"It's
in their genes" is a common refrain from scientists when asked about
factors that allow centenarians to reach age 100 and beyond.
Up
until now, research has focused on genetic variations that offer a
physiological advantage such as high levels of HDL ("good") cholesterol.
But researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Ferkauf
Graduate School of Psychology of YeshivaUniversity
have found that personality traits like being outgoing, optimistic,
easygoing, and enjoying laughter as well as staying engaged in
activities may also be part of the longevity genes mix.
The present study of 243 of the centenarians (average age 97.6 years,
75 percent women) was aimed at detecting genetically-based personality
characteristics by developing a brief measure (the Personality Outlook
Profile Scale, or POPS) of personality in centenarians.
"When
I started working with centenarians, I thought we'd find that they
survived so long in part because they were mean and ornery," said Nir
Barzilai, M.D., the Ingeborg and Ira Leon Rennert Chair of Aging
Research, director of Einstein's Institute for Aging Research and
co-corresponding author of the study. "But when we assessed the
personalities of these 243 centenarians, we found qualities that clearly
reflect a positive attitude towards life. Most were outgoing,
optimistic and easygoing. They considered laughter an important part of
life and had a large social network. They expressed emotions openly
rather than bottling them up." In addition, the centenarians had lower
scores for displaying neurotic personality and higher scores for being
conscientious compared with a representative sample of the U.S. population.
"Some
evidence indicates that personality can change between the ages of 70
and 100, so we don't know whether our centenarians have maintained their
personality traits across their entire lifespans," continued Dr.
Barzilai. "Nevertheless, our findings suggest that centenarians share
particular personality traits and that genetically-based aspects of
personality may play an important role in achieving both good health and
exceptional longevity."
The research findings is published in AGING, a high impact journal of aging research:
Kato K, Zweig R, Barzilai N, Atzmon G. Positive attitude towards life and emotional expression as personality phenotypes for centenarians.Aging, 2012; 4 (5)
Not happy with our story?
HERE, free of charge to you, is the full research paper!
Unlike the unfortunate Canny Ong, may she rest in peace, Xin Ci escaped her abductors to tell us her
harrowing experience. You can benefit by reading Xin Ci’s story.
Published on May 26, 2012
by blackspiderz86 Click
to skip to minutes 5:32 to witness this scary accident. We pray that the
injured Youths get well soon!
To counteract the fallout from the success of the recent
Bersih 3.0 rally, the federal government organized a Himpunan Jutaan Belia 2012 (Million (sic) Youth Rally
2012) in Putrajaya (the federal administrative centre with monumental bridges# galore built at a
cost of almost US$ 8.1 billion) on May 23-27. We don’t know how many youth actually turned up
over the 3 days as the usual “Comical Ali’s” were surpringly mute about this.
In Haste
As if to better the first night-time event in Formula Onehistory held in that little red dot across the causeway by Malaysian-born Ong
Beng Seng, the Ministry of Youth and Sports decided hastily to have a midnight drag race there.
The organizers did not bother with or were ignorant of the stringent
safety protocols and powerful lighting systems that were employed in the
Singapore Grand Prix to ensure the safety of not only the racers but equally, indeed more importantly,
the safety of the spectators, the “million” youths who are the hope and future of the
country, who had turned up to watch the
race.
Fail to Plan, Plan to
Fail
And so it happened! One of the competing cars
skidded during a trial run and crashed onto a group of the ‘million’ youth
lining under the streetlights of the Wadi Ehsan Highway at Precinct 19. The fiasco sent 17 unfortunate
spectators in hospital with 4 of them suffering serious injuries.
Datuk Razlan Razali, chief executive officer of the
Motorsports Association of Malaysia (MAM) later confirmed to the Sun Daily that
MAM did not sanction the drag race. The organizers did not approach MAM for
advice or management of any of the motorsports events held during the rally.
"All the events held there were unsanctioned events;
the organisers did not follow any of our safety regulations,” said Datuk
Razlan. "Whoever was asked to organise the event did not know fully the
details of organising motorsports events, including the need for sanctioning by
an official body."
No Insurance
Coverage, Watch at Your Own Risk
"A lot of the cost of sanctioning goes to
insurance coverage. The price of sanctioning includes third-party insurance.
Everyone is covered. More importantly, sanctioning imposes a minimum safety
standard which covers the racers, crews and spectators," Datuk Razlan.
* I encountered another “OneMalaysia” at KLIA on May 30,
2012 … the OneMalaysia SkyTrain!
Only one SkyTrain was operating and there was a long wait to
get to the other terminal.
Why? Is it because business is so slow at KLIA that the
service of the other SkyTrain was stopped to cut cost or is it because the
parts of the second unit had been cannibalized to keep One Malaysian Skytrain
running?
