Vitamin D supplements prevent stress fractures in girls and young women

Here are the results of a very well designed longitudinal study (the Nurses' Health Study) that clearly shows that girls and young women who get lots of Vitamin D have fewer stress fractures.  Calcium was not that important, contrary to expectations.  It was Vitamin D, Lee!

A Great Guide to the Supreme Court's Upcoming Review of the Health Reform Law

The Supreme Court seems to be taking this seriously, admitting (???) that they need help in understanding the issues by scheduling 6 hours of argument (compared with usual 1 hour).  A great article in the New England Journal of Medicine, available without a subscription, lays out the issues and the timeline.  It's written for doctors, so it's actually readable for us all, since so many docs don't seem to understand anything about insurance markets and cost control (my editorial comment, of course).  Update as of Mar 15, another article in NEJM.  Clearly, the profession cares about this

Fast and Easy way to look at the Obama 2013 Budget proposal

New York Times Graphic -- published today -neat!

Vitamin D and heart disease - suggestive evidence

Medline Plus (NIH) just had a news release about a large study of Vitamin D supplementation and heart disease.  Shows huge effects.  This is a prospective but NON RANDOMIZED study, so as with so many such findings, it may not pan out.  Back in the day, we studied estrogen and heart disease (at OTA), and the large prospective studies showed that estrogen replacement therapy had huge effect on subsequent heart disease.  Too bad, about 10 years later the evidence came out that ERT actually increases heart disease.
So, I am including the news release here just to track what later evidence reveals.
Medline-Vitamin D/Heart Disease

US Bankruptcy Code Downloadable

Just in case, you never know, when you need to be a friend's lawyer-equivalent, and have lots of time to interpret more arcane laws, here is a link to the US Bankruptcy Code, available in readable format, made available through US Credit Slips web site.

The newest Republican Front-Runner

I just had to post this to get some relief from the idea of Newt Gingrich as the Republican nominee.  The Borowitz Report had the scoop.

Gingrich says CBO must go.

Why I'm taking Gingrich seriously, knowing what I know about him from my CBO days, is a mystery to me. I guess it's just that I worry about who the Prez might be if not Obama.  So, here he is at his most Gingrich, espousing the death of CBO BECAUSE OF ITS HEALTH WORK!  Neat!  Thanks to the CBO alumni group for alerting me to this.  Link to Stan Collander's article is here: http://capitalgainsandgames.com/blog/stan-collender/2416/newt-gingrich-wants-kill-cbo