Heavy Stuff

Here's an interesting article on the heft of potential presidential candidate, and New Jersey governor, Chris Christie, including a discussion about how odd it is that someone's weight is still fair game for ridicule.

Is Obama's Surgeon General Pick Too Heavy?

Fascinating -

Critics Slam Overweight Surgeon General Pick, Regina Benjamin

"'I think it is an issue, but then the president is said to still smoke cigarettes,' said Dr. Marcia Angell, former editor of The New England Journal of Medicine who is now a senior lecturer at Harvard University Medical School. 'It tends to undermine her credibility.'"

Stuff From All Over

I'm making up for my hiatus with a bunch of interesting stuff -

From ThirdAge -

Zicam can cause you to lose your sense of smell. I have a terrible one to begin with, so I'd better avoid that stuff.

One doctor has this to say about homeopathic remedies -

"Very often, the only active ingredient is alcohol, and patients don't know that, and they get a buzz-on. The therapeutic effect is no greater or less than a martini," -Dr. Jerry Avorn, expert in pharmaceutical safety at Harvard Medical School

Postmenopausal women (like Sotomayor and Clinton) have a pretty high risk of bone loss and weakness. ThirdAge lists some ways to counteract the effects of aging on bone strength, courtesy of Dr. Rachel Rohde, and orthopedic surgeon -

• Eat right. Be sure your diet is rich in calcium and vitamin D
• Expose yourself. Sunlight activates vitamin D, so spending 20 minutes either before 10 am or after 2 pm, several times a week in the sun with your arms and legs exposed (and without sunscreen), should be sufficient.
• Supplement with D. If you aren't exposed to sunlight on a regular basis, consider taking a vitamin D supplement
• Get Fit. Engage in a regular fitness program including weightbearing activity three to four hours per week
• Quit smoking. Here's one more reason to quit. Smoking cigarettes can be hazardous to your bone health
• Limit alcohol. If you do drink, do it in moderation. Too much can weaken your bones.
  
  

On happiness - "To be happy and content independent of events is not something that just happens, it is something we must work at every day." - Dr. Lynn (I don't know who that is, but she has a PhD and she's on ThirdAge). This reminds me of my favorite Dalai Lama (whose birth name is Tenzin Gyatso) quote -

"Every day, think as you wake up, today I am fortunate to be alive, I have a precious human life, I am not going to waste it. I am going to use all my energies to develop myself, to expand my heart out to others; to achieve enlightenment for the benefit of all beings. I am going to have kind thoughts towards others, I am not going to get angry or think badly about others. I am going to benefit others as much as I can."

From the New York Times. What the?

"Being overweight won’t kill you — it may even help you live longer. That’s the latest from a study that analyzed data on 11,326 Canadian adults, ages 25 and older, who were followed over a 12-year period."

It's a Start

This is a great article from the Washington Post. A study of 21,000 doctors over a period of 20 years has revealed that even minimal "vigorous" exercise (1-3 times/month!) makes heart disease less likely (18%). The study's results also find that being a little bit overweight (BMI of 25-29.9) makes one significantly more likely to develop heart disease (49% more likely).

So, the point is that, even if you think you don't have time to exercise, or you hate exercising, or you think there's no hope, even a slight change in your behavior can yield you health benefits.

Look out Australia, Here We Come!

Hey all you Aussies, we're the U.S.A. We don't like being #2 at anything.

And I don't like using stuff posted on Drudge, since I figure everyone reads it already anyway, but this is such an alarming finding, that I feel that I must share it with my faithful readers -

"All U.S. Adults Could Be Overweight in 40 Years"

78% of African American women are already categorized as overweight or obese, so for some segments of the population, it's not really a big stretch to get to 100%.

This is from the Reuters Health article -

"'Genetically and physiologically, it should be impossible' for all U.S. adults to become overweight, said Dr. Lan Liang of the federal government's Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, one of the researchers on the study."

"However, she told Reuters Health, the data suggest that if the trends of the past 30 years persist, 'that is the direction we're going'."

I believe Scooby Doo's reaction to this would be "rut row".

The Most Important Meal of the Day (Revisited)

More news on the health benefits (and healthy correlation) of eating breakfast. The New York Times recently published an article about the fact that people who eat breakfast are less likely to be overweight. I think this is due to the fact that those are often people who lead more disciplined lives, getting up earlier and making better food choices and finding time for daily exercise. I have pointed out before that sumo wrestlers eat only two meals a day, and many nutritionists recommend that you eat many, smaller meals throughout the day.