As one among the unappreciated 10% of Malaysians who pay tax, I hope
I am wrong on either count.
At Changi airport
there’s a Skytrain every 3 minutes, but it’s in Singapore, that little red dot!
#
Klang desparately needs a utilitarian one which can be constructed at a
fraction of the cost of one of those ornamental behemoths in Putrajaya.
And the federal government did promise Klangites not just one but two
bridges back in 2008, see Bernama report, but this was simply pre-election carrots and remains as such!
Aktiviti
fizikal yang lasak dilihat dapat mengurangkan risiko psoriasis di
kalangan kumpulan jururawat wanita di Amerika Syarikat, menurut hasil
kajian kohort oleh Hillary C. Frankel, dari Brigham dan Hospital
Wanita dan Sekolah Perubatan Harvard, Boston, Massachusetts, dan
rakan sekerja.
Aktiviti Fizikal dan
Penyakit Radang
Aktiviti fizikal
telah dikaitkan dengan risiko penurunan gangguan yang dicirikan oleh
keradangan sistemik, termasuk diabetes mellitus jenis 2, kanser
kolon, penyakit koronari arteri, dan kanser payudara.
Berjalan
dan senaman lasak kelihatan mempunyai peranan yang sama dalam
mengurangkan risiko mendapat penyakit arteri koronari, diabetes jenis
2, dan kanser payudara. Hubungan dos-tindak balas juga telah
menunjukkan, bahawa jumlah aktiviti fizikal yang lebih tinggi
dikaitkan dengan risiko penyakit yang lebih rendah.
Secara
biologi adalah munasabah bahawa aktiviti fizikal boleh menjejaskan
risiko psoriasis melalui kesan pada pengantara keradangan sistemik.
Populasi kajian
meliputi 86,655 jururawat wanita AS yang melaporkan sama ada mereka
pernah didiagnosis sebagai mempunyai psoriasis dan yang mengisi
borang kaji selidik aktiviti fizikal yang terperinci pada tahun 1991,
1997 dan 2001. Peserta yang mempunyai sejarah psoriasis sebelum 1991
dikecualikan.
Pengarang mendokumentasikan sebanyak 1026 kes
kejadian psoriasis daripada 1,195,703 orang semasa rawatan susulan
selama 14 tahun (1991-2005).
Tingkah
Laku Kesihatan Boleh Mempengaruhi Gen Apabila Ia Berkaitan Dengan
Psoriasis
Selepas pelarasan bagi
umur, merokok, dan penggunaan alkohol, mereka mendapati bahawa
aktiviti fizikal yang lasak secara berasingan berkaitan dengan
penurunan risiko kejadian psoriasis.
Rujukan:
Frankel HC, Han J, Li T, Qureshi AA.
The Association Between Physical Activity and the Risk of Incident
Psoriasis. Arch Dermatol. 2012;():1-7.
doi:10.1001/archdermatol.2012.943
Turmeric has been used for centuries in folk medicine to treat wounds, infections, and other health problems.
Therapeutic properties of curcumin:
There
is a large body of literature providing experimental data supporting a
wide range of pharmacologic properties of curcumin, including
chemosensitizing, radiosensitizing, wound healing, antimicrobial,
antiviral, antifungical, immunomodulatory, neuroprotective, antioxidant
and antiinflammatory properties.
New role identified
OregonStateUniversity scientists have
discovered that curcumin can cause a modest but measurable increase in
levels of a protein that’s known to be important in the “innate” immune
system, helping to prevent infection in humans and other animals.
This
cathelicidin antimicrobial peptide, or CAMP, is part of what helps our
immune system fight off various bacteria, viruses or fungi even though
they hadn’t been encountered before. CAMP
appears to have the ability to kill a broad range of bacteria,
including those that cause tuberculosis and protect against the
development of sepsis.
Prior to this, it was known that CAMP levels were increased by vitamin D.
There has been intense scientific interest in the vitamin D receptor in
recent years because of potential therapeutic benefits in treating
infection, cancer, psoriasis and other diseases, the researchers noted
in their report. An alternative way to elicit a related biological
response could be significant and merits additional research, they said.
Curcumin can cause the levels of CAMP to almost triple but the impact of curcumin in this role is not nearly as potent as that of vitamin D.
“Curcumin,
as part of turmeric, is generally consumed in the diet at fairly low
levels,” Gombart said. “However, it’s possible that sustained
consumption over time may be healthy and help protect against infection,
especially in the stomach and intestinal tract.”
The above story is based on the May 25, 2012 news release by theOregonStateUniversity.
