Now we know why Yakubu Aiyegbeni's move from Middlesbrough was temporarily held up,causing all sorts of jitters at Goodison park.
Apparently,he didn't satisfy a key requirement for his work permit...namely playing a prescribed number of games for his national team(in his case Nigeria).
This no doubts re-directs the searchlight on the club Vs Country debate.Now the likes of Mikel need to be more humble when Berie Vogts makes a phone call.
However,Club managers would still tell you they have the raw end of the deal....since football is now a multi-billion dollar venture and national teams are not responsible for the salaries,healthcare and sign-on fees of these players.What i suspect is we will continue to see more young players like Jamie Carragher retiring early from international football.
omc
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Sudden Cardiac Death (SCD)
The football world lost another young player to sudden death in Spain last weekend.A seperate incident in the Leicester game could easily have made it a double jeopardy weekend.
These stories have brought memories of similar deaths in the past:Mark Vivien Foe and Sam Oparaji readily springs to mind.Let's not forget the Kanu Heart foundation....and Kalilou Fadiga still wears an Implantable Cardioverter-Defibrillator(ICD).
Today,I dug up a little information on this dreaded killer.
Sudden cardiac death remains a leading cause of death in the United States. The annual incidence has been estimated at approximately 450,000 cases annually, which translates to about half of all heart-related deaths . These estimates are based on death certificates, however, which can be inaccurate. The true number may be as low as 184,000, but this still represents a significant cause of death. As total cardiac mortality has decreased over the past decade, sudden cardiac death has increased by about 12% as a proportion of all cardiac deaths. Coronary artery disease is by far the most common cause, accounting for approximately 75% of cases, with cardiomyopathies and primary electrical disturbances making up the remainder.
The most important risk factors for sudden cardiac death, in descending order, are left ventricular ejection fraction of less than 40%, congestive heart failure, frequent PVCs, ischemia, and left ventricular hypertrophy. Inherited disorders associated with a high risk of sudden death include the long QT syndromes, Brugada syndrome, and exercise-induced polymorphic ventricular tachycardia.
Most cases of SCD occur in patients with structural abnormalities of the heart, related to either a prior myocardial infarction (MI) or a congenital abnormality. Acute thrombosis in an atherosclerotic coronary artery may present as unstable angina, acute myocardial infarction (MI), or SCD. Although more than 80% of SCD events occur in individuals with coronary artery disease (CAD), evidence of acute MI is far less common. Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) and dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) both are associated with increased risk of SCD. Heart failure and various valvular diseases such as aortic stenosis are associated with increased risk of SCD. The strongest predictor of SCD is left ventricular dysfunction of any cause. Acute illnesses, such as myocarditis, may provide both an initial and sustained risk of SCD due to inflammation and fibrosis of the myocardium.
Less commonly, SCD happens in patients who may not have apparent structural heart disease. These conditions usually are inherited arrhythmia syndromes.
At the molecular level, VT and VF can be caused by altered Ca hemodynamics, neurohormonal changes, altered K hemodynamics especially in ischemia, or mutations resulting in dysfunction of a sodium channel (Na channelopathy) resulting in enhanced automaticity or reentry with unidirectional block. In patients who survive a myocardial infarction (MI), it has been demonstrated that the presence of premature ventricular contractions (PVCs), particularly complex forms, such as multiform PVCs, short coupling intervals (R-on-T phenomenon), or VT (salvos of 3 or more ectopic beats), reflect an increased risk of sudden cardiac death.
ref:MKSAP14 and emedicine.com
OMC
These stories have brought memories of similar deaths in the past:Mark Vivien Foe and Sam Oparaji readily springs to mind.Let's not forget the Kanu Heart foundation....and Kalilou Fadiga still wears an Implantable Cardioverter-Defibrillator(ICD).
Today,I dug up a little information on this dreaded killer.
Sudden cardiac death remains a leading cause of death in the United States. The annual incidence has been estimated at approximately 450,000 cases annually, which translates to about half of all heart-related deaths . These estimates are based on death certificates, however, which can be inaccurate. The true number may be as low as 184,000, but this still represents a significant cause of death. As total cardiac mortality has decreased over the past decade, sudden cardiac death has increased by about 12% as a proportion of all cardiac deaths. Coronary artery disease is by far the most common cause, accounting for approximately 75% of cases, with cardiomyopathies and primary electrical disturbances making up the remainder.
