HEALTH AND SCIENCE HIGHLIGHTS

June 19, 2019 (San Diego's East County) -- Our Health and Science Highlights provide cutting edge news that could impact your health and our future.

HEALTH

• Energy drinks the cause of many sudden cardiac deaths in young people, researchers find (Consumer Affairs)
• Changing your meat-eating habits could mean a longer life, study suggests (CNN)
• There’s a ‘hidden epidemic’ of diseases like chlamydia and syphilis, and dating apps may only be part of the problem (Business Insider)

SCIENCE & TECH

• The poisons released by melting artic ice (BBC)
• Facebook wants its cryptocurrency to one day rival the dollar (Bloomberg)
• Amazon Patent Reveals Its Vision for an Alexa Device That Records Every Word You Speak (Gizmodo)
• Oh Dear: Photos Show What Humans Have Done To The Planet (NPR)
• Why Safer Cars Don't Lead To Cheaper Car Insurance ... Yet (NPR)

For excerpts and links to full stories, click “read more” and scroll down.

HEALTH

Energy drinks the cause of many sudden cardiac deaths in young people, researchers find (Consumer Affairs)

High amounts of sugar and caffeine can aggravate underlying heart issues, causing fatal arrhythmias

Changing your meat-eating habits could mean a longer life, study suggests (CNN)

Increasing how much red meat you eat by at least half a serving per day was associated with a 10% higher risk of early death in a new study.

There’s a ‘hidden epidemic’ of diseases like chlamydia and syphilis, and dating apps may only be part of the problem (Business Insider)

Every day, more than 1 million new sexually transmitted diseases occur globally in people between the ages of 15 and 49, according to a new report from World Health Organization (WHO).  Dating apps could be linked to the rise in STIs, but gynecologist Dr. Donnica Moore told INSIDER that an increase in IUDs, better STI treatments, and baby boomers having unprotected sex could be contributing too.

SCIENCE & TECH

The poisons released by melting artic ice (BBC)

Pollution, anthrax - even nuclear waste - could be released by global warming.

Facebook wants its cryptocurrency to one day rival the dollar (Bloomberg)

Social-media giant says Libra will be better than Bitcoin. But the company is late to the party and other payment initiatives have stumbled. 

Amazon Patent Reveals Its Vision for an Alexa Device That Records Every Word You Speak (Gizmodo)

If you’re already freaked out by the privacy implications of smart speakers like Amazon’s Echo, we have some bad news.

Oh Dear: Photos Show What Humans Have Done To The Planet (NPR)

Humans have made an indelible mark on the planet. Since the mid-20th century, we've accelerated the digging of mines, construction of dams, expansion of cities and clearing of forests for agriculture — activity that will be visible in the geological record for eons to come. Some scientists are calling it the Anthropocene era, or the age of the humans.

Why Safer Cars Don't Lead To Cheaper Car Insurance ... Yet (NPR)

Many new cars sold today can take preemptive action to help prevent crashes — hitting the brakes before a collision, steering around obstacles or alerting drivers to hazards in their blind spots. Those safety features — collectively known as advanced driver-assistance systems, or ADAS — reduce the risk of crashes. It might seem logical to assume that as a result, they'd reduce the cost of car insurance. But instead, these advanced safety features can actually drive premiums up. That's because when such cars do get in crashes, the repairs are more expensive — thanks to the suite of sensors and computers that make these features possible.