Taking two popular supplements after the menopause could raise women's risk of heart attack

I have reproduced above the original headline of the article below. It is totally misleading. The research was high-quality and if you look at the the orignating journal article what you find is that "There was no overall effect on other measures, including all-cause mortality". In other words taking the pills did not help you live longer or shorten your life. The pills increased your risk of heart attacks but reduced your risk of cancer, with the two effects almost perfectly balancing one-another out. So old ladies will not be harmed by those pills. They will live just as long with or without them.

Another important inaccuracy is that the pills are not usually taken "to stave off the effects of menopause". HRT is used for that. The pills in this case are used to prevent crumbling bones. So the pills may give some comfort without killing you. That sounds like good news to me

Taking two popular supplements after the menopause could raise women's risk of heart attack, according to major 20 year study
US researchers followed more than 30,000 women for two decades
They found that those who took certain supplements had raised heart risk

Taking supplements to stave off the effects of menopause could leave you more vulnerable to cardiovascular disease, according to a landmark study involving 36,000 women.

Researchers from The US National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute looked at the health outcomes of roughly 18,000 women who took daily calcium and vitamin D pills for seven years - all of whom were between the ages of 50 and 79.

They followed the women up 20 years later, and compared the incidence of heart disease and cancer to a group of a similar number who didn't take supplements in their later years.

The results, published in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine, showed that those who'd taken the pills - which are said to strengthen bones - had a six percent higher risk of dying from cardiovascular disease, compared to the other group.

However, those in the supplement arm of the study were also seven percent less likely to die from cancer.

Notably, the authors said the increased risk of cancer was only seen in those who had been taking supplements in their younger years, before the study launched.

This is the largest randomized trial of women using these supplements, according to the study's authors.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/wellness-us/article-13184253/menopause-supplements-risk-heart-attack.html

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Out-of-Control HR is Destroying Britain

An all-pervasive ‘just be kind’ mindset in every walk of life is turning the economy to mush, says Sam Ashworth-Hayes in the Telegraph. And it’s being driven by out-of-control HR. Here’s an excerpt.

One way to respond to this [explosion in worklessness] would be to say that Britain is a sicker country than it used to be. But as one noted psychiatrist put it earlier this year, the “rate of defined disorders has not changed for 50-60 years”. What may have changed instead is our willingness to describe ourselves as being mentally unwell, and the willingness of the state to accept that claim without excessive interrogation.

Indeed, in the HR state, attempts to shift people into employment are frowned upon as unkind, even though work can be beneficial for mental health. And so the taxpayer continues to fork out for workers who don’t work, public services decline and the tax burden grows.

Once you start to see the growing power of HR culture, it’s everywhere. It’s in the way we speak to each other, with normal, everyday interactions increasingly governed by rules on what can be said, on what level of rudeness incurs civil or criminal liability.

Rather than taking offence – with the implication that we can choose how to respond, including shrugging ill-judged words off – we are harmed by insensitive language. And the HR state intervenes to protect us, levelling jail sentences at people who are rude online, or handing massive payouts to those offended by their colleagues at work.

It doesn’t matter if that offence is given with good reason. Demanding excellent performance from highly paid civil servants and employees is out. And getting rid of employees isn’t always an option either: in one notable case, a judge found in favour of an employee complaining about being let go after 808 sick days (and racking up £96,000 in sick pay).

You aren’t even really free to choose what you pay your employees. At any point, the state could decide your arrangement is insufficiently fair.

Take the de facto bankruptcy of Birmingham City Council. Poor decisions, like spending millions of pounds taxiing students to school, played a role in this affair. But perhaps the biggest blow came when a judge determined that completely different jobs, with completely different demands – and market rates – met a nebulous definition of equal worth.

It didn’t matter that men and women in the same roles were paid the same wages. The simple fact that some jobs – such as street cleaners and refuse collectors – received bonuses that others – such as cooks and care workers – did not was enough to show that the council had breached the law. The result was £1.1bn in payouts, with possibly another £760m in liabilities remaining, and a torrent of follow-on lawsuits against councils, supermarkets, and all sorts of other employers.

From an economic perspective, this is nuts. It’s closer to old Marxist theories of value than it is to anything modern economists would recognise. Different jobs earn different wages because they are different; they differ in staffing levels, capital intensity, travel time, injury risk, hours, unpleasantness, and any number of other features.