See recent posts on curcumin by The Zestzfulness Team
NSAID Alternatives – CURCUMIN, Mar 12, 2011
Tumeric
(Curcuma longa) and its main biologically active constituent, a
polyphenol called curcumin, have remarkable, multiple health benefits as
supported by an extensive body of clinical science. CLICK HERE to read
Curcumin: getting back to the roots, Mar 27, 2010
Modern
science has revealed that curcumin mediates its effects by modulation
of several important molecular targets, including transcription factors
(e.g., NF-kappaB, AP-1, Egr-1, beta-catenin, and PPAR-gamma), enzymes ...CLICK HERE to read
Turmeric Component Fights Head and Neck Cancer, Sep 17, 2011
"We
believe curcumin could be combined with other treatments, such as
chemotherapy and radiation, to treat head and neck cancer. It also could
perhaps be given to patients at high risk for developing head and neck
cancers… CLICK HERE to read
And now, we celebrate the union of former Australian Prime Minister
Kevin Rudd's son, Nicholas Rudd (25) and Zara Shafruddin (26) at St James
Church on April 16, 2012. The newlyweds, both lawyers, work at international
law firm Clayton Utz in Sydney.
Who is Zara?
According to one Anonymous
in Farah Rahim’s blog, Zara Shafruddin is the daughter of Associate Prof Dr.
Shafruddin Hashim (Malaysian citizen from Negeri Sembilan) and Diane Sadler
(Australian citizen). She went to Jerudong
International School
(Brunei) when her father
worked in Brunei.
They have since left Brunei
and now live in Australia.
Congratulations to Nick and Zara. May all your troubles be
little ones.
Surprise yourselves with some Malaysian reactions to this union HERE
Low Vitamin D in diet
increases stroke risk in Japanese-Americans
Japanese-American men who did
not eat foods rich in vitamin D had higher stroke risk.
Foods rich in vitamin D are
important because synthesizing vitamin D from the sun gets harder as we
age.
Japanese-American men who don't eat a diet rich in vitamin D
have an increased risk of stroke later in life, according to a new, long-term
study.
Vitamin D is an essential nutrient that helps prevent
rickets in children and severe bone loss in adults, and researchers believe it
has the potential to lower the risk of a host of diseases including cancer and
diabetes.
The study included nearly 7,400 Japanese-American men living
in Hawaii. They
were between the ages of 45 and 68 in the mid- to late-1960s, when they were
first examined and interviewed about their eating habits.
Researchers calculated risk while adjusting for age, total
calorie intake, body-mass index, hypertension, diabetes, cigarette smoking,
physical activity, cholesterol levels and
alcohol intake.
During 34 years of follow-up, 960 of the men suffered
strokes. Compared to those with the highest levels of vitamin D in their diet,
men who took in the least dietary vitamin D had a 22 percent higher risk of
stroke and a 27 percent higher risk of ischemic (blood-clot-related) stroke. No
difference existed for hemorrhagic (bleeding) stroke, however.
"Our study confirms that eating foods rich in vitamin D
might be beneficial for stroke prevention," study author Dr. Gotaro
Kojima, a geriatric medicine fellow at the John A. Burns School of Medicine at
the University of Hawaii in Honolulu, said in a journal news release.
Kojima said, however, it's unclear whether the study
findings could be applied to women or to different ethnic groups.
Sunlight generally is the primary source of vitamin D, but
synthesizing vitamin D from the sun becomes more difficult as people age,
Kojima said, meaning older people need to eat more foods rich in vitamin D or
take supplements. Fortified milk, breakfast cereals, fatty fish and egg yolks
all are good sources of vitamin D.
###
The above story is based on the May 22, 2012 news release
the American Heart Association/American Stroke Asociation.
The research was published ahead of print in Stroke,
an American Heart Association journal: Kojima G, Bell C, Abbott RD, Launer L, Chen
R, Motonaga H, Ross GW, Curb JD, Masaki K. Low
Dietary Vitamin D Predicts 34-Year Incident Stroke - The Honolulu Heart Program. Stroke.Published online before print May 24, 2012, doi:
10.1161/STROKEAHA.112.651752http://stroke.ahajournals.org/content/early/2012/05/24/STROKEAHA.112.651752.abstract
“Noticed the obvious
declining standards of the national schools - lack of 'out-of-the class'
exposures, lack of proper guidance- including cultivating good habits &
manners, lack of follow-ups (ie. school work/ homework unchecked/unmarked for
several weeks), lack of 'compulsory' workbook usage, lack of teachers, teachers
absence during class periods increasing (especially during moral lessons), lack
emphasis on non-academic subjects (ie. art, PE, Moral, KT, etc.)....just to
name a few.
More physical education in schools leads to better motor
skills and it can also sharpen students’ learning ability.
This is shown by Assistant Professor Ingegerd Ericsson at Malmö University
in a unique study where she followed more than two hundred schoolchildren for
nine years in Malmö in southern Sweden.
The differences are especially clear among boys.
