HEALTH: HOW CHRONIC KIDNEY DISEASE, DIABETES & HEART DISEASE ARE LINKED

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) – The body is complicated! While organs in your body each have a specific job to do to keep you healthy, they still rely on each other to function well. When one organ isn’t working the way it should, it can put stress on other organs, causing them to stop working properly as well.

The relationship between chronic kidney disease (CKD), diabetes, and heart disease is one example of the ways our organs are connected.

The body uses a hormone called insulin to get blood sugar into the body’s cells to be used as energy. If someone has diabetes, their pancreas either doesn’t make enough insulin or can’t use the insulin it makes as well as it should.

If someone has CKD, their kidneys are not able to filter out toxins and waste from their blood as well as they should.

Heart disease refers to several types of heart conditions. The most common condition, coronary artery disease, leads to changes in blood flow to the heart, which can cause a heart attack.

Make the Connection

So how are these three conditions connected? Risk factors for each condition are similar and include high blood sugar, high blood pressure, family history, obesity, unhealthy diet, and physical inactivity.

High blood sugar can slowly damage the kidneys, and, over time, they can stop filtering blood as well as they should, leading to CKD. Approximately 1 in 3 adults with diabetes has CKD.

When the kidneys don’t work well, more stress is put on the heart. When someone has CKD, their heart needs to pump harder to get blood to the kidneys. This can lead to heart disease, the leading cause of death in the United States. Change in blood pressure is also a CKD complication that can lead to heart disease.

Luckily, preventing or managing one condition can help you prevent and manage the others and lower the risk for more complications.

Preview: Times Literary Supplement – Nov 4, 2022

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This week’s @TheTLS , featuring André Aciman on Proust; Margaret Drabble on Robert Aickman; @LucyHH on Naples; @AnnPettifor on climate refugees; @scheffer_pablo on Nona Fernández; @IsabelleBaafi on the poetry of June Jordan, Wanda Coleman and Rita Dove – and more.

Aerial Views: Landmarks & Landscapes Of Scotland

ScarboroughTourist – The history of Scotland is as fascinating as it is complex. There were tribal Celts and ancient, face-painted Picts, Roman conquerors and audacious red-headed Vikings, fallen monarchs and powerful warrior-royals, noble clansmen, great explorers, pensive philosophers, bright inventors, and all that came with them and the remnants they left behind including astonishing signs of their presence and sophistication.

Think ancient and mysterious standing stones, fine castles and lavish stately homes, striking architecture, derelict fortresses, world-famous feats of engineering and more! From the Scottish Borders to Orkney and from Fife to the Isle of Skye, fierce battles, cruel ridings and bloody risings were won and lost, lasting unions were forged, and new discoveries and world-changing inventions were made.

Front Page: The New York Times – November 2, 2022

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Food Prices Soar, and So Do Companies’ Profits

Some companies and restaurants have continued to raise prices on consumers even after their own inflation-related costs have been covered.

Top Democrats Question Their Party’s Strategy as Midterm Worries Grow

Leading lawmakers and strategists are openly doubting the party’s kitchen-sink approach, saying Democrats have failed to unite around one central message.

Once a G.O.P. Stalwart, Liz Cheney Hits the Trail for Democrats

Stumping for Elissa Slotkin in Michigan, Ms. Cheney had an urgent message for voters: “We all must stand and defend the republic.”

Arts Preview: Artforum Magazine – November 2022

Tala Madani, Golden Pour (detail), 2015, oil on linen, 16 1⁄4 × 14".

Inside Artforum Magazine – NOVEMBER 2022:

NEW YORK

LOS ANGELES

LONDON

Preview: France-Amérique Magazine – November 2022

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EVERYONE SPEAKS ENGLISH

Or Do They?

France and the French can remain globally relevant only in English. Or so says British journalist Simon Kuper in one of a series of articles published recently by Le Monde. According to him, French is losing its utility, while English reigns supreme.

BERNARD CERQUIGLINI

“The French Language Is Doing Just Fine, Thank You!”

