. A major part of Germany’s reductions, called “Wallfall”, are due to the country’s unification and the following closure of many of ineffective power plants and industry in eastern Germany. In addition to these countries, also Belgium and Finland have cut their emissions markedly with nuclear power.

The main finding was that vegan and lacto-ovo vegetarian diets were associated with a nearly one-half reduction in risk of type 2 diabetes compared with the risk associated with nonvegetarian diets after adjustment for a number of socioeconomic and lifestyle factors, as well as low BMI, that are typically associated with vegetarianism.

The main finding was that vegan and lacto-ovo vegetarian diets were associated with a nearly one-half reduction in risk of type 2 diabetes compared with the risk associated with nonvegetarian diets after adjustment for a number of socioeconomic and lifestyle factors, as well as low BMI, that are typically associated with vegetarianism. Pesco- and semi-vegetarian diets were associated with intermediate risk reductions: between one-third and one-quarter. These data indicate that vegetarian diets may in part counteract the environmental forces leading to obesity and increased rates of type 2 diabetes, though only vegan diets were associated with a BMI in the optimal range. Inclusion of meat, meat products, and fish in the diet, even on a less than weekly basis, seems to limit some of the protection associated with a vegan or lacto-ovo vegetarian diet. These findings may be explained by adverse effects of meat and fish, protective effects of typical constituents of vegan and lacto-ovo vegetarian diets, other characteristics of people who choose vegetarian diets, or a combination of these factors.

DISPARITIES AND HIGH COSTS FUEL THE HEALTH CARE CRISIS America’s health crisis is really three crises rolled into one. The first is public health: America’s average life expectancy is now several years below that of many other countries, and for some parts of the population, life expectancy is falling. The second is health inequality: The gaps in public health according to race and class are shockingly large. The third is health care cost: America’s health care is by far the costliest in the world. The Sustainable Development Goals put good health for all in a central place in sustainable development, notably in SDG 3. This goal calls for massive reductions of the burdens of both communicable and noncommunicable diseases. SDG 3 (Target 3.8) also emphasizes the need for universal and equitable access to quality health care, in order to “achieve universal health coverage, including financial risk protection, access to quality essential health-care services and access to safe, effective, quality and affordable essential medicines

DISPARITIES AND HIGH COSTS FUEL THE HEALTH CARE CRISIS America’s health crisis is really three crises rolled into one. The first is public health: America’s average life expectancy is now several years below that of many other countries, and for some parts of the population, life expectancy is falling. The second is health inequality: The gaps in public health according to race and class are shockingly large. The third is health care cost: America’s health care is by far the costliest in the world. The Sustainable Development Goals put good health for all in a central place in sustainable development, notably in SDG 3. This goal calls for massive reductions of the burdens of both communicable and noncommunicable diseases. SDG 3 (Target 3.8) also emphasizes the need for universal and equitable access to quality health care, in order to “achieve universal health coverage, including financial risk protection, access to quality essential health-care services and access to safe, effective, quality and affordable essential medicines and vaccines for all.

The main finding was that vegan and lacto-ovo vegetarian diets were associated with a nearly one-half reduction in risk of type 2 diabetes compared with the risk associated with nonvegetarian diets after adjustment for a number of socioeconomic and lifestyle factors, as well as low BMI, that are typically associated with vegetarianism. Pesco- and semi- vegetarian diets were associated with intermediate risk reductions: between one-third and one-quarter.

Definition of Measurement Measurement: A quantitatively expressed reduction of uncertainty based on one or more observations.

at least 18 other health organizations and the Federal Government supported a reduction in fat and cholesterol,” wrote the editors, with only the academy and the American Medical Association on the other side. The diet’s potential costs—an increased heart disease risk from the carbohydrates, an increased risk of cancer from polyunsaturated oils, or a lack of adequate nutrition for children—were not part of the discussion.

After fourteen years of study, Willett reported that his team had found “no evidence” that a reduction in fat overall nor of any particular kind of fat decreased the risk of breast cancer. Saturated fat actually appeared protective.

require chronic or recurrent treatment with a wide array of medications, some of which could aff ect insulin sensitivity, �-cell function, or other aspects of glucoregulation. Whenever feasible, preference should be given to those agents that are either neutral or beneficial in their eff ects on carbohydrate and lipid metabolism. In the sections that follow, diff erent classes of medications will be discussed with regard to their impact on diabetes risk. These medication classes were selected for discussion based either on (a) their historical association with dysglycemia in clinical practice, (b) extensive utilization for the management of comorbid conditions (e.g., hypertension, dyslipidemia) in diabetic patients, or (c) existing or emerging reports of possible association with

Diabetes has been reported in association with exposure to a wide

Again, there is psychological risk in the robotic moment. Logan’s comment about talking with the AIBO to “get thoughts out” suggests using technology to know oneself better. But it also suggests a fantasy in which we cheapen the notion of companionship to a baseline of “interacting with something.” We reduce relationship and come to see this reduction as the norm.

