Abstinence from alcohol reduced arrhythmia recurrences in regular drinkers with atrial fibrillation.
January 2, 2020 Atrial fibrillation is the most common sustained arrhythmia,1 and alcohol is consumed by a majority of U.S. adults.2 The current study showed that among regular drinkers, a substantial reduction in alcohol consumption by patients with symptomatic atrial fibrillation was associated with a reduction in recurrence of atrial fibrillation and a reduced proportion of time spent in atrial fibrillation. Earlier meta-analyses showed that alcohol was associated with a dose-related increased risk of incident atrial fibrillation, with increased risk observed even among drinkers who consumed as few as 7 drinks per week.8 Current trends show a rise in alcohol consumption among adults older than 60 years of age,2coupled with greater prevalence of atrial fibrillation in this age group. The present study, with participants having an average intake of approximately 17 drinks per week at baseline, suggests that consumption at these levels may contribute to atrial fibrillation.
From an NBA.com online release:
“It was David Stern being a marketing genius who turned the league around. That’s why our brand is so strong,” said (Magic) Johnson, who announced he was retiring because of HIV in 1991 but returned the following year at the All-Star Game with Stern’s backing.
“It was David Stern who took this league worldwide.”
NEW YORK — David Stern, the basketball-loving lawyer who took the NBA around the world during 30 years as its longest-serving commissioner and oversaw its growth into a global powerhouse, died Wednesday. He was 77.
Stern suffered a brain hemorrhage on Dec. 12 and underwent emergency surgery. The league said he died with his wife, Dianne, and their family at his bedside.
Stern had been involved with the NBA for nearly two decades before he became its fourth commissioner on Feb. 1, 1984. By the time he left his position in 2014 — he wouldn’t say or let league staffers say “retire,” because he never stopped working — a league that fought for a foothold before him had grown to a more than $5 billion a year
industry and made NBA basketball perhaps the world’s most popular sport after soccer.
From a New York Times online article:
At the moment, about two-thirds of Americans do not meet the standard exercise guidelines of about 30 minutes a day of moderate exercise, such as walking.
These findings might suggest that, if we adjusted our schedules and turned off the TV, phone or computer, most of us would have plenty of time to work out.
Almost all of the respondents — whatever their income, age, gender or ethnicity — reported about five hours a day of leisure time. Men tended to have more free time than women, older people more than the young, and African-American women the least of all. But no group reported less than about four and a half hours a day of free time.
As the year comes to a close, we look back at the past decade in the American economy — the first without a recession since record-keeping began in the 1950s. While unemployment remains at a historic low, wage growth has been sluggish, and inequality continues to divide the country. David Wessel of the Brookings Institution and The Washington Post’s Catherine Rampell join Jeffrey Brown.
USA Today’s Susan Page and Domenico Montanaro of NPR join Lisa Desjardins to discuss the latest political news, including the outlook for 2020 Democrats not making it to the debate stage, campaign dynamics in Iowa and New Hampshire, how senators running for president will handle a potential impeachment trial, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s impeachment strategy and the year in review.
DEC. 30, 2019 — As the nation prepares to ring in the new year, the U.S. Census Bureau projects the U.S. population will be 330,222,422 on Jan. 1, 2020. This represents an increase of 1,991,085, or 0.61%, from New Year’s Day 2019. Since Census Day (April 1) 2010, the population has grown by 21,476,884 or 6.96%.
In January 2020, the United States is expected to experience one birth every eight seconds and one death every 11 seconds. Meanwhile, net international migration is expected to add one person to the U.S. population every 34 seconds. The combination of births, deaths and net international migration will increase the U.S. population by one person every 19 seconds.
The projected world population on Jan. 1, 2020, is 7,621,018,958, an increase of 77,684,873, or 1.03%, from New Year’s Day 2019. During January 2020, 4.3 births and 1.9 deaths are expected worldwide every second.
The Census Bureau’s U.S. and World Population Clock simulates real-time growth of the United States and world populations at <www.census.gov/popclock>.
In 1930s Paris, leading modern artists experimented with tapestry design, thanks to pioneering entrepreneur Marie Cuttoli (1879–1973). Cuttoli lived between Algeria 
and Paris and collected work by artists such as Pablo Picasso, Joan Miró, and Georges Braque.
This exhibition traces her career, from her early work in fashion and interiors to her revival of the French tapestry industry. She commissioned the most celebrated artists of her time—Rouault, Léger, Picasso, Braque, Le Corbusier, Man Ray, and Miró, among others—to create designs for the historic tapestry workshops in Aubusson. By uniting these important paintings and drawings with the resulting tapestry, this exhibition shows their true purpose, revealing modernism’s profound dialogue with the decorative arts.
The podcast crew looks back at the biggest political moments of 2019 and looks ahead to the most pressing questions of 2020.
Website: http://fivethirtyeight.com/
Boomers Daily 