markpownall.bsky.social
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Some debate about what's happening at lower ends of the 'J' - is the low BP related to undiagnosed disease, and so subsequent mortality?
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Here's a ref about the J-shaped curve. Basically higher CV risk above 125-130/80-90mmhg
pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...
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Kidneys may be working hard to excrete high levels of sodium. Not an expert, but may not be great to have metabolic systems under chronic strain like that.
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Our physiological need for sodium is much lower than usual intake. We evolved to like it because it can be difficult to consume. I'll try and dig out a proper reference.
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Normal range of Western populations generally too high. Pathologies of blood pressure (stroke CV disease) vv rare in populations who are lean and highly active (it's a long time since I looked at it, but cattle-based tribes in Africa?).
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'Normal' western BPs higher than physiologically optimum for health because of high sodium intakes/overweight/alcohol.
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“Which means everything that happens now gets turned into a political row, because that’s what the journalists whose job it is to cover politicians do.”
It is very very tiresome. And not good for us as a society.
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Sadly it's unlikely to be the Washington Post.
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I had a dressing gown. Every night I used to kiss the ladybird on the label before going to sleep.
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A great Lancet paper:
www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
They even got the metal umlaut correct.
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Never
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No. He was a contrarian HIV denialist way back in the day (late 80s/early 90s?).
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Mason is limited as a journalist. Usually he can do a Westminster he said/she said micro-drama. But, as here, his keeness not to offend the powerful (his sources), makes his atempted analyses graphene-thin, gullible, and distorted, giving lies undeserved prominence and respect.
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The claim that moderation of that kind is a problem for free speech is deeply confused: for most people, exercise of free speech becomes impossible if they risk being abused or intimidated for exercising it. Unrestrained freedom for the troll is a gag on the ordinary citizen.
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Difficult, but not impossible, to do both.
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Also of that era: Penny Valentine.
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Why do we even respond to headlines in the Mail, Telegraph and Express any more? Who do they speak for? What do they represent? They're just a noisy irrelevance – a trio of geriatric pantomime dames staggering around outside their retirement home, soaked in piss, shouting at the traffic.
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And the NHS actually spends less on things we consider “waste”, like admin and managers, than many other nations.
The NHS may indeed be inefficient — but it is not “bloated”. Rather, it is inefficient because it is run too lean.
More in my column 🔗 www.thetimes.com/article/1130...
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This was huge fun.