World's oldest person dies at the age of 116

Fascinating. She was born in 1900. What has she seen? A friend posted this the other day:



Can you imagine the perspective by Ms. Jones and Ms. Morano? I took the video above from a Dateline NBC post on Facebook.

The world's oldest person, Susannah Mushatt Jones, died Thursday night in New York at the age of 116. Jones had reportedly been ill for 10 days preceding her death at the public housing facility for seniors in Brooklyn where she'd been living for more than three decades.

One of 11 children, Jones was born in a small town near Montgomery, Alabama, in 1899. She became the world's oldest person after 117-year-old Misao Okawa died last year in Japan.

Jones said her key to a long life was surrounding herself "with love and positive energy" and never drinking or smoking. In 2014, Jones told Time that she treated herself to four strips of bacon every morning along with scrambled eggs and grits, and that she also still enjoyed wearing "high-end lace lingerie."

The world's oldest person alive is now thought to be Emma Morano, a 116-year-old Italian woman. According to The Telegraph, when she was told she was now the oldest person in the world, Morano's response was "My word, I'm as old as the hills." by Becca Stanek

Taken from The Week Magazine.

Blog spot App

I have been frustrated by my lack of ability to get my photographs from my phone to my blog... So I just broke down and spent $4.99 so that I might compose blog posts from my phone. I can not, however, delete my test post. Seems very odd to me that one can not edit a post on one's phone. I have to be missing something, mustn't I?

The Health Benefits Of Dancing Go Beyond Exercise And Stress Reducer

What are the health implications of dancing? New social science research shows that dancing in synchrony with others increases people's threshold for dealing with pain. Go here to see/hear the conversation. I don't suppose this is a surprise to anyone - that it's a good thing to do.

I wonder if my husband will take me Zydeco dancing more with this information?

1919 - May Report, all demobilized

Hooray! It's over for Herb!

Medical errors may be third leading cause of death in the U.S.

Here is the story I mentioned the other day. Makes you think... And yet another reason to do everything in your power to stay out of the hospital.

By Jen Christensen and Elizabeth Cohen, CNN
Updated 9:47 PM ET, Tue May 3, 2016

You've heard those hospital horror stories where the surgeon removes the wrong body part or operates on the wrong patient or accidentally leaves medical equipment in the person they were operating on.

Even scarier, perhaps, is a new study in the latest edition of BMJ suggesting most medical errors go unobserved, at least in the official record.

In fact, the study, from doctors at Johns Hopkins, suggests medical errors may kill more people than lower respiratory diseases like emphysema and bronchitis do. That would make these medical mistakes the third leading cause of death in the United States. That would place medical errors right behind heart disease and cancer.

Through their analysis of four other studies examining death rate information, the doctors estimate there are at least 251,454 deaths due to medical errors annually in the United States. The authors believe the number is actually much higher, as home and nursing home deaths are not counted in that total.

This is a much greater number than a highly cited 1999 study from the Institute of Medicine that put the number in the 44,000 to 98,000 range. Other studies have put estimates closer to 195,000 deaths a year. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of the inspector general in 2008 reported 180,000 deaths by medical error among Medicare patients alone.

Dr. Martin Makary and Dr. Michael Daniel, who did the study, hope their analysis will lead to real reform in a health care system they argue is letting patients down.

"We have to make an improvement in patient safety a real priority," said Makary, a professor of surgery and health policy and management at Johns Hopkins.

One reason there's such a wide range of numbers is because accurate data on these kinds of deaths is surprisingly sparse. That's in part because death certificates don't ask for enough data, Makary said.

Currently the cause of death listed on the certificate has to line up with an insurance billing code. Those codes do not adequately capture human error or system factors.

"Billing codes are designed to maximize billing rather than capture medical errors," Makary said.

The study gives an example of exactly how limited the death certificates are when it comes to recording medical errors. One example involved a patient who had a successful organ transplant and seemed healthy, but had to go back to the hospital for a non-specific complaint. During tests to determine what was wrong, a doctor accidentally cut her liver and hadn't realized it. The hospital sent her home, but she returned with internal bleeding and went into cardiac arrest and later died. It was the cut that led to her death, but her death certificate only listed a cardiovascular issue as the cause.

Makary believes there should be a space on the certificate that asks if the death is related to a medical error. If the answer is yes, Makary suggests the doctor should have some legal protection so the certificate is not something that could be used in a lawsuit.

"I don't believe we have diabolic leaders in health care," Makary said. He believes instead that there could be better systems put in place at hospitals to make them safer.

There are barcodes that could be placed on each piece of surgical equipment so a team could account for every tool at the end of a surgery, for example. Makary believes many hospitals don't invest in technology that could prevent errors because the hospitals don't always realize how big the problem is and don't make it a priority.

"There is a strong moral case for innovations in this area, but there isn't really a financial case for hospitals to improve this system the way it is," Makary said. Funding for research on medical errors is also extremely limited.

The problem is not unique to the United States. Earlier studies have shown undercounted medical errors are a problem in hospitals throughout the world.

"No matter the number, one incident is one too many," said Rick Pollack, president and CEO of the American Hospital Association. Pollack suggested there are new studies that have shown that hospitals have made progress. Citing a decline in hospital-acquired infections, according to a recent analysis by the Department of Health and Human Services, more attention is being paid. "Hospitals are constantly working to improve patient safety. But there is more work to do and hospitals are committed to quickly adopting what works into every step of care provided," he said.

