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MONDAY, July 18 (HealthDay News) -- If it Dark Chocolate May Sweeten the tastes good it must be Way to Health bad, so the saying goes, but delicious dark chocolate may be the ~aily dose lowered blood pressure exception to the rule. Improved insulin sensitivity, study/shoWed L }< V J C'v/-'J~ 7e
By Steven Reinberg, HealthDay Reporter
In addition to all the pleasurable sensations associated With the sweet, It may also help lower blood pressure by an average of 10 percent while improving the body's sensitivity to insulin, researchers report.
However, this benefit applies only to dark chocolate, which is rich in flavonolds -- the same antioxidant compounds found in fruits, vegetables and whole grains that are known to help lower blood pressure, according to the report In the July 18 online edition of Hypertension.
"It turns out that chocolate is not only a pleasurable food, but It fits in quite nicely with the other healthy recommendations," said coauthor Jeffrey B. Blumberg, a professor of nutrition and a senior scientist at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University. "We found that three ounces of dark chocolate per day over several weeks reduced blood pressure in patients with essential hypertension and also seemed to provide a benefit on their insulin sensitivity," he added.
In their study, Blumberg's team had 10 men and 10 women eat 3.5 ounces of dark chocolate every day for 15 days. All of these people had high blood pressure and none were taking blood pressure medications.
First, the researchers had five of the men and five of the women eat dark chocolate while the others ate white chocolate, which contains no flavonoids. Then after another week of no chocolate, the groups "crossed over" and ate the other chocolate.
In the 15 days they were eating dark chocolate, individuals displayed an average 11.9 mm Hg drop In their systolic blood pressure (the top number in a blood pressure reading) and a 8.5 mm Hg drop in diastolic blood pressure (the lower number). However, there was no drop In blood pressure when they ate flavonoid-free white chocolate, the researchers found.
Given these results, Blumberg believes that dark chocolate can be good for you. "Dark chocolate can be included as part of a healthful diet in patients who have hypertension," he said.
However, he cautioned that you can't just add it on top of your diet "It's still a high-calorie food. You don't want to have excess calories or put on weight if you have hypertension," Blumberg said. "But as part of a healthful diet, it is something that you can enjoy and not feel you are violating the prinCiples of a healthful diet."
Blumberg thinks that being able to enjoy some chocolate can also make it easier to stay on a healthy diet that is rich in frUits, vegetables and whole grains.
One expert sees this study as part of a body of evidence that shows that chocolate Is good for us. "Dark chocolate may be health-promoting," said Dr. David L Ka~ an associate clinical professor of public health and director of the Prevention Research Center at Yale University School of Medicine.
Katz, who is doing his own research into the benefits of chocolate, noted that chocolate is rich in not only antioxidants, but also magnesium and fiber. "The predominant saturated fat in dark chocolate, stearic acid, does not raise cholesterol or harm blood vessels,· he added.
According to Ka~ there are many unanswered questions about chocolate: What is the optimal dose of dark chocolate? How high does the cocoa content need to be to offer health benefits? Who in the population stands to beneflt from eating dark chocolate? Are the benefits of liquid cocoa and solid chocolate the same? Can people eat chocolate Without gaining weight?
'These answers, and others, will come in time," Katz said. "For now, it's clear that not all chocolate is created equal. But it's delidous to think that indulgence and health may both reside beneath the same wrapper."
Another expert is more cautious. Without more definitive data on whether chocolate promotes weight gain that might outweigh its benefits, Dr. Jeffrey Mechanlck, the director of the Metabolic Support Service at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, is hesitant to recommend it as a health food. "I would never tell a heart patient or a diabetic to eat more dark chocolate," he said.
For patients who do not have these health problems, Mechanick is more lenient. "Having a treat every once in a while is fine," he said. "My preference is that you have dark chocolate, because it's lOOking like maybe dark chocolate may have some benefit. But there are no data to support that it's truly benefiCial. It's stili unproven that it's benefiCial and there coUld be risks involved."