“The differences are significant between children who
underwent expanded teaching in physical education and children who had regular
instruction,” says Ingegerd Ericsson.
Ingegerd Ericsson monitored three cohorts of children in
grades 1-3 (darjah 1-3 in the Malaysian
school system) at Ängslätt School and Sundsbro
School in Bunkeflostrand
in Malmö. She compared the development of children in an intervention group
that received scheduled physical education five days a week, plus extra motor
training, with the development of a control group. For nine years Ingegerd
Ericsson registered motor-skills observations, such as balance and
coordination, in a total of 220 students. She also compared their results on
diagnostic tests in grade 2 and their final grades in grade 9.
Now she has compiled the report, which shows that:
• 96 percent of the intervention group compared to 89
percent in the control group achieved the goals of compulsory school and were
eligible to go on to upper-secondary school.
It is primarily the boys’ achievements—with 96 percent vs. 83
percent—that lies behind this outcome. Moreover, the boys in the intervention
group had significantly higher grades in Swedish, English, Mathematics, and PE
and health than the boys in the control group.
• In grade 9, 93 percent of the students in the intervention
group evinced good motor skills compared to 53 percent in the control group.
The reliability of the findings is further enhanced by the
homogenity in the groups under investigation: the children are the same age, go
to the same school, and have parents with comparable education, income, and
interest in physical activity.
“Physical education has been pared down from three lessons a
week to one or two. We scientifically confirm here that daily timetabled
physical education and adapted motor skills training not only improve motor
skills but also school achievement. With more physical education and health
considerably more students attain passing grades,” says Ingegerd Ericsson.
Professor Magnus Karlsson at the Orthopedic Clinic at the Scania University
Hospital is co-author of
the study. Magnus Karlsson has previously shown that daily physical education
in Bunkeflostrand schools has an excellent effect on the development of the
skeleton and muscles, and that children who were most physically active had the
least tendency to develop overweight and risk factors for cardiovascular
disease.
###
The above story is bsed on the May 23, 2012 newsrelease by Expertanswer. The research is published here: Ericsson I, Karlsson MK. Effects of increased physical activity and motor training on motor
skills and self-esteem. An intervention study in school years 1 through 9.Scand J Med Sci Sports. 2012 Apr 9. doi:
10.1111/j.1600-0838.2012.01458.x.
Click HERE for the
Full Text from the International
Journal of Sports Psychology.
See also related researchpapers:
Despite its importance, physical education is often among
the first on the list of subjects which are considered to be expendable.
EH Wee.
Physical Education in Malaysia: A
Case Study of Fitness Activity in Secondary
School Physical Education Classes. Chapter
2, Innovative Practices in Physical
Education and Sports in Asia, UNESCO Bangkok,
2008. viii + 100 pp. Click
HERE to read
Given competent providers, physical education can be added
to the school curriculum by taking time from other subjects without risk of
hindering student academic achievement. On the other hand, adding time to
"academic" or "curricular" subjects by taking time from
physical education programmes does not enhance grades in these subjects and may
be detrimental to health.
Trudeau F, Shephard RJ.
Physical education, school physical activity, school sports and academic
performance. Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act. 2008; 5: 10 Click HERE for the Full Text
“The worst illiterate is the political illiterate, he
doesn’t hear, doesn’t speak, nor participates in the political events. He
doesn’t know the cost of life, the price of the bean, of the fish, of the
flour, of the rent, of the shoes and of the medicine, all depends on political
decisions. The political illiterate is so stupid that he is proud and swells
his chest saying that he hates politics. The imbecile doesn’t know that, from
his political ignorance is born the prostitute, the abandoned child, and the
worst thieves of all, the bad politician, corrupted and flunky of the national
and multinational companies.”
― Bertolt Brecht
Bertolt Brecht (born Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht;
February 10, 1898 - August 14, 1956), the German poet, playwright, and theatre
director offered a warning many years ago. Brecht knew all to well the dangers
of those who hid behind political indifference or ignorance. A celebrated
artist, Brecht fled his native country in 1933 after the rise of Adolph Hitler.
We are not sure about the copyright of the following legal jokes but we got them unsolicited and at no charge from a certain John Ng, an old alumni of St Anthony's, Teluk Anson:
First Joke- A man went to his lawyer and told him, "My
neighbour owes me $500 andhe doesn't want to pay up. What should I do?"
"Do you have any proof?", asked the lawyer. "Nope," replied
the man. "Okay, then write him aletter asking him for the $1,000 he owes
you," said the lawyer. "But it's only $500!" replied the man.
"Precisely, that's what he will reply and we will have the proof we
need," said the lawyer.
Second Joke- The professor of a Contract Law class asked
one of his better students, "If you were to give someone an orange, how
would you go about it?" The student replied, "Here's an orange."