The most important risk factors for sudden cardiac death, in descending order, are left ventricular ejection fraction of less than 40%, congestive heart failure, frequent PVCs, ischemia, and left ventricular hypertrophy. Inherited disorders associated with a high risk of sudden death include the long QT syndromes, Brugada syndrome, and exercise-induced polymorphic ventricular tachycardia.
Most cases of SCD occur in patients with structural abnormalities of the heart, related to either a prior myocardial infarction (MI) or a congenital abnormality. Acute thrombosis in an atherosclerotic coronary artery may present as unstable angina, acute myocardial infarction (MI), or SCD. Although more than 80% of SCD events occur in individuals with coronary artery disease (CAD), evidence of acute MI is far less common. Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) and dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) both are associated with increased risk of SCD. Heart failure and various valvular diseases such as aortic stenosis are associated with increased risk of SCD. The strongest predictor of SCD is left ventricular dysfunction of any cause. Acute illnesses, such as myocarditis, may provide both an initial and sustained risk of SCD due to inflammation and fibrosis of the myocardium.
Less commonly, SCD happens in patients who may not have apparent structural heart disease. These conditions usually are inherited arrhythmia syndromes.
At the molecular level, VT and VF can be caused by altered Ca hemodynamics, neurohormonal changes, altered K hemodynamics especially in ischemia, or mutations resulting in dysfunction of a sodium channel (Na channelopathy) resulting in enhanced automaticity or reentry with unidirectional block. In patients who survive a myocardial infarction (MI), it has been demonstrated that the presence of premature ventricular contractions (PVCs), particularly complex forms, such as multiform PVCs, short coupling intervals (R-on-T phenomenon), or VT (salvos of 3 or more ectopic beats), reflect an increased risk of sudden cardiac death.
ref:MKSAP14 and emedicine.com
OMC
The Premiership:Early days.
Its the 4th round of games completed....and you can say we aren't even started yet.However,we've seen enough to know that it's not going to be easy for anyone this year.Just watch the old trafford giants struggling to haul themselves out of the early relegation mangrove swamp last weekend against an enterprising Spurs side.
If anyone thought the initial Man City surge to the summit of the 3rd week table was a fluke,just watch their game against Arsenal again.This team is not going to lie low for anyone this season.They have a seasoned manager(at least at clubside level) and a club owner with his pockets linked to the Thai treasury.I for one have fallen in love with some of their players:Elano,Petrov,Bianchi,Schmeichel,Richards....
And what do you think about that Ronaldinho story?I know they say there's no smoke without fire...but please chelsea doesn't need another big ego in our already packed midfield.The special one will have some picking to do when Ballack is back fit since Belleti expectedly should release Essien to compete for his preferred central midfield role from now on.The choice will no longer be as straightforward as it was last season because the young Nigerian ,Mikel has finally come of age and has been an absolute sensation so far.
Has anyone noticed how well Kanu and Utaka link up in pompey's attack these days?Little wonder then that David Nugent has been told to talk to Derby....notice Harry still hopes to sign Anelka before close of business this weekend.
It doesnt take a genius to guess how eager Sir Alex is to get both Rooney and Ronaldo back on the pitch now....expecially since wonderboy 'calitos' Tevez has not exactly set the league ablaze since his debut.....and there will be no babyface assasin to rescue United now....Ole Gunner Solskjaer finally bids farewell.But heck,take nothing away from that beauty from Nani last weekend....these portuguese boys can hit 'em!!
I like what I've seen so far of 'El nino' in the liverpool attack...but it was Andrei Voronin grabbing all the headlines in europe midweek.
I dont see Arsenal surviving Spurs this weekend...and wait a minute...is that Henry warming the bench at the Nou Camp?
OMC
If anyone thought the initial Man City surge to the summit of the 3rd week table was a fluke,just watch their game against Arsenal again.This team is not going to lie low for anyone this season.They have a seasoned manager(at least at clubside level) and a club owner with his pockets linked to the Thai treasury.I for one have fallen in love with some of their players:Elano,Petrov,Bianchi,Schmeichel,Richards....
And what do you think about that Ronaldinho story?I know they say there's no smoke without fire...but please chelsea doesn't need another big ego in our already packed midfield.The special one will have some picking to do when Ballack is back fit since Belleti expectedly should release Essien to compete for his preferred central midfield role from now on.The choice will no longer be as straightforward as it was last season because the young Nigerian ,Mikel has finally come of age and has been an absolute sensation so far.