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A Bite of Chocolate a Day May Keep Blood Pressure at Bay By serenaGonJon;lieafthriay'Reporter HealthDay
TUESDAY, July 3 (HealthDay News) -- Chocolate lovers can rejoice again: More research has found that the antioxidants In dark chocolate can help slightly lower blood pressure. But the good news comes with a caveat -- the chocolate portions have to be limited to 30 calories a day, which works out to slightly more than one Hershey's Kiss. Such small amounts of the flavanol-rich cocoa found in dark chocolate "may be a promising behavioral approach to lower blood pressure In Individuals with above-optimal blood pressure,n the German researchers reported In their study. Unlimited quantities of chocolate won't work, they added, because "the potential blood pressure reduction contributed by the flavanols could be offset by the high sugar, fat and calorie Intake with the cocoa products.» The current study, published In the July 4 Issue of the Journal ofthe American Medical Association, included 44 adults between the ages of 56 and 73 who either had blood pressure levels In the upper range of normal (considered prehypertension) or they had stage 1 high blood pressure. None of the study volunteers had other risk factors for heart disease, which means they weren't overweight, didn't smoke, didn't have diabetes or high cholesterol or kidney disease. Additionally, the study participants didn't take additional vitamins or supplements, and the only cocoa-containing products they consumed during the study period were those provided by the researchers. for 18 weeks, half of the group was asked to consume 30 calories a day of dark chocolate containing polyphenols (a type of antiOxidant), while the other half was given 30 calories a day of white chocolate, which has nearly all of the same Ingredients as the dark chocolate but no polyphenols. By the end of the study, the average systolic blood pressure (the top number, which measures the force of blood coming from the heart) dropped by 2.9 mm Hg and the average diastolic blood pressure (the bottom number, which measures the force of blood returning to the heart) dropped by 1.9 rnm Hg In the dark chocolate group. There was no change In blood pressure for the white chocolate group. "Although the magnitude of the Bf> reduction was small, the effects are clinically noteworthy. On a population basis, It has been estimated that a 3-mm/Hg reduction In systolic BP would reduce the relative risk of stroke mortality by 8 percent, of coronary artery disease mortality by 5 percent, and of all-cause mortality by 4 percent," the authors reported in a prepared statement.The research was led by Dr. Dirk Taubert, of University Hospital of Cologne, who has done previous research on the effects of cocoa on high blood pressure.The authors suspect that dark chocolate may increase levels of nitric oxide, a compound that helps to relax and open the blood vessels. An American nutrition expert found the results promlsing."If you're someone with marginal high blood pressure, and if you eat chocolate anyway, switching to a small piece of dark chocolate daily may give you some benefit. It lowered the upper number about 3 points," said Jo Ann carson, a professor of clinical nutrition at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas. Carson recommended looking for dark chocolate that has cocoa content higher than 50 percent. She also pOinted out that people who are sensitive to caffeine's effects should be careful about consuming dark chocolate, because the caffeine content is higher than In milk chocolate. "Dark chocolate doesn't give you as much caffeine as a cup of coffee, but if you start eating it in the evening, you might notice the caffeine," she said. Additionally, if you have underlying health problems, this study's results probably don't apply to you, according to nutritionist Angela Kurtz, from New York University Medical Center. "This study was designed to look at the effects of chocolate In individuals who didn't have severe hypertenSion or other medical problems, and they weren't overweight. If you're diabetic or you have kidney disease, you cannot add chocolate to your diet," she sald."Moderation is the key. As long as you can have good control of your eating habits, and you can balance chocolate consumptlon with physical activity to offset the calories, then you can enjoy it," Kurtz added. But she also cautioned that "chocolate is not a magic bullet but is one little tool for people who are relatively healthy."More InformationThe American Heart AsSOCiation details a previous study on the benefits of dark chocolate for blood pressure. Copyright @ 2007 ScoutNews, LLC. All tights reserved.
http://www.livescience.comienvironmentJ050 1 06_odds_oCdying.htrnlThe Odds ofDying ILiveScience
The numbers get murk.ier the doser you look.. Statistics
are typically given for a person born in the year the • New Photo Gallery numbers are crunched, but by the time that person
grows up, the outlook. will have changed because of
medical advances, diet shifts, changes to the
enVironment, and so on.