Many studies have consistently found that even moderate levels of physical activity such as walking fifteen miles a week substantially raises levels of HDLs and lowers levels of triglycerides in the blood—both of which lower the risk of heart disease.60 Another vital benefit of physical activity is to lower levels of inflammation in arteries, which as we have seen is the real culprit for atherosclerosis.61 In general, the duration of activity appears to have more beneficial effects on these risk factors than the intensity of activity. Vigorous physical activity also lowers your blood pressure by stimulating the growth of new vessels, and it strengthens muscles in your heart and the walls of your arteries. Adults who exercise regularly nearly halve their chances of a heart attack or stroke (after correcting for other risk factors), and the more intense the exercise the greater the reduction in risk.62

There are four warring interests in spaceflight: ambitiousness of vision, urgency of timetable, reduction of cost, and safety to astronauts. These can never be entirely reconciled. In the sixties, urgency and ambitiousness were the driving factors, and because this was understood and accepted, the massive cost and risk were accepted as well. We now seem to be at a moment when reduction of cost is paramount, with safety coming in a very close second. This being the case, we should not be surprised that ambitiousness and urgency have had to be set aside altogether. But it’s ludicrous to claim, as I often hear people do, that “NASA has lost its vision.” NASA has lost support, not vision. Wernher

I believe the answer is the same across the full range of government’s risk-control responsibilities, whether the harms to be controlled are criminal victimization, pollution, corruption, fraud, tax evasion, terrorism, or other potential and actual harms. The definition of success in risk control or harm reduction is to spot emerging problems early and then suppress them before they do much harm.7 This is a very different idea from “allow problems to grow so hopelessly out of control that we can then get serious, all of a sudden, and produce substantial reductions year after year after year.

What do citizens expect of government agencies entrusted with crime control, risk control, or other harm reduction duties? The public does not expect that governments will be able to prevent all crimes or contain all harms. But they do expect government agencies to provide the best protection possible, and at a reasonable price, by being:           Vigilant, so they can spot emerging threats early, pick up on precursors and warning signs, use their imaginations to work out what could happen, use their intelligence systems to discover what others are planning, and do all this before much harm is done.           Nimble, flexible enough to organize themselves quickly and appropriately around each emerging crime pattern rather than being locked into routines and processes designed for traditional issues.           Skillful, masters of the entire intervention tool kit, experienced (as craftsmen) in picking the best tools for each task, and adept at inventing new approaches when existing methods turn out to be irrelevant or insufficient to suppress an emerging threat.8 Real success in crime control—spotting emerging crime problems early and suppressing them before they do much harm—would not produce substantial year-to-year reductions in crime figures, because genuine and substantial reductions are available only when crime problems have first grown out of control. Neither would best practices produce enormous numbers of arrests, coercive interventions, or any other specific activity, because skill demands economy in the use of force and financial resources and rests on artful and well-tailored responses rather than extensive and costly campaigns. Ironically, therefore, the two classes of metrics that still seem to wield the most influence in many departments—crime reduction and enforcement productivity—would utterly fail to reflect the very best performance in crime control. Further, we must take seriously the fact that other important duties of the police will never be captured through crime statistics or in measures of enforcement output. As NYPD Assistant Commissioner Ronald J. Wilhelmy wrote in a November 2013 internal NYPD strategy document:

Engineers knew precisely what each part should look like, and there was a small surprise when the supplier was found to be taking metal out of certain components. One key part that weighed about 48 kilograms was coming in at less than 90 percent of its intended weight. The factory had taken the weight reduction as a cost savings for itself and had passed only the resulting product risk on to Build

No randomised trial has ever demonstrated any reduction of the risk of either overall or cardiovascular death by reducing systolic blood pressure from our thresholds to below 140 mmHg… It is widely believed that randomized studies have proved that lowering blood pressure is beneficial. Actually, that is not true…” So, there you have it, according to their meticulous analysis, lowering mildly raised blood pressure does not do any good either.

In response to current events, people often reach for historical analogies, and this occasion was no exception. The trick is to choose the right analogy. In August 2007, the analogies that came to mind—both inside and outside the Fed—were October 1987, when the Dow Jones industrial average had plummeted nearly 23 percent in a single day, and August 1998, when the Dow had fallen 11.5 percent over three days after Russia defaulted on its foreign debts. With help from the Fed, markets had rebounded each time with little evident damage to the economy. Not everyone viewed these interventions as successful, though. In fact, some viewed the Fed’s actions in the fall of 1998—three quarter-point reductions in the federal funds rate—as an overreaction that helped fuel the growing dot-com bubble. Others derided what they perceived to be a tendency of the Fed to respond too strongly to price declines in stocks and other financial assets, which they dubbed the “Greenspan put.” (A put is an options contract that protects the buyer against loss if the price of a stock or other security declines.) Newspaper opinion columns in August 2007 were rife with speculation that Helicopter Ben would provide a similar put soon. In arguing against Fed intervention, many commentators asserted that investors had grown complacent and needed to be taught a lesson. The cure to the current mess, this line of thinking went, was a repricing of risk, meaning a painful reduction in asset prices—from stocks to bonds to mortgage-linked securities. “Credit panics are never pretty, but their virtue is that they restore some fear and humility to the marketplace,” the Wall Street Journal had editorialized, in arguing for no rate cut at the August 7 FOMC meeting.

Meanwhile, journalists and traders speculated feverishly on when “tapering” would begin. That was the term the press had affixed to a strategy that involved gradual reductions in our securities purchases rather than a sudden stop. Though I had used it, I didn’t particularly like it, and I tried to encourage others on the FOMC to use alternatives. “Tapering” implied that, once we had begun slowing purchases, we would reduce them along a predetermined glide path. Instead, I wanted to convey that the pace of purchases could vary, depending on the speed of progress toward our labor market objective and on whether the risks of the purchases were starting to outweigh the benefits. As usual, though, I had little influence on the terminology the press chose to use.

Both continued money printing and the reduction of money printing pose risks, albeit different kinds. The result is a standoff between natural deflation and policy-induced inflation. The economy is like a high-altitude climber proceeding slowly, methodically on a ridgeline at twenty-eight thousand feet without oxygen. On one side of the ridge is a vertical face that goes straight down for a mile. On the other side is a steep glacier that offers no way to secure a grip. A fall to either side means certain death. Yet moving ahead gets more difficult with every step and makes a fall more likely. Turning back is an option, but that means finally facing the pain that the economy avoided in 2009, when the money-printing journey began.

