Exercise can help fight ‘obesity’ gene

May 5, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Washington, May 5 (ANI): Physically active lifestyle during adolescence can reduce the effect of a mutation in a gene that predisposes someone to becoming overweight or obese, says a study led by Spanish researchers.

Among the genes correlated to obesity, the FTO (or fat mass gene) is one of the genes responsible for the accumulation of fat in humans.

“Each copy of the mutation of this gene is associated with an increase of 3.3 lbs. This means that people who have two copies can weigh 6.6 lbs more than those who have no copies”, said Jonatan Ruiz, study’s lead author and researcher at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm (Sweden).

The authors based their research on data collected in the European study HELENA, led by the University of Zaragoza, which analyses the effect of the FTO gene on weight and body fat in adolescents from nine European countries, among them, Spain.

“For young people, one hour of sport per day is enough to reduce the potential risk of this genetic mutation,” Ruiz said.

The study has been published in the journal Archives of Paediatrics & Adolescent Medicine. (ANI)

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Our brains can’t handle too much love interest

April 17, 2010 By Leave a Comment

When it comes to choosing romantic partners, the more potential mates a person meets, the more his or her decision is influenced, concludes a new study.

In particular, when people have a large number of potential dating partners to select among, they respond by paying attention to different types of characteristics – discarding attributes such as education, smoking status, and occupation in favour of physical characteristics such as height and weight.

A number of studies in recent years have looked at what happens to humans when faced with extensive choice – too many kinds of chocolate, or too many detergents to choose from at the grocery store.

Under such circumstances, consumer psychologists believe that the brain may become “overwhelmed,” potentially leading to poorer quality choice or choice deferral.

Psychological scientist Alison Lenton, of the University of Edinburgh, and economist Marco Francesconi, of the University of Essex, wanted to know if the same was true of mate choice.

“Is having too many mate options really like having too many jams?” they asked.

To find out how people respond to relatively limited versus extensive mate choice, the researchers analysed data from 84 speed dating events, which is where people meet with a series of potential dates for three minutes each. Afterward, the men and women report their choices (a “yes” or “no” for each person).

It should surprise no one that choosers generally preferred people who were taller, younger, and well educated.

Women also preferred partners who weren’t too skinny, and men preferred women who weren’t overweight. Beyond that, though, the attributes that speed daters paid attention to depended on how many opposite-sex speed daters attended the event.

At bigger speed dating events, with 24 or more dates, both male and female choosers were more likely to decide based on attributes that could be judged quickly, such as their dates” height, and whether they were underweight, normal weight, or overweight.

At smaller events, choosers were more likely to make decisions based on attributes that take longer to identify and evaluate, such as their dates” level of education, their type of job, and whether or not the person smokes.

“Obviously, I think we look for different attributes in partners than what we look for in a chocolate, a jam or a 401(k) plan. But one of the points we’re trying to make in this article is it’s the same brain we’re carrying around. There are constraints on what our brains can do – they’re quite powerful, but they can’t pay attention to everything at once,” said Lenton.

And if the brain is faced with abundant choice, even about who to go out with, it may make decisions based on what it can evaluate most quickly.

Thus, this previously invisible aspect of the choice environment has the potential to determine one’s romantic fate.

The study is published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

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Our brains can’t handle too much love interest

April 16, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Washington, Apr 16 (ANI): When it comes to choosing romantic partners, the more potential mates a person meets, the more his or her decision is influenced, concludes a new study.

In particular, when people have a large number of potential dating partners to select among, they respond by paying attention to different types of characteristics – discarding attributes such as education, smoking status, and occupation in favour of physical characteristics such as height and weight.

A number of studies in recent years have looked at what happens to humans when faced with extensive choice – too many kinds of chocolate, or too many detergents to choose from at the grocery store.

Under such circumstances, consumer psychologists believe that the brain may become “overwhelmed,” potentially leading to poorer quality choice or choice deferral.

Psychological scientist Alison Lenton, of the University of Edinburgh, and economist Marco Francesconi, of the University of Essex, wanted to know if the same was true of mate choice.

“Is having too many mate options really like having too many jams?” they asked.

