Bypass Patient Suffers Fleetwood Mac Attack
This little case study from the Journal of the American Medical Assn. gives new meaning to the words “Don’t Stop Thinking About Tomorrow.”
A 40-year-old man, fresh from bypass surgery, celebrated his recovery by attending a Fleetwood Mac concert 15 days after his operation. One hour into the concert, which was quite loud, with intense vibrations and shaking throughout the arena, the man began feeling soreness and noticed that his wound was beginning to ache. He left the concert early.
The next day, his sternum was extremely painful and the man began fearing he’d undone both his incision and his new life expectancy. A doctor determined that the incision was healing well and that no real harm was done, but the sternum remained sore for a few days.
“Fortunately, the chest appears to be only shaken but not (significantly) stirred by the loud music,” said Dr. Stuart W. Rosenbush of Rush-Presbyterian St. Luke’s Medical Center.
But Rosenbush warned colleagues that this previously unseen side effect could become more frequent.
“As the baby boomer generation, who grew up with booming rock music (myself included), enters the age group in which coronary artery bypass surgery becomes more prevalent, this syndrome potentially could become more frequent,” he writes.
So, cardiac bypass patients, choose your vibrations carefully (Stevie Nicks notwithstanding).
Proof of a Chocolate Fountain of Youth?
Hershey kisses wrapped in red and green foil. Marshmallow-filled chocolate Santas. Fudge. Hot cocoa. Go ahead, indulge. You may live longer.
A new study from researchers at Harvard University’s School of Public Health found that male chocolate and candy lovers lived an average of one year longer than those who weren’t acquainted with Fanny Farmer and her ilk.
The researchers, who studied 7,841 male Harvard graduates, aren’t sure why men who eat chocolate live longer. One theory, they say, is that chocolate contains antioxidants, which are known to have health benefits. The men who ate only a moderate amount of chocolate, such as three candy bars a month, fared the best. But even heavy chocolate-hitters lived longer than the abstainers.
Other experts have pooh-poohed the findings, saying that it’s not clear that the chocolate has anything to do with longevity. Others question whether there could be anything in chocolate so powerful that eating three candy bars a month lengthens life.
The Long and Short of Birth Dates
Not that this information would mean a whole lot to, say, Danny DeVito or Shaquille O’Neal. But, according to a recent scientific analysis, babies born in spring and autumn are--statistically--likely to be taller adults than babies born in the summer and winter.
Danish researchers analyzed birth certificates for more than 1.1 million babies born in Denmark from 1973 to 1994. The babies born in April were 2.2 millimeters (about .8 of an inch) longer than those born in December. This pattern persisted despite the birth year, birth order, sex of the child and gestational age. (Babies born longer tend to be taller as adults.)
Our own analysis proves this to be true. Shaq was born in March; DeVito, in late November.