The psychiatrist R. D. Laing, at one of the first conferences on Buddhism and psychotherapy that I attended, declared that we are all afraid of three things: other people, our own minds, and death. His statement was all the more powerful because it came shortly before his own death. If bare attention is to be of any real use, it must be applied in exactly these spheres. Physical illness usually provides us with such an opportunity. When my father-in-law, an observant Jew with little overt interest in Eastern philosophy, was facing radical surgery not so long ago, he sought my counsel because he knew of some work I was engaged in about stress reduction. He wanted to know how he could manage his thoughts while going into the surgery, and what he could do while lying awake at night? I taught him bare attention to a simple Jewish prayer; he was gradually able to expand the mental state that developed around the prayer to encompass his thoughts, anxieties, and fears. Even in the intensive care unit after surgery, when he could not tell day from night, move, swallow, or talk, he was able to use bare attention to rest in the moment, dissolving his fears in the meditative space of his own mind. Several years later, after attending Yom Kippur services, he showed me a particular passage in the prayer book that reminded him of what he had learned through his ordeal. A more Buddhist verse he could not have uncovered: A man’s origin is from dust and his destiny is back to dust, at risk of his life he earns his bread; he is likened to a broken shard, withering grass, a fading flower, a passing shade, a dissipating cloud, a blowing wind, flying dust, and a fleeting dream. The fearlessness of bare attention is necessary in the psychological venue as well, where the practice of psychotherapy has revealed just how ingenious and intransigent the ego’s defenses can be. Even when they are in therapy, people are afraid of discovering things about themselves that they do not wish to know.

Happily, drug courts around America are doing this work—using the threat of prison terms to push addicts into treatment, where they can put some space between their brain and dope and slowly embrace sobriety. Life repair can then begin. It’s happening across the country—as in Scott Barrett’s Recovery Court in Kenton, Ohio. It’s slow, hard work, with slip-ups and success. But this rethinking of courts and judging is harm reduction of the most elemental form. County drug courts are not a luxury. Synthetic drugs have made them a necessity. After all, people can’t recover when they’re dead, which is what decriminalizing today’s fearsome synthetic drug stream risks.

Housing First may even increase addiction and overdose deaths and make quitting drugs more difficult. Warned a multiauthor review in 2009, “One potential risk [of Housing First’s harm reduction approach] would be worsening the addiction itself, as the federal collaborative initiative preliminary evaluation seemed to suggest.” The authors pointed to an experiment that had to be stopped and reorganized after the homeless individuals in the abstinence group complained of being housed with people in the control group, who didn’t stop their drug and alcohol use.

It is no surprise that no reductions in heart disease risk were found with lower saturated fat intake when people who ate smaller amounts of red meat and butter ate more white flour, processed cereals, and sugar instead!

young individuals who are at high risk of developing schizophrenia, and in teenagers and young adults with schizophrenia, there is a two- to threefold reduction in deep NREM sleep.

For those in their twenties, a very aggressive investment portfolio is recommended. At this age, there is lots of time to ride out the peaks and valleys of investment cycles, and you have a lifetime of earnings from employment ahead of you. The portfolio is not only heavy in common stocks but also contains a substantial proportion of international stocks, including the higher-risk emerging markets. As mentioned in chapter 8, one important advantage of international diversification is risk reduction. Plus, international diversification enables an investor to gain exposure to other growth areas in the world even as world markets become more closely correlated.

Finally, a study of more than one hundred thousand nurses (two-thirds of them women) that controlled for smoking, weight, alcohol consumption, sex, and age found an inverse dose-response relationship between levels of physical activity and the risk of pneumonia, with a more than 30 percent reduction between the women (but not men) who were most and least active.55 Despite these encouraging findings, not all studies report lower RTI rates among exercisers, in part because these sorts of trials are difficult to conduct.

For women with a waist circumference ≥88 cm (35 inches), a reduction of 5 cm (2 inches) lowers the risk of heart disease by 15 percent. Waist circumference may not be as reliable for Asian women and for women who are much shorter or taller than average, so more research is needed to help quantify risk of abdominal obesity for these groups.

Carriers of the ApoE4 gene allele, which is the most common genetic risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease, exhibit a reduction in cerebral glucose utilization as early as their third decade in similar regions of the brain as Alzheimer’s patients.18 These young ε4+ subjects show no symptoms of cognitive decline despite PET-FDG measurements demonstrating a 5 to 10 percent reduction in the brain regions associated with memory processing and learning. Brain glucose hypometabolism precedes cognitive decline decades before the first symptoms appear. While we lack definitive proof that this energy deficit causes Alzheimer’s, this chronic, progressive, brain fuel starvation contributes significantly to the onset of Alzheimer’s and offers an opportunity for intervention.

Despite these highlighted differences in experience and attitude, almost all millennials surveyed (94 percent) reported having seen examples of bias (defined by the survey as “treating someone differently—and often unfairly—because they are a member of a particular group”). Yet just 20 percent indicated that they were comfortable having a conversation with someone about bias. Most (73 percent) think we should talk openly about bias and that doing so would lead to prejudice reduction, but like many adults, they are hesitant to speak up. For 79 percent of them, their biggest concern about addressing bias is the risk of creating a conflict or making the situation worse.66

They gave nine men a combination of human growth hormone (HGH) together with DHEA (another hormone) and metformin (the diabetes drug and potential anti-aging pill you might remember from the last chapter) to combat the diabetes risk associated with HGH. The results were positive, and quite wide-ranging: their thymuses look less fatty on an MRI scan and they have more T cells fresh from the thymus, as you’d hope—but they also saw improvements in kidney function and, most excitingly, a reduction in their epigenetic age, as measured by the morbidly accurate epigenetic clocks we met a couple of chapters ago. This suggests that rejuvenating the thymus can go on to rejuvenate the body more generally, not just the immune system—and, given the immune system’s wide remit for defense and maintenance around the body, perhaps this shouldn’t come as a surprise.

