HBCU Student Recreates Martin Sitcom for 'Miss Senior' Campaign Video

Written by Tonja Renée Stidhum of http://ift.tt/2oEZ7yo

Whether it’s for a government or school platform, marketing campaigns are usually a battle of “Who Sticks Out,” so creativity is key! Luckily, Alcorn State University student, Shemesha Martin has creativity in spades! The HBCU student, who is in the running for Miss Senior 2017-2018, decided to forego the traditional bland campaign video route by paying homage to ‘90s hit comedy, Martin.
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The Huffington Post spoke with the senior title campaign hopeful who confirmed that her campaign manager, Shaqunna Sardin came up with the video, which was directed by Michael Watts and Herman Ceasar. The video is a mock opening theme featuring the fashion, background colors and overall charisma of the original Martin Lawrence sitcom.

“She was like, ‘Mesha what about ‘Martin,’ and you can be like vote for Shemesha Martinnnnn.’ I thought it was a good idea,” she told HuffPost.

Martin is a junior Biology/Pre-Dentistry major and a member of Zeta Phi Beta and noted that she’s running for the student government position to urge her fellow classmates, and herself, to become better leaders. Linking herself to the TV show is a play on words of her own surname, which seems to be a fabulous turn of fate. She dedicated an entire week of promotional events including creating an apt catchphrase WZUP: Working Zestfully Unton Progressing as well as the penultimate campaign video where she remixed the TV show’s theme song, featuring her friend Jacobi Holt.

Vote Shemesha Martin for your next Miss Senior at Al🌽 State University .. #Martin4MissSenior http://pic.twitter.com/AOXqS7S0EH

— rodravius lovehall (@drathebest) March 27, 2017

“Once we started thinking about his famous quotes, it was easy to come up with event ideas,” Martin said. “For example, Martin [is] always saying ‘Martin Love the Kids’ and I thought that would be a great community service project at the daycare on campus. It really just fit the whole concept of the theme.”

Check out her nostalgic campaign below! And to Shamesha: In the words of the illustrious Martin Lawrence himself, “You go girl!”

VOTE SHEMESHA MARTIN FOR THE NEXT MRS. SENIOR OF ALCORN STATE UNIVERSITY ‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️ http://pic.twitter.com/gF0kGxPrtX

— rodravius lovehall (@drathebest) March 27, 2017

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Tonja Renée Stidhum is a writer/director living in Los Angeles by way of Chicago. She is the co-host of the movie review podcast, Cinema Bun Podcast. She is made of sugar and spice and everything rice... with the uncanny ability to make a Disney/Pixar reference in the same sentence as a double entendre. You can follow her on Twitter @EmbraceTheJ, on Facebook FB.com/tstidhum, and Instagram @embracethej. You can find more of her work on her About Me page, http://ift.tt/2n7OHKw.

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9 Trends of Primal Interest

I get a lot of industry news. I eat out a fair bit. I talk to people whose job it is to spot and track health trends. I’m privy to some of the greatest, most innovative minds in the alternative health community—my readers. And you guys are always sending me interesting links. Today, I’m going to discuss some trends of Primal interest. I might poke fun at some of them, and others might be relatively small-scale, but even the silly or minor ones point to interesting movements in the health and fitness zeitgeist.

So, what are the 9 I’m highlighting today?

Experiences over Things

In 2015, I wrote about the dichotomy of value between experiences and things, pointing to research suggesting that buying experiences brings more joy and meaning to a person’s life than buying material objects. I explained how our hunter-gatherer evolution probably wired us to get more out of experiences, and I dug a bit into my own opinion on the matter.

People appear to be agreeing with me. Millennials in particular are choosing things like travel and dining out over gear and gadgets. And the material objects people are consuming enable experiential living—smartphones, fitness trackers, and such. Even media consumption is shifting away from ownership of music and movies to on-demand services like Spotify and Netflix.

Eating Root-to-Leaf

Nose-to-tail eating has taken off. Previously arcane bits like sweetbreads, liver, tripe, marrow, and kidney are on menus everywhere, and few people bat an eye anymore. It’s normal.

