Double Arrow Metabolism

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Sausage Linkfest April 21, 2017

Tax with your liquid sugar?

Like them or not, soda taxes seem to work. That is, they work to reduce sugar-sweetened beverage consumption. Time will tell if we can trace any health benefit back to them, like we did with trans fat bans

School shouldn't start before 8:30, say the sleep people.

Biking to work is associated with a 41% reduction in the risk of dying over five years. Biking was also associated with 45% lower rates of cancer and a 40% lower risk of dying of cancer. And, as has been noted here before, it's associated with having a shitload more money in your bank account.

Even short-term corticosteroid use is harmful, says a review in the BMJ, with accompanying coverage from the NYT. This is ironic, considering a very recent well-publicized study advocating for 10 mg of dexamethasone in place of antibiotics for sore throat. So a couple comments: first, even the "low-dose" steroids the BMJ article talks about constitute a potentially huge dose (20 mg daily). Second, 10 mg of dexamethasone is just a gigantic, chemotherapy-level dose. It is saved by the fact that dexamethasone has a half-life of only ~3 hours, so most of it is gone by the second day. But still...whatever happened to chicken soup and time for things to get better? *sigh* I guess dexamethasone isn't any worse than the cursed "Z-Pak" that urgent cares seem to hand out like Halloween candy.