It's never too late to lose weight

Are you not hitting the gym thinking that weight loss at your age may not be of any help?

Think again as researchers have now found that weight loss at any age in adulthood is beneficial as it could yield long-term heart and vascular benefits.

“Our findings suggest that losing weight at any age can result in long-term cardiovascular health benefits, and support public health strategies and lifestyle modifications that help individuals who are overweight or obese to lose weight at all ages," said professor John Deanfield from University College London (UCL).

How smart phones are ruining your sleep

Know that blue light your smart phone emits during the night gives you false signal that it is actually morning - forcing you to open eyes and look outside the window?
Switch off smart phones or tabs as the blue light is actually destroying your sleep, researchers warn.

“One of the best biological cues we have to what time of day it is is light. And it turns out that blue light in particular is very effective at basically predicting when morning is,” Brian Zoltowski from the American Chemical Society was quoted as saying in media reports.

In the evenings, there is more red light than blue light that signals your body to get ready for bed.

The red light does this by interacting with the protein called melanopsin in cells deep inside your eyes.

Russians consume most alcohol, says WHO data

Russians and their neighbours drink more than almost everyone else in the world, a recent map of the World Health Organization (WHO) shows.
Portugal, Grenada, and Andorra are also ranked in the highest category at more than 12.5 liters per person over the age of 15 in 2010.
WHO notes in its report that 48% of those included in this data abstain from drinking altogether.
So if those people were excluded, per capita consumption among those who do drink would be even higher than what's shown on this map.
Alcohol consumption is low in northern Africa, but the southern half of the continent sees higher drinking rates, especially South Africa and Namibia.

Natural choices to combat ageing

Ageing begins from when a child is born. However, there are other factors that can lead to premature ageing, including the usage of incorrect skincare products and gorging on unhealthy foods. One can achieve a perfect skin by including turmeric, ginger and green leafy vegetables in the food intake, says an expert.
Speaking at the Anti-Ageing Health and Beauty show, held at the London Olympia this past weekend, Geraldine McCulgan of the College of Naturopathic Medicine said: “What you eat today... you wear tomorrow.”

The beauty therapist shared some helpful tips on natural choices for anti-ageing and the small changes that one can effect in one's lifestyle to help slow down ageing.

Accelerating ageing is affected by the following:

Want to live long? Aim big in life

Greater purpose in life is linked to lower mortality risk, the findings showed.

“Our findings point to the fact that finding a direction for life, and setting overarching goals for what you want to achieve can help you actually live longer, regardless of when you find your purpose,” said Patrick Hill of Carleton University in Canada.

So the earlier someone comes to a direction for life, the earlier these protective effects may be able to occur, Hill added.

Erratic sleep may affect memory later: Study

In your 40s and miss on that crucial sleep either because of erratic lifestyle or odd working hours? Get your sleep habits back in shape as extreme changes in sleep duration from middle age to older age may worsen memory function.
In a study on 15,263 women participants, researchers found that women who slept five or fewer hours either in midlife or later life had worse memory than those sleeping seven hours per day.

“Women whose sleep duration changed by greater than two hours per day over time had worse memory than women with no change in sleep duration,” said Elizabeth Devore, an instructor in medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) in the US.

Short men may live longer: Study

Don't get depressed if she has refused to go on a date with you owing to your short height. Tell her you are going to stay longer on earth for better chances knocking on your door!
According to research on Japanese men, shorter men are more likely to have a protective form of a gene, leading to smaller body size during early development and a longer lifespan.

Shorter men are also more likely to have lower blood insulin levels and less cancer.

"The study shows that body size is linked to the longevity gene (FOXO3), which is important in longevity across most species," said Dr Bradley Willcox, a professor in University of Hawaii's (UH) John A. Burns School of Medicine.

Chicken nuggets: A misleading name?

You love chicken nuggets?

If yes, then get ready to be taken aback by some dumbfounding facts revealed in a study done at the University of Mississippi on chicken nuggets.  The study published in the American Journal of Medicine reveals that there is more to those friendly looking yummy nuggets.

It refers to a restaurant where the researchers found a chicken nugget to have 40% skeletal muscle, as well as “generous quantities of fat and other tissue, including connective tissue and bone.” That was 58% fat, 24% carbs, and 18% protein!

Worse yet, these are made of chicken leftovers!

One in six employees falls asleep at desk: study

Tired at work and desperately looking for a corner to take a quick nap? You are not alone -- as a new research reveals that one in six workers falls asleep at the desk at least once a week.
The results of a survey of 1,140 office-going US citizens found that 76 percent of the workers felt tired almost every day of the week, while 30 percent of the employees were unhappy or very unhappy with the quality or quantity of their sleep.

"Showing up to work sleep-deprived can be the equivalent of showing up to work intoxicated," said Jennifer Turgiss, director of Virgin Pulse Institute that conducted the survey.

Virgin Pulse is an employee wellness company based in Massachusetts.

Sip extra coffee to cut down diabetes risk

Love coffee? You have a fresh reason to go for another cup as increasing daily coffee consumption may significantly reduce type 2 diabetes risk.

“Our findings confirm those of previous studies that showed that higher coffee consumption was associated with lower type 2 diabetes risk,” said Shilpa Bhupathiraju, a research fellow in the department of nutrition at HSPH.

Most importantly, they provide new evidence that changes in coffee consumption habit can affect type 2 diabetes risk in a relatively short period of time, Bhupathiraju added.