Eating root-to-leaf means considering the edibility of the entire plant. More often than not, we’re throwing away a large amount of digestible, nutrient-dense flora.

Broccoli crowns are amazing, but did you know you can eat the leaves? Broccoli leaves are some of my favorite. This also works for Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, and celery.

It means eating roots and their greens, whether it’s a carrot, a beet, a rutabaga, or a turnip. When the guy at the farmer’s market asks if you want him to “twist off the leaves,” say “absolutely not.”

Even things like lemon, orange, or grapefruit rinds can be grated, pickled, or processed to extract the flavonoids.

Artisanal Wilderness Retreats

Outfits are taking young professionals on carefully curated excursions into the wild. Check out this video from Wilderness Collective documenting their maiden trip. Yes, it’s overwrought. Yes, it’s a bit silly and a little too perfect. But it’s satisfying a real need people have: spending unbroken days immersed in natural settings.

Walking the dog in the park before work is better than nothing. Putting up a Yosemite wallpaper on your laptop is nice (and may even have an effect). Actually spending 5 nights camping out and trekking through Yosemite is nicer and far more real, even if you’ve got a Michelin-starred chef flambéing flat iron steaks for you at dinnertime.

Movement, Not Just Exercise

There’s growing awareness of the importance and primacy of frequent—constant, if you can—low-level movement. Developments like fitness trackers, walking clubs at the workplace, the rise of standing workstations (pun intended), the bi-monthly article railing against the dangers of sitting too much, the concept of “exercise snacks,” (mini workouts done throughout the day) and the constant recommendations that people walk at least 10,000 steps a day suggest that the word has gotten out. Folks like Katy Bowman (of Don’t Just Sit There fame) have played a huge role in furthering, explicating, and refining the message.

Formal, dedicated training isn’t going anywhere. Nor should it. The stuff plain works. But it works better atop a foundation of constant low-level movement.

Health and Wellness Tourism

I’m not talking about jetting off to Costa Rica for dental work, or Thailand for a sex change operation. I’m talking about hiking the Pacific Coast Trail, or maybe the Appalachian Trail, or even flying to Spain to hike the Camino de Santiago, or to Turkey to do the Lycian Way. Kickboxing camps in Chiang Mai, Inca Trail maintenance at Machu Picchu, WWOOFing.

Nutrigenomics

Right now, we know a few things about the interactions between specific genetic variants and certain foods, activities, and environmental inputs. But biology is probably the most complex system in the universe. We’re missing a ton.

It’s also getting better. Scientists continue to unmask, identify, and catalogue new variants and their effects—and how what you eat and how you train affects them. A product I used and enjoyed, DNA Fit, and similar ones will only get better, more accurate, and more comprehensive.

Monetization of Recovery Days

With all the CrossFitting, Tough Muddering, Olympic lifting, and other training people are doing, they’re finally beginning to wise up to the role recovery days play in fitness. But rather than only rely on time off and sleep, they’re spending big bucks on the best recovery money can buy. Float tanks (rich in magnesium sulfate epsom salts; the sensory deprivation activates but ultimately helps you tame the monkey mind), cryotherapy chambers (ultra-cold therapy), mobility tools that help you stretch and perform self-myofascial release.

Yes, this can get expensive. This isn’t a bad thing. I’ve always argued for more rest and relaxation and recovery, and the consensual exchange of money for services indicates that consumers of cryotherapy, float tanks, mobility/self-myofascial-release products are clearly getting something out of the exchange.

The Rise of Purple Food

Used to be you could only get a big whack of the all-important purple anthocyanins from a cup of blueberries. That’s changing. There’s purple carrots, purple cauliflower, purple sweet potatoes, purple regular potato, purple asparagus, purple corn, black rice. These aren’t recent creations. Purple/black varieties of produce have been around for decades. They’re becoming more prominent though. All that purple doesn’t make up for the loss of Prince, but it’s probably good for our insulin sensitivity and cognitive function.

Cellular Agriculture

Tech companies’ recent forays into food haven’t gone very well, but cellular agriculture could be a game changer. To grow a piece of beef in the lab, they culture stem cells taken from a piece of beef off an actual living cow. Tender cuts (filets) are harvested earlier, tougher cuts (chuck) are harvested later.