I'd also like to point a site that has some great, quick pointers. Men's Health has a video segment called MH Minute.

More Belly News

The word "belly" is funny, isn't it? Well, bellies are no laughing matter, and research continues to support the fact that it's unhealthy to sport one, even if they make you look jolly.

There is research from Kaiser Permanente that suggests a link between bellies during a person's middle age and a later Alzheimer's risk. There has already been a link established between belly size and increased coronary heart disease risk.

Drudge linked to the Associated Press article on My Way News.

Same Old Story

"Health Data Shows Most Employees Are Overweight"

Most people are overweight or obese, so it stands to reason that most of the ones who are employed are also overweight or obese. The headline should really read "Data Show", but that seems to be something of a grammatical anachronism these days. Oh well.

From an article about a Kronos Optimal Health study in Employee Benefit News -

"The findings show 77% of men and 65% of women aged 40 and older are overweight or obese. Among those younger than 40, almost 68% of men and 52% of women are overweight or obese. The high number of obese employees means many employees are living with elevated health risks like heart attack, stroke and diabetes. "

So, keep in mind as you age that most people gain a couple of pounds per year, and 40 years into your adult life, you're likely 50 or more pounds overweight.

Does the name "Kronos" make anyone else think of Kang and Kodos from the Simpsons?

Gastroeconomic Expansion

This is a very interesting past article in the Washington Post -

"Why America Has to Be Fat"

If you take the time to read it, you'll find some startling statistics. You'll also learn that because of how well our economy provides for so many, we now consume more calories than we expend. As the author puts it, "we use[sic] to be paid to exercise at work, now we pay to exercise after work".

So, since we don't exercise at work and we have lots of cheap, high-calorie food around, I guess we have to pay to exercise during our free time. That's just the way it is. There's no miracle gimmick that will let us out of that reality.

Stand Up!

This might explain why bus drivers have such big butts.

"Scientists have found intriguing evidence that one major reason so many people are overweight these days may be as close as the seat of their pants. Literally. According to the researchers, most of us sit too much."

Scientists Say Just Standing Up May Be as Important as Exercise

He's No Christian Bale

Bale is, of course, the very fit star of "American Psycho". And he's Welsh. That's where this dude is from.

I knew this was coming, but I am very surprised to see it already -

"New Zealand Bars British Man's 'Fat' Wife"

I'm not sure why "fat" is in quotation marks there. Would they prefer to be referred to, as in the body of the article, as "morbidly obese"?

Cancer and Weight Gain

So, if you're overweight as a child, you're more likely to be overweight as an adult. And if you're overweight as an adult, you're more likely to get cancer, in particular, women are more likely to get breast cancer, according to a recent study by the National Cancer Institute, and outlined in this article in U.S. News and World Report.

"'This is just one more very important piece of evidence demonstrating the importance of weight gain to the development of breast cancer,' said Dr. Jay Brooks, chairman of hematology/oncology at Ochsner Health System in Baton Rouge, La."

The article makes an important point in stating that, just because it has become common in our society for people to gain weight as they age, does not mean that it is natural or healthy.

Holy Cows

From MSNBC.com -

"Obesity is a public health crisis. If the rate of obesity and overweight continues at this pace, by 2015, 75 percent of adults and nearly 24 percent of U.S. children and adolescents will be overweight or obese."

-Dr. Youfa Wang, Johns Hopkins University

For black women, the numbers are even more staggering. 80 percent of those aged 40 and over are overweight, and 50 percent are obese. Yikes.

One of the researchers of the JHU study makes a dire warning at the end of the article in stating that, soon, obesity will be the number one preventable cause of death in the US.

BMI Hits Life Insurance

You will see more and more of this, and soon. From BusinessWeek.com -

"The Phoenix Cos. is one of the first insurers to offer discounts on life insurance to customers based on their body mass index ratio."

"Wake-up Call"

Read here in Forbes about a recently completed longitudinal study of weight problems in females that began when they were 9 or 10 and continued until the women were in their 30s. This is a rather bleak outlook, but it demonstrates how important it is to develop good diet and exercise habits early in life:

"'This shows that obesity and other risk factors for heart disease track from younger to older. This is a wake-up call for policymakers, for schools, for parents,' said Arlene Spark, associate professor of nutrition at Hunter College, in New York City. 'The success rate for treatment is practically zero. The only thing that we can really hope for is that we can prevent children from becoming overweight and obese.'"

"Girls who were overweight during childhood were 11 to 30 times more likely to be obese as young adults."