Men who were grossly overweight at the age of 18 had nearly 50 percent less chance of being married by their 30s and 40s, an international conference on obesity heard in Amsterdam on Thursday.

The findings, which held true regardless of the men’s intellectual performance or socio-economic position, could suggest that women rank a man’s appearance higher than other traits when choosing a partner.

“Yes, that may be one explanation,” researcher Malin Kark of the Swedish Karolinska Institutet medical university, told AFP on the sidelines of the four-day gathering hosted by the European Association for the Study of Obesity.

Kark’s study was conducted among more than 500,000 Swedish men born between 1951 and 1961.
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Cancer will overtake heart disease as the world’s top killer by 2010, part of a trend that should more than double global cancer cases and deaths by 2030, international health experts said in a report released Tuesday. Rising tobacco use in developing countries is believed to be a huge reason for the shift, particularly in China and India, where 40 percent of the world’s smokers now live.

So is better diagnosing of cancer, along with the downward trend in infectious diseases that used to be the world’s leading killers.

Cancer diagnoses around the world have steadily been rising and are expected to hit 12 million this year. Global cancer deaths are expected to reach 7 million, according to the new report by the World Health Organization.

An annual rise of 1 percent in cases and deaths is expected, with even larger increases in China, Russia and India. Read the rest of this entry »

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The National Fatwa Council has ruled that yoga is ‘haram” for Muslims. Its chairman, Datuk Dr Abdul Shukor Husin said only the physical aspect of yoga without the mantras and elements of worshipping outwardly was not wrong (in Islam).

However, he said, yoga was not to be encouraged among Muslims for fear that it could erode their Islamic faith since the physical part was a component of yoga practice as a whole.

He said there were three stages to yoga practice, which originated from the Hindus, — first, the physical aspect which is the exercise part; second Read the rest of this entry »

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Tests on leading brands of bottled water turned up a variety of contaminants often found in tap water, according to a study released Wednesday by an environmental advocacy group.

The findings challenge the popular impression and marketing pitch that bottled water is purer than tap water, the researchers say.

However, all the brands met federal health standards for drinking water. Two violated a California state standard, the study said.

An industry group branded the findings “alarmist.” Joe Doss, president of the International Bottled Water Association, said the study is based on the faulty premise that a contaminant is a health concern “even if it does not exceed the established regulatory limit or no standard has been set.”

The study’s lab tests on 10 brands of bottled Read the rest of this entry »

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You can look great in a swimsuit and still be a heart attack waiting to happen. And you can also be overweight and otherwise healthy. A new study suggests that a surprising number of overweight people, about half have normal blood pressure and cholesterol levels, while an equally startling number of trim people suffer from some of the ills associated with obesity.

The first national estimate of its kind bolsters the argument that you can be hefty but still healthy, or at least healthier than has been believed.

The results also show that stereotypes about body size can be misleading, and that even “less voluptuous” people can have risk factors commonly associated with obesity, said study author MaryFran Sowers, a University of Michigan obesity researcher.

“We’re really talking about taking a look with a very different lens” at weight and health risks, Sowers said.

In the study, about 51 percent of overweight adults, or roughly 36 million people nationwide, had mostly normal levels of blood pressure, cholesterol, blood fats called triglycerides and blood sugar.
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The eyes may carry important early clues to heart disease, signaling damage to tiny blood vessels long before symptoms start to show elsewhere, researchers reported on Tuesday.

People with a type of eye damage known as retinopathy were more likely to die of heart disease over the next 12 years than those without it, according to the team at the University of Sydney and the University of Melbourne in Australia and the National University of Singapore.

They studied the retinal photographs of 3,000 people, most of whom had diabetes. Such snapshots are often taken to see if the diabetes has begun to damage the eyes. Then they checked records for deaths.
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The recent statement by the Health Minister Datuk Liow Tiong Lai that overweight and obesity among Malaysians needs urgent attention again illustrates public ignorance on the problem.

The Minister pointed out that the prevalence of adult obesity in Malaysia from 1996-2006 had more than tripled with four out of every 10 Malaysians above 18 years of age are now being either overweight or obese.

Anyone who has a Body Mass Index (BMI) (weight divided by height squared) between 25 and 29.9 is considered overweight and between 30.0-34.9 is considered obese.

Even more worrying is the fact that this group is at high risk of contracting serious disorders like diabetes, hypertension and high blood cholesterol.
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