2012 January

One half of all Americans over the age of 65 take a daily aspirin to reduce risk of heart attack and stroke. That is 50%! And, about one-in-three middle aged Americans do the same. That’s appalling. It means that the brainwashing has worked and millions of people are putting their health at risk every day in return for scant protection from cardiac events.

The other morning, barely awake, my bleary eyes were open just wide enough to read a crawl across the bottom of the TV screen. Two items zipped by so quickly they almost seemed like they were part of the same story…

A new study from Sweden’s Karolinska Institutet concludes with some longevity advice that also requires no over-thinking. The authors write: “This population-based, prospective study of men with relatively high intakes of dietary calcium and magnesium showed that intake of calcium above that recommended daily may reduce all-cause mortality.” Simple. Calcium plus magnesium works longevity wonders.

Back in the 60s, the Pill helped launch the sexual revolution. According to evidence in the British Medical Journal, women who joined that revolution may have added years to their lives.

R.L. Ripples — a writer and researcher — posts several tweets every day. Each one contains a line transcribed from actual newspapers or digital scans of newspapers in online archives. I picked out these three above because they’re health-related.