According the just released Dietary Guidelines for Americans for 2010, most Americans are falling short of their daily potassium needs, which could be wrecking havoc with their blood pressure.
According to the report, over 55% of Americans have high blood pressure or are on their way to getting high blood pressure in the very near future. Individuals with chronic high blood pressure increase their risk of developing heart disease and stroke, two of the top three killers of Americans. While losing excess weight, reducing sodium in the diet, and being physically active all can reduce blood pressure, so can consuming adequate amounts of potassium-rich foods. Read More »
AOL announced it will acquire The Huffington Post for $315 million. Boston University professors are available to discuss what the deal means for the future of news and its impact on their brands and reputations.
Tom Fiedler, Dean of the College of Communication; Former executive editor of the Miami Herald
For many people, a seemingly never-ending winter and decreased amounts of daylight can mean the onset of seasonal affective disorder (SAD). While the effects of SAD may now be at their peak, the good news is that the days are starting to get longer again. For more info about SAD and how to combat it, check out the video below with Dr. Sanford Auerbach, Director of the Sleep Disorders Center and Associate Professor of Neurology, Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences at Boston University School of Medicine and Boston Medical Center.
Robert Zelnick, Boston University journalism professor and former ABC News foreign correspondent, appears on Fox News as part of a panel discussion on how events in Egypt will affect the U.S. and the world.
The recently released new Dietary Guidelines for Americans made a bold recommendation: The American public should starting ratcheting down the sodium in their diet to less than 2,300 milligrams (mg) and many individuals should consume a mere 1,500 milligrams (mg) or the amount found in 2/3 teaspoon of salt. Currently, Americans, on average, are consuming more than twice that amount, or over 3,400 mg of sodium daily.
Why all the fuss? Hypertension, better know as high blood pressure, is a risk factor for heart disease and stroke, 2 out of the 3 leading causes of death in the United States. Americans' lopsided dietary intake of too much sodium (which increases blood pressure) and too little potassium (which lowers blood pressure) is wrecking havoc with approximately 2/3 of individuals who either already have hypertension or pre-hypertension (they are on their way to getting high blood pressure).
President Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen has announced that he will not seek re-election in 2013. Boston University international relations professor Charles Dunbar is a former U.S. ambassador to Yemen. He offers the following view of this current development in the Middle East.
"I am skeptical that President Saleh will not seek reelection. He and the country are in deep trouble. The country's high population growth rate makes a mockery of the plan to establish a fund to employ university graduates.
"A major difference between Yemen on the one hand and Egpyt and Tunisia on the other is that the opposition can all off demonstrations. In one sense, this is good news for all concerned in that there can be a discussion of transferring power and reforming the country that would be broad based.
"The opposition should negotiate but keep the demonstrators on call. Saleh has used his oil revenues to build a patronage network; trying to force him from office could lead to serious fighting. It's a very messed up country that is a substantial headache for the U.S."
It might not be the drama of the OJ Simpson case that drew us in for weeks on end as we waited to see if the gloves fit. But if televisions were around in the 1890s, viewers might have tuned into watch the 1898 trial of serial killer Joseph Vacher, who had confessed to nearly a dozen murders across the French countryside, but claimed to be insane at the time. Besides the fact that it was a media circus, not unlike the OJ trial, what most don't know about this famous 19th-century trial is that it gave birth to forensic science.
More than 250 economists have signed a letter urging the Obama administration to rethink capital-control restrictions. International relations professor Kevin Gallagher, one of the signers of the letter, writes in a Guardian commentary that "for better or worse, trade policy is back in style."
"The economists should be listened to: US trade treaties should not be tools for US financial policies that are not only outdated, but actually helped cause the financial crisis in the first place. Allowing flexibility for the use of capital controls to prevent and mitigate crises now has broad support. Our trading partners have been requesting such flexibility for years, granting it would represent one small step toward a more stable financial system."
Released a month later than they initially had hoped for, the updated 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans have finally been released. Mandated by Congress to be updated every five years, a committee of leading health experts is appointed to look at the latest nutrition science and make science-based recommendations. After reviewing close to 2,000 research articles, these new guidelines are designed to not only help prevent and reduce diet-related chronic diseases, such as heart disease and diabetes, but also at the same time, foster good health and a healthy weight among Americans, age two and older.
Tom Fiedler
T. Barton Carter
Susan Fournier
Charles Dunbar
Augustus Richard Norton
Joseph Wippl
Robert Zelnick
Farouk El-Baz
