Having a healthy diet, exercising, maintaining normal body weight, not smoking and consuming alcohol can lower the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes, according to a U.S. National Institutes of Health report published in the Sept. 6 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine.

Doctors have long known that bad habits such as smoking, drinking and eating unhealthy foods increase the risk of developing chronic diseases, but the new study is among the first to examine how each factor — alone and in combination — contributes to a reduction in the chance a person will get the disease.

The research is the largest to date, as more than 200,000 healthy people aged from 50 to 71 when the study began in 1995 were involved in the program.

Study participants filled out questionnaires about what foods they ate, whether they were alcohol consumers or smokers, how often they exercised and whether they were overweight.

After the participants were followed for 11 years, about 10% of men in the study and 8% of women developed diabetes.

The study shows people who met all five standards had roughly 80% lower odds of a diabetes diagnosis than demographically similar people who led less healthy lifestyles.

Of all the five lifestyle factors, being overweight was linked most strongly to diabetes risk.

But the study also found that having healthy marks for the other four factors still made a difference, regardless of whether a person was normal weight, overweight or obese.

“This is good news for those individuals who have a tough time losing weight — you can still lower your risk with these other lifestyle changes,” Jared Reis, Ph.D., the lead author of the study and an epidemiologist with the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute in Maryland, U.S., was quoted as saying by CNN.

According to U.S. Centers for Disease Control, about 26 million Americans were diagnosed the most common diabetes Type 2, making it the seventh leading cause of death in the U.S.

On Xinhua Web site: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/health/2011-09/06/c_131105748.htm

Researchers from Yale University have discovered if a woman’s face and neck are severely wrinkled, she faces a higher risk of bone breakage due to low bone density.

Researchers examined 114 early post-menopausal women in many sites in the U.S., and measured the women’s skin on the face and neck, both visually and using devices, to assess how rigid the skin was.

“We found that deepening and worsening skin wrinkles are related to lower bone density among the study participants,” said Lubna Pal, lead author of the study and associate professor in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Science at Yale School of Medicine.

“The worse the wrinkles, the lesser the bone density, and this relationship was independent of age or of factors known to influence bone mass,” Pal added.

The level of proteins in the skin and bones are linked, and during menopause, the loss in collagen contributes to both wrinkles and lower bone density, according to the study.

Researchers hope this initial research could provide a new perspective in an earlier detection of conditions such as osteoporosis.

“Our findings that the appearance and physical properties of the skin can reflect the quality of the skeleton are noteworthy because this may allow clinicians to identify fracture risk in post-menopausal women ‘at a glance’ without depending on costly tests,” said Pal. 

On Xinhua Web site: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/health/2011-06/08/c_13917099.htm

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Wednesday asked doctors to report all cases of a cancer, known as anaplastic large cell lymphoma (ALCL), so the agency can better understand the link between the disease and the silicone gel-filled breast implants.

The FDA said in a statement it had found “a very small but significant risk of ALCL in the scar capsule adjacent to the implant” after reviewing data worldwide.

The agency has learned of just 60 cases of the disease worldwide, among roughly 5 million to 10 million women with breast implants.

The FDA isn’t recommending that women with implants adjust their medical care.

Some researchers have published papers on the cancer cases in breast implants over the past three years, indicating bits of silicone can leak into cells around the implant, triggering the cancer.

The FDA pulled silicone breast implants off the market in 1992 amid worries about the connection to a variety of diseases.

But in 2006 the agency returned the implants to the market after most studies failed to find a link between silicone breast implants and diseases. 

On Xinhua Web site: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/health/2011-01/27/c_13709927.htm

In its Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report for Oct. 8, the CDC estimates that nearly 50 million Americans have arthritis, and the joint disease is especially common among people who are obese.

The statistic comes from national telephone polling of tens of thousands of adults in 2007 through 2009.

The report also suggests there were about 42 percent adults with arthritis who said their joint pain or other arthritis symptoms limited their usual activities.

That means more than 21 million adults have trouble climbing stairs, dressing, gardening or doing other things, the CDC said.

The percentage of people who were hobbled was more than twice as high in obese people as those who were normal weight or underweight, the researchers found.

Obesity particularly plays a role in the onset of knee osteoarthritis, the most common form of the disorder.

The total cost of medical and impaired activity to the U.S. economy is about 128 billion U.S. dollars annually, the agency added. 

On Xinhua Web site: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/health/2010-10/08/c_13546720.htm

The study, published in the June 28 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, followed more than 18,000 women between the ages of 25 and 42 for 16 years.

The study found the women who increased physical activities like brisk walking and bicycling by 30 minutes a day during the 16-year period maintained their weight and even lost a few pounds, but those whose exercise was slow walking did not lose any weight.

According to the study, women who started biking for just five minutes a day gained about 1.5 fewer pounds over the course of the study than similar women who didn’t take up biking.

“This is not suggesting that if you bicycle for five minutes you will immediately go back to the weight you were when you were 18,” said Anne C. Lusk, a research fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health and an author of the paper.

But Lusk pointed out biking and walking are easier than many other forms of exercise to incorporate into everyday life.

“It’s highly suggestive that bicycling is highly beneficial in women,” Lusk added. 

On Xinhua Web site: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/health/2010-06/30/c_13376845.htm

The research, conducted by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), also indicated that almost 21.4 million new cases of the disease will be diagnosed annually in 2030.

In 2008, 7.6 million people died of cancer and there were an estimated 12.7 million new cases diagnosed, according to the research.

