{"id":88,"date":"2007-01-15T15:31:19","date_gmt":"2007-01-15T14:31:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/resource.bmj.com\/bmj\/2007\/01\/15\/lancet-13-jan-2007\/"},"modified":"2007-01-15T15:31:19","modified_gmt":"2007-01-15T14:31:19","slug":"lancet-13-jan-2007","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2007\/01\/15\/lancet-13-jan-2007\/","title":{"rendered":"Lancet 13 Jan 2007"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Your biological age is written in your <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thelancet.com\/journals\/lancet\/article\/PIIS0140673607600713\/fulltext\">telomeres<\/a>, which shorten every time your cells divide. Frequently dividing cells like leucocytes lose about 50 binary pairs of DNA nucleotides per year, and when they get down to a certain length,<!--more--> <\/p>\n<p>Comes the blind <em>Fury <\/em>with th\u2019abhorred shears,<\/p>\n<p>And slits the thin spun life.<\/p>\n<p>Beware then, O middle-aged men of Britain! The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thelancet.com\/journals\/lancet\/article\/PIIS0140673607600713\/fulltext\">West of Scotland Primary Prevention Study<\/a> shows that the faster your telomeres shorten, the more likely you are to get coronary heart disease.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thelancet.com\/journals\/lancet\/article\/PIIS0140673607600725\/fulltext\"><em>Toxoplasma gondii<\/em><\/a>, although named after a retiring Ethiopian rodent, is actually spread mostly by domestic cats. These we serve diligently in our homes, so that we can be rewarded with their disdain and faeces. From time to time, the latter convey toxoplasmosis to pregnant women, and in a third of such cases, the fetus also becomes infected. In both mothers and babies infection is usually harmless and asymptomatic, but 4% of the latter can suffer death or permanent neurological damage. So should all cat-loving nations attempt to detect and treat <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thelancet.com\/journals\/lancet\/article\/PIIS0140673607600725\/fulltext\">toxoplasmosis in pregnant women<\/a>? This French <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thelancet.com\/journals\/lancet\/article\/PIIS0140673607600725\/fulltext\">meta-analysis<\/a> of individual data finds that conclusive evidence of benefit is lacking.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thelancet.com\/journals\/lancet\/article\/PIIS0140673607600749\/fulltext\">Syphilis<\/a>, a South American disease named after a Greek swain in an Italian poem, reached <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thelancet.com\/journals\/lancet\/article\/PIIS0140673607600749\/fulltext\">China <\/a>in 1505. Mao Zedong nearly got rid of it in the 1950s, but it is now increasing at an average <em>annual <\/em>rate of 72%!  <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thelancet.com\/journals\/lancet\/article\/PIIS0140673607600750\/fulltext\">Post-traumatic stress disorder<\/a> is a recent diagnostic category with <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thelancet.com\/journals\/lancet\/article\/PIIS0140673607600750\/fulltext\">political implications<\/a> which are discussed rather diffusely in this <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thelancet.com\/journals\/lancet\/article\/PIIS0140673607600750\/fulltext\">review<\/a>. This discussion has a particular resonance in the week when Tony Blair has affirmed his belief in our right to wage war in the furtherance of national political aims. There is a big literature (both medical and creative) about PTSD and \u201ccowardice<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Your biological age is written in your telomeres, which shorten every time your cells divide. Frequently dividing cells like leucocytes lose about 50 binary pairs of DNA nucleotides per year, [&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"btn btn-secondary understrap-read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2007\/01\/15\/lancet-13-jan-2007\/\">More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38363,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[111],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-88","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-richard-lehmans-weekly-review-of-medical-journals"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Lancet 13 Jan 2007 - The BMJ<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2007\/01\/15\/lancet-13-jan-2007\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Lancet 13 Jan 2007 - The BMJ\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Your biological age is written in your telomeres, which shorten every time your cells divide. Frequently dividing cells like leucocytes lose about 50 binary pairs of DNA nucleotides per year, [...]More...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2007\/01\/15\/lancet-13-jan-2007\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The BMJ\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bmjdotcom\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2007-01-15T14:31:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2017\/02\/richard-lehman.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"540\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"350\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"BMJ\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@bmj_latest\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@bmj_latest\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"BMJ\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/2007\\\/01\\\/15\\\/lancet-13-jan-2007\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/2007\\\/01\\\/15\\\/lancet-13-jan-2007\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"BMJ\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/ba3da426ed20e8f1d933ca367d8216fe\"},\"headline\":\"Lancet 13 Jan 2007\",\"datePublished\":\"2007-01-15T14:31:19+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/2007\\\/01\\\/15\\\/lancet-13-jan-2007\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":291,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/2007\\\/01\\\/15\\\/lancet-13-jan-2007\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/files\\\/2017\\\/02\\\/richard-lehman.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Richard Lehman's weekly review of medical journals\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/2007\\\/01\\\/15\\\/lancet-13-jan-2007\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/2007\\\/01\\\/15\\\/lancet-13-jan-2007\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/2007\\\/01\\\/15\\\/lancet-13-jan-2007\\\/\",\"name\":\"Lancet 13 Jan 2007 - 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