Sibiriak

Cf. Big Pharma Won’t Let Us Import Drugs From Canada, But Insists on Sending Carcinogen-Contaminated Pills to the Public FDA probes diabetes drug metformin for carcinogen NDMA The FDA Announces Two More Antacid Recalls Due to Cancer Risk Two more companies recalled their ranitidine drugs, generic forms of Zantac, over concerns they may contain a carcinogenic substance.

Those same charts appear in the original article cited by Ron (thanks!): Visceral Fat Is an Independent Predictor of All‐cause Mortality in Men (2006) Figure 1. The OR for mortality with increasing visceral fat mass (A) and area (B) after control for age and follow‐up time. The OR for mortality with increasing visceral fat mass (C) and area (D) after control for age, follow‐up time, liver fat, and abdominal subcutaneous fat. The fifth percentile of visceral fat (mass, 0.15 kg; area, 50 cm2) was used as the referent value. Several things are immediately apparent. 1) There is a minimum amount of VAT in all the curves. 2) The curves are not U-shaped, so there is no indication of increased mortality at the lowest end of the visceral fat amount. 3) The beginning of the curves are quite flat, indicating that the amount of VAT must reach a certain level before there is any significant increase in mortality risk. According to the authors of the study:

That seems perfectly sensible. Visceral fat has important biological functions, which, arguably, may even become more important as one grows old. Clearly VAT should be kept low, but eliminating it entirely seems pretty dicey, to put it mildly. But, still, it's something Fernando Gabriel might want to research in depth. Some articles I've read recently on this topic: Fat fights back (2018) Get to know the omentum: The apron of fat that protects your abdomen (2017) Nutrition, the visceral immune system, and the evolutionary origins of pathogenic obesity (2019) The Contribution of Age-Related Changes in Adiposity to Inflammation and Disease (see charts with flattened J-shaped curves for visceral fat and mortality risks, and interesting group photos of rowers young and old.) Counterintuitive relationship between visceral fat and all-cause mortality in an elderly Asian population (2014)

Going off topic (perhaps this should be in the "purpose of life" thread): the Russian national figure skating championship was just held in Krasnoyarsk, and this 15 year old girl, Anna Shcherbakova was just amazing. The beauty! The perfection! "Shcherbakova flawlessly nailed a quadruple lutz-quadruple toe-loop combination before adding a single quad lutz and a quad flip triggering standing ovation from the crowd." Check out what she does with her dress at 2:23. Very cool!

Record high temperatures cast gloom over festive season in Moscow Moscow resorts to fake snow in warmest December since 1886 But in Krasnoyarsk--Прогноз погоды 28 декабря суббота ночь – утро -33° ощущается как -38° день – вечер -29° ощущается как -29°

The authors themselves discuss the relative caffeine levels: The point they make, however, is that Italian-style coffee produces higher peak plasma concentration of caffeine compared to filtered coffee in which "the caffeine dose is similar but it is diluted in 140–200 ml of liquid and the beverage is drunk over several minutes. " Sure, there could be "other potential downsides of diterpenes" that explain the associations found in the Italian study--but the authors did not identify any. You are, of course, free to present an alternative explanation to that of the authors' and/or cite something besides this study to substantiate such a claim. But I wasn't challenging the fact that studies have found an association between unfiltered coffee and CVD. Let's back up for a moment. Earlier in this thread Michael Rae wrote: I've never challenged those contentions. But take a look at the site MR links to discussing diterpenes; here's the full quote: I've never disputed the fact that diterpenes in coffee can raise cholesterol etc., with potential negative implications for cardiovascular health. And it's undisputed that paper filters effectively remove diterpenes. But I did notice that Michael completely left out the important "twist" identified in the final paragraph. My aim has been simply to reintroduce that "twist" into the discussion. Since the time that Harvard Medical School article was written, the evidence for positive health benefits from cafestol and kahweol has steadily grown You can find up-to-date details and references in this recent review: Cafestol and Kahweol: A Review on Their Bioactivities and Pharmacological Properties (2019) Yes: But:

Dean, the Italian study you cite doesn't actually undermine my hypothesis as you suggest. Recall what I wrote: "if your blood lipids are fine, as in the case of most CR practitioners, it would seem that the health benefits of cafestol and kahweol need not be tossed aside out of fear of a possible increase in LDL levels." The authors of the Italian study point out that Nowhere in the study is there any argument--or even speculation-- that the diterpenes (cafestol and kahweol) in Italian-style coffee might have some other possible deleterious effect apart from the potential to raise plasma cholesterol levels. Thus when the authors conclude, " the adverse effect of [Italian-style coffee] consumption appears unrelated to lipid profile", they are in effect saying that the adverse effect appears unrelated to diterpene content. But if not diterpene content, then what? Well, the authors explicitly point to caffeine as the likely suspect:

Argentina: thousands protest in Mendoza wine region over axed water protections

Speaking of context: Nearly half US residents to be 'obese' in 2030, 1 in 4 to have 'severe obesity,' study says

Frederick, I presume you are referring to Brian Delaney and Lisa Walford's "The Longevity Diet" book, not Valter Longo's book by the same name. Longo advocates time-restricted eating:

Cool profile pic, Todd! 😎

Calcium intake (dietary and supplements), calcium/magnesium ratios, vitamin D + vitamin K2 are interesting topics. There's been some recent discussion here, and, no doubt, in other threads as well.

Siberia is still pretty cold. There's probably been some slight warming over the last decades, and substantial future warming is predicted. Climate Change-- Russia https://www.climatechangepost.com/russia/climate-change/ Climate change could make frozen Siberia habitable within decades https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change-crisis-siberia-habitable-russia-permafrost-melting-global-warming-a8946821.html

My dogs lean a bit toward deontological ethics; my cats are squarely in the axiological camp.

It's humans that make the value-judgment "life is a good in itself". Who else?