Toenail Nicotine Predicts Heart Problems

To investigate, the researchers correlated the nicotine content in toenail clippings collected in 1982 for 62,641 women participating in the Nurses' Health Study to the risk of being diagnosed with heart disease between 1984 and 1998.

The women in the top fifth for toenail nicotine content were thinner, less active, heavier drinkers, and more likely to have high blood pressure or diabetes, as well as a family history of heart attack, compared to those with less nicotine in their toenails, Al-Delaimy and colleagues found.

For some reason this creeps me out a little. They saved the toenail clippings for over 20 years? That's just gross.

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Dean and I went to a party Saturday night at this amazing house on Lake Washington. It was a 1950's two-story rambler type that had been completely gutted and re-done in a very sleek modern fashion. It had an open floor plan with almost no inner walls or doors, just continuous spaces. Hardwood floors everywhere. Walls of windows over-looking the lake. Warm sandstone colored marble in the bathrooms. Giant walk-in "His & His" closet off the master bedrooom (to die for). Skylights. Little fountains and garden spaces surrounding it. Very Zen in the clean, minimalistic sense. It was truly beautiful. And great for entertaining.

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I had a fairly productive weekend working on revisions. It's amazing sometimes, that if you can put a draft away for a year or so, and come back to it, how it becomes so clear what is missing, what is needed, what should be cut, what needs tuning. And, for some old drafts, to finally realize that you just have to hit the "delete" button. And be done with them.

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The baby robins are growing so fast! The male and the female spend most of the day taking turns sitting on them, or bringing them mouthfuls of worms and slugs and gooey grubs of some sort. It's fascinating to watch the adults through the window, standing on the edge of the nest, and dropping the stuff into the gaping mouths. As if it were some kind of carnival game: "some for you, some for you, some for . . . hey, back off, it's your sisters turn." The little ones already have feathers forming, and are looking more "bird-like" each day. The three of them are really filling the nest now. Soon they are going to have to fly.

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