Maxy's Hideout: February 2018

Tuesday, February 27, 2018

Michael Moore speaks out (as usual) on NRA

Total ISIS inspired death equal 79 and most of those were by home grown ( made in America)terrorists. 1.2 million gun deaths since 1980. American deaths caused by Americans.

"Americans make up about 4.4 percent of the global population but own 42 percent of the world’s guns. From 1966 to 2012, 31 percent of the gunmen in mass shootings worldwide were American, according to a 2015 study by Adam Lankford, a professor at the University of Alabama," The New York Times reports.

Anyone wishing to buy a gun in Canada and/or ammunition must have a valid licence under the Firearms Act. To obtain a firearms licence, all applicants must undergo a screening process, which includes a safety course, criminal history and background checks, provision of personal references, and a mandatory waiting period.

WORLD-WIDE CIVILIAN FIREARMS

Unlike any other industrialized country, the right to bear arms was declared a constitutionally-enshrined right in America, when the nation first came into being in the late 1700s. In modern times, the National Rifle Association (NRA) has poured millions of dollars into political campaigns, ensuring that gun laws remain lax.
As a result, there are now over 300 million firearms in the U.S. according to some estimates, nearly one per person in a country of 319 million people. By contrast, Canada has approximately seven million registered firearms , in a country of roughly 35 million people. Even if Canada had the same population as the U.S., this number would still only work out to about 70 million weapons. The Small Arms Survey estimates that there are 270 million firearms in America, which still works out to 89 guns per 100 people, ranking America as the world's number one country for firearms ownership.

And buying a gun is much easier south of the border: background checks through the FBI database are only required for in-store purchases. Even then, it’s a relatively straightforward procedure of filling out an in-store form asking if the applicant has ever been convicted of a crime or committed to a mental institution, among other questions. The store then makes a quick call to the FBI and the whole process can be completed in minutes. Denials are rare, amounting to less than 1 per cent.
Anyone wishing to dodge even a cursory federal background check can simply buy weapons from gun shows, or from friends, family, and neighbours in private sales, according to CNN. The Democrats did try eliminating the gun show loophole in 2013, but the attempt failed to pass in a Republican-dominated Congress.
However, 18 states plus the District of Columbia have rolled out their own background checks, applicable to private sales and gun shows, to try and stop weapons from falling onto the wrong hands. These include California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington State, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts, Iowa, Michigan, Nebraska, and North Carolina.

Wednesday, February 21, 2018

Maxy sez : Age and Your Heart

Age can impact heart health — but lifestyle and genetics can provide protection.
By Dr. Arthur Agatston
For both men and women, age is a major risk factor for heart disease. The older you are, the more wear and tear there has been on your artery walls, the longer and harder your heart has had to work, and the more time you've had to accumulate arterial plaque. It's not surprising, then, that four out of every five deaths due to heart disease occur in people over age 65.

Men, on average, show signs of cardiovascular disease about 10 years earlier than women do, and on average, men are 5 years younger when they have their first heart attack. Because men tend to get heart disease earlier than women, many women believe that they are at low risk for heart disease. They are mistaken.

Women do get heart disease, but usually later than men because their female hormones generally offer special protection for the heart while they are premenopausal. However, once a woman reaches menopause, usually in her late forties or early fifties, her estrogen levels sharply decline and her risk of having a heart attack dramatically increases. And by age 65, women are even more likely than men to develop high blood pressure. Notably, a woman who undergoes early menopause is at greater risk for heart disease than her peers who are still menstruating and still cycling estrogen.

Chronological age alone does not tell the whole story. I want to stress that just because you are in your sixties or seventies doesn't mean that your heart health is deteriorating. Recently, I reviewed the heart scan of a 74-year-old male patient who exercised daily and followed a healthy diet. There was absolutely no calcified plaque in his coronary arteries, which meant that his risk of having a heart attack was extremely low. He may have indeed chosen the right parents, but that still doesn't completely account for his good health. Some credit must go to his heart-healthy lifestyle.

That same day, I reviewed the scan of a 58-year-old woman who was overweight and sedentary. Her arteries were loaded with plaque, which put her at much greater risk of having a heart attack than my older male patient. My point is that you can have healthy arteries well into old age if you make the right lifestyle and therapeutic choices and take steps to reduce those risk factors that are within your control.

What is really important is the "physiologic" age of your arteries. Just as we are impressed by the sharp minds of many elderly people, we have also seen that they can have young arteries despite their advanced years. In many non-Western societies, where food is not overprocessed and exercise is part of everyday life, the arteries of the elderly are clean and heart attacks and strokes are rarities.