•Amnesty further notes that, as part of the right to life and other human rights, the responsibility of nations to prevent gun violence requires: (1) restricting access to firearms, especially on the part of those at an elevated risk of misusing them; and (2) implementing violence reduction measures where misuse of firearms persists. The human rights group asserts that nations “should establish robust regulatory systems,” including licensing, registration, restriction of certain weapon types, safe storage, research, and policy development. Nationally, the US has done little or nothing in relation to any of these policies for more than twenty-five years, and, due to the influence of the gun lobby, has seen Congress suppress funding for research on gun violence since 1996. Amnesty notes that countries not only have obligations to protect the lives of individuals from state agents but from actual or foreseeable threats at the hands of private individuals as well. Violence is especially foreseeable in low-income neighborhoods with persistently high levels of violence, poor public services, and policing that may not comply with international standards.

Despite some scientific debate, numerous studies over the past twenty-plus years have shown that it’s very much possible to be “fat and fit.” For example, a 2017 study of more than five thousand people28 and a 2014 meta-analysis of ten studies with nearly ninety-three thousand participants29 found no increased risk of cardiovascular disease or death for physically active higher-weight people. Additionally, a 2021 review of the evidence found that most cardiometabolic risk factors associated with high body mass index (BMI) can be improved with physical activity independent of weight loss, and that increases in cardiorespiratory fitness or physical activity are consistently associated with greater reductions in mortality risk than is intentional weight loss.

Your twelve minutes of daily kettlebell swings could theoretically be done in one 12 minute stretch. Doing so might provide the most cardiovascular benefits, as the session would move your heart rate up into the training zone nearly immediately, and keep it there for some minutes.  These long minutes with your heart in the training zone provide huge cardiovascular conditioning and risk reduction benefits.

Routinely sleeping less than six hours a night weakens your immune system, substantially increasing your risk of certain forms of cancer. Insufficient sleep appears to be a key lifestyle factor linked to your risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. Inadequate sleep—even moderate reductions for just one week—disrupts blood sugar levels so profoundly that you would be classified as pre-diabetic. Short sleeping increases the likelihood of your coronary arteries becoming blocked and brittle, setting you on a path toward cardiovascular disease, stroke, and congestive heart failure.

The three types of bone resorption tests are: N-telopeptide (NTX). This marker measures the small molecules of bone collagen being excreted through the urine. High levels of NTX are associated with rapid bone resorption and low bone mass in both men and women. By testing every several months, it’s easy to monitor and determine the effectiveness of your nutritional therapy. Substantial drops in NTX indicate a reduction in bone loss and less risk for fracture. C-telopeptide (CTX). This is a similar marker to that of NTX, but CTX measures a different part of the collagen molecule. This marker can be tested from either a urine or blood sample. Deoxypyridinoline (DPD). This marker is tested, like NTX, by using a urine sample. Biological and analytical variability can be a problem with bone resorption markers, but

Those individuals who developed schizophrenia had an abnormal pattern of brain maturation that was associated with synaptic pruning, especially in the frontal lobe regions where rational, logical thoughts are controlled—the inability to do so being a major symptom of schizophrenia. In a separate series of studies, we have also observed that in young individuals who are at high risk of developing schizophrenia, and in teenagers and young adults with schizophrenia, there is a two- to threefold reduction in deep NREM sleep.

No state in America has taken more aggressive action to reduce the public’s exposure to chemicals, and to secondhand smoke, than California. California banned the sale of flavored tobacco, because it appeals to children, and the use of smokeless tobacco in the state’s five professional baseball stadiums. It prohibited the use of e-cigarettes in government and private workplaces, restaurants, bars, and casinos. San Francisco in late 2020 banned cigarette smoking in apartments.8 In the fall of 2020, California outlawed companies from using in cosmetics, shampoos, and other personal care products twenty-four chemicals it had deemed dangerous.9 And yet breathing secondhand smoke and being exposed to trace chemicals in your shampoo are hardly sufficient to kill. By contrast, hard drug use is both a necessary and sufficient cause to kill, as the 93,000 overdose and drug poisoning deaths of 2020 show. And yet, where the governments of San Francisco, California, and other progressive cities and states stress the remote dangers of cosmetics, pesticides, and secondhand smoke, they downplay the immediate dangers of hard drugs including fentanyl. In 2020, San Francisco even paid for two billboards promoting the safe use of heroin and fentanyl, which had been created by the Harm Reduction Coalition. The first had a picture of an older African American man smiling. The headline read, “Change it up. Injecting drugs has the highest risk of overdose, so consider snorting or smoking instead.” The second billboard’s photograph was of a racially diverse group of people at a party smiling and laughing. The headline read, “Try not to use alone. Do it with friends. Use with people and take turns.”10 When I asked Kristen Marshall of the Harm Reduction Coalition, which oversees San Francisco’s overdose prevention strategy, about the threat posed by fentanyl, she said, “People use it safely all the time. This narrative that gets it labeled as an insane poison where you touch it and die—that’s not how drugs work. It’s not cyanide. It’s not uranium. It’s just a synthetic opioid, but one that’s on an unregulated market.

