How To: Getting Smart During Your Daily Commute

"The average American spends a good 100 minutes per day commuting to and from work. That amounts to about 433 hours per year! Now imagine using that time to learn something new — to read a great book, to take a class from a top university, to learn a new language.

We highlight our free audio resources that will maximize your drive time. Before getting started, make sure you have a big mp3 player and a way to listen to your mp3 player over your car speakers."

References:
Getting Smart During Your Daily Commute | Open Culture

Related:

3-gram reduction in daily salt intake would decrease coronary heart disease, stroke, and death

The U.S. diet is high in salt, with the majority coming from processed foods. Reducing dietary salt is a potentially important target for the improvement of public health.

Reducing dietary salt by 3 g per day (1200 mg of sodium per day) is projected to reduce the annual number of new cases of CHD by 60,000 to 120,000, stroke by 32,000 to 66,000, and myocardial infarction by 54,000 to 99,000 and to reduce the annual number of deaths from any cause by 44,000 to 92,000. Such an intervention would be more cost-effective than using medications to lower blood pressure in all persons with hypertension.

The cardiovascular benefits of reduced salt intake are on par with the benefits of population-wide reductions in tobacco use, obesity, and cholesterol levels.

References:

Projected Effect of Dietary Salt Reductions on Future Cardiovascular Disease. NEJM, 2010.
http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/short/362/7/590
Sweat Bees prefer sweaty people because the human diet is so salty that their perspiration is saturated with that essential nutrient. WSJ, 2012.

Image source: Single-serving salt packets. Wikipedia, GNU Free Documentation License.

Aspirin 75 mg daily reduces incidence and mortality due to colorectal cancer

High-dose aspirin (≥500 mg daily) reduces long-term incidence of colorectal cancer, but adverse effects (bleeding) might limit its potential for long-term prevention. The long-term effectiveness of lower doses (75-300 mg daily) is unknown. This study in The Lancet assessed the effects of aspirin on incidence and mortality due to colorectal cancer over 20 years.

In the four trials of aspirin versus control (mean duration of treatment 6 years), 2·8% of 14,000 patients had colorectal cancer during a follow-up of 18 years.

Aspirin reduced the 20-year risk of colon cancer (incidence hazard ratio [HR] 0·76, but not rectal cancer (0·90).

Where subsite data were available, aspirin reduced risk of cancer of the proximal colon (0·45), but not the distal colon (1·10). Benefit increased with duration of treatment - aspirin taken for 5 years or longer reduced risk of proximal colon cancer by 70% and also reduced risk of rectal cancer (0·58).

There was no increase in benefit at doses of aspirin greater than 75 mg daily. However, risk of fatal colorectal cancer was higher on 30 mg versus 283 mg daily.

Aspirin taken for several years at doses of at least 75 mg daily reduced long-term incidence and mortality due to colorectal cancer. Benefit was greatest for cancers of the proximal colon, which are not otherwise prevented effectively by screening with sigmoidoscopy or colonoscopy.

References:
Long-term effect of aspirin on colorectal cancer incidence and mortality: 20-year follow-up of five randomised trials. The Lancet, Volume 376, Issue 9754, Pages 1741 - 1750, 20 November 2010.

Image source: Colon (anatomy), Wikipedia, public domain.