For patients with terminal cancer, there is often a final choice: Die at home or in the hospital. A new study shows that patients tend to live longer when they choose the former.
Most people prefer to die in the comfort of their homes, according to past studies, but many worry that they'll die sooner because comprehensive medical care is not available at home. A Japanese study of more than 2,000 terminal cancer patients, however, found that those who received palliative care at home didn't fare any worse than those who remained hospitalized to the end. In fact, the very sickest — with days or weeks to live — did better at home.
Writing in the journal "Cancer", researchers reported that very sick patients estimated to have only days to live gained an additional four days while those with weeks to live gained seven extra days.
The Dark Side of Chocolate
In recent years, chocolate has gotten a lot of media coverage for its purported health benefits. Specifically, that it contains flavonoids — antioxidants that help cells resist damage and may improve heart health.
For chocolate lovers, that's good news, though researchers invariably include the caveat that chocolate consumption should be limited. It may be rich in flavonoids, but chocolate is also rich in sugars and fats, which aren't so heart-healthy.
Here's another reason to resist eating too much chocolate: a consumer advocacy group called As You Sow commissioned an independent lab to test 50 popular chocolate products for lead and cadmium and found that 35 contained levels above the "safe harbor threshold" set by California's Safe Drinking and Toxic Enforcement Act.
It's not clear to what the degree toxic metals above those levels pose a significant health risk (though its generally agreed that no level of lead is safe for children), but As You Sow is seeking to have chocolate makers add warnings to their labels.
Body of Knowledge
A Reddit user poll reports that most men say they shower daily, while 60 percent of women said they prefer to shower three, four or five times weekly. A Euromonitor poll finds that Americans shower, on average, four times a week — more than Germans, Chinese, Russians and Brits, but less than Australians, Colombians and Brazilians, who shower either daily or more than once a day.
Get Me That, Stat!
Since 1992, the rate of newly diagnosed cases of tuberculosis in the United States has steadily declined, year after year. In 2015, it did not. The number of new cases last year actually rose slightly to 9,563 from 9,406 in 2014. That translates to about three cases per 100,000 people, less than a third of what the rate was 20 years ago, but improvement has leveled out over the last few years.
Number Cruncher
A serving of onion-flavored mini-Funyuns (49.6 grams) contains 260 calories, 126 from fat. It has 14 grams of total fat or 22 percent of the recommended total fat intake for a 2,000-calorie daily diet.
It also contains zero milligrams of cholesterol; 400 mg of sodium (17 percent); 30 grams of total carbohydrates (10 percent); 1 gram of sugar and 3 g of protein.
Counts
83: Percentage of Americans who support a 20 percent increase in federal spending for cancer research
750: Amount — in millions of dollars — that President Obama has requested in additional cancer research funding for 2017
46: Percentage of Americans who think this amount is just right
37: Percentage who think it's too little
Sources: White House, STAT-Harvard poll
Doc Talk
Thrill: a vibration that a doctor or nurse can feel by touch, often used to describe cardiac murmurs that can be felt through the chest wall
Phobia of the Week
Kopophobia: fear of fatigue
Never Say Diet
The Major League Eating record for boysenberry pie is 14.5 pounds in 8 minutes, held by Joey Chestnut, who bested his second-place finisher by more than four pounds of filling and crust.
Best Medicine
After years with a psychiatrist, a man who thought he was a dog was declared cured. A friend asked him how he felt. The former patient replied, "Fine! Just feel my nose."
Observation
"Half the modern drugs could well be thrown out the window except that the birds might eat them."
— German-American physician and author Martin Fischer (1879-1962)
Medical History
This week in 1953, James Watson and Francis Crick published their description of the structure of DNA in a one-page article in the journal "Nature." The work was seminal, explaining how DNA passed hereditary information from cell to cell, generation to generation. It would win them the 1962 Nobel Prize and change life sciences forever.
Med School
Q: What is the strongest muscle in human body?
a) Heart
b) Gluteus maximus
c) Masseter
d) Tongue
e) Soleus
A: There is no single correct answer. All of the muscles above can make some sort of claim. The heart is the hardest working. It will beat more than 3 billion times in an average lifetime. The gluteus maximus (your buttocks) is the largest and quite strong since its job is to keep your torso upright. The masseter muscle in your jaw is strongest by weight, with a chomping power of up to 200 pounds. The tongue is a tough, hard worker. And the soleus, found below the calf muscle, pulls with the greatest force.
Last Words
"Kurt Russell."
?: American entrepreneur Walt Disney (1901-1966). Disney collapsed and died from complications of lung cancer. (He was a longtime chain smoker.) Russell's name was found scrawled on a piece of paper. No one has ever determined what Disney meant, not even Russell, a 15-year-old at the time who had starred in several Disney movies.
To find out more about Scott LaFee and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.
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