To find out how people respond to relatively limited versus extensive mate choice, the researchers analysed data from 84 speed dating events, which is where people meet with a series of potential dates for three minutes each. Afterward, the men and women report their choices (a “yes” or “no” for each person).

It should surprise no one that choosers generally preferred people who were taller, younger, and well educated.

Women also preferred partners who weren”t too skinny, and men preferred women who weren”t overweight. Beyond that, though, the attributes that speed daters paid attention to depended on how many opposite-sex speed daters attended the event.

At bigger speed dating events, with 24 or more dates, both male and female choosers were more likely to decide based on attributes that could be judged quickly, such as their dates” height, and whether they were underweight, normal weight, or overweight.

At smaller events, choosers were more likely to make decisions based on attributes that take longer to identify and evaluate, such as their dates” level of education, their type of job, and whether or not the person smokes.

“Obviously, I think we look for different attributes in partners than what we look for in a chocolate, a jam or a 401(k) plan. But one of the points we”re trying to make in this article is it”s the same brain we”re carrying around. There are constraints on what our brains can do – they”re quite powerful, but they can”t pay attention to everything at once,” said Lenton.

And if the brain is faced with abundant choice, even about who to go out with, it may make decisions based on what it can evaluate most quickly.

Thus, this previously invisible aspect of the choice environment has the potential to determine one”s romantic fate.

The study is published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. (ANI)

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My pic was used as “masturbatory prop” in Couples Retreat, ex-model claims

March 13, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Melbourne, Mar 13 (ANI): A former model has filed a 10 million dollar lawsuit against the makers of hit movie ”Couples Retreat”, claiming that her bikini photo was used in a “sexual and degrading context”.

According to the New York Post, in papers filed in the Manhattan Supreme Court, Irina Krupnik said she was horrified to discover her photo was used as a “masturbatory prop” for star Jon Favreau.

Krupnik, now a makeup artist, claims she “only learned of the defendants” lascivious use of her photo in the film” after it was released in theatres.

“That photo was taken nearly 10 years ago for a modelling job when Krupnik, a native of the former Soviet Union, was just 21 years old,” the Daily Telegraph quoted the suit as stating.

It also said that Krupnik was unaware that the bikini shot would be used in a “sexual and degrading context” in a big budget Hollywood movie a decade later.

”Couples Retreat” is a comedy about four couple trying to work out their differences at a resort in Bora Bora.

The suit said in one scene Favreau”s “overweight, unhappily married male character” uses a photo of Krupnik “to masturbate while his wife is in the washroom”.

Favreau, “playing a character at least twice the age of Ms. Krupnik in the photo, waits until his wife leaves their hotel room before lifting his sleeveless T-shirt over his prominent belly.

He then liberally lubricates himself while leering at the image of the youthful Ms Krupnik on a beach, a scenario apparently intended to be humorous”.

Krupnik, however, was not amused to find herself as a fantasy object for Favreau”s “much older, desiccated and overweight character” to “pleasure himself”, the suit said, noting that the scene “would be a crime if Favreau attempted it on a New York City subway”.

Krupnik, who quit modelling years ago and became a top makeup artist, Vogue Magazine dubbed her the “Brow Queen” in 2004, found out about her movie debut from “clients and acquaintances who viewed the movie, recognized her and notified her that her picture was being used in this tawdry and shocking context”.

Those “clients and acquaintances, and other viewers, reasonably but falsely understood from the publication of Krupnik”s photograph … that is she is the type of person who would agree to having her photograph and likeness used publicly as an object for masturbation”.

Krupnik”s lawyer, Tom Mullaney, said Universal Studios, which created and distributed the movie, should have used somebody who wanted to be in the movie.

“Certainly NBC Universal has the resources to do that,” Mullaney said, adding what happened to his client is “just not right”.

He acknowledged that his client had signed a general release at the time the picture was taken, but she”d never imagined it would be used in a “quasi-pornographic context”.

