medicalcondition:high blood pressure

Opinion | My Father Faces the Death Penalty. This Is Justice in Saudi Arabia. - The New York Times

The kingdom’s judiciary is being pushed far from any semblance of the rule of law and due process.

By Abdullah Alaoudh

Mr. Alaoudh is a legal scholar at Georgetown University.

▻https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/13/opinion/saudi-arabia-judiciary.html

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Despite the claims of Prince Mohammed bin Salman and his enablers, Saudi Arabia is not rolling back the hard-line religious establishment. Instead, the kingdom is curtailing the voices of moderation that have historically combated extremism. Numerous Saudi activists, scholars and thinkers who have sought reform and opposed the forces of extremism and patriarchy have been arrested. Many of them face the death penalty.

Salman Alodah, my father, is a 61-year-old scholar of Islamic law in Saudi Arabia, a reformist who argued for greater respect for human rights within Shariah, the legal code of Islam based on the Quran. His voice was heard widely, partly owing to his popularity as a public figure with 14 million followers on Twitter.
The author’s father, Salman Alodah, has been held in solitary confinement since 2017.CreditFamily photograph
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The author’s father, Salman Alodah, has been held in solitary confinement since 2017.CreditFamily photograph

On Sept. 10, 2017, my father, who was disturbed by regional tensions after Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt imposed a blockade on Qatar, spoke obliquely about the conflict and expressed his desire for reconciliation. “May Allah mend their hearts for the best of their peoples,” he tweeted.

A few hours after his tweet, a team from the Saudi security services came to our house in Riyadh, searched the house, confiscated some laptops and took my father away.

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The Saudi government was apparently angered and considered his tweet a criminal violation. His interrogators told my father that his assuming a neutral position on the Saudi-Qatar crisis and failing to stand with the Saudi government was a crime.

He is being held in solitary confinement in Dhahban prison in Jidda. He was chained and handcuffed for months inside his cell, deprived of sleep and medical help and repeatedly interrogated throughout the day and night. His deteriorating health — high blood pressure and cholesterol that he developed in prison — was ignored until he had to be hospitalized. Until the trial, about a year after his arrest, he was denied access to lawyers.

On Sept. 4, a specialized criminal court in Riyadh convened off-camera to consider the numerous charges against my father: stirring public discord and inciting people against the ruler, calling for change in government and supporting Arab revolutions by focusing on arbitrary detention and freedom of speech, possessing banned books and describing the Saudi government as a tyranny. The kingdom’s attorney general sought the death penalty for him.

Saudi Arabia has exploited the general indifference of the West toward its internal politics and presented the crackdown against reformist figures like my father as a move against the conservative religious establishment. The reality is far from their claims.

My father is loved by the Saudi people because his authority and legitimacy as an independent Muslim scholar set him apart from the state-appointed scholars. Using Islamic principles to support his arguments, he championed civil liberties, participatory politics, the separation of powers and judicial independence.

Common Drugs May Be Contributing to Depression - The New York Times
▻https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/13/well/prescription-drugs-depression-suicide.html

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Could common prescription medications be contributing to depression and rising suicide rates?

Over one-third of Americans take at least one prescription drug that lists depression as a potential side effect, a new study reports, and users of such drugs have higher rates of depression than those who don’t take such drugs.

Many patients are taking more than one drug that has depression as a side effect, and the study found that the risk of depression increased with each additional such drug taken at the same time.

About 200 prescription drugs can cause depression, and the list includes common medications like proton pump inhibitors (P.P.I.s) used to treat acid reflux, beta-blockers used to treat high blood pressure, birth control pills and emergency contraceptives, anticonvulsants like gabapentin, corticosteroids like prednisone and even prescription-strength ibuprofen. Some of these drugs are also sold over-the-counter in pharmacies.

For some drugs, like beta-blockers and interferon, the side effect of depression is well known, but the authors of the study were surprised at how many drugs were on the list.

