how do you want to die

Here is a post worth reading:

Go quiet into the night.

We all need to decide what would be done to us when we reach the end. We also need to consider what our decisions would do to our families.

Gene Expression After Death

Make of this what you will; apparently, in mice and zebrafish, over one thousand genes show increased expression after the death of the animal, with altered expression extending up tp 96 hours postmortem.  The following gene categories were emphasized: “stress, immunity, inflammation, apoptosis, transport, development, epigenetic regulation and cancer.”  Abstract:

In life, genetic and epigenetic networks precisely coordinate the expression of genes—but in death, it is not known if gene expression diminishes gradually or abruptly stops or if specific genes and pathways are involved. We studied this by identifying mRNA transcripts that apparently increase in relative abundance after death, assessing their functions, and comparing their abundance profiles through postmortem time in two species, mouse and zebrafish. We found mRNA transcript profiles of 1063 genes became significantly more abundant after death of healthy adult animals in a time series spanning up to 96 h postmortem. Ordination plots revealed non-random patterns in the profiles by time. While most of these transcript levels increased within 0.5 h postmortem, some increased only at 24 and 48 h postmortem. Functional characterization of the most abundant transcripts revealed the following categories: stress, immunity, inflammation, apoptosis, transport, development, epigenetic regulation and cancer. The data suggest a step-wise shutdown occurs in organismal death that is manifested by the apparent increase of certain transcripts with various abundance maxima and durations.

More cancer deaths

AOL just announced that the number of women dying of cancer could double by 2030: 

“Researchers predict that by 2030, 5.5 million women could be dying from cancer every year.” 

Then the article goes on to tell us that the deaths will be mostly due to breast cancer and the rise in cancer death will occur mostly in low- and middle-income countries.
 
What AOL forgets to tell us is why this will happen. 

The answer is OBESITY. Just look at the Special Report on Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Obesity by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
 
The current percent (%) of obese and overweight women in the U.S. is this: among Black women, 82% are overweight and obese, among Latino, 77.2%, and among Whites, 63.2%. 

Remember, higher than normal weight predisposes at least to 14 types of cancer.

Another documentary about sugar

There are several great documentaries about the dangers of sugar consumption.  I may have watched them all, several times. However, I just found yet another one, Sugar Crash - Documentary about Sugar and Disease (2016). 

It is an Irish production, but the background really does not matter - the deadly story of sugar unravels the same way everywhere in the world. Watch it, learn and protect yourself and your family.

The images of the decaying teeth, the necrotizing tissues of the diabetics and the fatty liver should be a sufficient impulse to stop you from eating sugar. Print these images from the Internet, paste them in your kitchen, carry some of them as a reminder in your purse or wallet. May be it will help?

Do not resuscitate: DNR

How would you like to leave this world? Almost half of the elderly in the U.S. die in nursing homes or hospitals. To the last moment of their lives, they have a team of health care professionals who are trying to save them AT ANY COST.

Read this thought-provoking post written by Dr. Louis M. Profeta, an emergency physician practicing in Indianapolis. Then decide what you would do at the end of the path.