The list below is not complete. Rather it indudes life-ending scenarios that carry some of the
highest odds for U.S. reSidents, along with the chances of check.ing out in more bizarre fashion.
Health-related statistics and categories with high-odds (lik.e heart disease at 1-in-5) are among the
most statistically Significant, sort of. All odds fluctuate from year-to-year. Toss in a flu pandemic-
some 50 million died in 1918 -- and all bets are off. The World Health Organization recently warned
that the next such bout could kill 7 million people "in a best case scenario." That's not in the odds
below.
The more specific figures are based on 2001, the most recent year for which complete data are
available. Other odds, indicated with an asterisk (*) are based on long-term data.
All figures below are for U.S. residents.
Cause of Death Lifetime Odds
Heart Disease 1-in-5
Cancer 1-in-7
Stroke 1-in-23
Acddental Injury 1-in-36
Motor Vehide Accident* 1-in-100
Intentional Self-harm (suidde) 1-in-121
Falling Down 1-in-246
Assault by Firearm 1-in-325
Fire or Smok.e 1-in-1,116
Natural Forces (heat, cold, storms, quak.es, etc.) 1-in-3,357
Electrocutlon* 1-in-5,000
Drowning 1-in-8,942
Air Travel Accident* 1-in-20,000
Rood* (included also in Natural Forces above) 1-in-30,000
Legal Execution 1-in-58,618
Tornado* (induded also in Natural Forces above) 1-in-60,000
Lightning Strike (induded also in Natural Forces above) 1-in-83,930
Snake, Bee or other Venomous Bite or Sting* 1-in-100,000
Earthquak.e (included also in Natural Forces above) 1-in-131,890
Dog Attack 1-in-147,717
Asteroid Impact* 1-in-200,000**
Tsunami* 1-in-500,000
1of'i A./l1l?OlO Q.'i'i AM
If you wor.k as a teacher or a member of other helping professions, you frequently wIll be required to interpret material in student or client folders. ~ate~al in 0e folders typically will include results of psychological testing, mcludmg wntten comments, and, more likely, various types of test scores. This chapter will introduce you to two common types of scores-percentiles and standard scores-as well as their major variations. Some of the material will/app~ar complicated at first, but it's just a logical~xtension ofwh;t you've learned so far. You may not even find it particularly difficult! .
Before ~iscussing percentiles and standard scores, I want to point out . so.~e of the dlsadvantages of three types of scores with which you may be fa
nliliru:- from your school days: the raw score, the percentage correct score, and rank m class.
Boy: Mal I got 98 on my math test today!
Mother: That's very good, son. You must be very happy! Boy: There were 200 points onthe test. Mother: Ohl I'm sorry. I guess you didn't do too well. Boy; I got the second highest score in class. Mother: Very good! Boy: There are only two of us in the class.
As you can see, the boy's raw score didn't communicate much information. But neither did his percentage correct score, because it didn't tell us whether the test was extremely difficult or very easy. Nor was his rank in class very helpful unless we knew how large the class was, and even when we found that out, we didn't know a whole lot because the class was small and our knowledge of the one person with whornhe was being compared is nonexistent. When interpreting his test score, we would like to know, at a minimum, something about the persons with whom he is being compared (the norm group) and how he did in comparison with that group.
Man to woman: How's your husband dOing? Woman: Relative to what?
The norm group of a test usually will include large samples of people. For an intelligence test, for example, the publisher will attempt to get a large representative sample of people in general. In their sample they will usually include appropriate proportions of persons in the various age, gender, ethnic, and socioeconomic groups. Test manuals often contain detailed descriptions of normative samples and the way in which they were obtained; a good textbook on tests and measurement can also give you that kind of information.