“We didn’t prove that using these medications could cause someone who was otherwise healthy to develop depression or suicidal symptoms. But we see a worrisome dose-response pattern: The more of these medications that have these adverse effects that you’re taking concurrently, the higher the risk of depression,” Dr. Qato said.

#Santé_publique #Dépression #Médicaments #Pharmacie

EXCLUSIVE: Saudi torture victims include former king’s son
▻http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/exclusive-former-crown-prince-among-saudi-torture-victims-340914670

Prince Miteb bin Abdullah, the son of the late King Abdullah who was once considered a future crown prince, was beaten and tortured, along with five other princes, when he was arrested and interrogated in Riyadh during the ongoing political purge in the kingdom, Middle East Eye has confirmed.

All six princes were admitted to hospital in the 24 hours following their arrest. One of the men was in such a bad condition that he was admitted to the hospital’s intensive care unit - treatment which occurs when there is a high risk to the life of a patient, such as organ failure, from the heart, lungs, kidneys, or high blood pressure.

Hospital staff were told that the injuries sustained in each case were the result of “suicide attempts”. All had been severely beaten, but none of them had fractures. The marks on their bodies were consistent with the imprints left by military boots.

At least 17 of those detained were taken to hospital, but the number maltreated in the purge ordered by the current Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is certainly higher, according to sources who MEE is unable to identify because of concerns for their safety.

MEE has learned that medical units have now been installed in the Ritz-Carlton hotel where the beatings have taken place. This is to prevent torture victims from being taken to hospital.

Climate Change is Turning Dehydration into a Deadly Epidemic | JSTOR Daily
▻https://daily.jstor.org/climate-change-dehydration-deadly-epidemic

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Richard J Johnson, a kidney specialist at the University of Colorado, helped organise the World Congress of Nephrology in Canada in 2011. There, he learned about the strange new form of chronic kidney disease spreading through Central America. Researchers from various countries were beginning to get together and discuss the evidence. Like others, Johnson began to think about possible causes.

His own research was focused on the sugar #fructose – identifying its role in obesity, high blood pressure and heart disease. When a person eats fructose, the liver bears most of the brunt, but some of the sugar eventually ends up in the kidney. With each meal, fructose enters the kidney tubules, where it is metabolised into uric acid and causes oxidative stress, both of which can damage the kidney.

At first, Johnson thought people in the sugarcane fields could be eating so much of the plant itself that they were generating high levels of uric acid and oxidative stress in their kidneys. But, he calculated, even sucking on sugarcane all day wouldn’t produce enough fructose to cause disease. Then he discovered that, under certain conditions, the body processes regular carbohydrates to make its own fructose. And one of the triggers of this deadly alchemy is simple dehydration.

Until that point, nephrologists had thought that dehydration could only cause acute kidney injury, but Johnson’s findings put a new spin on the role of insufficient water intake. Could dehydration day in, day out be causing continuous fructose overproduction that, in turn, could be leading to long-term kidney damage?

Johnson took his theory to the lab, where his team put mice in chambers and exposed them to hours of heat at a stretch. One group of mice was allowed to drink unlimited water throughout the experience, while a second group had water only in the evenings. Within five weeks the mice with a restricted water intake developed chronic kidney disease. During the day, loss of salt and water caused the mice to produce high levels of fructose, and crystals of uric acid would sometimes form as water levels dropped in their urine. When the scientists disabled the gene that metabolises fructose and repeated the experiment, neither group developed chronic kidney disease.

Johnson took these results to a meeting of the Program on Health and Work in Central America, or SALTRA, in Costa Rica in 2012, where they caught the attention of García-Trabanino: “I was astonished. His animal models were absolutely in line with our findings.”

The two collaborated to investigate the biochemical effects of dehydration on workers in the fields of El Salvador. Levels of uric acid started high in the morning and increased throughout the day. “Some patients just had sheets of uric acid crystals in their urine,” Johnson says.