Who better than this jovial linguist to champion the French language? Bernard Cerquiglini holds a doctorate in literature, formerly directed the Center for French and Francophone Studies at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge and the Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie, and has been the vice-president of the Fondation des Alliances Françaises for the last two years.

Tours: Lower Shotover House In New Zealand

The Local Project – In crafting Lower Shotover House, the architect designs a hidden home that offers a dramatic interior landscape to complement the impressive external context, ensuring it was built for residing in place. Crafted by Bureaux, the home embraces a natural materiality as the means to connecting to the outdoors.

Video timeline: 00:00 – Introduction to the Hidden Home 00:26 – Bunkering Into the Side of the Hill 01:00 – The Materials Used 01:40 – The Importance of Creating A Robust Home 02:10 – The Soft Pools of Light Throughout the Home 02:30 – Creating a Warm and Dramatic Feel 02:58 – The Building Aspect 03:29 – The Views from the Upstairs Bunk Room 03:51 – The Green Roof 04:17 – A Dramatic Kitchen 04:29 – Finding Joy in the Movement Between the Tight Spaces 04:51 – Creating A Timeless Masterpiece

Based in Queenstown, Lower Shotover House faces north, overlooking the Shotover River and Coronet Peak. The architect designs a hidden home that takes inspiration from the old musterer’s huts settled on the mountainside. Capitalising on the protective quality of the hill, the structures look out upon the landscape with a feeling of safety. Importantly, the architect designs a hidden home that utilises a stone composition and a house tour reveals the resulting echo of the rugged surrounds, as well as the proposition of permanence.

In materiality, Lower Shotover House reflects a playful interpretation of the natural context. The architect designs a hidden home that sees stone, black travertine and charcoal timber interior linings combine to establish a cosy interior design. Crafted in recognition of the clients’ lifestyle, Bureaux enforces a robust material palette that can withstand the markings of an active family in a timeless fashion. A dramatic home, Lower Shotover House features rich timber walls, carefully framed windows and pools of soft lighting.

The architect designs a hidden home in which residents are led through the interior with ease; a project where nothing is over-lit and the architecture captures both the compression and expansion of space. Residents must ascend a step in order to enter the kitchen, suggesting an element of theatricality within the experience of the home. As the architect designs a hidden home, they consider the relevance of orientation to the outcome. Lower Shotover House faces north and, as such, measures are put into place to retain heat and maximise the impact of the sweeping views.

While stone walls and a green roof influence the thermal quality of the building, doors measuring three metres high can be pushed back in order to control the thermal climate of the interior. The green roof also engages the surrounding hillside mass, blurring the boundary between landscape and home. Immersing occupants in the mountainside experience, Lower Shotover House forms the ideal place of retreat. Through a process of consideration, the architect designs a hidden home that, though contemporary, is ultimately defined by a prevailing sense of timelessness.

Preview: The Burlington Magazine – Nov 2022

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The Parthenon sculptures

It is now forty years since Melina Mercouri, the Greek Minister for Culture from 1981 to 1989, famous also as a film star and singer, addressed UNESCO’s World Conference on Cultural Policies to draw international attention to the campaign with which she would be identified until her death in 1994, the repatriation to Athens of the Parthenon sculptures in the British Museum. ‘We are not asking for the return of a painting or a statue’, she said: ‘We are asking for the return of a portion of a unique monument, the privileged symbol of a whole culture’. 

The Painters of Pompeii

As images, ancient Roman wall paintings command attention for their bold compositions, vibrant and saturated colours, convincing naturalism and the fantastical mythologies they depict. As objects they also captivate for the dramatic circumstances surrounding their near- destruction, the miracle (or rarity) of their survival and the alchemical nature of lime plaster and pigment.

Books: Literary Review Magazine – Nov 2022

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Inside the Literary Review – November 2022:

A Tale of Two Cities

London: The Great Transformation 1860–1920

Think of the Live Models!

