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Vital Signs
Behavior: Too Much Sitting Shortens Lives, Study Suggests

By RONI CARYN RABIN
Published: January 19, 2010
New York Times

A new study from Australia suggests that couch potatoes live shorter lives.

The study followed 8,800 adults ages 25 and older for six and a half years and found that each daily hour of television viewing was associated with an 18 percent increase in deaths from heart disease and an 11 percent increase in overall mortality.

Those who watched television four hours or more per day were 80 percent more likely to die of cardiovascular disease than those who watched two hours or less, and 46 percent more likely to die of any cause. And it did not matter whether they were overweight, according to the study, which appeared Jan. 11 in the online edition of Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.

Although it is possible that people who were already ill watched more television than those who were healthy, the researchers tried to rule that out by excluding subjects who already had heart disease and by adjusting for differences in risk factors like diet and smoking.

While the benefits of physical activity have been well studied, there is growing interest among researchers in assessing the effects of being sedentary.

“For many people, on a daily basis, they simply shift from one chair to another — from the chair in the car to the chair in the office to the chair in front of the television,” said the study’s lead author, David Dunstan of the Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute in Victoria, Australia. “Even if someone has a healthy body weight, sitting for long periods still has an unhealthy influence on blood sugar and blood fats.”

From Terence Blacker, The Independent, London
Wednesday, 20 January 2010

He's not Christ, he's a very shrewd businessman

Mehmet Ali Agca, the man who attempted to assassinate Pope John Paul II in 1981, has emerged from prison with a business plan. Step 1: announce to the world that you have a message from God. Step 2: reveal that the message is that you are the new Christ. Step 3: get in touch
with leading literary agents and publishers with a view to exploiting the current craze for religious mysteries. It is said that Agca suffers from "severe personality disorders". To me he sounds as if he has an unusually shrewd grasp of the way modern publishing works.

Do you ever think about Magnesium?

This is from the RealLife.com website which is loaded with health tips for living a long life and staying young. Magnesium is critically important for a number of body systems. But how do you get Magnesium into your body? Read the list of foods that comtain Magnesium below.

Magnesium

Benefits

Magnesium plays a key role in hundreds of cellular processes, from metabolizing food into energy and absorbing calcium to maintaining a strong immune system and keeping your heart, muscles, and nerves functioning properly.

RealAge Recommendation
Government guidelines suggest 420 milligrams (mg) per day for men, 320 mg for women. RealAge recommends that both men and women aim to get 400–500 mg of magnesium per day. It may be tough to get all the magnesium you need from food, so top up your daily intake with a multivitamin that contains at least 100 mg of magnesium.

If you are pregnant or lactating, have kidney disease or diabetes, are on a low-calorie diet, or are taking digitalis preparations or diuretics, talk to your doctor about how much magnesium you should be getting.

Good Sources
Spinach, cooked (1 cup) 156 mg
Halibut, cooked (3 ounces) 91 mg
Cashews (1/4 cup) 89 mg
Oat-bran muffin (1 medium) 89 mg
White beans, canned (1/2 cup) 67 mg
Bran cereal (3/4 cup) 64 mg
Brown rice, cooked (3/4 cup) 63 mg
Potato, baked, with skin (1 medium) 57 mg
Whole-wheat bread (2 slices) 46 mg
Walnuts (1 ounce; 14 halves) 44 mg
Banana (1 medium) 32 mg

Recipes:
Try these recipes for a delicious mouthful of magnesium:

# White Beans, Spinach and Tomatoes over Parmesan Toasts
# Chicken Cassoulet
# Thyme- and Sesame-Crusted Halibut
# Banana-Cocoa Soy Smoothie

Best of the Decade

This article from PC Magazine reminds us of all the amazing changes that have taken place in technology in a mere 10 years. We were all using dial-up at 54k in 1999! High-speed internet made possible the applications we use today: YouTube, music and movie downloads, TV shows, etc. Read all about it!
Best of the Decade

Times Skimmer by The New York Times

Times Skimmer by The New York Times: "The medical profession still treats its role as an art as much as a science, relying on philosophical principles like The Rule of Double Effect. Under this rule, attributed to the 13th century Roman Catholic philosopher Thomas Aquinas, even if there is a foreseeable bad outcome, like death, it is acceptable if it is unintended and outweighed by an intentional good outcome — the relief of unyielding suffering before death. The principle has been applied to ethical dilemmas in realms from medicine to war, and it is one of the few universal standards on how end-of-life sedation should be carried out."