Wages reflect all of these things and more. Of course different jobs pay different wages! But in the eyes of the HR state, none of this matters. All that matters is that a judge believes they are of equal worth.

https://dailysceptic.org/2024/03/08/out-of-control-hr-is-destroying-britain/

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Surviving in black America

When I was 15-years old, I rejected the advances of an aggressive young Jamaican boy who had recently moved into my Harlem neighborhood.

My dismissal of his passes made him angry and he verbally threatened to hurt me. At first, I brushed it off and didn’t take him seriously. But after the initial incident, there were other times I would see him around the neighborhood and he would physically grab me by the arm and make the same threat. He wasn’t afraid of anyone seeing or hearing him terrorize me. Although I didn’t show it or express it to anyone, but eventually I did begin to fear him.

By this point, I was used to the familiar feeling of being unsafe in my environment.

One Saturday night in the summer, I went outside to meet up with my friends. It had been a hot day and my block was crowded with kids and teenagers who had been having water fights. My apartment building was located on 8th Avenue and I started walking towards 7th Avenue, before I could reach the end of the block, I saw the the Jamaican boy walking towards me and noticed he was pulling a gun out of his waistband.

I immediately stopped walking and froze in place. As he got closer, I could see the sinister grin on his face. He grabbed me and we tussled for a few moments with the gun in his hand. The next thing I remember is being hit with the butt of the gun on the right side of my head. He laughed as he walked away from the scene of the crime.

I was dizzy from the assault but I stumbled back to my building and sat there for a while trying to make sense of what had just happened while my head throbbed in pain. As I wiped the tears streaming down my face, I decided it was time to climb the three flights of stairs to my family’s apartment and tell them about the assault. I didn’t realize that my younger brother had jumped in to help me. That might’ve been the action that saved my life. Although there were many witnesses, no one else intervened.

I continued to attract aggressive boys and men who felt the need to exert their predatory prowess over my feminine nature and petite frame.

That incident was not the first time I had to physically struggle or was attacked by a young boy or a man, that I knew personally, for violating me. I kept these incidents to myself but I wasn’t aware that being silent about it would be detrimental to my health and my future self.

I was slapped in public a couple of times and date raped by one of my boyfriends. I fought off a rape attempt by a “friend” I was not involved with the incident happening only a few steps from my apartment door. Another attack involved an older family friend inside of my apartment when no adult was home. Later on in my early twenties, a guy I worked with locked the supply room behind us and also attempted to sexually assault me.

All of these occurrences slowly eroded my spirit leaving my perpetrators free of consequences because of my swift compartmentalization of each offense.

After years of normalizing the propensity of violence towards me, I lost the strength to fight back in intimate relationship dynamics that were rooted in my complacency. Any drop of self-respect I may have had was gone if it ever existed. I found myself saying yes to things that I really wanted to say no to because I was exhausted of hoping they could see my worth and treat me better. My malaise was a sure sign of low self value.

The external harm manifested into an internal behavior pattern of self-betrayal, self-harm and a strange addiction to destructive sociopathic behavior in men. Experiencing a repetition of trauma lead to insanity and the scale had finally tilted to the other side.

The day came in 2018 where I had to face the truth of my past and my violent history with men. The rude awakening was after another dangerous man that made vile attempts against my well-being.

After spending four years in a psychologically abusive and mentally draining relationship, I had a nervous breakdown and was diagnosed with a second autoimmune disorder. I had wasted more of my precious time with someone whose intention was to bring forth destruction and disturb my peace.

The troubling red flags were the warning signs I needed to escape another troubling situation but I ignored after months of his persistent pursuit. It only took a couple of days after he moved into my home for his sinister planning and unpredictable actions to take root thus destabilizing the sacred environment I had created for my son and I. Later he confessed with a badge of honor his lack of empathy and narcissism.

His admission and self awareness of his dark traits did nothing for the lack of self respect that I exhibited that became a playground for his abuse.

Self deprecation was not a new experience. I had deep feelings of unworthiness that I carried since I was a child. I was unaware of the subconscious attraction to violent men until one day, I suddenly remembered the incident that contributed to my dissociation from over thirty years ago. It was time for me to reflect on my habits and behaviors that continued to welcome this malevolent spirit.

I had spent many years blaming myself for what the Jamaican boy had done to me and not dealing with the remnants of that trauma. I had not allowed him to be solely responsible for his violent behavior. Even though he did not physically kill me that night, a part of my spirit died. He didn’t pull the actual trigger on the gun but shot a bullet through my soul.

Living life in victimhood did not serve me well.