The most prominent cellular agriculture company, Memphis Meats, hopes to have its stem cell-grown “clean” chicken and pork on store shelves by 2021. They’ve already got a working meatball for people to taste.

Will it save us?

That remains to be seen. The “cultured meat” evangelists who decry the climactic impact of ruminants always overlook the vital role holistically-grazed livestock play in maintaining soil health, re-greening land, and building carbon sinks. What other “alternative” benefits of eating and raising traditional will they miss? If they try to “optimize” the fatty acid content of a stem-cell ribeye by excising the saturated fat and bumping up the linoleic acid, I will be very upset (but not very surprised).

If the technology gets cheap enough, we’ll probably be able to grow our own at home to whichever specifications we like. Bump up the vitamin K2, omega-3, collagen, zinc, and so on. That could be cool. Whatever the supposed benefits, if it doesn’t taste and behave just like good meat I’m not interested.

That’s it for me, folks. What about you? What are the trends you’re watching for? Which are the trends you’ve adopted? Let me know down below, and thanks for reading!

The post 9 Trends of Primal Interest appeared first on Mark's Daily Apple.

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Michelle Obama Is Rocking Her Natural Hair And Black Twitter Is Loving It

Over the weekend, a photo of Michelle Obama surfaced in her natural hair. Technically, she's always been natural, but we've never quite seen her this way.

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Since the Obama's left office in January, they've been relatively quiet and deservedly so. And while we're aware they've been off doing their own thing, this photo reaffirms it.

This is the picuture I have been waiting on for like 3 years. COME ON NATURAL. http://pic.twitter.com/HF8AYpsciB

— gif sommelier (@meagnacarta) April 2, 2017

I'm no expert on natural hair, but I'm digging seeing the former First Lady in her natural state. Technically, she's always been natural, but it hasn't quiet been as obvious. But still..we've been waiting 8 years for this.

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Mike "Orie" Mosley is the managing editor for CurlyNikki.com and a cultural advocate from St. Louis. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Arts, Entertainment & Media Management from Columbia College Chicago and a Masters in Higher Education Administration from LSU. He is also the founder of www.afrotrak.com. In his spare time, he's probably listening to hip hop & neo soul music, hitting up brunch or caught up in deep conversations about Black music. You can follow him on Twitter @mike_orie or on Instagram @mikeorie

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Are We Overreacting To Dave Chappelle's Netflix Performance?

Photo Credit: Lester Cohen/Wire Image

Written by Nikki Igo of www.nikigbo.com

“You are a f***ing ***hole for saying these things,” Dave Chapelle said about 50 minutes into his recently released Netflix Special Age of Spin: Dave Chapelle Live at The Hollywood Palladium. He was quoting a feminist’s disapproval of his views on Bill Cosby during a show in Syracuse. He could have just as easily been paraphrasing the backlash that has proliferated on the web in the weeks since his special premiered. His duel concerts have been decried as misogynistic, homophobic, transphobic, and out of touch with current comedic expectations. I couldn’t help but find this overwhelmingly liberal commentary as laughable as the jokes Chapelle told.

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I suspect those disenchanted viewers expected a continuation of the opening monologue Chapelle performed on his Saturday Night Live (SNL) appearance last November, ie. more lampooning of Donald Trump, more commentary on white racism, more notes on Black Lives Matter, more criticism of mass shootings and more Obama nostalgia.

But the Netflix specials were not that at all. Originally taped in early 2016 following the deaths of Phife Dawg and Garry Shandling, the Netflix concerts proved to be more of a comical indictment of progressive thinking. I guess many liberal viewers weren’t quite ready for that.

I consider myself a liberally-minded individual who leans more blue than red. Still I’m a registered Independent because I recognize that liberals often let their supposed moral high ground and political correctness blind them to their own prejudices. But Chapelle’s comedy doesn’t subscribe to political correctness; instead he broadcasts the thoughts Americans have, but never voice for fear of being labeled as racist, misogynistic, homophobic or transphobic.

Still, these statements without regard for offense need to be made because we all need to admit and discuss where we stand. And we need to lighten up as we take heed, no matter our various degrees of discomfort, because, as quiet as it’s kept, a bunch of supposed liberals still voted for Trump.

