Despite UK’s love affair with high fat foods like condensed milk & microwave dinners, people enjoyed healthier lifestyles in the sixties than they do now, experts claim.
Although it was an era when people had less access to gyms, those overweight were also more likely to try to slim then.
It is thought that modern lifestyles have contributed the shift in people’s health. Fewer people now walk to work or school with more than double the proportion of people owning cars, while television ownership has risen from 75 per cent of households to almost 99 per cent.
The research, by the Change4Life health campaign, examined data from surveys in 1967 and compared the responses to a poll this year.
It reveals that in 1967, nine out of 10 people surveyed had tried to lose weight during that year but in 2010 that had fallen to just over half (57 per cent).
Of those considered overweight, only 7 per cent in 1967 had failed to do anything about it, while 43 per cent of people overweight today admitted taking steps to slim.
More than three-quarters of 1960s adults said that they walked for at least half an hour every day compared to only 42 per cent in 2010.
And although weight loss technology was still in its infancy, 2 per cent of people claimed to have used vibrating massage belts – the 60s equivalent of Power Plates – for weight loss in 1967.
Professor Oddy, the social historian and author of The Rise of Obesity in Europe: a Twentieth Century Food History, said: “Nowadays, our increasingly sedentary lives paired with the proliferation of a wide range of unhealthy foods have combined to create a very difficult environment for people to reach and maintain a healthy weight.”
In the 1960s only 1 per cent of men and 2 per cent of women in England were classed as obese compared to today’s 25.2 per cent of men and 27.7 per cent of women.
At the end of the 1950s, the average man weighed 10.2 stone (65kg) and the average woman 8.7 stone (55kg). Today the average weights are 13.2 stone (83.6kg) and 11.1 stone (70.2kg) respectively.
The health problems associated with obesity are numerous. Obesity is not just a cosmetic problem. It's a health hazard. Someone who is 40% overweight is twice as likely to die prematurely as is an average-weight person. This is because obesity has been linked to several serious medical conditions, including:
• Heart disease and stroke.
• High blood pressure.
• Diabetes.
• Cancer.
• Gallbladder disease and gallstones.
• Osteoarthritis.
• Erectile Dysfunction
• Gout.
• Breathing problems, such as sleep apnea (when a person stops breathing for a short time during sleep) and asthma.
Medical Specialist® are a registered UK pharmacy established in 1994 providing prescription & non prescription medication online since 2001.
Friday, 26 February 2010
Thursday, 25 February 2010
Looking at a curvy women gives men same high as Erectile Dysfunction drugs
According to the study, men looking at an hourglass figure can activate the part of the brain associated with feelings of reward.
Scientists say their findings make sense of the view that curvier women, such as Jennifer Lopez and Beyoncé Knowles, are sexually appealing.
Researchers used a sample of 14 men with an average age of 25 and showed them pictures of the posteriors of seven women.
They then carried out cosmetic surgery on the women, redistributing fat from their waists to the backsides but not changing their overall weight.
Brain scans of the men revealed that looking at the women after surgery activated parts of the brain linked with rewards, including regions associated with responses to drugs and alcohol.
Researcher Steven Platek, an evolutionary cognitive neuroscientist at Georgia Gwinnett College, in Georgia, USA, said: "There's more to it than buying magazines.
"These findings could help further our understanding pornography addiction and related disorders, such as erectile dysfunction in the absence of pornography.
"The findings could also lend to the scientific inquiry about sexual infidelity."
The scientists also found that changes in a woman's body-mass index (BMI) only affected brain areas linked to simple visual appreciation of size and shape.
Mr Platek said this may be evidence that body fat influences judgments of female beauty due more to society's norms than the way the brain is wired.
Mr Platek and his colleague Devendra Singh detailed their findings in the journal PLoS ONE.
Scientists say their findings make sense of the view that curvier women, such as Jennifer Lopez and Beyoncé Knowles, are sexually appealing.
Researchers used a sample of 14 men with an average age of 25 and showed them pictures of the posteriors of seven women.
They then carried out cosmetic surgery on the women, redistributing fat from their waists to the backsides but not changing their overall weight.
Brain scans of the men revealed that looking at the women after surgery activated parts of the brain linked with rewards, including regions associated with responses to drugs and alcohol.
Researcher Steven Platek, an evolutionary cognitive neuroscientist at Georgia Gwinnett College, in Georgia, USA, said: "There's more to it than buying magazines.
"These findings could help further our understanding pornography addiction and related disorders, such as erectile dysfunction in the absence of pornography.
"The findings could also lend to the scientific inquiry about sexual infidelity."