The Artist’s Studio: A Cultural History

THE STATE WE’RE IN

Are You Outraged Yet? – The Chaos Machine: The Inside Story of How Social Media Rewired Our Minds and Our World

Was Lockdown Lawful? – Emergency State: How We Lost Our Freedoms in the Pandemic and Why It Matters

Damned Statistics – Bad Data: How Governments, Politicians and the Rest of Us Get Misled by Numbers

Books: The Top Ten Best Reviews Of October 2022


PHOTO: HARPER

Abominations: Selected Essays From a Career of Courting Self-Destruction

By Lionel Shriver Harper

With a restless imagination and an instinct to take on progressive orthodoxies, the novelist and essayist Lionel Shriver brings her “smart, plain-spoken and unpredictable” style to subjects that many writers prefer to shy away from. Review by Meghan Cox Gurdon.

Read the review


PHOTO: LIBRARY OF AMERICA

Bruce Catton: The Army of the Potomac Trilogy

Edited by Gary W. Gallagher Library of America

In a trilogy of narratives that “broke the mold” in Civil War history, Bruce Catton told the story of the Eastern theater with an eye to the sacrifices and sufferings of the ordinary soldiers who fought and died on both sides. Review by Harold Holzer.

Read the review


PHOTO: HARPER

The Escape Artist: The Man Who Broke Out of Auschwitz to Warn the World

By Jonathan Freedland Harper

Walter Rosenberg did not make it easy for the Nazi-allied regime in his native Slovakia to deport him—along with thousands of other Slovak Jews—to extermination camps like Auschwitz. But once he wound up there, he was determined to get out and spread the word of the ongoing genocide. Review by Diane Cole.

Read the review


PHOTO: KNOPF

The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Man

By Paul Newman Knopf

A long-awaited, posthumously published memoir from the star of “Cool Hand Luke,” “The Verdict” and other classics reveals the inner world of a hard-working actor who “breathed in insecurity and exhaled doubt.” Review by Michael O’Donnell.

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PHOTO: DOUBLEDAY

The Grandest Stage: A History of the World Series

By Tyler Kepner Doubleday

What was for many years the center of the American sports calendar has lost some of its grip on the collective imagination. But a journey through October Classics past proves that the magic of the World Series still has a potent charm. Review by David M. Shribman.

Read the review

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PHOTO: KNOPF

Martha Graham: When Dance Became Modern

By Neil Baldwin Knopf

The pioneering figure of modern dance was a daring innovator, a technical perfectionist and a preternaturally gifted performer. While she transformed the way a generation of dancers thought about movement, she looked for ways to claim her art firmly as an American one. Review by Hamilton Cain.

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PHOTO: ABRAMS PRESS

The Oldest Cure in the World: Adventures in the Art and Science of Fasting

By Steve Hendricks Abrams Press

Fasting has a long history of use as a spiritual aid—a ritual of purification and turning away from indulgence—and as a tool for protest. But emerging science suggests that its positive effects on physical health can no longer be overlooked. Review by Matthew Rees.

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PHOTO: LIBRARY OF AMERICA

The Ray Bradbury Collection

Edited by Jonathan R. Eller Library of America

Ray Bradbury’s unique science fiction owed more to Nathaniel Hawthorne’s darkly symbolic stories than to H.G. Wells’s rationalist visions. On a Mars that held curious correspondences to the Midwestern country of Bradbury’s youth, fathers and sons negotiated the strange spaces between them. Review by Brad Leithauser.

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PHOTO: LITTLE, BROWN

The Revolutionary: Samuel Adams

By Stacy Schiff Little, Brown

The “stage manager” of the American Revolution has resisted attempts by historians to pin down the details of his life. Stacy Schiff finds a potential key to Samuel Adams’s enigmatic character in the financial tumult of his family’s business. Review by Mark G. Spencer.

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PHOTO: PANTHEON

The Sassoons: The Great Global Merchants and the Making of Empire

By Joseph Sassoon Pantheon

The business empire of the Sassoon dynasty began in Bombay, where the family of Iraqi Jews had fled to escape persecution, and flourished in the opium trade with China. The “Rothschilds of Asia” kept a low profile—and when the tides of fortune turned against them, their once-global enterprise became a distant memory. Review by Norman Lebrecht.

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