The suit charges the company with invading Krupnik”s privacy and defamation, and seeks 10 million dollars in damages for her “great humiliation, embarrassment, emotional distress, shame, mortification and injury to her reputation and career”. (ANI)

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Men worry more about mates’ beliefs rather than partners’ when it comes to size of penis

September 17, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Melbourne, September 16 (ANI): An Australian study suggests that men seem to be more concerned about what their mates think rather than their partners, when it comes to the stature and size of their penis.

Annabel Chan, a PhD student at Melbourne’s Victoria University who obtained penis measurements from more than 500 men worldwide, describes this phenomenon as the “locker room syndrome”.

She has revealed that the men also answered questions designed to probe the link between penis size, male body image and mental health.

“It’s the locker room syndrome,” the Courier Mail quoted her as saying.

“That’s when they feel they should be bigger whereas when they are on their own they are actually quite happy with themselves,” she added.

During the study, the researchers asked the men, aged 18 to 76, to indicate their ideal body size, and compare that to what they believed other men would nominate.

About 65 per cent of the participants said that their ideal male body size would be smaller than the ideal size suggested by others.

The men were also asked whether they believed they would be a better sexual partner if they had a bigger penis.

Chan said: “(The men were) more concerned about how their overall body-size compared to the perceived male ideal than they are about how their size might impact on their sexual relations.”

The online survey asked men to measure their erect penises.

Chan said that she expected to receive some overstated measurements, but the self-reported data fell within the normal range of about 10 to 15cm.

“I thought people would report themselves as being very big, but they have been quite average,” she said.

The study showed that men with larger than average penises also reported higher levels of self-esteem, better general health and higher overall body satisfaction.

It further revealed that men who were happy with the size of their penis were also less likely to have used an online dating service, or to have used Viagra.

Overweight men had lower self-esteem, higher body dissatisfaction and greater use of the Internet for socialising, said the researchers.

“We have relatively little data about the body image of men because most of the research in this area concentrates on women,” Chan said.

“It means men don’t really get much help in terms of therapy, and options out there to get help,” she added. (ANI)

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Financially impulsive individuals ‘more likely to overeat’

September 14, 2009 By Leave a Comment

London, Sept 14 (ANI): People with poor money habits are more likely to over-eat, according to a new study.

To reach the conclusion, researchers from University College London asked over 40,000 people if they would prefer 45 pounds in three days or 70 pounds in three months, reports The Telegraph.

Those who wanted the smaller amount were also impulsive in other areas of their life. The study found that they were more likely to want the immediate pleasure of a cake, an affair or a puff on a cigarette than consider the long-term effect on their health or relationship.

Volunteers who were young, poorly educated and on a low income were the most financially impulsive, the study found.

Nearly half of those surveyed preferred the smaller sum of money, the Personality and Individual Differences journal reports.

Researcher Dr Stian Reimers, from UCL, said: “One of the big questions about people’s financial planning is whether decisions to spend or save come from personal knowledge and experience of money matters or whether they reflect someone’s personality more generally.

“Our research shows that people with an impulsive money-today attitude ignore the future in other ways.

“For example, they are more likely to smoke and more likely to be overweight, which may reflect a preference for immediate pleasure of nicotine and food over long-term good health.

“People who chose to take the smaller amount of money were also more likely to admit to having had an affair in recent years, suggesting another manifestation of desire for immediate gratification.

“Those who decline 70 pounds in three months in favour of 45 pounds in three days are essentially turning down an interest rate that’s hundreds of times what they’d get on the high street.

“This may begin to explain why some people are reluctant or unable to save money.

“Simple techniques can help reduce impulsivity, like imagining how you’d feel about your decision in a year’s time or trying to avoid making decisions in the heat of the moment.” (ANI)

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Second child within a year ‘increases breast cancer risk’

September 14, 2009 By Leave a Comment

London, Sept 14 (ANI): Having a second child within a year of the first birth can increase a woman’s risk of developing breast cancer, finds a new study.

The research, involving 30,000 women each of whom had produced five or more children, has shown that those with a gap of less than 12 month were 5.2 times more likely to develop the advanced ductal breast cancer than women who had a gap of three or more years.

Although it is unclear that why the risk increases, researchers believe hormones might be involved.

Alternatively, other risk factors may have influenced the results, including being overweight, and whether or not the mother chooses to breast-feed.