The professor was outraged."No! No! Think like a lawyer!" The student
then replied, "Ok.I will tell him - "I hereby give and convey to you
all and singular, my estate and interests, rights, claim, title and advantages
of and in, said orange, together with all its rind, juice, pulp and seeds,and
all rights and advantages with full power to bite, cut, freeze and otherwise
eat, the same, or give the same away with and without the pulp, juice, rind and
seeds, anything herein before and hereinafter or in any deed, or deeds,
instruments of whatever nature or kind whatsoever to the contrary in anywise
notwithstanding.
Third Joke-A dog
ran into a butcher shop and grabbed a roast off the counter.Fortunately, the
butcher recognised the dog as belonging to a neighbour of his. The neighbour
happened to be a lawyer. Incensed at the theft, the butcher called up his
neighbour and said, "Hey, if yourdog stole a roast from my butcher shop,
would you be liable for the cost of the meat?" The lawyer replied,
"Of course, how much was the roast?" "RM18.00." A few days
later the butcher received a cheque in the mail for for RM18.00. Attached to it
was an invoice that read: 'LegalConsultation Service: RM150.
Fourth Joke - The lawyer's son wanted to follow in his
father's footsteps, so he went to law school. He graduated with Honours, and
then went home to join his father's legal firm. At the end of his first day at
work he rushed into his father's office, and said, "Father, you know what,
in one day I managed to solve the accident case that you've been working on for
10 years!" His father responded: " You idiot, we lived on the funding
of that case for 10 years!"
The self-service petrol station system was introduced by the
government in the Klang Valley 15 years ago in 1997 to reduce dependence on
foreign workers and to reduce the burden on operators.
So, why the hell are these foreign workers back in greater force
in self-service stations?
To supervise Malaysians parking their cars, pumping fuel,
cleaning their windshields?
Have they been imposed on petrol station operators to fatten
the licensed human traffickers?
Charity? Visit Shell Persiaran Raja Muda Musa 2 HERE and witness real charity by the Lim brothers - they give work to fellow Malaysians who are handicapped!
BP and lipid tests in
pharmacies could boost risk-factor control
A campaign in pharmacies in Portugal to encourage customers to
have their blood pressure and cholesterol measured in-store found that almost
half of the people who participated had a high risk of developing a fatal
cardiovascular event in the next 10 years.
Almost 40% of the 12 930 individuals surveyed during the
weeklong campaign, entitled "Know your heart values," had BPs above
target (>140/90 mm Hg) and were not taking any medication for this. And even
among those already taking antihypertensives, almost half (48.3%) still had BP
above target, explained Dr Cristina Santos (National Association of Pharmacies
[ANF], Lisbon, Portugal), who presented her findings as a poster during the recent
European Society of Hypertension (ESH) European Meeting on Hypertension
2012.
Expertise and Accessibility
of Pharmacists
She believes more use should be made of the expertise and
accessibility of pharmacists. "Pharmacies are really accessible, they have
a health professional in there with specific training, and it's very important
that customers know that they can go to a pharmacy and have a quick check of
their BP or cholesterol.”
“It's really important, even for patients who have already
been diagnosed. It's key for them to be monitored in the pharmacy." Most
physicians, Santos
says, welcome this development: "They can have a partner who can send them
information about how their patients are."
Mangga ini adalah untuk peti sejuk anda
Menurunkan berat
badan apabila gemuk boleh mencegah atau merawat kencing manis, apa
pun BMI awal anda.
Menurunkan BMI anda sebanyak lima unit
boleh secara mendadak mengurangkan risiko penyakit kencing manis, apa
pun berat badan awal anda, menurut kajian terbaru yang dibentangkan
di Kongres Antarabangsa Endokrinologi / Kongres Endokrinologi Eropah
di Florence, Itali. Hasil kajian menunjukkan bahawa walaupun pesakit
yang agak gemuk menghidap kencing manis, mereka berpotensi dapat
melepaskan diri mereka daripada penyakit ini.
Menangani
kencing manis adalah perkara penting yang diberi keutamaan oleh
penyedia perkhidmatan kesihatan di seluruh dunia (lebih kurang enam
hingga tujuh peratus penduduk dunia, kira-kira 285 juta orang) dan
komplikasi yang teruk termasuk amputasi dan penyakit jantung.
Pembedahan untuk menurunkan berat badan tanpa diduga mempunyai kesan
terapeutik yang pantas dan besar kepada kadar kencing manis. Memahami
mengapa penurunan berat badan mempunyai kesan dramatik terhadap
kencing manis adalah tumpuan kajian ini yang dijalankan oleh Profesor
Madya Markku Peltonen dari Institut Kebangsaan Kesihatan dan
Kebajikan, Finland dan rakan-rakan dari Universiti Gothenburg,
Sweden.
