Stand up when I’m talking to you…oh, sorry
Shorter people 'have a chip on their shoulder which makes them unhealthy'
Those not blessed with height are often accused of having a chip on their shoulder.
According to This-is-London.co.uk, a study has found that they might, in fact, have an unhealthy attitude to life.
Short men and women apparently complain of poorer mental and physical health than those of an average height.
Researchers examined more than 14,000 responses to the 2003 Health Survey for England.
The subjects had given details of their height, weight, age, gender, long-standing illness and social class.
They were then asked to rate their health on a range of indicators such as mobility, pain and depression.
Those in the shortest height category - men shorter than 5ft 4in and women shorter than 5ft - reported much poorer health, according to the report in the journal Clinical Endocrinology.
The survey did not ascertain how healthy they actually were, just how well they thought they were.
Lead researcher Dr Torsten Christensen said: "Using this large and nationally representative sample of the UK population, we found shorter people report that they experience lower physical and mental well-being than taller people do.
"Our results also indicate that the shorter someone is, the stronger this relationship becomes."
She added that an increase in height of one inch would have a positive impact on the healthrelated quality of life of a short person, whereas the effect of an extra inch would be negligible for a person of normal height.
Dr Christensen found that short people would have a 6 per cent higher health rating if they were around three inches taller.
This is the equivalent to the health benefit experienced by an obese person losing two and a half stones.
Dr Christensen, of Danish healthcare company Novo Nordisk, added: "We know that people who are short experience more difficulties in areas of their life such as education, employment and relationships than people of a normal height.
"Although our study does not show that short height directly causes a reduction in physical and mental health, it does indicate that short people are more likely to feel that they experience a lower healthrelated quality of life."
She added: "Further research is now needed to clarify the precise relationship between changes in height and health-related quality of life."
Short height in adult life can either be due to normal development or can be caused by a number of diseases such as growth hormone deficiency and Turner syndrome.
Treatment with growth hormone for children with these conditions can increase their final height by as much as four inches.
The study shows that these height increases could have a huge positive effect on a person's mental wellbeing once they grow up.
You’ve got to love a study that tries to compare the risks associated with being short with the risks associated with obesity. That’s science.
Turning blue?
New study focuses on testes' second use
NEW YORK, Oct. 17 (UPI) -- New research conducted at a New York medical facility has found that the second function of a man's testes is the key to overcoming male infertility.
While the most common function for testes is the production of sperm, Dr. Marc Goldstein of the NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center found that the gland's production of testosterone is behind a common cause of male infertility, a press release from the facility said Wednesday.
"People often forget or often don't realize that the testes have two purposes," Goldstein said. "One is the production of the sex cells (sperm), and the other is to produce testosterone."
Goldstein's research found that when a man is the victim of varicoceles, varicose veins in the scrotum, his testosterone levels drop dramatically.
Lower testosterone levels can lead to the onset of andropause, a condition similar to menopause in women that can cause sexual infertility in men.
Yet Goldstein's research found that when a simple surgery helps the patient recover his fertility, his testosterone levels begin to rise back to normal levels.
Copyright 2007 by United Press International. All Rights Reserved.
We thought their second use was tied to saying the wrong thing at the wrong time.
Ah, the health benefits of a comfortable couch and a remote control
Some Athletic Men May Risk Low Bone Density
Science Daily — According to the National Osteoporosis Foundation, osteoporosis affects more than 2 million men in the United States and nearly 12 million more have osteopenia—clinically significant low bone density that is less severe than osteoporosis. Now, a new study from the University of Missouri-Columbia has found that men engaging predominantly in low-impact forms of exercise have an increased incidence of osteopenia—a condition resulting in two times the risk of bone fracture.
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"Unfortunately, some individuals who believe they are doing everything right in terms of their health might be surprised and upset by our finding," said Pamela Hinton, an associate professor of nutritional sciences in MU's College of Human Environmental Sciences, who co-authored the study. "We believe, however, that these results will ultimately serve as education and motivation for these people."
Hinton said the effects of osteopenia can be mitigated by integration of weight-bearing activities into the lifestyle of active individuals. Studies in pre- and post-menopausal women suggest that bone mineral density will increase 2 percent to 3 percent after six months of resistance training three times per week. Small changes in bone density translate into much larger changes in bone strength—a 1 percent increase in bone density reduces the risk of fracture by up to 5 percent.
"Regular, non-weight-bearing activities, such as swimming and cycling are effective measures for preventing the leading risk factors for death and disability in our society,” Hinton said. “But the results of this study suggest that regular weight-bearing activities, such as running, jogging, or rope jumping, are important for the maintenance of healthy bones."
The researchers measured bone mineral density in 43 competitive male cyclists and runners ages 20 to 59. Findings of the study included:
* The cyclists had significantly lower bone mineral density of the whole body, especially of the lumbar spine, compared to runners.
* 63 percent of the cyclists had osteopenia of the spine or hip compared with 19 percent of the runners.
* Cyclists were seven-times more likely to have osteopenia of the spine than the runners.
Background facts:
* The risk of fracture is increased approximately two-fold in osteopenic individuals and five-fold in people with osteopenia.
* Low bone density in males often remains undiagnosed and inadequately treated and, after suffering a fracture, men are less likely to receive follow-up care than women.
