Medical Notes: Week of June 24, 2018

Experts have proposed new guidelines for hypertension and if they go into effect, it’s much more likely your doctor would tell you you’ve got high blood pressure. The guidelines define high blood pressure as anything higher than 130-over-80 and a study in the journal JAMA Cardiology finds that nearly half of all adults are higher than that. More than 83 million Americans would be recommended for high blood pressure treatment under the new system.  

In youth league and high school baseball, most pitchers also play another position when they’re not on the mound. But a study in the Journal of Athletic Training argues that it shouldn’t be catcher. The study finds that pitchers who also play catcher are nearly three times more likely to get hurt than pitchers who play any other position on the field. Among position players catchers throw the ball more than anyone else and the throwing adds up to far more arm injuries.

And finally… if you want to have a good business meeting serve coffee. A study in the Journal of Psycho-Pharmacology shows that small groups who have coffee together before a meeting rate their own performance and the results of the discussion more highly than those who did not have coffee. Apparently, caffeine gets the credit. Re-running the experiment with decaf didn’t provide the same results.