• Senior citizens & dog walking
Fractures related to dog walking have more than doubled between 2004 and 2017 among older patients. The rise in injuries can be attributed to increased pet ownership and a greater emphasis on physical activity at older ages, according to a study from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. “This study highlights that, while there are undoubtedly pros to dog walking, patients’ risks for falls must be factored into lifestyle recommendations in an effort to minimize such injuries," said medical student Kevin Pirruccio, the lead author of the study.
• Doctors & sleep
Allowing first-year doctors to work longer shifts does not result in chronic sleep loss or reduced patient safety. That’s the conclusion of a study from the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine. “Although there was a lot of concern about shift limits, they really don’t seem to have an effect on any important domains, such as patient safety, when applied in the current context,” said David Asch of the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. "We were able to use a single study to examine the impact of resident on-duty hours on their sleep and alertness, the safety of the patients they cared for and the education the residents received, all at once. In the past, what research there has been only looked at one of these factors at a time.”
• Homicides & guns
Gun-related homicides in states with strict gun laws increase when neighboring states have lax gun laws, and 65 percent of guns recovered in more restrictive states originate from elsewhere. These findings from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, published in the Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery, suggest that "the benefits of firearm laws might not be fully realized until either all states reach a certain threshold level of firearm legislation, or more universal federal firearm legislation is enacted," said Mark. J. Seamon, the senior author on the study.
• Cancer & the liver
When cancer spreads, it is more likely to move into the liver more often than into other organs. Hepatocytes, the primary functional cells of the liver, respond to inflammation by activating the STAT3 protein. this activation increases the production of other proteins that remodel the liver and create the "soil" needed for cancer cells to "seed." “The seed-and-soil hypothesis is well-recognized, but our research now shows that hepatocytes are the major orchestrators of this process,” said oncologist Gregory L. Beatty of the University of Pennsylvania's Perelman School of Medicine. He said that using antibodies to block inflammatory signals can limit the risk of cancer spreading to the liver.
• Redefining gender in the workplace
Many employers have responded to awareness of transgender workers by developing new policies aimed at accommodations, but there is still much progress to be made. The question of gender in the workplace has only grown more complicated, in part because “gender in general has been in the air with the #MeToo movement,” said Nancy Rothbard of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. “That really brought gender to the forefront of people’s conceptualization around what’s going on in the workplace, what influences how we experience work.” Stephanie Creary, also of Wharton, said, "There wasn’t as much expectation for being authentic at work until around 10 years ago. And that has changed.”
• Western bias in genetics
The vast majority of participants in genetics studies are of European ancestry, and this lack of diversity has serious consequences for biomedical research and the treatment of diseases. “Leaving entire populations out of human genetic studies is both scientifically damaging and unfair,” said Sarah Tishkoff of the University of Pennsylvania, who co-authored the commentary. “We may be missing genetic variants that play an important role in health and disease across ethnically diverse populations, which may have deleterious consequences in terms of disease prevention and treatment.” A more complete understanding of human genetics and its relationship to disease requires studies of people representing the full “landscape of human variation.”
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Are You So Focused on Retirement
You Are Missing Out On Your Life?
Mary and Pete saved every penny for retirement. They never went on vacations, they rarely went out to eat, and they lived a frugal lifestyle secure in the knowledge that when they retired, they would be able to live comfortably.
In short, they worried so much about retirement that they forgot to experience all that life has to offer.
“Saving for retirement is a worthy goal but there must be a balance between that and living life to the fullest,” says John Hagensen, founder and managing director of Keystone Wealth Partners (www.keystonewealthpartners.com).
Hagensen says he has clients who scrimped and saved all their lives so they would have plenty of money for retirement. But when they do retire, they still don’t want to spend any money to enjoy themselves because they have been so programmed during their working lives to save every penny until the day they die.
“The trick is to find that balance between saving to have a good retirement and managing your money so you can be rich in experiences,” he says.
Hagensen says this concept was driven home to him when a 20-year-old friend died in a traffic accident while driving across the country to start a new church.
“She lived a life of kindness and joy and had wonderful adventures in her life,” he says. “I saw the people she had impacted and it really hit home to me that life is short. Saving for retirement is a worthy goal, but it shouldn’t be the only goal. We need to know that if we died tomorrow, we would be happy because we lived richly, not that we died rich.”
Hagensen offers these tips for people who want to live richly instead of dying wealthy:
“Yes, it is important to be able to have a comfortable retirement,” Hagensen says. “But we only go around once in life and it is also important to live richly while our health is good so we don’t have any regrets when we do retire. You don’t want to be short of money, but you also don’t want to be short on experiencing life.”