The IARC said the burden of cancer was shifting from wealthier to poorer nations.
Freddie Bray, a scientist in charge of the study, said that in 2008, 56 percent of new cancer cases and 63 percent of cancer deaths occurred in developing countries.

The data also suggested that lung cancer was the most common type of cancer in 2008 worldwide, while breast and colorectal cancer were the next most common forms of the illness. 

On Xinhua Web site: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/health/2010-06/02/c_13328835.htm

The study, conducted by the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), surveyed more than 13,000 mobile phone users in 13 countries over the past decade.

The study concluded that radio-frequency energy emitted by cell phones does not increase the risk of two main types of brain tumors, glioma and meningioma.

“The results really don’t allow us to conclude that there is any risk associated with mobile phone use, but… it is also premature to say that there is no risk associated with it,” the IARC’s director Christopher Wild was quoted by Reuters as saying.

The study did find a slightly greater risk of cancer among heavy users.

When researchers looked at the 10 percent of subjects who talked on a cell phone for at least a-half hour a day, seven days a week for ten years, they found a 40 percent increased risk of glioma.

The 21 scientists who conducted the study admitted that this finding suggested problems with the method, or inaccurate information from those who participated.

“We need to look in more depth at that finding in the context of all the other information that’s available to us before we are confident to conclude that there’s no associated risk,” said Christopher Wild. 

On Xinhua Web site: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/health/2010-05/19/c_13303468.htm

Smoke and steam hangs over the volcano under the Eyjafjallajokull glacier in Iceland, Wednesday April 14, 2010, ©Reuters

BEIJING, April 19 — The World Health Organization Friday warned Europeans not to go outdoors if ash from Iceland’s volcano starts settling, while some experts claimed the ash actually doesn’t have major effects on people’s health and its harmfulness is exaggerated, the Associated Press reported Monday.

According to the WHO, the volcanic ash is potentially dangerous for people because inhaled particles can enter the lungs and cause respiratory problems.

“We’re very concerned about it,” said Daniel Epstein, spokesman of the WHO, “these particles when inhaled can reach the peripheral regions of the lungs and can cause problems — especially for people with asthma or respiratory problems.”

The spokesman even suggested the Europeans who go outside wearing a mask.

However, experts say once volcanic ash falls from a greater distance, its health effects are often minimal. They said volcanic ash is much less dangerous than cigarette smoke or pollution.

“Volcanic ash is not all that harmful,” said Ken Donaldson, a professor of respiratory toxicology at the University of Edinburgh in the UK, “once the volcanic particles are in the stratosphere, they’re getting massively diluted because there’s a lot of air and other particles blowing around.”

He believed that most Europeans’ exposure to volcanic ash would be negligible and that only those in the near vicinity of the Iceland volcano would likely be at risk.

Dr. Stephen Spiro, a professor of respiratory medicine and deputy chair of the British Lung Foundation, said the further the particles travel, the more diluted and less dangerous they will be.

Spiro added that to wear masks or stay indoors to avoid volcanic ash is “over the top” and “a bit hysterical.”

The volcano in southern Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull glacier has sent an enormous cloud of microscopic basalt ash particles across northern Europe, grounding aircraft across the continent. 

On Xinhua Web site: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/health/2010-04/19/c_13257987_2.htm

The study, published in the online edition of the journal Archives of Neurology, found that people who ate nutrients specifically selected for brain health had a 40 percent lower risk of developing the Alzheimer’s disease compared with others.

In the study, researchers at the Columbia University Medical Center in New York observed 2,148 adults aged over 65 who did not have Alzheimer’s. Participants provided information about their diets and were assessed for the development of dementia for an average of four years.

During the study, 253 of these test subjects developed the disease.

The study found the foods associated with reduced Alzheimer’s risk consist of more olive oil-based salad dressing, nuts, fish, tomatoes, poultry, fruits, and dark, leafy green vegetables, and less red meat, organ meat or high-fat dairy products.

Alzheimer’s is a mind-robbing form of dementia. More than 26 million people in the world are now suffering from this disease.

Current treatments can only help relieve some symptoms of Alzheimer’s, but cannot reverse its course.

Because there are no cures, prevention is key, especially as the population ages, said Yian Gu, an Alzheimer’s disease researcher behind the study.

“Diet is probably the easiest way to modify disease risk,” she added. 

On Xinhua Web site: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/health/2010-04/13/c_13249168.htm

The campaign, engaging 1,000 cities across the world in a set of activities, will encourage cities to become healthier to help mitigate the health risks associated with rapid urbanization.

According to WHO, events will be organized in these cities to “open up public spaces to health”, by closing off portions of streets to traffic, to encourage exercise in parks and clean up campaigns.

Lori Sloate, a WHO official, was quoted by AFP as saying that the health risks associated with living in an urban environment have “triple threat” due to high rates of infectious diseases, chronic disease and an increased concentration of violence and crime in cities.

In a press statement released ahead of World Health Day, WHO official Samlee Pliangbangchang said, “The urbanization sets influences on heath outcomes, both positively and negatively. In terms of health, urbanization presents challenges as well as opportunities.”

Pliangbangchang said that improved transportation, infrastructure and greener technologies can enhance urban quality of life, including fewer respiratory ailments and accidents and better health for all.

According to the United Nations, more than half of the world’s population resides in urban areas for the first time in history. It is estimated that by 2030, 60 percent of the world’s growing population will be living in cities. 

On Xinhua Web site: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/health/2010-04/06/c_13239758.htm