From these studies, Johnson believes that heat stress and dehydration drive the production of fructose and vasopressin, which also damages the kidney. However, he believes that another mechanism may also play a part in the epidemic: rehydration with sugary drinks. Frequently, not trusting the quality of local drinking water, workers drink sodas and soft drinks, and experimental evidence suggests that doing so can lead to even more kidney damage.

“At this stage, that heat stress and dehydration might be causing this problem is still a hypothesis,” Johnson admits. “Although it is a strong one.”

#sucre #reins #climat #déshydratation

Édulcorants artificiels : leurs dangers enfin prouvés ?
▻http://www.futura-sciences.com/sante/actualites/nutrition-edulcorants-artificiels-leurs-dangers-enfin-prouves-68032/#xtor=RSS-8
Une nouvelle étude a découvert un lien entre les édulcorants artificiels et plusieurs problèmes de santé, parmi lesquels la prise de poids à long terme, le risque accru d’obésité, le diabète, l’hypertension et les maladies cardiaques.

« Il convient de rester prudent tant que les effets des édulcorants artificiels à long terme sur la santé ne sont pas complètement connus », explique Meghan Azad, auteure principale de l’étude, dont l’équipe au Children’s Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba est également en train d’étudier les effets de la consommation d’édulcorants artificiels pendant la grossesse sur la prise de poids, le métabolisme et la flore intestinale de l’enfant.

Artificial sweeteners linked with weight gain, little health benefit
▻http://www.wsaw.com/content/news/Artificial-sweeteners-linked-with-weight-gain-little-health-benefit-435409873.

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Two-thirds of Americans are overweight, and those who diet sometimes turn to alternative sweeteners — including aspartame, sucralose and stevioside — to cut calories.

Now, a new review of many studies suggests that doing so might not be the best idea.

The scientists took a comprehensive look at more than 11,000 studies and found that, for overweight individuals or those with high blood pressure (hypertension) or diabetes, the benefits of consuming zero-calorie, “non-nutritive sweeteners” were modest to nil. For other people, there was an increased risk of weight gain, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, stroke and heart disease. [7 Biggest Diet Myths]

“Overall, the evidence does not support the intended purpose of weight loss and suggests that there might be adverse effects in the long term,” said Meghan Azad, lead author of the review and an assistant professor at the University of Manitoba.

Previous research had suggested that non-nutritive sweeteners were not the healthiest choice, but those studies were smaller in scope than the new review, and tended to focus on one outcome at a time, said Azad, who researches the development of chronic diseases.

Regular Consumption of Artificial Sweeteners Linked to Increased Risk of Obesity, Diabetes, Other Health Issues
A literature review of 37 studies has found that regular consumption of artificial sweeteners is associated with long-term weight gain and an increased risk of obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease.
▻http://www.sci-news.com/medicine/regular-consumption-artificial-sweeteners-linked-risk-obesity-diabetes-050

dossier #edulcorants (nb : je suit hyper intolerante aux edulcorants de synthèse, qui sont parfois cachés dans certains produits d’où le suivi de ce sujet.) #alimentation #bombe_a_retardement

Rare Gene Mutations Inspire New Heart Drugs - The New York Times
▻https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/24/health/heart-drugs-gene-mutations.html

One sibling had been a heavy smoker, had high blood pressure and even had Type 2 diabetes, a powerful risk factor for heart disease. Yet there was no plaque in his arteries.

Dr. Stitziel went on to lead an international group of researchers who looked for mutations that destroyed the gene in 180,180 people. It was a rare event, occurring in just one in 309 people.

#santé

Women’s long work hours linked to alarming increases in cancer, heart disease | News Room - The Ohio State University
▻https://news.osu.edu/news/2016/06/16/overtime-women

Women who put in long hours for the bulk of their careers may pay a steep price: life-threatening illnesses, including heart disease and cancer.

