The Art of Life

Fat Kids Found to Have Arteries of 45-Year-Olds

2008-11-12T05:40:00.000-08:00

FOXNEWS

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

NEW ORLEANS — Obese children as young as 10 had the arteries of 45-year-olds and other heart abnormalities that greatly raise their risk of heart disease, say doctors who used ultrasound tests to take a peek inside.

"As the old saying goes, you're as old as your arteries are," said Dr. Geetha Raghuveer of Children's Hospital in Kansas City, who led one of the studies. "This is a wake-up call."

The studies were reported Tuesday at an American Heart Association conference.

About a third of American children are overweight and one-fifth are obese. Many parents think that "baby fat" will melt away as kids get older. But research increasingly shows that fat kids become fat adults, with higher risks for many health problems.

"Obesity is not benign in children and adolescents," said Dr. Robert Eckel, a former heart association president and cardiologist at the University of Colorado-Denver. It is why the American Academy of Pediatrics recently recommended cholesterol-lowering drugs for some kids, he noted.

Raghuveer wanted to see if early signs of damage could be documented. She and colleagues used painless ultrasound tests to measure the thickness of the wall of a major neck artery in 70 children, ages 10 to 16. Almost all had abnormal cholesterol and many were obese.

No one knows how thick a 10-year-old's artery should be, since they're not regularly checked for signs of heart disease, so researchers used tables for 45-year-olds, who often do get such exams.

The kids' "vascular age" was about 30 years older than their actual age, she found.

A separate study tied childhood obesity to abnormal enlargement of the left atrium, one of the chambers of the heart. Enlargement is a known risk factor for heart disease, stroke and heart rhythm problems.

Julian Ayer, a researcher at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital Sydney Australia, did ultrasound exams on 991 seemingly healthy children ages 5 to 15. He saw a clear link between rising weight and size of the left atrium.

A third study by Dr. Walter Abhayaratna of Australian National University in Canberra, Australia, also used ultrasound tests and found impairment in the heart's ability to relax between beats in children who were overweight or obese.

The study involved the first 150 children participating in a larger community-based study.

Earlier research he helped conduct found more rigid arteries in such children — a possible sign of plaque deposits starting to form.

"Even at this young age of 10, you can have children who have got arterial stiffness who are comparable to 30- and 40-year-olds," he said.

Dr. Michael Schloss, a New York University heart disease prevention specialist, said the evidence shows obesity is more than a cosmetic issue for children.

"If you've seen what's on the menu for most school lunches, these findings are no surprise," he said. "The time has come to seriously deal with the issue of childhood obesity and physical inactivity on a governmental and parental level."

Link :

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,450547,00.html

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Obesity? well, I'm sure that every people had heard this word before.. well, let me emphasize the tittle here, OBESITY.. obesity means the excessive fat that had accumulated in your body. Obesity is like one of the serious "epidemics" that affect the people around the world. We usually believed that obesity mainly occurred because of lack exercise, eating junks food and etc. But some may not know that some people become obese because of their hormone imbalance. Some may simply because of eating those junk foods like, five times a week. i believe that advertisements played a major role in persuading the people (especially children) in promoting their so-called "healthy" foods. Lack of exercise may also took part in this. They failed to do the recommended daily hour of moderate exercise. The quality of the school meals also contributed to the problems of obesity. Almost all schools in Brunei, I believe, provide "unhealthy" food such as french fries or better known as chips, fizzy drinks etc.

So when i read articles like these, its all a basic common sense and full of cliche.. so its no surprise when you hear the fact that "fat kids found to have arteries of 45-year-olds.."

Grandmother Finds 3 Relatives Dead in Dallas Home

2008-11-12T04:59:00.000-08:00

FOXNEWS

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

DALLAS — An elderly grandmother woke up in her Dallas home Tuesday to find her daughter and granddaughter dead, along with the granddaughter's estranged husband, police said.

Police are calling the three deaths a double murder-suicide.