Para penyelidik yang mengikuti 2010 pesakit dari
kajian Subjek Obes Sweden telah menerima pembedahan bariatrik dan
2037 kawalan obes menerima rawatan konvensional obesiti (bukan
pembedahan). Mereka telah mengambil data BMI dan kencing manis
dipermulaan (sebelum pembedahan dalam kumpulan pembedahan), dan pada
dua tahun dan 10 tahun susulan.
Kalangan pesakit dengan BMI
<35, 35-40 dan 40-45 yang tidak menurunkan berat badan selepas dua
tahun, kadar mendapat kencing manis jenis 2 adalah masing-masing
6.5%, 7.7% dan 9.3%. Antara mereka yang mempunyai BMI awal antara
35-40, 40-45 dan ≥ 45 yang kehilangan sekurang-kurangnya lima unit
BMI selepas dua tahun, kadar mendapat kencing manis jenis 2 adalah
masing-masing 2.4%, 2.0% dan 3.4%, jelas menunjukkan bahawa kadar
kencing manis yang lebih rendah ditemui di kalangan pesakit obes yang
telah kehilangan lima unit BMI melalui apa-apa cara sekalipun.
Analisis selanjutnya menunjukkan bahawa kadar pesakit yang sembuh
daripada diabetes selepas kehilangan lima unit BMI adalah tidak
bergantung kepada BMI awal di semua peringkat BMI yang diukur. Trend
ini juga diperhatikan selepas 10 tahun selepas pembedahan.
Kajian ini
mencadangkan bahawa kehilangan lima unit BMI, bersamaan dengan lebih
kurang 16 kilogram untuk lelaki dengan tinggi 180cm, berusia 35 tahun
dan berat 130kg (BMI 40), boleh membuat perubahan kepada kesihatan
anda dengan mengurangkan kemungkinan anda mempunyai diabetes jenis 2.
Tambahan pula, ia menyarankan bahawa ini adalah benar untuk semua
pesakit, bahkan mereka yang terlalu gemuk menunjukkan peningkatan
yang dramatik.
Profesor Madya Markku Peltonen, Pengarah
Jabatan di Institut Kebangsaan Kesihatan dan Kebajikan, Finland,
berkata:
"Hasil kajian kami menunjukkan bahawa, apa jua
berat badan anda pada permulaan, kehilangan lima unit BMI boleh
secara mendadak mengurangkan risiko anda mempunyai kencimg manis
jenis 2 selepas dua dan sepuluh tahun.
"Pengurangan lima
unit BMI bukanlah pencapaian yang hebat, kerana badan manusia tidak
begitu baik untuk mengurangkan berat badan. Tetapi pesakit dengan
berat berapapun perlu mengambil dorongan ini bahawa dengan berbuat
demikian, mereka benar-benar dapat meningkatkan peluang mereka untuk
masa depan yang sihat. "
Walking is a great form of cardiovascular exercise and
amusement that requires very little equipment. But the American Council on
Exercise (ACE) warns new walkers to start slowly and not to overdo it.
Here are the council's recommendations:
Start
out with a short walk of about five minutes. Then gradually increase your
time and distance.
Don't
walk too quickly; stick to a comfortable pace.
Practice
proper posture, with your head up and shoulders relaxed.
Allow
your arms to swing naturally.
Breathe
deeply, and slow down if you can't catch your breath.
Don't
move so vigorously that you can't talk while you're walking.
ACE is a nonprofit
organization committed to enriching quality of life through safe and effective
exercise and physical activity. ACE helps to protect all segments of society
against ineffective fitness products, programs and trends through its ongoing
public education, outreach and research. ACE further protects the public by
setting certification and continuing education standards for fitness professionals.
Vigorous physical activity appeared to reduce the risk for
psoriasis among a group of female nurses in the United
States, according to the findings of a cohort study by Hillary
C. Frankel, from Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard
Medical School,
Boston, Massachusetts,
and colleagues.
Physical Activity and
Inflammatory Disorders
Physical activity has been associated with a decreased risk
of disorders characterized by systemic inflammation, including type 2 diabetes
mellitus, colon cancer, coronary artery disease, and breast cancer.
Walking and vigorous exercise appear to have an equal role
in reducing the risk of developing coronary artery disease, type 2 diabetes,
and breast cancer. A dose-response relationship has also been demonstrated,
with higher amounts of physical activity associated with a lower risk of
disease.
It is biologically plausible that physical activity may
affect psoriasis risk through effects on systemic inflammatory mediators.
The study population included
86 655 US female nurses who reported whether they had ever been diagnosed
as having psoriasis and who completed detailed physical activity questionnaires
in 1991, 1997, and 2001. Participants with a history of psoriasis prior to 1991
were excluded.
The authors documented 1026 incident
psoriasis cases during 1 195 703 person-years of follow-up (14 years, 1991-2005).