PERCENTILES
Percentiles are one of the most frequent types of measures used to report the results bf standardized tests, and for good reason: they are the easiest kind of score to understand. An individual whose score was at the 75th pen;entile of a group scored as high or higher than 75% of the persons in the norm group. Someone whose score was atthe 50th percentile scored as high or higheL than 50% of the persons in the norm group. And someone whose score was at the 37th percentile scored as high or higher than 37% of the persons in the norm group. And so on.
1be percentile rank of a score in a distribution is the percentage of the whole distribution falling at or below that score. Apercentile is a measure that tells you how many people (or rats, or rabbits, or whatever the distribution is made up of) scored at or below that point. .
simpler, right?
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Dr. Andy: Misleading graphs http://doctorandy.blogspot.com/2006/03/misleading'-graphs.html
Reflections on medicine and biology among other things
Gulf HurrIcane Relief Help Support Health Clinics Providing Critical Aid to Evacuees.
ThursdaYI March 021 2006 Misleading graphs
I want to call attention to a graph I published A
yesterday (source here) ?; showing the relationship f .uti:m~~.~-.?·L.,t
between asphalt use in i .' j
Finland and asthma l rates.
There is something very misleading{ even wrong{ about this graph: the asthma rate is plotted for 20 years longer than asphalt ",se. This causes several. problems.
1. It tricks you into thinking that the asthma/ashphalt correlation has gone on much longer than it really has.
. 2. It makes the correlation look much tighter. Cover up the area of the graph from 1990 on and the dip In asphalt use betw.een 1980 ahd 1990 is much more prominent.
Why would you ever present data like this? I can think of no reason to continue graphing one variable and not the other{ especially for a period taking up 1/4 of the whole graph. The relationship is a good one without the extra data and this just blows your credibility in the eyes of a careful reader. I also can't help but wonder what asphalt use really was in 1995 and2000. Maybe it plateaued?
posted by Dr. Andy@ 2::1.6 PM
J COMMENTS:
At12:36 PM, That Girl$Bid...
Maybe because theycouldnt get the data for asphalt for thattime period?
At 1:29PM, Stephen $1I1d."
I've not read the text. Is there any reason to believe asphalt has some causal relationship? One would expect more asphault with population growth{ right? Just because it is there in a graph, doesn't mean it is true. That's like saylng{ my computer said so{therefore it's true. This concept predates computers:
On two occasions I have been asked [by members ofParliamentll 'Prajj Mr. 8abbage, ifyou put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come ollt?' I am notable rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion ofideas that cOllld provoke sllch a qllestion. -Charles 8abbage
lof2
About Me Name:Andrew MacGinnitie locatlon:Pittsburgh{ Pennsylvania{ United States
I am an allergist/immunologist at Children'S Hospital of Pittsburgh. I am generally interested in biology and particularly immunology. I am also an "ultra" runner having completed 3 100 mile runs.
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OFFICE!).BASED NONSJl.LARIED PHYSICIANS
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Lying with Graphs
Th"1't\e~dQY I received the semiannual report from my retirement fund, CJ:!EF. As everyone >~~:t.,e stoele I1I4rkat hasn't been doing well. It wasn't a·surprise to see that the value of
~EF stOck accounts had taken a hit.
'HoW¢~",the figure" that were provided in the report didn't look all that bad, A glance at th¢I1I:~ldsuggest that the, ...Iue of the CJ:!EF stock account had only dropped -15%. For
""""l1)pl~.:h"re' sane of the figures scaMed from the report:
~}0,000 over Ten Years
~ Stocli.AtC(lllnt _'___ Russell 3000 [nrlex -,-- MSCI EAfE + Canada hlOC:(
Ifyciu look more carefully, you can see that the vertical axis u .... a logarithmic scale to plot the.dj>lIj1rarnountsl It also starts from a base amount of $10,000 rather than $0 (a common
pI~yj)f'1'¥W¢ather men as well!)