The scientists also found that changes in a woman's body-mass index (BMI) only affected brain areas linked to simple visual appreciation of size and shape.
Mr Platek said this may be evidence that body fat influences judgments of female beauty due more to society's norms than the way the brain is wired.
Mr Platek and his colleague Devendra Singh detailed their findings in the journal PLoS ONE.
Wednesday, 24 February 2010
Pfizer's profit rise disappoints
Shares in Pfizer have fallen 2.3% after its latest quarterly profits and earnings target for 2010 both failed to meet market expectations.
The world's largest drugmaker made a net profit of $767m (£481m) in the last three months of 2009, almost triple the $266m it made a year before.
The profits were lifted by Pfizer's $67bn purchase of fellow US pharmaceutical group Wyeth in October.
Revenues at the group were up 34% to $16.5bn.
Excluding one-off items, Pfizer's profits equate to 49 cents per share. Analysts had expected them to total 50 cents per share.
Pfizer said it expects profits of between $2.10 and $2.20 per share for 2010, below market expectations of $2.27 per share.
Its profits for the October to December quarter were much lower in 2008 when it had to pay $2.3bn to settle government allegations that it improperly marketed some of its drugs.
Pfizer is best known for being the producer of the erectile dysfunction drug Viagra.
The world's largest drugmaker made a net profit of $767m (£481m) in the last three months of 2009, almost triple the $266m it made a year before.
The profits were lifted by Pfizer's $67bn purchase of fellow US pharmaceutical group Wyeth in October.
Revenues at the group were up 34% to $16.5bn.
Excluding one-off items, Pfizer's profits equate to 49 cents per share. Analysts had expected them to total 50 cents per share.
Pfizer said it expects profits of between $2.10 and $2.20 per share for 2010, below market expectations of $2.27 per share.
Its profits for the October to December quarter were much lower in 2008 when it had to pay $2.3bn to settle government allegations that it improperly marketed some of its drugs.
Pfizer is best known for being the producer of the erectile dysfunction drug Viagra.
Thursday, 18 February 2010
Lost your sex drive? Then try pork, like the president
The people of Argentina are being asked to experiment with a new addition to the national diet: pork.
In response to a beef shortage which means her country will soon have fewer cows than people for the first time in living memory, Argentina's President Cristina Fernández has launched a bold campaign to persuade the nation that pig meat is "sexy".
She has given a speech touting pork as a cheap alternative to Viagra – and suggesting that she had personal experience. "I didn't know that eating pork improved sexual activity, [but] it is much more gratifying to eat some grilled pork than to take Viagra," she said at a meeting on Thursday where she unveiled new subsidies to representatives of the swine industry.
Tucking into a pork chop with her husband, former president Néstor Kirchner, Ms Fernández raised an eyebrow and declared that it was "all good", adding that rumours of the meat's aphrodisiac qualities ( for erectile dysfunction) "might be right".
In response to a beef shortage which means her country will soon have fewer cows than people for the first time in living memory, Argentina's President Cristina Fernández has launched a bold campaign to persuade the nation that pig meat is "sexy".
She has given a speech touting pork as a cheap alternative to Viagra – and suggesting that she had personal experience. "I didn't know that eating pork improved sexual activity, [but] it is much more gratifying to eat some grilled pork than to take Viagra," she said at a meeting on Thursday where she unveiled new subsidies to representatives of the swine industry.
Tucking into a pork chop with her husband, former president Néstor Kirchner, Ms Fernández raised an eyebrow and declared that it was "all good", adding that rumours of the meat's aphrodisiac qualities ( for erectile dysfunction) "might be right".
Regulation urged for herbal pills
A Chinese herbal "doctor" has admitted selling dangerous pills which destroyed the health of a civil servant amid calls to regulate the trade.
Ying "Susan" Wu sold the tiny brown "Xie Gan Wan" tablets to Patricia Booth for more than five years from a shop in Chelmsford, Essex.
Mrs Booth, 58, began taking the pills three times a day to treat a skin condition but they ended up destroying her kidneys and giving her cancer, it is claimed.
In a statement, the Register of Chinese Herbal Medicine (RCHM) said: "The tragic case at the Old Bailey concerning a patient who allegedly suffered cancer and kidney failure after taking pills from a Chinese herbal shop highlights the urgent need for the statutory regulation of herbal medicine in the UK. The suppliers were not members of the RCHM, which upholds the highest standards of herbal practice and has a robust quality control system in place."
A spokeswoman for the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency said a Department of Health review was taking place about the regulation of alternative practitioners.
