Category Archives: Health

The Rising Health Insurance Premiums

Loony leftist blames the party that didn’t vote for the legislative atrocity.

[Update a few minutes later]

Related: David Harsanyi: “When Will Liberals Answer For Obamacare’s Failures? Is there any accountability in politics for being completely wrong? Not for defenders of Obamacare.”

#ProTip: They’re not “liberals.” There is nothing liberal about them.

A New Antibiotic Weapon Against Superbugs

This development looks promising. and this is the best part:

SNAPPs appear to pose no threat to healthy tissue, they only attack bacteria. This is in marked contrast to antibiotics that are known to have unpleasant side-effects under certain conditions because they damage both bacteria and healthy tissue. Why do the SNAPPs leave healthy tissue alone? Because the SNAPPs are too big to interact effectively with mammalian cell tissue. They’re like big dogs that attack other big dogs to establish dominance while ignoring tiny dogs that are beneath their notice.

SNAPPs appear to have the potential to work as a substitute in cases where AMR makes treatment with antibiotics ineffective. This is a very good thing, but is it also another short-term solution? Will the bacteria mutate and develop resistance to SNAPPs the same way they have developed resistance to antibiotics?

Lam and her team examined this question by exposing 600 generations of a colistin-resistant superbug to SNAPPs. The superbug the researchers used is known to mutate and acquire antibiotic resistance rapidly but the SNAPPs killed the 600th generation as effectively and easily as they did the first. The researchers speculate that the bacteria are unable to develop resistance because there are so many ways the SNAPPs can kill them.

Faster, please.

It’s Not Just Big Sugar

A lot of other food producers profited from the demonization of fat. This is the biggest health disaster in history, I think.

[Update a while later]

There is no reason to even consider eating reduced-fat cheese. Same with all dairy, including milk. Low-fat milk is a nutritional abomination.

It’s almost impossible to find whole-milk mozarella, at least shredded. Fage won’t produce a whole-milk Greek yogurt; best you can do is two percent. And Costco only sells fat-free. Fortunately, Trader Joe’s has started selling its own brand, in whole-milk, at a lower price, so that’s our new yogurt.