Work weeks that averaged 60 hours per week or more over three decades appear to triple the risk of diabetes, cancer, heart trouble and arthritis for women, according to new research from The Ohio State University.

The risk begins to climb when women put in more than 40 hours and takes a decidedly bad turn above 50 hours, researchers found.

“Women – especially women who have to juggle multiple roles – feel the effects of intensive work experiences and that can set the table for a variety of illnesses and disability,” said Allard Dembe, professor of health services management and policy and lead author of the study, published online this week in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.

“People don’t think that much about how their early work experiences affect them down the road,” he said. “Women in their 20s, 30s and 40s are setting themselves up for problems later in life.”
[…]
But prior to this study, efforts to examine a connection between long hours and chronic illness have had mixed results, in large part because it’s difficult to obtain long-term data on work patterns and health, Dembe said.

This study used data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979, administered by Ohio State’s Center for Human Resource Research and sponsored by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, which includes interviews with more than 12,000 Americans born between 1957 and 1964.

Dembe and his collaborator, Mayo Clinic researcher and former Ohio State doctoral student Xiaoxi Yao, examined data for survey participants who were at least 40 in 1998, when interview questions began to include questions about health status and chronic conditions.

They averaged the self-reported hours worked each week over 32 years and compared the hours worked to the incidence of eight chronic diseases: heart disease, cancer (except skin cancer), arthritis or rheumatism, diabetes or high blood sugar, chronic lung disease including bronchitis or emphysema, asthma, depression and high blood pressure. They also examined the results by gender.

Intéressante (et rare) #étude_longitudinale

Retiring Retirement - Issue 36 : Aging
▻http://nautil.us/issue/36/aging/retiring-retirement

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You don’t take any medications?” “No.” The doctor stared at me dolefully, then reframed the question. “So, when you get up in the morning, what do you put in your mouth?” he asked with an air of exasperation, as if I was the one who wasn’t getting it. “Oatmeal, usually, and tea with milk.” “You don’t take any pills for high blood pressure? For your heart? Your bones?” “Nope.” “Nothing?” “Nothing.” “Not even vitamins?” He scanned my medical history, and the answer was there in black and white: a body mass index of 24, blood pressure a shade lower than the normal range, total cholesterol below 120, and no chronic disorders or ailments to speak of. There was just one outlier in this picture of good health: I recently turned 67. Which is why, when I saw a new doctor for my annual checkup, he had a hard time (...)

Common medicines tied to changes in the brain | Reuters
▻http://in.reuters.com/article/us-health-brain-otc-drugs-idINKCN0XH1Y8

Commonly used drugs for problems like colds, allergies, depression, high blood pressure and heart disease have long been linked to cognitive impairment and dementia. Now researchers have some fresh evidence that may help explain the connection.

The drugs, known as anticholinergics, stop a chemical called acetylcholine from working properly in the nervous system. By doing so, they can relieve unpleasant gastrointestinal, respiratory or urinary symptoms, for example.

The list of such drugs is long. Among them: Benadryl for allergies, the antidepressant Paxil and the antipsychotic Zyprexa, Dimetapp for colds and the sleep aid Unisom.

UK needs four-day week to combat stress, says top doctor | Society | theguardian.com
▻http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/jul/01/uk-four-day-week-combat-stress-top-doctor

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One of Britain’s leading doctors has called for the country to switch to a four-day week to help combat high levels of work-related stress, let people spend more time with their families or exercising, and reduce unemployment.

Bringing the standard working week down from five to four days would also help address medical conditions, such as high blood pressure and the mental ill-health associated with overwork or lack of work, Prof John Ashton said.

