In what is claimed to be one of the clearest indications yet of the mortal dangers of obesity, a new study says that just four stones of flab can take three years off one's life.

Prostate cancer patients who are overweight and have elevated insulin levels are at much higher risk of dying than other patients, a new Canadian study says.

Obesity specialist Oliver Mann is used to patients who are so fat that the operating table buckles under their weight. But the woman the surgeon operated on recently at the University Clinic in Hamburg set a record - she tipped the scales at 350 kg.