IN BRIEF (Page 19)
Risky resorts
People with respiratory allergies and chronic respiratory ailments should choose their holiday resort carefully, according to the German Society for Pneumology and Respiratory Medicine (DGP).
Sufferers of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (advanced COPD), who also have difficulty breathing even when resting, should avoid mountains. This is because the oxygen deficiency at elevations higher than 1,000 meters could be life-threatening, according to the DGP.
A seaside holiday is also inadvisable for many COPD patients because saline sea air irritates the respiratory tract, it notes.
Housework battles diabetes
Doctors say that too much sitting down and too much eating are the main reasons 275 Australians are being diagnosed with diabetes daily.
But the good news is that if people only took even moderate exercise, there wouldn't be 100,000 new cases of diabetes diagnosed every year.
A study led by David Dunstan of the International Diabetes Institute found that even washing dishes, tidying the shed and putting out the rubbish reduce the risk of joining the country's 1 million diabetics.
"The message that 30 minutes of moderate to vigorous exercise a day is important for good health still stands," Professor Dunstan says. "But this research suggests that there are also real benefits from reducing sedentary time and increasing the time spent on normal, daily activities."
Going cold turkey
People who simultaneously attempt to stop smoking, reduce their sodium intake and increase exercise may be more successful than those who try to change these lifestyle factors one at a time, Texas-based researchers report. Dr David J. Hyman, of Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, and colleagues came to this conclusion after studying success rates in a publicly funded behavior modification program.
The 289 participants were between 45 and 64 years old, and two-thirds were women. All were African American, smokers and had high blood pressure.
Morning sickness
If there's any good news about morning sickness, this may be it: Women who experience nausea and vomiting during pregnancy may have a lower risk of breast cancer later in life, according to new research. Dr Jo Freudenheim from the University at Buffalo in New York reported the finding this week in Boston, at the annual meeting of the Society for Epidemiologic Research.
First and smartest
Firstborn sons have higher IQs than their younger brothers, and their social status within the family may explain why, researchers reported on Thursday.
A study that used military draft records for more than 240,000 Norwegian men found that firstborns had an edge of 2.3 IQ points on their next oldest brothers, who in turn beat brothers born third by 1.1 points on average.
Obese office workers
One in five of Hong Kong's office workers are overweight or obese, but most are too lazy to exercise in order to keep fit, according to a survey released on Monday.
The study of 755 office workers by a nutrition company found that 87 percent were aware of what they needed to do to get fit but believed it was too much effort to follow a strict diet and exercise regime.
Twenty percent of respondents were found to be obese or overweight based on their Body Mass Index - the internationally recognized system for calculating whether a person needs to lose weight.
Obesity levels have soared in Hong Kong in recent years, largely because of the sedentary lifestyle and workaholic routines of people in the densely populated high-rise city of 6.9 million.
Agencies
(China Daily 06/27/2007 page19)