* Risk factors for osteoporosis in men are similar to those identified in women: family history, age, low body weight, smoking, excessive alcohol consumption, inadequate calcium or vitamin D intake, low reproductive hormone levels, physical inactivity, and disease or medication affecting bone metabolism.
The study, "Participation in road cycling versus running is associated with lower bone mineral density in men," will be published in Metabolism, and is authored by MU researchers R.S. Rector, R. Rogers, M. Ruebel and P.S. Hinton, in the Department of Nutritional Sciences.
Note: This story has been adapted from material provided by University of Missouri-Columbia.
That much fitness can’t be good for you.
Does it include visitation rights?
US-Russia Polar Bear Treaty Ratified
Science Daily — The US and Russia have ratified a bilateral agreement for the long-term conservation of shared polar bear populations in Alaska, the US and Chukotka, Russia.
The treaty unifies US and Russian management programmes that affect this shared population of bears. Notably, the treaty calls for the active involvement of native people and their organizations in future management programmes. It will also enhance such long-term joint efforts as conservation of ecosystems and important habitats, harvest allocations based on sustainability, collection of biological information, and increased consultation and cooperation with state, local, and private interests.
"WWF is pleased that this treaty will finally go into effect and formalize the increasing cooperation between US and Russian management agencies, scientists, and native communities in an effort to conserve our shared population of polar bears," said Margaret Williams, director of the WWF Bering Sea-Kamchatka Ecoregion Programme.
“With the rapid decline of arctic sea ice, now more than ever, we need to work together to ensure that polar bears have a chance to survive difficult times ahead."
Polar bears typically occur at low densities over vast areas of the Arctic. Current estimates of the world's 19 separate populations range from 20,000 to 25,000 bears. Two populations of the bears occur in Alaska: the southern Beaufort Sea population (about 1,500 animals), shared with Canada; and the Alaska-Chukotka (Chukchi Sea) population (approximately 2,000 bears), which is shared with Russia.
"While we are very pleased the treaty is coming into effect and support its goals, we urge the US government to take more courageous and bold actions to address the factor now widely recognised as the source of global climate change and resulting warming in the polar bears' arctic habitat: CO2 emissions," Williams added.
The treaty fulfills the spirit and intent of the 1973 multilateral Agreement on the Conservation of Polar Bears among the United States, Russia, Norway, Denmark (for Greenland) and Canada by allowing a sustainable harvest by Alaska and Chukotka natives, but prohibiting the harvest of females with cubs or of cubs less than one year old. It also prohibits the use of aircraft and large motorized vehicles in the taking of polar bears and enhances the conservation of specific habitats such as feeding, congregating, and denning areas.
Note: This story has been adapted from material provided by World Wildlife Fund.
What about the money from the Coke commercials?
Everybody’s a fashion critic
The BBC reports that elephants see red over clothing
Elephants orient the trunk towards stimuli they wish to investigate
Elephants can tell whether a human is a friend or foe by their scent and colour of clothing, according to Fife experts.
St Andrews University researchers found that elephants could recognise the degree of danger posed by different groups of individuals.
The study found African elephants reacted with fear when they detected the scent of garments previously worn by men of the Maasai tribe.
Maasai men are known to demonstrate their virility by spearing elephants.
Level of risk
The elephants also responded aggressively to red clothing, which is characteristic of traditional Maasai dress.
However, the elephants showed much milder reaction to clothing previously worn by the Kamba people, agriculturalists who pose little threat.
The psychologists said they had expected to find elephants might be able to distinguish among different human groups according to the level of risk they posed.
They said: "We were not disappointed. In fact, we think that this is the first time that it has been experimentally shown that any animal can categorise a single species of potential predator into subclasses based on such subtle cues."
The researchers, Dr Lucy Bates and Professor Richard Byrne, first presented elephants with clean, red clothing and with red clothing that had been worn for five days by either a Maasai or a Kamba man.
They found that Maasai-scented clothing motivated elephants to travel significantly faster in the first minute after they moved away.
The elephants also travelled further in the first five minutes, and took significantly longer to relax after they stopped running away.
They then investigated whether elephants could also use garment colour as a cue to classify potential threat and found the elephants reacted with aggression towards red but not to white cloth. This suggested that they associated the colour red with the Maasai.
The researchers believe the difference in the elephants' emotional reaction to odour versus colour might relate to the amount of risk they sense in the two situations, encouraged by a particularly keen sense of smell.
"With any scent of Maasai present, fear and escape reactions seem to dominate anything else," said Dr Bates.
Professor Byrne added: "While elephants can undoubtedly be dangerous when they come into conflict with humans, our data show that, given the opportunity, they would far rather run away, even before they encounter the humans in person.
"We see this experiment as just a start to investigating precisely how elephants 'see the world,' and it may be that their abilities will turn out to equal or exceed those of our closer relatives, the monkeys and apes," he added.
The study is published online by Current Biology and will appear in the 20 November print issue.
So, they really don't forget.
Headlines of the day
Man watches safety video at gun range, then kills self
(courtesy of the Obscure Store)
We guess that when he used the fast-forward he missed the important stuff.
Kentucky cemetery goes Wi-Fi
(MSNBC)
Proving the desire for Drudge and You Tube never dies.
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