“Women who had their first two births close together should not be worried by these findings because the study’s results are not conclusive,” the Telegraph quoted Josephine Querido, senior science information officer at Cancer Research UK, as saying.

“The researchers looked at a very specific group of women – those who had a specific type of breast cancer, who had advanced tumours, who were under 50, and who had at least five children. In studies like this, dividing the group of people you’re looking at into lots of smaller groups makes it likely that you’ll find a positive result in one of the subgroups just by chance.

“For all women, it’s important to go to the GP if they spot any unusual changes in their breast, and to go for screening when invited,” Querido added.

The study appears in the British Journal of Cancer. (ANI)

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Weight gain in adulthood linked to prostate cancer risk

September 12, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Washington, Sep 12 (ANI): Body size and weight gain in younger and older adulthood may help weigh a man’s proneness to prostate cancer, according to a study by researchers at the University of Hawaii at Manoa’s Cancer Research Center of Hawaii.

Led by Dr. Brenda Hernandez, the researchers said that the risk varies among different ethnic groups

For the study, the researchers studied the relationship in a multiethnic population consisting of blacks, Japanese, Hispanics, Native Hawaiians and whites, and compared differences among age groups using the Multiethnic Cohort, a longitudinal study of men 45-75 years of age established in Hawaii and California from 1993-1996.

Of the 83,879 men who participated in the study, 5,554 developed prostate cancer.

Overall, men who were overweight or obese by age 21 had a decreased risk of localized and low-grade prostate cancer, according to Hernandez.

Their results suggested that being overweight in older adulthood was associated with increased prostate cancer risk among white and Native Hawaiian men, but a decreased risk among Japanese men.

While excessive weight gain between younger and older adulthood was observed to increase the risk of advanced and high-grade prostate cancers in white men and increase the risk of localized and low-grade disease in black men, it appeared to decrease the risk of localized prostate cancer in Japanese men.

“The relationship of certain characteristics, such as body size, with cancer risk may vary across ethnic groups due to the combined influence of both genes and lifestyle,” said Hernandez.

However, the relationship between body size and prostate cancer risk is not entirely understood.

Excess fat is associated with a number of conditions that contribute to cancer development including low-grade chronic inflammation, insulin resistance, metabolic abnormalities, and hormone imbalances.

These conditions may in turn contribute to more aggressive prostate malignancies.

Ethnic differences in cancer risk may be explained by differences in the distribution of stored body fat that could have a differential effect on the development of prostate cancer.

And the distribution of body fat may influence the specific way that excess fat influences cancer risk.

The study has been published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research. (ANI)

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Poor money savers likely to be overeaters, smokers, love cheats

September 4, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Washington, Sept 4 (ANI): People who are poor at saving money are likely to have impulsive behaviour such as overeating, smoking and infidelity, according to a new study.

The study conducted through the BBC website measured people’s financial impulsivity by asking whether they would they prefer to receive 45 pounds in three days or 70 pounds in three months.

The findings revealed that nearly half of those who preferred the smaller-sooner sum of money were more likely to show a raft of other impulsive behaviours.

“One of the big questions about people’s financial planning is whether decisions to spend or save come from personal knowledge and experience of money matters or whether they reflect someone’s personality more generally,” said Dr Stian Reimers, ESRC Centre for Economic Learning and Social Evolution at UCL.

“Our research shows that people with an impulsive money-today attitude ignore the future in other ways.

“For example, they are more likely to smoke and more likely to be overweight, which may reflect a preference for immediate pleasure of nicotine and food over long-term good health,” Reimers added.

Moreover, people who chose to take the smaller-sooner amount of money were also more likely to admit to having had an affair in recent years.

The study also showed that those most likely to make impulsive financial choices were young, poorly educated, and on lower incomes.

“Learning to make decisions that lead to long-term happiness, not just instantaneous gratification, could benefit us all. Simple techniques can help reduce impulsivity: like imagining how you’d feel about your decision in a year’s time, or trying to avoid making decisions in the heat of the moment,” Reimers added.

