A meta-analysis of 18 studies that investigated the link between vitamin and mineral supplements and cardiovascular disease outcomes concludes that the former doesn't seem to do much to curb the risk of the latter.
In other words, taking multivitamins and minerals wasn't associated with a significantly lower risk of stroke or death due to cardiovascular disease or coronary heart disease.
The findings were published in the journal Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes.
Fertile Material
The CDC has released new national data on U.S. fertility rates between 2011 and 2015.
Just over half of women are in their 20s when they give birth for the first time; by age 44, 85 percent of women have given birth. Roughly 63 percent of men were in their 20s when they fathered a child for the first time; 80 percent fathered a child by age 44. One-third of women give birth again within three years of their first birth.
Body of Knowledge
After age 30, the brain begins to lose neurons at a rate of about 50,000 per day, shrinking one-quarter of 1 percent in mass each year.
Get Me That, Stat!
Nearly 20 percent of people with prescription opioid use disorder and 43 percent of those using heroin in the past year had been involved with the criminal justice system in the past year, compared to 3 percent of people who weren't using any opioids, reports STAT, based on a new analysis published in JAMA Network Open.
Counts
7: Percentage error rate when clinicians used speech recognition software to transcribe clinical notes
0.4: Percentage error rate when a transcriptionist reviewed the notes
0.3: After a doctor signed off
Source: Li Zhou et al. Brigham and Women's Hospital. JAMA Network Open
Doc Talk
Crump: when a patient takes a sudden turn for the worse
Phobia of the Week
Oikophobia: fear of home surroundings and household appliances
Number Cruncher
An Outback Steakhouse steakhouse salad (100 grams) contains 1,039 calories, 648 from fat. It has 72 grams of total fat or 111 percent of the recommended total fat intake for a 2,000-calorie daily diet, according to the CalorieCount.com database.
It also contains 104 milligrams of cholesterol (35 percent); 1,448 mg of sodium (60 percent); 29 grams of sugar; 7 g of dietary fiber and 51 g of protein.
Never Say Diet
The Major League Eating record for mayonnaise is four 32-ounce bowls in 8 minutes, held by Oleg Zhonitsky. One more bowl and it would have been cinco de mayo.
Best Medicine
First guy: I woke up this morning feeling so bad I wanted to kill myself.
Second guy: That's terrible. What'd you do?
First guy: I planned to take 1,000 aspirin, but after the first two, I felt better.
Observation
"Freud: If it's not one thing, it's your mother."
American comedian Robin Williams (1951-2014)
Med School
Q: Is the nose an organ?
A: Yes and no. The nose itself, that prominent structure between the eyes, is essentially the entrance to the respiratory tract and contains the olfactory organ, which processes smell. The lungs are the primary organ of respiration. Together, they are parts of the respiratory organ system.
Last Words
"Nothing but death."
British author Jane Austen (1775-1817) when asked by her sister if there was anything she wanted. There is much speculation about Austen's cause of death. She suffered from deteriorating health in the last year or so of life. Attributed causes include Addison's disease, Hodgkin's lymphoma, bovine tuberculosis (associated with drinking unpasteurized milk) and a form of typhus.
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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