Ying "Susan" Wu sold the tiny brown "Xie Gan Wan" tablets to Patricia Booth for more than five years from a shop in Chelmsford, Essex.
Mrs Booth, 58, began taking the pills three times a day to treat a skin condition but they ended up destroying her kidneys and giving her cancer, it is claimed.
In a statement, the Register of Chinese Herbal Medicine (RCHM) said: "The tragic case at the Old Bailey concerning a patient who allegedly suffered cancer and kidney failure after taking pills from a Chinese herbal shop highlights the urgent need for the statutory regulation of herbal medicine in the UK. The suppliers were not members of the RCHM, which upholds the highest standards of herbal practice and has a robust quality control system in place."
A spokeswoman for the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency said a Department of Health review was taking place about the regulation of alternative practitioners.
Wednesday, 17 February 2010
Survey on counterfeit drugs market
According to a survey conducted in 14 European countries, 77 million people (ie one in five Europeans) admitted to buying prescription-only medicines from unlawful sources. A majority prefer to buy prescription drugs on the internet, “without realising that between 50% and 90% of medicines sold online are counterfeit and that some contain dangerous substances, such as boric acid”. The ‘Cracking counterfeit Europe’ survey revealed that the counterfeit drug market is estimated to be worth €10.5 billion. The Germans, Italians and Spaniards are the three biggest consumers of medicines bought illegally. Weight-loss drugs, flu remedies and erectile dysfunction pills are the products sold most often. The survey, carried out between 27 October and 8 November 2009, was initiated by Pfizer, the world’s number one pharmaceutical firm and owner of one of the medicine falsified most often, Viagra.
Tuesday, 16 February 2010
Exposure to passive smoking falls
Children's exposure to passive smoking has declined by nearly 60% in 10 years, a study revealed.
Levels of the tell-tale tobacco by-product cotinine in children's saliva fell by 59% between 1996 and 2006, researchers found.
The study, lead by Dr Anna Gilmore of the University of Bath, revealed a "marked decline" in exposure to second-hand smoke among children aged four to 15.
The team analysed eight surveys conducted between 1996 and 2006 including saliva samples taken from over 19,000 children aged between four and 15.
The samples were analyzed for a substance called cotinine, an indicator of tobacco smoke exposure.
The largest decline was between 2005 and 2006, and coincided with increased public debate and information campaigns in the run up to the 2007 anti-smoking legislation.
Second-hand smoke exposure in non-smoking children was highest when one or both parents smoke, when the children are looked after by carers that smoke, and when smoking is allowed in the home.
Dr Michelle Sims, writing in the paper published today in Addiction, explained: "The importance of carer and parental smoking and household exposure tells us that reducing exposure in the home is the key to reducing the health risks associated with second-hand smoke exposure in children."
Dr Anna Gilmore, who led the project, said: "This study shows that the factors which most strongly influence children's exposure are modifiable.
"Parents and carers can reduce their children's exposure to smoke by giving up smoking, or failing this, only smoking outside the house."
Levels of the tell-tale tobacco by-product cotinine in children's saliva fell by 59% between 1996 and 2006, researchers found.
The study, lead by Dr Anna Gilmore of the University of Bath, revealed a "marked decline" in exposure to second-hand smoke among children aged four to 15.
The team analysed eight surveys conducted between 1996 and 2006 including saliva samples taken from over 19,000 children aged between four and 15.
The samples were analyzed for a substance called cotinine, an indicator of tobacco smoke exposure.
The largest decline was between 2005 and 2006, and coincided with increased public debate and information campaigns in the run up to the 2007 anti-smoking legislation.
Second-hand smoke exposure in non-smoking children was highest when one or both parents smoke, when the children are looked after by carers that smoke, and when smoking is allowed in the home.
Dr Michelle Sims, writing in the paper published today in Addiction, explained: "The importance of carer and parental smoking and household exposure tells us that reducing exposure in the home is the key to reducing the health risks associated with second-hand smoke exposure in children."
Dr Anna Gilmore, who led the project, said: "This study shows that the factors which most strongly influence children's exposure are modifiable.
"Parents and carers can reduce their children's exposure to smoke by giving up smoking, or failing this, only smoking outside the house."
Deadly erectile dysfunction drugs for women
Authorities raided a local direct-selling firm’s outlets yesterday for selling to women a health supplement that contains a drug used to treat erectile dysfunction.
Health Ministry enforcement officers seized RM1 million worth of health supplements marketed under the brand names “Extremen” and “Extrewomen”.
The officers conducted the nationwide raids simultaneously, including at the firm’s headquarters in Taman Shamelin, Cheras, here and a factory in Malacca.