Health Behaviors May
Trump Genes When It Comes to Psoriasis
After adjusting for age, smoking, and
alcohol use, they found that vigorous physical activity is independently
associated with a reduced risk of incident psoriasis.
Reference:
Frankel HC, Han J, Li T, Qureshi AA. The Association Between Physical Activity and the Risk of Incident
Psoriasis. Arch Dermatol. 2012;():1-7. doi:10.1001/archdermatol.2012.943
It turns out that when we eat may be as important as what we
eat.
Led by Satchidananda Panda, an associate professor in the
Regulatory Biology Laboratory, scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological
Studies have found that regular eating times and extending the daily fasting
period may override the adverse health effects of a high-fat diet and prevent
obesity, diabetes and liver disease in mice.
They fed two sets of mice, which shared the same genes,
gender and age, a diet comprising 60 percent of its calories from fat (like
eating potato chips and ice-cream for all your meals). One group of mice could
eat whenever they wanted, consuming half their food at night (mice are
primarily nocturnal) and nibbling throughout the rest of the day. The other
group was restricted to eating for only eight hours every night; in essence,
fasting for about 16 hours a day. Two control groups ate a standard diet
comprising about 13 percent of calories from fat under similar conditions.
Mice limited to
eating during an 8-hour period are healthier than mice that eat freely
throughout the day, regardless of the quality and content of their diet
After 100 days, the mice who ate fatty food frequently
throughout the day gained weight and developed high cholesterol, high blood
glucose, liver damage and diminished motor control, while the mice in the
time-restricted feeding group weighed 28 percent less and showed no adverse
health effects despite consuming the same amount of calories from the same
fatty food. Further, the time-restricted mice outperformed the ad lib eaters
and those on a normal diet when given an exercise test.
Their findings suggest that regular eating times and fasting
for a significant number of hours a day might be beneficial to our health.
Fasting Time
Important
"By eating in a time-restricted fashion, you can still
resist the damaging effects of a high-fat diet, and we did not find any adverse
effects of time-restricted eating when eating healthy food," says Megumi
Hatori, a postdoctoral researcher in Panda's laboratory and a first author of
the study. However, she cautioned that people should not jump to the conclusion
that eating lots of unhealthy food is alright as long as we fast. "What we
showed is under daily fasting the body can fight unhealthy food to a
significant extent," she says. "But there are bound to be
limits."
The Salk study suggests an option for preventing obesity by
preserving natural feeding rhythms without altering dietary intake.
The Salk study found the body stores fat while eating and
starts to burn fat and breakdown cholesterol into beneficial bile acids only
after a few hours of fasting. When eating frequently, the body continues to
make and store fat, ballooning fat cells and liver cells, which can result in
liver damage. Under such conditions the liver also continues to make glucose,
which raises blood sugar levels. Time-restricted feeding, on the other hand,
reduces production of free fat, glucose and cholesterol and makes better use of
them. It cuts down fat storage and turns on fat burning mechanisms when the
animals undergo daily fasting, thereby keeping the liver cells healthy and
reducing overall body fat.
The daily feeding-fasting cycle activates liver enzymes that
breakdown cholesterol into bile acids, spurring the metabolism of brown fat --
a type of "good fat" in our body that converts extra calories to
heat. Thus the body literally burns fat during fasting. The liver also shuts
down glucose production for several hours, which helps lower blood glucose. The
extra glucose that would have ended up in the blood -- high blood sugar is a
hallmark of diabetes -- is instead used to build molecules that repair damaged
cells and make new DNA. This helps prevent chronic inflammation, which has been
implicated in the development of a number of diseases, including heart disease,
cancer, stroke and Alzheimer's. Under the time-restricted feeding schedule
studied by Panda's lab, such low-grade inflammation was also reduced.
"Implicit in our findings," says Panda, "is
that the control of energy metabolism is a finely-tuned process that involves
an intricate network of signaling and genetic pathways, including nutrient
sensing mechanisms and the circadian system. Time-restricted feeding acts on these
interwoven networks and moves their state toward that of a normal feeding
rhythm."
Simple, Effective Lifestyle
Intervention
"The take-home message," says Panda, "is that
eating at regular times during the day and overnight fasting may prove to be
beneficial. If following a time-restricted eating schedule can prevent weight
gain by 10 to 20 percent, it will be a simple and effective lifestyle
intervention to contain the obesity epidemic.”