Has anyone noticed how well Kanu and Utaka link up in pompey's attack these days?Little wonder then that David Nugent has been told to talk to Derby....notice Harry still hopes to sign Anelka before close of business this weekend.
It doesnt take a genius to guess how eager Sir Alex is to get both Rooney and Ronaldo back on the pitch now....expecially since wonderboy 'calitos' Tevez has not exactly set the league ablaze since his debut.....and there will be no babyface assasin to rescue United now....Ole Gunner Solskjaer finally bids farewell.But heck,take nothing away from that beauty from Nani last weekend....these portuguese boys can hit 'em!!
I like what I've seen so far of 'El nino' in the liverpool attack...but it was Andrei Voronin grabbing all the headlines in europe midweek.
I dont see Arsenal surviving Spurs this weekend...and wait a minute...is that Henry warming the bench at the Nou Camp?
OMC
Soludo's currency re-denomination
I do not understand the excitement around the re-denomination fiasco.we all should be perplexed by the apparent lack of direction of soludo'sCBN rather than indulge in this puzzling nationalistic gangsterism.
Barely a year ago,the CBN introduced a new 1,000 naira bill...at thetime,one can only presume that charles soludo had not yet realized hewas going to cut off 2 zeros in just over a year.Erudite economists have failed this country before i.e SFEM/FEM/Austerity measures and Falae's infamous SAP.Through all of that, the naira continued to take the plunge.I cannot fathom how economists went blue in the face in the 90s to explain how devaluation injects foreign investments into the economy only for the likes of soludo to invent this new diametrically opposed philosophy..all i can see is massive disinvestment and huge capital flight.
This soludo guy is a college professor...and Nigeria,my friends,is nobody's typical classroom.If all the CBN proposes to do is to play copycat with Ghana where thecedis now exchanges for 90cents(yes,the cedis!),then we are headed forserious trouble.the fiscal discipline in accra is light years ahead ofabuja's,and ghana recently struck oil...only to supplement other welldeveloped sectors in the economy.nigeria's is export dependent...andthis whole 1:1 business will tank our oil revenue.
Brazil has tried this several times in the past and dumped the idea.China is the fastest growing economy in the world, yet their currencyis so weak...in fact the US is knee deep in trade deficit with china and now has to resort to a proxy economic war thru the like of fisher-price and mittel to recall billions of dollar worth of kiddy toys.Japan is the 2nd largest economy,yet the yen sucks.i simply dont see how this can work..and its obvious Umaru is not convinced either,because as i write this,an advisory panel has been rapidly constituted by the presidency with no CBN representative included.so there's economics and there's politics.
OMC
Barely a year ago,the CBN introduced a new 1,000 naira bill...at thetime,one can only presume that charles soludo had not yet realized hewas going to cut off 2 zeros in just over a year.Erudite economists have failed this country before i.e SFEM/FEM/Austerity measures and Falae's infamous SAP.Through all of that, the naira continued to take the plunge.I cannot fathom how economists went blue in the face in the 90s to explain how devaluation injects foreign investments into the economy only for the likes of soludo to invent this new diametrically opposed philosophy..all i can see is massive disinvestment and huge capital flight.
This soludo guy is a college professor...and Nigeria,my friends,is nobody's typical classroom.If all the CBN proposes to do is to play copycat with Ghana where thecedis now exchanges for 90cents(yes,the cedis!),then we are headed forserious trouble.the fiscal discipline in accra is light years ahead ofabuja's,and ghana recently struck oil...only to supplement other welldeveloped sectors in the economy.nigeria's is export dependent...andthis whole 1:1 business will tank our oil revenue.
Brazil has tried this several times in the past and dumped the idea.China is the fastest growing economy in the world, yet their currencyis so weak...in fact the US is knee deep in trade deficit with china and now has to resort to a proxy economic war thru the like of fisher-price and mittel to recall billions of dollar worth of kiddy toys.Japan is the 2nd largest economy,yet the yen sucks.i simply dont see how this can work..and its obvious Umaru is not convinced either,because as i write this,an advisory panel has been rapidly constituted by the presidency with no CBN representative included.so there's economics and there's politics.
OMC
Syndrome of the week
Our syndrome of the week is :
"Couvade syndrome"
The term couvade is derived from the early French word (Couver "to hatch") and originally referred to the medieval Basque custom in which the father, during or immediately after the birth of a child, took to bed, complained of having labour pains, and was accorded the treatment usually shown women during pregnancy or after childbirth. The medical term for this rare condition is sympathetic pregnancy.