Here are a few notable things that can spark inflammation and depress the function of your liver: Alcohol overload—This is relatively well-known. Your liver is largely responsible for metabolizing alcohol, and drinking too much liquid courage can send your liver running to cry in a corner somewhere. Carbohydrate bombardment—Starches and sugar have the fastest ability to drive up blood glucose, liver glycogen, and liver fat storage (compared to their protein and fat macronutrient counterparts). Bringing in too many carbs, too often, can elicit a wildfire of fat accumulation. In fact, one of the most effective treatments for reversing NAFLD is reducing the intake of carbohydrates. A recent study conducted at KTH Royal Institute of Technology and published in the journal Cell Metabolism had overweight test subjects with high levels of liver fat reduce their ratio of carbohydrate intake (without reducing calories!). After a short two-week study period the subjects showed “rapid and dramatic” reductions of liver fat and other cardiometabolic risk factors. Too many medications—Your liver is the top doc in charge of your body’s drug metabolism. When you hear about drug side effects on commercials, they are really a direct effect of how your liver is able to handle them. The goal is to work on your lifestyle factors so that you can be on as few medications as possible along with the help of your physician. Your liver will do its best to support you either way, but it will definitely feel happier without the additional burden. Too many supplements—There are several wonderful supplements that can be helpful for your health, but becoming an overzealous natural pill-popper might not be good for you either. In a program funded by the National Institutes of Health, it was found that liver injuries linked to supplement use jumped from 7 percent to 20 percent of all medication/supplement-induced injuries in just a ten-year time span. Again, this is not to say that the right supplements can’t be great for you. This merely points to the fact that your liver is also responsible for metabolism of all of the supplements you take as well. And popping a couple dozen different supplements each day can be a lot for your liver to handle. Plus, the supplement industry is largely unregulated, and the additives, fillers, and other questionable ingredients could add to the burden. Do your homework on where you get your supplements from, avoid taking too many, and focus on food first to meet your nutritional needs. Toxicants—According to researchers at the University of Louisville, more than 300 environmental chemicals, mostly pesticides, have been linked to fatty liver disease. Your liver is largely responsible for handling the weight of the toxicants (most of them newly invented) that we’re exposed to in our world today. Pesticides are inherently meant to be deadly, but just to small organisms (like pests), though it seems to be missed that you are actually made of small organisms, too (bacteria

Essentially, the benefits of kettlebell training can be summed up in these statements: Improvement in functional strength and mobility Utilization of full-body movement and multidirectional forces Ability to achieve maximum heart rate and VO2max for improved metabolism and cardio health Protection of joints through low-impact and ballistic movements Maximization of core strength Creation of lean body mass – no bulking up Constant engagement of core and stabilizer muscles for better posture and relief of back pain Reduction in the risk of osteoarthritis in women

Essentially, the benefits of kettlebell training can be summed up in these statements: Improvement in functional strength and mobility Utilization of full-body movement and multidirectional forces Ability to achieve maximum heart rate and VO2max for improved metabolism and cardio health Protection of joints through low-impact and ballistic movements Maximization of core strength Creation of lean body mass – no bulking up Constant engagement of core and stabilizer muscles for better posture and relief of back pain Reduction in the risk of osteoarthritis in women Elevation of stress-relieving hormones and overall energy level Challenging workouts that can be changed easily to retain interest and keep you engaged Inexpensive and can be performed anywhere

A Road Trip to Remember: My Journey on India’s Most Efficient Highway As someone who loves long drives, I am always on the lookout for roads that offer a smooth and hassle-free journey. Recently, I had the opportunity to travel on the Agra Etawah Toll Road Project, and I must say, it was one of the best highway experiences I’ve had in India. Whether you’re a road trip enthusiast or a daily commuter, this highway is built to make your journey effortless. #modernroad A Flawless Driving Experience The first thing that caught my attention was how well-maintained this highway is. Unlike many roads where unexpected bumps and potholes can make driving frustrating, this toll road offers a seamless ride. The lanes are clearly marked, the pavement is smooth, and the traffic flow is well-managed. Another great aspect of this highway is the reduction in travel time. Thanks to its excellent design, I was able to maintain a consistent speed without unnecessary slowdowns. The well-planned entry and exit points ensure there’s no chaotic merging of traffic, making the drive much safer. Safety Features That Make a Difference Safety is a priority on this highway, and it shows in the way it has been constructed. Dedicated lanes for heavy vehicles prevent congestion, and proper speed limits ensure a smooth flow of traffic. For travelers driving at night, the highway is well-lit, reducing the risks of accidents. Emergency services are also available along the route, so help is always within reach. It’s rare to find a highway in India that prioritizes both speed and safety so effectively. #modernroadmakers Rest Stops That Actually Work for Travelers One of the biggest concerns while traveling long distances is the availability of clean and well-maintained rest stops. This highway offers exactly that. The fuel stations, food courts, and rest areas are strategically placed, ensuring that travelers don’t have to drive too far to take a break. I made a quick stop at one of these rest areas and was impressed by the facilities. The washrooms were clean, the food options were hygienic, and the overall environment was traveler-friendly. It’s details like these that make a highway truly world-class. A Highway That Transforms Connectivity Beyond just offering a great travel experience, the Agra Etawah Toll Road Project has significantly improved connectivity in this region. Faster roads mean better business opportunities, easier trade movement, and more efficient travel for daily commuters. Highways like these are a sign of India’s progress in road infrastructure. If you love traveling or simply want a more convenient way to get from Agra to Etawah, this toll road is the perfect choice. It’s fast, reliable, and built for the modern traveler. #indiabesthighway

