Category Archives: Healthcare@Risk™

#339 – COVID 19 IS NOT LIKE THE FLU OR COLD – ALLEN TAYLOR

Featured

Posted on by
Reply

Some people are infected with the SARS-Cov-2 virus, without having any symptoms at all. Others may show mild symptoms for a few days, and then seem to be back to normal. In either case, you may not be back to normal at all.

You have probably heard of “long Covid.” This is the persistence of symptoms of Covid-19 long after the virus is no longer detectable in a person’s body. There is a whole laundry list of symptoms, such as loss of smell, loss of taste, headache, shortness of breath, chest pains,  brain fog, fatigue, and even anxiety and depression. Long haulers may have any subset of these symptoms, plus others. Bad as these symptoms are, they are not the worst. Covid-19 can also cause serious heart damage. Continue reading →

#338 – CAN WE REVERSE THE LOSS OF STRENGTH AS WE AGE? – ALLEN TAYLOR

Featured

Posted on by
Reply

If you have lived long enough, you have seen first your grandparents, and then your parents become weaker, slower, and less capable as they grow older. Why does this happen? There are several competing theories that try to explain the root cause of this phenomenon, which seems universal and unavoidable. There is no consensus on which, if any, of these theories are correct. However, there are some things that we do know. Continue reading →

#327 – WANT TO LIVE LONG AND PROSPER? – ALLEN TAYLOR

Featured

Posted on by
Reply

For Star Trek Vulcans, the polite way to say good-bye is to say, “Live long and prosper.” For a Vulcan landing on Earth today, the possibility of that wish coming true depends a lot on what country the Vulcan visitor lands in. It would be more of a stretch if the spacefarers had landed in the United States, than if they had landed in any of sixteen other high income countries. The June 2021 issue of the British Medical Journal (The BMJ), contains an article that directly relates to long life. Its title is “Effect of the covid-19 pandemic in 2020 on life expectancy across populations in the USA and other high income countries: simulations of provisional mortality data.” Continue reading →

#326 – DOES VACCINATION WORK AGAINST VARIANTS? – ALLEN TAYLOR

Featured

Posted on by
Reply

We are in a fight with a formidable enemy, the SARS-Cov-2 virus. Our primary weapon in this war is vaccination, but the enemy has a strong defense against it. As a result, we must prosecute the war with overwhelming force. Anything less will result in millions more deaths, to add to the millions who have already died.

What do I mean when I say that the enemy has a strong defense against vaccination? What is vaccination anyway? Continue reading →

#324 – WHY WE FALL APART AS WE AGE? – ALLEN TAYLOR

Featured

Posted on by
Reply

After a peak of health and vitality in early adulthood, humans start a long steady decline, both physically and cognitively. This decline can be accelerated by degenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s Disease, or Alzheimer’s Disease, but people have been unable to decelerate that decline. Experiments with a variety of animals have shown that enforcing a strict regimen of calorie restriction can extend healthy life beyond what is normal for a given species. Taking note of this, some people have adopted a calorie-restricted lifestyle in an effort to extend their lifespan. Continue reading →