It was particularly odd to witness some of my most ardent leftist and open-minded friends furiously write on Facebook about their angst and downright rejection of Chapelle’s specials. I chuckled because I specifically remember how one of my Ayn Rand-loving friends in 2006 called Chapelle a reverse-racist. In both cases of conservative and liberal disapproval, these viewers seemed to nitpick specific portions of Chapelle’s comedy while failing to recognize the incredibly astute and layered nature of his social commentary. Perhaps they forgot what kind of comic Chapelle is.

Back on Chapelle’s Show—One of my favorite sketches was about the blind Ku Klux Klansman whose friends refused to reveal his racial status to him because of his importance to the white supremacist movement. While it was quite easy to laugh at the absurdity of a black klansman, it was truly revolutionary for a black comic to so slyly point out black contributions to systemic racism. The message was this: black people, unaware of who they truly are, often prove to be the most anti-black members of American society. Chapelle hasn’t lost his touch; he’s simply gotten more inclusive with his targets.

In his stand up, Chapelle has an uncanny way of using anecdotal rhetoric to lend dimension to political perspective. No portion of his comedy is ever accidental or unintentional but rather designed to encourage multiple viewings and deeper consideration. He flexes this comedic muscle in a segment about an encounter with a duo of film producers—one homosexual and the other Texan. He states how he knew the homosexual producer was gay because he “could just tell,” which is a purposeful albeit subtle revelation. How many of us liberals claim to be allies of the LGBT movement and profess to having some sort of “gay-dar?” Yet, if our goal is to accept everyone regardless of sexual orientation, why is it so important for us to label and classify? Chapelle then pitches an idea to the LGBT producer about a gay superhero who primarily only saves other gays but eventually gets around to saving others. Isn’t it funny how special interest groups tend to avidly support their own causes but do little to lend a hand to other movements even as they demand widespread support?
To the Texan producer, Chapelle pitches an all-American, pro truth and justice, life-saving superhero who depends on sexual assault to replenish his extraordinary abilities. The punchline is not the sexually assaulting superhero himself but rather the Texan producer’s excited reception to such an inane idea. But then again, is the concept really so silly? Texans claim to be pro-life and pro-family but have made it harder for women to vote and have endangered female lives with their war on reproductive health rights. And furthermore, aren’t Roman Polanski, Donald Trump, and Bill O’Reilly still being lauded for their various contributions to society despite their crimes against women? Chapelle also implicates both himself and black folks in this same hypocrisy as he mentions his own reverence of O.J. Simpson and Bill Cosby. Can’t we also include R. Kelly, Chris Brown and Floyd Mayweather in that mix?

As for Chapelle’s alleged transphobic jokes, I had to admit my own shortcomings on the subject as I watched. Chapelle deftly points out how the media made transgender acceptance seem universal as it celebrated Bruce Jenner’s transition to Caitlyn. However, we all know such acceptance is not the case based on the recent rash of attacks on transgender people and North Carolina’s relentless mission to police genitalia in public restrooms. Even for those of us who are proponents of living and letting live, gender identity and redefining what gender actually is a challenging and confusing concept. Just as Chapelle relays in his anecdote about flubbing the proper pronoun to use for a transgender woman, I have made that same faux pas and been just as annoyed. If a person goes from being a “he” to a “she,” it is difficult for me (having little to no knowledge of the transgender culture and experience) to understand or accurately assess the situation. Expressing this annoyance and confusion isn’t transphobia, nor is it the desire to castigate transgender people. Rather it is an admission that we all have a long way to go on the matter.

During Age of Spin, Chapelle makes two key statements that most accurately explain his stance on modern liberalism. First he explains that members of the LGBT movement, despite the existence of laws protecting LGBT rights, must understand that America will move toward this particular form of equality with all deliberate speed—which is about as quickly as the nation has moved toward guaranteeing rights for people of color.

It is going to take a while.

His second statement charges all of us, and particularly the millennial generation, to take the time to really investigate our world rather than simply accepting statements and actions at face value. It behooves us all to listen, watch and think carefully, instead of simply reacting and immediately judging.