Deep down in the recesses of my mind and body, I did not want to represent the damsel in distress personae so I covered up these infractions towards me and hardened my feelings that blocked any real long term opportunities for a genuine and healthy intimate connection, one in which my safety would be a priority.

https://saidbysimone.medium.com/the-night-i-was-hit-with-a-gun-554d4887d614

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Is this the beginning of the end of America's woke madness? The Democrat cities rolling back progressive policies

In San Francisco and Portland, leaders are reversing liberal drug policies after they led to a sharp rise in addiction and deaths by overdose.

And across the country in New York, Mayor Eric Adams wants changes the Big Apple's sanctuary status following a surge in migrant arrivals. The city has also announced the drastic step of stationing National Guard troops on its subway in response to a rise in crime.

These policy shifts come as moderate Democrats in some blue strongholds attempt to oust their most progressive leaders, including in Washington DC, where activists are trying to oust two prominent councilmembers following a sharp rise in violent crime.

The policy shifts mark a stark tilt away from radical policies including drug decriminalization and the defunding of police forces - measures which have been blamed for causing the crises.

New York

New York Mayor Eric Adams has called for an overhaul of its sanctuary city status as his administrations battles with the impact of 180,000 migrant arrivals since the beginning of last year.

The city is also taking radical steps to tackle rising subway crime. On Wednesday, New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced National Guard soldiers and State Police will be deployed onto platforms to solve the crisis.

The measures indicate the willingness of both leaders to take an increasingly tough stance on the city's most pressing issues.

Adams took office with a pledge to maintain the city's sanctuary status - which protects people from detention or prosecution based on their immigration status.

But that was before the recent influx which Adams has conceded could 'destroy New York City'.

More than 560 cities, states and counties have declared themselves sanctuaries since the early 1980s and New York adopted the status under former Democrat Mayor Ed Koch.

Speaking on Monday, Adams told a town hall meeting: 'We need to modify the sanctuary city law that if you commit a felony or violent act we should be able to turn you over to ICE and have you deported.'

Two days later, Governor Hochul was announcing the drastic measure of drafting in almost 1,000 National Guard to try and preventing spiraling subway crime in the city.

She is working with Adams to solve the issue after figures published in mid-February revealed there were 266 crimes on the subway network since the beginning of the year, a 22.6 percent increase on the same period in 2023.

The crackdown will also see subway riders subjected to 'random' bag checks while the number of plainclothes cops patrolling the station will be increased.

Adams stressed the subways are particularly seeing an increase in attacks on MTA workers, which he blamed on a small number of criminals being able to target people hundreds of times each.

He noted that 38 people were arrested for a staggering 1,126 attacks on MTA workers in 2023, while 542 people were arrested last year for over 7,600 shoplifting crimes.

Portland, Oregon

Oregon lawmakers passed a bill on March 1 to recriminalize possession of drugs in response to a statewide fentanyl crisis which has brought Portland, the state's most populous city, to its knees.

The bill recriminalizing the possession of small amounts of drugs reverses a key part of the state's drug decriminalization law, which was the first of its kind in the U.S.

Progressive leaders who touted decriminalization promised it would end criminal convictions for the city's most vulnerable citizens and also refocus efforts on recovery from addiction.

Instead, Oregon has seen a 190 percent increase in overdose deaths since the initial decriminalization bill went into effect in February 2021, according to the CDC. Areas of downtown Portland have been taken over by homeless drug addicts who openly use fentanyl in broad daylight.

In the 12 months leading up to February 2021, there were 861 overdose deaths in Oregon; that number increased to 1,650 deaths in the same 12-month period ending in September 2023.

The decision to walk back on the policy has been couple with an increase in funding for police after budgets were slashed in the wake of BLM protests and the 'defund the police' movement.

Homicides hit record highs in 2022 and violent offences also surged, but crime was down markedly last year after the budget increases were implemented.

The sharp rise in crime started in 2020, when Portland City Council voted to approve $15 million in reductions to the police bureau and 84 sworn staff positions were cut.

Portland's homicide rate exploded from 36 in 2019 to 85 last year, which followed a record 97 homicides in 2022, according to Portland Police Bureau data.

Violent crime rates also increased significantly since 2019, according to separate FBI statistics.

In November 2021, little more than a year after police budgets were cut, Mayor Ted Wheeler acknowledged 'many Portlanders no longer feel safe' and the city council voted to increase police spending by $5.2 million.

https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/australia/is-this-the-beginning-of-the-end-of-america-s-woke-madness-the-democrat-cities-rolling-back-progressive-policies/ar-BB1jBeWe

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My other blogs. Main ones below:

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)

http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs

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