The study appears in journal Personality and Individual Differences. (ANI)

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Smoking, overweighing up breast cancer risk

September 2, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Washington, September 2 (ANI): A study conducted in Canada has reinforced the correlation between being overweight, smoking and breast cancer.

Published in the Journal of Cancer Epidemiology, the study is unique because it did not include subjects who were diagnosed for BRCA1 and BRCA2 gene mutations, which predispose women to breast cancer.

The study entirely focused on lifestyle factors like smoking, exercise, nutrition and weight.

All women analysed in the study were direct ancestors of the first French colonists.

“To our knowledge, this is the first study conducted on a sample of women without BRCA1 and BRCA2 gene mutations, which are often found in French-Canadian women,” said lead researcher Vishnee Bissonauth, a graduate of the Universite de Montreal’s Department of Nutrition, and a researcher at the Sainte-Justine University Hospital Research Center.

The study found that weight gains after the age of 20 increased the risk of breast cancer.

Where the weight gain was more than 15.5 kilos, the risk was found to increase by an average of 68 percent.

Risk increases depending on how late in life the weight gain occurs, according to the study.

Women who gained more than 10 kilos after age 30, or more than 5.5 kilos after age 40, were found to be almost twice as likely to suffer from breast cancer as a those whose weight was stable.

The study showed that the risk tripled if the body mass index was at its maximum after age 50.

Smoking a pack a day for nine years was also found to increase breast cancer risks by 59 percent.

Though the impact of smoking seemed to decrease for menopausal women, it remained at 50 percent.

Bissonauth stressed the need for more research into the correlation between smoking and breast cancer.

The researchers revealed that moderate physical activity appeared to decrease cancer risks by 52 percent for pre-menopausal and post-menopausal women.

The correlation was also observed for women who did intense physical activity, but the difference was not significant, said the lead researcher.

That finding, said Bissonauth, may be down to the fact that women who did moderate physical activity were more likely to do it regularly, while those who did intense physical activity were likely to quit after a few weeks.

“Cancer is a complex disease and can be latent for several years. Therefore, it is important to work on the factors we can control and to lead a healthy lifestyle, which means watching one’s weight, avoid smoking and doing regular exercise,” said Bissonauth. (ANI)

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Obese kids aged 12 showing early signs of heart disease: EU study

September 1, 2009 By Leave a Comment

London, Sept 1 (ANI): Overweight and obese kids as young as 12 are showing early signs of heart disease, warn Spanish researchers.

During a study, scientists in Barcelona analysed 80 obese and overweight kids with an average age of 12 and compared them with 60 lean youngsters.

They found that larger kids had higher cholesterol and blood pressure, as well as more signs of pre-diabetes.

The researchers are now looking into “endothelial dysfunction” – a thickening of the arteries associated with heart problems.

By studying how easily the forearm relaxes, scientists are able to monitor the degree of the dysfunction.

They discovered the overweight and obese children had a similar level of the condition to adults with chronic heart disease.

“Endothelium-dependent relaxation of forearm arteries is already impaired by the same as in adults with chronic heart failure, and this in our 12-year old obese children,” the Scotsman quoted the researchers as saying.

“Primary or secondary prevention strategies starting early in childhood should aim at reversing current increase in childhood obesity.

“These strategies can be initiated at home and in preschool institutions, schools or after-school care services to influence diet and physical activity in the entire children population. However, further research needs to explore the most effective strategies to prevent and treat obesity.

“Already in early childhood, overweight and obesity are associated with the risk factors for the development of cardiovascular diseases like diabetes, high blood pressure or high cholesterol levels,” they added.

The findings were presented at European Society of Cardiology. (ANI)

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Kids as young as 10 under constant pressure to have perfect bod

August 27, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Washington, Aug 27 (ANI): Kids as young as 10 are living under constant pressure to have the perfect body, say researchers.

The study, led by researchers from Harvard University and the University of Alberta, Canada, showed a linear response for girls, who were happiest when thinnest, and a U-shaped response for boys, who were unhappy when they were too skinny or too fat.

To reach the conclusion, the researchers looked at the relationship between size and body satisfaction, as well as the effects of rural/urban residence, parental education and income, and neighborhood household income on kids.

