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The place where the world comes together in honesty and mirth.
Windmills Tilted, Scared Cows Butchered, Lies Skewered on the Lance of Reality ... or something to that effect.


Monday, August 18, 2008

Half of overweight adults may be heart-healthy

You can look great in a swimsuit and still be a heart attack waiting to happen.
And you can also be overweight and otherwise healthy.
A new study suggests that a surprising number of overweight people - about half - have normal blood pressure and cholesterol levels, while an equally startling number of trim people suffer from some of the ills associated with obesity.

The first national estimate of its kind bolsters the argument that you can be hefty but still healthy, or at least healthier than has been believed.
The results also show that stereotypes about body size can be misleading, and that even "less voluptuous" people can have risk factors commonly associated with obesity, said study author MaryFran Sowers, a University of Michigan obesity researcher."We're really talking about taking a look with a very different lens" at weight and health risks, Sowers said.

In the study, about 51 percent of overweight adults, or roughly 36 million people nationwide, had mostly normal levels of blood pressure, cholesterol, blood fats called triglycerides and blood sugar.
Almost one-third of obese adults, or nearly 20 million people, also were in this healthy range, meaning that none or only one of those measures was abnormal.
Yet about a fourth of adults in the recommended-weight range had unhealthy levels of at least two of these measures.
That means some 16 million of them are at risk for heart problems.
It's no secret that thin people can develop heart-related problems and that fat people often do not.
But that millions defy the stereotypes will come as a surprise to many people, Sowers said.

Even so, there's growing debate about the accuracy of the standard method of calculating whether someone is overweight.
Health officials rely on the body mass index, a weight-height ratio that does not distinguish between fat and lean tissue.
The limits of that method were highlighted a few years ago when it was reported that the system would put nearly half of NBA players in the overweight category.
A number of experts say waist size is a more accurate way of determining someone's health risks, and the study results support that argument.
Dr. Robert Eckel, a former American Heart Association president and professor of medicine at the University of Colorado, said the new research may help dismiss some of the generalizations that are sometimes made about weight and health.

Study co-author Judith Wylie-Rosett emphasized that the study shouldn't send the message "that we don't need to worry about weight."
That's because half of overweight people do face elevated risks for heart disease, explained Wylie-Rosett, a nutrition researcher at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York
But, for those without elevated risks, losing weight "might be important only from a cosmetic perspective," she said.

To arrive at the estimates, scientists analyzed nationally representative government surveys involving 5,440 people age 20 and over, and extrapolated to calculate nationwide figures.
The new study, appearing in Monday's Archives of Internal Medicine, used government surveys from 1999 to 2004 that included lab tests and height and weight measurements.
Participants reported on habits including smoking and physical activity.
In all weight categories, risk factors for heart problems were generally more common in older people, smokers and inactive people.
Among obese people who were 50 to 64, just 20 percent were considered healthy compared with half of younger obese people.
The results underscore how important exercise is for staying healthy, even for people of healthy weight, Wylie-Rosett said.

The authors noted that fat tissue releases hormones and other substances that affect things like blood vessels, cholesterol and blood sugar.
The results suggest this interaction varies among overweight and obese people, the authors said.
The results also add to mounting evidence that thick waists are linked with heart risks.
Among people of healthy weight in the study, elevated blood pressure, cholesterol and other factors were more common for people with larger waists or potbellies.
This often signals internal fat deposits surrounding abdominal organs, which previous research has shown can be especially risky.
Similarly, among overweight and obese adults, those in the "healthy" category tended to have smaller waists than those with at least two risk factors.
Dr. Lewis Landsberg, a Northwestern University obesity expert, noted that the research didn't look at heart disease, and that not everyone with high risk factors develops heart problems.
Still, he said, the study shows that waist measurements can help assess health.

*****

Never went too much for stereotypes anyway and this really isn't anything new to me.
I have been skewing and screwing the 'numbers' all my life.
I have always been heavier than I looked - muscles tend to do that for you - had a low heart rate and blood pressure and a respiration rate half of what a 'normal' person has, yet I was disqualified for several jobs because I weighed too much for the 'charts' said my height made my weight to be (always pushed the envelope in the Corps, too).

What was the most galling about some of those disqualifications was the fact that the ones 'disqualifying' me were sick puppies (and not just mentally, either) - there were high blood pressure sufferers (2), metabolic disorders (5) and a nervous condition (some were combinations) - while I was healthier than a horse!

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Carolina Naturally is number 1

Carolina Naturally is ranked Number One on one of the biggest search engines and shows up at the top of the list of 22,000 blogs on that engine. Its sister blog comes in a Number Six.

Wow! Two blogs in the top ten.

And to think there were some that said it couldn't be done, especially by a blog that did not kowtow to the right-wing dogma and neo-con agenda like theirs.

Amazing what an independent mind and the truth can do, isn't it.

Thanks to all the readers who have those independent minds and know the truth when they see it for making this blog Number One.

And if you will excuse a moment of Childishness: Pfffffft to all you naysayers ... naner, naner, naner, naner.

Miniature cattle - family pets that provide milk

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The Times Online reports on the Dexter cattle breed, “the world’s most efficient, cutest and tastiest cows."

For between £200 and £2,000, people can buy a cow that stands no taller than a large German shepherd dog, gives 16 pints of milk a day that can be drunk unpasteurised, keeps the grass “mown” and will be a family pet for years before ending up in the freezer.

The Dexter, a mountain breed from Ireland, is perfect for cattle-keeping on a small scale, but other breeds are being artificially created to compete with it, including the Mini-Hereford and the Lowline Angus, which has been developed by the Australian government to stand no more than 39in high but produce 70% of the steak of a cow twice its size.

Bumpersticker of the week

Honk!
If you like peace and quiet.