The estranged husband of Janice Hill, 24, is the suspect in the killings, Dallas police spokesman Sgt. Gil Cerda said. Keith Hill, 26, was found dead in the home with a rifle by his body. There was no sign of forced entry.

Janice Hill and Jeanne Carroll, her 52-year-old mother, were also found dead in the home when Hill's elderly grandmother woke up around 1 p.m. Tuesday. She is in her 80s, hard of hearing and never heard the rifle shots, Cerda said.

Yellow police tape surrounded the ranch-style East Dallas home, located on a street next to Eastfield College, a Dallas community college. Crime scene technicians and medical examiner's personnel entered the house with stretchers, at one point loading a black body bag into a van.

About 100 yards south of the home, Keith Hill's vehicle was hooked up to a tow truck to be carted away. Police said they believe he parked there, walked up the residential street with his rifle and was let into the home early Tuesday.

Janice Hill was assaulted by her husband in Grand Prairie on Oct. 9, Cerda said. Keith Hill was arrested on Oct. 23 and she sought a restraining order five days later.

Police were at the home as recently as Sunday. Janice Hill called police, saying she has been receiving harassing phone calls from an unknown person whom she believed was her husband. The caller never spoke, Cerda said

Link :

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,450324,00.html

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Seriously, this is horrifying. Obviously, we can't put the blame on the Grandma's just because she didn't hear anything. but anyway, I believe that the police should send their detectives to the house (before the killings) and lived there so that they know the what the progress was or they should simply detect the callings from the telephone... This resembled the movie tittled "When a stranger calls." It is very terrifying.. i mean, what would you do if the same things happen to you? the stranger keeps calling you on and on.. and you have no clues what their motives was... to make matter even worst, when you believed that the "stranger" who kept calling you is your "estranged" husband. He may knows every move you made, your daily activities, etc... Gahhhhhhhhh... it surely gives me the creeps just to think about it.. :S

Opinion about hurricanes :D

2008-11-12T03:09:00.000-08:00

In my opinion, certain measures can be taken to reduce the damage the hurricane cause. One measure is to carry out hurricanes drills to prepare the population during the hurricanes. The TV and radio stations should also warned the people about the "disaster" that's going to happen.
personally, i believe that they should be ready for every disaster that might strike upon them. Especially to those people who lived in the "hurricane-prone" areas. They should have an emergency bag- which contains their important documents, list of emergency contact and etc. but unfortunately some people tend to ignore this warning- unaware the virtues of this warning. Often this is too late.

Although it is not possible to prevent this disaster from happening, for me anything is possible. Advance equipment is required to minimize the effects. The use of advance equipment may enables the scientists to predict the hurricanes and this may help to save lives.

Paloma becomes hurricane in Caribbean

2008-11-06T20:00:00.000-08:00

Hurricane Paloma was centered about 165 miles south of Grand Cayman Island Thursday evening

(CNN) -- A tropical storm strengthened into a Category 1 hurricane Thursday in the Caribbean Sea, the National Hurricane Center said.

Hurricane Paloma, packing winds of nearly 75 mph (121 kph), was centered about 165 miles (266 kilometers) south of Grand Cayman Island at 7 p.m. ET, the hurricane center said.

A hurricane warning -- meaning hurricane conditions are expected within the next 24 hours -- remains in effect for the Cayman Islands. The storm was moving north at nearly 12 mph (19 kph), and it is expected to strengthen and turn gradually northeast late Friday and Saturday.

The hurricane center said people in Cuba and Jamaica should monitor Paloma's progress.

The storm is expected to drop 4 to 8 inches of rain over the Caymans with isolated totals of as much as 12 inches possible.

The storm was a tropical depression off Nicaragua on Wednesday. It became a tropical storm Thursday morning.

Category 1 hurricanes have sustained winds of 74-95 mph.