The top employees of the five largest investment banks divided a bonus pool of over $36 billion in 2007. Leaders in the financial sector argued that in fact their high returns were the result of innovation and genuine value-added products, and they tended to grossly understate the latent risks their firms were taking. (Keep in mind that an integral part of our working definition of the this-time-is-different syndrome is that “the old rules of valuation no longer apply.”) In their eyes, financial innovation was a key platform that allowed the United States to effectively borrow much larger quantities of money from abroad than might otherwise have been possible. For example, innovations such as securitization allowed U.S. consumers to turn their previously illiquid housing assets into ATM machines, which represented a reduction in precautionary saving.13

Probably even that amount of warming would require significant negative-emissions use, given that our use of carbon is still growing. And there is also some risk from scientific uncertainty, the possibility that we are underestimating the effects of those feedback loops in natural systems we only poorly understand. Conceivably, if those processes are triggered, we could hit 4 degrees of warming by 2100, even with a meaningful reduction in emissions over the coming decades.

reduction in the risk of embarrassment and feelings of unease in social interaction. No one can see you blush, hear your voice go squeaky, or feel your damp palms. But then again, nor can you pick up on these all-important cues for working out how the other person might be reacting. In 2012, the British communications watchdog Ofcom produced its ninth annual Communications Market Report. The director of research for Ofcom, James Thickett, was acutely aware of the significance of the decline that year’s report found in the number of mobile calls, which dropped by 1 percent, and in the number of landline calls, which decreased by 10 percent. He concluded: In just a few short years, new technology has fundamentally changed the way that we communicate. Talking face-to-face or on the phone are no longer the most common ways for us to interact with each other. In their place, newer forms of communications are emerging which don’t require us to talk to each other, especially among younger age groups. This trend is set to continue as technology advances and we move further into the digital age.2

Mechanism of Statin Drug Benefit Chapter Summary and Key Points. ·       I support the idea of statin use for high risk people, but at non-cholesterol lowering doses (low dose). · Any cardiovascular risk benefit from statins has no relationship to cholesterol reduction. ·       In addition to blockading cholesterol production, dolichols, CoQ10, selenoproteins and Rho are equally diminished by the effect of statins. · Like aspirin, statins reduce the production of the blood clotting agent thromboxane. ·       Blood levels of hs-CRP (high sensitivity C-reactive protein) — an inflammatory marker — are also reduced by statins. ·       Aspirin has shown benefit in both primary and secondary prevention of heart attacks and strokes. · Ora Shovman concluded that inflammation was the cause of atherosclerosis. · Statins show cardiovascular benefits for their anti-inflammatory effect. · Even at a very low dose of a statin, inflammation is suppressed substantially. ·       Studies are needed to see whether statin sensitive people can tolerate low dose statins without the often debilitating side effects from higher doses.

people dramatically overestimate how much their prescription pills protect them, they may be less likely to make the dietary changes necessary to dramatically lower their risk. Take cholesterol-lowering statin drugs, for example. The best they may be able to offer in terms of absolute risk reduction for a subsequent heart attack or death is about 3 percent over six years.54 Meanwhile, a whole-food, plant-based diet may work twenty times better, potentially offering an absolute risk reduction of 60 percent after fewer than four years.

In light of all this, it seems fitting that one of God’s great covenants with the Jewish people was a medical procedure that helped combat infection: circumcision (Genesis 17:9–14). In 2012, a task force on circumcision organized by the American Academy of Pediatrics published a review of the costs and benefits of male circumcision. In their estimation the primary benefits are a reduction in urinary tract infections among infants; lower transmission of some STDs, such as HIV and HPV; and fewer cases of penile cancer (often caused by HPV infections). To be sure, circumcision does not appear to reduce transmission of all kinds of STDs; the surgical procedure itself carries a small, non-negligible risk of complications; and some people have raised ethical issues with removing a sensitive part of an infant male’s penis. However, in an era when infectious disease was the number one cause of mortality and incurable STDs could easily cause sterility, male circumcision was probably a wise decision.

THERMOGRAPHY Misinformation abounds as to the true nature of breast cancer and what causes it. With so much public focus on breast cancer awareness, very little attention is given to breast health, which we know is governed by things like clean eating, routine detoxification, energy balance, and stress reduction, among other things. These other things include not blasting radiation at the breasts in the form of mammograms, which only exacerbate breast cancer risk. Dr. Martin Bales, L.Ac., D.A.O.M., a licensed acupuncturist and certified thermologist at the Center for New Medicine in Irvine, California, has for years been administering one of the best-known alternatives to mammograms: thermograms. As its name suggests, thermography utilizes the power of infrared heat—hence the root word “therm”—to detect physiological abnormalities indicative of a possible breast cancer diagnosis. Dr. Bales’s father first pioneered the technology in the late 1970s with the development of the world’s first all-digital infrared camera, which was used for missile detection purposes during wartime. Its capacity to track the heat signature of missiles was applied to the field of medicine in the 1980s, which eventually gave way to thermographic medical devices. Dr. Bales opined during a recent interview: “In the early eighties, a group of doctors approached my father and said, ‘You know, we’ve heard the body—obviously with its (blood) circulation—we can diagnose a lot of diseases by seeing where there’s hot spots and where there’s cold.’ He said, ‘Okay, I’ll make a medical version for you.’” And the rest is history: thermography machines that identify hot spots in the breasts later hit the market, and select doctors and clinics offer it as a safe, side effect–free alternative to mammograms. “The most promising aspect of thermography is its ability to spot anomalies years before mammography,” says women’s health expert Christiane Northrup, M.D., about the merits of thermography. “With thermography as your regular screening tool, it’s likely that you would have the opportunity to make adjustments to your diet, beliefs, and lifestyle to transform your cells before they became cancerous. Talk about true prevention.