~i(~c~'illccount" graph was digitized and converted into a simple linear plot. Here is my
.:<fi~t~ti~n:~f the original plot:
cl>mpllainling too much (yet!). Since 1992 this account hasn't don.. too poorly. If o>n the original investment is plotted, thO! CREF stock account still looks good
fall sincO! y<!<lr 2000.
Year
HerO! is the conversion to a simple linear scale with thO! <>rigin at $0. Clearly, it appears that account lost oVer OM third of its value sinee Y<!Or 20001
~ &.
250
200
150
2001 2002 Year
Of course, if you were new faculty in 2000 and started contributions to CREF it i. very likely that you would not be too happy right now. Here's the equivalent annual interest since 1992:
Oblliously, this account looks good if compored to a start in 1992 but would be dismal if compared to a start in year 2000. There would be negative interest ratesl
It an goes to show that appropriate representatio>n of your data can mean the difference between success and failurel
Unfortunately, much of today's academia is based on the.e .ame rule. of perception where use of color graphics or clever manipulation of statistical data makes the science.
Don't let people fool you. Look carefully a data presentations and make sure you know what they mean.
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1200
I /'I
WAGES ~~---,
1000
800
600
....
---/" -....--PROFIT -
400
200
o
..
.... 75 I----I----l---~-_J.~ -----+-----1 tt
~
O'----I'~;.....+--1_-__+'---_+-__l
YEAR 1 2 3 4 5 YEAR 2 3 4 5
(Fig. 16) (Fig. 17)
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Misleading graphs
It is a well known fact that statistics can be misleading. They are often usedto prove a point, and can easily be twisted in Javour of that point!
Here are some examples of· misleading graphs. Can you see wtHrt is wrong with each of them? Make a list of their faults and then check your answers.
Question 1
What is wrong with this bar chart? How should the information be represented?
The Answer
From this graph it looks as though house prices have trebled in one year! It is misleading because the vertical axis does not start at O. Look at the 'improved' version of the same graph. This gives a much more accurate picture of what has happened.
Question 2
What iswrong with the information represented on this graph?
Ion 113012007 10:06 AM
200
BBC - GCSE Bitesize - Maths IData handling: foundation/intermed... http://www;bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesizeimaths/datahandlingfiJrep...
The Answer
Although the vertical scale starts at 0, it does not go up in even steps. This distorts the graph, and makes it look as though the biggest jump is between 1 and 2 rather than 3 and 4.
Also, there are no labels on the axes so we have no idea what this graph represents!
Question 3
What is wrong with this 3D bar chart?
The Answer
This 3D bar chart might look very attractive, but it is also very misleading. There is no scale on the verticalaxis,and l;Iecause of the perspective it looks as though the sales for 1995 were far greater than those for any other year. In fact they were identical to those for 1997.
It would be much better to draw a 20 bar chart like this with the appropriate labelling on each axis:
.Numbl'lr ofSingtes SOld
200,000
100,0(1(1
Question 4
What is wrong with this pictogram showing the number of people who own different types of pets?
1130/2007 10:06 AM
~l?C - GCSE Bitesize - Maths IData handling: foundation/intenned... http://www.bbc.co.uk/schoolslgcsebitesize/maths/datahandlingfiIrep ...
The Answer
On this pictogram there isn't a category for those people who do not own a pet. The pictures are different sizes and it appears that more people own a horse than any other animal.
An improvement would be to redraw the pictogram with each of the animals the same size and aligned with one another like this:
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Across4. summary value of sample7. only whole numbers allowed9. outcome of interest variable12. when curve symmetrical15. variable under control experimenter17. all people with characteristic18. qualitative data with order20. when curve shifted22. number that doesn't change24. accuracy of test25. naturally occurring IV26. quantitative data real zero pointDown1. repeatability of measures2. flat curve3. measurements taken in study5. some of people with characteristic6. pictorial method display info8. qualitative data no order10. analysis to organize data11. fractions allowed13. very peaked curve14. y-axis name16. rows & columns used to display data19. middle humped curve21. summary value of population23. quantitative data no real zero27. x-axis name
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