“There is a well-established relationship between poor body satisfaction and increased risk of disordered weight control behaviors, including vomiting, fasting, and use of laxatives and diet pills for weight control. Importantly, body satisfaction appears to be responsive to school-based interventions,” said Bryn Austin, the lead researcher.

“To increase our understanding of body satisfaction and its links with BMI in childhood, we studied the prevalence of poor body satisfaction in prepubescent girls and boys, and its association with body weight and socioeconomic factors,” she added.

The findings revealed that overall, 7.3pct of girls and 7.8pct of boys reported poor body satisfaction.

For normal weight, overweight and obese girls the prevalence of poor body satisfaction was 5.7pct, 10.4pct and 13.1pct, respectively.

For boys this was 7.6pct, 8.4pct, and 8.1pct, respectively. Girls from parents with low educational attainment and residing in rural areas were more likely to report poor body satisfaction.

“Poor body satisfaction among males with a low BMI may reflect the cultural ideal for males to attain both muscularity and leanness; whereas, among females, thinness remains the culturally defined ideal body shape,” said Austin.

The research is published in the open access journal BMC Public Health. (ANI)

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Housewives ‘more likely to suffer from heart disease than working women’

August 26, 2009 By Leave a Comment

London, Aug 26 (ANI): Housewives are at an increased risk of suffering from heart disease and strokes as compared to women who go to work, a new study has shown.

And experts blame the more sedentary lifestyles of ladies who stay at home, as they are more likely to smoke, be less educated, drink more, be overweight and suffer from depression – all contributory factors.

Now, in the latest study, researchers from the University of North Carolina studied 7,000 women aged 45 to 64 to see if there was a link between employment status, coronary heart diseases and strokes.

From analyses, they found that women employed outside the home had a lower risk. For heart disease, this link was stronger among women who did not have a high school education, reports The Daily Express.

The authors said: “One theory suggests that women with more roles, for example, family and employee roles, may have a better health profile than women with fewer roles, although the strength of this association may vary as the result of different levels of job demands and job control.

“Because of the fact that many women assume multiple roles as homemakers, primary caretakers for children and elderly parents, in addition to being employed outside of the home, the investigation of the health-employment relationship among women is complex.”

In the research, housewives were found to have a lower education level than employed women.

The study has been published in the journal Annals of Epidemiology. (ANI)

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Oz Federal Govt. cracks downs on weight-loss industry as obesity rate rises

August 19, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Melbourne, Aug 19 (ANI): The Federal Government in Australia has decided to take a look into the massive diet and weight-loss industry, following reports that the obesity rate in the country is still climbing.

Weight-loss programs and products will have to prove that they can help people keep off the kilos long-term as the Federal Government cracks down on the 414-million dollar-a-year industry.

The Kevin Rudd Government’s Preventative Health Taskforce is understood to have called for the weight-loss industry to be regulated in a report handed down last month.

It follows growing evidence that diets may actually be adding to the obesity crisis, as overweight people lose weight rapidly while following programs, but quickly put it back on after they stop.

The taskforce said that young women in particular were spending hundreds of millions of dollars a year on such programs to manage their weight.

Despite this, the nation’s obesity rate was climbing with more than 60 per cent of adults now overweight or obese.

While weight-loss programs and pharmacy-based meal replacement programs were popular, the task force said there was limited data to show they were actually effective.

It wants a wide-ranging review of diet products and a common code of practice drawn up covering the cost, the training of counsellors and the promotion of the diets.

The Dietitians Association of Australia is backing the recommendation.

According to the Daily Telegraph, a spokesman said all commercial diet programs should be assessed by a body of experts similar to the Therapeutic Goods Administration, which assesses drugs for safety and efficacy before they can go on sale.

The association said regulation should require businesses marketing a diet program to provide evidence to a panel of experts showing what percentage of those who used the diet kept the weight off two years after starting.

Chief executive Claire Hewat said a good diet would result in weight loss of about half a kilogram per week.

“If you can lose 5 per cent of your body weight you are doing really well,” News.com.au quoted her as saying.