I’ve written at length about Trump’s racial history, and the picture is hideously below the mark of what America deserves in a president; he’s an awful, dark stain on our history. What the first term makes abundantly clear is that it’s not an act, it’s not a strategy, and it’s not something the American people can bear. It is exactly who he is: a fucking racist. The referendum on Trump’s racism will play out in 2020, and well beyond, costing the GOP seats, status, and support for generations. They have no one to blame but themselves. IT’S ALL DOWNHILL FROM HERE Which leads us to what he looks like in a second term. Cognitive decline is an ugly, hard reality for millions of Americans. As the Silent Generation slips into their final years, and the oldest Boomers join them, families all over America confront Alzheimer’s and many other tolls of aging. For many afflicted with a loss of memory and ability, this decline is a sad, steady reduction in the joys of life. For Trump, it’s part of the reality show, though not one he wants to focus on. Comparing Trump now with video clips from a decade ago is chilling. The slippage in his verbal acuity is marked. His rages and explosions of temper aren’t part of an act; they’re no longer controlled or controllable. The nearest contemporary parallel was the second-term decline of Ronald Reagan. Americans sensed the terrible gravity of Alzheimer’s pulling at him, but he was still surrounded by largely competent people and was, on the whole, a healthy man. For all the disagreements Democrats had with him, Reagan could never be considered an impulsive narcissist with a hair-trigger temper and no concern for others. Reagan actually bothered to understand nuclear weapons and the risks they posed, unlike President Missile Parade. Trump’s lack of knowledge should terrify you as much as it does me, especially as his cognitive decline continues apace. Given his hold over the cabinet, there’s no workable solution for this president’s combination of apparent mental infirmities and uncontrolled urges and racist fuckery, suggesting a second term will be more dangerous than the first.

diabetes, consuming white rice was associated with higher risk. Daily servings of white rice were associated with a 17 percent greater risk of diabetes, whereas replacing one-third of a serving a day of white rice for brown rice might lead to a 16 percent drop in risk. And it looks like replacing white rice with oats and barley may be an even more powerful step, associated with a 36 percent drop in diabetes risk.88 Given the improvements in cardiac risk factors seen in interventional trials of whole grains,89 it’s not surprising to see a reduction

Take cholesterol-lowering statin drugs, for example. The best they may be able to offer in terms of absolute risk reduction for a subsequent heart attack or death is about 3 percent over six years.54 Meanwhile, a whole-food, plant-based diet may work twenty times better, potentially offering an absolute risk reduction of 60 percent after fewer than four years.55

Routinely sleeping less than six or seven hours a night demolishes your immune system, more than doubling your risk of cancer. Insufficient sleep is a key lifestyle factor determining whether or not you will develop Alzheimer’s disease. Inadequate sleep—even moderate reductions for just one week—disrupts blood sugar levels so profoundly that you would be classified as pre-diabetic. Short sleeping increases the likelihood of your coronary arteries becoming blocked and brittle, setting you on a path toward cardiovascular disease, stroke, and congestive heart failure.

Frequent consumption (more than once a day) of soy milk was associated with 70 per cent reduction of the risk of prostate cancer (relative risk=0.3, 95 percent confidence interval 0.1-1.0, p-value for linear trend=0.03). Jacobsen, B. K., Knutsen, S. F., & Fraser, G. E. (1998).

Three to six hours per week (30 to 60 minutes per day) of moderate to vigorous exercise, ranging from walking to intense aerobic exercise, has been linked in numerous studies to a 20 to 40 percent reduction in cancer risk for 13 types of cancer.

URINE ALBUMIN/CREATININE RATIO (Ualb/Cr) Albumin is a protein found in urine that can be a sign of increased risk for kidney disease, diabetes complications, and cardiovascular risks. If high levels of Ualb/CR are present, close attention to blood pressure control, including use of specific blood pressure medications that help protect the kidney, may be recommended. Aggressive risk reduction efforts such as closer attention to lipid levels, blood pressure control, and diabetes control are suggested. Goal values More than 30 mg/g suggests increased risk for CVD and diabetic nephropathy More than 300 mg/g signals clinical nephropathy

THE STRESS GROUP SUMMARY STRESS MANAGEMENT GROUP MEASURES Chronic Stress and Inflammation SCORING “A” - Cortisol below 12 µg/dl, homocysteine below 8 nmol/ml, C-reactive protein below 1 mg/L and stress reduction activity 10 minutes or more per day. “B” - Cortisol below 14 µu/dl, homocysteine below 10 nmol/ml, C-reactive protein below 2 mg/L. “C” - Anything else. RISKS “A” - Healthy “B” - Some stress: internal, external, or both. “C” - Significant long-term cancer risk. Elevated glucose. REMEDIES “A” - No changes needed “B”- If internal, deal with cause. If external, add a stress reduction activity. “C”- If internal, deal with cause. If external, consider stress reduction and/or medication. TIMING Results are very rapid for externally generated stress. Internal stress may vary considerably depending on cause. Bacterial and viral infection - fast. Heart disease, more slowly.

overweight men and women.62 They found a significant reduction in liver inflammation in the real oatmeal group, but that may have been because they lost so much more weight than the controls (that is, the placebo-oatmeal eaters). Nearly 90 percent of the real-oatmeal-treated subjects had lost weight, compared with no weight loss, on average, among the control group. So it may be that the benefits of whole grains on liver function are indirect.63 A follow-up study in 2014 helped confirm the findings of a protective role for whole grains in nonalcoholic fatty liver patients in reducing the risk of liver inflammation. In this study, refined grain consumption was associated with increased risk of the disease.64 So lay off the Wonder Bread and stick to truly wonderful whole-grain foods, including oatmeal.