In short, we all need to calm down and dare to look more deeply into the mirror Chapelle’s comedy presents. His brand of comedy is not out of touch. Nor is it racist, misogynist, homophobic or transphobic. It’s devastatingly honest. And in all of its offensive glory, it asks us to have the decency to laugh at how ridiculous we all have the capacity to be.

What are your thoughts on Dave Chappelle's Netflix special? Share in the comments section.

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Dear Mark: Raw Mushrooms, Tom Brady’s Diet, and Beta-Glucan Alternatives

For today’s edition of Dear Mark, I’m answering three questions. First, are raw mushrooms safe to eat? Are there toxins? Are there any other issues to consider? Second, what’s the deal with Tom Brady’s diet and lifestyle? It seems healthy enough, but there are some unanswered questions, too. And finally, are there any other ways to get beta-glucans without eating mushrooms, yeast, or oats?

Let’s go:

I love raw mushrooms, but I have also read that they should only be consumed cooked or they’re too harsh on the insides. Any truth to that?

Basic white mushrooms (agaricus bisporus) do contain a toxin called agaritine. In one study, researchers fed mice diets high in different types of mushrooms or synthetic agaritine to see how each option affected bladder cancer rates. Bladder cancer rates were as follows: mice eating fresh white mushroom, 30.8%; fresh shiitake, 23.5%; dried shiitake, 9.8%; pure agaritine, 50%; paraffin wax as control, 5.4%.

Yet storage, including in the fridge or freezer, and cooking all reduce agaritine to a considerable degree.

Recall that a couple years ago, I wrote about the extensive benefits of eating mushrooms. That stands. They are incredibly healthy and helpful when people actually eat them the way people actually eat them. Maybe don’t eat them raw in large amounts. I find them uninteresting raw, anyway, unless it’s on a salad. Nothing like a pan full of sautéd mushrooms in a reduced Worscestershire sauce/soy sauce/gelatin/butter sauce.

The second biggest knock against raw mushrooms—after controlling for the poisonous varieties—is that they contain chitin, a type of fiber that makes up the cellular walls of funguses (plus many insects). As the story goes, “lots of people” don’t produce enough chitinase, the enzyme that digests chitin, to handle large numbers of raw mushrooms.

Is it true? I doubt it. In 2007, stomach assays of 25 Italian adults found that 20 of them produced chitinase. And the widespread consumption of chitin-rich insects throughout human history never would have occurred if they gave you crippling stomach pain each time you ate one. Crickets aren’t that good.

In fact, chitin supplements have shown to provide major benefits.

• Chitosan supplementation may reduce cartilage destruction in autoimmune arthritis.
• In healthy men, pre-breakfast supplementation with 3 grams of chitosan increased fecal excretion of dioxins and PCBs, two prominent types of xenoestrogenic compounds found in most modern diets.
• A chitin-glucan supplement (extracted from fungi) lowered oxidized LDL in humans. Oxidized LDL is likely causally related to atherosclerosis (as opposed to just plain ol’ LDL), so this could be a helpful supplement for people at risk.

A little off-topic, I would be interested in Mark’s take on Tom Brady’s diet, which I was reading about just yesterday. He is very much a health nut, but his diet, although okay for what it is, seems far too limited to me.

I mentioned this diet in Weekend Link Love a couple months ago. It is an interesting one:

“80% of what they eat is…the freshest vegetables. If it’s not organic, I don’t use it.” Not much to complain about here. 80% is a little high, of course. And is 80% a precise number, or is it shorthand for “a lot”? Does it refer to % of caloric energy or % of volume on the plate?

“And whole grains: brown rice, quinoa, millet, beans.” This is the mystery line. So much to unpack. Beans, for one, aren’t grains. And is this category included in the vegetable category? Whole grains aren’t vegetables, clearly. Yet the next line confirms that “the other 20 percent” is meat and fish, so there’s nothing left over for the grains. Unless… has Brady cracked 100 percent? Do his go up to eleven? Although it wasn’t specified, I’m guessing he’s gluten-free. No one eats millet if they don’t have to.