“Diets are not the point, it’s lifestyle change that is needed,” she stated. (ANI)

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Average age of adult video game player is 35: US study

August 18, 2009 By Leave a Comment

London, August 18 (ANI): The average age of an adult video gamer has been found to be 35, which is higher than previously believed, reveals a new US study.

According to a team from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), players were also less healthy, fatter, and more depressed than those who stayed away from the device.

A previous UK survey, conducted by the Leisure Software Publishers Association seven years ago, had placed the average age of the player’s age between 25 and 34, reports the BBC.

But it also said that the age bar was gradually increasing, a finding reinforced by the CDC study.

CDC experts found that female gamers reported greater depression and lower health status than female non-players, while male video-game players reported a higher BMI and a greater reliance online than non-gamers.

Dr James B Weaver said: “Health risk factors, specifically a higher BMI and a larger number of poor mental-health days, differentiated adult video game players from non-gamers.

“Video game players also reported lower extraversion, consistent with research on adolescents that linked video-game playing to a sedentary lifestyle and overweight status.” (ANI)

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Cris Cyborg Santos | Cristiane Justino Venancio Santos | Chute Boxe Academy | Evangelista Santos | Nickname “Cyborg” | Cyborg | Marloes Coenen | TKO | American Promotion Strikeforce | Gina Carano

August 14, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Cris Cyborg Santos | Cristiane Justino Venancio Santos | Chute Boxe Academy | Evangelista Santos | Nickname “Cyborg” | Cyborg | Marloes Coenen | TKO |  American Promotion Strikeforce | Gina Carano

Cristiane Justino Venancio Santos 9th July 1985 is a Brazilian mixed martial artist. She currently trains at the Chute Boxe Academy alongside her husband Evangelista Santos. Both she and her husband share the nickname “Cyborg”.

She made her anticipated United States MMA debut on 26th July 2008 against Shayna Baszler at EliteXC: Unfinished Business, whom she defeated by TKO.

Cristiane was scheduled to face Dutch submission specialist Marloes Coenen @ XMMA 7 on 27thFeb. However, she will not be fighting since she signed a new contract with Strikeforce.

She has recently signed with the American promotion Strikeforce. Signing with Strikeforce greatly increases the chance that a fight with Gina Carano will actually happen and it will likely be for a newly-created women’s 145 lb title. On 11thApril  2009, an overweight Santos defeated Hitomi Akano in the debut show of Strikeforce.

Santos is scheduled to fight Gina Carano on August 15 at Strikeforce: Carano vs. Cyborg for the 145-lb womens championship. This card will be the first major promotion to feature a main-event between women. .

-Wiki.

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Positive parental attitude can help stop child obesity epidemic

August 9, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Washington, Aug 9 (ANI): An eminent obesity expert has said that parents can help to prevent obesity in children by helping them with their eating habits and building a healthy body image.

According to Edward Abramson, PhD and professor emeritus at California State University, parents can ward off obesity by getting their children to eat better food and exercise.

Dr. Abramson said childhood obesity has increased fourfold in the last 40 years, which may make today’s children to become the first generation to have a shorter lifespan than their parents.

Speaking at the American Psychological Associations’ 117th Annual Convention, the expert said that in the last decade, “we’ve seen a [tenfold] increase in Type-2 diabetes and psychological and social consequences, such as prejudice, rejection, discrimination and low self-esteem in children…More than 60 percent of overweight children have one risk factor for cardiovascular disease and 20 percent have two or more risk factors.”

Abramson said, “emotional eating” or eating when one is not hungry may trigger off obesity.

“This can lead to a weight problem or an eating disorder,” he added. “Parents’ attitudes and behaviours also have an influence on children’s eating, and mothers more than fathers affect children’s eating habits and body image.”

He noted that multiple factors contribute to a mother’s concern for her child’s weight problems.

“For example, there is evidence that minority parents (e.g., African-American, Hispanic) are less concerned about their children’s weight…. Often, when a mother is struggling with her own weight, she becomes more involved in regulating her daughter’s eating. In general, mothers are more concerned than fathers about their child’s weight, especially their daughter’s, and are more likely to restrict foods,” the expert added.