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Link :
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/weather/11/06/storm.paloma/index.html (CNN)

OBESITY

2008-11-04T04:56:00.000-08:00

Hello people!!!! Well today I’m going to do the talking first and then let the story and fact be the second... :D

The story goes ......

OBESITY

I’m sure every creature in this world knows what does OBESITY means..

Obesity are defined as abnormal or excessive fat accumulation that presents a risk to health. A crude population measure of obesity is the body mass index (BMI), a person’s weight (in kilograms) divided by the square of his or her height (in metres). A person with a BMI of 30 or more is generally considered obese. A person with a BMI equal to or more than 25 is considered overweight.

This obesity "thingy" was a common and “contagious” syndrome that affects people worldwide. The world, I believe, was in need to control the food they were consuming... I mean, for God’s sake! These people had to eat more vegetables than the junks food! In my research earlier it is stated that 20% of the children were most likely obese whilst about 60% were mostly adults. Doctors and dieticians have developed into theory that obesity occurred mainly because of over-depressions and their “non-stop” habit of eating those junks food! For instance, some people when they’re depressed, they tend to eat, eat and eat. Whilst children tend to be addicted to the mouth-watering junk food offered by the McDonalds, Jollibee, Pizza Hut etc.. In this case, parents had to play their vital role in monitoring what their children were eating.

My friend, Lily consume fizzy drinks like once in a month... which is way healthier than me -- who drinks Pepsi like twice a week.. *sighsighsigh*

In contrast to this, many obese people started to think about “getting thin.” Then the problem starts with this. Some of these people were taking a “short” and dangerous way in order to become thin. Young people are willing to take chance on “killing” themselves for the sake of being “slim-thin.” They became obsessed to starve to death (self-starvation) in a deliberate attempt for a weight loss which results in an eating disorder. Every time I hear about someone having an eating disorder, I have to ask myself “what is she thinking?” They refused to eat except in tiny amount (in a persistence fear that they would gain weight) *sigh* They clearly had no idea that this continuous dieting might cost their life. (Malnutrition, dehydration, serious heart, kidney and liver damage) It is common for a teen to believe that body image (the size and shape of their bodies) is the primary criteria for being seen as “beautiful” and “perfect.”

So when you hear the cliché on how your parents, teachers or friends tell you to love yourself and not to be concern of what others thinks, I’m afraid that might not the best advice. After all, they don’t know what does it feels like to be in your shoes.

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~~This is the result of my research about obesity earlier... ~~

Facts about overweight and obesity

WHO’s latest projections indicate that globally in 2005:

approximately 1.6 billion adults (age 15+) were overweight;
at least 400 million adults were obese.

WHO further projects that by 2015, approximately 2.3 billion adults will be overweight and more than 700 million will be obese.

At least 20 million children under the age of 5 years are overweight globally in 2005.

Once considered a problem only in high-income countries, overweight and obesity are now dramatically on the rise in low- and middle-income countries, particularly in urban settings.

What causes obesity and overweight?

The fundamental cause of obesity and overweight is an energy imbalance between calories consumed on one hand, and calories expended on the other hand. Global increases in overweight and obesity are attributable to a number of factors including:

a global shift in diet towards increased intake of energy-dense foods that are high in fat and sugars but low in vitamins, minerals and other micronutrients; and
a trend towards decreased physical activity due to the increasingly sedentary nature of many forms of work, changing modes of transportation, and increasing urbanization.

What are common health consequences of overweight and obesity?

Overweight and obesity lead to serious health consequences. Risk increases progressively as BMI increases. Raised body mass index is a major risk factor for chronic diseases such as:

Cardiovascular disease (mainly heart disease and stroke) - already the world's number one cause of death, killing 17 million people each year.
Diabetes – which has rapidly become a global epidemic. WHO projects that diabetes deaths will increase by more than 50% worldwide in the next 10 years.
Musculoskeletal disorders – especially osteoarthritis.
Some cancers (endometrial, breast, and colon).

Childhood obesity is associated with a higher chance of premature death and disability in adulthood.

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