“The other 20 percent is lean meats: grass-fed steak, duck every now and then, and chicken. As for fish, I mostly cook wild salmon.” Good stuff here. All delicious and nutritious. Duck is a strange one to just toss in there every once in awhile. I love duck. But rarely do I think to myself, “I could really go for some duck breast.” Plus, it’s far from lean.

No nightshades. That means no peppers, tomatoes, potatoes. Some people report sensitivity to the alkaloids in nightshades, though I’ve never seen definitive evidence. The most common complain seems to be joint pain (PubMed search autofills “nightshade arthritis” but doesn’t produce any good results).

“No white sugar. No white flour. No MSG.” No arguments. I’m not too worried about MSG, but then again, I don’t eat foods that contain it.

“I’ll use raw olive oil, but I only cook with coconut oil.” Standard advice that I’m not sure is right. Olive oil—even, or especially EVOO—is quite stable in the presence of heat. The antioxidants protect it (which is why EVOO is so stable) and even prevent the formation of trans fats.

“Fats like canola oil turn into trans fats.” Yes and no. While making baked goods with canola oil has negligible effects on trans-fat formation, high-heat cooking and frying with vegetable oils significantly increases the trans-fat content of the oils.

Brady goes way beyond diet. He’s made an entire lifestyle shift, including going to bed by 9 PM and avoiding parties and alcohol. He shies away from heavy lifting for fear of excessive “shortening” of the muscle, opting instead for flexibility, which he says “softens” and “lengthens” the muscles.

Whatever he’s doing works. Not every individual piece of his diet and lifestyle approach is optimal. But the stuff that works is enough to push him over the edge.

Unfortunately, I’m allergic to mushrooms. Any options for getting beta-glucans other than via oats or yeasts?

Kelp has a fair bit of beta-glucans. You could gnaw on dried kombu or use it in your cooking. Other, tougher seaweeds likely have it as well.

You could try a supplement, though most are sourced from baker’s yeast. If that’s an issue.

Thanks for reading, everyone. Take care and be sure to chime in down below if you have anything to add.

The post Dear Mark: Raw Mushrooms, Tom Brady’s Diet, and Beta-Glucan Alternatives appeared first on Mark's Daily Apple.

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Weekend Link Love – Edition 446

RESEARCH OF THE WEEK

Marathons are hard on the kidneys.

Chimps hear music but they don’t hear it, man.

Heart disease patients who were intolerant to statins had more cardiovascular events than those taking statins, but they also lived longer.

The house mouse is at least 15,000 years old.

Daily tea may protect against cognitive decline.

NEW PRIMAL BLUEPRINT PODCASTS

Episode 162: Dave Asprey: Host Elle Russ chats with The Bulletproof Exec himself, Dave Asprey, about his new book, Head Strong, which helps people boost cognitive function, optimize brain health, and eliminate the dietary and environmental triggers bringing us down.

INTERESTING BLOG POSTS

What’s unsafe for your pets to eat? Here’s the real list.

Genetic links between Indians and Latin Americans.

Suicide risk assessments might increase the risk of suicide.

MEDIA, SCHMEDIA

Here’s what happened when three people measured their individual glucose responses to different foods.

McDonald’s switches to fresh beef in their quarter pounders.

EVERYTHING ELSE

Next time you’re in Istanbul, you may be able to work off some of that doner kebab by trampolining and rope-swining your way through a city park.

A descent into India’s strange, beautiful step-wells.

How shame retards personal development, plus other notes on mindfulness and self-judgment.

Prince George is attending a nursery school where having a best friend—an essential aspect of human development—is banned.

Patients are increasingly opting to stay awake during surgery.

Ice skating, meet hiking.

THINGS I’M UP TO AND INTERESTED IN

True crime story I liked: How the Iceman was killed.

Study I found interesting: Physicians who spend more money on patient care do not produce better outcomes.

Article I’m pondering: Where Zika is most likely to hit the continental United States.

Product I want to try but probably shouldn’t: Black Insomnia Coffee, sporting the highest caffeine levels ever recorded.

Miscellaneous news I enjoyed: Dinosaur descendent attacks New Jersey family, plunging headfirst through the windshield.