According to Abramson children are genetically coded with a tongue for sweet and salty tastes.

“For these children, it may take several repetitions (10 or more) to have a child try a new food, but parents should retreat gracefully and try again another day rather than get into a battle of wills when the child refuses a food,” he said.

He also spelled out a way to get children to try out new and healthy foods.

“If the child is in the kitchen cooking with Mom or Dad, it’s unlikely that he/she will refuse the food that they’ve helped prepare, ” he added.

Abramson pointed out that physical activity could prevent children to gain extra flab even if there is a familial tendency to gain weight. (ANI)

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Fat people ‘more likely to die of swine flu’

July 16, 2009 By Leave a Comment

London, July 16 (ANI): Here’s some bad news for fat folks: Overweight people are more likely to die of swine flu, says a new US study.

According to unpublished figures, which were reported at a recent meeting of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia, 99 people who died in the early stages of the pandemic in the US, 45 per cent were obese.

Up till now, most of the individuals who have died from H1N1 swine flu have had an underlying health problem which weakened their ability to fend off the virus, reports New Scientist.

Among the conditions recognised as increasing the risk from flu are hypertension, diabetes, chronic lung obstruction and coronary disease. Now it may be time to add obesity to the list.

The figures surprised most flu researchers.

“In 40 years of studying flu, I have never heard anything about obesity,” says virologist John Oxford of Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, University of London. (ANI)

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Obesity linked to increased risk of rapid cartilage loss

July 14, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Washington, July 14 (ANI): A new study has shown that obesity, among other factors, is strongly associated with an increased risk of rapid cartilage loss.

Tibio-femoral cartilage is a flexible connective tissue that covers and protects the bones of the knee. Cartilage damage can occur due to excessive wear and tear, injury, misalignment of the joint or other factors, including osteoarthritis (the most common form of arthritis).

In osteoarthritis, the cartilage breaks down and, in severe cases, can completely wear away, leaving the joint without a cushion. The bones rub together, causing further damage, significant pain and loss of mobility.

The best way to prevent or slow cartilage loss and subsequent disability is to identify risk factors early.

“Osteoarthritis is a slowly progressive disorder, but a minority of patients with hardly any osteoarthritis at first diagnosis exhibit fast disease progression,” said the study’s lead author, Frank W. Roemer, M.D., adjunct associate professor at Boston University and co-director of the Quantitative Imaging Center at the Department of Radiology at Boston University School of Medicine.

“So we set out to identify baseline risk factors that might predict rapid cartilage loss in patients with early knee osteoarthritis or at high risk for the disease,” Dr. Roemer added.

The researchers recruited patients from the Multicenter Osteoarthritis (MOST) Study, a prospective study of 3,026 people, age 50 – 79, at risk for osteoarthritis or with early x-ray evidence of the disease.

Dr. Roemer’s study consisted of 347 knees in 336 patients. The patient group was comprised of 65.2 percent women, mean age 61.2, with a mean BMI of 29.5, which is classified as overweight. Recommended BMI typically ranges from 18.5 to 25. Only knees with minimal or no baseline cartilage damage were included.

Of 347 knees selected for the study, 20.2 percent exhibited slow cartilage loss over the 30-month follow-up period and 5.8 percent showed rapid cartilage loss.

Rapid cartilage loss was defined by a whole organ magnetic imaging score of at least 5, indicating a large full thickness loss of 75 percent in any subregion of the knee during the follow-up period.

The results showed that the top risk factors contributing to rapid cartilage loss were baseline cartilage damage, high BMI, tears or other injury to the meniscus (the cartilage cushion at the knee joint) and severe lesions seen on MRI at the initial exam. Other predictors were synovitis (inflammation of the membrane that lines the joints) and effusion (abnormal build-up of joint fluid).

Excess weight was significantly associated with an increased risk of rapid cartilage loss. No other demographic factors-including age, sex and ethnicity-were associated with rapid cartilage loss.

“As obesity is one of the few established risk factors for osteoarthritis, it is not surprising that obesity may also precede and predict rapid cartilage loss,” Dr. Roemer said.
he study has been published in the August issue of Radiology. (ANI)

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