Doctors are human and they are going to make mistakes, but the system shouldn't continue to perpetuate them, Makary said.

"I think doctors and nurses and other medical professionals are the heroes of the patient safety movement and come up with creative innovations to fix the problems," he said. "But they need the support from the system to solve these problems and to help us help improve the quality of care."

Making a flouncy skirt

I bought a very flouncy skirt years ago in Jackson, WY. I never wear it; I paid a lot of money for it. I'm not even sure I love it... I love the idea of it, though. And I have saved it for years just so that I might copy it and make one myself.

I figured the best skirt to make from this skirt would be a Mardi Gras skirt. It's almost costume like, I figured. And it's great skirt to dance in... particularly with my fleur de lis cowboy boots! Of course once I got to the quilting shop I was overwhelmed by all the fabric choices... and then wandered away from the Mardi Gras fabrics. I tried to stay within the Purple, Gold and Green theme, but I wandered away from that, too, I confess. So I am not sure what this skirt is that I am making or when I would wear it. Perhaps when I go Zydeco dancing at the Rock 'n' Bowl. Other dancers would appreciate the Mardi Gras fabric and the wonderful effects the skirt would make when dancing.

I guess I need to work on impulse control. (Story of my life!)

In any event, I have created the first five tiers and I have another three to go. This feels like it has taken a huge amount of fabric - a lot of time gathering the fabric to get smaller and smaller as I go up the skirt to the waist. But really I am using what is known as 'Fat Squares' from the quilt shop. I posted here from my trip to Mes Amis with the fabric I bought for this skirt.

I think rather than just gathering I may have to cut the fabric on an angle to cinch it even more drastically. I will post again on this project as I progress.

Exercise builds bigger brains

Couldn't it just be people that exercise take better care of themselves in general - to the point of eating better quality food? This doesn't make sense to me, as a direct cause and effect.

Regular exercise may shrink waistlines, but a long-term study suggests it increases brain volume and lowers the risk of age-related cognitive decline. Researchers followed 1,583 middle-aged men and women with no personal history of dementia or heart disease over the course of two decades. At the start of the study, participants underwent an MRI and took a physical fitness test on a treadmill, during which their heart rate and blood pressure were also monitored. The procedures were repeated 20 years later, and after factoring out people who had developed heart disease and high blood pressure, the researchers found that the ones who kept in shape were more likely to have larger brains. On the other hand, poorly conditioned participants had lost gray matter. “Our brains shrink as we age, and this atrophy is related to cognitive decline and increased risk for dementia,” study author Nicole Spartano of Boston University tells CBSNews.com. “This study suggests that people with poor fitness have accelerated brain aging.”

Taken from the March 4, 2016 edition of the Week Magazine.



And a shout out to the birthday boys, C. H. Lee and D. Younger!

Cutting Calories

after researchers in Germany found that eating while blindfolded caused people to eat less and feel full faster than those who could see their food. Visual deprivation reduces the pleasure of eating, and triggers innate fears that food may be rotten.

Hahaha! Like I am going to do that! Seeing your food is so much of the pleasure.

Taken from the March 4, 2016 edition of the Week Magazine.

Sleepless in the city

Time to start sleeping in the closet... Need our beauty sleep for our health!

People living in cities illuminated by streetlights and neon signs are more likely to have trouble sleeping than residents of more rural areas, a new study shows. Over the course of eight years, researchers from Stanford University interviewed 15,863 people about their health and sleep quality, while also using satellite data to determine how much outdoor light exposure the subjects experienced on a nightly basis. The study found urban dwellers in well-lit neighborhoods were 6 percent more likely to get less than six hours of sleep each night. They were also more likely to report poor sleep quality, complain about daytime drowsiness, and wake up disoriented during the night. “Our world has become a 24/7 society,” study author Maurice Ohayon tells Medical News Today. “We use outdoor lighting, such as streetlights, to be more active at night and to increase our safety and security. The concern is that we have reduced our exposure to darkness, and it could be affecting our sleep.”

Taken from the March 18th edition of The Week.

The gray hair gene

Those of us blonds tend to go silver, though, don't we?

People usually attribute graying hair to the effects of aging and stress—think of all those before-and-after photos of U.S. presidents—but a new study shows that we can also blame our DNA: Researchers at University College London have pinpointed a gray hair gene, suggesting that some people are born with an inherited tendency to go gray before their time. The team analyzed the hair types and genomes of more than 6,000 people of mixed ethnic ancestry from five Latin American countries to find the gene, which is known as IRF4 and is carried by about 15 percent of Europeans. Also linked to blond hair, IRF4 regulates the production and storage of melanin—the pigment that gives eyes, skin, and hair their color. “We already know several genes involved in balding and hair color, but this is the first time a gene for graying has been identified in humans,” lead author Kaustubh Adhikari tells TechTimes.com. The researchers estimate the gene is responsible for about 30 percent of graying. More research into how IRF4 works could lead to treatments that help delay or reverse this process. “Standard hair products are applied after your hair has been created,” Adhikari says, “but targeting the hair as it is being produced could result in greater consistency of color, or longer-lasting effects.”

Taken from the March 18, 2016 edition of The Week Magazine.