Similarly, heavy alcohol drinkers who consume more than four cups of coffee per day appear to reduce their risk of liver inflammation—but not by nearly as much as people who cut down on alcohol.87 Liver cancers are among the most avoidable cancers, through hepatitis B vaccination, control of hepatitis C transmission, and reduction of alcohol consumption. These three measures could, in principle, wipe out 90 percent of liver cancers worldwide. It remains unclear whether coffee drinking has an additional role to

Asian women are up to five times less likely to develop breast cancer than North American women.146 Why? One possibility is their intake of green tea, a common staple in many Asian diets. Green tea has been associated with about a 30 percent reduction in breast cancer risk.147 Another strong possibility is a relatively high intake of soy, which, if consumed consistently during childhood, may cut the risk of breast cancer later in life by half. If women consume soy primarily as an adult, though, their risk reduction may only be closer to 25 percent.148

To solve the inability of middle-class renters to purchase single-family homes for the first time, Congress and President Roosevelt created the Federal Housing Administration in 1934. The FHA insured bank mortgages that covered 80 percent of purchase prices, had terms of twenty years, and were fully amortized. To be eligible for such insurance, the FHA insisted on doing its own appraisal of the property to make certain that the loan had a low risk of default. Because the FHA's appraisal standards included a whites-only requirement, racial segregation now became an official requirement of the federal mortgage insurance program. The FHA judged that properties would probably be too risky for insurance if they were in racially mixed neighborhoods or even in white neighborhoods near black ones that might possibly integrate in the future. When a bank applied to the FHA for insurance on a prospective loan, the agency conducted a property appraisal, which was also likely performed by a local real estate agent hired by the agency. as the volume of applications increased, the agency hired its own appraisers, usually from the ranks of the private real estate agents who had previously been working as contractors for the FHA. To guide their work, the FHA provided them with an Underwriting Manual. The first, issued in 1935, gave this instruction: 'If a neighborhood is to retain stability it is necessary that properties shall continue to be occupied by the same social and racial classes. A change in social or racial occupancy generally leads to instability and a reduction in values.' Appraisers were told to give higher ratings where '[p]rotection against some adverse influences is obtained,' and that '[i]mportant among adverse influences . . . are infiltration of inharmonious racial or nationality groups.' The manual concluded that '[a]ll mortgages on properties protected against [such] unfavorable influences, to the extent such protection is possible, will obtain a high rating.' The FHA discouraged banks from making any loans at all in urban neighborhoods rather than newly built suburbs; according to the Underwriting Manual, 'older properties . . . have a tendency to accelerate the rate of transition to lower class occupancy.' The FHA favored mortgages in areas where boulevards or highways served to separate African American families from whites, stating that '[n]atural or artificially established barriers will prove effective in protecting a neighborhood and the locations within it from adverse influences, . . . includ[ing] prevention of the infiltration of . . . lower class occupancy, and inharmonious racial groups.

One of the best-known harm-reduction strategies is needle exchanges. These programs allow IV drug users to bring in used needles and exchange them for clean ones. This has proven to be an incredibly successful strategy in reducing the transmission of disease. When needles are scarce, people share them, which increases the risk of transmission of HIV, hepatitis C, and other serious infections. Arguments that needle exchanges enable users have no factual basis. People with heroin addictions are not going to quit overnight because they can’t get needles, nor is the availability of needles going to encourage a non-user to start using drugs. These are spurious arguments driven by a moral absolutism that is completely divorced from reality.

Importance Of Verified Cash App Accounts ➤ 24/7 Hours Reply/Contact ➤ Telegram: @Top5StarShop ➤ WhatsApp: +1 (470) 206-8684 ➤ Email: top5starshop99@gmail.com In the digital age, managing money online has become second nature. Yet, ensuring your financial transactions are secure is crucial. Verified Cash App accounts offer this security, becoming a vital asset for anyone dealing with online money transfers. Their importance cannot be understated, especially as we move toward 2025, when digital payments will only continue to grow. Imagine you're transferring money to a friend, and suddenly your account is blocked due to security concerns. Frustrating, right? Verified Cash App accounts help prevent this scenario by ensuring your account is recognized as legitimate. These accounts provide a layer of trust. They reassure the recipient that the funds are coming from a credible source. This is particularly important if you’re handling business transactions or large sums. Another advantage of verification is the reduction in fraudulent activities. A verified account signals that you’ve undergone security checks, making it harder for scammers to target you. Have you ever found yourself waiting days for a transaction to clear? With verified accounts, transactions are often faster, giving you peace of mind and saving you time. Why Should You Care About Verification? Consider the risks of using an unverified account. You could face transaction delays, account suspensions, or even lose money. Verification safeguards you against these issues. ➤ 24/7 Hours Reply/Contact ➤ Telegram: @Top5StarShop ➤ WhatsApp: +1 (470) 206-8684 ➤ Email: top5starshop99@gmail.com Additionally, verified accounts often enjoy higher transaction limits. This means you can send and receive more money without worrying about hitting a cap. How Verification Enhances Your Cash App Experience Think of verification as a VIP pass. It unlocks premium features and ensures smooth transactions. You won’t have to worry about sudden freezes or transaction hiccups. Verified accounts also boost your credibility. Whether you're paying a vendor or receiving money from a client, they’ll know you’re trustworthy. This builds confidence and strengthens your financial relationships.

Furthermore, proposed alterations to overtime regulations and workplace safety standards must be scrutinized. Any reduction in these protections could lead to longer working hours without adequate compensation and increased risk of workplace injuries. A thorough evaluation of these policy changes is necessary to ensure they do not undermine the well-being and financial stability of American workers.

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