Ben Palmer's reads
Could too much fried chicken … kill you? Eating one serving of fried chicken a week was associated with an increased risk of an early death—at least in older women, according to a study published in BMJ. The study followed almost 107,000 postmenopausal women who had tracked their diets in the 1990s until 2017. The researchers found that having at least one serving of fried chicken a week led to a 13% increased risk of an early death. The results of this study could be extended to men and younger people as well, according to Wei Bao, co-author of the study and an epidemiologist at the University of Iowa. "We didn't have any reason why the effects may differ by age, or even by gender," he said. "I would suspect the association may be similar among younger women or even among men."
What a slight rise in blood pressure might do to your brain. Even a moderate increase in blood pressure in people under the age of 40 could lead to reduced brain volume, according to a study published in Neurology. For the study, researchers observed 423 adults between the ages of 19 and 40, measured their blood pressure, and then put them in an MRI. The researchers found that higher blood pressure readings correlated with lower gray matter volumes, even in people with systolic blood pressure numbers between 120 and 140—which is considered to be normal blood pressure. H. Lina Schaare, lead author on the study and a doctoral candidate at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Germany, said, "This is a gradual change that probably happens throughout life and ends where people have a stroke or cognitive decline. A blood pressure around 130 in young people is not necessarily benign."
Danielle Poindexter's reads
CVS Pharmacy reveals new policy to combat unrealistic beauty ideals. CVS Pharmacy on Thursday revealed its "Beauty Mark" initiative, which flags in-store advertisements with labels to tell shoppers whether the models in the images have been digitally altered. CVS established the initiative to address concerns that digitally altered beauty advertisement set unrealistic beauty ideals. As of Thursday, 70% of all beauty advertisements in CVS stores have been marked as "digitally altered" or "beauty unaltered." The new policy has already been applied to all online images and will be applied to all in-store advertisements by 2020, according to the retailer. CVS is the first major U.S. company to adopt the policy, according to Reuters.
Puppy has surgery to fix upside-down paws. Milo, a hound puppy born with upside-down paws, is getting treatment at Oklahoma State University to fix his "very rare and very debilitating" condition, WGNTV reports. According to Erik Clary, an associate professor of small animal surgery for the university, Milo was born with "both elbows out of joint," which made him "unable to walk." Earlier this month, veterinarians performed "complicated" corrective surgery on Milo, Clary said. The veterinarians, who called Milo a "great little puppy," expect Milo to be able to walk one day if he stays in a splint and keeps his elbows in place for three weeks.