RECIPE CORNER

• Simple Greek-style meatballs are a breeze to make.
• Got an Instant Pot? Make this hurried lamb curry.

TIME CAPSULE

One year ago (Apr 2– Apr 8)

• How to Get Organized and Stay Focused in a Modern World – There’s a lot of chaff vying for your attention. How to avoid it and focus on what matters.
• 15 Reasons Not to Trust That Latest Nutritional Study – How to watch for spotty research.

COMMENT OF THE WEEK

“I have worked in pharmaceutical safety for six years, and am involved in clinical trials every day. The following is my personal opinion and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of my employer.

I’d just like to clarify the point about study discontinuation, since Mark points this out as a key smoking gun here. Many drugs are now tested for so called MACE (major adverse cardiac events) events – this is particularly true with diabetes drugs but is often seen with other classes including CV drugs. This really became more common after Avandia and the discovery of unintended CV events. Cardiovascular outcomes trials are almost always results-based and do not have well-defined timelines. That is, they go until they reach enough MACE events to draw statistical significance, then stop. Drug companies will have some idea of how long this should take, based on their knowledge of patients with this disease. Without seeing the protocol I don’t know about the timelines here, but I would expect that they reached their endpoints early. Clinical trials are massively expensive and companies aren’t going to keep running a trial once they get to a level where data is statistically significant.

Ending a study early doesn’t necessarily indicate poor outcomes related to study drug. It could mean that they have reached the designated number of endpoints in the control group. More importantly, it could actually indicate that their treatment is so effective that it’s unethical to keep giving patients a placebo or comparator. This happened with a cancer drug that I was working on – it was so clear that the drug was extending lives that FDA didn’t feel it was ethical to withhold the treatment from the other group. I doubt that’s what happened here, but it does happen and ending a study early isn’t damning on its own. In fact, Amgen is about to enroll on a long term, open label extension of this study to examine potential adverse events, so I highly doubt that this was stopped early due to safety concerns.

Otherwise, I agree with you that it didn’t improve mortality and therefore is not a huge deal. Wall Street also agreed, and Amgen stock took a hit, even with positive results.”

– Important insight from an insider. Thank, wildrover.

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Green Tea Chicken Soup

A warm bowl of soup always tastes nourishing. Add green tea to the broth, and the soup is even more nourishing, offering anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidative properties that can have a positive effect on a wide range of health issues. If you’re not a bonafide green tea lover, this soup might turn into a favorite way to “drink” green tea. The flavor that green tea adds to soup is very subtle, a little herbal, with just a hint of the astringency that tea is known for. Otherwise, it’s still the familiar, savory bowl of soup you love.

You can steep green tea into your own favorite chicken soup recipe, or try this one. In this simple recipe, garlic and ginger are simmered in chicken broth, then the green tea is steeped in the broth for 5 minutes. Thinly sliced mushrooms and spinach are added at the very end (plus optional shredded chicken).

Loose-leaf green tea, which is often thought to be fresher, more flavorful and more healthful, is ideal when steeping green tea into soup. But if you already have a box of green tea bags in your pantry, or if buying tea bags is the most practical option for you, then do it. The soup will still be delicious and nutritious in every way.

Time in the Kitchen: 25 minutes

Servings: 2

Ingredients

• 6 cups chicken stock (1.4 L)
• 2 inches ginger, peeled and cut into thin coins (5 cm)
• 4 garlic cloves, smashed
• 3 green tea bags, or 3 tablespoons loose-leaf green tea leaves put in a tea ball or T-Sac (45 ml)
• 8 ounces mushrooms, shiitake or cremini, thinly sliced (230 g)
• 2 handfuls baby spinach or tatsoi (2 ounces/56 g)
• Optional: 1 cooked chicken breast, shredded or cubed

Instructions

In a large pot, simmer the ginger and garlic in the chicken stock for 10 minutes.

Turn off heat. Add the green tea bags. Steep tea bags for 5 minutes.
Remove tea. Strain out garlic and ginger.

Bring broth back to a simmer. Add mushrooms and simmer 5 minutes. Add spinach or tatsoi and chicken (optional) to the broth. Simmer 1 minute more. Turn off heat and serve.

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