Why does consuming fibre help keep your heart healthy

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin After a meteoric rise during the pandemic, the buy now, pay later (BNPL) business is facing a future clouded by deteriorating economic conditions, competition from the likes of Apple and bank credit card issuers and a looming regulatory crackdown. At least, that’s the conventional wisdom. Since the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) opened an inquiry into the industry last year, regulation has generally been framed as a “ backlash ” and threat to the industry’s growth. A research note issued Sunday by Goldman Sachs analyst Michael Ng, which initiates coverage of Affirm Holdings with a neutral rating, observes that “the evolving US BNPL regulatory landscape results in the risk of potential regulation that could reduce the pace of consumer and merchant adoption.” Yet a deeper look suggests regulation could actually benefit the leaders in the American BNPL sector. While BNPL has been around in the US … [Read more...] about Why Regulation Will Help The Buy Now, Pay Later Giants

Turns out your dog doesn't have to perform any Lassie-like heroics to save your life. Just having your favorite furball laying around the house doing nothing but demanding treats reduces your risk of dying by an impressive 24 percent, according to a new review of ten studies that examined data on 3.8 million people. Having a dog does your heart good (literally). The new research, published in the journal Circulation , offers happy news for dog lovers. "Dog ownership was associated with a 24 percent risk reduction for all-cause mortality as compared to non-ownership," declare the authors. Owning a dog was even more protective for those suffering from cardiovascular illness. Your chance of dying after a heart attack, for instance, drops 65 percent if you own a dog. The chance of dying after a stroke is 27 percent less for dog owners. Why does owning a dog have such a protective effect on your health? The first and most obvious explanation is that your pet … [Read more...] about How to Live Longer According to a New Study of 3.8 Million People: Get a Dog

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Genetic testing once was offered only to people with rare genetic conditions, or strong family histories of disease that spanned generations. But genetic testing is now being offered to healthy people, to detect if they carry a genetic change (often referred to as a “variant” or “mutation”) that may place them at high risk to develop preventable conditions, including some cancers and cardiac conditions. In theory, population genetic testing makes sense. Instead of waiting for a person to die of a heart attack at a young age, we can learn of some of those risks ahead of time and mitigate them. This approach works not only for the person having testing and their family members – who may also be at risk – but also for our medical system, employers, and overarching health care costs that we, as a society, want to minimize. But in practice, are we there yet? Cristi’s story illustrates that we still have a long way to go to … [Read more...] about Population Genetic Testing: Save Lives And Money, While Avoiding Financial Toxicity

When Jack Dorsey announced on Twitter a while back that he sometimes doesn't eat for days , healthy eating advocates responded with a howl of outrage. But even though Dorsey's routine may be extreme, he's certainly not alone in his fascination with "intermittent fasting." "Eating is so last season" According to its many Silicon Valley backers, fasting isn't just a new trendy take on the good, old diet (or anorexia in disguise). It's a science-backed way to promote increased health and productivity. "Eating is so last season; these days all the cool kids fast," joked Arwa Mahdawi in a UK Guardian article chronicling the newfound obsession with not eating in Silicon Valley "where a number of high-profile tech execs extol the transformative power of extreme fasting." The Atlantic has also covered the tech industry's obsession with the idea. The claims of fasting fans aren't entirely baseless. Years of research have shown that calorie restriction increases … [Read more...] about You Don’t Have to Starve Yourself for Days Like Jack Dorsey to Get the Benefits of Fasting

If you're an entrepreneur who wants to maximize your energy and avoid an early death by eating healthy, there is a lot of confusing advice out there to contend with. Besides a host of trendy but conflicting diets, guidelines from actual scientists change regularly. One year fat will kill you, the next sugar is public enemy number one. Is fish great for you or mercury-laced poison ? And while everyone agrees heavy drinking is unhealthy, does a glass or two of wine a day do good or bad things for your health ? Given the ever-changing answers to questions like these, it's tempting to throw up your hands and ignore everything but the most basic nutritional advice. If no one knows anything beyond fast food is bad, then you may as well let your instincts (and taste buds) guide you. But according to a research review published recently in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology , science does actually know something definitive about what you should eat. … [Read more...] about This Is the Healthiest Possible Diet, According to Research

Managing time is one of a CEO’s greatest challenges, but it’s not just their own time they are responsible for. One of a leader’s main responsibilities is setting a clear strategy for their organization, and good strategy is about making choices among competing priorities. advertisement advertisement With finite resources and numerous problems to fix, organizations can become inefficient without clear direction. It’s the CEO’s job to provide that direction for the use of limited resources. But with issues, opportunities, and initiatives popping up all the time, it’s not always easy to prioritize. Companies face issues in supply chain, marketing, product, quality, and entering new markets, to name a few. So how can a leader know which issues are most worth addressing? As a business unit leader for Fortune 500 companies, I saw many scenarios where the leadership team needed to decide between competing priorities. Over time, I developed a series of … [Read more...] about How to decide if a business issue is worth solving

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin As part of the legendary Grateful Dead, drummer Mickey Hart has built his more than 50-year career on uplifting others through music. And now, at a time when there has never been a greater need for healing, Hart is as busy as ever, knowing his music is necessary. Having just wrapped up a tour with Dead & Company, where he got to witness tens of thousands of fans joined together on a nightly basis, he has immediately turned his attention to rhythmic unity through a new Planet Drum album. Into The Groove finds Hart uniting with Zakir Hussain, Giovanni Hidalgo and Sikiru Adepoju to showcase the power of the rhythm. The album leads off with the single "King Clave," which Planet Drum shared in a special video with charity organization Playing For Change. I spoke with Hart about how Tito Puente changed his life, the recent Dead & Company tour, the power of music and much more. Steve Baltin: When you listen … [Read more...] about Sunday Conversation: Mickey Hart On Dead & Company, Tito Puente And Why He’ll Never Retire

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin This is part three in a series focusing on cognitive dysfunction and inflammation. The first article can be read here , and the second can be read here . For additional writings on inflammation and Covid-19, please see my website: www. williamhaseltine.com For many people, an encounter with Covid-19 brings with it lingering cognitive symptoms, generally described as “brain fog”. And on occasion, these symptoms may last for months on end. A novel study describes why and how this might be happening. In a previous article , I gave an overview of one part of the researchers’ findings. To recapitulate in brief: SARS-CoV-2 infection can provoke serious inflammation which, through a series of “signaling cascades”, can make its way into the central nervous system, including the brain. Once there, inflammation triggers the activation of immune cells called microglia, which go haywire, causing additional … [Read more...] about Even Mild Covid-19 May Cause Lasting Brain Fog (Part 2)

Huge, advertising-based, general-purpose social networks aren’t the high-growth cash cows they once were, as Facebook’s recent “growth” numbers would suggest. Many consumers, it turns out, would rather spend their time watching short-form videos than sharing memes and hitting “like” buttons. And new restrictions on user tracking have made it harder for mass-market social networks to target ads. advertisement advertisement The founders of a new social network called Niche believe the next generation of social networks might cater to online communities formed around more specific interests, such as hobbies or creator businesses . So, on the Niche app, which became available in the App Store Tuesday, you would find groups formed around rock climbing or around people who enjoy collecting Star Wars memorabilia. Eventually, Niche will host groups based on many different things, including music artists and business events. advertisement … [Read more...] about These Facebook and Tinder vets are building a Web3 social network called Niche