#santé #inégalités #travail via @latrive et @mona

Why Racism Is A Public Health Issue | ThinkProgress
▻http://thinkprogress.org/health/2014/02/03/3239101/racism-public-health-issue

Here’s why racism is a serious public health issue:

Racial discrimination puts black Americans at risk for long-term health problems.
According to a new study, black teens who experience racial discrimination in adolescence are more likely to develop stress-related health issues that could put them at risk for chronic diseases later in life. Specifically, researchers found that they were more likely to have higher levels of blood pressure, a higher body mass index, and higher levels of stress-related hormones once they turned 20. The psychological toll that racism takes on adults has also been well-documented, and racial discrimination has been repeatedly linked to high blood pressure. Just the fear of racial discrimination can trigger stress-related responses, which means that many people of color who live within a society defined by racism are constantly under increased biological stressors.

The majority of doctors harbor “unconscious racial biases” toward their black patients.
A 2012 study found that about two-thirds of primary care doctors harbor biases toward their African-American patients, leading those doctors to spend less time with their black patients and involve them less in medical decisions. Although doctors typically aren’t aware that they’re treating African-American patients any differently, this ultimately creates an environment in which black people often don’t feel welcome in the medical system — and may start avoiding it. On top of that, black Americans are more likely to lack access to health insurance and less likely to have a regular doctor. This creates a situation in which African-Americans are dying from diseases at higher rates than other racial groups because they don’t get treatment in time.

Black scientists are systematically underfunded.
According to a recent analysis of grant data from the National Institute of Health (NIH), black scientists — and not other types of minorities — are less likely to receive government funding for a research project, even when they have the same credentials as their white peers. In fact, a black researcher’s chances of winning an NIH grant is 10 percentage points lower than a white researcher’s chances. Aside from the obvious issues with discriminating against qualified scientists, there’s some evidence this could be having a lasting impact on the types of research that’s conducted in this country. Research into diseases that disproportionately affect black people is underfunded, too — and people of color are underrepresented in clinical trials.

Disparities in the health care sector continue to hit the African-American community the hardest.
Thanks to structures of racism and poverty that stretch back for generations, black Americans are still more likely to lack access to surgical and emergency medical care, more likely to patronize hospitals that employ less-experienced staff, and much less likely to receive high-quality primary care. That puts this community in a position to significantly benefit from some of the reforms included in the Affordable Care Act. But it also means that black Americans are hit the hardest by the political resistance to implementing health reform. Republican governors’ ongoing resistance to the optional Medicaid expansion disproportionately harms African-Americans, particularly low-income black people living in the South.

#santé #racisme

The Health Toll of Immigration - NYTimes.com

▻http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/19/health/the-health-toll-of-immigration.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20130519

Même une fois passé la frontière, une fois acquis les papier pour travailler légalement, les migrants risquent encore leur vie s’ils adoptent « fully » la « American ay of life... »

BROWNSVILLE, Tex. — Becoming an American can be bad for your health.

A growing body of mortality research on immigrants has shown that the longer they live in this country, the worse their rates of heart disease, high blood pressure and diabetes. And while their American-born children may have more money, they tend to live shorter lives than the parents.

#migrations #états-unis #alimentation

Obesity linked to poor academic performance - Telegraph
►http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/9515864/Obesity-linked-to-poor-academic-performance.html

Complications associated with being overweight are linked to lower school performance, it found..

The study found that children showing physical changes due to being obese, such as raised blood pressure, higher levels of bad cholesterol and resistance to the blood sugar controlling hormone, insulin, had poorer scores on thinking tests.[...]

The researchers from New York University compared 49 children with metabolic syndrome, a collection of at least three health problems associated with obesity which can include a large waist, low good choelsterol, high blood fats, high blood pressure and insulin resistance which is a pre-cursor to type 2 diabetes.

Health Problems in Teens Linked with Worse Cognitive Skills
►http://www.myhealthnewsdaily.com/3031-teens-metabolic-syndrome-school-tests.html

While obesity has been a primary target for wellness programs, Convit said weight itself should not be the target, but the symptoms of metabolic syndrome, which can be assessed by a pediatrician and often improved by exercise. Extra weight alone isn’t a problem in an otherwise active child, he said.

#santé #obésité #syndrome_métabolique #apprentissage