Couvade "involves a father experiencing some of the behavior of his wife at near the time of childbirth, including her birth pains, postpartum seclusion, food restrictions, and sex taboos" .
Western medicine has tended to see the couvade as a medical syndrome or pathology.
ref:wikipedia
omc
"Couvade syndrome"
The term couvade is derived from the early French word (Couver "to hatch") and originally referred to the medieval Basque custom in which the father, during or immediately after the birth of a child, took to bed, complained of having labour pains, and was accorded the treatment usually shown women during pregnancy or after childbirth. The medical term for this rare condition is sympathetic pregnancy.
Couvade "involves a father experiencing some of the behavior of his wife at near the time of childbirth, including her birth pains, postpartum seclusion, food restrictions, and sex taboos" .
Western medicine has tended to see the couvade as a medical syndrome or pathology.
ref:wikipedia
omc
Animal Rights
I have tried to bottle up my feelings on this topic for about 2 weeks.....not anymore.Thanks to the latest news article about Helmsley leaving $12m to her dog(aptly named 'trouble') while 2 of her grandkids get...wait for it....nothing!
We have read divergent comments from different sources on the Michael Vicks saga, pitbull et al.More recently,allegations emerged about DMX mistreating his horde of dogs.
I need to quickly state that i do not hate animals...but i am not crazy about them either.
Different animals mean different things to different people across the world's cultures.For instance,cattle is held as sacred in some cultures but its a staple in ours...also,i know that certain parts of Africa consider dogmeat as a cherished delicacy.Who decides what animal is food ,which is sacred and which is 'man's best friend'?
A good friend of mine even opined recently that britons now treat their dogs so special because they're hard pressed to undo the 'crime' of WWII when most people reluctantly turned to their pets for food!
Isn't it an irony of our fabled civilization that Britney Spears' chihuahua gets better healthcare than 10s of millions of uninsured middle class american workers?
The next time I run into an animal rights activist,I'd like them to explain New Orleans and Katrina first before waxing all emotional about animal brutality.
Of course I know some people are victims of past bad decisions in their lives.I also accept that we live in a capitalist economy.If we strive so hard to protect animals because they aren't capable of making decisions and are vulnerable,we need to do more to protect the more vulnerable humans in our midst too.
Now ,none of the foregoing even begins to exonerate Michael Vicks' misbehaviour on the dogfighting charges.He grew up in the US,he understands the prevailing sentiments and having wilfully decided to carry on with this savage dogfighting with his pitbulls,he needs to face the prescribed punishments as enshrined in the existing laws.
I leave you with this illuminating news article out of spain....after centuries,the spaniards are suspending a tradition of bullfighting.Now that's what i call consistency!
OMC
We have read divergent comments from different sources on the Michael Vicks saga, pitbull et al.More recently,allegations emerged about DMX mistreating his horde of dogs.
I need to quickly state that i do not hate animals...but i am not crazy about them either.
Different animals mean different things to different people across the world's cultures.For instance,cattle is held as sacred in some cultures but its a staple in ours...also,i know that certain parts of Africa consider dogmeat as a cherished delicacy.Who decides what animal is food ,which is sacred and which is 'man's best friend'?
A good friend of mine even opined recently that britons now treat their dogs so special because they're hard pressed to undo the 'crime' of WWII when most people reluctantly turned to their pets for food!
Isn't it an irony of our fabled civilization that Britney Spears' chihuahua gets better healthcare than 10s of millions of uninsured middle class american workers?
The next time I run into an animal rights activist,I'd like them to explain New Orleans and Katrina first before waxing all emotional about animal brutality.
Of course I know some people are victims of past bad decisions in their lives.I also accept that we live in a capitalist economy.If we strive so hard to protect animals because they aren't capable of making decisions and are vulnerable,we need to do more to protect the more vulnerable humans in our midst too.
Now ,none of the foregoing even begins to exonerate Michael Vicks' misbehaviour on the dogfighting charges.He grew up in the US,he understands the prevailing sentiments and having wilfully decided to carry on with this savage dogfighting with his pitbulls,he needs to face the prescribed punishments as enshrined in the existing laws.
I leave you with this illuminating news article out of spain....after centuries,the spaniards are suspending a tradition of bullfighting.Now that's what i call consistency!
OMC
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