Ministry pharmaceutical enforcement division director Hatta Ahmad said more than 200 officers were involved in the raids on more than 20 locations following a month of surveillance.
“Prior to the raids, samples of the product, which were sold in powder form, were sent to the Chemistry Department and the Science, Technology and Innovation Ministry for tests.
“Results revealed that Extrewomen contained tadalafil while Extremen contained hydroxythiohomosildenafil, an analogue of sildenafil or Viagra.” Tadalafil is used to treat erectile dysfunction but can only be obtained with a doctor’s prescription, similar to Viagra. Those suffering diabetes, hypertension and coronary artery disease are not allowed to consume tadalafil as it can have massive repercussions.
The analogue hydroxyhomosildenafil is illegal in Malaysia as it causes health problems to those who consume it.
Hatta said: “I nvestigations revealed that users did not realise that there was tadalafil inside the product because the manufacturers claimed the product only contained natural herbs and collagen, a group of naturally-occurring proteins.
“But Extrewomen will make women feel amorous and randy. They will not realise that it is due to the tadalafil in the product.” He took the direct-selling company to task for selling the product as tadalafil was a controlled substance.
The side effects include headaches, stomach aches, blurred vision or, in extreme cases, sudden death.
The amount of tadalafil in the product seized is considered three times stronger than taking a Viagra pill.
Investigations revealed that the products had been distributed nationwide besides being exported to Indonesia, based on invoices found at the headquarters.
Health Ministry enforcement officers seized RM1 million worth of health supplements marketed under the brand names “Extremen” and “Extrewomen”.
The officers conducted the nationwide raids simultaneously, including at the firm’s headquarters in Taman Shamelin, Cheras, here and a factory in Malacca.
Ministry pharmaceutical enforcement division director Hatta Ahmad said more than 200 officers were involved in the raids on more than 20 locations following a month of surveillance.
“Prior to the raids, samples of the product, which were sold in powder form, were sent to the Chemistry Department and the Science, Technology and Innovation Ministry for tests.
“Results revealed that Extrewomen contained tadalafil while Extremen contained hydroxythiohomosildenafil, an analogue of sildenafil or Viagra.” Tadalafil is used to treat erectile dysfunction but can only be obtained with a doctor’s prescription, similar to Viagra. Those suffering diabetes, hypertension and coronary artery disease are not allowed to consume tadalafil as it can have massive repercussions.
The analogue hydroxyhomosildenafil is illegal in Malaysia as it causes health problems to those who consume it.
Hatta said: “I nvestigations revealed that users did not realise that there was tadalafil inside the product because the manufacturers claimed the product only contained natural herbs and collagen, a group of naturally-occurring proteins.
“But Extrewomen will make women feel amorous and randy. They will not realise that it is due to the tadalafil in the product.” He took the direct-selling company to task for selling the product as tadalafil was a controlled substance.
The side effects include headaches, stomach aches, blurred vision or, in extreme cases, sudden death.
The amount of tadalafil in the product seized is considered three times stronger than taking a Viagra pill.
Investigations revealed that the products had been distributed nationwide besides being exported to Indonesia, based on invoices found at the headquarters.
Hollywood director too fat to fly
US director Kevin Smith (star of Dogma, Jay & slient Bob) was left embarrassed after he was asked to get of his flight from Oakland to Burbank because he was overweight.
Smith was shocked by the request, and the Clerks director claims he was told that his weight made him a safety risk.
The airline states that obese passengers must be able to lower both armrests or pay for two seats.
He said on his Twitter page: "I know I'm fat. But was [the flight captain] really justified in throwing me off a flight for which I was already seated?
"I'm way fat. But I'm not THERE just yet. But if I am, why wait till my bag is up and I'm seated WITH ARM RESTS DOWN in front of a packed plane with a bunch of folks who'd already IDed me as Silent Bob" (a character he has played in several of his films).
Smith was offered a £62 voucher as compensation, and managed to board a later flight with the airline.
Smith was shocked by the request, and the Clerks director claims he was told that his weight made him a safety risk.
The airline states that obese passengers must be able to lower both armrests or pay for two seats.
He said on his Twitter page: "I know I'm fat. But was [the flight captain] really justified in throwing me off a flight for which I was already seated?
"I'm way fat. But I'm not THERE just yet. But if I am, why wait till my bag is up and I'm seated WITH ARM RESTS DOWN in front of a packed plane with a bunch of folks who'd already IDed me as Silent Bob" (a character he has played in several of his films).
Smith was offered a £62 voucher as compensation, and managed to board a later flight with the airline.
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