Ten Things

We've all seen those 'ten things about you' on Myspace. I have been tagged twice for them recently so here they are:

The Original Ten.

1. I like walking in the rain ... naked and in the jungle is even better while doing so.

2. I want to travel to all the places around the world I have lived in again ... at least the places I didn't leave too many bodies in

3. I used to wear glasses before the retna surgeries - thick ones too.


4. I have never drank or smoked or taken drugs and I still can party'em under the table just ask the Paris Police or the Rome Police or the Rio Police or ...


5. I am a voracious reader and have several thousand tomes on every subject imaginable (and yes, those, too), in my library.


6. I have memorized the lyrics to practically every song I have ever heard, but can't recite them without the music playing except for a couple of Beatles tunes.


7. I want to get back on stage this year - dramatic or comedic. I can do both. Maybe I just might take MaryBeth up on one if her offers - I mean three women at one time sounds nice doesn't it.


8. I have some wild and crazy friends. Some might say some are warped.


9. I like to find the little roadside hole-in-the-wall places be they cafes, junk shops or something else and try them out. Found some of my best friends that way.


10. I have been nose to nose with a skunk at 4AM on a mountainside and was so charming I came away unsprayed.

The Next Ten

1. I can cook and do so very well.

2. I can be quite comical, though the authorities in Frankfort didn't it think of it that way at the time.

3. I played soccer internationally as a teenager and this was before most Americans knew what soccer was. I played in France for the town of Bafleur in Normandy.


4. I can take the right wing off a fly resting on a horse's tail from a mile away and not touch the rest of the fly or the horse's tail with a rifle.


5. I cannot/will not abide stupidity.


6. I like to swim at night.


7. I love tea ... all kinds of tea.


8. I have seen an orange woman naked ... and yes, I do mean orange.


9. I like flowers and gardening.


10. I will always defend the defenseless.












Paying the Bills

From the you never really know, do you files:


Being a Greek Philosopher didn't really help Socrates pay the bills.
He was trained in the trade of stonecutting, which helped him earn a living

Inside the Hash House Harriers

When the name “Hash House Harriers” is brought up in general conversation, images of the drug-addled sitting around a house feeding their addiction often are conjured in the minds of the uninitiated. The fact of the matter, though, is that the Hash House Harriers is a global group of runners with their minds set on running, social networking and light-hearted frivolity.


The Hash House Harrier roots extend back to the old English schoolboy game of "Hares and Hounds," in which some players, called "hounds," chase others, called "hares," who have left a trail of paper scraps along their route across fields, hedges, streams, bogs, and hills. One of the earliest Hares and Hounds events on record was the "Crick Run" at Rugby School in Warwickshire, England, first held in 1837.

Hare and Hounds as an adult sport began in the fall of 1867 with a group of London oarsmen who wanted to keep fit during the winter. Also called "Paper Chasing" or the "Paper Chase," the game became very popular after its introduction on Wimbledon Common in 1868 by the Thames Hare and Hounds. Early clubs called themselves "Hare and Hounds" or simply "Harriers."

A.S.I., "G" Gispert (1903-1942)



The Hash House Harriers, as it is known, today was founded in Malaya (now Malaysia) by Albert Stephen Ignatius Gispert, an English chartered accountant.

It was sometime during 1937 when Gispert (or simply "G" as he was known to his friends) acquired a taste for the paper chase with the Springgit Harriers in Malacca (also in Malaya). Shortly after being transferred by his accounting firm to Kuala Lumpur he gathered together a number of fellow expatriate businessmen to form a harrier group. The first run was held in December 1938 and the founding members included Cecil H. Lee, Frederick "Horse" Thomson, Eric Galvin, H.M. Doig, and Ronald "Torch" Bennet.

The group's name came about primarily because local authorities required legal registration of clubs and organizations. While the "Kuala Lumpur Harriers" would have appeared a logical choice, "G" decided instead to use the nickname for the Selangor Club where a number of the local harriers both lived and took their meals. It seems that due to its lackluster food, the dining room was commonly referred to as the "Hash House."

The Original "Hash House," Kuala Lumpur, circa 1938











The philosophy of the original Hash House Harriers from the 1938 charter:

» To promote physical fitness among our members
» To get rid of weekend hangovers
» To acquire a good thirst and to satisfy it in beer
» To persuade the older members that they are not as old as they feel

Hashing in Kuala Lumpur was suspended during the World War II occupation by Japanese forces, but then reestablished after peace returned. It wasn't too long before the hash began slowly spreading around the world. Former members of the original Hash House Harriers started a hash in 1947 near Milan, Italy, but it wasn't until 1962 that the next group was formed in Singapore. The Singapore Hash was gradually followed by others until in 1973 there were approximately 35 hashes in 14 countries.

Subsequently, the hash began spreading like wildfire and the number of hashes soon climbed into the hundreds by the early 1980s. Today there are thousands of active hashes in over 180 countries, including over 500 in the United States.

Hashers are from a wide array of ages, running abilities and demographic backgrounds. Modern hares now mark the trails they lay with informative symbols and simple blobs of more eco-friendly flour and chalk rather than scraps of paper. The paths they follow range from simple, short street running to grueling cross-country tests of will and endurance. The harriers follow the laid path in a group effort to catch the hare, shouting "On! On!" to let other harriers know that they have found and are following the trail.

Hashers world-wide take a great deal of pride as they describe their organization (with tongue firmly planted in cheek) "a drinking club with a running problem". Hashes subscribe to the philosophy that the more participants the merrier and welcome all comers.

*****

Interesting isn't it?!

Just in case you missed it ...

... A Solar eclipse occurred between 3:35 a.m. and 6:44 a.m., yesterday(Sunday) morning.