The
scientific findings has been published inCell Metabolism which
focuses on reports of novel results in any area of metabolic biology, from
molecular and cellular biology to translational studies:Hatori M, Vollmers C, Zarrinpar A, DiTacchio
L, Bushong EA, Gill S, Leblanc M, Chaix A, Joens M, Fitzpatrick JAJ, Ellisman
MH, Panda S. Time-Restricted Feeding without Reducing Caloric Intake
Prevents Metabolic Diseases in Mice Fed a High-Fat Diet. Cell
Metab, 2012; DOI: 10.1016/j.cmet.2012.04.019
###
Footnote:
The National Health and Morbidity Survey in 2006 showed that
two out of every five adults or 43%, were either overweight or obese and an
alarming situation where the number of obese adults had more than tripled over
a decade, from 4% in 1996 to 14% in 2006.
Obesity increases the risk of a number of health conditions
including: high blood pressure, high cholesterol and type 2 diabetes. Lifestyle
modifications, including eating a healthy diet and daily exercise, are
first-line interventions in the fight against obesity.
See also “Malaysians getting obese - by eating too
heavily at night” by Florence A Samy in The Star, April 11, 2010
Number of
Battery-Related Emergency Department Visits by Children More Than Doubles
In today's technology-driven world, batteries, especially
button batteries, are everywhere. They power countless gadgets and electronic
items that we use every day.
While they may seem
harmless, button batteries can be dangerous if swallowed by children.
A new study conducted by researchers at the Center for
Injury Research and Policy of The Research Institute at Nationwide Children's
Hospital found that the annual number of battery-related emergency department
visits among children younger than 18 years of age more than doubled over the
20-year study period, jumping from 2,591 emergency department visits in 1990 to
5,525 emergency department visits in 2009. The number of button batteries
swallowed by children also doubled during this period.
The study found that more than three-fourths of
battery-related visits to emergency departments by children were among children
5 years-old or younger, with one-year-olds having the greatest number of
emergency department visits. Of the cases where the battery's intended use was
mentioned, only 29 percent involved batteries that were used for toys and
games. The majority of cases involved batteries from products not intended for
use by young children, such as watches (14 percent), calculators (12 percent),
flashlights (9 percent) and remote controls (6 percent).
"We live in a world designed by adults for the
convenience of adults, and the safety of children is often not
considered," said Gary Smith, MD, DrPH, director of the Center for Injury
Research and Policy at Nationwide Children's Hospital. "Products with
easily-accessible battery compartments are everywhere in our homes today. By
making a few simple design changes and strengthening product manufacturing
standards, including products not intended for use by young children, we could
prevent many of the serious and sometimes fatal injuries that occur when
children are able to easily access button batteries in common household
products."
Among cases that described the type of battery, 84 percent
involved button batteries. Researchers attribute this finding to the increasing
number and variety of electronics powered by button batteries and the resulting
increased availability of these products in the home. Recent reports suggest
that the number of fatal and severe button battery ingestions is on the rise.
This trend is associated with the increasing use of the three volt, 20
millimeter, lithium button batteries.
"The increased prevalence of the higher voltage 20mm
lithium batteries is concerning because it coincides with an alarming 113
percent increase in battery ingestions and insertions by young children,"
said Dr. Smith, also a professor of pediatrics at The Ohio State University
College of Medicine. "When a button battery is swallowed and gets caught
in a child's esophagus, serious, even fatal injuries can occur in less than two
hours."
Recommendations to
prevent these types of injuries include:
• Taping the battery compartments of all household devices
shut
• Storing batteries and products with batteries out of the
reach of young children
• Being aware of this potential danger when your child is
visiting other homes
Researchers also recommend that manufacturers ensure that
packaging for batteries and products containing button batteries is child
resistant and that they design all battery compartments to either require a
screwdriver to be opened or that they be secured with a child-resistant locking
mechanism, regardless of whether the product is intended for use by children or
adults. Parents who think that their child may have swallowed a button battery
should seek medical attention immediately so that an x-ray can be taken to be
sure that the battery is not stuck in the esophagus.
###
The above story is based on the May 14, 2012 news release by Nationwide
Children's Hospital. The research paper is available here: Sharpe
SJ, Rochette LM, Smith GA. Pediatric Battery-Related Emergency
Department Visits in the United States, 1990–2009. Pediatrics,
2012 DOI: 10.1542/peds.2011-0012
We are community pharmacists practicing in the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and reaching out to Baby Boomers and GenXs in the WorldWideWeb.
We would like to share with you the experience we gather from our daily practice and the knowledge we gain from our continuing professional studies to help enhance the quality of our lives.
Baby Boomers, let us show you how you can still get the maximum from your golden years.
And Gen Xs, we give you the advantage of foresight.
Prices and promotions are subject to change without notice.
We do not promote dangerous and illegal drugs.
The information in Zestzfulness is provided for informational purposes and is not meant to substitute for advice provided by your own doctor or pharmacist. We strive to present the most updated information to you; however, no warranty or guarantee is made concerning the accuracy and/or completeness or the information in or linked to or from this site.
If you have or suspect that you have a medical problem, promptly contact your doctor or pharmacist.