About John Hagensen
John Hagensen is the founder and managing director of Keystone Wealth Partners, a federally registered investment adviser located (www.keystonewealthpartners.com) in Chandler, AZ. He holds the financial designations of CFS, CAS, CIS, CTS and CES. Hagensen’s vision for Keystone Wealth Partners (www.keystonewealthpartners.com) is to deliver objective and transparent financial planning strategies. He takes an informational approach when helping people prepare for retirement and is passionate about coaching his clients to remain disciplined and committed to a long-term financial strategy. This piece is for informational purposes only.
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The Oasis This Time
Living and Dying with Water in the West
By Rebecca Lawton
The Oasis This Time: Living and Dying with Water in the West journeys to hidden, watery refuges in fifteen arid and beloved North American landscapes. Finding oases both where they’re expected and not, from palm canyons to lavish, watery spas in drought country, The Oasis This Time shines a light on our relationship with water and how it feeds our deeper thirsts and needs. Rebecca Lawton’s lifelong immersion in all things water puts her close to the heart of oases, informing deep thinking and writing about living with this critical compound and sometimes dying in it, on it, with too much of it, or for lack of it. Lawton follows species both human and wild to their watery roots, in warming deserts, near rising Pacific tides, on endangered, tapped-out rivers, and in growing urban ecosystems. The Oasis This Time, the inaugural Waterston Desert Writing Prize winner, is both deep read and call to evolve toward a sustainable and even spiritual connection to water.
Here’s what early readers loved about The Oasis This Time:
“Part memoir, part conservation treatise, and part history lesson…Lawton’s focus is on how human lives are urgently shaped by their connection to water, whether it is in pieces on her love for her favorite river, the Stanislaus in California; a past Native American community’s connection to that same river; or the 1970s-era engineers who built the dam that inundated it and erased those connections.”
—PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
“Rebecca Lawton’s powerful and poetic The Oasis This Time celebrates water as a precious natural resource. The collection is as diverse as it is illuminating. Each essay addresses a unique topic, but all are anchored by keen observations of the environment and musings on alternative solutions to pressing environmental problems.”
—FOREWORD REVIEWS
“A book of juxtapositions, ruin and growth, water and desolation. Lawton’s writing flows, her prose precise and at times mystic. The book itself is an oases, not just a watering hole, but a gathering place, trails coming from all directions: plants, animals, people, and histories.”
—CRAIG CHILDS, author of Atlas of a Lost World
“A collection of strong, smart, wise, and deeply knowledgeable essays on water in the West, what it means and has meant to the author throughout her life, and what it means to all of us who depend on nature—the biggest oasis of all—for our lives. I came away from this book better informed, deeply touched, and quietly recommitted to the work of living more gently in our fragile world.”
—JULIA WHITTY, author of Deep Blue Home and The Fragile Edge
“The essays in The Oasis This Time flow like tributaries in a desert river. They meander and eddy and braid. They offer respite and challenge. Rebecca Lawton, as both intimate friend and knowledgeable guide, takes the reader on a dynamic journey from Las Vegas to Alaska, from the Grand Canyon to Ottawa. Her musings on this beloved arid land and its water shimmer with wonder at the life around us—birds, birds, and more birds!—and within us, and burn with urgency.”
—ANA MARIA SPAGNA, author of Uplake and The Luckiest Scar on Earth
“I opened The Oasis This Time assuming I was going to read about water. But what I read about instead is thirst. In straightforward, sometimes rascally, prose, Lawton digs into all the ways we want to be satiated. Our thirst for adventure, for love, for power and control, for ambitious development with an often warped sense of ‘progress.’ Hers is a wakeup call, shaped by Lawton’s deep knowledge and love of place, and mostly her commitment to waterways, streams and creeks and rivers and oceans. We need this book.”
—DEBRA GWARTNEY, author of Live Through This and I’m a Stranger Here Myself
“In a parched and burning land, humanity’s crimes against freshwater stand out with increasing starkness as crimes against ourselves. Through deft, spirited storytelling, Rebecca Lawton faces with compassionate courage the painful truths of our defiled and dwindling waterways; The Oasis This Time bids us to nurture the vital wellsprings we have too long taken for granted.”
—SARAH JUNIPER RABKIN, author and illustrator of What I Learned at Bug Camp
“Rebecca Lawton brings a poet’s eye to the landscapes she loves, but she is, at heart, a warrior. With every sentence she fiercely defends what remains, totals her losses, and moves on to the next critical confrontation. In the end The Oasis This Time offers us a surprising amount of hope. Hope that we can survive even the worst of mankind's depredations. Hope that this planet is more resilient than we ever imagined.”
—ANDY WEINBERGER, author of The Ugly Man Sits in the Garden
Find Becca at table T2015 from March 28 to 30th!
Where to buy
Paperback: 978-1-937226-93-0
E-book: 978-1-937226-94-7
Individuals:
Paperback available from Torrey House Press, your favorite local bookstore, or at IndieBound.org
E-book available wherever e-books are sold
Booksellers and Libraries:
Paperback and e-book available from Consortium Book Sales and Distribution or your favorite wholesaler
